Wu Zhangkong

That was right. This man was Wu Zhangkong, Wu Yang Jin's older brother. Though not his biological brother, and considering seniority, it would have been appropriate for him to be his father too—at least, that was how it seemed for now...

Still, it was something worth celebrating. They had finally met.

(By the way, from the train attack at the beginning to Wu Zhangkong's appearance—that was in the previous chapter—there might indeed have been some flaws. After all, it was my first time writing this, and I had read many other fanfics and wanted to give it a try myself. Maybe I didn't handle it especially well. Please forgive me. I'll pay more attention to it in the later developments and in future books.)

Afterward, a series of matters needed sorting out between Wu Zhangkong and Wu Yang Jin, and they also talked about many other things. During that time, Tang Wu Lin felt it was not quite appropriate for him to stay there, so he went out for a walk.

Not long after he stepped outside, someone patted him on the shoulder.

"Hi, you're Tang Wu Lin, right?" the girl who had met Tang Wu Lin before asked.

"Huh? It's you. We meet again!" Tang Wu Lin replied, startled.

"Sorry, did I scare you?" the girl apologized.

"A little... but it's fine."

"I saw you coming out of the hospital. Did something happen?"

Tang Wu Lin then briefly explained the situation.

"Huh? Is your friend all right, then?"

"He's fine. Yang Jin has already recovered."

"So quickly? That's pretty amazing, isn't it?" the girl said.

"It really is. I admire Yang Jin too," Tang Wu Lin replied.

Inside the hospital, Wu Yang Jin and Wu Zhangkong...

"Yang Jin, I'll call you that from now on."

"Ah, all right!"

"You don't need to be so nervous. You can relax a little when we're in private..." Wu Zhangkong said.

"In private?"

"Mm. When the time comes... you'll know. You will understand," Wu Zhangkong said.

When the time comes? What did that mean? Could it be...

Was this so-called older brother of his someone important at Eastsea Academy? Still, he felt that being a teacher was the most likely possibility. Though if he really held some other position, that was not impossible either.

But that should have been what his older brother—this older brother he had not seen for so long—meant, right?

"Still... I can see that you're very nervous. That's normal too."

"I am, a little."

"Like I said, all of this takes time to slowly adapt to. There's still time," Wu Zhangkong said.

"Th... thank you."

"By the way, I heard just now that you learned forging at such a young age?" Wu Zhangkong asked.

"Yes. I'm currently a Fourth-Level Forging Master. If we put it another way... I'm considered a Fourth Rank Beginner."

"A Fourth Rank Beginner... Mm, very similar." Wu Zhangkong suddenly sighed, as though recalling something.

"Very similar?" Wu Yang Jin asked in confusion.

"It's nothing. Just... the past. You don't need to know yet," Wu Zhangkong answered.

"Oh, I understand."

Speaking of Forging Masters, Wu Yang Jin was in roughly the same situation.

Indeed, when it came to forging, both Tang Wu Lin and Wu Yang Jin could be called geniuses.

If each level were divided into, say, initial stage, intermediate stage, and peak stage, then Wu Yang Jin was at the initial stage of Fourth-Level Forging Master.

Tang Wu Lin, meanwhile, was at the peak of Third-Level Forging Master and quite close to becoming a Fourth-Level Forging Master. However, he still occasionally encountered difficulties with the Thousand Refinements required.

Since they had brought it up, to advance from a Third-Level Forging Master to a Fourth-Level Forging Master, one needed not only to forge high-grade Thousand Refinements Second Grade metal.

One also needed to forge a piece of Half Spirit Refinement metal. That was right—Half Spirit Refinement.

Thus, Thousand Refinements metal differed from the metals forged at earlier stages, because it had the so-called grade classification. The lowest was Fifth Grade, while the highest was First Grade.

For Wu Yang Jin, if everything was calculated out, he could become a Fifth-Level Forging Master before going to Shrek.

But unless there were special circumstances, he would need to devote more of his time to his three Martial Souls, mecha manufacturing and design, and eventually creating armor similar to Amazon (Alpha).

As for Mang Tian, he knew that these two children would devote much more effort than before to areas such as their Martial Souls.

Still, he was not too worried that the two children would fall behind in forging.

The only possibility was that Wu Yang Jin might lag behind a little in forging, because Mang Tian could also sense that this child was different from Tang Wu Lin—perhaps different in another way as well.

"Mm, school starts tomorrow. You... are you sure you'll be fine?" Wu Zhangkong asked once more.

"Mm, I'll really be fine. Don't worry."

"Mm, then I... will leave first." With that, Wu Zhangkong walked out, just as Tang Wu Lin returned.

"Huh? Yang Jin, your brother... he's leaving already?"

"Mm. By the way, Wulin, do you know more about the school?"

"Ah, I looked into it while I was out just now."

It was roughly like this: as an Intermediate Soul Master Academy, Eastsea Academy would originally have had students make their own way to the school, with extensive guidance only being provided after they arrived.

However, because of the train hijacking incident, Eastsea Academy was now known to be sending not only its own professional personnel for protection, but also people found through its connections to escort the students.

Therefore, their safety could be guaranteed. Though in such a densely populated place, in broad daylight, something like that should not happen in theory, there could always be accidents.

As for what came next, they only needed to find the person in charge at Eastsea Academy. This job was generally handled by so-called senior schoolmates.

Eastsea Academy itself was considered a large academy and a fairly good place. It possessed qualifications for both intermediate and advanced academies, so it had a certain level of standing.

However, precisely because it had qualifications for both intermediate and advanced academies, it was divided into the Intermediate Section and the Advanced Section.

Of course, it had also been said that Eastsea Academy's intermediate academy was compulsory education and charged no tuition fees. It occupied a large portion of the campus.

That said, the remaining one-third was the advanced academy, and that was where the true essence of the campus lay.

(I forgot whether I mentioned earlier that Eastsea Academy's intermediate academy did not charge fees. Maybe I never brought up this topic before. I forgot.)

As for the teaching and daily life afterward, students would live in dormitories rather than attend school and then go home after classes.

Later, when they graduated from sixth grade, congratulations—they could head to the location of the so-called advanced academy. Not many could enter, and there were strict examinations and selections.

Still, children who could test into an advanced academy were the true elites. This was more or less the same at every academy.

Only after undergoing examinations and selection, then entering a higher academy to study, could they become the elite Soul Masters people spoke of.

A day passed. The procedures had been completed the previous night, which was what Wu Zhangkong had done after leaving.

The next day, Wu Yang Jin and Tang Wu Lin arrived at the meeting place Wu Zhangkong had later given them. From there, they would take a vehicle to Eastsea Academy.