Preparing for the Exam

Being kept behind by the homeroom teacher actually wasn't a big deal, a thought that suddenly popped into Huo Yuhao's mind as he returned to the dormitory. He then hurriedly cast aside this rebellious thought; he was able to handle this situation because he hadn't lied. He could state the reason with a clear conscience, even if he had still concealed a portion of the truth. No matter what, Zhou Yi could never have imagined how a one-ringed student like Huo Yuhao could have sustained such a massive injury as a ruptured Sea of Spirit.

In the end, she could only scold him with a few harmless words before letting Huo Yuhao go. No matter how Huo Yuhao attended class, the fact that he could defeat Dai Huabin meant that he was a well-deserved monster at Shrek Academy, and monsters possessed their own autonomy. This had been a tradition since the founding of Shrek; you didn't need to worry about how they cultivated or studied. They would have their own methods.

However, this all depended on the stage of their development. If your strength regressed, these privileges would vanish. The specific classification was based on exam results at various stages. After years of changes, Shrek had reduced the weight of martial arts scores and significantly increased the weight of academic subjects. This was because the academy had received a lot of feedback from graduates, specifically that a large portion of those who left could not adapt to the environment.

The students here were like those living in an ivory tower, lacking an understanding of society. Various major families also voiced their dissatisfaction; Shrek only taught them how to fight, not how to govern a family. Many family heirs were students at Shrek, yet the academy took these heirs and turned them into nothing but muscle-bound brutes or pedantic scholars obsessed with empty virtues. For someone about to inherit a family, what kind of failure was that?

Shrek felt quite aggrieved by this. Historically, those powerful figures never needed teachers to instruct them on how to govern or conduct themselves; those were all self-taught. Geniuses possessed innovative spirits and flexible thinking; you couldn't expect a good-for-nothing to govern a country. That was outside their capability. Could a normal person perform the act of swearing an oath by the Luo River and then murdering their sovereign in the street? Nobody taught that either, yet they still did it. Don't blame the road for being uneven if you can't walk.

However, unable to stand these people's constant nagging, Shrek could only add history and other related subjects. After all, reading history could provide wisdom, and using history as a mirror could reveal the rise and fall of dynasties. If they truly couldn't learn it, then that was no longer the academy's business; as for those who hadn't fully grasped it, they could slowly understand it through practice. Following behind a genius, one could at least be a ruler who maintained the status quo.

As for the major development of Soul Guidance Devices, it required even more: knowledge and classification of rare metals, and how to locate rare metal veins. The function and classification of Soul Guidance Devices were as important as the knowledge of the most famous martial souls in Shrek. If your enemy used a Soul Guidance Device, you had to know its function and weaknesses to take relevant countermeasures. This led to a great development in academic subjects, and the status of these subjects rose accordingly.

Even so, Shrek still provided a way out for those students who only excelled in martial arts: if one's strength was absolutely overwhelming, they could be exempt from academic scores and avoid being eliminated. However, very few students used this rule. Geniuses were generally all-rounders; it was rare to find someone extremely lopsided in their studies. Even if they were lacking, they were compared to students of their own level. Teachers also didn't want students to become arrogant and stop studying, so they rarely spoke of this rule. Having a bit more culture was certainly a good thing.

Students leaving Shrek with culture was a win-win situation. It allowed more family heirs to come here to study, further expanding their influence. Although Shrek Academy was the number one academy on the continent—a title no one questioned—there were still many families that would not send their members to study here.

If you went to study at Shrek, you would inevitably be branded with the Shrek mark. Even if your strength became a bit stronger, from the perspective of family interests, it was definitely not allowed. If you formed a friendship with the family's enemy, it would certainly influence your decision-making. Therefore, one should nip such opportunities for emotional attachment in the bud, or rather, not allow such soil to exist in the first place.

Shrek had been trying to find ways to expand its base, but without success. Those who had always supported them were the original founding families, deeply bound to Shrek's interests. It could only be said that your enemy was your enemy; when you didn't change, there was no chance for these people to become your base. Why not maintain your own base? Spend some effort and resources to let the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect and other founding families gain more benefits, rather than giving opportunities to those who were never your base to begin with.

You wouldn't suffer any losses yourself, and you would stabilize your own base. Why not do it? Thus, one person in this generation of the Sea God Pavilion made a decision to communicate with the founding families or families with great connections to them, canceling the quotas for families that were not friendly to Shrek Academy. And so, the students of the Upper Three Sects from ten thousand years ago gathered once again at Shrek Academy. Even if there weren't many people, it represented a signal: the three parties had begun to cooperate.

This cooperation was not simple; behind it, the three elements of money, power, and authority began to merge. Everyone felt the storm coming and began to huddle together for warmth. The Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect represented the wealth that dominated the world; this was determined by their martial soul. The Clear Sky Sect represented absolute force, the weapon martial soul of absolute power. The Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan originally represented the power of beast martial souls, but due to the family's history and the evolution of their martial soul, they became the core family of Shrek Academy. This represented organizational power—the ability to use fame and status to organize money and force.

With only money or force, you would only be blind; this required the reputation of Shrek Academy. It just so happened that the current head of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan was very strong and respected, so the Upper Three Sects, which hadn't been gathered for a long time, were reunited in this generation. The upper echelons wanted to build a team to make an appearance and announce their return; two power-attack types and one support type made for a decent team. Barring any accidents, no one could take their spot; geniuses would always attract each other. There would absolutely be no accidents.

One of the representatives of the Upper Three Sects, Bei Bei, was currently sparring in the training arena. It was a two-on-two: Tang Ya and Bei Bei against Xu Sanshi and Huo Yuhao. For this exam, Bei Bei guessed that Huo Yuhao and his partner would be a two-on-two, so he was just training like this. If he guessed right, he'd make a killing; if he guessed wrong, he wouldn't lose anything. During the training, he even had the chance to squeeze some gold coins out of the rich kid—why not?

He took the opportunity to let Xu Sanshi, the investor, see Huo Yuhao's performance, striving to make him see a bright future and increase his investment, so he wouldn't give up on the future for a little bit of immediate petty gain. What did it matter if he sacrificed a bit of his own standard of living? This was heaven testing him. This was a sign that heaven was about to entrust him with a great mission. After a round of Bei Bei's smooth-talking, Xu Sanshi once again took out money to invest. This made Huo Yuhao feel too embarrassed to take it anymore.

This was just swindling people. Finally, under Bei Bei's suggestive gaze, he took it anyway. Huo Yuhao felt too embarrassed to even look Xu Sanshi in the eyes. Wouldn't this really damage his character? Once he had money in the future, he would definitely pay it back double. Just like that, this great battle began.

When the two sides separated, Bei Bei said to Huo Yuhao privately, "Don't worry. Spend whatever he gives you; don't be afraid of trouble. If it's not enough, ask him for more. As long as you can reach that level and join that team with us, everything is worth it."

"I could actually give you money too, but my money is different from Xu Sanshi's. The favors you owe would be different, and the things you'd have to do in the future would be different. My favors are too heavy; the difficulty of what you'd have to repay in the future would be high, which isn't good for your future. You might not understand now, but you will later." Watching Huo Yuhao's nervous and bewildered expression, Bei Bei laughed out loud. Such emotional displays from him were very rare, causing Tang Ya and Xu Sanshi to look over, not quite sure what they were talking about.

Once the arena was prepared, both sides took the field. Huo Yuhao and Xu Sanshi didn't know what the other side's tactics were, but neither of them had the ability to take the initiative. Huo Yuhao just stayed behind Xu Sanshi's shield to provide support, and Xu Sanshi asked a question.

"Yuhao, that kid Bei Bei hasn't been hit by your mental-type attack before, has he?" Xu Sanshi smiled with ill intent, his anticipation leaking onto his face.

"No, he hasn't, Brother Sanshi." Huo Yuhao thought for a long time before deciding to use this form of address.

"Good. When Bei Bei attacks us with everything he's got, you hit him with that, and I'll handle the rest." Thinking about how he was about to defeat Bei Bei, Xu Sanshi couldn't help but laugh out loud. He only stopped when he saw the other side observing them; he couldn't let the opponents discover anything unusual.

At the start, both sides instantly turned serious and released their martial souls. Three three-ringed soul masters, and Huo Yuhao, the one-ringed student, stood out a bit. But that didn't matter anymore. Xu Sanshi held up his heavy Mystic Tortoise Shield, from which one could feel a damp sensation the moment they got close—a top-tier defensive martial soul. Standing there, he had the air of a single man guarding the pass, impenetrable by ten thousand.

Spiritual Detection and Sharing were used immediately. This long-term usage made Xu Sanshi's eyes widen. He didn't have the discomfort Huo Yuhao had worried about, and Huo Yuhao breathed a sigh of relief in secret.

Feeling this god-like sensation, Xu Sanshi instantly understood why Bei Bei wanted to invest in Huo Yuhao; this soul skill was invincible at the low-to-mid level. His confidence surged in an instant. While keeping his eyes locked on Bei Bei, he could also see Tang Ya's movements. This prevented the situation where he might be worried about Tang Ya playing dirty and sneaking up on Huo Yuhao, causing him to be eliminated because he couldn't divide his attention. His previous method had been to constantly use his second soul skill to surround the area, but the soul power consumption was too high; he might have exhausted himself before the opponents even attacked. Now, he didn't have that worry.

Tang Ya didn't hold back either; her Blue Silver Grass bound Bei Bei immediately, stretching as he ran. Her first soul ring lit up, and Thunderbolt Dragon Claw was activated, slamming directly into the Mystic Tortoise Shield.

Mystic Tortoise Quake. To deal with Bei Bei's attack, Xu Sanshi made the same choice he had made in many previous battles. The two were forced apart by the sheer intensity of the collision. Just as Xu Sanshi wanted to continue attacking, he realized Bei Bei's retreat distance and speed were too fast. Then he realized it was because of the Blue Silver Grass—this was experience he didn't have from one-on-one battles. He couldn't handle it with his old experience, or things would go wrong. Xu Sanshi realized this problem.

They stopped, but Tang Ya didn't. She released her second soul skill: Parasite.

Xu Sanshi had no way to deal with this shameless skill. You could say the soul power it absorbed wasn't much, but over time, it was very annoying. Their team's soul power was clearly inferior to the opponents'; they could afford to drag it out, but his side couldn't. They had to find a breakthrough point.

Just like that, in the initial moments, both sides clashed several times, and the tremors constantly echoed through the training arena.

Xu Sanshi couldn't stand this war of attrition anymore; if it continued like this, they would definitely lose. Only a head-on collision offered a glimmer of hope. He told Huo Yuhao to be careful and see if he could use the vision from Spiritual Detection to fight the opponents.

Huo Yuhao hurriedly retreated, trying to stay as far away from the engagement zone as possible, while Xu Sanshi roared and charged forward. The vision provided him with various possibilities, helping him choose the collision zone. However, he still underestimated the control of a control-type soul master. By the third ring, some control couldn't be broken through by brute force alone. They hadn't had real battles yet; their grade wouldn't have them until the fourth year. This left him with very little experience.

Third soul skill, Shara Snake Net. The net constructed from Blue Silver Grass directly obstructed Xu Sanshi's advance, and this net also had a slowing effect. At this point, the toughness of the Blue Silver Grass could no longer be underestimated. Xu Sanshi couldn't break through the restriction immediately, and the opponents wouldn't wait for you; taking advantage of your mistakes to expand their lead was the golden rule, and their first choice definitely wasn't the turtle shell in front of them.

Tang Ya used her Blue Silver Grass to help Bei Bei approach Huo Yuhao faster, throwing Bei Bei out, and Bei Bei accelerated mid-air. He approached Huo Yuhao very quickly. By this time, Xu Sanshi had just broken free and returned to normal speed.

Xu Sanshi could only watch as Bei Bei attacked Huo Yuhao right under his nose; thanks to Spiritual Detection, he saw it very clearly. Even if it was useless, he could only hurry back. This was his wrong decision, and he had to make up for it.

But it was too late.