Hua Tang knew nothing. May had never discussed the situation with him, but he promised that he was unaware of anything. According to him, he had not noticed anything unusual about Nadine. He seemed to be completely oblivious.

  Izzy and Deng Zhifang also insisted that they had never spoken to the green-haired girl. However, they seemed very concerned when they saw May's agitation. Well, she usually avoided them, and suddenly she approached them with such a strange matter.

  “I saw her once, but...” Izzy began.

  “We never talked to her,” Zhifang finished. Then he glanced sideways at May. “May? Is this about...”

  May sighed. “I may have a clue about Senlin and Wang Wang, but the whole thing feels fishy.”

  “Can we help in any way?”

  “No.” She replied immediately.

  She had no intention of involving them in the matter. She knew they couldn't help her in any way. With their status, they would never get an invitation to the wedding of someone so high-ranking.

  “All right, but remember, you can always count on us, May,” Zhifang said with a smile and put his arm around Izzy. “We may not be as equal as we used to be, but don't forget where you come from.”

  “I'll keep that in mind,” she replied. It was a little dry, but she had too many other things on her mind.

  May sighed and walked away after saying goodbye. She didn't know who else she could turn to.

  Ze Yun might know more, but it would be difficult to get to him. I can't just get to the Elder of the sect. Hmm, let's think...

  “Oh...” She whispered after a moment of inspiration. She turned around for a moment, making sure that Niu Pin couldn't hear her. “Minnie?”

  “Hmm? What is it?” She asked, confused by the sudden call. May rarely addressed her first.

  “Do you have any ideas?” she asked with anticipation.

  It wasn’t a question to the system, but to Minnie. Lately, she had been more useful than before and often gave good advice on her own without asking for anything in return. She was surprisingly perceptive.

  “Oh my god, is the apocalypse coming? The great May Shang asked the humble Minnie for advice!” she said in an overdramatic voice.

  “Come on, give me an answer.”

  Minnie felt sympathy for May. She had long since ceased to be a simple avatar of the system. She cared about their relationship.

  However, knowing May's attitude towards her, she tried to keep her distance and limited her presence to a minimum, not wanting to provoke negative feelings in her. She felt slightly moved by the fact that May had asked HER, not the SYSTEM, for help.

  “I see...” Minnie replied with a hint of satisfaction. “Well, unfortunately, I don't know much either. However, I thought Nadine was suspicious from the beginning.”

  “Oh?” May was surprised. “You didn't say anything before...”

  “I didn't. But the first time you met her was when you were looking for Zu Chen... And then she happened to be taking the Hua Tang test. To me, it seemed a bit too much of a coincidence,” she replied. “However, it was still within the norm, so I didn't say anything, but the thought did cross my mind for a moment.”

  “I see...” May replied regretfully, then sighed.

  It seemed she had no choice but to go to the Outer Northern Court. She had no one left to turn to at the academy.

  ───── ??☆?? ────

  She managed to take a carriage separate from Nadine's. Initially, the company wanted to put them in the same one, but after May's strong objection, they quickly changed their minds.

  May thought that Nadine wouldn't tell her anything anyway, so she preferred to avoid her for a while.

  “So... do you have a girlfriend? A handsome guy like you must be popular, kehehe.” Hou Xi Pa laughed, patting her bodyguard on the shoulder.

  Niu Pin frowned and shouted angrily at him, telling him to shut up.

  “Do we really have to be in the same carriage with him?” Niu Pin asked, whispering in May's ear. “I don't trust him.”

  May rolled her eyes and said aloud, addressing Hou Xi Pa. “Actually, I insisted that we be in the same carriage because I wanted to learn something from you...”

  The journey to their destination was going to be long and take many days. Of course, May could spend that time cultivating, but she could do that anywhere. It wasn't often that she had the chance to learn Spirit Summoning.

  “No!” He shouted, rejecting the idea vehemently. “Despite your talent for cultivation, you have too little talent for Spirit Summoning!”

  She expected such a response after their last lesson together. However, she did not lose her composure, as she had prepared a response to this reaction.

  “Ten thousand [mu],” she replied quietly with a smile. It was a considerable amount, but his knowledge was more valuable. His skills as Spirits Summoner were absurdly rare, and the prices of the system were no better than this.

  “Ten... ? Ugh. That's… So… What do you want to learn?” He responded as she had anticipated. He seemed to have some financial difficulties.

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  She smiled. “Basically everything about Spirit Summoning.”

  The man frowned and shook his head. May didn't like this anymore.

  “I've taught you basically everything you need to know,” he replied solemnly and yawned wearily.

  Niu Pin leaned toward her ear again. “Are you sure you should be learning anything from him? He doesn't seem like a very good teacher...”

  “What the hell do you know!” Hou Xi Pa suddenly shouted, and Niu Pin was surprised by the outburst and jumped aside. After a moment, he apologized to Hou Xi Pa for his hurtful words.

  He could not have predicted that the other man would hear his hushed words.

  “Even if you say so, I don't believe that there's nothing more you can teach me,” May replied. “I've heard about the complexity of this discipline.

  “The man looked at her closely and sighed. ”Indeed. However, I know your talent for Summoning, and I know that you won't be able to achieve anything in these few days."

  In short, the man was not saying that there was nothing more to learn, but he believed that she would not be able to master anything else in the short time of the journey. Needless to say, May disagreed with this assessment and had her own, different opinion.

  “Well, that doesn't make any difference. I'm willing to pay regardless of whether I achieve any results or not, okay?

  The man looked at her oddly.

  “So you're saying that even if I don't manage to teach you anything, you'll still pay me?” he asked suspiciously.

  “Yes,” replied May. “However, that doesn't mean you can slack off. You have to take this seriously.”

  Hearing her words, he chuckled softly and waved his hand. He stretched his arms and sat back cheerfully, thinking about the sudden influx of cash. He seemed extremely excited to teach her.

  “In that case, I have a few ideas,” he said, humming a cheerful tune. “But don't expect any results.”

  He began teaching her a new summoning technique. Theoretically, it was the same old technique, but with a few modifications.

  The most important difference was that, thanks to it, she could theoretically summon much stronger spirits, far beyond what her soul could theoretically survive.

  It was a secret technique that he had supposedly learned from some monks in the mountains. May did not question the veracity of his story. Especially since he seemed so enthusiastic while telling this intriguing tale full of tears, blood, and grueling workouts.

  In her opinion, she believed he had made up the story. However, she did not question his respect.

  “Well, but then Master Tri-Tea ordered me to stand under that stupid waterfall for three days and three nights! But then…!”

  “Didn’t you have something to teach her?” Niu Pin suddenly interrupted, unable to listen to his story any longer. “She’s not paying you for silly stories, but for learning real skills.”

  Hou Xi Pa looked at him angrily and felt like snapping at him. After a moment, however, he noticed their bored looks and, slightly embarrassed, cleared his throat a few times and then replied. “Well, you're right, I'll move on to explaining the technique...”

  Finally! May thought.

  “As you know, the soul is extremely important during the summoning of spirits. It acts as a bridge between two worlds. This makes it extremely burdensome for the soul,” he explained.

  May's bodyguard listened attentively to their entire conversation. Finally, he let out a sigh and said, “Using your own soul as a bridge? So that’s what summoning spirits is all about?” He looked at May seriously and said, “Playing with your own soul never ends well. It’s extremely dangerous, so as your bodyguard, I have no choice but to advise you against learning this skill.”

  Hou laughed loudly. “Dangerous? It's not much more dangerous than learning to control fire—after all, you can get burned. What about learning the art of the sword? You could get impaled on the sharp end!” he said with irritation in his voice. “As long as you do it with caution and have a good teacher, it's not much more dangerous than other areas of cultivation. Your belief about Soul Path cultivation is unfounded."

  “What a ridiculous comparison. There is a reason why spirit summoning is such an esoteric field that cultivators avoid,” he replied. “I don’t recommend that May learn it.”

  “However, it's not your choice,” Hou Xi Pa said and looked questioningly at May.

  “Senior Niu Pin, you have nothing to fear. I am in good hands,” she replied, although she secretly knew that her words would not convince him.

  “I cannot refrain you from further learning about this field of cultivation,” he replied solemnly. Then his gaze fell on the laid-back cultivator who seemed amused by the whole thing. “However, I will be watching you the whole time. Do anything suspicious, and your time will be up.”

  “Oooh! How scary!” he laughed. “Well, May, let's start learning!”

  Returning to his teaching, he explained the basis of the new technique to her. According to him, this method would allow her to summon even more powerful spirits, even if under normal circumstances it would be too burdensome for her soul.

  “With this method, you will be able to reduce the enormous weight that summoning places on your soul. It is called the Kerforian Soul Technique,” he explained. “Although I personally do not believe that you will be able to learn it, I will show you how it is done.”

  He explained exactly how it worked. To be honest, she could barely understand his convoluted explanation, but she understood the basics of how the technique worked. Hou Xi Pa was not a good teacher, but she could not deny his enthusiasm.

  However, May had to understand this herself in her own words.

  If you imagine summoning spirits as a bridge, according to his earlier analogy, then you could say it like this.

  The spirit was a heavy truck that wanted to cross from the spiritual world to the real world via a bridge (the soul). However, a truck that was too heavy (a spirit that was too powerful) would cause the bridge to collapse (damage the soul).

  Normally, a stronger bridge (i.e., a more powerful soul) would be required, but this was not easy, as strengthening the soul was something extremely rare. And this is where the Kerforian Soul Technique he wanted to teach her came in.

  This technique did not strengthen the soul, but allowed part of the “burden” of summoning to be transferred to a sphere other than the soul.

  “I don’t understand… I thought that only the soul could summon a Spirit,” replied May, not fully comprehending his words. “And now you're telling me to create a ‘Space of the Mind’?”

  “You're not wrong. Only your soul matters here. However... The Space of the Mind can lighten the load a little. It's a little hard to explain, but...”

  “In other words, you don't know how it works yourself,” Niu Pin, who had been sitting quietly until now, suddenly interjected. “You're avoiding the subject and talking evasively because you barely understand the principles behind this technique yourself.”

  His words clearly offended the man, but he did not counterattack, which presumably meant that his words had hit the nail on the head.

  After a moment, he cleared his throat.

  “Well, the only thing that matters is that the technique works. If you somehow manage to learn it, you should be able to summon even an Intermediate Spirit... Theoretically.”

  The carriage passed through one town after another. Most of them were smaller settlements, or somewhat larger villages, where life was slowly awakening as the snow melted. Meanwhile, May continued her strenuous attempts to learn the skill.

  “Hmm... You're doing better than last time...” Hou suddenly commented.

  “Hehe, maybe you underestimated me a little?” May replied, amused.

  It seems that improving my talent has paid off. I was a little worried that it wouldn't have any effect on summoning, but I can clearly feel the difference compared to last time... Having good talent is truly irreplaceable.

  Author note: A quick announcement - until now, I've tried to add a chapter at least every two days. However, I'm currently in exam season, so chapters may be a little less frequent for the time being. Once it's all over, I'll try to get back to my normal pace.