Chapter 10: "Polite" Refusal

A myriad of emotions flashed across Yu Xiaogang's face as he struggled internally. He knew that he had lost the debate. Although he didn't want to admit it, he couldn't come up with any rebuttal.

As for cheating? Please, did this "master" have no face at all? He had already been labeled a "failure" once, and if he added the label of "scoundrel," he wouldn't be able to hold his head up in the academy anymore.

After taking a deep breath, Yu Xiaogang reluctantly removed one of the jade stones embedded in his storage belt, wiped off his soul power, and handed it to Chu Chengzhou. "Kid, you win this time!"

The bad news was that he had lost. The good news was that he could still use his storage belt, only it was now missing one of the twenty-four jade stones.

As for the other point, as he had thought, despite losing, he had gained an insightful theory. It wasn't a total loss!

But still, he felt a sense of discomfort in his heart. Why did it feel so bad?

Chu Chengzhou, on the other hand, glanced at Yu Xiaogang with disdain. Winning was winning, no need to say "you win this time" like a stubborn old man. It was just classic "dead duck" behavior!

But since Yu Xiaogang had handed over the storage soul tool, Chu Chengzhou decided not to argue further. After all, who wanted to provoke someone like Yu Xiaogang, especially when the man could easily retaliate with a "heaven-shattering cannon"? That would surely be disastrous for him.

Thinking of this, Chu Chengzhou shuddered.

Biological attacks might not be very powerful, but they had enough deterrence. Any normal soul master wouldn't dare to provoke Yu Xiaogang.

"Kid, I see potential in you. Why not become my disciple?" Yu Xiaogang said, his tone turning somewhat gentler.

Chu Chengzhou was young but had unique insights, and Yu Xiaogang had once again considered taking him as an apprentice.

"I've heard that you're good at knowledge but not at teaching it. I'll pass," Chu Chengzhou politely refused.

The implication was clear: you're just a cultivation failure, and you're not even good at teaching.

"Not good at teaching knowledge?" That was a polite way of saying he was just eating and drinking at the academy without contributing!

With that, Chu Chengzhou took the jade stone he had won and placed it in his pocket. He also picked up the "Soul Beast Illustrated" he had borrowed from the library and walked toward the librarian at the library entrance.

"Don't get angry, don't get angry. Why bother with this little brat?" Yu Xiaogang muttered under his breath as he watched Chu Chengzhou walk away. But despite his words, his face contorted with frustration.

At this moment, he wished he could pick up the brat and beat him up. However, he knew that if he did that, he would probably be expelled by Su Nan, and he would never be able to stay at the academy again.

Returning to dormitory seven, Chu Chengzhou placed the "Soul Beast Illustrated" on the side and eagerly took out the jade stone he had won.

Soul tools required a master to use, and storage soul tools were no exception.

Luckily, Yu Xiaogang had already removed the master recognition, or else it would have been a lot harder for Chu Chengzhou to erase the residual soul power, considering his current level of soul power was barely above level 1.

Injecting a small amount of soul power into the jade stone, Chu Chengzhou quickly completed the master recognition process.

At once, he felt a small, not particularly large, but still usable storage space inside the jade stone.

"Only about one foot square?"

Looking at the significantly reduced storage space inside the jade stone, Chu Chengzhou frowned.

The complete "Twenty-Four Bridges Bright Moon Night" had a cubic meter of storage space in each jade stone. However, after losing the soul tool array, the internal space of the jade stone had drastically shrunk to only one foot in length, width, and height.

"Well, it's better than nothing."

Although the space had shrunk significantly, Chu Chengzhou didn't have the right to complain.

If he wanted something bigger, he had to first make sure he had something, right?

After thinking about it, Chu Chengzhou cleaned the jade stone, tied it with a fine string, and made a small pouch to hang around his neck.

From now on, he, Chu Chengzhou, was also a part of the storage soul tool group!

Two days later, the academy officially began its first day of classes.

In the morning, in a first-year classroom, a middle-aged teacher, overweight and in her menopause years, was spitting as she lectured at the front of the class. It was unclear whether the students sitting in the front row were paying attention, as they were likely getting showered with her saliva.

Well, hopefully, they would study hard and improve.

However, none of this concerned Chu Chengzhou, who was sitting in the back row of the classroom, absorbed in reading the "Soul Beast Illustrated."

The academy's schedule was light, with only two classes in the morning: one cultural class and one martial spirit class.

The cultural class was just basic literacy, which Chu Chengzhou had already mastered, so he focused on reading the "Soul Beast Illustrated."

"Sky Blue Tree, a plant-type healing soul beast?"

Flipping a page, Chu Chengzhou's attention was immediately caught by the information about this soul beast.

Compared to combat-oriented soul beasts, Chu Chengzhou thought that healing-type soul beasts would be more suitable for his first summoning spirit. After all, over the next six years, he would stay in Nuoding City, and his personal safety wouldn't be much of a concern.

Additionally, he planned to develop body-enhancing skills to improve his physical fitness.

However, if he overdid the body-enhancing skills, it might lead to injuries, just like excessive physical training. Having a healing-type summoning spirit would help solve this problem, preventing him from injuring himself before his "divine skill" was fully developed.

Moreover, in the soul master community, healing, support, and food-type soul masters were generally more popular among their teammates compared to attack-type, defense-type, and control-type soul masters.

Unfortunately, while food-type soul masters existed in the soul master community, there were no specialized food-type soul beasts in the soul beast forest.

Otherwise, a food-type soul beast that could create food to increase soul power would have been the best choice for his first summoning spirit.

Of course, there was also a potential issue with food-type summoning spirits.

For example, if the summoning spirit was a hen, could it lay eggs?

But one thing was for sure: the eggs would definitely not hatch.

After carefully reviewing the information on the Sky Blue Tree soul beast, Chu Chengzhou didn't hesitate and decided to make it one of his targets for his first soul ring.

Since there were many plant-type healing soul beasts in the soul beast forest, he could select one that was best suited to his body's condition, ensuring the year of the soul ring matched his needs.