External Enemy's Probe, Demon Pagoda's First Cry

The aftermath of the Monthly Assessment had yet to fully settle. While the new students were still caught up in either joy or resentment, planning how to catch up next month, an invisible tension had begun to spread among the senior students and the academy's guardians.

Central tower, top-floor Dean's Office.

On the light screen before Qin Mo, the academy energy map, which had originally flowed steadily, showed extremely faint yet unceasing ripples along its edges. A concealed and powerful strand of Spiritual Power, like the most cunning venomous snake, constantly shifted its frequency and angle, probing for weaknesses in the Guardian Great Formation. This Spiritual Power was utterly unlike the investigations of those human Titled Douluo from before. It was more primitive, more violent, and carried the wild pressure of a hegemon from the depths of the Star Dou Great Forest.

"Still probing." Qin Mo's voice was calm. His fingertips lightly tapped the screen, enlarging and analyzing the trajectory of that Spiritual Power. "It has more patience, and it's more cunning, than that sneaky human Titled Douluo from a few days ago. It's searching for the pattern of the formation's operation, or... some insignificant crack."

Qin Yuan, who had been sitting quietly nearby, slowly opened his eyes, a cold gleam flashing through them. "Have those few from Star Dou finally lost their patience? It seems the primal energy gathered by your academy and the occasional leaks of ice and fire aura are quite tempting to them." He could sense that this visitor was no ordinary Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast. The density of its Spiritual Power even made him feel slightly troubled.

"No matter." A cold curve touched Qin Mo's lips. "This is a good chance to test another function of the Myriad Manifestations Pagoda. Letting guests spy from outside the door all the time is hardly proper hospitality."

With a thought, he connected to the true body of the Nine-Story Demon Pagoda within his Sea of Consciousness.

At the same time, in the shadows of a dense forest several miles beyond the academy's protective barrier.

A pair of incomparably enormous vertical pupils, like molten gold, slowly opened. Deep within them was reflected the distant nine-colored barrier radiating enticing energy fluctuations, as well as the towering pagoda. This was a Top-Tier Soul Beast hegemon nearing two hundred thousand years of cultivation, one exceptionally skilled in Spiritual Power and concealment—the Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bear King!

It was not a reckless creature. On the contrary, it was extremely cautious. From the unusually concentrated Heaven and Earth Primal Energy in this region and the occasionally leaking ice-and-fire origin aura that made even its soul tremble, it had sensed a tremendous opportunity, but also a lethal threat. It had been watching this place for several days, cautiously probing with its Spiritual Power, attempting to uncover the details of this suddenly appeared human stronghold.

Today, it felt as though it had caught an extraordinarily faint intermittent fluctuation in the barrier's energy flow!

An opportunity!

The Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bear King's massive body remained hidden in the shadows, but its terrifying Spiritual Power, condensed to the extreme, abruptly transformed into an invisible spiked awl. Seizing what it believed to be that fleeting opening, it viciously stabbed toward the nine-colored barrier! It had been building up this attack for a long time, and its power was enough to instantly heavily wound the soul of an ordinary Titled Douluo!

It intended to forcibly tear open a gap and see what exactly was hidden inside!

However, just as its Spiritual Power awl was about to touch the barrier—

A sudden change erupted!

At the tip of the hundred-meter pagoda that had stood silently all this time, the enormous crystal that had slowly rotated like an eye suddenly erupted with unprecedented brilliance!

Hummm—!!!

A deep hum, as though it came from the primordial age, sounded from within the pagoda and instantly spread across the surroundings!

Immediately afterward, the countless profound runes flickering across the pagoda's body lit up like a galaxy set ablaze! Vast, majestic energy gathered toward the top of the pagoda at an unprecedented speed!

A strange beam of light, condensed to the extreme and no thicker than an arm yet displaying a Chaos Color, blasted from the rotating "eye" at the pagoda's tip as if crossing the distance of space!

The beam was faster than thought itself! It did not target the location where the Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bear King's true body lay hidden. Instead, with incomparable precision, it struck the core point exerting force within the Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bear King's Spiritual Power awl a tenth of a second in advance!

Breaking a surface with a point! Precise interception!

"Roar!!!"

From the forest several miles away came a horrifying roar filled with pain, shock, and fury! The roar shook the surroundings and contained unimaginable agony of the soul, causing even the outer reaches of the Star Dou Great Forest to fall silent for an instant!

The Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bear King's invincible Spiritual Power awl shattered and melted the moment it touched the chaos-colored beam, like snow meeting the blazing sun! Worse still, an even more terrifying backlash containing the laws of "suppression" and "annihilation" followed the Spiritual Power connection it had yet to withdraw and slammed viciously into the origin of its soul!

Its colossal body staggered out of the shadows, smashing several ancient trees around it to pieces! Its golden pupils were filled with horror and disbelief, while pale golden blood seeped from its nose, mouth, ears, and eyes! Its soul had suffered a serious wound!

It stared fixedly at the distant pagoda, fear appearing in its eyes for the first time. What kind of attack was that? It could directly strike and heavily wound the origin of its soul?! And the other side seemed to have discovered it long ago, even calculating the trajectory and timing of its attack!

This human stronghold was countless times more terrifying than it had imagined!

It did not dare linger any longer. Letting out a low roar filled with both unwillingness and fear, its massive body transformed into a streak of dark golden light and fled madly toward the depths of the Star Dou Great Forest without looking back even once.

Inside Myriad Manifestations Academy.

The chaos-colored beam rapidly dissipated after that single strike, and the glow at the pagoda's tip gradually withdrew, returning to calm. It was as if nothing had happened.

Yet every soul master with sufficient cultivation had felt a terrifying fluctuation flash past in that instant, one that made their souls tremble!

On the Training Ground, the new students who were preparing to leave looked around in confusion, not knowing what the faint horrifying roar and sudden heart-pounding fear had been.

Bing'er, Yan'er, Zhu Zhuqing, Ye Lingling, Ning Rongrong, and a handful of other perceptive new students, including Huo Yun, had slight changes in expression as they all looked toward the pagoda. They had clearly felt that, for one instant, the entire academy had seemed to transform into an awakened primordial Fierce Beast, radiating a dreadful aura capable of destroying everything!

Top floor of the pagoda.

On the light screen before Qin Mo, the powerful point of light representing the Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bear King was rapidly moving away at an astonishing speed, vanishing beyond the edge of the detection range.

"It ran fast." Qin Mo gave the calm assessment as though he had merely driven away an annoying fly. He looked at the data recorded on the screen from that strike. "Primal Magnet Annihilation Soul Light. The power meets expectations, precision at ninety-six point seven percent, energy consumption at three point one percent. Not bad."

Qin Yuan stroked his beard and nodded, his eyes filled with admiration. "Using the pagoda as a foundation, drawing upon the primal energy of the earth veins, and combining it with the power of your Martial Soul Origin to unleash a strike capable of heavily wounding the soul of a peak soul beast... Mo'er, this Myriad Manifestations Pagoda of yours integrates offense and defense. It already has the beginnings of a war fortress. If an ordinary Super Douluo were struck head-on by that attack, they would be severely wounded even if they survived."

This probe and counterattack had occurred in the blink of an eye. No one outside knew the details, yet its significance was immense. It meant that Myriad Manifestations Academy not only possessed formidable defensive capabilities, but also terrifying long-range precision strike power, enough to pose a fatal threat to the strongest experts!

If this news spread, it would be enough to make every faction secretly coveting the academy reassess its strength and no longer dare probe it so lightly.

"After this scare, those big fellows in the depths of Star Dou should behave themselves for a while," Qin Yuan said. "But human greed is often harder to deal with than the wildness of soul beasts."

Qin Mo's gaze swept across the dense cluster of faint points of light around the academy's perimeter on the screen, each representing spies from different factions. His eyes were profound. "No matter. They will soon learn what price they must pay to covet Myriad Manifestations."

After a pause, he changed the subject. "The new students' first assessment is over. It's time to give them a real taste of sweetness. Tomorrow, I will personally teach Introduction to the Origin of Martial Souls."

Qin Yuan smiled faintly. "Oh? You're finally going to teach them the real thing? It seems this batch of seedlings has truly caught your eye."

Introduction to the Origin of Martial Souls sounded like a basic course, but with Qin Mo teaching it and the foundation of the Myriad Manifestations Sect supporting it, its contents would likely overturn the outside world's understanding of martial souls.

The next day, the news was announced.

When the new students learned that the mysterious and powerful Dean Qin Mo would personally teach their first theory class, the entire academy erupted!

All the new students, including the five girls led by Bing'er, arrived early at the academy's largest tiered classroom. Filled with excitement and anticipation, they waited for the dean's arrival. They all wanted to know what unique and profound insights this dean, who had created countless miracles, possessed regarding martial souls.

The class bell rang.

Qin Mo appeared on the podium right on time.

He carried no lecture notes. His calm gaze swept across the students seated upright below, and his first words struck like thunder: "What I will teach today may overturn everything you have ever understood about martial souls." "In my view, all things in the world have their own 'origin.' Martial souls are no different; they are not rootless trees or water without a source." "So-called Innate Soul Power, martial soul quality, and cultivation limits are not innately fixed or unchanging..." "...They can all be traced, explored, and even... transformed!"

As his words fell, the entire classroom went silent. Unbelievable light burst from the eyes of every student!