Su Yan kept up with his routine—training through the day, sneaking out to eat with Xiao Wu at night, then training again after they got back.
He still didn't know what had inspired Xiao Wu to do it, but forcing the noble students to "help with work" had freed up an absurd amount of time for the work-study students to cultivate. Strangely, it even eased the tension between the two groups. Working side-by-side under the sun did a lot to sand down arrogance.
The teachers seemed to turn a blind eye to the arrangement. The noble students became more grounded, less sharp-edged, and far less eager to start trouble after they'd spent enough afternoons hauling water and scrubbing courtyard stones.
Tang San changed too.
He became more active—less distant. He spoke to other students more often, answered questions when asked, and didn't keep to himself as much as before.
But most of his effort seemed to go toward getting closer to Xiao Wu.
The two grew noticeably close. Tang San indulged Xiao Wu's whims followed her around without complaint and even took her to the Spirit Hall branch to register properly so she could receive her monthly stipend.
Su Yan watched all of it with a quiet, nagging sense of irritation.
But he also knew there wasn't a clean way to stop it.
Not without strength.
And in the Douluo world, without strength, he couldn't stop anything.
So he did what he could do.
He cultivated.
He trained.
He pushed his body until it trembled, then sat down and circulated Spirit Power until the trembling faded into warmth.
He also had a sneaking suspicion that something special would happen when he finally obtained his first soul ring.
After seven months of hard work, Su Yan finally reached Rank 10.
The moment he confirmed it; he went straight to submit an application for a teacher to escort him to the nearby hunting forest and help him obtain his first soul ring.
A young teacher was assigned to him.
Her name was Lin Qinglan, a Rank 24 Spirit Grandmaster, with a Verdant Ribbon Martial Soul.
Teacher Lin was well-liked among the students—kind, fair, and firm when she needed to be. Su Yan was genuinely relieved it was her.
As they set out, she glanced sideways at him with a small smile.
"So, Little Yan—have you thought about what kind of soul ring you want?"
Su Yan hesitated.
He had plenty of ideas from his previous life, but living in the world itself had taught him how many details those "ideas" didn't include. There were nuances everywhere—about habitats, compatibility and hunting risks.
And unfortunately… there was no internet here.
"I'm not sure yet, Teacher Lin," Su Yan admitted respectfully. "I was hoping you could guide me."
Teacher Lin lifted a finger to her chin, thinking.
"Your Martial Soul is a tool-type, and it looks… metallic. In that case, we should aim for a Soul Beast with defensive traits, or something with metallic synergy."
She nodded to herself, warming to the thought.
"A Crystal Lizard could work. Or an Iron-Boned Turtle. Both have materials with strengthening properties—crystal cores, hardened bones, dense scales. Even if the Soul Skill isn't directly offensive, a defensive or reinforcement-type first skill would keep you alive long enough to learn how to fight properly."
She looked at him again.
"What do you think?"
Su Yan considered it and nodded.
"I think those would be perfect."
Then, after a brief pause, he added carefully, "But… can we aim a little higher in age?"
"Maybe around the hundred-year mark?"
Teacher Lin's smile turned knowing.
"Trying to keep up with Xiao Wu and Tang San, aren't you?"
Su Yan didn't deny it.
Teacher Lin's expression softened, but her voice became more serious.
"I understand not wanting to be left behind. But those two are geniuses. If you push yourself too hard, you may only end up injured—or disappointed."
For a moment, her gaze drifted, faintly wistful, as if remembering something.
Even so, Su Yan met her eyes.
"I still want to try."
Teacher Lin exhaled, then sighed as if surrendering to inevitability.
"Fine. But only because I've seen how hard you train."
She raised a hand in warning.
"Still, we won't go near the theoretical limit. We'll aim for something safe and compatible—a low-to-mid hundred-year ring."
She added, as if to reassure him, "Even my own first ring was only around two hundred years."
Su Yan nodded.
That was enough.
They kept a light, cheerful atmosphere as they travelled toward the hunting forest.
Once they arrived, reality set in quickly.
Finding the right Soul Beast wasn't as easy as imagining one.
It took them three days to locate a compatible target.
A Crystal Lizard, roughly two hundred years old.
It was already badly injured, with claw marks and bite wounds scattered along its body. Its movements were sluggish, its breathing uneven.
Teacher Lin's eyes sharpened immediately.
Something had hunted this thing recently.
Still, the opportunity was right in front of them.
Teacher Lin didn't hesitate.
"First Soul Skill—Verdant Bind!"
A yellow Soul Ring flared beneath her feet.
In the same instant, several green ribbons whipped forward like living vines and wrapped around the Crystal Lizard, pinning it in place.
"Hurry," Teacher Lin said sharply. "Take this knife and end it quickly."
She thrust a short blade into Su Yan's hand.
Su Yan took it and stepped closer.
The Crystal Lizard lifted its head weakly, its gem-like eyes fixed on him. It gave a thin, exhausted growl—
"Grrrr…"
—then lowered its head, as if accepting what came next.
It was… disturbingly expressive.
Su Yan's heart wavered for the briefest moment.
Then he forced it still.
He knelt beside the bound beast and brought the knife close.
"For what it's worth," he murmured, "I'm sorry."
Then he struck.
The Crystal Lizard shuddered once—and went still.
Su Yan froze for half a breath, staring down at it.
"Su Yan," Teacher Lin snapped, bringing him back. "Move. If you don't absorb it soon, the ring will dissipate—and then its death really will have been wasted."
Su Yan looked up.
Floating above the corpse was a yellow Soul Ring, turning slowly, silent and steady.
He summoned his Martial Soul.
The Gatekeeper appeared before him.
Su Yan sat cross-legged and drew the ring toward himself.
The moment it touched—
The ring didn't simply flow into him.
It latched.
Su Yan sank into a deeper meditative trance as he guided it into place.
Teacher Lin watched closely, ready to guard him through the process.
Then—
The Gatekeeper began to glow.
Not the normal gleam of metal.
A deep, intense red light surged from its central core, crawling outward along the circuit-like lines that formed its structure causing the orbiting segments to start to move in a rhythmic motion.
The glow strengthened.
The Gatekeeper's size expanded.
Waves of energy rolled off it, one after another, pushing outward like pressure from a stormfront.
Teacher Lin's eyes widened.
"What—?"
She raised an arm to shield her face as the wind and pressure surged around her, forcing her back a step, then another.
Through the glare, she could barely make out Su Yan sitting motionless… and the faint outline of something else forming in front of him.
Something humanoid.
The Gatekeeper grew to nearly the height of a fully grown man, the red radiance whipping through the air until even the atmosphere seemed to buzz.
The pressure climbed—
Climbed—
And then peaked.
BOOM!
A shockwave exploded outward.
Teacher Lin was hurled back, slammed into a tree hard enough to rattle the branches above her. Pain flashed down her spine as she fought to stay conscious.
The red light didn't fade.
It condensed.
It sharpened.
And the humanoid outline became clear.
Su Yan's eyes snapped open.
In front of him stood a red figure—distinct, unmistakable, and utterly impossible.
A figure he recognised.
His voice came out hoarse and disbelieving.
"…Nihilister?"