Eight Months of Time

The days that followed returned to their usual tranquility.

The ripples from the Freshman Assessment gradually faded amidst the daily routine of classes and cultivation.

Yet, one thing could not be dispersed: the fact that Long Yaochen was a monster who left his peers trailing in the dust.

Dai Huabin, unable to stomach the other's arrogance, repeatedly challenged Long Yaochen to a duel.

But time and again, he was beaten so badly he couldn't find north.

After each thrashing, Dai Huabin would offer excuses: he had been careless, the weather had turned cold, the Soul Fighting Arena's flooring had changed, his clothes didn't fit right, and so on.

Until the final time, when he even called over Zhu Lu from the agility-attack class to unleash the Hell White Tiger against Long Yaochen.

Yet, they were still no match.

After that incident, he never fought Long Yaochen again.

It wasn't that he had conceded defeat, but rather that Long Yaochen no longer wanted to play with him.

Of course, it wasn't as if Long Yaochen had nothing better to do than spar with the guy so many times.

He simply found that occasionally beating up Dai Huabin was quite a good way to relieve stress.

Especially now, for some reason, he could no longer rely on Zhang Lexuan to help him dodge the battles between Wang Dong and Ma Xiaotao.

One day, he suddenly realized something was wrong.

Why had Zhang Lexuan joined the fray as well?

And unlike the direct confrontation between Wang Dong and Ma Xiaotao, Lexuan's approach was more indirect.

For instance, today there was too much work in the Outer Court, and she needed the class monitor to help organize files.

Tomorrow, the training reports for Freshman Class One needed to be summarized, and Long Yaochen, as class monitor, naturally couldn't be absent.

The day after, she claimed to be feeling unwell and just happened to need someone to deliver documents to the Sea God Pavilion.

Each excuse was more legitimate than the last.

Yet, they were so legitimate that even Zhang Lexuan herself couldn't tell if she truly needed the help or if she just wanted Long Yaochen to stay a little longer.

Every time Long Yaochen wanted to refuse, Zhang Lexuan would look at him with that gentle, calm gaze and ask softly, "Class monitor, are you unwilling to help your teacher with even this little thing?"

Zhang Lexuan didn't know what had come over her; she simply didn't want Long Yaochen to have so much free time to spend with Ma Xiaotao and his roommate.

Under Zhang Lexuan's persistence, the relationship between the two grew increasingly close.

Especially since Long Yaochen would occasionally offer her guidance.

While it helped heal her injuries, it also left her spirit feeling better and better.

It was as if a long-dormant moon had finally begun to radiate a dazzling light under the sun's glow.

As for Ma Xiaotao, she was far less subtle.

She never bothered with high-sounding excuses; she basically just blocked his door.

"Come on, help me suppress the Evil Fire."

"I still need to cultivate today."

"Cultivate, cultivate, what's there to cultivate? Help me cultivate first."

"..."

Long Yaochen was left speechless every time she dragged him away.

Ever since he returned from the Far North, he possessed a wisp of Ultimate Ice energy within him, which suppressed Ma Xiaotao's Evil Fire even more effectively than before.

In the past, Ma Xiaotao had only felt a sense of relief.

Now, every time she got close to Long Yaochen, the restless Evil Fire in her body felt as if it were being pressed down by an invisible hand, becoming so quiet that even she wasn't used to it.

Consequently, the number of times Ma Xiaotao came looking for him increased visibly.

This led to Wang Dong's growing dissatisfaction.

Every time Long Yaochen returned to the dormitory late, Wang Dong would make some snide remark:

"Oh, so the great class monitor has finally deigned to return?"

"Was it Senior Sister today, or was it Senior Ma Xiaotao?"

"Why don't you just stop living in the dorm and move to Sea God Island instead?"

At first, Long Yaochen would try to explain.

Later, finding explanations useless, he would simply flop onto his bed: "Envious of me? You can't handle my lifestyle. I'm sleeping."

This would inevitably be met with a pillow thrown by an infuriated Wang Dong.

Caught in this three-way tug-of-war, the three of them seemed ready to tear him into pieces.

Could Long Yaochen really be blamed for needing something to scratch his itch?

Dai Huabin was naturally the perfect punching bag.

He had originally wanted to find Huo Yuhao, too.

As it turned out, that guy had become much more well-behaved, keeping a lower profile under everyone's gaze.

I heard he spent almost all his time at the Soul Tool Department; aside from attending classes and necessary cultivation, he spent most of his time in the Soul Tool Testing Area.

Even when Wang Yan occasionally mentioned him, there was a hint of complexity in his tone.

After all, given Huo Yuhao's talent for spiritual attributes, if not for those past events, the Martial Soul Department might not have truly given up on him.

But there are no "ifs" in this world.

Beyond that, Long Yaochen didn't pay much attention to him.

He was just waiting for this semester to end so he could head to the Far North.

He had left a surprise waiting for him there, after all.

Speaking of the Ice Empress, Long Yaochen felt another headache coming on.

Ever since the Ice Empress was sealed deep within his Sea of Spirit, although they hadn't truly merged yet, her Ultimate Ice had been affecting his state bit by bit.

The closer he got to level forty, the more scorching Long Yaochen felt his Sea of Spirit becoming.

Even though his Martial Soul's fire attribute had become more refined through the continuous tempering with Ma Xiaotao's Evil Fire, that sense of crisis only grew stronger.

Just as Electrolux had said, relying solely on Ma Xiaotao to balance his Martial Soul wasn't quite enough.

Fortunately, with the Ice Empress acting as a giant block of ice within his Sea of Spirit, the cold she subconsciously radiated became another means for Long Yaochen to alleviate his discomfort.

It felt like chugging a bottle of ice-cold cola in the middle of summer.

Of course, that was exactly where the headache lay.

Due to the Ice Empress's unique nature, she was essentially an external entity sealed within Long Yaochen's Sea of Spirit.

She couldn't observe the outside world directly like Electrolux could.

Therefore, the Ice Empress was extremely dissatisfied with this: "You promised me godhood, and not only did you seal me in here and leave me be, but you're actually using me as a cooling tool? I am one of the Three Heavenly Kings of the Far North!"

Long Yaochen said with a serious face: "Don't be impatient. Once I ascend to godhood, you'll be one of the founding elders of the new pantheon."

The Ice Empress sneered: "Then I really must thank you... Enough nonsense. If you've got nothing better to do, come and tell me about human society as it is now."

For the sake of his second Martial Soul and his own life, Long Yaochen had no choice but to bite the bullet and agree.

Having had another portion of his time carved away, he realized for the first time that having too many women around might not be such a good thing...

Life went on in this chaotic fashion, and eight months passed.

The first academic year was also drawing to a close.

Long Yaochen was just one step away from level forty; he estimated it would happen within these next few days.

Although he hadn't put in much effort, the fact that he had only leveled up once in an entire year was still hard for him to swallow.

While having dual ultimate attributes didn't exactly double the difficulty of cultivation, it was indeed slower than having a single one.

Even that kid Wang Dong had reached level thirty.

She naturally didn't hold back on showing off.

However, she was always shut down by Long Yaochen's retort: "Could you have leveled up this fast without my help?"

Over these eight months, Long Yaochen had become the person Zhang Lexuan, the Inner Court Senior Sister, confided in about everything.

Ma Xiaotao's Evil Fire was also gradually stabilizing, and the quality of her Martial Soul had improved as a result, though it hadn't reached the point of a qualitative change yet.

Everything seemed to be moving in a positive direction.

At least, that was how it appeared to Long Yaochen.

Until this day, when Long Yaochen finally broke through to level forty.

Evening.

Zhang Lexuan called Long Yaochen to her office to briefly go over some end-of-semester class matters.

By the time Long Yaochen left the office, the sky had already darkened.

He returned to Dorm 108 as usual, but the moment he pushed the door open, his footsteps suddenly halted.

The dorm was very quiet.

Surprisingly, there was none of Wang Dong's sour, sarcastic remarks.

Wang Dong wasn't here?

Her bed was tidied up with unusual neatness, and the small items she usually left scattered about were all gone.

Long Yaochen frowned, his gaze falling on the desk, where a note was pressed down.

He walked over and picked up the note, his eyes narrowing instantly as he saw a few scribbled words:

'Something came up at home, don't miss me.'