"Thirty-one levels?!"
Yao Chuan's voice wasn't loud.
Yet those few words crashed into everyone's ears like a thunderclap. The classroom's eerie silence lasted only an instant.
The next moment, it erupted into a frenzy!
"Holy crap?!"
"What level?! Thirty-one?!"
"This has to be fake! There's no way! How can anyone be level thirty-one at nine years old?! Even a beast couldn't be that ridiculous!"
"Exactly! How could a monster like that end up in our Class Five?! Class One should've been carrying him around in a sedan chair and treating him like royalty!"
Wei Xiaofeng was the most stunned of all.
Teacher Wu had just nailed him with a piece of chalk, and his throat was still prickling.
Now he'd heard Yao Chuan announce that astronomical number: "Thirty-one levels."
He felt as if his intelligence and his entire worldview had been ground into the dirt.
"Impossible!"
Wei Xiaofeng's voice cracked.
"Absolutely impossible! Level thirty-one at nine years old? Who do you think you are, the reincarnation of a God King?! There's a limit to how much you can brag! Who do you think you're fooling?!"
He hadn't even finished shouting.
An indescribably terrifying aura swept from the lectern through the entire classroom, like a tsunami made solid!
Ice-cold!
Violent!
Weighted with the ancient, primordial might of the wilderness!
A suffocating pressure seized everyone by the throat!
"Rrr—roar—!"
A low, majestic dragon's roar suddenly rang out!
It wasn't loud.
But the sound seemed to ring directly in the depths of everyone's soul!
It carried an absolute suppression rooted in blood, the kind that made knees buckle!
Everyone looked up in terror.
Behind Yao Chuan.
Two enormous dragon shadows, deep as ink and seemingly capable of swallowing all light, slowly emerged and coiled in the air!
The dragon shadows had yet to take solid form.
But those cold, merciless slit pupils had already crossed the distance between them.
With pinpoint precision,
they locked onto Wei Xiaofeng, who had jumped to his feet!
Every hair on Wei Xiaofeng's body stood on end!
A chill shot from his tailbone straight to the crown of his head!
Driven by instinctive fear, he subconsciously urged his Soul Power!
His Green Shadow Snake Martial Soul was forced out almost against his will!
A dark green serpent shadow coiled around him.
But the Martial Soul he'd once taken such pride in.
Now, beneath the gaze of those two Black Dragon phantoms.
Was like prey facing its natural enemy!
It trembled uncontrollably!
It frantically sent Wei Xiaofeng thoughts of fear and submission!
Even his own Soul Power became sluggish!
He froze in place, unable to move!
He even forgot how to breathe!
His mind went blank!
All that remained was boundless terror!
"Thump!"
Wei Xiaofeng's legs gave way.
It wasn't because anyone had shoved him. The invisible pressure and fear had simply crushed his defenses.
He landed in an undignified heap on the floor.
His body shook like a sieve!
His face was as pale as if someone had painted it with whitewash!
Yao Chuan glanced at him indifferently.
With a slight movement of his mind,
the two Black Dragon phantoms radiating boundless majesty behind him
vanished into thin air without a sound, as if they'd never appeared.
The terrifying pressure in the classroom receded like a tide.
The suffocating dragon's roar disappeared along with it.
It was as if everything that had just happened had been an illusion.
But the lingering chill in the classroom,
and Wei Xiaofeng slumped on the floor, soaked through as if he'd just been fished out of the water, gasping heavily with a dazed look in his eyes,
silently proved that the horrifying scene had been real!
The classroom fell silent as the grave.
Not a sound could be heard.
Only Wei Xiaofeng's harsh, ragged breathing remained.
Every doubtful, disbelieving, mocking gaze
had now turned to indescribable shock and deep awe!
Their eyes changed as they looked at the boy still standing calmly on the lectern.
What was this? Some genius author coasting on his good looks?
He was a human-shaped tyrannosaurus!
A walking monster!
Beside the lectern,
a clear look of astonishment crossed Wu Changkong's ice-blue eyes for the first time.
He stared at Yao Chuan.
His brows furrowed almost imperceptibly on that face as cold as an eternal glacier.
Nine years old...
A Black Dragon Martial Soul...
A level-thirty-one Soul Elder...
This talent, this strength...
Even those little monsters at Shrek Academy were nowhere near his level at this age!
How could someone like him have ended up at Eastsea Academy? And how could he have been assigned to this so-called "class of useless students"?
Wu Changkong's thoughts surged like waves.
But he was still Wu Changkong.
His astonishment lasted only an instant. Soon, his expression returned to its usual frosty coldness.
He looked at Yao Chuan.
He no longer regarded him as an ordinary student.
There was scrutiny in his gaze, and a hint of... anticipation?
"Good."
Wu Changkong's voice broke the silence.
Its tone was still cold.
But there was a note of unmistakable seriousness in it.
"Tomorrow morning, first period. The practical training ground."
His gaze swept over Yao Chuan.
Then over the students below, still shaken by what they'd seen.
"Yao Chuan, I'll personally be your opponent."
The words drew another collective gasp from below.
Teacher Wu was stepping in personally?! What kind of treatment was that?!
Wu Changkong seemed to see their confusion.
He continued, his voice carrying clearly to everyone's ears.
"It isn't that I'm deliberately singling him out. It's just..."
He paused.
His ice-blue eyes swept across the room.
His expression held the indifference of someone looking down upon the weak.
"Given his strength right now,"
"at Eastsea Academy, among his peers..."
Wu Changkong's gaze passed over Tang Wulin, Xie Xie, Wei Xiaofeng, and the others one by one.
At last, it returned to Yao Chuan. His tone was flat, but his words allowed no argument.
"There's no one who can match him."
"So I'll do it."
Yao Chuan stood on the lectern.
He listened to Wu Changkong's almost declarative words.
His expression remained unchanged.
But deep in those dark, unfathomable eyes,
a faint glimmer seemed to flicker.
Like a pebble dropped into a still lake.
It sent out the faintest ripples.
He met Wu Changkong's scrutinizing gaze.
The corner of his mouth seemed to lift ever so slightly.
An almost imperceptible curve.
There was a hint of... anticipation?
He didn't say anything.
He simply faced Wu Changkong
and gave the slightest nod.
Time flew by.
The next morning arrived.
At Eastsea Academy,
on the broad, open-air practical training ground,
all the students of Grade One Class Five
stood ramrod straight under Wu Changkong's gaze, which could freeze a person to death.
Not one of them dared even breathe too loudly.
The morning sun shone down on them.
It brought a little warmth.
Yet somehow, it couldn't dispel the chill radiating from Teacher Wu.
Everyone assumed
that the star of the day would surely be the highly anticipated sparring match between Teacher Wu and Yao Chuan.
They were just a bunch of rookies brought along as background, there to cheer and shout, "Let's go!"
And to witness the experts fighting.
However,
Wu Changkong's next words
doused the entire class in a bucket of ice-cold water!
"Everyone."
Wu Changkong's cold voice rang out.
Without the slightest inflection.
"Pair up and choose your own partners. Get ready for combat drills."
"Begin!"
The command was concise.
There was no room for argument.
Before you continue