As time passed, Zhu Zhuqing became increasingly silent and withdrawn.
Apart from when she had no choice but to interact with Su Cheng, she hardly spoke to anyone else.
Even when teachers asked her questions, she remained mostly silent.
After all, if she upset Su Cheng, he might find a way to expel her from the academy.
But the teachers wouldn't go as far as expelling her just because she remained silent.
However, the bullies wouldn't stop just because she backed down; instead, their attacks became more severe.
From initially isolating her and being indifferent, it gradually escalated into verbal taunts and attacks.
Almost any student would say a few words when they saw Zhu Zhuqing; it seemed to have become a habit.
Because they knew she never fought back.
The conflict at the beginning of the school year had made her afraid to act impulsively.
Of course, no one was foolish enough to lay a hand on her.
They knew where the line was.
Zhu Zhuqing didn't fight back simply because she was afraid of being expelled from the academy, not because she lacked the ability.
With her talent and effort, apart from Su Cheng, whose depth was unknown, no one among the new students could match her.
Moreover, being from the Zhu family, her status and influence in the Star Luo Empire were second only to the royal Dai family; other noble children wouldn't dare go too far.
In addition, the few noble children who were closest to Su Cheng had also conveyed his message in secret.
Be cautious in their actions, avoid trouble, and prevent the teachers from intervening.
But even these acts of subtle coercion and sarcasm in words were already significantly hurtful to a child.
Zhu Zhuqing's family environment was already extremely abnormal.
Since awakening her martial soul, her once close sister had become like a different person. There was no longer any trace of intimacy, replaced by a look of enmity as if she were a mortal enemy.
And the elders in the family didn't try to stop this behavior; instead, they seemed accustomed to it and even pleased by it.
After a brief period of confusion and sadness, what followed was resentment, emptiness, and confusion.
The future seemed dark, and she could only strive to find any glimmer of hope.
However, after leaving the family, Zhu Zhuqing hadn't expected to encounter such immense malice from her peers.
The surrounding darkness almost crushed her completely.
Over the past year, Zhu Zhuqing had become increasingly indifferent.
The only thing she could do was to practice tirelessly to improve herself or numb herself.
Other than that, she had no other options.
Su Cheng shook his head inwardly at her actions over the past year.
Zhu Zhuqing still hadn't figured it out.
In this academy, even if her cultivation progressed rapidly, how much stronger could she be compared to others?
What effect could it have on her situation?
At the low level of soul masters, the difference in strength between them was actually very limited. Even if she could surpass others by a great realm, she wouldn't stand a chance against three or five people joining forces.
Moreover, Zhu Zhuqing simply didn't dare to use force in the academy.
The incident last time had already taught her a bitter lesson.
Unless she wanted to be expelled from the academy, using force was futile.
Besides, even if she became dominant in this small academy, what difference would it make?
There were bigger challenges waiting for her ahead.
With her current qualifications, no matter how hard she practiced, she could never escape from all of this.
What she was doing now was just futile struggling.
However, during this year, Su Cheng himself hadn't been idle either.
He couldn't spend all his time bullying Zhu Zhuqing.
These things could be delegated to others; he had many other things to do.
Such as improving his cultivation.
Currently, Su Cheng had raised his soul power to level ten, attached his first soul ring, and obtained the innate external soul bone—Mask.
The skill effect was simple: after fully understanding a person's appearance, features, and aura, he could use this soul bone to disguise himself accordingly.
It was somewhat similar to the effect of the soul bone used by Qian Renxue to disguise as Xue Qinghe.
But at this point, it was obviously not as powerful as that soul bone.
The difference lay in the fact that the appearance and aura disguise of this soul bone were almost flawless, but the flaw was that it could only deceive those whose strength was similar or slightly higher than his own.
If the opponent's soul power level was much higher than his, they could easily see through it.
However, the greatest strength of the external soul bone lay in its ability to grow with the soul master's level.
In the future, as his cultivation improved, he could naturally deceive people with even stronger abilities.
Besides cultivation, Su Cheng also made rapid progress in researching martial souls.
This was different from the last time he simulated it.
At that time, when he first entered this world, he lacked understanding of many basic concepts and had extremely limited knowledge of soul masters. Therefore, he spent a considerable amount of time solidifying his foundation.
But now, with his accumulated knowledge and the ability to draw connections between different subjects, his learning efficiency was astonishing.
During this period, as his research on martial souls deepened, he also discovered that his previous understanding of medical arts was somewhat biased.
Previously, he had focused only on the human body, but the core of this world lay in the bloodline, and the external manifestation of the bloodline was the martial soul.
This mystical phenomenon couldn't be thoroughly explored solely through medical arts.
Now, with his accumulated expertise in medical arts and his talent for researching martial souls, he had a deeper understanding of the connection between the human body, bloodline, and martial soul.
He even speculated that the power within the bloodline might be obtainable, although the conditions for obtaining it might be extremely strict and complex, but certainly not impossible.
In fact, this made logical sense.
The fundamental nature of human genes wouldn't vary much, but when applied to martial souls, the differences between individuals were vast.
Even in the Douluo Continent, the differences between people were greater than between humans and soul beasts, indicating a problem.
Moreover, where did bloodlines originally come from?
Was it the influence of True Dragon Blood? The legacy of shape-shifting soul beasts? The world laws of the Douluo Star?
There must be something more fundamental above bloodlines.
But what exactly it was, Su Cheng hadn't fully figured out yet.
One day, Su Cheng, as usual, entered the classroom and sat down beside Zhu Zhuqing at the back.
Zhu Zhuqing had long been accustomed to this.
Her delicately beautiful face was filled with indifference, as if she hadn't noticed him at all.
Compared to a year ago, she had developed a better figure and her appearance was no longer as immature as before, revealing a hint of extraordinary charm.
But at the same time, her expression became colder.
There was almost no fluctuation in her eyes.
If it weren't for the warmth and breath, she would almost seem like a dead person.
Su Cheng even noticed that her martial soul seemed to have slightly improved in essence, although the improvement was extremely subtle.
"A 'Shadow' Spirit Cat, interesting," Su Cheng thought to himself, "It's almost time."
He looked at Zhu Zhuqing, who was sitting silently as usual, and leaned back.
In a casual tone, he said, "Zhu Zhuqing, it's almost the end of term, and there will be a few days off. We've known each other for so long, why don't you invite me to your house? The famous Zhu family of the Star Luo Empire, I've long been fascinated by it."
"?" Zhu Zhuqing was initially puzzled by his words.
Then she frowned.
She was inherently not very expressive emotionally, and now she had completely frozen her inner self.
But at this moment, she showed such a clear attitude of rejection.
It was enough to show her concern about the word "home" and her deep aversion to Su Cheng.
Seeing that Zhu Zhuqing didn't speak, Su Cheng continued with a smile, "I haven't finished yet. If you choose to refuse, it won't just be a matter of whether they target you or not. In fact, if nothing unexpected happens, you could have stayed in this academy for another four or five years."
Zhu Zhuqing stared blankly at Su Cheng.
There was a familiar gentle smile on his face.
She still remembered the special feeling she had when she first met him.
The resonance of martial souls, his affable temperament, had once made her believe that she could find a momentary respite here.
Sure enough, fate never let her off.
No one ever let her off.
Her father, who was once towering and dependable; her sister, who used to have a friendly smile and grew up with her since childhood; her fiancé, who had a marriage contract with her and whom she had hoped to face the future with...
In the end, Zhu Zhuqing sighed softly, her eyes dimming slightly.
"Su Cheng, please spare me."
"Spare you? What are you talking about? Have I done anything to you? Don't make baseless accusations, making it sound like I've bullied you," Su Cheng said, seemingly not understanding the meaning behind her words, "As far as I remember, our only conflict was when you injured me, right?"
He looked into Zhu Zhuqing's eyes, tapping lightly on the desk in front of him.
"There's not much time left. Think about it carefully. Don't worry, I'm just going to visit your home. The Zhu family is indeed a prestigious name in the Star Luo Empire. What, do you think I'll go there and cause trouble for you? You're overestimating me if you think so."
Zhu Zhuqing glanced deeply at him.
After a moment of silence, she whispered, "I understand."
With that, she stood up, ready to leave the classroom.
Her face returned to the cold, almost lifeless demeanor.
The moment of weakness just now seemed like an illusion.
Watching her departing figure, Su Cheng's expression turned cold, and his fingers continued to tap lightly on the desk in front of him.
"Zhu Zhuqing, it's best not to let me see that expression from you again."