"Treasure map."
Zhou Qing tugged at the beast hide, finding it surprisingly sturdy. Pointing to the red dot marking the starting point, he said, "This should be our current location in the Fasno Province. The destination is the southwestern coastal city of the Star Luo Empire: Tianming City."
"A treasure map? Did the Soul Saint stash all the treasures he collected there?" Tang San asked, astonished.
"That's possible."
Zhou Qing rolled up the map and set it aside. "Or perhaps the Soul Saint never had the chance to explore there. After all, it's unimaginable for a Soul Saint from the Heaven Dou Empire to place treasures in the Star Luo Empire, unless he had a screw loose."
Indeed!
A Soul Saint, a formidable figure, had returned to Holy Soul Village for his final breakthrough. Although he failed, Tang San could tell that this Soul Saint was deeply attached to his hometown. Naturally, he would keep his treasures close, not entrust them to a distant foreign land.
After two hours of effort, the duo finally cleared out the "small castle." Their haul included a gray pouch, the beast hide map, and an iron box.
The box measured 30 centimeters long and 20 centimeters wide. It could be opened, revealing three diaries. Thanks to the box's decent sealing, the contents were relatively well-preserved.
Zhou Qing and Tang San exchanged glances and retrieved one: The Rice Village Diary.
Douluo Calendar, Year 1885, March 6
"Today, people from the Spirit Hall are coming to the village to awaken martial souls. I'm so happy I can have my own martial soul!"
"My martial soul is a small sapling with two leaves, and my innate soul power is actually level six!"
"Mom personally went to the nearby bamboo forest to dig up bamboo shoots and catch a bamboo rat, making me my favorite dish: stir-fried bamboo shoots with meat!"
This was the first page.
Zhou Qing continued to the next:
Douluo Calendar, Year 1886, March 6
"Mom finally saved enough money to send me to the Soul Master Academy. I'm so happy!"
"After enrolling, I learned that villages with Soul Masters have quotas for work-study students, but they need to share among multiple villages. Rice Village never had a Soul Master, so we didn't even qualify for a shared quota. Grandpa the village chief even begged other village chiefs, but we were turned away. So, I have to wait until my family saves enough money, plus help from other villagers, to afford the academy."
"I swear, I will become a powerful Soul Master, making Rice Village great because of my name! So that Rice Village won't need to share quotas with other villages!"
Tang San murmured, "Rice Village this was Holy Soul Village's former name." He couldn't help but admire this Soul Saint. Through sheer effort, he had transformed Rice Village into Holy Soul Village, elevating its status above neighboring villages:
No need to share work-study quotas, and this quota was available every year. Even when other villages had children with innate soul power but couldn't get a quota, they would come to Holy Soul Village to purchase one, benefiting all its residents.
Tang San recalled witnessing such a purchase when he was two years old. He hadn't understood then, but now he grasped the significance.
Zhou Qing, however, was focused on something else. "Did this guy write one entry per year? And always on March 6th?"
Flipping to the next page.
Sure enough.
Douluo Calendar, Year 1887, March 6
The entry detailed his cultivation progress and returning to Rice Village, where his mom made him his favorite stir-fried bamboo shoots with meat.
From the tone, it seemed he was doing well.
This was normal.
With innate level six soul power, following the current potential standards of Douluo Continent, reaching Soul Saint in his lifetime was highly probable.
Even if his martial soul was an unknown sapling, becoming a plant-type Soul Master had promising prospects, whether in support or control roles.
Therefore, teachers at the academy likely treated him favorably.
As for why the Spirit Hall personnel who awakened his martial soul didn't take him in...
One could only say.
It was unrealistic to expect grassroots Spirit Hall staff to study martial soul data in their spare time. In the original story, Su Yuntao judged a Blue Silver Grass with full innate soul power as having no cultivation value. Two hundred years ago, seeing a martial soul as a small unknown sapling, they likely deemed it useless and neglected him.
For these small-town Spirit Hall staff, perhaps a scythe with innate level one soul power was more valuable than a sapling with innate level six soul power or a Blue Silver Grass with full innate soul power.
"Perhaps this is why many talented commoner Soul Masters didn't join the Spirit Hall directly," Zhou Qing mused. Reflecting on characters like Flender, Zhao Wujie, and Shao Xin from Shrek Academy, who had no family backing and valued freedom, he realized that the Spirit Hall missed out on these commoner talents. If one were to investigate, the grassroots Spirit Hall staff were partly to blame.
However, the main reason lay in the continent's environment, leading everyone to desire and pursue martial souls with offensive capabilities...
With this thought, Zhou Qing refocused and flipped several pages to find the last entry:
Douluo Calendar, Year 1891, March 6
"I graduated from the junior Soul Master Academy. My soul power reached level nineteen, just one step away from level twenty. But I can't afford to attend the intermediate academy."
"Cultivating as a Soul Master is very costly. I'm thirteen now and can't rely on my family or the village anymore. I have to earn money myself."
"So, I chose to become an adventurer!"
"In this year, I took on many tasks at the Spirit Hall branch in Notting City, earning enough to continue my cultivation. At fourteen, I broke through to level twenty and temporarily teamed up with a Soul Hunting Team to hunt the soul beast I wanted, obtaining my second soul ring. My soul power reached level twenty-one."
"Spirit Hall assigns tasks?" Tang San clicked his tongue, feeling a sense of familiarity.
In his previous life, Tang Sect's outer and inner disciples also had to complete tasks to earn rewards and acquire valuable materials. He hadn't expected Spirit Hall to operate similarly.
"Yes," Zhou Qing confirmed. He knew that in the real world, Spirit Hall functioned like an adventurer's guild. Many free Soul Masters, upon reaching a certain age and unable to receive Spirit Hall's subsidies, would take on tasks from Spirit Hall or similar organizations to earn rewards.
Over two hundred years ago, near Notting City, wild soul beasts frequently attacked villages. Many Soul Masters would take on corresponding tasks to hunt these soul beasts.
The soul beast corpses were then handed over to Spirit Hall or adventurer guilds, as besides soul rings and bones, their meat and other materials had value.
The higher-ups in Spirit Hall couldn't have been unaware of this.
However, nowadays, except in newly established villages or towns in soul beast territories, most areas