Director Lu and Dean Shui both turned to glance at the slightly awkward Ignaz. In perfect unison, they said:
"Let's leave the choice to young Iggy—he can decide who he wants as a mentor."
Ignaz was at a complete loss. Did all-powerful people on the mainland instantly want to take on a disciple the moment they spotted a talented kid?
A good student seeks out a famous teacher, but a famous teacher also picks worthy students. Ignaz didn't dislike the idea of becoming someone's disciple. After all, he came from a humble background. If he could gain the support of a Soul King early on, securing his next three soul rings would be a lot easier. But there was a catch—within the soul master world, there was a strict rule: a soul master could only take one formal teacher in their lifetime.
Sure, having a Soul King mentor might be great in the early stages, but later on, that same mentor might be less helpful—possibly even weaker than Ignaz's own fourth or fifth soul skill. And the knowledge passed down would be limited too.
So Ignaz was stuck. If he refused both offers, it would hurt their goodwill. If he chose Dean Shui, he'd risk offending Director Lu.
Finally, Ignaz clenched his jaw, stomped his foot, spun around, and bolted from the room, muttering as he ran:
"This is terrifying—terrifying! I need to go home!"
Director Lu and Dean Shui were left stunned by his sudden departure. It took them a moment to recover before one of them casually waved a hand, shutting the office door. Then, a loud argument erupted inside.
"Dean! You scared him off! I should've been the one to go first. Haven't you heard of respecting your elders?"
"Little Lu! I'm a Soul King. In our world, power speaks louder than age. I've got more than just knowledge—I've got real combat experience! You think you can compete with that?"
Back in his dorm, Ignaz finally calmed down. He emptied all the weapons stored in his soul tool ring and pulled out a shiny, intact metal box. With a light touch on the top switch, the box popped open to reveal three slim metallic tubes.
"Is this an offensive-type soul tool?"
To test it, Ignaz pulled the corpse of the Blood-Scaled Dragon from his ring. Though the beast was dead, its scales were still tough—perfect for testing the weapon's power.
As soon as he channeled his soul power into it, three beams of white light shot out of the tubes—
Bang!
One of the Blood-Scaled Dragon's scales was blasted clean off, and several patches of its skin turned charred black.
"Damn! This soul tool's firepower can punch through mutated Blood-Scaled Dragon scales. If this hits a person, it's stronger than most long-range second soul skills! This is practically a second-tier soul tool from ten thousand years in the future."
"Has the Sun-Moon Continent already standardized the use of second-tier soul tools?"
Ignaz fell into deep thought. In the current era of the Douluo Continent, soul tool technology was all but extinct. Outside of a few storage-type tools, offensive soul tools were almost unheard of. And most of those were discovered in the ocean and brought inland—or perhaps, they came directly from the Sun-Moon Continent.
Even now, ten thousand years in the past, the Sun-Moon Continent's soul tool tech was likely still advanced.
He then picked up three identical, fully intact soul tools. When he activated one, it lit up with a flickering yellow glow.
"Is this... a desk lamp?"
A metallic ding-ding sound rang out.
"Wait, that's not right—"
Ignaz's eyes widened. He hastily stashed the other two devices and backed up more than ten meters, lifting his bed frame as cover.
BOOM!
The desk exploded. Shards of metal flew in all directions, turning the entire dorm into a disaster zone.
"That... that was a soul power bomb!"
He stared in awe at the wall and the metal fragments embedded in the furniture. Then he shook his head with a sigh.
"The blast is too weak. It might not even match some basic melee soul skills."
Looking at the floor littered with soul tools, Ignaz couldn't help but shake his head again. I'm no Tang San, he thought. There's no way I'm going to waste my golden cultivation years tinkering with soul tools like they're hidden weapons. Besides, I don't know the first thing about crafting these things. And with tools at such a low tier, even if I made something, it wouldn't hold a candle to real hidden weapons.
Soul tools were worth studying—but not right now.
Having cleared his thoughts, Ignaz carefully packed up all the soul tools and looked around the wrecked dorm.
"Sigh... I guess I have to clean this mess up myself."
Just as he finished tidying up, the dorm door burst open with a loud kick.
"Ignaz! Heard Director Lu helped you get your first soul ring. We wanna challenge you. Do you dare accept?"
The intruders were none other than the infamous Hai Po brothers—Hai Bai and Hai Gui—both fourth-years and well-known rich kids from Hanhai City. In the academy, they were notorious bullies who'd drag anyone they didn't like into a one-on-one duel at the battle arena.
According to most students, the Hai Po brothers had been on a mission to defeat every soul master in the school who had a soul ring—and had already been at it for over a month. Ignaz had barely returned from his soul hunt when they came knocking.
"Sure, I accept. But there has to be a wager."
Ignaz rubbed his thumb against his middle finger—a universal sign for money.
"Gold soul coins? No problem. If you beat us, we'll hand over six months of our living expenses—that's nearly 500 coins."
"Nope. I don't want your coins. I heard your Hai family runs a big-time fishing business. I want 40 jin (20 kg) of whale glue or soul beast meat of equal weight—the older the better."
The brothers exchanged a look, eyes gleaming. Then one of them sneered:
"Ignaz, didn't think you were into that. Are you sure your body's fully developed?"
Ignaz shot them a glare, his voice tinged with anger.
"Agree to the wager, and I'll fight you. Otherwise, cough up money for the broken door—and get lost."
"Fine, you've got a deal. If we lose, we'll pay in whale glue. But if we win—what do we get?"
Hai Bai asked, and Ignaz answered without hesitation:
"If I lose, I'll pay you the market value in gold soul coins."
"Deal. One hour from now—see you at the duel pit."
The Hai Po brothers stormed off toward the arena behind the dorms and sent their lackeys to spread the word.
It happened to be the academy's weekly free training day, so when word got around that Ignaz was about to face off against the Hai Po brothers, students from all grades swarmed to watch the show.
"Hey, did you hear? That weirdo who's always carrying a rusty spear just got his soul ring—and now he's challenging the Hai Po brothers!"
"The brothers have been undefeated for a whole month—even the top sixth-year students couldn't take them down. Do you think some no-name with a rusty spear is gonna beat them? What a joke."
"Exactly. They may only have one ring each, but their martial soul fusion skill—Water Cyclone—is crazy powerful."
More and more students gathered at the duel pit, all eager to see this oddball Ignaz get steamrolled by the Hai Po brothers' infamous fusion skill.