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Chapter 63: The Strongest Fourth-Level Soul Engineer
"Sorry… I was just joking."
Two minutes later, the purple-haired woman sat kneeling in front of Xuan Ziwen, bowing her head repeatedly in apology.
Xuan Ziwen snorted irritably before introducing her to Bai Chen and Ning Tian.
"She's Jing Ziyan. The junior I mentioned before—the one who occasionally drops by. She and I studied under the same teacher, so you don't need to be overly polite with her."
Jing Ziyan immediately protested.
"Hey, senior! That's not right! Shouldn't you tell them to respect me a little more?"
Xuan Ziwen shot her a cold glare.
"What did you say?"
"…Sorry, I was wrong."
Jing Ziyan instantly lowered her head again.
Xuan Ziwen sighed and rubbed his temples helplessly.
Jing Ziyan was two years younger than him.
They had studied under the same teacher and were both considered highly promising geniuses.
However, she had chosen a completely different path from Xuan Ziwen.
From the very beginning, Xuan Ziwen knew his martial soul was not suited for combat as a soul engineer.
So he decisively abandoned combat capability and poured all his energy into research and development.
But Jing Ziyan was different.
She was simply too greedy.
She was one of the rare soul engineers who refused to specialize in a single branch.
Instead, she studied every type of soul engineering discipline.
The result was that even now she was still only a Level 4 Soul Engineer.
Both their teacher and Xuan Ziwen had advised her countless times to choose a direction.
But she stubbornly refused.
In the end they had no choice but to let her do as she wished.
However, because of that decision she gained a unique nickname:
"The Uncrowned King of Fourth-Level Soul Engineers."
This wasn't an exaggeration.
When it came to soul tools below Level 4, even Xuan Ziwen himself wouldn't dare claim he understood them better than Jing Ziyan.
It was a level of mastery achieved by sacrificing future advancement.
Seeing that Xuan Ziwen's anger had eased slightly, Jing Ziyan cautiously asked:
"So… senior… if they're not your illegitimate children, who are they?"
"They're the children of my benefactors."
Xuan Ziwen replied calmly.
"You know I'm originally from the Heaven Dou Empire. When my father was still there, he received quite a bit of help from the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect. Since these kids came here, I've simply been looking after them."
This explanation had been prepared beforehand between Xuan Ziwen and Bai Chen.
After all, their relationship otherwise seemed completely random. They needed a reasonable excuse.
"Heh, the children of benefactors? That sounds just like you, senior."
Jing Ziyan leaned closer to Bai Chen and Ning Tian with curiosity.
"So, little brother and little sister, what are your names?"
"Ning Tian."
"Bai Chen."
Jing Ziyan nodded with a smile.
"Good, good. You two should study hard with senior here. His soul engineering ability is widely praised within the academy. Some even say he'll become the Chief Researcher someday."
Bai Chen nodded obediently on the surface.
But inside his mind was racing.
Jing Ziyan was also a familiar character from the original story.
Her role wasn't particularly large or crucial.
However, someone closely connected to her was someone Bai Chen cared about deeply.
That person was Ji Juechen.
In the original story, it was because Huo Yuhao defeated Jing Ziyan that Ji Juechen took notice, triggering a series of events afterward.
Ji Juechen was an absolute oddity among oddities in the entire Douluo series.
He was one of the rare living proofs of Yu Xiaogang's famous statement:
"There are no useless martial souls—only useless people."
Ji Juechen's innate martial soul had only Level 3 soul power.
Yet he still managed to climb all the way to Title Douluo.
He was also one of only two people in the series who personally hunted and absorbed their own first hundred-year soul ring.
The other was Tang San.
Although at equal level his combat strength still fell short compared to the true top-tier prodigies, considering his starting point, his achievements were nothing short of miraculous.
At least Bai Chen didn't believe he could replicate that kind of growth starting from the same position.
If possible, Bai Chen wanted to recruit Ji Juechen to his own camp.
In reality, doing so wouldn't be very difficult.
After all, Ji Juechen simply didn't belong in the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineering Academy.
What he desired were opponents who fought primarily with martial souls.
Soul engineers didn't appeal to him.
The Sun Moon Empire had even slowed his development.
Evidence of that was simple: at twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old he was still only a six-ring Soul Emperor.
Yet after arriving in the Douluo mainland's original three empires, his cultivation skyrocketed.
For someone like that, there were countless ways to recruit him.
The real question was simple:
Had Jing Ziyan already met him?
Thinking of this, Bai Chen spoke up first.
"Senior sister, I heard from teacher that you often spar with other students. Are there any particularly strong soul masters among them?"
Jing Ziyan tilted her head curiously.
"Hm? There are, but why are you asking?"
Bai Chen answered seriously.
"I want to become stronger so I can better protect Ning Tian. If that's the case, I should learn combat techniques from stronger soul masters like you."
Beside him, Ning Tian hadn't expected Bai Chen to say something like that.
Her face immediately turned red and she lowered her head shyly.
"Oh?"
Jing Ziyan's eyes lit up with excitement.
She happily ruffled Bai Chen's hair.
"Not bad! Wanting to protect someone important at such a young age—you're already a real little man."
Enjoying the head-pat, Bai Chen eagerly asked:
"Then senior sister, could you tell me their names and abilities?"
"Of course."
Jing Ziyan grinned and agreed immediately.
"Thank you, senior sister! You're really the most understanding!"
Bai Chen's enthusiastic praise made Jing Ziyan beam with pride.
Watching the entire exchange, Xuan Ziwen shivered slightly.
He knew Bai Chen's true personality.
Although he didn't know Bai Chen's exact goal, he was certain the boy definitely had a plan.
Seeing his junior being so easily manipulated, Xuan Ziwen sighed internally and looked away.
Forget it.
Based on his understanding of Bai Chen, the kid probably wouldn't do anything too excessive.
Letting Jing Ziyan suffer a few small lessons might actually be a good learning experience for her.
Soon, Bai Chen obtained the answer he wanted.
Most students in the academy were soul engineers.
Even those in the control-type soul engineer department mainly fought using soul tools.
Among the people Jing Ziyan knew who fought primarily using their martial souls, there were only three.
And among them was the one Bai Chen had truly been fishing for—
Ji Juechen.