Opponent Xiao Xiao

A dazed Huo Yuhao was declared the winner of this intra-departmental match, securing those 10 points steadily. He had taken the win quickly using a mental attack, but for the sake of safety and his future, it was best not to use mental attacks again.

This ability carried a hint of mutual destruction; it was a pure contest of spiritual power that could drag an opponent into the domain where you were most proficient, then use your wealth of experience and strength to defeat them. Once they collided, the outcome was decided, leaving no room for unnecessary movements to drag things out.

The remaining matches would have to rely on the Tang Sect Secret Techniques he had been practicing diligently lately; when combined with Spiritual Detection, they could even cause Bei Bei a bit of trouble.

After being taken to a teacher with professional expertise to be checked and confirmed that he was in no great danger, he was released to wait for the notification for his next exam.

The time taken was neither short nor long, depending on the length of others' matches. Some people fought very sluggishly, and in such important matches, they would be even more cautious. Sometimes, when two such people ended up in a match together, it was torture. Neither was willing to exert their full strength and reveal a flaw, so they would drag it out until the time limit was exceeded. This rule could be said to be non-existent; it was an unwritten rule. The proctors couldn't stand such long matches and would tell the two examinees to hurry up and stop dragging their feet.

There was no need to care about such examinees. To put it mildly, they were too rigid; such people would never amount to much. At best, they would live out their lives in mediocrity, and Shrek Academy did not need such students. Even if the requirement was no longer that they must be monsters like the first generation Shrek Seven Devils, and the standards had dropped significantly, it still wouldn't accept such mediocre people. Even if you might experience something later that changes you, so what? There were so many geniuses and even monsters here waiting to get in who didn't need to go through all that. Therefore, such people generally wouldn't get in. You must dare to fight, be able to fight, and most importantly, be able to win.

Huo Yuhao, who had been taken to the lounge, felt somewhat at a loss; after all, he was young and lacked experience in adapting to unfamiliar environments. This lounge was less of a room and more of an open-air plaza. There were a large number of chairs and even beds in this plaza. Large amounts of ingredients were piled up on the site, and the chefs waiting on the sidelines were all soul masters; there was a high probability of encountering Shrek students helping out. It was best to be respectful to these people; you never knew what kind of connection this senior might have with you later, and a bad impression now could mean missing out on future opportunities.

There was no Xu Sanshi paying for a big meal today, and Huo Yuhao felt somewhat unaccustomed to it. That feeling of food filling his stomach, with energy constantly being conducted from his belly to his limbs and bones, making his cultivation speed noticeably faster—this made Huo Yuhao, who had been cultivating like a snail since he was a child, feel reluctant to let it go. Having been poor for so long, he couldn't really accept the cultivation speed slowing down.

But what other choice was there? You couldn't expect others to help you all the time. Besides, eating there to increase cultivation speed wasn't simple; even if it were expensive, there were plenty of people on the continent who could eat like that every day, but there weren't enough people who could cook like that. It was only here at Shrek Academy, where hidden dragons and crouching tigers resided, that such masters could be recruited.

Thinking about these things, Huo Yuhao arrived at the dining hall, a small, open-air, made-to-order workshop with ingredients piled up on the side, to be retrieved from the pile whenever they ran low.

Just as he was about to sit down, he saw the boss cooking, who looked somewhat familiar, causing his brain, which had been impacted by the mental strain, to start working again. His Spirit Eye began to focus, no longer as vacant as before. Looking closely, it was actually Bei Bei and the others. Bei Bei had previously said he would come to see Huo Yuhao during the individual battles; he hadn't expected them to be working as chefs here. Was the profession of a chef something they could do well? To be bold, had these people ever cooked before? Not the kind of cooking where you eat dry rations or barbecue in the Star Dou Great Forest. Most of them were pampered young masters and misses; could they have ever cooked?

Bei Bei and Tang Ya watched as Huo Yuhao walked over in a daze without recognizing them, and they were indeed very happy. Even now, Tang Ya was still covering her mouth and giggling. Huo Yuhao realized what was happening and felt even more embarrassed. He couldn't quite handle it; he felt awkward about what he had done himself. It was awkward even when he wasn't doing anything.

As for the match result, there was no need to ask; the fact that Huo Yuhao came out in one piece proved he had won, so there was no need to do anything redundant. The current task was to let Huo Yuhao quickly recover his state; anyone could see that the previous muddled state wouldn't do.

"Little Junior Brother, come eat first and recover your strength properly." After saying this, Bei Bei started to cook. To be honest, it wasn't of much quality; it was almost just throwing all the ingredients into a pot, adding water, and starting to boil them.

"These are processed ingredients, only one grade lower than the ingredients at that restaurant, but that's not the point. The point is that it's free today." While Bei Bei was cooking, Tang Ya was gesturing vividly as she introduced the situation to Huo Yuhao. Students who didn't know the situation would be at a disadvantage; a considerable number of people didn't want to or weren't used to this way of eating, so they prepared their own food. Thus, they missed out on this benefit. Of course, some people looked down on it and didn't come to eat; the status and strength of these people allowed them to eat better. But that was none of Huo Yuhao's business; the only thing he wanted to do now was fill his stomach.

In this way, Huo Yuhao discussed the details of his match with Tang Ya while enduring the situation, though in reality, there wasn't much to talk about. The world of spiritual power was ultimately something these warriors who loved fist-to-flesh combat couldn't understand. Huo Yuhao couldn't explain it clearly to them either. It was still quite happy, though; Huo Yuhao hid a part of it and told the battle as a joke, making Tang Ya and Bei Bei laugh out loud.

"Did Senior Brother Xu not come? He should be quite proactive, right?" Not seeing the figure of this already familiar senior, Huo Yuhao asked.

"Oh, that guy came too, but he's not in this place. The academy set up many such windows, and he should be doing what he has been doing for a long time." Tang Ya's expression was a bit strange when she said this, and Bei Bei just smiled somewhat mysteriously without answering the question directly: "You'll understand once you enroll. It's really not appropriate for us to say; it's better if you go see for yourself. Once you see it, you'll basically understand."

Since Bei Bei had said so, it wasn't appropriate for Huo Yuhao to keep asking. By this time, the ingredients were already cooked; they had been processed and brought over, and the students helping out only needed to complete the final step. At the same time, this allowed the examinees and official students to have a chance to interact, stimulating the interest of the examinees while also maintaining order in case of any potential disturbances and alleviating the dilemma of insufficient manpower.

By this time, many examinees had already finished their first match, and some had come to eat. Thus, Bei Bei and Tang Ya became busy and couldn't chat with Huo Yuhao anymore; even if it was a part-time job, they had to do it well.

After eating and drinking his fill, Huo Yuhao waited for a long time. This period felt like sleepwalking; the bustling crowd walked back and forth beside him, and he saw them, but his body didn't react until Huo Yuhao was found and it was time for his second match.

On the stage for this match was a girl, and Huo Yuhao had a sense of familiarity again.

"Hello, my name is Xiao Xiao, martial soul Three-Life Soul-Suppressing Cauldron, reporting for duty."

As soon as the cauldron was mentioned, Huo Yuhao immediately remembered the control-type soul master who had cut off his path of retreat in the team competition.