Chapter 16: Before the Duel

The following day, Lu Yuan kept his promise and accompanied Xiao Wu to a clothing store. As they entered, he couldn't help but be awestruck by the vast selection of clothes available. It was to be expected that Xiao Wu would succumb to temptation and spend almost all of her stipend on one of these outfits.

Lu Yuan, despite having grown noticeably due to the awakening of his Martial Soul, was still equivalent at most to an eight-year-old boy, and the sales clerks, upon seeing such a cute boy entering the store, immediately surrounded him, planning to pinch his cheeks and ruffle his hair.

Xiao Wu, noticing that other women wanted to snatch her "bag of money" away from her, stepped forward and revealed her spirit ring, causing the women to panic and become respectful in the presence of a Spirit Master.

Satisfied with their reaction, Xiao Wu pulled Lu Yuan by the arm and led him towards the most beautiful dresses.

After a couple of hours, they finally left the store, carrying their purchases in Lu Yuan's white ring. In addition to buying some dresses, Xiao Wu also got some training clothes, as Lu Yuan agreed to continue training with her a few days a week.

Xiao Wu also selected various clothing options for Lu Yuan, much to his dismay. The process of trying on multiple outfits was a tedious task for him but brought great amusement to Xiao Wu, who seemed to take pleasure in his discomfort.

One thing that caught Lu Yuan's attention was when Xiao Wu stopped to purchase bedding. Some were simple and functional, while others were brightly colored and adorned with various patterns, clearly of superior quality.

In the following days.

Lu Yuan would occasionally go to Room 7 to pick up Xiao Wu for their evening training sessions.

At Lu Yuan's suggestion, some of the working students also decided to join in on the training. However, Lu Yuan only allowed one student to participate per day. This was to avoid rumors that he was helping to strengthen the working students, which might bring some repercussions.

With his extensive knowledge of Martial Souls, helping the students was easy for Lu Yuan, and it only took a few pointers for them to see significant improvement.

Most of the time, though, it was just Lu Yuan and Xiao Wu training together. As the working students had duties and classes during the day, they could only cultivate and raise their spiritual power at night.

As a transformed spirit beast, Xiao Wu did not need to cultivate.

One day, when they were alone together, at Xiao Wu's insistence, Lu Yuan revealed his Martial Soul, leaving her in shock and fear. Due to the Martial Soul's suppression, she almost lost all of her combat effectiveness.

After giving Lu Yuan an annoyed look, Xiao Wu learned her lesson and did not insist again.

Throughout their training, Lu Yuan's combat experience improved significantly due to his training with Xiao Wu, who had a passion for fighting.

Despite easily defeating her in their first battle, Lu Yuan soon realized that she had learned from her mistakes and was no longer an easy opponent. There were many times when Lu Yuan himself struggled to get rid of her Soft Skill technique.

While he could have used his innate strength to easily defeat her, he refrained from doing so as it would have a high probability of hurting her and would also be meaningless for the purpose of their training.

To help Xiao Wu improve her own Soft Skills, Lu Yuan used his own movement technique as a reference. Improving a skill is a complicated process, and when Xiao Wu finally managed to make an improvement, she was overjoyed and impulsively threw herself into Lu Yuan's arms.

At that moment, Lu Yuan was surprised by the pleasant strawberry aroma emanating from her, as well as the softness of her body pressed against his chest.

However, after a moment of surprise, he playfully pinched her cheeks, leaving them swollen like ripe peaches.

During this time, Tang San did not once participate in their training sessions.

.........

Nuoding Academy, Room 7.

Early in the morning, an average-looking boy was sitting on his bed in the lotus position.

After a while, a sigh came out of his mouth, as he opened his eyes. This boy was none other than Tang San, who, as he usually did, cultivated from the evening until the morning of the next day.

After checking the progress of his cultivation, he turned to look around the bedroom, noticing that there was no one in the room.

His gaze roamed the beds around until he stopped on a specific bed in the corner of the room. The bed, unlike the others that had white bedding, had beautiful pink bedding on it, with figures of carrots and bunnies, giving it a cuddly and cozy look.

While looking at this bed, Tang San inwardly thought, 'It's good that Xiao Wu took the initiative to separate the beds, it was very awkward when she herself did not respect the boundary she had marked.' Despite thinking this, not a trace of relief could be seen on Tang San's face, rather, his face seemed a bit dull.

After waiting for a while without anyone returning, he couldn't help but feel a little strange. 'This is strange, it's been quite a while since everyone went out, why are they taking so long to come back?' After thinking about this, he decided to get out of bed, and first washed his face before heading towards the hallway.

Just as he was leaving the hallway, a crowd of students led by a girl was heading in his direction. The students, noticing him, stopped, and one of the boys came up to greet him. "Oh, Tang San, we were just coming to see if you had finished cultivating."

"Wang Sheng, where have you been?" Tang San asked in confusion.

"Sister Xiao Wu took us to the noble students, and we challenged them to a duel after school." After pausing, Wang Sheng turned to look for a moment towards the girl in the group and then back to Tang San, continuing, "Sister Xiao Wu wants you to participate in one of the fights."

After hearing his words, Tang San understood.

Since a while ago, Xiao Wu had wanted to teach the noble students a lesson, and they had even had a small argument about it. But after a while, Xiao Wu didn't mention the topic again, and because the noble students' attacks had stopped quite a bit for some reason, Tang San thought that Xiao Wu had forgotten about it.

He did not expect that Xiao Wu would not only not forget it, but would directly set up a duel.

Seeing that Tang San stood still, not responding, the girl leading the group walked over and said. "Xiao San, for today's duel, we will face Xiao Chenyu and his bootlickers, you are the second strongest in Room 7, so I want you to participate in one of the three matches and teach that group of idiots a lesson once and for all!" Xiao Wu said, clenching her small fist.

Looking at Xiao Wu, who didn't seem to take no for an answer, Tang San couldn't help but sigh and say, "Alright, I'll join."