"Yu Yan, have you hit a wall lately?"
In a cave near the Star Dou Great Forest range, Xiao Wu sat on a chair and asked the frowning Yu Yan.
Spirit Cat Wu Xue had tracked down two more gangs of evildoers; if Yu Yan weren't still short of a plan, both groups would already be dead.
Dark Snow, a two-thousand-year Spirit Beast covered in pitch-black fur, was small, silent, and keen of sense with perfect night vision; in these mountains finding people was child's play for her.
While Wu Xue searched for factions in the range, Xiao Wu tagged along so they could escape any danger with Teleportation—though the fallback had never been needed.
"I still have three or four ideas left to test; I want to work out a few more before we move."
The deeper he reasoned, the more Yu Yan felt how vital knowledge was—only when you need it do you regret not having read enough.
And the deeper he reasoned, the more curious he became: just what kind of heaven-sent genius had been the nurse who first devised the Spirit core?
"So when do we head back to Exotic Beast Academy? We've been out almost two months; once we return, Dean Jiang Jing will probably lecture us for ages."
"Let her lecture. As long as we win the next All-Continent Elite Soul Master Tournament, I doubt Vice Dean Jiang Jing will care about such trifles."
Speaking of the Tournament, Xiao Wu tilted her head: "I heard the average level there is only in the forties. If we join five years from now, won't we be bullying the little kids?"
Yu Yan and Xiao Wu were already Rank 45; even if cultivation slowed as they rose, by the time of the Tournament they would still be relying on superior spirit power to push people around.
"Nothing we can do about that—I promised Vice Dean Jiang Jing. I'll just suppress my spirit power to their level and avoid bullying them with Rank."
To Xiao Wu's question Yu Yan offered a more or less workable solution.
"No need. We earned our spirit power drop by drop; why cripple ourselves and suffer?"
Xiao Wu had spoken casually—she had zero interest in hiding her strength to play the pig that eats tigers.
"Then stop bringing it up; you're just bored." After teasing her, Yu Yan, still without inspiration, closed his notebook. "Come on, let's go stretch our legs."
"You're not researching anymore?"
Seeing Yu Yan stand, Xiao Wu—who had wanted him to play—instead asked why he was stopping.
She loved novelty and fun, but after staying with Yu Yan so long she knew priorities.
"No good ideas, and you look bored. Let's go find some 'lucky' people to exercise on."
spirit power compression was like a math problem: if you don't know, you simply don't. Rather than waste more time, better to move the body—maybe inspiration would strike.
"Let's go." At his words Xiao Wu sprang up, patted Wu Xue awake, and bounded to his side. "If those guys knew you call them 'lucky,' I wonder how they'd feel."
"They'd probably think I'm mental."
Yu Yan put himself in their shoes: if someone came to kill him yet called it luck, he'd deem them insane.
Awakened, Wu Xue glanced at the two heading out, then leapt into Yu Yan's arms.
This time the "lucky" ones were the evil Blood-Blade Society. Intelligence bought in advance said their leader was a Rank 42 Spirit Ancestor whose Spirit was a blood-red greatsword.
When Yu Yan and Xiao Wu stormed in, they found only the society's third-in-command; the chief was absent.
"Where's your boss?"
Grabbing the man's collar and feeding a thread of frost-toxin into him, Yu Yan demanded.
Under the poison's torment the spineless third boss spilled everything he knew.
Once he finished, he received the death he'd craved.
"The caravan he mentioned—is that the cross-border traders we wiped out last time?"
After listening, Xiao Wu recalled the human-trafficking caravan they'd casually destroyed.
"Timing fits. I remember the caravan leader saying they had people backing them."
Yu Yan hadn't expected that unguarded caravan to have such backing.
According to the third boss, the caravan was set up by big shots from Heaven Dou and Star Luo Empires, selling Heaven Dou people to Star Luo and vice versa.
He didn't know who those backers were, only that he'd once seen several Spirit Kings escorting cargo.
Their own chief had been hired to guard a valuable shipment after the previous caravan was robbed.
Besides the Blood-Blade chief, leaders of nearby factions had also been pulled in; for a caravan whose trade was people, the "cargo" needed no explanation.
Human trade was common on Douluo Continent; auction houses in every city featured it, even slave auctions in Heaven Dou City.
Yu Yan came from a civilized World and loathed such evil; under his influence Xiao Wu felt the same.
"Yu Yan, are we going to ambush this caravan next?"
Already burning with anger, Xiao Wu cracked her knuckles, eager to thrash the scum.
"Yes. Kill the bastards—letting them live is a waste of time."
Yu Yan sensed something off but didn't reject the plan; as long as no high-Rank Spirit Emperor escorted the caravan, they could retreat safely.
Employing a high-Rank Spirit Emperor to guard human traffickers was luxury he couldn't imagine any power affording.
Frankly, he already found it extreme for mere Spirit Kings to be involved.