Why Should I Avoid His Edge?

After a long silence, the male teacher recorded the results of the match on the document in his hands, then announced the outcome.

"Freshman Class Nine's Mo Yuan, Bai Yi, and Nanmen Yun'er win. One victory."

When they heard a referee announce the result, hundreds of students from several nearby arenas immediately turned toward the voice in disbelief.

Was there some mistake? Hadn't everyone basically started fighting at the same time? We've only just released our Martial Souls and started feeling each other out, and you're already done?!

But when the students saw Mo Yuan walking off the arena, they all looked as if they suddenly understood.

They'd been fighting Mo Yuan? Then that made sense~

Just then, two more voices, each coming from a different direction, announced the results of their matches.

"Freshman Class Five's Dai Huabin, Zhu Lu, and Cui Yajie win. One victory."

"Freshman Class One's Wang Dong, Huo Yuhao, and Xiao Xiao win. One victory."

The two announcements sparked a series of gasps throughout the assessment grounds. No one had expected two other teams to finish their fights as quickly as Mo Yuan's team.

Mo Yuan had heard both announcements too. He paused slightly and turned toward the voices. As it happened, they had come from the same direction: Assessment Areas Thirty-Three and Forty.

Mo Yuan recognized nearly all three faces in Assessment Area Thirty-Three: Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong, who lived across from him, and a somewhat unfamiliar young girl. She had delicate, pretty features. She wasn't especially beautiful, but she was very easy on the eyes.

As Mo Yuan looked toward Assessment Area Thirty-Three, one of the three who had just finished the match turned to look in his direction.

Wang Dong had been standing with her chin raised, looking proud. When she saw Mo Yuan watching her, she couldn't help frowning slightly.

Though they lived across the hall from each other, they had only crossed paths two or three times in the past three months. They were practically strangers.

And every time she saw Mo Yuan, she felt something she couldn't quite explain—part dislike, part fear.

Huo Yuhao, standing beside her, didn't look over. He clenched both fists in excitement, his gaze burning as he looked at the countless astonished students below. It was as if all the pain he had endured over the past three months had been released in that moment.

Mo Yuan glanced at Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong, then immediately looked past them to the delicate-looking girl.

As it happened, the girl was looking at him too.

When Xiao Xiao saw Mo Yuan looking her way, a shy blush suddenly appeared on her face. She lowered her head slightly at once, not daring to meet his gaze.

Watching the pair from the side, Bai Yi spoke with a sour note in his voice.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Another girl who's taken a liking to you, Brother Moyuan. How many girls do you have around you now...?"

"Aren't you the same?"

Mo Yuan glanced at Bai Yi. The kid was just as good-looking and talented as he was. Some female students who knew they couldn't measure up to Mo Yuan and had no chance with him had turned their attention to Bai Yi instead.

Over the past three months, Bai Yi had been like a flower, constantly attracting admirers.

Just then, Mo Yuan suddenly felt an unfriendly gaze land on him. He followed its direction and looked over.

In Assessment Area Forty, in the same direction as Area Thirty-Three, a blond boy was staring straight at him, his eyes cold.

Beside the blond boy stood two girls, both with attractive faces and figures. The moment Mo Yuan fixed his gaze on the one with the soft, catlike figure, her strange pupils narrowed into slits, like those of a cat with its fur standing on end. She gave off an intensely dangerous air.

The other girl was much more easygoing. Meeting Mo Yuan's gaze, she let a hint of seduction show in her large pink eyes, then smiled at him and nodded politely.

Dai Huabin, Zhu Lu, Cui Yajie... Mo Yuan recited their names to himself. As for the hostility Dai Huabin had shown him, he didn't care in the slightest.

What kind of nobody was he to deserve Mo Yuan's attention?

"Huabin, calm down. I looked into Mo Yuan before. What I found was basically the same as what's being said around the academy: he's a Soul Ancestor with a ten-thousand-year Fourth Soul Ring. Unless it's necessary, we'd be better off avoiding a direct clash with him."

As soon as Mo Yuan looked away from her, Zhu Lu let out a sigh of relief. She tugged at the cold-eyed Dai Huabin beside her and tried to persuade him.

Dai Huabin sneered. "Avoid a direct clash with him? I'm the son of the White Tiger Duke. I'm supposed to give way to a commoner? That would be humiliating."

Though he said that, a trace of wariness still appeared in his eyes after hearing what Mo Yuan could do. He took a long look at Mo Yuan and the other two as they turned and left the assessment area, then led his teammates away as well.

As for Wang Dong's team, who had also finished their fight quickly, he had no interest in them at all. Their team didn't even have a Soul Elder, and one of them was a useless one-ring Soul Master.

Why would they be worth his attention?

Unlike Dai Huabin, who looked down on Huo Yuhao and the others, Huo Yuhao recalled the names the referee had just called out after his excitement had subsided.

The moment he heard the familiar name Dai Huabin, he immediately looked toward Assessment Area Forty. When he saw that familiar figure, an expression of intense hatred appeared on his face.

Huo Yuhao hated the son of his enemy to the core. If Sky Dream Ice Silkworm hadn't kept reminding him to stay calm from within his Sea of Consciousness, he might already have charged over to tear Dai Huabin apart with his bare hands.

"Huo Yuhao, what's wrong? The referee's already urging us to hurry off the arena." Xiao Xiao was nearly at the edge of the platform, but Huo Yuhao was still standing in the middle, so she called out to him.

Xiao Xiao's words pulled Huo Yuhao back from his hatred. He took one last, deep look at Dai Huabin's disappearing figure, then turned and walked off the arena with Wang Dong and Xiao Xiao.

The first round of the New Student Assessment ended quickly. The assessments over the following two days were undoubtedly a hard struggle for the other freshman teams, but they were easy for Mo Yuan and the others.

After they showed strength far beyond that of ordinary students, the other teams in Assessment Area Nineteen put up only token resistance when facing Mo Yuan and his teammates, then simply admitted defeat.

There was nothing shameful about doing so. Even if they fought with all their might, the outcome wouldn't change in the slightest. They would only waste their stamina and Soul Power for nothing, while increasing their risk of elimination.

During the three days of assessment, Mo Yuan stuck to the plan they had made. He wouldn't step in unless they faced a team led by a Soul Elder.

But even when they were outnumbered two to three, Bai Yi and Nanmen Yun'er still won every match with ease.

After the first round of assessments ended, the New Student Assessment was essentially over. Over those three days, some talented students had emerged and won applause, while many others had broken down in tears.

But the rules were the rules. If they failed the assessment, their only option was to leave the academy.

There was a day of rest after the first round of assessments. On that day, more than half the students would soon be leaving with their luggage, their faces despondent.

"Brother Moyuan, if we weren't geniuses, if our talent wasn't good enough, would we be just like them now, helplessly packing our things and going back where we came from?"

Bai Yi stood by the dormitory window, watching the dejected figures outside. He seemed to have been struck by something.

Mo Yuan emerged from his meditation and glanced out the window before replying in a calm voice.

"But we do have talent, don't we? Besides, those students were only eliminated because they lost at Shrek Academy. That doesn't mean things will always be that way for them. It's just one path. If it doesn't work, they can take another."

"Another path?" Bai Yi repeated the words, then gave a soft laugh.

"But this is the Douluo Continent. For Soul Masters, there's only one way forward: becoming stronger. And talent decides everything. The strong prey on the weak here. If the weak can live out their lives in peace, they're already lucky.

"As for ordinary people... if they're unlucky, they might be sitting at home one day when an attack from who-knows-where flies in and blasts them to pieces. It's truly tragic..."

Mo Yuan looked at Bai Yi in surprise. In the twelve years since arriving on the Douluo Continent, this was the first time he had heard a Soul Master say something like that—and Bai Yi was a genius with the potential to become a Titled Douluo.

And to those who see a few similarities with other books and immediately call it plagiarism: is there something wrong with your heads? What kind of book do you think I'm writing?

It's fanfiction—and fanfiction of Douluo, at that. There are over ten thousand Douluo fanfics on this site! Who could write in this genre and claim their book has no similarities to anyone else's?

And about that Ma Xiaotao scene: that part really was a problem. After all, when I read Douluo II fanfiction a few years ago, quite a few people wrote it that way. Now everyone's so polarized that I get criticized as soon as I write it. I admit that's on me for not catering to the current market.

If you want to keep criticizing me, go ahead. The New Year is coming soon, so I'd like to wish you all a family reunion dinner with just one person—and a selfie that doubles as your family portrait.