"All right, everyone, pause."
Mu Jin gazed eagerly at Mo Yuan and the Soul Rings beneath his feet. Any displeasure she had felt over Mo Yuan's arrogance had vanished without a trace.
Was Mo Yuan being arrogant and conceited by not releasing his Martial Soul?
Of course not! It was because Mo Yuan was kindhearted—he had done it on purpose to spare the other students' confidence!
Mu Jin then looked at Yang Xun and the other students.
"Yang Xun, do you still want to challenge Mo Yuan?"
"No, no. I don't," Yang Xun immediately replied, shaking his head.
Knowing you couldn't win and fighting to the death when you had no way out was brave. But if you could back down and still stubbornly refused to, that was just foolish.
"Good. What about the rest of you?"
"Teacher, we don't want to challenge him either. We think Mo Yuan should be the class monitor. No one else is more suited to the position!"
The students answered in unison. Even the one who had just shouted, "Everyone, let's attack together!" had nothing more to say.
It was fine if they all went together. But one-on-one? No way.
"Very good." Mu Jin nodded with satisfaction. Although there had been a minor interruption, her goal of making the students recognize their own limits and shed their arrogance had been achieved.
"You've all seen Mo Yuan's talent. It's no empty boast that Shrek Academy is never short of geniuses! Here, you need to let go of your arrogance, focus on training, and improve your Soul Power. Otherwise, there's only one outcome: you'll be eliminated and forced to leave the academy!"
"Do you understand?!"
"We understand, Teacher!"
"Good. Since none of you object to Mo Yuan being class monitor, we'll move on to one-on-one sparring practice."
Mu Jin opened her lesson plan, ready to call names from the roster and arrange the practical matches, when someone raised an objection.
"Teacher, we don't object to Mo Yuan being class monitor, but Ning Tian hasn't fought yet, has she?"
At that, the other students immediately nodded in agreement.
Mu Jin didn't get angry at the objection. Instead, she smiled faintly.
"If you want to fight a Support System Soul Master, I won't stop you. But at Shrek Academy, beating a Support System Soul Master one-on-one isn't something to be proud of."
"What? A Support System Soul Master? Ning Tian's a Support System Soul Master?"
Exclamations rang out from the stands. The revelation that Ning Tian had a Support System Martial Soul shocked them almost as much as learning that Mo Yuan was a Soul Ancestor.
They had heard Mu Jin say that Ning Tian was a thirty-one-year-old Soul Elder.
If she had a Strong Attack System or Agile Attack System Martial Soul, that would be one thing. But if she had a Food System or Support System Martial Soul, that was downright terrifying.
Among Soul Masters, Food System and Support System Soul Masters tended to cultivate the slowest. Reaching the Soul Elder rank at eleven could only be called against the laws of nature.
After their initial shock, the students who had been unconvinced by Ning Tian fell silent. At Shrek Academy, where strength was everything, they'd be laughed at for bragging about beating a Support System Soul Master one-on-one.
When no one spoke up again, Mu Jin began reading from the roster and assigning matches.
"First match: Wu Feng and Yun Shan."
After the matches began, Mo Yuan left the arena and headed to the stands. As he walked toward the seats at the back where Ning Tian was sitting, he could clearly feel the eager gazes of the students on either side.
The boys mostly looked impressed or envious. Their earlier hostility had long since disappeared.
The girls, on the other hand, were looking at him in a way that was hard to describe. Their eyes were full of tenderness and admiration, and a few of them were practically gazing at him with longing!
Mo Yuan's eye twitched at the sight. This really was a romance continent. They were only eleven, yet already so mature. If this had happened on Earth and he'd responded, he'd be looking at a minimum of three years behind bars, with no upper limit.
"Tch. Show-off."
Wu Feng muttered as she passed Mo Yuan on her way to the arena. In her mind, if Mo Yuan hadn't butted in, Ning Tian would have been class monitor of Class Nine, she would have been vice class monitor, and they would have been on the same team for the New Student Assessment. They were a match made in heaven.
"Clown Girl, are you jealous of me? Once you get in there and your opponent shouts 'arrogant,' you'll know your place."
Mo Yuan spoke with a meaningful smile. He wondered whether that student called Yun Shan had a Wind Attribute Martial Soul...
Unfortunately, Wu Feng didn't get the reference. She asked in confusion,
"'Arrogant'? What do you mean?"
"It doesn't mean anything. Hurry up and get in there. I'll take good care of Ning Tian for you." Mo Yuan couldn't be bothered to explain and headed straight for Ning Tian.
"Little Fire! You... You're awful!" Wu Feng flew into a rage. What did he mean, telling her to go fight while he took care of Ning Tian? She was going to spar, not die!
But Mu Jin was already waiting, and there was no time to argue with Mo Yuan. Wu Feng glared at him viciously, then stormed toward the Battle Soul Arena.
"Mo Yuan, I really don't know how you cultivate. We're still Soul Grandmasters, while you've already reached Soul Ancestor. That saying is true: sometimes, the gap between people is greater than the gap between people and pigs."
Bai Yi looked at Mo Yuan as he sat down beside Ning Tian and couldn't help sighing.
"I just got lucky."
Mo Yuan smiled like Xiao Huohuo. Then he looked at Ning Tian beside him and saw her frowning slightly as she watched Wu Feng fight in the Battle Soul Arena, lost in thought.
"What are you thinking about?"
"Huh? Nothing..."
Ning Tian started at the sound of his voice, came out of her reverie, and shook her head. But Mo Yuan could still tell that she was distracted.
Seeing that Ning Tian didn't want to say more, Mo Yuan didn't press her. Instead, he turned his gaze toward the arena below.
In the Battle Soul Arena, Wu Feng seemed to have been riled up by Mo Yuan's words. Facing the new student called Yun Shan, she went all out right from the start.
With the formidable attack power of her Crimson Dragon Martial Soul behind her, Wu Feng rampaged through the arena like a humanoid tyrannosaurus, driving Yun Shan back again and again until he was left complaining bitterly.
"Why does this look so familiar..."
Mo Yuan thought to himself, his expression strange. Then, just at that moment, he seemed to sense something. The faint smile vanished from his face, and a flicker of delight appeared in his eyes.
Mo Yuan glanced around. Seeing that all the students were focused on the Battle Soul Arena, he leaned back in his seat and slowly closed his eyes, as if taking a nap.
Beneath the deep, dark night, heavy snow fell across a vast, endless black plain. The frigid flakes blanketed the mountains rising in the distance.
At the center of the plain stood row upon row of gray tombstones, carved with an unknown language. The world seemed desolate, cold, and ruined.
Death and the end of all things seemed to define this place.
This was Mo Yuan's Sea of Consciousness, and the place where he now stood.
Among the tombstones, Mo Yuan saw the floating figure beside him and immediately smiled.
"Congratulations on awakening, Senior."
Before you continue