Nuoding Academy

Hearing this, Tang San could not help but pause slightly. He had indeed felt that being a blacksmith was fine, but ever since he lost his first sparring match to Ye Chen, he realized that to survive in this world, one must possess formidable strength.

Now, having lost to Ye Chen three times in a row, the competitive spirit hidden deep within his heart was further ignited.

Whether it was the Tang Sect of his past life or this current one, Tang San considered himself a persistent person. It was precisely because of this persistence that he had managed to create the peerless hidden weapon that no one in the Tang Sect had been able to craft for centuries: the Buddha Fury Tang Lotus.

Driven by this persistence, how could he be content staying in the village as a blacksmith when he had yet to win a single match against Ye Chen or clear the name of the Tang Sect's arts?

Moreover, the bottleneck of the first layer of the Mysterious Heaven Skill had remained unbroken for too long; perhaps it was related to a spirit ring.

Therefore, he had to join Nuoding Academy and beg a teacher to help him obtain a spirit ring!

With that thought settled, Tang San agreed, "Father, I will listen to you. From now on, I will never attach a spirit ring to my Hammer Martial Soul. I will only cultivate my Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul."

"Do you not ask why I make such a request of you?" Tang Hao said coldly.

Tang San smiled slightly, "You are my father. No matter what you say or ask me to do, I will agree. Because I know you are doing it for my own good."

Tang Hao was stunned upon hearing this. After a moment of distraction, he instructed, "Remember, in the future, you must use the hammer in your left hand to protect the grass in your right."

"And only by cultivating the Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul first, and then the Hammer Martial Soul, can you achieve this effect. Little San, come here. I will teach you some more forging hammer techniques. Relying on your forging skills as an apprentice will be enough to earn your living expenses at Nuoding Academy."

"Alright!" Tang San replied, feeling a warmth in his heart as he hurried to the stove to learn the forging techniques from Tang Hao.

One month later, four o'clock in the morning.

At the entrance of Pallet Village, Ye Chen bid farewell to the old village chief before boarding Uncle Meng's ox cart to head toward Nuoding Academy in Nuoding City.

This old village chief was the head of Poultry Village, named Wang Damu; the villagers were accustomed to calling him Old Wang or Chief Damu.

Following the renaming of Poultry Village to Pallet Village, Chief Damu had also become the first village chief of Pallet Village.

Uncle Meng was the son of Chief Damu and specialized in raising poultry, frequently transporting chickens and ducks to Nuoding City for business.

On the wide mountain road.

Uncle Meng drove the ox cart while instructing, "Ye Chen, you must be obedient when you get to Nuoding Academy, you hear? Don't go looking for trouble by fighting that noble student who acts like the king of beasts just to become the academy boss. That will only bring you trouble."

"Don't worry, Uncle Meng, I'm going there to study, I definitely won't fight. Besides, I've already changed the village's name; I absolutely cannot let everyone's expectations down. Once I become a powerful spirit master, I will definitely make our Pallet Village famous and ensure everyone lives a good life!"

Hearing Ye Chen speak with such solemn determination in his childish tone, Uncle Meng laughed, "Good. We'll be waiting."

In the morning, the sun began to rise, and the sky was just starting to brighten.

Inside Nuoding Academy.

After completing his registration at the academy's administrative office, Ye Chen collected a few sets of uniforms and headed alone toward the student dormitory area.

Walking up to the door of Dorm Seven, he found the door open, but the room was completely empty.

"Did I arrive too early?"

Entering Dorm Seven, Ye Chen chose the bed furthest inside, closest to the corner.

After cleaning the bed, he laid out his bedding and folded his quilt at the head of the bed, settling into Dorm Seven.

Seeing that none of his roommates had returned yet, Ye Chen went to the washroom to take a shower and changed into the blue uniform of Nuoding Academy.

Suddenly, a tall child, also wearing a blue uniform, knocked on the dormitory door.

Ye Chen looked toward the door and saw that the tall child appeared to be eleven or twelve years old, standing two heads taller than him.

Dorm Seven was a shared dormitory for work-study students, so any child appearing here could only be a work-study student.

Ye Chen quickly realized that this tall child must be his senior.

According to the rules of Dorm Seven, a fight would be inevitable later. Since that was the case, rather than being intimidated by his senior, it would be better to take the initiative and intimidate him first!

Thinking of this, Ye Chen walked to the door and asked the tall child, "Are you a new work-study student?"

The tall child frowned upon hearing this, "What new work-study student? My name is Wang Sheng, the current boss of Dorm Seven, Martial Soul Battle Tiger. A sixth-grade student. Kid, who are you? Why are you in our Dorm Seven?"

"So you're the boss of Dorm Seven." Ye Chen poked his own chest with his thumb, acting arrogantly, "I'm a new work-study student. Wang Sheng, since you're the boss of Dorm Seven, let's have a fight. Whoever wins becomes the boss of Dorm Seven."

"Alright, it seems I need to teach you a lesson." Wang Sheng thrust his fist toward Ye Chen's face and said viciously, "Brat, state your name. I, Wang Sheng, do not fight nobodies!"

"No. To fight you, I don't even need to make a move."

As he spoke, Ye Chen stepped back five paces. A red light flew out from his chest in a parabolic trajectory, then landed on the ground, shockingly transforming into the appearance of a Torchic.

"Torchic, Torchic—"

Accompanied by the shrill, childish Growl, a golden light swirled around the Torchic, giving it a shimmering, golden appearance.

Seeing a golden chick appear before him, Wang Sheng was stunned for a moment before he let out a scoff, saying disdainfully, "A chicken Martial Soul? Brat, you dare to compete with me, Wang Sheng, for the position of boss with just a poultry Martial Soul? Do you have the strength for it?"

"I don't have time to waste words with you. Torchic, attack."

After giving the command, Ye Chen turned around and walked to his bed to sit and watch the show.

The Torchic let out a "Torchic Torchic" cry, and a dense barrage of small flames shot out from its beak, causing the surrounding air to heat up instantly.

Immediately following, those dense, small flames bombarded Wang Sheng with a violent whistling sound.

Bang, bang, bang! Ah, ah, ah—

As the screams rang out at the dormitory entrance, Wang Sheng had already collapsed to the ground in a sorry state, and thus, the battle came to an end.

The small flame that ended the battle was none other than Ember, a fire-attribute skill that Torchic had learned a month ago.

Although the assault was fierce, Torchic had intentionally weakened the power of the Ember skill, so Wang Sheng did not suffer any substantial injury, only minor burns on the skin of his arm.

What Ye Chen found regrettable was that the combat experience feedback gained from defeating Wang Sheng was not even one-twelfth of what he had gained from defeating Tang San, which showed just how much weaker Wang Sheng was compared to Tang San.

It seemed that if he wanted to rapidly increase his soul power through combat, he would have to find opponents stronger than Tang San.

As the saying goes, strike once to avoid a hundred blows.

With Wang Sheng, the former boss, beaten into submission, the roommates who returned to Dorm Seven one after another naturally dared not stir up any more trouble.

After this incident, Ye Chen also became the boss of Dorm Seven.

At this moment, inside Dorm Seven, everyone was sitting cross-legged on their respective beds.

While applying medicine to his burned arm, Wang Sheng looked at Ye Chen and said miserably, "Boss, can you tell me now? What is your name? And why is your chicken martial soul so powerful?"