Heaven Dou First Team

In the blink of an eye, six months had passed since Dugu Chen and the others returned from their last soul hunt in Star Dou.

Dugu Chen's group trained together every day, and the other students never had a chance to join them.

Just look at who they were. Either they had a Titled Douluo backing them, or they were direct daughters of the Top Three Sects, or they were geniuses with top-tier martial souls. Heaven Dou Royal Academy's finest students were all gathered there. No one else was qualified to enter their little circle.

That day, Dugu Chen came to the Education Committee. This was his first time here since enrolling at the academy.

Six people sat in the hall: the Three Education Commissioners, Crown Prince Xue Qinghe, Heaven Dou Class One's homeroom teacher Liu Ze, and a black-clad young man Dugu Chen had never seen before.

Dugu Chen bowed to the commissioners before sitting beside Xue Qinghe. The other man winked at him, leaving Dugu Chen completely baffled.

After Dugu Chen sat down, Chief Meng Shenji spoke. "We called you here because the academy is preparing to form the Heaven Dou Royal Team for this year's Continental Soul Master Tournament. You're the top student of this class, so we wanted to hear your opinion."

Dugu Chen froze for a moment. They were asking whether he wanted to participate!

Since its founding, Heaven Dou Royal Academy had never won the Soul Master Tournament championship. As the academy's headmaster, Emperor Xue Ye found that rather embarrassing.

The academy's ranking in the previous tournament had shown no breakthrough either. Even before the results came out, ministers at court had urged Emperor Xue Ye to replace the person from the royal family overseeing Heaven Dou Academy's affairs.

Furthermore, Crown Prince Xue Qinghe was on good terms with Dugu Bo, whose disciple was a renowned genius in Heaven Dou City. Emperor Xue Ye had also intended to reform the academy, after all. Heaven Dou Academy was an important cradle for the Empire's cultivation of soul masters.

Emperor Xue Ye made up his mind. Coupled with Xue Qinghe's performance over the past few years, which had truly satisfied him, Xue Qinghe's appointment as vice headmaster came naturally.

From then on, the power in Xue Qinghe's hands grew ever greater. With Xue Xing lying low, and military authority the only thing still held by Emperor Xue Ye himself, Xue Qinghe could be said to be half the master of the Empire.

The first thing Xue Qinghe did after becoming vice headmaster was come to the academy and organize this meeting, bringing Dugu Chen in for discussion.

He did not particularly care whether they could win the championship. But he had heard that Spirit Hall's Golden Generation this year included Spirit Hall's Holy Maiden, and that made Xue Qinghe unhappy.

What? I'm not even dead yet, and someone's already trying to take my position!

Thus, Xue Qinghe planned to make that old woman suffer a crushing defeat in this Soul Master Tournament, and the key to it was Dugu Chen.

As long as Dugu Chen and his senior sister took part, it would be enough to give Spirit Hall a serious headache.

After learning the full story, Dugu Chen looked at Xue Qinghe with great satisfaction. It felt like he was personally supporting the rise of an emperor. Though his contribution had not been great, he had still played a part.

Dugu Chen's stare gave Xue Qinghe goosebumps all over. He coughed and said, "As your elder brother, I'm now the academy's vice headmaster. If our results don't improve then, people will surely gossip. Chen, you wouldn't refuse to help your elder brother, would you?"

Dugu Chen said to Xue Qinghe, "Since Brother Xue invited me personally, how could I refuse? But I'll choose the team members myself."

The Three Education Commissioners breathed a sigh of relief at Dugu Chen's words. They were not afraid of him making demands; they were afraid that he would refuse and apply to graduate.

Students whose Soul Power Level reached level forty could apply for graduation. Once approved, they could leave Heaven Dou Academy. If Dugu Chen applied to graduate, how would they dare hold him back? Besides, he would not care whether they approved it or not.

With graduation from Heaven Dou Royal Academy as one's background, one could at least become the lord of a small city.

Though Dugu Chen would not become a city lord, there was no telling whether someone might grow tired of staying in one place and head out to travel.

Now that he had agreed, even if he wanted to choose the members himself, they would presumably be the people he usually associated with. The Education Committee had already looked into them. They were all among the academy's most talented students, so naturally they had no objections.

Combat experience could be gained through battle, and theoretical knowledge could be improved through study. But talent was something one was born with, something difficult to change.

It was far easier to select geniuses for cultivation. This was the iron law of the extraordinary world. Here, talent decided everything.

Moreover, the students Dugu Chen selected were people who got along well with one another. After years of training together, the Heaven Dou Team's members would surely possess extraordinary coordination. Coordination was especially important in team battles; sometimes, a team could even fight above its level through sheer synergy.

Xue Qinghe nodded. "I believe Chen will bring back the championship as a gift for Brother Xue. Right?"

Facing Xue Qinghe's smiling gaze, Dugu Chen felt somewhat awkward, but he nodded.

After exchanging a few more pleasantries, Dugu Chen left with Liu Ze and the black-clad young man.

On the way, Dugu Chen looked at the two of them and asked Liu Ze, "Teacher, this person is—"

Liu Ze looked at the black-clad young man. "The Heaven Dou Royal Team has two teams. Naturally, you'll be the First Team. I'll step down as Class One's homeroom teacher and become your team leader, while Instructor Qin Ming here will be my assistant."

Qin Ming—one of the notable people to graduate from Shrek. He was known as the continent's second-youngest Soul Emperor, though no one knew how much truth there was in that claim.

Still, it showed that Qin Ming had talent. Otherwise, who would flatter someone without strength or talent?

It was simply that Qin Ming had been held back by Shrek in his early years. Without the cultivation boost of an imitative environment or various cultivation resources, reaching the Soul Emperor level before turning thirty already made him an exceptionally outstanding genius.

Even at the Five Element Academies, he would have been a seeded contestant on an Advanced Soul Master Tournament team.

Over the years since Shrek was founded, how many geniuses had it squandered? Qin Ming probably possessed at least innate level-seven soul power. In any other faction, he would have been valued greatly.

For some unknown reason, his fifth soul ring was only a Thousand Year Soul Ring. Given his relationship with Shrek, would it not have been easy to ask the two headmasters to hunt a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring for him?

Yet the reality was that his fifth soul ring was under ten thousand years old. For a genius of his caliber, that was somewhat of a waste of talent.

Dugu Chen nodded at Qin Ming, neither warm nor cold in his attitude. Then he turned to Liu Ze. "Teacher, I'll bring the people I've chosen to our usual training spot. Please wait for us there."

Liu Ze had no objection. He still needed to return and organize some materials. As for Class One's lessons, the Education Committee would naturally arrange them.

When Dugu Chen returned to the classroom, it happened to be break time. He called Dugu Yan and the other five away, then went to the Tianwei Class to pick up Ning Rongrong.

The students still in the classroom watched the group leave in confusion and began whispering among themselves. Why were they all skipping class together?

Upon arriving at the back mountain, Dugu Chen looked at the six people beside him and nodded in satisfaction. Though the team had three support-system soul masters and no agility-attack-system soul master, making it an unconventional team composition, Dugu Chen could fill that role himself. It was just that, as an agility-attack-system soul master, his attack and defense were a tiny bit too high!

Dugu Chen explained the matter of the Heaven Dou Team, and naturally none of them objected to him becoming captain.

In the world of soul masters, strength was respected above all. During the time they had cultivated alongside Dugu Chen, they had all come to understand his strength, so no one had any objections.