Wait!
Looking at his arms, which had shrunk a size, Youshen felt a jolt in his heart.
An astonishing thought suddenly popped into his head.
He strode quickly toward the bathroom, where the clean, bright mirror reflected the handsome, delicate face of a young boy.
He looked very much like he had around the age of ten, except that his features, which used to be completely ordinary, were now vastly more handsome. On a scale of ten, if the old Youshen could only be rated a five, the current him was at least a seven!
Despite such a dramatic leap in his appearance, Youshen felt no great surprise.
The proportion of handsome men and beautiful women in the Spirit Master world was countless times higher than among ordinary civilians.
As a master of theoretical studies, Youshen was well aware of how martial souls optimized human genetics.
Back when he was nine years old, over two decades ago, his martial soul had been nothing more than an ordinary mid-grade Gale Hatchling Dragon. How could it possibly compare to what he had now?
Looks were of no consequence; to Youshen, there was only one thing that mattered:
"Have I lived a second life!?"
Even with Youshen's vast experience, looking at the familiar stranger in the mirror left him too stunned for words.
Remembering that the system had a function to record age, he hurriedly opened his attribute panel for confirmation, only to find the truth even more astonishing than he had anticipated.
[Name: Youshen (II)]
[Age: 9]
[Martial Soul: Starchasm Dragon (advanced-grade spirit)]
[Rank: Level 20 Spirit Master]
[Spirit Ring: First Spirit Ring (12,000 years)]
The age of the first spirit ring was several thousand years lower than expected. Under normal circumstances, Youshen would have put all his attention into studying this, but right now that wasn't the point, because...
Youshen discovered that a "(II)" had been added after his name.
"Switch!"
With just a thought, the "switch" was complete.
[Name: Youshen (I)]
[Age: 35]
[Martial Soul: Starchasm Dragon (advanced-grade spirit)]
[Rank: Level 50 Spirit Ancestor]
[Spirit Ring: ...]
What was this? Dual-SIM dual standby? Youshen's brows furrowed tightly.
As the character card switched, he transformed back into a thirty-five-year-old man, and his clothes even adjusted automatically, growing larger and wider in the process.
The only change was that his face was now much more handsome than it had been an hour or two ago.
So... after switching to his childhood form, his spirit power hadn't vanished into thin air or been swallowed by some unscrupulous system. Rather, due to the constraints of the world's rules, it had been suppressed to the level of twenty, the limit imposed by his spirit ring.
Although he didn't know why the system's rules had taken the upper hand when he absorbed the adaptive first spirit ring bestowed by the system, the restriction on his spirit power had returned to the jurisdiction of the Douro world's rules.
"No, is there a possibility..."
Youshen raised an eyebrow, thinking with a strange expression: "The reason the system suppressed the Douro rules earlier was because I used that spirit ring, forcing it to suppress the Douro rules?"
Yielding to the rule that spirit power was restricted by spirit rings did not mean the system's rules couldn't beat the Douro rules. The system possessed such capability, but that didn't mean doing so aligned with its own principles and logic.
It was just that the reward had already been issued, and it certainly couldn't admit to a bug, which was why things had turned out this way? Youshen fell into thought, feeling more and more that this must be the truth.
Without a doubt, this gamble was a massive victory for him! In Youshen's theories, this kind of dual-card setup—one martial soul with two sets of spirit rings—was definitely far more heaven-defying than Twin Martial Souls! How could Youshen possibly sleep after realizing this? He spent the entire night immersed in planning his future.
Just like that, the early morning hours arrived.
Clang.
[Quest: Your classmate Jiang Liu (Level 13 Spirit Master) believes your talent is completely insufficient to support your reputation as a genius and that you are unworthy of competing on the same stage as him. He has threatened to defeat you—a third-rate spirit master—in three moves during the end-of-term spar. Please defeat Jiang Liu and show him who the real third-rate is. If completed within three moves, an extra reward will be granted.]
[Basic Reward: Ten primary Nutritional Pills, one box of friendly advanced candies (PS: tends to increase children's favorability)]
[Extra Reward: Soul-Steeping Formula (mental martial skill, capable of deterring enemies)]
Youshen raised an eyebrow.
Unlike Ye Han, a third-generation scion with backers behind him, Jiang Liu was a commoner like himself, yet his talent was vastly superior to Ye Han's.
With innate spirit power of rank five and an advanced-grade Freshwater Crocodile martial soul, he could be considered a genuine genius among the students in their cohort.
Now he was also a level 43 Spirit Ancestor. In terms of talent alone, he hadn't been all that far off from Youshen before acquiring the system. Although his rank had fallen behind a bit now, relying on the advantage of his advanced-grade spirit, there was a very high probability he would reach the Spirit Emperor level in the future.
However, what Youshen cared about more was the timing of this quest and the timeframe mentioned within it.
"If I remember correctly, that conflict with Jiang Liu happened almost exactly one month after I disciplined that brat Ye Han?"
Youshen muttered thoughtfully.
However, some of his conjectures still required future verification.
In the blink of an eye, daytime arrived.
Youshen had already obtained the transfer order from Ye Han, but because of the system's appearance, he didn't plan to assume his new post immediately; instead, he intended to stay in Spirit City for a while longer.
As for this quest's target?
Fortunately, Jiang Liu also worked within Spirit Hall, so Youshen didn't need to go out looking for him.
Moreover, although Jiang Liu's relationship with Youshen was ordinary, they were, after all, former classmates. Coupled with their past rivalry, it was naturally impossible for Jiang Liu to refuse Youshen's challenge to a spirit duel.
Chances were that deep down, Jiang Liu still thought that because Youshen had spent these past years focusing on theoretical research, even if he had an advantage in spirit power, his actual combat capability and martial soul quality might not measure up to his own.
Furthermore, short of becoming a Title Douluo, spirit power rank did not grant an overwhelming advantage within the same major tier.
Jiang Liu believed he had a great chance of winning!
Yet, in reality, Youshen's combat capability hadn't fallen behind in the slightest.
Youshen was far from being a pure theoretician ignorant of martial arts.
Even the former Youshen could rely on high-age spirit rings to erase the gap between mid-grade and advanced-grade martial souls.
Jiang Liu might have a chance to catch up with the former Youshen, but that would take many years, let alone the current Youshen whose martial soul had undergone a secondary transformation! Even so, Jiang Liu was, after all, a formidable Spirit Ancestor.
At the Spirit Ancestor level, given how well they knew each other, Youshen normally wouldn't have been able to defeat Jiang Liu so easily.
Yet... in order to secure the extra reward from the quest, Youshen couldn't afford to worry about saving face for his old classmate.
Right at the start, he directly unleashed his fourth spirit ring's ten-thousand-year spirit ability, Starlight Avatar. Then, both his true body and the avatar simultaneously used his third spirit ability, Gale Airflow, which possessed pulling and binding effects, pinning Jiang Liu in place.
With a back-to-back activation of four-thousand-year spirit ability skills, Jiang Liu was forced to burn through three separate spirit abilities, including his fourth spirit ring, just to barely endure it.
While Jiang Liu was attempting to break free from the Gale Airflow, the Starlight Avatar directly charged forward and detonated itself.
With an instant BOOM, Jiang Liu was blasted unconscious.
Youshen didn't know whether a buff-type spirit ability counted as being within "three moves," so he simply adopted this tactic; either way, this method could undoubtedly be counted within three moves.
Even Jiang Liu never expected Youshen to open the fight with his ultimate moves right off the bat, suffering a heavy and abrupt defeat due to a moment of carelessness.
Jiang Liu lay flat in the crater blasted out by the Starlight Avatar, his face charred black as he questioned his entire existence.