Proof of the Monster (Part 3)

The moment Le Bai stepped forward and threw his punch, Flender finally sensed the fluctuation of Soul Power on his body—it far exceeded level eight!

"This intensity, nineteen... no, it's already nearly level twenty! What did he do?!"

Flender couldn't fathom it, but what mattered most right now wasn't what Le Bai had done, but what he was about to do.

"With a Soul Power intensity of nearly level twenty, even without the enhancement of a Martial Soul, this counts as a 'heavy blow' for Hongjun!"

Flender gathered his Soul Power, widened his stance, and rushed forward, preparing to intervene.

A Soul Saint of over level seventy was strong, after all, and Flender himself was of the Agility Attack System, specializing in speed. In the fraction of a second before Le Bai's fist landed, Flender had already reached Ma Hongjun's side, nearly making contact.

However, Le Bai's attack took effect a step earlier.

Before Le Bai's fist could make intimate contact with Ma Hongjun, the Soul Power on his fist erupted prematurely, creating a shockwave that, while not particularly strong, spread in all directions!

The shockwave whipped up a powerful gust of wind, scattering the flames on Ma Hongjun's fist and blowing his round body far away.

Flender didn't have time to think; he accelerated to catch Ma Hongjun, retreated a few steps in the direction Ma Hongjun was flying, and used his own Soul Power to neutralize the remaining force.

"Whew—"

Le Bai maintained his punching posture, letting out a long breath. The foot he had stepped forward with had left a small pit about forty centimeters in diameter in the ground, and one could still faintly feel the lingering Soul Power rising from his outstretched fist.

Ma Hongjun lay in his teacher's arms with wide eyes, looking completely bewildered: Who am I? Where am I? What am I supposed to be doing?

Flender first checked Ma Hongjun's physical state, finding no obvious external or internal injuries, only that the clothes on his chest were torn, missing a patch of fabric, and he immediately felt relieved.

"Hongjun, how are you? Do you feel any discomfort?"

Just to be safe, Flender asked anyway.

"No..."

Ma Hongjun snapped out of his shock and slowly regained his senses: "I'm sorry, Teacher, I lost."

"Winning and losing are common occurrences, don't take it to heart."

Flender offered a word of comfort: "It doesn't matter that you lost this time; just win it back next time."

Ma Hongjun nodded vigorously: "Yes, I will work hard, Teacher!"

Flender set Ma Hongjun down, turned to look at Le Bai, and asked with a serious expression: "Le Bai, what did you just do? The moment you threw that punch, I felt your Soul Power reach a level of nearly twenty! You didn't use some evil method to boost your Soul Power just to get into the academy, did you?"

"What do you mean by 'evil method'?"

Le Bai stood there looking innocent: "If you're asking about the method I used to burst my Soul Power just now, that is a technique I created myself over the past two years, called Spirit Power Overclocking. It's just a very simple technique of compressing Soul Power and then releasing it."

"Compressing, releasing?"

Flender glanced again at the torn clothes on Ma Hongjun's chest: "Your fist released Soul Power before it even touched Hongjun just now; wasn't that because of a control error?"

"No."

Le Bai shook his head, quickly condensing even stronger Soul Power on his hand as proof: "If I couldn't control this level of Soul Power with ease, there would be no talk of Spirit Power Overclocking at all."

"!"

Flender's eyes widened. He could clearly feel that the Soul Power condensed on Le Bai's hand had already exceeded level twenty, yet Le Bai didn't even have a single Soul Ring: "On behalf of Hongjun, I thank you for holding back. However, I don't quite understand your current strength. If you don't mind, could you explain it to me in detail?"

"As long as you're willing to listen!"

Le Bai smiled: "I still want to join Shrek, after all!"

Flender chose the nearest Dormitory as the place for their conversation.

There were only two chairs in the Dormitory. Flender casually gestured for Le Bai and Oscar to sit by the bed, while he and Ma Hongjun sat directly on the bed: "Although I really want you to explain that skill called Spirit Power Overclocking right away, the speed at which your Soul Power level has increased also concerns me, so let's start there."

"There's nothing much to say about that."

Le Bai scratched his head: "I just followed the cultivation method Oscar taught me back then and kept cultivating."

Flender was about to say that was impossible, but a thought flashed through his mind, so he changed his question: "What do you mean by 'kept cultivating'?"

Le Bai said with a serious face: "I mean exactly what I said—I cultivate day and night."

Flender pushed up his glasses: "You cultivate even at night? Don't you want to sleep?"

"I did at the beginning."

Le Bai looked like he was trying hard to recall: "For the first few days, I often fell asleep in the middle of the night while cultivating. But after persisting for a few days, I was able to cultivate until dawn. Ever since I started using cultivation to replace sleep, the speed of my Soul Power improvement has become a bit faster!"

"No wonder you were able to improve by six levels in two years!"

Flender affirmed Le Bai's hard work: "And what is that Spirit Power Overclocking? It actually allowed you to burst out with nearly level twenty Soul Power. And looking at you now, that burst seems to have had no effect on you at all. As far as I know, there is no such convenient and useful technique in the entire world of Soul Masters."

"It's really simple."

Le Bai directly explained the principle: "As long as you compress the Soul Power in your body and keep it circulating while compressed, you can accumulate more Soul Power than your actual level. After that, you just need to release this Soul Power when you attack."

"That's it?"

Flender expressed his disbelief: "This is what you call Spirit Power Overclocking?"

Le Bai (OvO): "Yeah."

Flender stopped talking and closed his eyes to try it himself.

Before long, Flender began to frown.

Three minutes passed, and Flender opened his eyes: "No, I can't do it."

"Eh, why?"

Le Bai scratched his head: "I was doing it quite smoothly."

"Le Bai, what you just said was to maintain the state of compressed spirit power while simultaneously circulating it, right?"

Flender stated the difficulty he encountered: "But generally speaking, almost all spirit masters, including myself, can only complete one of those tasks—either compressing spirit power or circulating it. To accomplish both at the same time, I'm afraid one would need to master the secret technique of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect—Distraction Control—to have any possibility of success."

"Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect? Isn't that one of the Seven Great Sects you mentioned during class? Why bring up this sect? And what is Distraction Control? I don't know that secret technique."

Le Bai controlled his body to follow the guidance of the panel, allowing his Lv3 Acting skill to fully manifest, writing his current "mood" all over his face: Dean, what are you talking about? Dean, can you say something I can understand? Dean, are you trying to get me into the academy?

Although Le Bai didn't say it out loud, his expression clearly conveyed exactly that.

"Simply put, Distraction Control is the ability to use one's mind for multiple tasks at once."

Flender looked at Le Bai as if he were looking at a Monster: "You said you were maintaining the compressed spirit power state while circulating it; that is a classic case of 'Single-Minded Dual-Use'. You actually figured that out on your own without a sound!"

"Is that such an amazing thing?"

Le Bai asked happily: "Does that mean I can be considered a Monster now?"

"Ah... Hahaha!"

Flender laughed: "Yes! Of course you are! To comprehend Distraction Control on your own, create a technique like Spirit Power Overclocking, and even defeat a Battle Soul Master of your own level as a Support System spirit master—if you don't count as a Monster, then who does?"

"Does that mean I can join Shrek Academy?"

Le Bai looked at Flender with a hopeful face: "Can I take classes with Oscar in the future?"

"Yes!"

Flender patted Le Bai on the shoulder: "From this moment on, you are a member of our Shrek Academy and can enjoy all the resources within the academy. Once your spirit power reaches level ten, I will personally take you to hunt a Soul Beast!"

"Thank you, Dean!"

Le Bai thanked him sincerely, then remembered something and asked: "By the way, Dean, since I'm already a student of the academy, can I continue to live in your room? How should I pay the tuition? Can I continue with the iron work?"

"Don't worry about the tuition for now; you can pay it back when you have the ability to do so in the future."

Flender stood up: "As for the other matters, if you like, you can keep everything as it is, provided it doesn't affect your studies. However, starting tomorrow, unless the teachers have given other instructions, remember to gather at the academy's Playground before 6:00 AM every morning."

Having said that, Flender had already reached the door.

"Understood! Take care, Dean!"

Hearing Le Bai's happy voice from behind, the corners of Flender's mouth couldn't help but reveal a trace of a smile:

"His Martial Soul and Innate Soul Power are both quite average, yet he has joined the ranks of Monsters through his ability to control spirit power. Heh, I hope you can go even further..."