Chapter 85: The Beauty's Gift of Armor

Ding Hao did not participate in the final award ceremony. Ling Yunxiao was afraid that the Wandering Prince would cause trouble for Ding Hao, so he let him return first. Once back in the Heavenly Will, with the protection of the fairy's blessing, even if the Wandering Prince had any intentions, he could not harm Ding Hao.

In fact, Ling Yunxiao was overthinking it. Ding Hao had already put the Mystic Cloud Purple Ape into the Star Absorbing Stone space. Therefore, even if the Wandering Prince and his group searched until they were exhausted, they would not find the Mystic Cloud Purple Ape. Without finding it, they had no evidence to suspect Ding Hao, and they could not bring it up, so the matter would just end there.

However, the Wandering Prince remembered Ding Hao. He was very curious about how Ding Hao could escape his Soul Suppressing Technique, feeling that Ding Hao must have a huge secret! He believed that when Ding Hao went to the Nine Provinces Academy, his life would be quite "eventful."

The day after Ding Hao returned to the Heavenly Will, Ling Yunxiao and the others also returned. The Green Wave Pill was brought back by Ling Yunxiao, and the results of the autumn hunt were unexpected.

Ding Hao was first, Ye Wen was second, and Prince Chai was third.

This was truly inconceivable; Prince Chai had a score of zero! It seemed to be the result of negotiations among the various parties, with one slot for each of the Wu, Yun, and Chai families, and even the young prince obtained a slot for the final exam. This kind of competition was always manipulated by people, and there was no talk of fairness.

Chai Jin had lost a lot, only managing to arrange a third place for his son, and he must have been very unwilling.

Ling Yunxiao said, "You must practice well. In a month, the final exam will take place, and Prince Chai and the young prince are waiting to take revenge and avenge their honor!"

Ding Hao nodded and asked, holding the Green Wave Pill, "Will breaking through to the Qi Refinement stage affect the final exam?"

Ling Yunxiao replied, "I forgot to tell you, you must not eat this Green Wave Pill. The final exam is for those below the Qi Refinement stage. Once you enter the Qi Refinement stage, you are already a Fairy Master and will automatically enter the Nine Provinces Academy as a disciple. At that time, you will not be able to participate in the final exam and will not receive the reward of the 3rd level Immortal Ascension stage."

"Is that so?" Ding Hao nodded, thinking it was fortunate he asked.

Ling Yunxiao continued, "However, there is an exception. If the final exam has already started and you break through to the Qi Refinement stage during the exam, you can still participate. So the best way is to eat it during the exam."

Ding Hao suddenly understood, "No wonder Prince Chai and the young prince are desperate to get the Green Wave Pill. There's this rule! They want to eat it during the exam and break through to the Qi Refinement stage, making them invincible in the exam!"

Ling Yunxiao said, "It's not that simple. Based on my experience, the competition in the final exam is intense, and everyone is holding their breath. Under the influence of the atmosphere, some people will automatically activate the Green Wave and step into the Qi Refinement stage! According to my experience, several people always break through in each final exam. So even if you have the Green Wave Pill, you cannot be careless."

"Is that so?" Ding Hao nodded.

After saying this, Ling Yunxiao took out a low-grade storage bag and handed it over, saying, "This is something I brought for someone else. I don't know what's inside, so you can check it yourself." Ling Yunxiao stood up, patted him, and said with an ambiguous expression, "Kid, you can do it! I support you, go and snatch it! Hahaha, I wonder how ugly Chai Jin and Old Han's faces will be! I'm off!"

Ling Yunxiao's words were confusing.

Ding Hao took out the items from the storage bag and then understood who he was talking about.

It turned out that the storage bag contained a Mortal Treasure-level inner armor, the Dragon Sinew Leopard Fetus Armor!

The Mortal Treasure-level inner armor was said to be made from the hard sinews of a rare dragon in the Nine Provinces world, and then covered with the inner skin of a snow leopard from beyond the realm. Wearing this armor, one would be immune to attacks from weapons below the Mortal Treasure level! Even attacks from Mortal Treasure weapons would require the highest-grade Mortal Treasure to penetrate!

This armor was truly priceless, and money could not buy it!

Seeing this, Ding Hao knew that it must have been Ye Wen from Yun Province who asked Ling Yunxiao to bring it back. Ling Yunxiao's intention was for Ding Hao to snatch Ye Wen from Prince Chai, to infuriate the Chai family and Han Feixing.

Of course, the beauty's gift of armor did not mean that Ye Wen had feelings for Ding Hao.

Ye Wen wrote a letter, saying that the armor was the reward for second place, which should have been Ding Hao's. Since Ding Hao did not take her points, she gave him the armor as a gift to thank him for saving her life twice. She was afraid he would not accept it, so she explained that she already had a good inner armor and there was no need to worry. She also mentioned that she hoped to meet Ding Hao at the Nine Provinces Academy.

If the head of the Chai family knew that the rewards for first and second place were both taken by Ding Hao, he would be devastated.

After reading Ye Wen's letter, Ding Hao looked up, and outside the window, the autumn scenery was at its peak.

"The Nine Provinces Academy, I am looking forward to it."

...

Just as Ding Hao returned to the Heavenly Will, the chief manager of the Tang family's business had already rushed to the secret base near the Lianyun Mountains.

Not only the chief manager, but even the rarely active Great Elder of the Tang family, a late-stage Qi Refinement powerhouse, had come. The Eye-Washing Tree Spring was the lifeline of the Tang family's business!

If the Eye-Washing Tree Spring were destroyed, the chief manager would have no way to explain it to the Tang Emperor!

Inside the array light screen, there were three chairs.

The Great Elder of the Tang family, a late-stage Qi Refinement powerhouse, sat in the central chair. On the right was the chief manager, a mid-stage Qi Refinement cultivator. On the left was the leader of the Bamboo Demon Tribe, who was currently busy inspecting the Eye-Washing Tree Spring.

The Eye-Washing Tree Spring was a high-grade spirit wood that ordinary people did not cultivate, so the Tang family had spent a lot of money to hire the Bamboo Demon Tribe's Bamboo Elder to take care of it. However, they did not expect this to happen, so the leader of the Bamboo Demon Tribe came to inspect it personally.

The Bamboo Demon Tribe was composed of wood-type immortal roots, and the leader released his immortal root, a spiritual purple bamboo that had already become extinct in this world.

The image of the spiritual purple bamboo floated in the air, and the leader of the Bamboo Demon Tribe gently touched the Eye-Washing Tree Spring while chanting obscure incantations. Everyone present had dark faces, waiting for the results.

After a while, the leader of the Bamboo Demon Tribe retracted his immortal root and walked back.

The Great Elder asked, "Leader Mu, what is the reason?"

The leader of the Bamboo Demon Tribe sat down, thought for a moment, and then said, "The tree spring is severely injured, internally. It has entered a self-protection state, and it is difficult to communicate with it. It said it was deliberately damaged, and a large amount of spiritual energy was drained from its body, causing the root system to wither. However, fortunately, it has not died. As long as it is well cared for, it will take a thousand or eight hundred years to start slowly seeping out the Eye-Washing Spirit Liquid again..."

Before the leader of the Bamboo Demon Tribe finished speaking, the chief manager's face turned pale, "What! It will take a thousand or eight hundred years to start seeping out the spirit liquid again!"

The leader of the Bamboo Demon Tribe nodded, "This is still a relatively good situation."

Hearing this result, everyone's faces turned even darker. The Eye-Washing Tree Spring was a major source of income for the Tang family's business. Without this income, the Tang family's business would be in a tight spot! More importantly, if the Eye-Washing Spirit Liquid could not be restored for so long, the news of the tree spring's problems would spread, and the Tang family would lose both wealth and face!

The Great Elder's face was as black as the bottom of a pot, and he said in a low voice, "Second Manager, speak up."

The second manager with a mustache stepped forward and quickly tried to shift the blame, "Great Elder, don't ask me about this. I only manage the business! The tree spring is taken care of by the Bamboo Elder. Now that there's a problem, it should be his responsibility..."

Before he finished speaking, the Great Elder's figure flickered and appeared in front of him, then slapped him hard, sending the second manager sprawling next to the tree stump.

The next second, the Great Elder sat back in the central chair and said, "Idiot! Didn't you hear Leader Mu say it was deliberately damaged? Who did it?"

Leader Mu also shouted at his tribesman, the Bamboo Elder, "Little Bamboo! You are also responsible. If someone damaged it, you should have known! Do you want to die?"

The Bamboo Elder was frightened and fell to his knees, kowtowing, "Leader Mu, Great Elder, I really didn't know! I communicated with it just fine the day before, but the next day, it suddenly entered a dormant state."

Leader Mu shouted, "Idiot, all of you are idiots, and you didn't know someone damaged it!"

At this moment, the chief manager of the Tang family's business stepped forward, still suspecting the Bamboo Demon Tribe, and said, "Leader Mu, these two layers of protective arrays should not have been damaged. I still suspect that it might be due to the Bamboo Elder's negligence..."

"Should not have been damaged," Leader Mu sneered, suddenly standing up and grabbing a handful of white wood powder from his spirit treasure bag, then throwing it onto the tree stump's bark, shouting, "This is the tree powder of the Spirit Peach Tree, which likes to adhere to places with spiritual energy deposits. Look for yourselves!"

The white tree powder sprinkled on the surface of the tree stump, and it could be seen that there were several clear handprints on the bark!

"Indeed!"

Seeing those handprints, everyone present was shocked.

The chief manager of the Tang family's business walked over in shock and said, "These handprints..."

Leader Mu said, "If you touch the tree surface with your hand, there are no handprints. According to the characteristics of the Spirit Peach Tree, only places where a large amount of spiritual energy has entered or exited have spiritual energy deposits!"

"So, someone deliberately damaged the Eye-Washing Tree Spring from here?" The chief manager's face was shocked, and he turned around and shouted, "Each of you, come and compare your handprints!"

All the people guarding the tree spring, whether on leave or not, and the business apprentices transporting the spirit liquid, came, but none of the handprints matched.

The Great Elder waved his hand, "No need to compare anymore. This handprint is slightly smaller than an adult's, it should be a teenager around fifteen or sixteen! Not one of us!"

At this point, the second manager got up, knelt down, and kowtowed, "Great Elder, I really didn't see anyone come in! No one, not even a mosquito, entered this light screen..."

At this point, the Bamboo Elder remembered something and said in surprise, "No! A dog came in!"