At the exact same time Shrek departed for the Ming Dou Mountain Range, the team from the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy set off as well.
Led by Elder Ma, they were personally escorted by Jing Hongchen, the director of the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy and the master of the Illustrious Virtue Hall.
A group of over a dozen people rode inside a Shield-Wind Shuttle, heading toward the host city of this year's Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Duel Tournament, Star Luo City.
The current Shield-Wind Shuttle had been modified by Xuan Ziwen based on the Escape-Wind Shuttle—a flying soul tool originally developed by Feng Piaoling—and had already been elevated to the standard of a Tier 8 soul tool. Not only had its speed received a qualitative upgrade, but its stability had also achieved a major breakthrough. Even when scaled up to accommodate more than a dozen passengers at once, its speed would not decrease by much.
Yet since the moment of departure, one person had been missing from the team—a very important person, Feng Piaoling.
Even the members of the Soul Hall had no idea where Feng Piaoling had gone. Feng Piaoling had not even told Jiang Nannan. Just the day before their departure, he simply left a brief word with Xuan Ziwen, telling him to take the members of the Soul Hall to Star Luo City ahead of time and promising to find them before the tournament officially commenced.
"Second Sister, why didn't Brother Feng come with us? Where did he go?" Sitting inside the Shield-Wind Shuttle, which was equipped with its own protective barrier, Xiao Xiao didn't have to worry about being blown away. She leaned close to Jiang Nannan's ear and asked in a low whisper.
Jiang Nannan shook her head helplessly. "I don't know either. Benefactor did not tell me. Perhaps he has some urgent matters to attend to. Na Na, do you know anything?"
"Master didn't tell me," Na Na replied with a shake of her head. Although Feng Piaoling forbade her from calling him 'master,' she would still refer to him as such whenever he wasn't around.
By now, everyone had long since grown accustomed to this. After all, the debt of gratitude they owed to Feng Piaoling was truly something they could never fully repay.
"Could he have gone to hunt for a soul ring? When I asked Boss for help developing a soul skill the day before yesterday, he seemed to have already broken through the rank forty soul power bottleneck," Cui Yajie voiced her speculation.
"That shouldn't be it. I've also broken through rank thirty, and if Boss were going to hunt for a soul ring, he definitely would have brought me along," Zhu Lu stated, a resolute light flashing within her heterochromatic eyes.
Huang Chutian suddenly chimed in, "Do you think Boss might have gone to see one of his sweethearts? After all, he has always been exceptionally popular with women."
The moment these words left his mouth, they instantly drew looks of absolute disdain from all the girls of the Soul Hall.
"Please continue, just pretend I didn't speak..." Sensing he had misspoken, Huang Chutian immediately offered a wry smile and shut his mouth, looking very much like a clown.
Lan Susu and Lan Luoluo gave him a sharp glare as well. Lan Susu teased, "Do you think everyone is like you, putting all their mind into romance? Aside from our Tenth Brother who started later than the rest of us, you are the only one among our group who hasn't broken through rank thirty yet."
Huang Chutian stiffened his neck and countered, "I have already turned over a new leaf. In another month at most, I will definitely break through rank thirty..."
"Then you had better work hard. Make absolutely sure you aren't completely left behind, falling from Sixth Brother to Ninth Brother or even Tenth Brother," Xuan Ziwen joked with a smile.
Hearing these words, a sudden sense of crisis washed over Huang Chutian. He refrained from speaking any further, immediately closing his eyes and circulating the Green Lotus Sword Technique, which had already reached the third layer of the cultivation method, to begin his training.
Seeing that it was impossible to deduce Feng Piaoling's whereabouts, the others likewise closed their eyes one after another, sitting cross-legged on the shuttle to focus on their cultivation.
Only Xuan Ziwen remained awake since he needed to operate the shuttle. However, he did not waste his time either; practicing multi-tasking, he controlled the shuttle with one part of his mind while cultivating the Heaven-Reaching Demon Eye with the other.
This had practically become a required course for everyone within the Soul Hall. Aside from actual combat and upgrading their core cultivation methods, they spent almost all of their spare time practicing multi-tasking to cultivate the Heaven-Reaching Demon Eye and enhance their spiritual power. As for the Soul-Cleaving Divine Eye, it was simply an offensive technique within the Heaven-Reaching Demon Eye; once learned, there was no need to deliberately cultivate it, as its power would naturally scale up as their spiritual power increased.
Xiao Hongchen and Meng Hongchen sat upon another Tier 8 flying soul tool, which was being steered by Elder Ma, the leader of the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy's main team.
"The relationship among the members of your preparatory team is unexpectedly harmonious, and their cultivation is even more diligent than I imagined. No wonder every single one of them managed to reach the Soul Elder realm at just twelve years old without relying on any medicinal supplements."
The speaker was a tall, heavily-built youth with short hair whose appearance bore a slight resemblance to Elder Ma.
Xiao Hongchen replied, "To be able to become a companion of our captain, they naturally possess a commendable level of competence."
"Captain? I find myself growing increasingly curious. For someone as proud as you to actually choose to yield the position of captain..." The burly youth revealed a look of profound surprise.
Xiao Hongchen let out a cold snort and said, "Losing to him was something I accept wholeheartedly."
"It seems that person does indeed possess quite a bit of ability," the burly youth murmured, his eyes narrowing slightly.
Meng Hongchen chimed in to support her brother, saying, "Ma Rulong, if you underestimate our captain, you are going to suffer quite a bit. Be careful that even your position as the captain of the main team doesn't get snatched away by him."
"Is he truly that formidable?" If anyone else had said this, Ma Rulong would have dismissed it with utter disdain, but Meng Hongchen was an exception. Not only was she the object of his unrequited crush, but she also held exceptionally high standards for the opposite sex. If even she spoke of him in such a manner, then he had no choice but to treat the matter with the utmost seriousness.
"Naturally it is true. Not only is he the very first twin Martial Soul user in the history of the Sun Moon Empire, but his talent in the field of soul tools is also completely unrivaled. Do you see the shuttle being operated by Teacher Xuan Ziwen up ahead? It was upgraded precisely from the Escape-Wind Shuttle designed by Feng Piaoling. The underlying architecture remains unchanged; it simply utilizes a more complex core formation array and higher-grade metallic materials."
Elder Ma, who had remained quiet until now, suddenly spoke up. It was not difficult to discern from his words that his evaluation of Feng Piaoling was exceptionally high.
"Alright, you little youngsters, stop gossiping. If you have the leisure for that, you might as well seize the time to cultivate. If you lot possessed even half the diligence of those kids over there, my Sun Moon Empire wouldn't have failed to secure a single victory in the Soul Master Tournament over the past several thousand years."
Jing Hongchen, who was flying at the very front of the formation, spoke up as well. His tone carried a distinct sense of frustration at his own academy's main team members for failing to meet expectations.
Seeing that their own director had spoken, the members of the main team dared not utter another word, each closing their eyes and crossing their legs to begin their meditation.
Although Xiao Hongchen and Meng Hongchen did not fear their grandfather all that much, they likewise chose to pass the travel time by cultivating.
Jing Hongchen paid them no further attention, turning his gaze toward Kong Deming, who was flying shoulder-to-shoulder alongside him. A trace of gravity that was difficult to perceive flashed across the depths of his eyes.
To think that even Old Kong had been invited along. What exactly does that kid plan to do at this Soul Master Tournament?
Deep within a small thicket ten li away from Shrek Academy.
Tang Ya looked around with absolute caution. Seeing that the area was entirely deserted, she took a deep breath. Three soul rings—two yellow and one purple—rose from beneath her feet, and over a dozen blue silver grass vines erupted from the soil, tightly binding themselves around a nearby ancient tree.
As she closed her eyes, the blue silver grass vines throbbed violently like a beating heart. Immediately afterward, the ancient tree began to wither at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Ultimately, it crumbled into ash.
Looking at the blue silver grass vines once more, they had already been stained with a faint layer of absolute black.
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