Elimination Round Begins

Yue Hongchen breathed a sigh of relief and recounted the battle he had with Lan Susu and Lan Luoluo that day.

Fearing Meng Hongchen wouldn't believe him, he even called Xiao Ka out to prove it.

As soon as Xiao Ka appeared, she suppressed a mischievous smile. When Meng Hongchen asked if that was what happened, she quickly put on an innocent act. "Xiao Ka doesn't know. Yiren sealed my Sea of Consciousness today, so I couldn't see what was happening outside."

Yue Hongchen's expression grew darker as he listened, the description only making things worse.

Hearing Xiao Ka's words, Meng Hongchen felt incredibly wronged. Her eyes blinked, and they instantly reddened, tears welling up.

The next second, a crystal-clear tear slid down her cheek.

This immediately panicked Yue Hongchen. He quickly hugged Meng Hongchen and reached out to wipe away the tears at the corners of her eyes.

Meng Hongchen struggled in his arms, reaching out to push him away, but Yue Hongchen refused to let go.

"I'm sorry, I was wrong." Yue Hongchen, being a straightforward man, didn't know what else to do. He only knew that she was crying, and no matter the reason, it was his fault.

Seeing that the situation seemed to be escalating, Xiao Ka quickly came to them. "I'm sorry, Xiao Meng. I was just joking. The strands of hair on Yiren were indeed left by the twins with those two hair Martial Souls when he broke their Martial Soul Fusion Skill."

Seeing their flustered expressions, Meng Hongchen let out a soft laugh. She reached out and rubbed her eyes. "Really? Then I'll forgive you this time."

In truth, when Yue Hongchen hugged her earlier, she knew from his eyes that her brother wasn't lying. But for some reason, she still wanted to cry, wanting to see how important she was in her brother's heart.

Yue Hongchen ignored all that and just held her tightly, softly saying, "It's good that you're okay. I won't make you unhappy again, brother."

"Okay!" Meng Hongchen stared at her red eyes and chuckled.

Ning Tian and Wu Feng, watching this scene from the side, widened their eyes. Many words gathered in their minds, finally coalescing into the word "siblings."

"You... you guys..." Ning Tian's trembling finger pointed at the two, then she turned her head away as if she had seen something she shouldn't have.

Wu Feng, on the other hand, looked at Yue Hongchen with a furious expression, as if she were looking at a scumbag.

"Um, Ning Tian, Wu Feng, it's not what you think." Seeing that they were misunderstood, Meng Hongchen broke free from Yue Hongchen's embrace and went to the two women to explain. "Brother is an orphan. My grandfather brought him into the Hongchen Family when he was just born. He and I are not related by blood. You can see that from our Martial Souls."

Ning Tian pondered for a moment. Indeed, one of them had a sword Martial Soul, and the other had the Vermilion Clear Ice Toad Martial Soul. No matter how mutated, a beast Martial Soul couldn't mutate into a tool Martial Soul.

"Then classmate Yue mentioned last time that he was the heir of Mingde Hall..." Ning Tian raised her question.

"Oh, that." Yue Hongchen also walked over, explaining his previous statement. "It was because Senior Xiao Ya pestered me every day to join the Tang Sect, so I borrowed Xiao's heir status to use."

"Xiao?"

"Xiao Hongchen, my biological brother," Meng Hongchen chimed in to explain.

"But brother's words are also valid. When he marries me, it won't be difficult for Grandpa to pass Mingde Hall down to him. Then we can make Xiao work for us, hehe, just thinking about it makes me happy!"

The two, not fully understanding, just smiled and nodded. They couldn't help but feel a little sorry for this Xiao Hongchen.

But it wasn't their business. It was good that Yue and Meng weren't related by blood. They almost thought they had encountered someone who wouldn't let even his own sister go...

"Alright, alright, it's good that everything is cleared up," Yue Hongchen waved his hand. "Today's battle wasn't easy. Huo Yuhao probably won't have time to set up his stall, so we'll head back first. See you tomorrow."

Ning Tian nodded. After saying goodbye, Ning Tian and Wu Feng walked towards their dormitory, while Yue took Meng and Xiao Ka back to his small courtyard.

The next day, because they had to tally the results of the various trainees, the elimination rounds of the assessment would be held the day after. Yue didn't pressure Meng to cultivate anymore. He spent the day accompanying her and Xiao Ka as they toured the entire Shrek City. Everything was good, except that it felt more tiring than cultivating. Fortunately, he had a storage Soul Tool, otherwise, with all the things Meng and Xiao Ka bought, he would have needed more than two hands to carry them all.

Time came for the elimination rounds. After helping the sleepy Meng wash up, Yue carried her on his back all the way to the assessment area.

This girl's old habit had acted up again today; she wouldn't wake up no matter how long he called.

It wasn't until they were outside the assessment area that she slowly woke up. After meeting up with Ning Tian, Meng leaned against Yue, eating the breakfast he had prepared.

Outside the assessment area, a line of over thirty academy teachers stood. Mu Jin breathed a sigh of relief when Yue appeared in her sight. With Yue, Class Nine was complete, unlike someone else whose face was terrifyingly dark right now.

The person in charge of taking attendance was Du Wilun, the Director of the Martial Soul Department. When he called out for Huo Yuhao of Freshman Class One, there was no response for a long time. He called again, but still nothing. The next name, Wang Dong of Freshman Class One, was also absent.

This was the first time someone had been absent from the elimination rounds without cause. Many teachers and students began to whisper. Even if they had passed the freshman assessment, not showing up for the elimination rounds was quite disrespectful to the academy.

It wasn't until all the students from Freshman Class Six had been called that two disheveled figures rushed over.

Du Wilun's anger flared up instantly. He closed the attendance roster in his hand and walked towards the two with his hands behind his back.

"That's Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong. What were they doing? Not only are they late, but their school uniforms are also crooked," Ning Tian curiously watched the two being reprimanded by Du Wilun, unable to quite understand.

She didn't know Wang Dong very well, but she knew a little about Huo Yuhao; he cultivated more diligently than anyone else.

Yue Hongchen casually glanced at Huo Yuhao, his gaze returning to Meng Hongchen, who was eating her bun like a hamster, her cheeks puffed out. How could she be so cute?

He couldn't help but poke her and replied to Ning Tian's question, "Their auras are a bit strange. They're probably late because their cultivation has yielded some results. They might even give us a surprise."

Hearing this, Ning Tian looked at the two again, but still couldn't see anything.

However, since Yue Hongchen had said so, they would likely see what they had come up with in the subsequent elimination rounds.

Meng Hongchen finished her breakfast, and Yue Hongchen carefully wiped the food residue from the corner of her mouth. Du Wilun continued with the roll call.

After the roll call, only Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong were late among all the freshmen, which made their homeroom teacher, Zhou Yi, look as dark as coal.

After dismissing the trainees who didn't make it into the top sixty-four, the elimination rounds officially began.

All sixty-four teams competed together, with one match in the morning and one in the afternoon, lasting for three days. The probability of teammates facing each other also increased significantly.

Yue and Meng went together to draw numbers from Du Wilun. Yue drew number 1, and Meng drew number 33. Fortunately, they didn't clash. Yue didn't want Meng to be eliminated in the top sixty-four; otherwise, he would be the one to suffer afterward.

In the elimination round of sixty-four into thirty-two, Yue Hongchen drew number one and was naturally assigned to compete in zone one. Coincidentally, the assessment teacher for zone one was Wang Yan.

His opponents were three Soul Grand Masters: one offense, one control, and one support. Their coordination had improved by more than a notch through the previous matches.

They had heard some rumors about Yue Hongchen, but since they had made it to the elimination rounds and he was alone, they didn't believe they would be defeated by him in a single move.

What they didn't know was that Yue Hongchen had been using his Soul Skills in the previous matches to understand their effects. Now, he had thoroughly grasped all three of his Soul Skills and didn't want to waste any more time here. He still had to rush over to watch his sister's match.

The very second Wang Yan announced "The assessment begins," Yue Hongchen drew his sword and slashed, then walked off the stage without looking back.

His three opponents hadn't even reacted when a sword energy exploded at their feet. The powerful blast of air sent all three of them flying off the stage.