Early the next morning, Soul Fighting Zone.
The Freshman Assessment had officially begun, and the Soul Fighting Zone was far livelier than usual.
Around the assessment platforms that had been set up, new students waiting for their turns filled the area.
The excited or nervous chatter of the young students heightened the atmosphere in the Soul Fighting Zone.
Wang Dong stood at the edge of the crowd, her arms folded and her expression blank.
She had initially been somewhat interested in the Freshman Assessment, but the moment she thought of the team she had been assigned to, half her enthusiasm vanished.
"For the first match, our opponents are three one-ring Soul Masters."
Huo Yuhao stood before her and Xiao Xiao, keeping his voice low.
His expression had returned to calm, as though nothing had happened yesterday.
"Once we get onstage, I'll use Spirit Detection Sharing to synchronize your vision and judgment. Xiao Xiao will restrain them, while Wang Dong, you'll be the main attacker."
Huo Yuhao spoke quickly but steadily, and there was nothing wrong with his arrangement.
Yet as Wang Dong listened, she felt inexplicably uncomfortable.
Because whenever Huo Yuhao spoke, his tone always carried an air that brooked no doubt.
He was just a guy with barely over ten levels of Soul Power. What gave him the right to speak in that tone?
With that thought, Wang Dong frowned. "I'll fight, but don't talk to me like you're giving orders."
Huo Yuhao's voice paused.
Xiao Xiao stood beside them and clearly sensed that something was off. She hurriedly tried to smooth things over. "Let's win the first match first. We can talk about everything else afterward."
Huo Yuhao did not argue. He merely looked quietly at Wang Dong.
Once I crush Long Yaochen beneath my feet, will you still look like that?
Soon, it was their turn to take the stage.
The three freshmen opposite them were clearly nervous, and their formation was far from tight. The instant they released their martial souls, a faint golden glow surfaced in Huo Yuhao's eyes.
The moment Spirit Detection Sharing spread out, the world before Wang Dong seemed to have been redrawn.
The opponents' positions, movements, and even the direction of their Soul Power circulation were all clearly marked.
This ability really is useful... but its owner is pretty awful.
Wang Dong glanced at Huo Yuhao beside her and suppressed the distracting thoughts in her heart.
"Left side."
Huo Yuhao's voice sounded beside her ear.
Wang Dong pushed off the ground, and the wings of the Light Goddess Butterfly unfurled. Amid a burst of startled cries, she shot forward in an instant.
The opponents clearly had not expected her to be so fast. Just as they tried to retreat, Xiao Xiao's Three-Life Soul-Suppressing Cauldron was already pressing in from the side.
After only one exchange, the opposing formation was thrown into complete chaos.
There was practically no suspense over the outcome.
However, just as one of the students staggered backward and had clearly lost his balance, the golden light in Huo Yuhao's eyes flickered.
That student's movements suddenly froze for an instant.
In that brief instant, the path he should have taken to evade shifted by half an inch, and he charged straight into Wang Dong's attack range.
Bang!
A figure flew backward and crashed heavily near the edge of the assessment platform.
The referee frowned but said nothing.
After all, that student had not surrendered in advance, and Wang Dong's attack had not violated the rules.
"Group One, Huo Yuhao's team wins."
The result was announced quickly.
Low murmurs rose from the surrounding crowd.
"They won so fast."
"Those wings are so beautiful! She's so handsome too!"
"His second ring is actually a thousand-year one! I want a teammate like that too!"
"That girl's martial soul control was really precise too!"
Listening to the discussions around him, everyone was talking about how impressive Wang Dong was. Even Xiao Xiao received a few compliments.
Wang Dong got MVP, so was he just some dog getting carried?
Huo Yuhao slowly clenched his fists.
Wang Dong landed and withdrew her wings, but there was not the slightest joy of victory in her eyes.
She glanced at the opponent being helped off the platform, then turned to Huo Yuhao.
"Was that necessary just now?"
Huo Yuhao, who had been listening to the audience's comments, froze for a moment. "What do you mean?"
Wang Dong frowned. "He could barely stand."
"But he didn't surrender." Huo Yuhao raised his head, his tone calm. "This is a match."
Wang Dong looked at him without speaking.
Of course she knew it was a match. Even getting injured was normal.
But...
She did not believe his Spirit Detection could not have seen the situation at that time.
Wang Dong's instincts told her that Huo Yuhao had definitely not acted merely to end the match faster. She did not believe he had not deliberately made the attack harsher.
Xiao Xiao stood between them, looking at Wang Dong's handsome face before glancing at Huo Yuhao's somewhat gloomy expression.
She opened her mouth, but in the end, she said nothing.
Wang Dong did not want to waste any more words on him and turned to walk outside.
Huo Yuhao stared deeply at Wang Dong's retreating figure, though no one knew what he was thinking.
The first day of matches was merely meant to help the freshmen get accustomed to things.
After adjusting on the first day, the round-robin matches over the next two days progressed rapidly.
Wang Dong's team basically achieved ten straight victories without much effort.
But the more Wang Dong fought, the more uncomfortable she became.
Especially during one match, when the twin sisters Lan Luoluo and Lan Luoluo surrounded Wang Dong while Huang Chutian watched from the side like a tiger eyeing its prey.
If Wang Dong had not already possessed twenty-seventh-level Soul Power, with reactions and speed far surpassing those of ordinary Soul Grandmasters, she might truly have been forced into injury by that attack.
Yet Huo Yuhao had stubbornly waited until the final moment before going all out, as though he alone had turned the tide.
And that kind of situation continued through all ten of their matches.
In the rest area, Xiao Xiao held a cup of water and cautiously glanced at the two of them.
"We made it into the elimination round. From now on, we can stay at Shrek."
Wang Dong gave a quiet hum, clearly uninterested.
But Huo Yuhao looked at her. "In the third match just now, if you'd been a little faster, they wouldn't even have had a chance to react."
Wang Dong turned her head. "I won."
Huo Yuhao said, "You could have won more easily."
"Then you do it yourself." Wang Dong felt that she truly could not take it anymore.
The atmosphere instantly froze.
Xiao Xiao hurriedly lowered her head to drink water, pretending she had heard nothing.
Huo Yuhao looked at Wang Dong, his fingertips tightening slightly.
He did not understand.
Clearly, they were in the same group. Clearly, his judgment had not been wrong.
Clearly, as long as they followed his arrangements, they could keep winning all the way through.
So why did Wang Dong always have this attitude?
Why would she rather wear her impatience openly on her face than cooperate with him properly?
What kind of love potion did Long Yaochen feed you?
At that thought, Huo Yuhao's gaze crossed the crowd.
At a glance, he spotted Long Yaochen not far away. He was standing beneath the shade of a tree, holding a fruit he had somehow gotten his hands on, leaning lazily against the trunk with the air of someone enjoying a spectacle.
Wang Dong saw him as well.
The person who had just been wearing a cold expression visibly relaxed. Without thinking much about it, she headed straight over.
"Why are you here?" Wang Dong asked.
Long Yaochen took a bite of the fruit and casually said, "Watching the show."
Wang Dong glared at him. "You have that much free time?"
"Not bad." Long Yaochen smiled. "At least it's easier than some people exhausting themselves in the group matches."
"Stop gloating." Though Wang Dong said that, her tone was clearly much more relaxed than before.
Huo Yuhao remained where he was, watching the scene from afar. It was as though the world around him suddenly fell silent.
All that remained was Wang Dong standing before Long Yaochen, with that lively... entirely different expression.
The impatience she could not even be bothered to hide whenever she saw him had completely disappeared.
Huo Yuhao felt a heaviness in his chest.
Just then, a gentle voice sounded from the depths of the Sea of Spirit. "Yuhao, don't let these things affect you.
I guarantee you that when you crush Long Yaochen beneath your feet, Wang Dong... will naturally belong to you."
Huo Yuhao lowered his eyes and slowly drew in a breath. "I know."
At that moment, the trace of sea-blue light in his eyes seemed a little brighter than usual.
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