"Split it evenly."
Zhou Qing woke up Romantina, who was still immersed in "anger," and suggested, "What do you think, Miss Roman?"
"Huh?"
Romantina came back to her senses, the flush on her face immediately receded, and she said seriously, "I'm not short on money, but I must be the one to deal with the Spring Ox. I'll use my strong body to withstand its charge!"
Zhou Qing: "...Just don't extort us if you get hurt."
Now, Zhou Qing was 100% sure.
This person was a pervert!
"Am I that kind of person?" Romantina breathed heavily and shouted, "Even if I'm injured, my bones are broken, I can't move, and I'm taken advantage of by other perverts, I will never extort you!"
At this point, Xiao Wu was also completely certain that Romantina had a screw loose.
Zhou Qing was speechless.
The surrounding adventurers, hearing these words, couldn't help but "whisper" loudly.
"Kids these days really have no conscience."
"Yeah, yeah, and he has innate full soul power, yet he's afraid Miss Romantina will extort him."
"What do kids know?"
"Kids from small villages are always precocious, don't you know? Just by how he was staring at Miss Alice's soft spots just now, he might already have the potential to become a lecher."
"You were staring too, weren't you?"
"..."
Zhou Qing looked resentfully at Romantina, who was morally kidnapping him, a six-year-old child. Seeing her rapid breathing, he knew that she didn't have such complex thoughts at all; she was just speaking her true thoughts.
Finally, Zhou Qing and Tang San covered their faces and left Nuoding Guild sheepishly with Romantina and Xiao Wu.
"Follow me!"
Romantina led Zhou Qing and the others to the驛站 (yizhan/post station), rented a carriage, and set off for the Soul Hunting Forest near Nuoding City.
After half a day's journey, the group arrived at the outskirts of Nuoding Soul Hunting Forest.
During the journey, perhaps because nothing touched her "high point," she behaved relatively normally and responsibly, explaining the precautions for entering the Nuoding Soul Hunting Forest to Zhou Qing and the others:
First, different Soul Hunting Forests have different types of ordinary plants and animals, plant-type soul beasts, and animal-type soul beasts. When going to other Soul Hunting Forests, one needs to purchase corresponding forest exploration guides locally. Although they cannot be exhaustive, they can generally guide soul masters to avoid common, unnecessary dangers.
Second, apart from soul beast habitats that are not truly managed by humans, such as the Star Dou Great Forest, Sunset Forest, Extreme North, Extreme South Volcano, Storm Gorge, and Wilderness Swamp, other small Soul Hunting Forests and Soul Hunting areas are managed by the Spirit Hall.
Xiao Wu was very surprised that there were so many soul beast habitats besides the Star Dou Great Forest and asked, "How do you know so much?"
"The library at Nuoding Academy has information; I read it when I was studying," Romantina said casually. "For commoner soul masters, reading more is beneficial."
Xiao Wu's eye twitched, suspecting that this perverted woman was implying something about her.
"The Soul Hunting Forest, generally speaking, is within the Heaven Dou Empire, right? Why is it managed by the Spirit Hall?" Tang San wanted to understand the situation on the continent.
These things wouldn't be written in the Nuoding Junior Soul Master Academy's books, and Zhou Qing didn't dare to make arbitrary judgments based on the novels he read in his previous life. He could only make rough guesses based on snippets of information from other people.
"It's mainly to prevent soul beasts from being wantonly slaughtered."
Romantina said, "The materials on soul beasts each have their own uses. For development, the two great empires will hunt soul beasts even if they don't need soul rings, in order to obtain materials from them. But soul beasts are also key to a soul master's advancement. Let's put it this way, the soul beasts in the Soul Hunting Forests across the continent already managed by humans are mainly for the use of commoner soul masters."
"Disciples of large sects and prominent families disdain coming to these types of Soul Hunting Forests to hunt soul beasts. Instead, they go to those large soul beast forests to find the most suitable soul beasts for their sect disciples."
"You can imagine, if the Spirit Hall didn't intervene in the management of the Soul Hunting Forests, they would probably be controlled by the armies of the two great empires immediately, using the materials from those soul beasts to make armor and weapons. And ordinary commoner soul masters, at eleven or twelve years old, mostly can't afford to hire soul hunting teams or adventurers to take them to those wild soul beast forests to hunt soul beasts. Without escort, the mortality rate is extremely high."
"However, it is said that the Spirit Hall does this partly to encourage the high-ranking officials of the two great empires to explore those wild soul beast habitats."
That's the logic.
But Zhou Qing knew that from the perspective of the high-ranking officials of the two great empires, the Spirit Hall was infringing on their interests, both winning over the hearts of commoner soul masters and hindering the military development of the two great empires.
After all, in those large soul beast forests, there were many ten-thousand-year soul beasts, and even hundred-thousand-year soul beasts. Exploring those areas was extremely inefficient, and if they attracted the attention of a hundred-thousand-year soul beast, even gathering an army of a hundred thousand would only be sending them to their deaths.
The ancestors of the two great empires, or rather, the predecessors of humanity on the Douluo Continent, had a spirit of exploration, rising from obscurity and creating a glorious era for humanity. But once their territory expanded to a certain extent and the population was not yet saturated, their successors chose to be content with the status quo, began to enjoy the glory brought by power, and thus started to vie for power and profit, putting aside the courage of their ancestors to explore the unknown and open up the future.
The most exploratory group of people were soul masters!
But now, most soul masters were also caught in the whirlpool of desiring power and wealth.
"The third point is the choice of soul hunting teams," Romantina continued with the precautions. "In the future, when cooperating with other soul hunting teams, you must be cautious. Once a conflict of interest arises, they might not necessarily abide by the agreement. The adventurers in Nuoding Guild are still quite good, but most of the soul hunting teams living on the outskirts of this Soul Hunting Forest... you need to open your eyes wide and discern carefully."
"Miss Romantina, how about we form a team with you after we become soul masters?" Zhou Qing invited Romantina.
"You... you wouldn't be interested in my chest, would you?"
Romantina covered her chest, her eyes wary, but her nostrils flared, and her mouth widened into an upward curve. "At your young age, do you want to capture my heart, step by step enter my heart, then throw me onto the bed, wantonly play with and insult me, and then toss my clothes at me afterwards, only to go find other girls?"
Zhou Qing opened his mouth, dumbfounded.
Tang San's eye twitched, and he turned his head away, but he covered his mouth with his hand, secretly laughing.
And Xiao Wu began to wonder if all young human females became... perverted like Romantina at twelve years old, and if she should learn from her.
But—
[So embarrassing!]