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The farce of tonight was over, and Li Luochen was also preparing to return and rest. Before leaving, he decided to give Ma Hongjun the left leg bone of the variant King of the Earth that he had prepared earlier. Ma Hongjun was about to break through to level forty, and this spirit bone would help him achieve that.
After watching the commotion, Li Luochen directly returned to the academy and used an instant movement technique to arrive at Ma Hongjun and Oscar's room.
The two were practically inseparable—like conjoined twins sharing the same pair of pants. If they performed a Spirit Fusion Technique, it might be comparable to the one used by Juhua Guan and Old Ghost from the Spirit Hall.
At this moment, Ma Hongjun was diligently cultivating, while Oscar was sleeping. Ma Hongjun wanted to quickly break through to level forty, whereas Oscar had just broken through and needed some time to relax.
"Hongjun, wake up."
Li Luochen transmitted his voice directly, interrupting Ma Hongjun's cultivation. Since Ma Hongjun was only accumulating spirit power and hadn't yet broken through, the interruption didn't cause any harm.
"Boss, why are you here?"
Ma Hongjun was confused. Why did Li Luochen come here so late?
"Heh, take a look at this treasure I have for you!"
As he spoke, Li Luochen took out a deep red spirit bone from his soul-guiding device. Judging by its position, it was a left leg bone.
"T-this... Boss, is this a spirit bone?!"
Ma Hongjun was utterly stunned. A spirit bone was a priceless blood river treasure, incredibly rare. And now his boss was just giving it to him like this?
Ma Hongjun was almost moved to tears. His boss was too generous!
"Hold on, let me explain. The other day, Xiao Ao and I..."
Li Luochen recounted the situation. "That's how it is. So, for your fourth spirit ring, you'll need the spirit ring of a King of the Earth. Combining a similar type of spirit beast with a spirit bone should greatly increase compatibility."
However, although the King of the Earth was fire-attribute, its fire power was relatively mediocre compared to the other spirit beasts Li Luochen had in mind for him, making things difficult.
"So, I've decided to give you another spirit bone to help turn your fourth spirit ring into a ten-thousand-year one."
Before the farce occurred, Li Luochen had rechecked his inventory of treasures. He remembered obtaining a head spirit bone from the Dark Golden Three-Headed Bat King during his time in the City of Slaughter.
This bat was thirty-five thousand years old, and the quality of its spirit bone was exceptional. Especially considering how scorching the path through Hellfire Road had been, this bat king possessed flame attributes, flight capabilities, and even sonic wave skills—all highly compatible with Ma Hongjun.
In Li Luochen's memory, Ma Hongjun would later only obtain one spirit bone: the Flame Burst Left Arm Bone. Aside from Tang San, who was essentially a cheat code, the other members of the Seven Treasures didn't have many spirit bones.
As Li Luochen's subordinate, how could he be stingy? This Dark Golden Three-Headed Bat King's head spirit bone would go to Ma Hongjun. Thirty-five thousand years was already among the best for head bones.
"This is a head spirit bone I once obtained. It has flame and sonic wave abilities, produced by a bat king. It will greatly enhance your spiritual power, which should help you obtain a ten-thousand-year fourth spirit ring."
Li Luochen pulled out the dark golden head spirit bone and handed it to Ma Hongjun. Ma Hongjun's hands trembled as he received it. Two spirit bones at once? Both were ten-thousand-year spirit bones—he felt like he was living in extraordinary times.
"Don't thank me just yet. Remember, spirit bones are Blood River treasures. Don't reveal them easily. Even Title Douluos would be extremely envious of these two spirit bones you now possess."
After repeating his warnings, Li Luochen instructed Ma Hongjun further. After bowing in gratitude, Ma Hongjun began absorbing the two spirit bones on his bed.
"Ah, looks like Ah Jun is going to surpass me now. Brother Chen, you're a bit biased, aren't you?"
Oscar's voice rang out. He had woken up long ago; Ma Hongjun's loud voice had disturbed him, but he had pretended to sleep until now.
"There's nothing I can do about it—it suits him. You already have two spirit bones, one of which is an external spirit bone that can grow. What's there to envy? The spirit bones I have here don't suit you."
Li Luochen did have a reserve of spirit bones: the hundred-thousand-year Blue Silver Emperor right leg bone, the sixty-thousand-year Spirit Charm Fox Head Bone, three forgotten pieces of Golden Bloodline Sub-Dragon spirit bones, and most importantly, the god-level Golden Dragon torso bone.
Li Luochen planned to absorb the Blue Silver Emperor right leg bone in half a year to boost his vitality, then absorb the Golden Dragon torso bone, and finally use the God-Given Spirit Ring to obtain his seventh spirit ring and officially become a Soul Sage.
Just thinking about it made Li Luochen a little excited. Finally, his ultimate attribute would bear fruit!
It took Ma Hongjun four days to absorb the spirit bones since both were of high quality and required slow absorption and digestion. The energy from the spirit bones helped him break through to level forty.
During these few days, Flender was also training the new students. He had received a letter from Ning Zongzhu (sect master) of the Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Sect, urging him to discipline Ning Rongrong properly. She had truly been spoiled.
Indeed, Ning Rongrong was currently the weakest student at Shrek Academy. What shocked her even more was that Oscar, who was two years older than her, already had spirit power at level forty-one—and he was a food-based spirit master, just like her, belonging to the auxiliary category.
Ning Rongrong knew how difficult it was to cultivate as an auxiliary spirit master. Though mischievous, she was ranked among the top three in terms of cultivation talent among all past holders of the Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Pagoda. Her innate spirit power was 9.5 levels—the highest in the history of the Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Sect.
She was hailed as the hope of the Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Sect and had a high chance of breaking through the bottleneck at level seventy-nine.
Now, after being struck hard at Shrek Academy, she became increasingly determined. She had a competitive personality and refused to be looked down upon by other geniuses. As the young miss of a major sect, she couldn't afford to lose to commoner prodigies.
With this mindset, Ning Rongrong stayed at Shrek Academy, determined to make herself stronger!
In these few days, Li Luochen also helped Zhu Zhuqing. He had told her before that he would only begin teaching her after she entered Shrek Academy.
First, Li Luochen gave her two seventy-thousand-year whale glues. These were the highest-quality whale glues he had kept for himself, while the others were with Dugu Yan, who planned to use them to train Liu Lan'er. Hmm, it seemed she wanted to take on a disciple too?
The energy from the two whale glues directly boosted Zhu Zhuqing from level twenty-seven to the bottleneck of level thirty. However, Li Luochen warned her not to tell anyone. In three days, they would head to the Star Dou Great Forest to hunt for spirit rings. At that time, Li Luochen would secretly take her away from the group to hunt for a spirit ring.
Li Luochen had chosen a spirit beast less than five thousand years old for her, as Zhu Zhuqing was an agility attacker with relatively low physical strength. Even the miraculous whale glue couldn't significantly improve her body's resilience.
Unless Zhu Zhuqing obtained a spirit bone, it would be impossible for her third spirit ring to exceed five thousand years. For her third spirit skill, Li Luochen planned to choose an augmentative type.
Her original third spirit skill, Hell Decapitation, had too little power. From her fourth to sixth spirit skills, Zhu Zhuqing had mostly augmentative skills, which was absurdly backward. So far, Li Luochen believed that Zhu Zhuqing only needed two offensive spirit skills.
Next came augmentation. Agility attackers relied on speed advantages. Even if they couldn't finish off their opponents in one hit, they could strike repeatedly at the same spot. They were just starting out, and two hundred-year spirit rings with offensive skills were sufficient.
Moreover, Li Luochen's requirements for spirit rings were strict—he didn't settle for anything subpar. The spirit beasts he chose for Zhu Zhuqing were all peculiar dark-attribute ones, some even possessing dual attributes of darkness and space. Additionally, they had to belong to the feline family.
This would maximize the benefits for little Zhu Zhuqing. Wasn't she trying to break free from her fate? Well, I'll be your light, illuminating the path ahead!
Three days later,
Zhao Wuji led the team, with Li Luochen as the vice leader, guiding Zhu Zhuqing, Oscar, Ma Hongjun, Ning Rongrong, Xiao Wu, Dai Mubai, Tang San, and others to the Star Dou Great Forest to hunt for spirit rings.
Unbeknownst to them, Dugu Bo was following from the shadows. After Tang Hao's visit, he feared something might happen to Li Luochen and decided to secretly trail them. Tang Hao was also following, though from a great distance. His condition was poor, and if anything went wrong, he would immediately take Tang San and flee.
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