Eating and Special Ability Points

Night fell, the bright moon hung high, and the stars remained. The moonlight illuminated the world, shining down on Huo Yuhao and his group as they ate together. They were exhausted from an afternoon of training and were now dining in a restaurant tucked away in a remote corner of Shrek City. Xu Sanshi, that wealthy playboy, was footing the bill; he looked truly charming as he tossed around banknotes representing gold soul coins, provided one ignored his otherwise handsome face, which was now swollen and marked with a distinct shoe print.

Those who recognized him couldn't help but chuckle. Such a situation was rare; no one had ever managed to break through his defenses during training. This made it all the more grating when he would stand there, looking breezy and making snide remarks while everyone else was in a disheveled state. He was incredibly annoying—the kind of person who would irritate both man and beast—yet there was nothing they could do about it.

Seeing Xu Sanshi in this state now felt incredibly satisfying. After his initial, clumsy attempts at concealment failed, he had simply given up. His unique style and unmistakable air of arrogance made it obvious to anyone who he was at a glance. Thus, Xu Sanshi began greeting acquaintances openly; as long as he held the initiative, he could minimize the awkwardness. Huo Yuhao and the others were waiting for Xu Sanshi to pay for their meal, so they didn't expose his disguise for the time being. After all, it was far too embarrassing for the renowned Eternal Defense to have his face slapped by a first-ring Support System Soul Master.

There was no rush to spread the news; this incident could be used to keep Xu Sanshi in check so he wouldn't be too arrogant. They could hold this over him for a lifetime.

"Hey, hey, stop laughing. Everyone who walks by the river eventually gets their shoes wet; this is just a minor setback on the road of life. Besides, this kid's Spirit System abilities are truly extraordinary—it's not a failure of combat skill." As he spoke, he waved his fan.

In the afternoon, Huo Yuhao's attacks would normally have been unable to harm Xu Sanshi, provided no soul skills were used. His teachers must have taught him to be careful when encountering a Spirit System Soul Master, but these proud geniuses were too young and arrogant to take it to heart. Part of it was also because Spirit System Soul Masters were so rare that they couldn't form a proper understanding of them.

In fact, as long as Xu Sanshi released his Martial Soul and built his defenses seriously, Huo Yuhao would have had no chance if he hadn't foolishly tried to probe with his mental power. A full-force mental attack had the potential to defeat or even kill any non-Spirit System Soul Master of a lower level. It was just that this move was a double-edged sword; Huo Yuhao had a high probability of becoming a vegetable himself. Since this wasn't a life-or-death battle, by the time Huo Yuhao had the ability to precisely control his mental attacks, his enemies would likely have ways to defend against them.

However, mental attacks were invincible in one-on-one combat; they could at least guarantee a draw.

Xu Sanshi had thoroughly enjoyed the valuable experience of fighting a Spirit System Soul Master, even if the process hadn't been particularly pleasant.

That kick should have been blocked steadily, but just as it was about to make contact, Xu Sanshi saw Huo Yuhao's eyes. The first soul ring flared brightly, and the Ten-Year Soul Ring, which should have been unremarkable, released a radiance that didn't belong to it.

Mental Interference Domain + Mental Attack + Purple Demon Eye!

The triple-layered attack left Xu Sanshi's mind completely blank. Huo Yuhao's raw mental power had already reached the level of a six-ringed soul master; even if the quality wasn't as high as that of a certain bug whose mental power was unprecedented and would never be surpassed, it wasn't something an ordinary person could resist. His movements paused for a split second—and this was right when the attack was about to hit his face.

Huo Yuhao performed an aerial flip to avoid Xu Sanshi's blocking arm and landed a mid-air kick that sent Xu Sanshi flying. That was how the shoe print on his face came to be.

Huo Yuhao didn't have it easy either; the mental backlash left him dizzy, the most direct symptom being another nosebleed. It was foreseeable that Huo Yuhao would suffer from anemia, and it would persist for a long time.

This small tremor in the Sea of Spirit woke Tian Meng up. He was dazed for a moment before realizing the cause, and he said to Huo Yuhao, "I didn't expect the backlash of a mental attack to be so powerful. We soul beasts don't have this trouble. I'll limit your output for now; your Sea of Spirit is too fragile to be pushed this hard. It will leave hidden injuries and pose risks for your future development."

"If you want to attack beyond the limit, call me to execute it. You can't control it well enough yet; it's too dangerous. Just work hard to reach level 20, and then we can really take off."

After he finished speaking, the soul ring Huo Yuhao hadn't had time to retract flickered slightly before fading away. It didn't attract any attention—or so he hoped. Even if they had noticed, they wouldn't have said anything; respecting others had always been one of the good qualities that made Bei Bei so popular.

The rest of the time was simple: Xu Sanshi acted as a punching bag for Huo Yuhao, while Bei Bei and Tang Ya observed from the side to identify flaws and the sequence of use in Huo Yuhao's Tang Sect Secret Techniques. No soul skills were used again; Bei Bei had sensed that the release of Huo Yuhao's soul skills placed immense pressure on his body, so it was best to avoid them if possible.

One shouldn't teach blindly when a system of soul skills hasn't been formed; you never know what kind of soul skills you might obtain later. This was especially true for soul masters who awakened among commoners, and even more difficult for soul masters like Huo Yuhao, whose attributes were extremely rare. Being able to find a suitable soul ring was already quite good. Those large families didn't have to worry about this; thousands or tens of thousands of years of experience allowed them to find the most suitable path of growth.

Take the White Tiger Family as an example. As a family possessing a Power Attack System Martial Soul, anyone slightly familiar with them would know their soul ring configuration below the sixth ring. If these were exposed for a rogue cultivator without a background, it would be extremely dangerous, as they could be targeted and ambushed. The soul rings of the Evil Eye White Tiger might look a bit mediocre at first glance, but working backward from the results, one could conclude it was a top-tier configuration.

Why?

There was only one reason why uniform soul skills had no obvious weaknesses: they were extremely mediocre. You read that right; top-tier families had always used mediocre soul ring configurations, but these few mediocre soul rings were able to bring out the competitiveness of this Martial Soul.

To answer this question, we must return to the essence: what is the task of the Power Attack System?

It is to charge, to charge like a soldier. To smash and shred the enemy's formation. To ensure the enemy's Power Attack System cannot threaten our back row, while doing everything possible to deal with the opponent's back row.

This required the Power Attack System to have extremely strong attack power and burst capability; as for endurance and defense, those were left to the teammates. Looking at these soul skills, it became clear: they provided a massive boost to the user, allowing them to have decent burst capability even without support, providing a chance to turn the tide in adversity. Extremely strong single-target attacks ensured offensive capability, supplemented by area-of-effect attacks—by this point, the group attacks were already high-level soul rings. Even so, a concentrated hit on a fragile target was painful.

This created a near-perfect "small hexagon" warrior. They might not have the chance to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with absolute geniuses, but they could ensure they wouldn't hold a team of geniuses back. This was enough to ensure the survival of a family.

Most importantly, the acquisition of these soul skills wasn't as demanding as those top-tier soul ring configurations, allowing for large-scale deployment. There is strength in numbers, after all; such cheap yet numerous family soul masters were not to be trifled with.

Huo Yuhao would have to face this problem in the future. He needed to carve out his own path, but for him, there was no room for trial and error or failure. This would require a little bit of luck. His first soul ring already possessed top-tier support capabilities; would his future soul rings be Control, Defense, Speed, or Attack? He couldn't choose all of them; that would only lead to mediocrity in everything. One person could not defeat a team; you needed to find your place within a team. Bei Bei seemed to have some ideas, which was why he had called Xu Sanshi over to help.

No matter what, Xu Sanshi was a top-tier soul master of his age and wouldn't let just anyone use him as a punching bag. Since it was someone Bei Bei had his eye on, he was naturally interested in helping out.

Most positions in the Support System were ones where you could just get by. A team couldn't be composed entirely of top-tier soul masters, but if you wanted to achieve the most elite soul master team, you had to have a top-tier Support Soul Master who could raise both the floor and the ceiling of the team.

Two Power Attack types fighting a team would eventually lose. If you had one Power Attack type and one Support type, you had a fighting chance. Take the top-tier support Martial Soul, the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Pagoda: it could comprehensively improve soul power, attack power, speed, defense, attributes, and even mental power.

At that point, it became a matter of seeing who fell first—whether the Power Attack type used absolute violence to sweep all seven, or got bogged down and eventually lost, though they would still have a chance to take a few down with them.

The buffs from a support were too terrifying, which was why functional support Martial Souls were indeed harder to cultivate than others. The Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Pagoda Martial Soul had even greater limitations; for the vast majority, the limit was level 79. It wasn't until the first generation of Shrek Seven Devils that the limit was broken, cracking the shackles and giving people hope.

Although ten thousand years had passed, very few had broken the limit, but the eighth-ring soul skill was too heaven-defying; an absolute life-saving skill added too much room for error. It allowed some highly restrictive soul skills to be unleashed on the battlefield, and with the terrifying buffs of the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Pagoda, even "burning the heavens and boiling the seas" was not impossible.

Therefore, a good support was too important and too rare. In the absence of special circumstances, it was best to cultivate them from a young age. Good cabbages were already spoken for; it was best to use one's own eye for treasure. Encountering a soul master who could provide extremely strong support at a low level was a godsend. The geniuses of the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect already had their own teams; Bei Bei and the others weren't in that circle.

This was where Huo Yuhao's value became apparent. Regardless of whether his background was clean, he was certainly "clean" in terms of resources—he couldn't even afford to eat.

Although Bei Bei didn't have much money either, things that could be solved with money were never an issue in the eyes of these aristocratic scions. Wasn't Xu Sanshi very wealthy? His clothes alone looked expensive.

Even covering Huo Yuhao's meal expenses at this cafeteria for the next few days was no pressure; if there was pressure, he could always sell his pants. As long as one's thinking didn't stagnate, there were always more solutions than problems.

Realizing the severity of the situation, Xu Sanshi finally reacted: "You brat, you made this bet because you had your eyes on my wallet! I knew you were a devious old fox, Bei Bei, and had no good intentions."

Huo Yuhao felt very embarrassed thinking about the high cost of the meals, but he was interrupted just as he was about to speak.

"You don't need to refuse, kid. When I, Xu Sanshi, lose a bet, I always keep my word. I must hurry up and eat a few more bites; I'll be drinking the northwest wind for the next few days."

Seeing his expression switch seamlessly between serious and comical, everyone couldn't help but laugh.

Seeing that everyone had finished eating, Bei Bei began to summarize: "Thanks to the generous sponsorship of a certain someone, I don't have to worry about my little junior brother starving to death in the next few days. This is a good sign. I wish my little junior brother success in the individual battle and in getting admitted to Shrek Academy to continue being my junior brother."

"Thank you, everyone." Having gained their trust, Huo Yuhao felt a sense of warmth, and their expectations made him even more determined to get into Shrek Academy.

"Oh, right, Xu Sanshi, don't forget to keep coming to help my little junior brother train over the next few days. No slacking off."

Xu Sanshi wore a sorrowful smile, the kind of look one has when they think school is over, only for the teacher to keep them in the classroom for extra lessons.

"Ahhh, what do you call this? Losing the girl and the army too?"

"No, it's selling yourself and then counting the money for the other person."

And so, the devilish training began over the next few days, urgently improving Huo Yuhao's practical combat skills. As a result, Huo Yuhao only felt restricted at the very beginning, but he quickly adapted to the rhythm of the battle. Huo Yuhao didn't have much experience in face-to-face combat, but all things in the world lead to the same destination; he could adapt his experience in killing to practical combat.

This rate of improvement was startling, which slightly comforted Xu Sanshi, who was heartbroken over his thinning wallet. Because of the high energy content of the food, Huo Yuhao only needed to eat one meal a day and couldn't eat anything more.

Even though the small cocoon formed by the Green Aura absorbed a large portion, the conversion process was still too slow, lacking the ability to digest and convert it into energy in one go as it had when the Green Aura was previously active. Consequently, Huo Yuhao had visibly gained a circle of weight over these past few days. With a glowing, ruddy complexion, he looked remarkably healthy.

In the midst of this, he took time out to participate in the special ability assessment. This assessment was essentially a formality, as most people had few secrets left that weren't already written in their personal files. The assessing teachers reached a score after only a brief discussion.

However, Huo Yuhao was surprisingly given only 22 points, a result that made everyone frown. There was definitely something wrong; given Huo Yuhao's role as a support and the unique nature of his Martial Soul, he could have even vied for a perfect score.

Huo Yuhao understood in his heart that this was already the final grade. Although he didn't know why the academy teachers were targeting him, there was no point in investigating it now. Only by having both performance and luck in the Individual Battle would he have a glimmer of hope.

He calculated in his mind that 22+18 only equaled 40, so he had to get 20 points in the Individual Battle. He had to secure points in the first round, the support internal battle. At this point, there were two options: one was to use the support's privilege to forfeit the second round and see if he could encounter a severely injured or exhausted Soul Master in the third round to pick up an easy win. The other was to fight both rounds and aim for a draw in both.

These were all rather pessimistic plans; if his luck was good enough, he might just encounter a Soul Master in the second round who had fought tooth and nail in the first and was heavily injured, allowing him to happily breeze through.

Thinking of Tian Meng's guarantee, Huo Yuhao felt a portion of his anxiety subside, and he fell asleep under the bright moonlight to welcome tomorrow's competition.