Notting City, Notting Academy, student dormitories.
Rather than dormitories, they were more like the small courtyards where Grandmaster Yu used to live, the so-called residences for elite teachers.
As the child of Notting City's lord, having two exclusive residences was not a difficult matter.
This is the difference in treatment!
If she hadn't acknowledged her foster father, let alone her current living environment, she probably wouldn't even have been able to enter the gates of Notting Academy. What good was a Domain if she was ultimately just an ordinary person?
The ability to appraise Soul Beasts was something she had deliberately exposed.
There was no other way; freeloading was ultimately inappropriate, and she didn't want people gossiping behind her back.
Moreover, to better approach Soul Beasts, exposing her ability to appraise Soul Beasts might be even better, though it could also be a situation where opportunity and crisis coexisted.
Xu Qian put away her luggage, tidied up a bit, then sat down on a nearby chair and slowly closed her eyes.
"Domain: Thousand Winds, Myriad Clouds."
A gentle breeze, from an unknown source, stirred, causing the potted plants at the entrance to sway slightly.
Specks of light gathered, forming a rectangular outline.
A few seconds later.
A thick book landed in Xu Qian's hand.
With a 'thud'!
The thirty-centimeter-thick book slipped from her grasp and fell to the floor, its pages flipping continuously.
This book was not Xu Qian's Martial Soul, but something she had condensed through her Domain.
"Hoo—"
Xu Qian slowly opened her eyes and looked at the thick, coverless book on the ground.
"It seems I really can shape certain things within the Domain."
Going to Yu Xiaogang's place today to make herself uncomfortable was worth it at this moment.
While it might sound a bit underhanded, she and Xiao Chenyu sought out Yu Xiaogang not only due to instructions from her foster father and the dean of Notting Academy, but also because Xu Qian wanted to test other functions of her Domain.
Upon entering Yu Xiaogang's room, Xu Qian had activated her Domain.
Through the Domain's unique properties, she recorded all the content of the books and notes in his room.
And the book on the ground was the result of categorizing and organizing that content from within her Domain.
Large Sects indeed didn't think much of Yu Xiaogang's knowledge.
But for ordinary people, much of it contained valuable information, even secrets related to Spirit Hall.
Xu Qian closed her Domain, and the book on the ground vanished.
A moment later, her thoughts condensed.
As a gentle breeze brushed past, a profound sense of lightness enveloped her whole body.
Xu Qian opened her Domain again and set a command word.
"Book."
The Domain trembled slightly, and after shaping, the book appeared in Xu Qian's hand.
Xu Qian flipped through the pages, deliberately using her Domain to organize the content.
The information recorded within almost covered all the key highlighted information in Yu Xiaogang's room.
"Such a thick book, it'll probably take half a year to read." Xu Qian's mouth twitched... Six years passed in the blink of an eye.
Xu Qian's perception range had also broken through to a radius of one thousand meters.
"The Blind Douluo Su Yuntao, following the usual practice, will go to the countryside to awaken Martial Souls door-to-door."
"If nothing unexpected happens, Tang San and Xiao Wu will be entering Notting Academy this year."
Xu Qian stretched her arms out on the desk, an expression of utter despair on her face.
"Six years, do you know how I spent these six years?"
She not only finished reading the content "stolen" from Yu Xiaogang but also read all the books about Martial Souls in the Library.
She even recorded all the books hidden in the Notting City Spirit Hall Branch through her Domain and Martial Soul, and read them all.
This made her more proficient in using her Domain and Martial Soul.
Logically speaking, I'm already so strong!
Not to mention plucking stars and moon, at least give me one more level of Soul Power, alright?
It's been six years, and her performance is still stable; she can't cultivate Soul Power.
However, her Martial Soul had undergone some changes.
Her Martial Soul, the Annals of Time, which was originally a blank slate.
It was densely packed with information on many Soul Beasts. As Xu Qian's understanding of Soul Beasts deepened, as long as the information was correct, it would all be recorded. However... besides her perception range doubling, she was essentially treading water.
She could now detect others' Soul Power fluctuations, but she herself seemed to be immune to Soul Power.
"I want to become a Soul Master, a Soul Master, ah ah ah ah ah ah!"
After wailing for a while in the silent, empty Library.
Xu Qian cleared her throat a few times, gathering her thoughts, and adopted her usual serious work demeanor.
Dressed in a white dress, with silver-white hair draped over her shoulders, holding a book in her hands, she looked like a serene literary girl.
Almost half a minute into her serious work as a librarian, someone pushed open the Library door.
"Sister, I knew you'd be here." The young man who entered had a youthful appearance, looking to be in his teens.
"Xiao Chenyu, what are you looking for me for?" Xu Qian calmly asked, gently closing the book in her hand.
"That Yu Xiaogang said he wanted to take me as his disciple," Xiao Chenyu said.
"You agreed?"
"How could I?" Xiao Chenyu twitched his lips. "I'm just curious where his initial arrogance went. Didn't he look down on those with low innate Soul Power?"
"Hmph, my mere innate level four Soul Power can't possibly attract such a teacher."
"You didn't do anything to him, did you?" Xu Qian asked, puzzled.
"No, following your advice not to offend him, I politely declined."
"Speaking of which, why do I feel like you care a lot about Yu Xiaogang? He's clearly just a boastful good-for-nothing."
A few years ago, a student, listening to Yu Xiaogang's self-proclaimed 'Ten Core Competencies,' absorbed an inappropriate spirit ring, resulting in a hodgepodge of Martial Soul Abilities.
Now, throughout Notting Academy, this Yu Xiaogang has become infamous. If he didn't still have some knowledge, he would probably have been expelled.
Using students to test his theories, treating them like guinea pigs, it's simply outrageous.
"Care, huh..." Xu Qian murmured. "I gained some benefits from him, and besides, as colleagues, there's no need to make things difficult."
Xu Qian still remembered some gratitude for the "book-stealing" incident six years ago.
Although many of the notes and books in Yu Xiaogang's room contained incorrect information, there were also many valuable points.
If not for these knowledge points, Xu Qian's understanding of Martial Souls and Soul Power would not have reached its current level.
Regarding the current state of her Martial Soul, she already had a preliminary idea. After Tang San arrives, she would see how Xuantian Gong worked, and then she could implement the next step of her plan.
Therefore, there was no need to cause trouble for Yu Xiaogang. Xu Qian was not the type to bite the hand that feeds her.
"No, you didn't fall for that Grandmaster Yu, did you? A young grass eating an old ox?" Xiao Chenyu twitched his lips.
Xu Qian's forehead was covered in black lines, and her voice turned cold: "I don't play as wildly as the Heaven Dou nobles. Also, what did you come to find me for?"
"I want to obtain my first spirit ring now," Xiao Chenyu said.
"Sigh..." Hearing this, Xu Qian sighed, "Wasting a year for a few-hundred-year spirit ring, is it worth it?"
"My first spirit ring being just over a hundred years old would make me seem useless."
Xiao Chenyu was resolute, recalling Yu Xiaogang's contemptuous look at him as a good-for-nothing.
Moreover, it wasn't impossible to cultivate without a spirit ring; at most, it would just be a bit slower than a Soul Master's cultivation.
This was what Xu Qian had told him.
Speaking of which, after Xu Qian became an honorary teacher at Notting Academy.
Every semester, Notting Academy would organize a group activity to go to the Soul Beast Forest to hunt for spirit rings.
That's right, it was to help students acquire a hundred-year spirit ring to become Soul Masters.
Over these past few years, many students in the academy had their first spirit rings starting at a hundred years.
Soul Beasts just over a hundred years old were not difficult to kill and absorb, and safety was also guaranteed.
Previously, the reason why most students at Notting Academy only had white, decades-old first spirit rings was because they couldn't accurately judge the cultivation of Soul Beasts over a hundred years old. If they made a mistake, it could lead to their bodies exploding and death.
They weren't Sects or great nobles with safeguards like medicinal baths and dietary supplements to increase success rates.
For students from small towns, a first spirit ring over a hundred years old was too difficult.
Xu Qian's appearance basically provided insurance for Notting Academy.
It could be said that among all the students at Notting Academy, besides the dean, the most respected person was this special teacher who could not become a Soul Master.
"What's your foster father's opinion?" Xu Qian tapped her fingers on the table. "Soul Beasts over three hundred years old are not comparable to those just over a hundred years old."
"Father agreed," Xiao Chenyu said with a hint of exasperation in his voice. "He said it doesn't matter if something goes wrong, he's still young."
Xu Qian: "..."
Is this really his biological father? He's probably planning to have a'small account' (another child) already.