Du Weilun did not speak immediately.
He pushed the two wooden boxes forward.
Dai Huabin stared at the boxes, his mind racing.
In the original story, the reward for the Freshman Assessment champions had been one Soul Bone. Just one.
Now, two boxes sat on the table. Clearly, they might contain two Soul Bones.
"Both of your performances were witnessed by the entire Martial Soul Department faculty."
Du Weilun leaned back in his chair.
"You were undefeated in the round-robin stage and undefeated in the elimination stage. From beginning to end, not a single team managed to take even one round from you. There has never been a result like this in the Freshman Assessment records of the past twenty years."
Dai Huabin did not respond, waiting for him to continue.
Du Weilun tapped the tabletop.
"More importantly, the Martial Soul resonance between you two, as well as the state you displayed in the finals, Dai Huabin. Taken together, these things made the academy feel that ordinary rewards were unworthy of your performance."
Du Weilun reached out and removed the sealing strip from the wooden box on the left. The lid popped open.
A section of bone lay quietly at the bottom of the box, cushioned by black velvet.
The bone was dark gold, its surface marked by faint crack-like patterns, as though it had once been torn apart by tremendous force before healing back together.
A heavy, oppressive aura spilled from the box, and Dai Huabin's White Tiger Martial Soul suddenly jolted within him.
Dai Huabin's breathing stopped.
That oppressive aura was far too familiar—the aura of a beast from the same lineage as the White Tiger.
"A fifteen-thousand-year Sky-Splitting Tiger Right Arm Bone." Du Weilun tapped it with a finger.
"The Sky-Splitting Tiger is extremely compatible with your