"Bestowing metal with spirit? Senior Chu, I get that Thousand Refined Metal is stronger than regular metal, but in what ways exactly?"
Ning Rongrong asked with a baffled, clueless look on her face.
"It's stronger in every aspect," Chu Chengzhou replied calmly. "But it's only the material that's stronger. If you can't inscribe a soul guide array onto it and forge it into a soul tool, its strength has limited use.
However, if the metal is refined to the next level—Spirit Refining—even just as raw material, it becomes incredibly powerful.
That's because Spirit Refined Metal can be absorbed into the body of a soul master. If forged into armor, it can materialize on the body just like a martial soul.
Plus, Spirit Refined Metal is ridiculously durable. Its raw defensive capabilities alone are already beyond what low-level soul masters can break through.
Also, rare metals have innate properties. Like Blue Copper can boost soul power, and Flame Iron enhances fire-type soul power. Once the refinement level of a metal increases, those amplification effects are massively enhanced too."
"That strong?!"
Ning Rongrong's eyes widened in shock.
Why don't soul masters wear armor?
Simple—armor is cumbersome. And unless it's a soul tool, normal armor is not only bulky but also has poor defense.
Sure, some low-level soul masters might wear armor, but high-level ones? Their soul power defense is already better than any ordinary armor, so there's just no need.
But if the performance of the metal improves drastically and it can be stored in the body and summoned at will, then armor's shortcomings vanish entirely.
Not to mention, if there's such a thing as Spirit Refined Armor, even she—a support-type soul master—could moonlight as a defense-type one.
You can't support others if you can't stand firm yourself. That's a universal truth.
With that kind of armor, she could survive on the battlefield way better. And not just her—her Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan is full of support-type soul masters. The demand for this kind of thing would be sky-high!
"Senior Chu, I don't suppose you'd be willing to pass down your forging techniques?"
She got to the point.
"Family secret—absolutely not for outsiders."
Chu Chengzhou shook his head.
Ning Rongrong: "..."
Family secret? Bruh, you're an orphan—what family secret?
"Then... Senior Chu, what are your plans after graduation?"
She switched tactics.
If he wouldn't teach the skill, fine. But if she could bring him into the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan, he'd teach it eventually.
"My plans after graduation? Marry a bunch of wives and have kids."
Chu Chengzhou stroked his chin as he spoke.
Ning Rongrong was stunned.
Wait, multiple wives?
She immediately gave him a judgmental look.
"Rongrong, do you think children should be filial to their parents?"
Noticing her look, Chu Chengzhou smiled and asked back.
"Of course!"
She didn't get what he was trying to say, but still answered firmly.
"If a father passes away, shouldn't the child inherit his legacy and fulfill his dying wish?"
"That's the right thing to do."
Ning Rongrong instinctively thought of her own father, Ning Fengzhi.
He was already over 60, yet still worked tirelessly to maintain alliances, forge new connections, and recruit genius soul masters—all to grow the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan.
And that was the will passed down by every generation of Clan Masters.
"My father's dying wish was to develop the Chu family into a soul master clan. But I'm an only child—no siblings. If I only marry one wife, how long would it take to build a powerful clan?"
Chu Chengzhou stated with righteous conviction.
Ning Rongrong: "..."
Bro, just say you wanna be a playboy. Why the theatrics?
"Ahem, Senior Chu, have you considered joining the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan? We're very welcoming to talented soul masters!"
She extended an invitation.
So what if you want wives? That's easy.
Join the clan, and she'd have her dad send you ten—no, a hundred! In 20 years, the Chu clan might have thousands of members.
"I'll pass. I don't like being tied down."
Chu Chengzhou shook his head. He wasn't joining the clan—but being their son-in-law? That was a different story.
Ning Rongrong looked very disappointed. Both of her goals for visiting tonight had failed.
"Senior Chu, I have another proposal. Hear me out?"
She composed herself and tried again.
"Go ahead."
Chu nodded slightly. He was curious what this little rich girl had in mind.
"If you want to create your own soul master clan, you'll need a strong backer. After all, every new power cuts into the existing ones. Why not let the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan support you until you're strong enough?"
She smiled sweetly.
"So, in the end, you still just want my forging techniques?"
Chu's face went blank.
"Aiya~ Senior Chu~, we're classmates and good friends. Just say yes~!"
Ning Rongrong instantly switched to a cutesy, spoiled tone and clung to his arm, shaking it like mad.
She always used this trick on her dad and grandpas—it never failed. Surely it'd work on Chu too.
"Stop! Rongrong, if it were Zhuqing doing this, it might work. But you... tsk, not quite effective."
Chu glanced at her chest—still developing but clearly smaller than Zhu Zhuqing's—and shook his head in mock pity.
What are you shaking if there's nothing to shake? Your ribs almost poked me!
Okay, that was an exaggeration—but objectively, she was the least developed of the three girls at the academy.
"You—jerk!"
Ning Rongrong was fuming.
Are you discriminating against small boobs?!
If not for gender boundaries, she'd show him what "hidden potential" really looked like!
"Senior Chu, name your price! As long as you give me your forging technique, I'll even have my father send you a soul bone!"
She launched her ultimate move—money power.
"You think my cultivation talent is good?"
Chu looked at her doubtfully. His apparent talent was decent, but to someone like her, it shouldn't stand out.
"You're not—uh, never mind."
She almost let slip that she knew more about him than she should've—but managed to catch herself just in time.
Chu frowned. He sensed something off but didn't press the issue.
"Senior Chu, I swear on my title as the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan heiress: if you give me your forging technique, anything you want is yours!"
Ning Rongrong vowed earnestly.
"You guys have hundred-thousand-year soul bones?"
"...We don't."
Her face instantly froze. Even if her clan did have one, there's no way they'd hand it over!
"Then forget it. I'm not interested in anything under 100,000 years. As for money? It's useless to me."
Chu waved his hand.
On the Douluo Continent, among the four elements of cultivation—resources, companions, techniques, and environment—wealth is the least important. You can't buy true power with money.
Like soul bones: yes, you can technically buy them, but most are below 10,000 years. And those aren't even worth it for top-tier soul masters.
"What do you want then?"
Ning Rongrong was frustrated. Not even money could solve this?
"What do I want? Hmm..."
Chu eyed her up and down.
Suddenly, Ning Rongrong clutched her clothes tightly, a bad feeling rising in her chest.
Wait... is he after me?
She now felt like a lost little lamb that had wandered into a wolf's den.
"Um, Senior Chu, think about it, I'm leaving now!"
And with that, she bolted from the room like a startled deer.
Chu watched her leave and just chuckled.
The fish is already circling the pond—no need to rush.
Besides, he knew Ning Rongrong wasn't a bad person. Even if she wanted his technique, she'd never try to steal it by force.
But her dad, Ning Fengzhi, and the elders Chen Xin and Gu Rong? Those guys were a different story. He'd have to stay alert.
Well... not that it'd help much. If they really wanted to force him, he wouldn't be able to resist anyway.
Three days later
That morning, Flender made the support-type soul masters, Ning Rongrong and Oscar, do another physical training session.
He even banned Oscar from using his Golden Flying Sausage to cheat. But at least the task wasn't insane—just ten laps around the village, about 60 li in total.
After finishing, Ning Rongrong collapsed ungracefully on the sofa.
Her body wasn't exhausted—Oscar's recovery sausage fixed that easily. Honestly, she could've run 20–30 laps if she really wanted to.
But she was mentally drained.
The run was boring and painful. It felt pointless.
What good would just running do anyway?
Then she glanced out the window and saw Chu Chengzhou and Xiao Wu practicing their body-strengthening techniques, while Zhu Zhuqing was refining her soul skills.
This wasn't new to her.
Zhu Zhuqing was always serious about training. Unless Rongrong or Xiao Wu dragged her off for shopping, she spent all her free time working hard.
Chu was similar—but a bit harder to read. Half of his free time was spent training, the other half napping. Who knew what he did at night?
Xiao Wu was more normal—trained a bit, napped a bit, and loved novels just like she did.
Suddenly, Ning Rongrong thought of something: that Thousand Refined Silver Bow weighed over 100 jin, but Chu wielded it like a feather. His body must be insanely strong. Maybe it was from all that punching practice?
She started carefully observing Chu and Xiao Wu's movements.
After all, ever since she heard Chu's "ambition" to marry multiple wives and start a soul master clan, she'd labeled him a playboy.
Being flirty was whatever—there were plenty of flirts on the continent. Even her own dad, despite being over 60, still visited auction houses to "rescue" cute catgirls and fox girls.
Luckily, their mansion was big enough. Otherwise, there wouldn't be room for all her potential stepmothers.
But only Chu could turn his flirtiness into something so "noble." If that's not playboy energy, what is?
The more she watched the fist forms, the more extraordinary they seemed—but she couldn't quite put her finger on why.
What she didn't realize was that Chu had noticed her peeking long ago.
But since it was just her, he didn't mind.
The martial art was just surface-level. The real essence lay in the way soul power circulated through specific routes in the body while punching.
Without X-ray vision or strong spiritual sense, just copying the moves wouldn't help much.
Right now, even if she memorized the entire routine, the effect would be minimal—far less than even an earlier version of his technique.
Still, if it weren't a "fish" circling his pond, even the surface-level forms wouldn't be shown.
After all, anything above the very basic gray-level techniques had value—even just white-tier ones were super valuable to low-level soul masters.
Because soul rings are like snowballs: start with a bigger one (i.e. a higher-year soul ring), and it just gets better from there.
Even with only a white-tier body-refining art, without needing soul bones, it's possible to accumulate enough power over time to attach a 100,000-year soul ring at level 80.
Of course, finding one is a whole different story.
Before long, Xiao Wu wrapped up her training.
She was playful and curious by nature. A fun novel easily beat out boring workouts.
Ning Rongrong grabbed a towel and walked over.
"Xiao Wu, tired? Here, wipe off the sweat."
She smiled sweetly and handed over the towel.
"Not tired, not tired! Thanks, Rongrong!"
Xiao Wu grinned and took it happily.
"Just now, were you and your brother practicing some special martial art?"
Ning Rongrong asked casually.
"Nope~ That's just a technique for strengthening the body."
Xiao Wu wiped her forehead and shook her head.
So it was a body-refining technique!
Ning Rongrong: I want it.
But there was a problem: wanting it was one thing. Getting it was another.
Techniques like these were never passed outside of family or sect—hence the "secret" in "secret art."
Like the Clear Sky Sect's Vast Sea Hammer or the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan's dragon transformation.
She wanted it, but she couldn't ask outright.
What if they said no and got mad at her? Then she'd lose both the technique and her friendships.
Her eyes sparkled—she had an idea.
"Sigh~ Dean Flender is the worst. Always making me run... I'm dying over here, and it barely helps. I mean, come on—I'm a support type. Why do I need to build up my body?"
She sighed dramatically, full of complaint.
As long as she didn't directly ask, it didn't count as trying to steal a secret art!
Xiao Wu quickly tried to comfort her. "Rongrong, having a strong body really helps! Even just being able to handle stronger soul rings is a huge advantage."
She knew how valuable it was—if not for their technique, how could she have condensed a 10,000-year fourth ring?
And don't forget, high-year soul rings also give more soul power when leveling up.
Take herself for example—if she didn't possess a strong physique, then upon advancing to Rank 20 Great Soul Master, Rank 30 Soul Elder, or even Rank 40 Soul Sect, the increase in her soul power would at most be just one level. But after cultivating a body-refining martial art, the soul power gained during breakthroughs was no longer limited to just a single level.
In fact, when Chu Chengzhou advanced to the third ring and became a Soul Elder his soul power directly jumped to Rank 33.
Although her own cultivation speed was already quite fast, the greater increase in soul power provided by high-year spirit rings still saved her a massive amount of training time.
"Xiao Wu, I've noticed you often practice that boxing technique, but your spirit ring years don't look much higher than mine, do they?"
Ning Rongrong finally voiced the doubt in her heart.
If this body-refining martial art was truly effective, then Xiao Wu's first and second spirit rings should be much higher in age than hers.
But the problem was, she had seen Xiao Wu's spirit rings before—and the color didn't seem any different than her own. It didn't go beyond the usual limits of spirit masters.
And if the martial art's effects were poor, barely improving the physique, then what was the point of training it at all?
Ning Rongrong really couldn't figure it out.
"Uh… sorry, Rongrong. I can't say unless my brother agrees."
After a moment's hesitation, Xiao Wu shook her head and passed the blame to Chu Chengzhou.
The spirit rings looked similar in color, but that was, of course, because she had cultivated a control-type martial art that allowed her to disguise the color of her spirit rings.
Chu Chengzhou had already given strict instructions: this martial art must not be spread, and most importantly, no one could know the true condition of their spirit rings.
Fortunately, spirit rings aren't the same as soul power. Without using soul skills, the only way to judge a spirit ring's age is by the depth of its color.
Even if a Rank 99 Peerless Douluo—the peak of the continent—were to show up, once the color of the spirit rings was altered, there'd be no way to see through it.
Upon hearing that, Ning Rongrong couldn't help but glance at Chu Chengzhou.
This jerk might actually have some skills, huh?
Xiao Wu was being so mysterious—no doubt about it now, this body-refining martial art had to be amazing.
Otherwise, if it was just some trashy, self-invented soul skill that even dogs wouldn't want to learn, would they be this secretive about it?
"Ugh~! This is so hard!
Running is exhausting, and the training effects are awful. Xiao Wu, do you think I should talk to Dean Flender and cancel the physical training class?"
Rolling her eyes, Ning Rongrong quickly changed the topic.
Dear Xiao Wu, your poor bestie is suffering and helpless like this—shouldn't you bring it up to that scumbag Chu and see if he might teach me the body-refining martial art?
We're besties, aren't we? Someday, my Grandpa Sword and Grandpa Bone will be your grandpas too. If anyone dares bully you, those two will definitely have your back!
"That's probably not a good idea… After all, Dean Flender is doing this for your own good.
Rongrong, hang in there. I believe you'll become the strongest support-type soul master on the whole continent someday!"
As her best friend, Xiao Wu didn't want to see Ning Rongrong "go astray," so she quickly tried to encourage her.
Yeah… clearly, Xiao Wu didn't have a very high emotional intelligence, failing to pick up the real meaning behind her bestie's words.
Hearing that, Ning Rongrong's face froze, then she collapsed onto the chair with a speechless expression.
My dear Xiao Wu~ that's not what your bestie wanted to hear!
Why are you so dense?! Ugh, forget it. I'm done. Let the world burn!
Outside the room, Chu Chengzhou had been watching the whole thing unfold and couldn't help but find it amusing.
He finally understood—after being fixated on his forging martial art, Ning Rongrong had now set her sights on his body-refining martial art.
But she was afraid he'd reject her again, and too shy to ask directly, so she went about it indirectly, complaining to Xiao Wu in hopes of opening up a path.
Unfortunately, while Xiao Wu's cultivation talent was great, her emotional intelligence was not. All of Rongrong's words were like playing a lute to a cow—Xiao Wu simply took it as her friend being frustrated with physical training and completely missed the underlying message.