Secret Rivalry During the Basic Ability Test

At the dinner table, Bei Bei and Tang Ya were laughing quite impolitely at the process of Huo Yuhao being cut down. Huo Yuhao's performance had already far exceeded expectations; not being eliminated in the first round was already a victory. As for why they were laughing, it was mostly because they were reminded of their own highlight moments dominating the arena.

One didn't need to guess to know what kind of Soul Master served as the background for those highlight moments. Huo Yuhao still had a resentful look on his face as he stared at them.

"Little Junior Brother, cheer up. It's all in the past, no need to dwell on it. You've already performed very well. Back then, I personally... cough cough... cough cough."

"Never mind, let's not talk about it. The score will depend on the teachers' decision. Now, prepare for the individual battle."

"Based on your current performance, you need to win at least one match. Let's hope you draw a good bracket."

After seeing Huo Yuhao off to his dormitory, Bei Bei sighed and said to Tang Ya, "I didn't expect a skill as powerful as Spiritual Detection Sharing to fail to play a role, or even potentially result in a point deduction. I didn't realize that not everyone is like me, able to adapt to this soul skill instantly."

After all, not everyone possesses a top-tier martial soul and powerful spiritual strength. Bei Bei had experience with sudden buffs during team coordination back at the academy. Things had reached this point, so they could only leave it to Huo Yuhao himself.

"Bei Bei, in the individual battle, will Little Yuhao push himself too hard and get hurt?" Tang Ya also looked worried.

"We need to believe in Little Junior Brother's ability; he will definitely be fine. Besides, how could someone who lived in the Star Dou Great Forest on his own fail so easily?"

"He will definitely succeed," Bei Bei said firmly.

"How can this be?" Huo Yuhao's proctor was looking at Huo Yuhao's file. "This shouldn't be right. My teacher didn't teach me like this."

"If a Wind Baboon can produce this kind of soul ring, I'll eat poop right in front of my teacher." The proctor never believed this was a soul ring mutated from a ten-year Wind Baboon, but without further data to prove otherwise, he had to let it go.

What was even more difficult was the scoring, which assessed three main aspects: survival, defeat, and support effect (control was counted under support effect).

Although Huo Yuhao's survival was among the best for Support System Soul Masters—arguably second place, with the first place being that person from the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect who had dedicated protectors—he ultimately achieved the top score for survival in the support category. Even so, it wasn't high. A total of 22 points. It was already the highest in recent years.

There were no defeats to his name, and the one he injured couldn't be measured because he used a spiritual attack.

The support effect was even harder to judge; the role he played was negative. According to the accounts—or rather, tearful complaints—of the soul masters he "supported," the situation was originally evenly matched, but as soon as he provided support, they were left only to be beaten. There was no way to handle a possessor of what was clearly a god-tier skill who didn't know how to use it correctly. The teacher couldn't give Huo Yuhao a high score just because the skill was strong. Yet, he wanted to study this skill, which required him to be admitted. It was a dilemma.

In the end, based on the 15-point support baseline and a boost for his "extraordinarily long survival time," he was given 18 points. Don't underestimate the power of these 3 points; every year, many support types are cut because they are a few points short.

Special abilities could grant support types high scores, but perfect scores were rare, and the baseline for the support category was 20 points. All of this had to be made up for in the individual battle. How easy could that be?

Even if the first match was a coin toss against other support types, most would still need to win the second match. How easy could that be?

One could only hope that the opponents in the second or third matches were weak or severely injured so he could pick up a win; without that, it would be very difficult to pass the exam.

The only comforting point was that support types were allowed to surrender, while others were not. The reason was that other departments didn't need cowards; they had to exert their absolute power to defeat opponents. When you were needed to charge, you couldn't be a coward—you had to go straight in.

Support types were meant to run; you only got scolded if you ran too slowly. So many people laid out strategies for your survival; wouldn't it be a waste if you died? So, that was the difference.

This greatly increased the probability of encountering severely injured opponents, but he shouldn't be happy about it. History had proven countless times that even someone on their last legs could kill you before they collapsed. Don't pop the champagne; that was the wrong thing to do.

The proctor finished the difficult task of grading and prepared for the special ability assessment. Thinking about this gave him an even worse headache. The struggle between the Soul Guidance Department and the Martial Soul Department was becoming increasingly intense. It had already affected admissions. There was even a tendency to give lower scores if a martial soul was suitable for the Soul Guidance Department. The Soul Guidance Department resisted and protested fiercely, eventually managing to insert their own people. Although they couldn't truly confront the deeply rooted Martial Soul Department, it was a good start.

He had no intention of joining this war; he only wanted to teach his students well. This time, he wouldn't be biased like some others; he would only judge based on whether they met the scoring criteria.

Although this teacher didn't participate, the confrontation had already emerged, and people had already started forming factions. In the future, it would either be a great purge or a counter-purge, unless someone forcibly dealt with a group of people and suppressed the conflict to be handled by future generations—trusting in the wisdom of those who come after.

As the main person in charge of admissions, Yan Shaozhe was aware of this conflict. Someone would report to him about the various activities of the Martial Soul Department; that was the rule.

Of course, he hoped that no trouble would arise, but the most intuitive sign of the Soul Guidance Department's continuous expansion was the growth of its funding. Funding wouldn't appear or disappear out of thin air; it would only be transferred from one place to another. The Soul Guidance Department's funding was taken from the Martial Soul Department's previous budget, which made a portion of the Martial Soul Department very dissatisfied—this was being taken right out of their mouths. Interests were at stake, so they were bound to obstruct the Soul Guidance Department's ideas.

In reality, the funding per student in the Martial Soul Department hadn't changed; it was just that the number of people had decreased. Many students realized the benefits of Soul Tools for their own development and turned to the embrace of the Soul Guidance Department. However, the teaching staff hadn't changed in the short term. A teacher from the Martial Soul Department couldn't just transfer to the Soul Guidance Department to teach; they simply didn't know how.

This caused a large portion of the Martial Soul Department's teachers to be unemployed and idle. Without a source of income, how could they cultivate? Cultivation could be done through hard work like Huo Yuhao, but everyone could see his cultivation speed. What about after having resources? Everyone saw it for themselves. Even if one couldn't buy the heaven-defying opportunities Huo Yuhao had, couldn't one buy smaller resources?

For example, the Mysterious Water Pill, which was only useful at low levels, was quite expensive, and those suitable for high levels were even more so. Although the academy organized hunts for soul rings, it was impossible to find one suitable for everyone every time. At these times, you needed to find good information yourself to confirm locations and ensure a high success rate. These were all money. Not to mention the precious Spirit Bone; every time one was absorbed, it could save years of hard work. But the rarity and absorption conditions of these things were terrifyingly difficult.

Although a Spirit Bone could be stripped from a dead person, this was only if it wasn't damaged. It wasn't a special Spirit Bone that would break after a few uses. You also had to find one that matched your attributes. If a fire-type absorbed an ice-type Spirit Bone, not to mention freezing your legs, wouldn't you be afraid of it exploding inside your body when your soul power circulated?

You couldn't just absorb these things blindly; it was very easy for things to go wrong. Theoretically, low-level soul masters could absorb high-level Spirit Bones if the attributes were similar, though the improvement to oneself wouldn't be as great as when the levels matched. But as the saying goes, it was easy for things to go wrong. You couldn't guarantee that the Spirit Bone wouldn't go berserk during absorption. Sometimes, the residual spiritual power of the Spirit Beast remained inside; the spiritual power of a ten-thousand-year Spirit Beast was already quite high, and the resentment before death could easily condense on the Spirit Bone. This was something a low-level Soul Master couldn't absorb.

From this, it was clear that cultivation was a money-burning path. Opportunities to strike it lucky weren't non-existent, but they were too few to support a system for a powerhouse. A powerhouse must have a sufficiently complete system to exert their strength; partiality was very painful. This was even more true on the ever-changing battlefield; the little bit you were missing could very well cost you your life.

The conflict between the Soul Guidance Department and the Martial Soul Department was irreconcilable unless another channel could be found to support both academies, otherwise, they would keep fighting. But that was a matter for the future; they were about to fight now. Yan Shaozhe could only maintain his neutrality; after all, this also concerned his own interests.

Money was too far away for Huo Yuhao; that was something Wang Yi had to consider. Now, two words could describe him: "poor and arrogant." Having money meant being bold.

Wang Yi didn't really understand these things either, but among these creatures, he was already the most cultured. If he didn't find a way, there would be no future. So, while flipping through the history of the Douluo Continent, he dug out Das Kapital from the depths of his memory to study economics, trying to get Old Ma to tell him what to do. This was a very long process, which made Wang Yi very worried.

Reading required understanding, and this understanding was very difficult. Every year, many people worked very hard to memorize knowledge points in their minds but could never get high scores on exams; just thinking about it was a bit desperate. Some could even recite political textbooks backward, shocking the teachers, but what was the use? You couldn't write it down in the exam; you couldn't find the problem that matched that knowledge point.

If this problem appeared outside the textbook and you didn't recognize it, what was the use? Theory had to be combined with practice. The purpose of mastery lay entirely in application. You had to be able to associate; reading history was a good example. Anyone could look at history, but reading history wasn't simple. Just like that saying: there weren't many people in the country who truly understood the Twenty-Four Histories. Not to mention the massive word count, when you saw an action, you had to understand the political, economic, and military factors behind it. History books summarized this knowledge point for you, but when you read history yourself, could you see the connection between a person's death and the movement of an army?

This was a very difficult thing. Everyone was a half-baked amateur, just being forced to do things they weren't ready for.

During this meeting, Huo Yuhao saw a very special person—the kind of person who stood out the moment you saw them on the street. In short: flamboyant. Not only did he have a fair face with a bit of baby fat, but he also held a fan painted with hazy landscapes, which was clearly the work of a master. Despite his scholarly attire, he was a tall, burly man, which was quite a contrast.

After mutual introductions, Huo Yuhao understood that this person was named Xu Sanshi, a third-year student like Bei Bei and the others. He also possessed a top-tier martial soul, the Black Tortoise of Profound Darkness, and was known as the water-attribute beast martial soul with a secondary earth attribute that was supposedly unbreakable at the same level. According to him, he and Bei Bei were enemies.

Tang Ya added that their strength and talent were both top-tier, and neither could do anything to the other. The Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon possessed extreme aggression; when the strongest spear and shield collided, there was no way to determine who was number one. Although Bei Bei was indifferent to fame and fortune, he still had some obsession with being number one. The two of them still hadn't decided a winner.

Xu Sanshi was called over by Bei Bei to help Huo Yuhao train. Being able to take a beating made him suitable as a sparring partner. The individual battle relied partly on luck, but ultimately it depended on yourself to knock the enemy off the stage. Others couldn't help you, and the enemy wouldn't surrender, except for Support System Soul Masters.

Xu Sanshi said, "I can help you, but am I, Xu Sanshi, that shameless?"

"What are you going to offer to get me to help you?"

A while later, Xu Sanshi was squatting on the ground gnawing on grilled fish. "Hmm, your skills are indeed good, very much to my taste. Then I'll help you."

"Also, if you get admitted, don't forget about me. If I want to eat this again, I'll come looking for you. It's so delicious... eh."

Before Xu Sanshi could finish his thought, Bei Bei pulled him up. "If you're done eating, get to work. What's with all this dawdling?"

"That's right, finish our Yuhao's grilled fish and get to work. Do you want to be like a lazy donkey on a millstone?" Tang Ya, who had freed up her mouth after finishing the grilled fish, also chimed in from the side.

Huo Yuhao offered an awkward yet polite smile as he looked at them; he wasn't particularly close with Xu Sanshi, so he felt a bit shy about cutting into their conversation. Just watching them talk was interesting enough on its own.

Then, the group headed out of Shrek City to a wide-open field to practice their abilities. Xu Sanshi took the lead, setting his stance and inviting Huo Yuhao to attack him without even releasing his Martial Soul.

"Hey, aren't you being a bit too arrogant? Looking down on Yuhao like that," Tang Ya said, sounding somewhat displeased.

"If I don't start from the basics, how am I supposed to know how much strength to use for our sparring session?"

"Besides, even when I don't release my Martial Soul, my physical constitution is top-tier, alright? How much offensive power could a Support System user possibly have?"

"Since you're so confident, Xu Sanshi, let's make a bet. Our little junior brother is currently out of money for meals; if he can manage to land a hit on you, you'll cover his food expenses for the duration of the exams."

"Ha, whatever. Do you think the title of Eternal Defense was just given to me for nothing?"

"Wait, hold on—it feels like I've been set up again. You, Bei Bei, are full of bad intentions. That can't be right, can it?"

"There's no way I'd actually get hit, right?" Having been tricked many times before, Xu Sanshi fell into a deep state of self-doubt, but since he had already agreed, his personality wouldn't allow him to go back on his word.

Huo Yuhao ignored their discussion and activated his Martial Soul, Spirit Eye, to observe Xu Sanshi in minute detail. Although Xu Sanshi was spouting nonsense, he had assumed a defensive stance that was completely devoid of openings.

After a brief moment of thought, Huo Yuhao concluded that he only had one chance. He had to catch him off guard and unleash his strongest blow at maximum speed if he wanted any hope of harming him. Once Xu Sanshi released his Martial Soul, there would be no chance at all; even Bei Bei couldn't shatter the defense of the Black Tortoise of Profound Darkness.

Huo Yuhao took a deep breath, and the Green Aura began to circulate slowly through his body. After all, this was just training, so there was no need to push himself to the limit as he would in a life-or-death struggle.

He stepped back with his rear foot and then lunged forward with all his might, accelerating with the full power of Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track. He sacrificed the usual agility of the ghostly footwork in exchange for extreme speed as he charged toward Xu Sanshi.

Seeing Huo Yuhao move at such a speed, Xu Sanshi finally turned serious. He no longer dared to underestimate him and braced himself for the incoming attack.