The Marvelous Martial Soul Academy

"The entire academy is divided into four classes: the Introductory Class, the Advanced Class, the Intensive Class, and the Elite Class! The Introductory Class consists mainly of soul masters below the level of Soul Grand Master. If they fail to reach the Soul Grand Master level by the age of thirteen, they are forcibly graduated and eliminated."

"Students in the Advanced Class are primarily at the Soul Grand Master level. If they fail to become a Soul Elder by the age of sixteen, they are forcibly graduated and eliminated. Meanwhile, students in the Intensive Class are mainly at the Soul Elder level; if they fail to reach the Soul Ancestor level by the age of nineteen, they are forcibly graduated and eliminated."

"Finally, the Elite Class consists mainly of Soul Ancestors, and there are even some at the Soul King level within its ranks. In other words, those who remain are essentially the elite of the elite."

"The remaining students in the Elite Class must undergo a final, ultimate assessment. Only by passing this assessment are they qualified to represent the Martial Soul Academy in the largest soul master event on the Douluo Continent: the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Elite Tournament! Only then are they qualified to be received personally by the Pope and Elders of Martial Soul Hall, or even be chosen as disciples!"

"The most outstanding students might even be conferred the title of Holy Son or Holy Maiden of Martial Soul Hall, becoming the direct successors to the position of Pope!" As she said this, Hu Liena's eyes were clearly filled with anticipation. Although she was currently the disciple chosen by Pope Bibi Dong, she was not yet a Holy Maiden. The only reason she could become Bibi Dong's disciple was that she and her brother were orphans raised by Bibi Dong herself. Coupled with her astonishing talent as she grew up, Bibi Dong finally took her in as a disciple.

However, many Elders in the Elder Hall did not approve of this. They believed that a disciple chosen by the Pope should only be selected from the most outstanding students after the Elite Class's ultimate assessment! Yet, Bibi Dong insisted on taking Hu Liena as her disciple, even going so far as to have a fierce argument with the Elders over it!

In the end, although the Elders gave up their plan to force Bibi Dong to choose another disciple out of respect for her strength and contributions to Martial Soul Hall, Bibi Dong had to guarantee that Hu Liena would enter the Elite Class and pass the ultimate assessment in the future! Otherwise, Bibi Dong would have to publicly apologize to the Elders and strip Hu Liena of her title as the Pope's disciple!

As Bibi Dong's foster daughter and disciple, Hu Liena knew well that the reason the Elders of Martial Soul Hall opposed her, besides their traditionalism, was that they hoped Bibi Dong would choose their own descendants as disciples! That way, their own kin would have a chance to succeed Bibi Dong and become the next Pope!

In their eyes, she was just some unknown, brash girl who had appeared out of nowhere! How dare she snatch the position meant for their descendants! This was absolutely intolerable to many of the Elders!

Hu Liena naturally knew how much pressure Bibi Dong had endured to protect her! That was why she had been training diligently, pushing herself to the limit, all for the sake of successfully passing the ultimate assessment! To officially become Bibi Dong's undisputed disciple, or even the Holy Maiden! To truly bring honor to her teacher!

Xu Mochen listened quietly to Hu Liena's account. On the surface, he remained silent, but he was secretly observing the flicker of determination in Hu Liena's eyes as she spoke. Recalling the sudden hostility some Elders had shown toward her at the Pope Palace, and combining this with his knowledge of the original story and what he had learned about Martial Soul Hall, he had already guessed the truth about her current predicament.

It seemed that the seemingly powerful Martial Soul Hall was not a monolith after all! This Hu Liena did not have it easy; despite enjoying such glory at a young age, she carried burdens that no one her age should have to bear.

Hu Liena was a proud girl by nature, and since she was not particularly close to Xu Mochen, she naturally wouldn't share these pressures and burdens with him. Instead, she continued as if nothing were wrong: "However, this is not a rigid rule. There are other exceptionally talented students who can be promoted before reaching the required level."

"Take me, for example. I am currently a student in the Elite Class, but clearly, I am not a Soul Ancestor yet; I am still a level 38 Soul Elder. Yet, I am already a member of the Elite Class! The reason I was able to break the rules and enter the Elite Class early is precisely because I went through a special channel."

"Actually, the rule for exceptional promotion is simple: one only needs to challenge and defeat a battle-type soul master from the Elite Class to qualify for early entry! Last year, when I was at level 36, I defeated a battle-type Soul Ancestor who had just reached level 41, and that was how I was admitted to the Elite Class!"

"I heard your current cultivation is only level 24, yet you defeated Dai Weisi, who possessed the cultivation of a level 39 Soul Elder! I must say, your combat power is truly formidable. As far as I know, that Dai Weisi received rigorous training from the Star Luo Empire. Although he hasn't been named Crown Prince yet, he is the undisputed candidate for the position!"

"With his level 39 Soul Elder cultivation and the top-tier White Tiger martial soul, even a weaker level 41 or 42 Soul Ancestor might not be his match! Yet you had the ability to defeat him, which shows that your strength is likely already comparable to an average entry-level Soul Ancestor."

At this point, even Hu Liena couldn't help but feel secretly shocked! According to the intelligence she had gathered, this little brother's martial soul was a top-tier beast martial soul called the Purple Imperial Heaven-Extinguishing Dragon! Its quality seemed to be even higher than ordinary top-tier martial souls, bordering on a god-tier one!

Beyond that, he might even possess a powerful soul bone of unknown age in his right arm! While his two hundred-year soul rings seemed normal, the power unleashed when he used his soul skills was inexplicably comparable to thousand-year soul skills! It had to be said that once this little brother truly became a Soul Elder, even the vast majority of students in the advanced classes would likely have to bow down!

Hearing this, Xu Mochen only humbly explained: "Sister Nana overestimates me. That match was only won because Prince Dai Weisi was careless and underestimated his opponent, allowing me to get lucky! If we were to fight seriously, even I couldn't guarantee a win!"

Hu Liena just smiled at his words, dismissing them. She didn't believe for a second that Xu Mochen's victory over Dai Weisi was purely due to luck. At the very least, the terrifying ability Xu Mochen displayed in the intelligence reports—the power to seal a soul master's rings—was enough for Hu Liena to hold him in the highest regard. Within Martial Soul Hall, she had never heard of anyone possessing such an ability! Not even her teacher, Bibi Dong, had such shocking means!

As they talked, the carriage arrived at the gates of the Martial Soul Academy. It had to be said that the Martial Soul Academy looked quite imposing: from the beautiful Hundred Flower Garden and the massive Angel Statue in front of the gate, to the high walls of fifty or sixty meters surrounding the campus. Whether it was the talented young soul masters in white-and-gold uniforms coming and going, or the academy guards at the gate, clad in armor and holding weapons, radiating waves of soul power—everything constantly highlighted the profound heritage of this academy!

Seeing the approaching carriage, the guards initially intended to intercept it, but after Hu Liena poked her head out and gave a few instructions, they recognized her. After a routine inquiry, they let the carriage pass. The carriage then sped all the way to the dormitory area of the Martial Soul Academy.

The Martial Soul Academy was truly wealthy! This area was less like a dormitory and more like a forest that had been artificially enclosed: thick trees with trunks about twenty meters in diameter were arranged in staggered rows on both sides of the road. Although they only looked about twenty or thirty meters tall, the leaves on their crowns were incredibly lush and green! More importantly, these trees, just like the research institute Cang Ming had near the Tantu Forest, were all hollowed-out tree houses! And they all had two levels!

Seeing this, even Xu Mochen couldn't help but marvel at the deep resources of the Martial Soul Academy! There were over a hundred of these two-story tree houses in the dormitory area alone! The amount of manpower and material resources required to achieve this was staggering!

Of course, Hu Liena also made it clear to Xu Mochen that there were only so many of these tree houses in the entire Martial Soul Academy, and not everyone was qualified to live in them. Generally, only Elite Class students could live here, and each person had their own floor, with each level covering about 110 square meters, plus a small wooden balcony on the outside of the second floor. These trees were sturdy and tough, resistant to both fire and water, so soul masters didn't have to worry about causing trouble while cultivating inside.

Hu Liena led Xu Mochen directly to one of the trees, which had a large wooden sign marked "34." She handed him a golden key with an angel pattern on the end and instructed: "This is the key to your room. You live upstairs, and I live in the room below. If you need anything, you can come down and find me. See those wooden stairs winding around the tree? Just follow them up to reach your floor."

"By the way, these tree houses have excellent soundproofing, so you don't need to worry about your movements upstairs disturbing me. I need to prepare a few things. Once you go up and put your luggage away, come back down and find me. I'll take you around to see other places, and if there's anything you don't understand, you can ask me." With that, she didn't look back, took out her own key, unlocked her door, slipped inside, and shut it tight, leaving Xu Mochen standing there, lost in thought.

"It seems life here is going to get more and more interesting." Xu Mochen chuckled to himself, then went upstairs to unlock his room. Upon entering, he found the conditions quite decent—it had a bed, table and chairs, a bookcase, a wardrobe, a kerosene lamp, and even his own independent bathtub and latrine.

While it wasn't exactly luxurious compared to the living standards of the Sun Moon Empire, and was even a bit simple, it was considered extravagant across the rest of the Douluo Continent. Xu Mochen then began removing the various storage soul tools from his body, including two soul tool bracelets, a soul tool belt, four soul tool rings, and a soul tool necklace.

If it weren't for the fact that he had too many personal items, and that storage soul tools couldn't be stacked due to magnetic field interference, and that large-scale storage soul tool technology was not yet mature and too costly, he wouldn't have needed to go through so much trouble.

Half an hour later, Xu Mochen finally finished organizing all his items, threw some important personal belongings into his storage soul tools to carry with him, and headed downstairs. Hu Liena had already been waiting for a long time.

"Sorry, I had a lot of things, so it took a while to organize," Xu Mochen apologized. Hu Liena simply expressed her understanding and said: "Next, I'll take you to the Academic Affairs Office to handle all the necessary enrollment procedures, and then I'll give you a general tour of the campus. It's afternoon now, so the other students are still in class, which is why the dormitory area is empty. But once they finish, you should be able to see them."