"How did you find me?"
"By sensing the surrounding elements."
"Really?" Gu You raised an eyebrow. If someone could locate him just by sensing elements in the environment, wouldn't that mean Gu Yue could detect him no matter where he was in the world with her precise elemental perception?
He couldn't believe this. Even if she was the Silver Dragon King, it was impossible to control and utilize the entire continent's elemental energy, especially when she wasn't at her peak or in her complete form.
"Really..." Gu Yue lowered her head slightly. "Actually, it was the scent of medicinal herbs. I smelled it and realized it was you."
"See? Isn't it better to just tell the truth? It's not like I have any ill intentions toward you." Gu You smiled.
"So, why were you looking for me?"
"I asked around, and the teacher said you were on leave. I originally planned to challenge the tower, but since we were missing one person, I waited for you. I didn't expect to wait half a month."
"Challenge the tower?" Gu You's interest was piqued.
Gu Yue nodded. "Challenging the tower is a great opportunity to obtain spirit souls. The academy has an agreement with the Spirit Pagoda. Our Shrek Academy students don't just have to buy spirit souls; there are other ways to obtain higher-quality ones. Purely purchasing them is expensive, and there's always an element of randomness. Sometimes, high-quality spirit souls are hard to come by and can only be won through a lottery system. It's difficult to get an ideal spirit soul this way. But now, there's another method offered by the Spirit Pagoda, though it's more troublesome."
"So the 'tower challenge' is that other method?" Gu You's face remained calm.
Gu Yue nodded again. "The Spirit Pagoda has a rule: if you want to obtain spirit souls of a thousand years or higher, you can challenge the Spirit Soul Tower. The headquarters has built a Spirit Soul Tower with a total of 108 floors. Each floor is guarded by different formations. If you clear a floor, you can choose a spirit soul from that floor to absorb. At that point, you can either continue or stop. If you choose to continue, the spirit soul from the previous floor becomes unavailable, and you must face the next one. However, if you fail to clear the next floor, you won't get a spirit soul from that level. If you lose, you still get to purchase the last cleared floor's spirit soul at a 50% discount."
"There are two types of people allowed to challenge the tower. One is members of the Spirit Pagoda, and the other is individuals with exceptional talent. Because of this, Shrek Academy negotiated with the Spirit Pagoda and reached an agreement: our students can be approved to challenge the tower after passing an identity review."
"Since every soul master's martial soul is different, and support-type soul masters face unique challenges, the Spirit Soul Tower challenge is designed for teams. Each team can have up to seven members. Of course, the difficulty is also designed for a seven-member team. The first eighteen floors contain thousand-year spirit souls. The higher you go, the stronger and higher-quality the spirit souls become. From the eighteenth to the thirty-sixth floor, they are ten-thousand-year spirit souls—these are collected by the Spirit Pagoda over many years. Above the thirty-sixth floor are spirit souls with cultivation exceeding ten thousand years. The top nine floors supposedly house legendary fierce beasts, ten-thousand-year-old spirit beasts that the Spirit Pagoda has gathered over thousands of years. Each one is an extremely rare existence."
Gu You hadn't been particularly interested at first. But when he heard that the top nine floors contained fierce beasts, his eyes lit up. This was it!
"When do we leave?"
"Tomorrow morning. I'll notify the Spirit Pagoda today." Gu Yue looked at Gu You's excited expression with confusion.
She couldn't understand the young man before her.
"You're not thinking of clearing the top nine floors, are you?" Gu Yue's pupils widened in shock. Based on Gu You's current cultivation, he wasn't even capable of absorbing spirit rings yet, so why was he going? There could only be one reason—to obtain a hundred-thousand-year-old spirit beast.
"Smart. Normal spirit beasts are useless to me. Only the hundred-thousand-year ones are worth considering." Gu You had made up his mind. Nine hundred-thousand-year-old spirit beasts? This was an opportunity he couldn't pass up!
"I heard that Shrek Academy also has powerful spirit soul inheritances, but they are only available to inner court disciples. That might be what you need." Gu Yue suddenly mentioned.
Gu You nodded. He'd squeeze everything he could from the academy after returning.
"But even if you have the strength to defeat those hundred-thousand-year-old fierce beasts and obtain their spirit souls, your soul power level is still too low. You won't be able to absorb them."
To Gu Yue's doubt, Gu You only gave a mysterious look. "If I say it's useful, then it's useful."
Back at the working students' dormitory, Gu You had a good chat with Xie Xie and the others.
Xie Xie, as usual, couldn't stop talking. Gu You patiently answered all his questions, not just for Xie Xie but for everyone.
"Here."
Yuanen Yehui looked at the gauntlets Gu You handed her, her eyes flickering with emotion.
"Thank you…"
The Next Morning
The weather was not great today. The sky was overcast, making sunrise later than usual. However, the working students' dormitory was already bustling with activity.
After breakfast, everyone gathered together.
Only one person was missing—Tang Wulin.
Aside from that, Gu You noticed a familiar figure.
Xu Lizhi!
"Big bro! I didn't expect to run into you here!" The chubby Xu Lizhi was the most eye-catching among them. His sheer size, which was twice that of anyone else present, made him impossible to miss.
Yuanen Yehui stood slightly apart from the others, especially from Le Zhengyu.
Le Zhengyu also didn't approach, keeping a cold expression.
Xu Xiaoyan's expression was somewhat complicated, while Gu Yue remained calm.
Xie Xie stood on the side, his gaze occasionally drifting toward Yuanen Yehui, but he didn't dare get too close.
Clap! Clap!
Gu You clapped his hands. "Since we're all here, no need for nonsense. Let's go, go, go!"
The group set off in high spirits from Shrek Academy.
At the school gate, Gu You considered calling a car, but before he could, a luxurious business vehicle had already pulled up outside the academy.
The door opened, and Le Zhengyu's family steward stepped out, respectfully opening the door for them.
Xie Xie gave Le Zhengyu a thumbs-up. "Finally, you're acting like a normal human being."
Le Zhengyu sat in the front passenger seat while the steward drove. The back had six seats, which would have been spacious—if not for Xu Lizhi. His large frame took up nearly one and a half seats, making things tight.
But in the end, they all squeezed in.
Xie Xie sat on the far left, with Yuanen Yehui beside him.
It was his first time being so close to her in such a confined space. Xie Xie felt a rush of warmth in his heart, and his mind couldn't help but replay certain inappropriate images from that one time he had accidentally seen something he shouldn't have.
"You better not have any weird thoughts, or I'll kill you…"
(End of Chapter)