Palm Technique

In the final half hour, Xu Jie's speed began to pick up, startling Zhou Yi. At this point, almost everyone else was getting slower and slower.

Huo Yuhao's speed did not increase, but neither did it decrease. He continued maintaining his previous pace.

By then, quite a few students had collapsed onto the ground. Seeing Xu Jie suddenly speed up, they all struggled back to their feet, dragging their sore, weak legs as they began running with all their might again.

Perhaps because Xu Jie had suddenly accelerated, when he passed beside Wang Dong, Wang Dong gritted her teeth and abruptly sped up, becoming a little faster than Xu Jie.

Although Xu Jie had increased his speed somewhat, he was still maintaining a steady pace. Even so, he was far faster than the others.

Wang Dong gritted her teeth and overtook Xu Jie, then looked back at him provocatively.

Xu Jie: ...

What the hell? I'm just running my own race. Why are you glaring at me?

Though he found it strange, Xu Jie ignored Wang Dong's provocation. His pace remained unchanged, allowing Wang Dong to run ahead of him.

Another ten minutes passed. When Xu Jie passed Huo Yuhao again, he patted him on the shoulder. Huo Yuhao immediately picked up speed and followed Xu Jie.

After the two ran for another ten minutes, their pace began to rise again. This time, Xu Jie and Huo Yuhao began going all out.

They needed to challenge their limits.

When Xu Jie and Huo Yuhao overtook Wang Dong again, Wang Dong stumbled and fell to the ground.

Xu Jie paid no attention to what was happening behind him, though Huo Yuhao glanced back.

Seeing the two surpass her again, Wang Dong gritted her teeth, got back to her feet, and sprinted after them. Logically, no matter how fast Xu Jie and Huo Yuhao were, they should not have completed more laps than her. Yet after watching them pass her, unwillingness welled up in her heart.

But this time, no matter how Wang Dong chased after them, she could not catch Xu Jie and Huo Yuhao. The two were no longer maintaining a steady pace; they had been going all out the entire time.

"Ring-ring-ring-ring..." The dismissal bell rang. Huo Yuhao and Xu Jie, who were running at the front, immediately collapsed onto the ground, gasping for breath. Wang Dong, meanwhile, kept running until she was ahead of them before stopping.

After stopping, she looked at Xu Jie and Huo Yuhao with provocative eyes. Xu Jie merely lay there with his head raised, staring at the sky.

Damn, this is fucking exhausting.

Huo Yuhao, however, looked puzzled when he saw Wang Dong's expression.

As the dismissal bell rang, Zhou Yi looked at Huo Yuhao and Xu Jie lying on the ground and took a deep breath before waving into the distance.

A man dressed in white appeared before the students as if he had teleported. He nodded to Zhou Yi, then turned to face the students.

Yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black. Seven soul rings rose from beneath the man's feet.

"Soul Saint!" Many of the students lying on the ground cried out at the sight of the man.

Xu Jie and Huo Yuhao also looked at the man curiously. His final soul ring suddenly lit up, and specks of green light emerged from his body. Then, the man in white transformed into a towering emerald tree.

At the very moment he became a tree, a gentle breeze happened to sweep through. Exactly ninety-two leaves blew down from the tree, and the emerald leaves landed precisely on the ninety-two students lying on the training ground.

With the Nine Yang Divine Skill circulating within him, Xu Jie quickly sat up. He could clearly feel the fatigue in his body vanish, and he could not help saying, "Amazing!"

Wang Dong, not far from Xu Jie and Huo Yuhao, curled her lips when she heard him. "Hmph. He's a level-seventy Plant-type Soul Saint with the Tree of Life Martial Soul, one of the top plant-type martial souls. Of course he's amazing."

Huo Yuhao also climbed to his feet. Hearing Wang Dong's words, the envy in his eyes as he looked at the great tree transformed from the man in white deepened. A top-tier martial soul!

Once all ninety-two leaves had landed on everyone, the towering tree suddenly released an intense green glow and swiftly transformed back into the man in white.

After finishing all this, the man nodded to Zhou Yi. Then, just as he had arrived, he vanished in an instant.

Xu Jie and Huo Yuhao immediately stood up. The exhaustion in their bodies had disappeared, but mental fatigue was not so easily recovered from.

Seeing that everyone had more or less recovered, Zhou Yi said to them with a dark expression, "I have to say, I'm very disappointed in you. Some of you couldn't even last until class was over." She paused and looked toward those in the crowd who had failed to hold on until the end of class.

The people caught by Zhou Yi's gaze immediately lowered their heads. None of them argued. They had already witnessed Zhou Yi's terrifying side that morning; those whose names she had called out had truly been expelled.

"However, you have also made me very gratified. Because every one of you gave it your all in this assessment, no one will be dismissed this time."

After Zhou Yi dismissed them, Xu Jie and Huo Yuhao hurried toward the cafeteria. The two planned to eat dinner at the Gold Soul Coin-priced counter as well. After paying for his and Huo Yuhao's registration, Xu Jie still had more than eighty Gold Soul Coins left, and they would also receive the soul master stipend jointly issued by the Three Great Empires in the future.

Though it was not much, as long as they did not live as extravagantly as they had today every day, the remaining money would last them a long time.

Besides, Xu Jie could earn some extra money from Beibei and Tang Ya. After all, the purple qi he created through Imitation did not merely last for a short while like the morning sun; he could keep it up for a full ten minutes.

So, the two could still afford to eat a Gold Soul Coin dinner once or twice. Huo Yuhao was simply so distressed while eating that he practically wanted to lick the plates clean. Xu Jie could not bring himself to say anything, since the life he and Huo Yuhao had lived before truly had not been very good.

That evening, Xu Jie and Huo Yuhao finished bathing early. After they returned to their room,

Huo Yuhao looked at Xu Jie eagerly. "Brother Jie, Brother Jie, what about the palm technique?"

Xu Jie glanced at Huo Yuhao, feeling somewhat helpless. "Yuhao! No matter how powerful a palm technique is, you still need Soul Power to use it!"

Huo Yuhao's little face immediately reddened. He promptly sat on the bed and began recovering his Soul Power.

Xu Jie looked at Huo Yuhao sitting on the bed and softly sighed. He really was still a child.

The palm technique Huo Yuhao spoke of was the Profound Nether Palm that Xu Jie had obtained from the Profound Nether Elders in his previous life. After Sky Dream Ice Silkworm finished explaining that he would bring Huo Yuhao an ice-attribute martial soul, Huo Yuhao had immediately told Xu Jie about it.

Xu Jie had immediately demonstrated the Profound Nether Palm for Huo Yuhao, showing him the wondrous ability to turn water into ice in one's hand. Huo Yuhao had become interested on the spot, but Xu Jie had not taught it to him right away. After all, Huo Yuhao had only just fused with Sky Dream Ice Silkworm then, and his foundation was still unstable.

At first, Xu Jie had felt that Zuo Lengchan's Ice God Palm from The Smiling, Proud Wanderer was more suitable for Huo Yuhao. But when Xu Jie died in his previous life, let alone Zuo Lengchan, even Zuo Lengchan's grandfather had not been born yet.

In his previous life, Xu Jie had initially planned to follow Zhang Sanfeng and cultivate the Dao for the rest of his life. Old Zhang had lived for over two hundred years, so it would not have been excessive for him to hold on until he was one hundred seventy or eighty, right? In truth, living that long was not particularly meaningful. Mainly, he had wanted to beat up that little bastard Linghu Chong.

What a pity, what a pity. The dynasty that came after the Great Ming was simply too disgusting. He could only go out to search for the true chosen one of that era, a certain overpowered man surnamed Zhu. Before he died, he had already made Old Zhu realize the importance of firearms and similar weapons, raised the status of craftsmen considerably, and instilled in Old Zhu quite a few ideas from later generations that would get censored the moment they were written down.

They were mainly economic concepts. After all, Old Zhu, who had started with nothing but a bowl, truly did not understand how to develop an economy or the nature of currency. Secondly, Xu Jie had taught Old Zhu's son, Zhu Biao, a cultivation technique specifically for maintaining health.

His only regret was that he had not rescued Confucius, though that did not really matter. There was no need to worry too much about that, since he had mentioned it to Old Zhu long ago. Presumably, Old Zhu would fulfill his final wish.

He just wondered what that world would become after he had instilled so many strange things in Old Zhu. Still, it did not matter much. He believed that no matter how things developed afterward, it would at least not become worse than a certain dynasty renowned for producing emperors without equal throughout history.