After Xu Mochen and Hu Liena had finished registering all the necessary information at the Academic Affairs Office and collected their uniforms and other items, Hu Liena took him around to see Spirit Hall Academy's dining hall, Mimicry Training Ground, classrooms, sports field, and other facilities. She only gave him a brief overview from a distance instead of showing him each place in detail, but Xu Mochen still got a general idea of how the academy operated.
According to Hu Liena, the schedules for all four types of classes at Spirit Hall Academy were fairly fixed. Generally, students did physical training on weekday mornings, attended theory lessons or combat training in the afternoons, and cultivated on their own in the evenings. They rested on Saturdays and Sundays. Any extra activities or assessments were scheduled separately.
The official class assignments would have to wait until after Xu Mochen took the temporary assessment the next day. By Hu Liena's calculations, his cultivation level of only twenty-four meant he should, in theory, be placed in the Advanced Studies Class. But given his formidable strength, he could certainly pass the Advanced Studies Class's special assessment.
What Hu Liena never would have expected was that, after giving it some thought, Xu Mochen resolutely decided to skip two levels and challenge the Elite Class directly!
Hu Liena was stunned. Was this kid crazy? He actually wanted to challenge the Soul Ancestors in the Elite Class with the cultivation of a twenty-fourth-level Soul Grandmaster? Sure, he was strong enough to defeat Dai Weisi, a thirty-ninth-level Soul Elder. Against a weaker Soul Ancestor around level forty-one or forty-two, he might even have a chance of winning. But let's be honest: how could the Soul Ancestors in Spirit Hall Academy's Elite Class compare to those weak Soul Ancestors?
Hu Liena tried repeatedly to dissuade Xu Mochen, but he still did as he pleased. All she could do was shrug and agree, thinking that it was fine. Once he took a beating, he would understand that there was always someone stronger, and that the sky was higher than the heavens. An occasional failure might not be a bad thing for him.
Along the way, Xu Mochen and Hu Liena naturally ran into quite a few other students from Spirit Hall Academy. But when they saw Xu Mochen walking alongside Hu Liena, looking so "close" to her, they were shocked. Some nearly stumbled over their own feet! One by one, they began whispering among themselves.
"Who's that student? Why have I never seen him before?"
"No idea. He looks like a new student, though. At his age, he's probably only in the Advanced Studies Class."
"Holy crap! Are the new students in the Advanced Studies Class really this impressive now? He actually managed to win over one of the Elite Class's three thorny roses?"
"Who knows? Maybe he's the descendant of some elder or enshrined one from Spirit Hall. But wasn't that Yan from the Elite Class always pursuing Hu Liena?"
"Damn! Is this kid really that bold? Isn't he afraid Yan will come after him? That guy once declared that anyone who dared pursue Hu Liena would be beaten until they couldn't take care of themselves. Looks like this kid's in for a miserable end."
"Tell me about it. Let's observe three minutes of silence for him."
Xu Mochen and Hu Liena clearly didn't care about the whispers around them. They continued touring the campus. It wasn't until the sun was about to set that Hu Liena finally took Xu Mochen to the dining hall for a meal.
There was no denying that Spirit Hall Academy's dining hall was lavish. It had private dining rooms and all kinds of landscaped gardens, and the dishes were either herbal meals made with spirit medicines or nourishing delicacies prepared with Soul Beast meat. There were dishes like braised ten-year thorny porcupine trotters, roasted ten-year fire spirit chicken wings, and snow hare soup with spirit jade yams. Every dish looked, smelled, and tasted delicious!
It was no wonder Spirit Hall Academy could cultivate so many geniuses! With food like this, it could leave most advanced Soul Master academies' facilities and provisions in the dust!
Of course, the academies on the Sun Moon Empire weren't without such luxuries. But even there, only a few aristocratic academies and the very best advanced academies could offer food like this.
After Hu Liena and Xu Mochen got their food, they sat across from each other. Ignoring the strange looks from those around them, they began eating and chatting.
"Little Mochen, I've never heard of the Sun Moon Continent before. Could you tell me about your continent and country?" Hu Liena had finally gotten to the point. She was ready to learn more about the Sun Moon Continent.
Xu Mochen knew what Hu Liena was up to, but he didn't call her out. Instead, he played along. "Of course. But what would you like to know about the Sun Moon Continent, Sister Nana?"
Hu Liena then said she really wanted to know about the history of the Sun Moon Empire. Xu Mochen didn't refuse, but left out the history of the Purple Imperial Chaos Dragon King. He started instead with the rise and alliance of the Yanyang Tribe and the Yinyue Tribe, ancestors of the people of the Sun Moon Continent. Xu Mochen was quite the storyteller, and as they talked, Hu Liena listened with rapt attention and learned a great deal about the continent's history.
The students sitting not far away naturally overheard their intimate conversation. But everything the two discussed was completely unfamiliar to them: the transformation of primitive society on the Sun Moon Continent, the campaigns that brought the founding emperor of the Sun Moon Empire, "Dragon Martial Emperor" Xu Longwu, to power, the Dark Era, the great liberation of thought, and the God-Emperor War.
They were utterly baffled by what they heard, but that didn't stop them from noticing Hu Liena listening intently, her face full of admiration and delight. So they immediately took everything Xu Mochen said for a fairy tale! Some even slapped their foreheads, suddenly enlightened: so Hu Liena, the Elite Class's goddess, liked listening to fairy tales about heroic adventures! Got it! They'd go tell Yan at once!
When the two finished eating and returned to the dormitory area, they were surprised to find more than a dozen men and women in Spirit Hall Academy uniforms already waiting at the entrance. Most were around twenty years old. The Black Angel Badges on their chests showed they were all students in the Elite Class!
As they looked at Hu Liena and Xu Mochen returning, their expressions varied. Some had amused looks in their eyes, others seemed sympathetic, some glared angrily, and still others looked odd. Among them, a burly boy with fiery red hair and bloodshot eyes glared at Xu Mochen through gritted teeth, as if he could breathe fire!
Hu Liena noticed that something was off about the students gathered by the dormitory entrance. She glanced over them, then fixed her gaze on the red-haired boy. Though she had a pretty good idea what was going on, she pretended not to know and asked, "What are you all doing? Why aren't you cultivating? Why are you blocking the entrance? Did something happen? And you, Yan—what are you doing? Did you get hit in the head during class today? Why do you look so constipated?"
Hu Liena knew that speaking this way might provoke Yan. But she also understood that, given his temperament, he would lose his temper no matter what she said. So she had to draw his attention to herself, or who knew whether this thick-skulled, muscle-bound fool might do something reckless to Xu Mochen!
"Nana! Who's that?" The boy called "Yan" could no longer hold back when he saw them. He immediately shouted angrily at Hu Liena, demanding an answer. Then he glared viciously at Xu Mochen!
He had just heard another student report that his beloved Nana was accompanying some strange boy to eat and stroll around, chatting and laughing together! He had completely lost his reason. He had always treated Hu Liena as his own private property! Any boy who dared get close to Nana would be given a harsh beating!
Now this little brat, who knew where he had come from, dared to steal Nana from him! If he didn't teach the kid a lesson, he might as well change his name to "Blaze Blaze Blaze"!
Hu Liena's expression didn't change at all as she heard him. She simply replied coldly, "First, don't call me Nana. We're not that close. Second, this doesn't seem to have anything to do with you, does it? He's a new student, and I'm showing him around campus on the orders of our teacher, His Holiness the Pope. If you have any questions, you can ask His Holiness. If he feels like answering you."
"Of course, if something unpleasant happened to you today and you want to vent by picking a fight, I'll gladly oblige. But if you're too gutless for that, I won't mind if you bully this younger boy, who's a year younger than you, then tell him: 'His Holiness the Pope may have assigned me to show you around, but sorry, I'm jealous and can't beat the people I'm really mad at, so I had to bully someone weaker and take it out on you.' Then we can see what His Holiness does to you!"
"You—you—you..." After hearing all that, Yan, who had been about to pick a fight with Xu Mochen, froze. His face flushed red as he pointed at Hu Liena, then at Xu Mochen, but couldn't force out a single word! The students around them all looked like they were struggling not to laugh.
Xu Mochen still looked calm, but inwardly he was startled. Hu Liena was clever. She'd gone straight for Yan's weak spot! She'd made it clear that if he dared lay a hand on Xu Mochen, he'd be disobeying the Pope's orders and bullying someone weaker.
To put it bluntly, it would be picking on someone younger and defying someone above him! If Yan really did attack, he wouldn't just face severe punishment—he'd be socially dead at the academy! Good grief! No wonder they called her Sister Na!
"Uh... Nana, we're all classmates. Why make things so awkward?" A boy with black hair, sharp features, and a slight resemblance to Hu Liena stepped forward to smooth things over.
When Hu Liena saw him, her gaze softened a little, but her tone remained unkind. "Big brother! You know how annoying Yan is! Wherever I go, he keeps an eye on me, and he threatens and intimidates any students who try to talk to me normally!"
"Now, whenever I show up, everyone avoids me like the plague! I can't even manage the most basic social interactions anymore! That jerk! I'm not even close to him! What right does he have to interfere in my life? Do you really think someone like that doesn't deserve a lesson?"
When Xu Mochen saw the boy Hu Liena had called "Big Brother" and took in his appearance, he immediately understood. So this is Hu Liena's biological brother, the leader of the Spirit Hall Golden Generation in the original story, Xie Yue!
From what I can sense, both Xie Yue and Yan are level forty-one Soul Ancestors! But they haven't grown into the Golden Generation that would amaze the Douluo Continent seven or eight years from now! The true powerhouses in Spirit Hall Academy's Elite Class are probably even stronger than them! It looks like life here is going to get more and more interesting!
Before you continue