Hearing Shen Qiu’s words, Chu Mu looked suspiciously at Old Soul Teacher De, and used soul remembrance to ask: “My mother has suffered a soul wound?” 

“This is a long story. Her Majesty Dawn Supreme indeed suffered a very serious injury at a very crucial time.”

Chu Mu had been surprised before because Liu Binglan had reached the spirit emperor rank at the age of twenty. Adding on the enormous influence of Soul Palace, she should have surpa.s.sed the Sixteen Absolutes. It turned out that she had suffered a soul injury in the past. 

“However, this shouldn’t affect her too much. Give her a bit of time and wait for her soul to heal, and she’ll be able to breakthrough. The reason why she went to the Barren Forbidden Region was probably to find a way to breakthrough.” said Old Soul Teacher De. 

Chu Mu nodded his head. Presumably, Liu Binglan still had a lot of potential left as well as hidden cards. 

At this moment, the compet.i.tion neared the end. 

The appraisal masters began to examine the spirit items concocted by the compet.i.tors.

This time, the level that had to be met was lower. One only needed to successfully concoct the spirit item set. The quality was only of a middle ranking. Those that could create a perfect quality could be counted with fingers.

A few of the seeded compet.i.tors were the last ones examined. As sounds of appraisal rang out, Chu Mu discovered that most people’s concoctions were at about the middle quality. There were extremely few upper quality rankings and not one perfect quality had appeared yet. This included those who had extracted 8 drops and above in the first round.

“Perfect quality. Yunhen Luyun!”

“Perfect quality, Zhu Zizhan!” 

Finally, there were two people that broke the perfect rank barrier!

Towards the thunderous noise that surrounded them, neither Zhu Zizhan nor Luyun showed any expression. This accomplishment didn’t seem like anything special towards them.

“Perfect rank, Chu Qinzi!”

Immediately after, an appraisal master looked with a bit of shock as he recorded Ye Qingzi’s score!

This appraisal master remembered that this soul teacher should have consumed one third of her materials. Yet, she was still able to concoct a perfect rank item. This utilization of materials was practically G.o.dly!

At this moment, Zhu Zizhan creased his brows, and glanced at the spirit item on Ye Qingzi’s table. It really was a perfect rank quality spirit item.

“You’ve encountered an opponent.” Yang Qian glanced at Zhu Zizhan, who would always show his emotions and calmly spoke.

In Yang Qian’s opinion, first place would definitely be her’s. As for the other rankings, those would be fought over by the people next to her. Thus, Ye Qingzi who suddenly appeared, probably had the qualifications to contest for these rankings as well.

Zhu Zizhan also knew he didn’t have the qualifications to fight over first place with Yang Qian. However, he absolutely had to take second place!

“This Ye girl really has improved very quickly. I remember when she was in Tianxia City, her soul abilities could only be described as not bad. Now they’re outstanding.” said Old Soul Teacher De.

In Tianxia City, Ye Qingzi had often gone to act as Old Soul Teacher De’s a.s.sistant, learning a few soul abilities from him. However, four years later, her soul abilities were now very close to his. This was astonis.h.i.+ng.

    ……

After the second round, even more people began to inquire about her.

Chu Mu didn’t want people to disturb her so he arranged for a few Soul Palace experts to guard Ye Qingzi and Ye Wansheng in the dark.

In the third round, Ye Qingzi was still outstanding. Having obtained outstanding rankings in the first three rounds, this meant that she was only excellent in certain areas. Instead, she was a strong compet.i.tor who could truly be gunning for first place.

In these circ.u.mstances, Zhu Zizhan, Luyun, and the others felt a bit of threat!

The third round’s attribute mixing concoction was extremely difficult and only 20 people pa.s.sed this round.

The fourth round was the final round!

The spirit ability compet.i.tion method for the fourth round was published earlier.

The compet.i.tion authority provided every person with a complete concoction residence and gave them an enormous amount of resources. Afterwards, they told them to concoct a spirit item of the highest rank and quality to obtain first place in this compet.i.tion!

The time limit was one month!

Concocting high rank spirit items required a long time. To a few high ranking soul teachers, one months was already rather short.

Of course, while concocting high rank spirit items, soul teachers could not spend the entire month completely behind closed doors. When the concoction reached a certain stage, they just had to sit and wait.

In order to prevent cheating, the compet.i.tion authorities ordained that these soul teachers had to remain in the residences, and could not bring additional spirit item materials. Nor could they interact with other people outside of their a.s.sistants. Simultaneously, neither the soul teacher or the a.s.sistants could carry spatial rings.

In order to make things as public as possible, the compet.i.tion authorities finally requested that all of the soul teachers to work at the very front so that the final concoction process could be publicized in the refining furnace in the plaza. Therefore, everyone in Soul City would be able to watch those who had refined the most outstanding spirit item. 

The last part of the spirit item concoction process was to place it in the furnace. There were various attributes of furnaces, and the soul teachers could choose the furnace that fit them and complete this final stage in front of everyone!

After finis.h.i.+ng, Soul Church’s three senior elder rank soul teachers would appraise the item. Finally, the Soul Teacher King, Yang Que, and the Medicine Desolation Zhu Chao would confer the honor and prize to the top three contestants!

Presumably, in the later stages of the concoction, everyone who was interested in soul abilities would gather in the plaza to personally witness the final showdown between soul abilities!

    ……

A month was rather long for Chu Mu. He had originally planned on quietly cultivating for a month, but this probably wouldn’t be of much use.

Ning Maner suggested going to the southern forbidden region to train, because her strength had a small breakthrough. However, Chu Mu’s soul pets hadn’t reached the conditions to breakthrough. Thus, there was not much she would be able to help with. 

“We don’t need to go in too deep. We should be able to return quickly.” but Chu Mu felt that he shouldn’t waste this period of time. 

Going training for a month and then returning to Soul City from the southern forbidden region and a few bewildering worlds wasn’t a problem. After all, he wouldn’t be able to see Ye Qingzi for a month until the compet.i.tion ended.

The size of Soul City nearly reached a realm city. Corresponding to Soul City was the southern forbidden region, which was a paradise for soul teachers. There were endless amounts of spirit items here and Soul City’s development was inextricably linked with the dazzling spirit items and medicine materials provided by this forbidden region. 

Of course, there weren’t many people that could enter the forbidden region. Those under the emperor rank could traverse the bewildering worlds in the forbidden region near human territory. Moreover, they would also need to request stronger soul pet trainers to protect them.

After reaching the spirit emperor rank, one also needed to form a team to enter the outskirts of the forbidden region. Indeed, the number of soul pets in the forbidden region could be described as disastrously overflowing. A slight moment of carelessness could lead to one being swallowed by a tribe or community of thousands or ten thousands. 

    ……

“You truly are a training freak. You don’t even want to waste this bit of time!” when Old Soul Teacher De heard that Chu Mu was planning on heading to the outskirts of the southern forbidden region, he helplessly spoke.

Old Soul Teacher De still remembered that when this brat was still a spirit master, he dared to head to the Sacred Holy Region.

“Yes, my Binding Wind Spirit has a chance to breakthrough.” said Chu Mu.

Old Soul Teacher De bitterly laughed. The normalcy at which this brat’s soul pets broke through was like eating dinner at home. That was a middle cla.s.s emperor. Even the Palace Lords in Soul Palace was constantly worrying about how to reach the high cla.s.s emperor rank from the middle cla.s.s emperor rank.

“I don’t have anything to be worried about. Perfect, Princess Wan NIng is lacking some training. Why don’t you take her to train. She should have hope of breaking into the high cla.s.s emperor rank. If you bring her, it will be considered contributing some merit for our Soul palace…” said Old Soul Teacher De.

“This… ok.” Chu Mu originally wanted to decline because after leaving the city, he would be able to transform into the half devil whenever he wished. But with Princess Wan Ning, he definitely could not do so whenever.

However, after thinking it over, the main purpose of training this time was for the Binding Wind Spirit. Princess Wan Ning was probably at this rank too, so it wasn’t much to bring her along. Hopefully, she would also be able to break through and there would be another young expert in Soul Palace.

“Then why don’t you go talk it over with Wan Ning. Remember to return on time.” said Old Soul Teacher De.

“Sure.” Chu Mu nodded and turned around before leaving.

After Chu Mu left, Old Soul Teacher De stroked his beard. A satisfied smile rose on his face as he muttered: “It’s good if they cultivate some feelings between them. If the conditions are right, success will follow naturally. This way, they won’t complain that it was those old fellows that forced them to marry.” 

Although Old Soul Teacher De knew that Chu Mu and Ye Qingzi had a bit of feelings between them, as Soul Palace’s elder, he hoped more for Chu Mu and Princess Wan Ning to get together.

If Chu Mu took a fancy to Princess Wan Ning, this would obviously be good. And if Chu Mu didn’t, then it would be a good opportunity for Wan Ning to train. It couldn’t be considered forcefully breaking apart Chu Mu and Ye Qingzi. 

Of course, if Chu Mu was able to obtain the hearts of both these girls, that was Chu Mu, this brat"s, ability. Old Soul Teacher De had seen spirit emperors manage to take multiple wives and concubines. In fact, there were many instances of this. 

How could Chu Mu know that Old Soul Teacher De was being disrespectful and trying to steer him in a certain direction? He was simply going to find Princess Wan Ning, and then immediately leave.

Unfortunately, Yang Qian, this hateful girl, had gone to Soul Palace and was next to Princess Wan Ning...

The fourth round would officially start in three days, so Yang Qian had frequently come to Soul Palace to find Princess Wan Ning.

Chu Mu didn’t avoid her, however. He just ignored her and said to Princess Wan Ning: “I’m planning on training for a month in the southern forbidden region. Why don’t you come with me.”

“Why don’t you go yourself. Why are you asking Wan Ning to come!” instantly said Yang Qian, unhappily.

She really really did not wish for Wan Ning and Chu Mu to develop feelings.

Princess Wan Ning was stunned, not knowing why Chu Mu wanted to train with her.

How did Chu Mu know that Old Soul Teacher De was s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g him over. Seeing her blank expression, he raised his eyebrows and asked: “Weren’t you planning on training?” 

Hearing Chu Mu’s counter question, Wan Ning seemed to suddenly understand something. Wasn’t the two of them training alone clearly about this man finding an excuse to cultivate feelings with her.

“How could it be like that.” Wan Ning muttered in her heart.

In the past when others wanted to date Princess Wan Ning, they would ask her first. But this man directly asked her a question which had an answer to it already. Wan Ning simply had no plans to go train. However, if she were to reject him, it would seem like she was going back on her words.

Princess Wan Ning couldn’t refuse and nodded: “Yes… yes. But isn’t a month too short…”

Princess Wan Ning was actually expressing that a month of training was too hurried. However, after speaking, she realized that her words could be construed in many different ways!

Indeed, this man came clearly to cultivate feelings with her, but she could be construed as saying one month was too short for this… 

The refined and silent Princess Wan Ning instantly went red and quietly explained: “I mean that we may not have enough time to return and see the ending of the compet.i.tion.”