Chapter 10: Night at the Duke's Mansion

The maid nodded in agreement, then activated the mechanism.

Twenty-four pendulums began to sway together, and shortly they produced a whooshing wind sound.

This time, Dai Xiyu's response was clearly much better than before.

Nevertheless, it was still difficult to increase the number of pendulums further.

After the time it takes to burn an incense stick, Dai Xiyu again walked down the stage drenched in sweat, taking the towel Zhu Zhuqing handed over.

Two consecutive rounds of evasion training had already consumed more than half of Dai Xiyu's soul power, and his physical strength was nearly exhausted.

Therefore, it was Zhu Zhuqing's turn to take the stage in the next training session.

Thus they took turns going on stage, and after becoming exhausted they properly recovered their strength until the day ended.

It must be said, with physical fitness and soul power as a foundation, progress is indeed much faster.

By the final training session, Dai Xiyu could already dodge twenty-eight pendulums at once.

And Zhu Zhuqing, even under Dai Xiyu's stimulation, after a whole day of desperate training only managed to add two more pendulums, reaching the level of twenty-six.

Only by cultivating together with Dai Xiyu did Zhu Zhuqing realize just how large the gap between them was.

Dai Xiyu's level of dedication is almost unmatched, and his endurance is incomparable to that of ordinary people.

On average, Dai Xiyu's training count is almost twice that of Zhu Zhuqing.

Zhu Zhuqing exerted all her effort, but her body could not withstand such consumption, so she could only give up the idea of catching up to Dai Xiyu.

In her heart, she also felt admiration for Dai Xiyu.

Zhu Zhuqing had never truly admired anyone before, and Dai Xiyu was the first.

In fact, what Zhu Zhuqing does not know is that Dai Xiyu, after attribute enhancement, bears pressure far less than hers.

He merely cannot keep up with reaction speed, which is why he cannot dodge more pendulums.

If he were given sufficient reaction speed, doubling the number of pendulums would not be too difficult.

Zhu Zhuqing does not know these things, which creates the illusion that Dai Xiyu is desperately striving.

And it is precisely this misunderstanding that causes Zhu Zhuqing's fondness for Dai Xiyu to increase greatly again.

After the final cultivation session ended, a prompt to refresh again appeared in the upper-left corner of Dai Xiyu's vision.

【Harvest from Zhu Zhuqing's fortune +200000】

After cultivation ended, Dai Xiyu took a bath in the Duke's mansion's bathroom, changed into a set of clean clothes brought from the warehouse, and then stayed in the Duke's mansion to have dinner.

The dinner was very lavish, and even in this inland city, seafood could be seen.

This seafood, to reach Star Luo City, would likely incur considerable cost.

It must be said, the chefs on the Douluo Continent have cooking skills that are in no way inferior to those of five-star hotels in my previous life.

I still remember my previous life, suffering day after day in the hospital, seeing the gourmet food described in novels from five-star hotels, I couldn't help but want to try it.

My father knew about this, kept it in mind, and the next day brought a table of exquisite dishes, all from a certain Ge La grand hotel.

Overthinking is useless; in short, my father, having lost me and still having my brother, has no worries about his old age.

What I need to do now is to live well in this Douluo Continent.

During the meal, Duke Yinming and Dai Xiyu discussed some insights on martial soul cultivation and the usage techniques of soul skills.

From their conversation, it can be seen that Duke Yinming is very optimistic about Dai Xiyu's future.

Actually, in the afternoon, he returned from the imperial palace.

He watched Dai Xiyu and Zhu Zhuqing's cultivation closely.

Even Duke Yinming, whose strength reaches the eighty-rank Soul Douluo, couldn't help but sigh that Dai Xiyu's cultivation is indeed arduous.

He asked himself, even if it were himself, at nine years old he was far less diligent than Dai Xiyu.

Being able to reach this level with only innate second-rank soul power is certainly not solely due to luck.

After the dinner, night fell completely, and the bright moon hung high.

Taking this opportunity, Dai Xiyu proposed to stay overnight, and Duke Yinming naturally would not object.

With Duke Yinming, a Soul Douluo powerhouse, holding the fort, naturally there is no fear of some petty scoundrels daring to attack.

In the Duke's mansion, as long as one is within Zhu Zhuqing's hundred-meter range, one can naturally plunder 1 point of fortune per minute; although it's little, even a tiny fly is meat.

During such a special period with potential threats, one should not let it pass if possible.

Dai Xiyu's room is a guest room on the first floor, near the staircase.

Directly above is Zhu Zhuqing's room on the second floor.

The straight-line distance between them is absolutely no more than five meters.

After this period of research, Dai Xiyu also understood some rules of naturally plundering fortune.

Overall, it is indeed possible to plunder fortune within a hundred meters.

However, the speed of plundering fortune varies with distance.

Within a hundred meters, the base speed of plundering fortune is 1 point per minute.

But if the distance is shortened to within five meters, the speed of plundering fortune becomes 2 points per minute.

This is also why, when I first crossed over, plundering Zhu Zhuqing and the hidden Douluo yielded 1 point of fortune, while plundering Dai Mubai yielded 2 points.

At that time, Dai Mubai's seat was about two to three meters away from me.

And when the distance is closed to within one meter, in a state of walking side by side, the speed of plundering fortune increases to 10 points per minute.

Even closer, if the distance between the two is '0', meaning skin contact occurs.

The speed of plundering fortune will jump to 100 points per minute.

Of course, if this distance becomes negative—meaning under some circumstance—then it's not just a matter of a few hundred.

At that point, one might be able to obtain eight-figure fortune in a single breath.

Of course, these are still far off; at the very least, one must wait until Zhu Zhuqing reaches a lawful age.

【Successful harvest from Zhu Zhuqing's Fortune +2】

Ignoring the prompt in the upper-left corner, Dai Xiyu sat cross-legged on the bed and used his thoughts to open the Fortune Store.

【Fortune Balance: 1142032】

【This month's listed goods are as follows (to be updated after 28 days)】

【100-year Soul Ring: 1000 Fortune】

【500-year Soul Ring: 5000 Fortune】

【1000-year Soul Ring: 10000 Fortune】

【Divine Soul Ring: 1000000 Fortune】

【10000-year Right Arm Soul Bone: 200000 Fortune】

【Soul Power (Level 1): 110000 Fortune】

【Free Attribute Points: 100000 Fortune】

【Second Martial Soul (Random): 1000000 Fortune】

【A bag of Gold Soul Coins (1000): 1000 Fortune】

……

Looking at the items in the list, Dai Xiyu pondered silently.

As for him, he really didn't know what would be good to buy.

His Soul Power was already Level 22, and his offensive means were not many, so a second martial soul was also a good choice.

Free Attribute Points were just as important to his strength, but ultimately progress must be gradual; the increase over the past two days had been too fast, and he needed time to adapt.

Soul Bone seemed not bad either, but once equipped it was permanent; a 10,000-year one seemed a bit lacking.

In Dai Xiyu's view, it would be best to equip Soul Bones of 100,000-year grade in every position of his body.

After all, with the System in place, there was no need to hunt Soul Beasts; a 100,000-year Soul Bone was merely a matter of Fortune Balance.

(End of Chapter)