Chapter 61: Ao Fei's Conspiracy

  Qian Xuan's experience warns everyone, never eat cheap hot pot after a sleepless night... I've had diarrhea for three days now... almost fainted. Got a blood test today too.

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  His mind was still analyzing the possibilities of Ming Yu's words when Ao Fei's voice suddenly came from outside the door, and Zong Yin's pupils shrank instantly, and a sense of tension rose inexplicably. At this moment, whether it was his soul power, spiritual power, or physical strength, none of them had fully recovered. If Ao Fei were to make a move on him now, he would absolutely have no way to fight back.

  "No! Jin Gang blocked him!"

  Just as Zong Yin's heart was filled with anxiety, Lan Xin's voice also rang out, full of ferocity.

  Zong Yin's heart suddenly warmed up, unexpectedly this little loli was quite interesting. From the last time Yang Jun and Ao Fei had a battle, Zong Yin could easily see that Lan Xin still admired Ao Fei very much. Unexpectedly, she actually rebelled against her senior brother for his sake.

  "Boom!"

  Just as Zong Yin's heart was moved, the wooden gate was suddenly broken by Jīn Gāng's massive body, and Jīn Gāng also fell heavily in front of Zong Yin, staring at him with a pair of blood-red eyes.

  "You damned guy! If you weren't the master's senior brother, I would have eaten you up!"

  Jīn gāng yuán běn kuí wù de shēn zǐ shàng bù mǎn le huà hén, dàn shì guǐ yì de què shì méi yǒu rèn hé de xuè yè cóng qí zhōng liú táng chū lái, sì hū shì míng bái bú shì áo fēi de duì shǒu ne, tā yě zhǐ zàn zài yī biān bù tíng de jiào xiǎo, què méi yǒu xī háo shàng qù hé tā pīn mìng de yì si.

  Then Ao Fei walked into the broken gate with a faint smile, and Lan Xin jumped to Jin Gang's side early, pulling it together to block Zong Yin's face.

  "Sister, don't worry, I didn't mean any harm. I and Brother Zong Yin aren't familiar with each other if we don't fight, right? You tell me, isn't that right, Brother Zong Yin?"

  Ao Fei saw Lan Xin blocking the way in front of Zong Yin, so he stopped advancing and instead glanced at Zong Yin with a hint of kindness, asking back.

  "I'm fine, you go out first, I want to ask about the explosion, does he have any clues? Thank you for your help."

  Zong Yin gritted his teeth, trying to make his expression look as natural as possible, and rushed towards Lan Xin. He knew that Ao Fei's attitude was so good because he must have something to say to him, and Hun Yu's guess had already guessed half of it, otherwise Ao Fei could have directly killed him and left.

  "Take care of yourself, if there's anything wrong, just speak out, I and Jingang are at the door."

  Lan Xin's eyebrows furrowed, her mouth pouted, and she looked somewhat unhappy. She had helped Zong Yin so much, yet he was telling her to leave. Not knowing whether it was directed at Zong Yin or Ao Fei, she let out a cold hum and slowly walked towards the door. As she approached the entrance, she still felt uneasy, turned her head back, and warily stared at Ao Fei, reminding him of something.

  Zong Yun's expression changed slightly, and he forced a difficult smile as he looked at Lan Xin. His heart had already been deeply moved. At this moment, Zong Yun was in the lowest point of his emotions, but Lan Xin's heartfelt concern was enough to open the tightly closed door of his heart.

  "Haha, I didn't think you'd actually be able to win over that eccentric Lan Xin. You've got some skills, no wonder that dead guy Shu Dian and Ye Feng that old scoundrel both look at you with new eyes."

  Ao Fei's mouth curled up in a mocking arc, and he raised an eyebrow with some emotion. He looked at Zong Yin and Lan Xin with a strange expression, and how could his eyes not see the ambiguous relationship between these two people?

  "If you have something to say, say it quickly! If you have gas, let it out quickly!"

  Only himself and Ao Fei were left in the dormitory, Zong Yin's expression suddenly turned cold, his eyes reignited with a hint of anger, not hiding his killing intent at all, staring dead at Ao Fei. If it weren't for Hun Yu's previous words, Zong Yin would have definitely charged forward and fought Ao Fei to the death without any regard.

  "Let me make one thing clear, the reason I'm not killing you is not because I couldn't kill you, it's just that I want to have some pawns in Soul Academy. As for your own situation, I think you should be very aware of it, if you don't satisfy me, I'll let you die a slow and painful death!"

  Seeing the fierce light in Zong Yin's eyes, Ao Fei's expression also changed before his usual calm and gentle demeanor. A ferocious smile climbed back onto his handsome face, and his slender fingers, adorned with purple soul technique patterns, left countless marks in mid-air as they sliced through.

  "Do you want me to be your lackey?! Don't you think it's suspicious that I, who was once a sworn enemy of yours, would suddenly be loyal to you?"

  Zong Yinxian saw the purple soul technique pattern's radiance, and the flames burning in his eyes surged again. He wasn't a fool, and he understood the implication behind Ao Fei's words. However, no matter what the reason was, he was unwilling to do Ao Fei a favor.

  "Now that you mention it, okay, from this moment on, on the surface we are still enemies. I allow you to find trouble for me within my tolerance, but the premise is that you listen to me and only do so when I'm in a good mood."

  Upon hearing Zong Yin's words, Ao Fei was taken aback, lowered his head and remained silent for a moment, a glint of light flashing in his eyes, before putting back on the gentle smile he had previously worn.

  Zong Yinheng let out a sigh of relief in his heart. It seems that he won't have to act like a dog every day, fawning on this goods' face just to survive.

  "Since on the surface we are enemies, then you won't notice if I just leave like this, it's a bit unreasonable, haha!"

  Just as Zong Yin was about to breathe a sigh of relief, Ao Fei's words took a sharp turn, and the Soul Technique pattern on his hand that had been devouring souls retreated, replaced by an unknown red star pattern. Before Zong Yin could even react, Ao Fei slapped him with his palm on his left chest. A series of crisp cracking sounds echoed through the air as Ao Fei's strike broke several of Zong Yin's ribs. Zong Yin spat out a mouthful of blood and fell onto the bed, unable to move. Amidst Ao Fei's loud laughter, the entire dormitory was left with only Zong Yin lying there, gasping for breath.

  "Zong Yin! Are you alright?!"

  As Ao Fei left, Lan Xin quietly poked her head in and upon seeing Zong Xuan weakly lying on the bed, she was shocked and rushed over to help treat his wounds.

  "Asshole! I'm gonna screw your dad!"

  Zong Yin spat out the stagnant blood in his mouth and roared angrily. Ao Fei, who was far away, shrugged indifferently. "What's it to me? That's the master of the Law Enforcement Hall, a complete scoundrel, go ahead and deal with him."

  "See, I was right after all. Congratulations, in any case, you're safe for the time being."

  Hun Yu muttered a sentence of schadenfreude and then sank into the depths of Zong Yin's soul.

  The next day, Zong Yin went to class as usual and made a new request to Hei Sen. He wanted to make the queen bee his soul beast. Hei Sen looked at Zong Yin with an odd gaze and rejected his request. Hei Sen's reason was simple: the queen bee in their classroom was artificially bred, its venom was not pure, its aggression was low, and its soul power level was also low. If Zong Yin were to sign a contract with this queen bee, it would be a waste of his limited quota, and he wouldn't get what he wanted.

  Each Onmyodo practitioner can tame some soul beasts and sign a soul contract with them, making them their own combat partners. However, the soul contract is not signed casually, and there are also quota restrictions based on the differences in the Onmyodo practitioner's soul strength, soul level, the object of signing, soul strength, and soul beast level.

  For example, with Zong Yin's current soul strength and soul level, he can sign a soul contract with up to one ordinary soul beast that is five levels higher than him in terms of soul level. If it's the same level, he can sign around five contracts, which is still due to Zong Yin's soul strength being several times that of an average person. Generally, a Soul Master at Zong Yin's level can only sign a contract with two same-level soul beasts at most. Lower-level soul beasts are often not very useful, so in general, Soul Masters will carefully select their own soul beasts.

  Zong Yin had no choice but to focus all his attention on the Queen Bee, so he could spend all his time cultivating his soul power.

  Although Hei Sen refused Zong Yin's request, he pointed out a clear direction to him. In the ancient city of Gu Tai, there was a special soul beast shop that sold various soul beasts and also accepted pre-orders. If Zong Yin really wanted the Queen Bee, he could try going there, and who knows, maybe he could find a high-ranking Queen Bee. Even if it reached the Soul Master stage, the Queen Bee would only cost around 800 to 1,000 gold, which was barely within Zong Yin's acceptable range.

  Zong Yin had no choice but to calm down and make use of the readily available queen bee to cultivate his soul power.

  Anyway, he had already gotten used to the feeling of soul pain, so he also spent his afternoons practicing soul power micro-manipulation on cultivating soul power. Soul power micro-manipulation was now done simultaneously with cultivating soul power, no longer like before. Zonghui was now pursuing turning his soul power into all sorts of tangible objects, even ones that could help him attack enemies, like hands. He believed that having five fists would be more powerful than two.

  Crazy cultivation for 22 days, sleeping only six hours a day, twelve hours spent cultivating soul power, and the remaining six hours were spent in the practice room.

  When there were still eight days left before the fifth monthly trial, Zong Yin's soul power had already reached 900 units and he officially advanced to Soul Apprentice 9th rank. He was only one hundred units away from reaching 1000 units, but he found that even with the help of the Queen Bee's venom, his soul power could no longer be upgraded. The entire day's time was barely enough for him to form a single soul fetus.

  Zong Yin let out a deep sigh, his usually solid soul now felt like a heavy burden. Even with the increased durability and endurance of his soul power from his cultivation, it couldn't make up for the difference in levels.

  Then fell into the melancholy of Zonghui, all his anger was vented on the innocent killer bees. With an unbreakable soul power barrier and flying soul blades, Zonghui harvested the lives of the killer bees in the entire classroom like harvesting wheat, and even many students were affected by the fish in the pond.

  When Zong Yin's soul power reached the 9th level, he felt that his previous self-awareness at the 8th level was something he could easily defeat, because with the upgrade, Zong Yin's control over his soul power had taken a big step forward. The chaotic barrier he condensed was no longer just a visible barrier, but could be decomposed into soul blades to attack under his control at any time. Shattered Heart Strike, under the infusion of 9th-level soul power, burst forth with an increased might that was three levels higher.

  The practice room that Zong Yin had been going to was also affected, and the energy testing stone inside it finally couldn't withstand the load after Zong Yin's frantic barrage for nearly half an hour, and exploded.