Teammates / The Fate of "1"

After discussing it with Xiao Nai, Zheng Li wrote down "Power Attack System."

He had originally planned to choose the Support System.

From the beginning, he had intended to cultivate the Heart of Spirit first. But because the Soul Ring granted by the system was the most suitable, he had let Xiao Nai absorb the First Soul Ring instead.

The system had told him that most of the Heart of Spirit's Soul Skills would probably be support-oriented.

Beyond that, the system hadn't said anything.

It seemed the system didn't want to say too much about the Heart of Spirit.

Both he and Xiao Nai could feel that the Heart of Spirit was far stronger in essence than Xiao Nai.

Zheng Li stuck to his position, but Xiao Nai insisted that he cultivate the Spirit of Light first.

In the end, she persuaded him.

For one thing, Xiao Nai was just as stubborn. And he felt she had a point: the two of them were alone in the Douluo World, so it was better to have some means of protecting themselves first. No matter how many people protected you, your own strength was the most reliable.

At that point, the choice between Power Attack and Support was obvious.

Who would have thought the Heart of Spirit was primarily support-oriented?

Still, although Zheng Li agreed with Xiao Nai, he promised to do everything he could to raise the age of the Spirit of Light Soul Ring in the future.

"That makes sense." Nai tilted her head. "Let's try it later. Remember to find time to go to Shrek City."

Although she hadn't bathed in three months, Xiao Nai was a Martial Soul and naturally had no dirt on her. It was only a psychological hang-up.

"All right." Zheng Li nodded.

Just then, Shen Lan finished collecting their "cultivation directions" and began announcing the rules for the Freshman Assessment.

Chapter 23: Teammates

Over the past three months,

most of their classes had been theory, training, and practical combat.

They had practical combat once a week, with training and theory taking up most of the schedule.

The opponent changed each time, and after a month and a half, the rules changed as well.

They went from one-on-one matches to team battles, with formats ranging from three-on-three to seven-on-seven.

Their teammates changed each time too, chosen by lot. The selections were still arranged sensibly, though; they wouldn't put several Power Attack students or several Support students together.

Zheng Li had faced Zhu Lu in a one-on-one match, and Ling Nan had faced her too, but Zheng Li had never gone up against Dai Huabin. He had, however, fought Dai Huabin in a team battle.

The result... was a loss.

His Soul Skill, Light Sword, had pierced Dai Huabin's White Tiger Protection Barrier, but Dai Huabin blasted a hole in it with White Tiger Intense Light Wave and charged through.

The Light Sword could attack from multiple angles, but it couldn't track its target.

With White Tiger Vajra Transformation bolstering Dai Huabin and the help of his teammates, their team didn't last long.

Then it was time to announce the groups.

Shen Lan said, "Group One: Dai Huabin, Zhu Lu, and Qing Xinyu. Group Two..."

Just as expected...

Wait, what?

Qing Xinyu? What the hell was Qing Xinyu? Where was Cui Yajie?

Zheng Li's face filled with astonishment.

The seed team would win the championship, and being their homeroom teacher naturally came with plenty of benefits. So he'd assumed that Dai Huabin, the team's ace, wouldn't be moved. But now...

Dai Huabin and Zhu Lu, sitting in front, furrowed their brows too.

Once Shen Lan had explained the Freshman Assessment rules and announced that the champion team would receive a rare reward, they had set their sights on the title.

They also knew that each class would certainly have a strong team aiming for the championship.

Dai Huabin thought that his team was Class Five's strongest. He wasn't being conceited—their strength spoke for itself.

And now? They'd been given a weak link?

Meanwhile, a quiet-looking, sweet-faced girl in the back row smiled with delight.

As far as she was concerned, the Freshman Assessment was already in the bag.

Qing Xinyu was a girl with Soul Power at level twenty. She was a Control System student.

Quite a few students in the class had reached level twenty over the past three months, Ling Nan among them.

But without a Second Soul Ring, they were still only Soul Masters.

Zheng Li was stunned for a moment, then hurriedly listened as Mu Jin continued making the announcements.

"Group Eleven: Zheng Li, Ling Nan, and Cui Yajie. Group Twelve: Su Yunqing, Shan Bai, and Fu Renhua. Group Thirteen..."

Zheng Li: "!!"

He was completely bewildered when he heard the groups.

Cui Yajie was on their team? Even if she wasn't with Dai Huabin's group, shouldn't she have been put with Su Yunqing?

Together, those three would have made another seed team.

He just hadn't expected to be grouped with her.

He'd thought their chances of winning the Freshman Assessment and earning the compensation in Gold Soul Coins were slim, but now...

They'd gone up considerably.

But...

Would Cui Yajie have a problem with it?

Zheng Li couldn't help looking toward a beautiful pink-haired girl seated two rows ahead and to his right.

It was Cui Yajie.

Cui Yajie seemed to sense someone watching her. Perhaps she also wanted to see who her teammates were, because she turned around, meeting Zheng Li's gaze.

Then Cui Yajie gave Zheng Li a beautiful, slightly seductive smile.

This wasn't Cui Yajie's fault. It was because of her Nine-Tailed Fox Martial Soul. Even without releasing it, her charm would seep out unconsciously.

Faced with that smile, Zheng Li simply nodded.

Xiao Nai: Heh.

Cui Yajie didn't take offense.

In Cui Yajie's opinion, she and Zheng Li, with Ling Nan added to the mix, would have no trouble passing the Freshman Assessment.

Their final ranking probably wouldn't be bad either.

She knew very well that they weren't a team of three, but "four"! That was thanks to Zheng Li's "Co-Combat."

Besides, Zheng Li's First Soul Skill was genuinely powerful.

Of course, she wasn't happy about the arrangement. Wouldn't it be better to join Dai Huabin's team and go for the championship?

Cui Yajie had her own reservations.

Class Five had one Soul Elder and three Soul Grandmasters.

Two Power Attack students, one Agility Attack student, and one Mental Control student.

The Freshman Assessment rules stipulated that each team could have only one Power Attack student, and that no two members could have the same future cultivation direction.

The second half of that rule had confused Zheng Li for quite a while when he'd read the original story.

The three members couldn't share a cultivation direction?

At the time, he'd understood it to mean that all three members had to have different directions—for example, Power Attack, Control, and Support.

But then he remembered that Huo Yuhao and Xiao Xiao had both chosen Control System, while Wang Dong had chosen Power Attack.

That was when Zheng Li realized that it was fine for two team members to share a direction; all three simply couldn't be the same, like Power Attack, Power Attack, and Power Attack.

Although there had been a change, Dai Huabin, Zhu Lu, and Qing Xinyu were undoubtedly Mu Jin's chosen seed team for the championship.

Zheng Li had expected Cui Yajie to stay with Dai Huabin's group.

But now that things had turned out this way... he was naturally pleased.

It would've been even better if Su Yunqing had joined them.

But that had become impossible the moment he wrote down Power Attack System. The first rule limited each team to a single Power Attack student!

Come to think of it, he and Cui Yajie had crossed paths quite a bit. They'd fought one-on-one once during practical combat, and been assigned to the same team twice during team battles.

They worked well together.

Shen Lan hadn't put the groups together at random. After watching their practical combat for three months, she knew them well. She had assigned the groups based on their Martial Souls, dorm assignments, teamwork, Soul Power Levels, and other factors.

Zheng Li's group was a little special.

Since he had Twin Martial Souls, Shen Lan naturally wanted to give him some consideration. Perhaps she might need his help with something in the future.

If Su Yunqing and Zheng Li hadn't both been Power Attack students, she would certainly have put Su Yunqing in his group too.

Su Yunqing... Shen Lan had rubbed her temples for a long while over that one.

If only the girl weren't a Power Attack student.

Su Yunqing was in an awkward position.

She couldn't be put in Dai Huabin's group, nor could she be put in Zheng Li's.

Otherwise, Zheng Li, Cui Yajie, and Su Yunqing together might even have been stronger than Dai Huabin's group! After all, with Zheng Li there—not to mention his powerful First Soul Skill—just his "Co-Combat" made his team the equivalent of four people!

Shen Lan and Cui Yajie had come to the same conclusion.

It was a shame, though...

Shen Lan shook her head and sighed.

Originally, Dai Huabin's team had been just as Zheng Li had expected. Then Mu Jin heard midway through that another class had a team with a Soul Elder. Dai Huabin and Zhu Lu had a Martial Soul Fusion Skill, but to play it safe, it would have been perfectly reasonable to put Cui Yajie on their team.

Shen Lan had hesitated again and again, but in the end, she had still assigned Cui Yajie to Zheng Li's group.

So Shen Lan had settled for the next best thing and put Qing Xinyu, one of the few students with Soul Power at level twenty and some experience working with Dai Huabin's team, in their group.

The two other members of Su Yunqing's team had also reached level twenty.

They could be considered half a seed team, at least.

Actually, Mu Jin's ideal team would have been Dai Huabin's group with Zheng Li added to it. But the rules wouldn't allow that.

Under the podium,

Su Yunqing looked a little disappointed.

She didn't care about rankings; she'd been looking forward to being grouped with Zheng Li and Ling Nan.

The groups were announced soon after, and the bell rang right on cue.

Class Five had twenty-nine groups, for a total of eighty-seven students. Shen Lan had expelled more than ten of them over the past three months.

Shen Lan said, "If anyone has a problem with the groups I assigned, come talk to me after class. I'll consider making changes. If you don't speak up, then don't complain tomorrow morning after I've submitted the names—it'll be too late. Go back and get some good rest. Give it your best in the competition, and do your best to pass the assessment."

There were nearly three hundred teams in the Freshman Assessment, and half of them would be eliminated.

Naturally, some students in the class were happy while others were worried.

After hearing Mu Jin's words, Dai Huabin, Zhu Lu, and Cui Yajie had their own thoughts—and they weren't the only ones.

Everyone wanted good teammates.

Failing the assessment meant elimination, and elimination meant packing up and leaving Shrek Academy.

It was time to see just how important a good teammate was.

Chapter 24: The Fate of "1"

After Shen Lan went over a few more points about the Freshman Assessment, she dismissed the class.