At the beginning of the new semester, a tense atmosphere hung over Shrek Academy.
The upcoming advancement assessment would determine whether they moved up to a higher year or packed their things and left.
The assessment was held in the Colosseum, and the rules were simple and brutal: students would face the ferocity of Soul Beasts and fight them to the death. The maximum score was 150, and 60 was a passing grade.
The higher the Soul Beast's age, the higher the base score. For example, challenging a thousand-year Soul Beast earned a base score of 100, with the remaining 50 awarded for combat skill.
The stands were already full of students waiting to be assessed.
"Next, Dai Huabin!"
At the referee's loud call, Dai Huabin strode into the arena with an arrogant expression.
After a special training regimen over the break, he needed a decisive victory to wash away the humiliation of his previous assessment.
"I choose a thousand-year Soul Beast!"
The iron cage opened, and a three-meter-long thousand-year Wind Tiger, its fangs bared, roared as it charged out.
A trace of savagery flashed through Dai Huabin's eyes. His White Tiger Martial Soul possessed him in an instant. He neither dodged nor retreated, choosing instead to meet the beast head-on in the most primal, bloodiest way.
"White Tiger Vajra Transformation!"
"White Tiger Intense Light Wave!"
The rumble of attacks mingled with the beast's roars.
In just three minutes, the thousand-year Wind Tiger was whimpering on the ground beneath Dai Huabin's relentless assault. Its neck was slick with blood, torn open by force.
"Dai Huabin: base score, 100; technique score, 45; total score, 145!"
The referee's satisfied voice rang out. Among the students who had competed so far, that score was far ahead of the rest, even approaching the maximum.
The whole arena erupted in an uproar, and many students looked at Dai Huabin with awe.
Enjoying the admiration around him, Dai Huabin walked straight up to Huo Yuhao. He raised his chin and gave him a provocative look. "Huo Yuhao, do you dare to make a bet with me? Whoever gets the higher score wins. The loser gets slapped!"
Huo Yuhao looked at him as if he were an idiot, a playful smile tugging at his lips.
He'd never seen anyone so eager to stick their face out and get slapped.
He turned to Wang Dong beside him and teased, "Wang Dong, look at him, so desperate to show off. Doesn't he remind you of yourself yesterday?"
Wang Dong froze, then remembered sneaking up on Huo Yuhao the day before, only to be pinned down and have her bottom spanked until it was sore.
"You're the one who looks like him! I'm way more handsome!" Wang Dong was instantly mortified and pinched Huo Yuyao hard.
"Are you afraid?" Seeing Huo Yuyao ignore him, Dai Huabin flushed and stepped forward to challenge him.
Huo Yuyao finally gave him a proper look and smiled lightly. "You'd better wash your face, then. Wouldn't want to get my hand dirty."
With that, he walked past Dai Huabin and headed straight for the center of the Soul Fighting Arena.
"Next, Huo Yuyao. Choose the age of the Soul Beast you want to challenge," the referee said, consulting his roster.
Huo Yuyao stood in the middle of the arena, upright and composed. His calm voice carried across the stands. "I choose a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast."
Silence.
The noisy Colosseum fell dead quiet.
The pen nearly slipped from the referee's hand.
He stared, thinking he'd misheard. "What did you say? Ten thousand years? Huo Yuyao, the highest age of Soul Beast available for the Academy's advancement assessment is a thousand years! Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts are dangerously unpredictable. If anything goes wrong, we may not be able to rescue you in time. You're gambling with your life. Don't be foolish!"
The students in the stands erupted, too.
"Is he crazy? A second-year student challenging a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast?"
"That's not how you show off!"
Dai Huabin sneered repeatedly. "You're asking for death. You're willing to throw your life away just to beat me?"
Even the students in Class One thought Huo Yuyao was being too reckless.
"Is our class monitor really that bold?"
Just as the referee was about to reject the request outright, a gentle voice came from the high platform:
"Let him try."
Everyone looked up. Dean Yan Shaozhe stood at the edge of the platform, his gaze fixed intently on Huo Yuyao below.
"Dean..." The referee hesitated.
"I'll take responsibility if anything happens. Bring out a Ten-Thousand-Year Bloodthirsty Demon Bear for him," Yan Shaozhe said with a wave of his hand.
Since the dean had spoken, the referee said no more. He merely looked at Huo Yuyao as if he were already dead.
"ROAR—!!!"
As the massive iron gate slowly rose, a terrifying aura swept across the arena, so oppressive it took everyone's breath away.
A black bear over five meters tall, its body radiating a thick, bloody stench, charged out.
A Ten-Thousand-Year Bloodthirsty Demon Bear!
Each step its massive body took seemed to make the ground tremble.
The students in the stands went pale. Even through the protective barrier, they could feel the shudder that rose from their very souls.
Yet Huo Yuyao stood at the heart of the storm without even lifting an eyelid.
He didn't release his Martial Soul or reveal a Soul Ring.
Only the calm gaze in his eyes ignited with golden flames.
The instant the Bloodthirsty Demon Bear opened its jaws and lunged toward him—
"Hum!"
Nine silver streaks of light rose silently behind Huo Yuyao.
They were nine exquisitely crafted flying knives, each as thin as a cicada's wing! Every one of them radiated a terrifying fluctuation of Soul Power—a Level Five Soul Tool!
"Go!"
Huo Yuyao stood with his hands behind his back and uttered a single word.
In the next instant, the nine flying knives seemed to come alive, tracing nine strange yet graceful arcs through the air.
There were no earth-shaking explosions or dazzling Soul Skill effects.
Only lines—moving at the utmost speed!
It was the ultimate expression of Psychic Power under precise control!
Guided by Huo Yuyao's vast, ocean-like Psychic Power, the nine knives fluttered around the Bloodthirsty Demon Bear like nine butterflies weaving through flowers.
"Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!"
The muffled sounds of blades sinking into flesh ran together.
The Bloodthirsty Demon Bear's vaunted ten-thousand-year defense was as fragile as tofu before the Level Five Soul Guidance Flying Knives.
It roared in fury and swung its massive paws, trying to crush the bothersome "flies." But the knives were impossibly nimble, always slipping past its attacks at the last possible moment before slicing deep into its joints, tendons, and vulnerable sides.
Ordinary Level Five close-combat Soul Tools would naturally struggle to truly wound a Ten-Thousand-Year Bloodthirsty Demon Bear. But with Huo Yuyao's Psychic Power bolstering them, the knives could slice through iron as easily as mud, as if enchanted, unstoppable by anything.
It was a one-sided, merciless torture.
Huo Yuyao stood exactly where he was. He didn't even shift his feet, and not a speck of dust touched his clothes.
His gaze was as calm as still water, as if he were conducting a grand symphony rather than fighting for his life.
He had honed this style of combat through countless real battles with Ma Xiaotao. With his terrifying mental strength, adding nine flying knives was like moving his own arms and fingers.
"Roar..."
In less than a minute, the once-mighty Ten-Thousand-Year Bloodthirsty Demon Bear let out an unwilling cry and crashed to the ground.
The tendons in all four limbs had been severed, leaving it unable to move. It could only twitch helplessly on the ground.
The entire arena fell silent.
Everyone's mouths hung open as if their jaws had come unhinged.
The sneer on Dai Huabin's face froze, replaced by deep fear and disbelief.
What was this?
No Martial Soul? No Soul Skills? He hadn't even moved his hands?
He'd crippled a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast with just a few knives?!
With a thought from Huo Yuyao, the nine flying knives instantly returned and lined up neatly behind him before vanishing into his Storage Soul Tool.
He looked up at Yan Shaozhe on the high platform and bowed slightly.
Yan Shaozhe drew a deep breath, unable to conceal the astonishment in his eyes.
"Huo Yuyao has successfully passed the advancement assessment by challenging a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast."
"Base score: 100. Technique score: 50."
"Total score: 150!"
Yan Shaozhe paused, then added a line that sent the entire arena into an uproar:
"He gets 150 because 150 is the maximum score."
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