"Dean Yan, we were testing a new ability and disturbed you." Mu Chen's voice remained calm, as if he were stating the most ordinary fact.
"Testing a new ability." Yan Shaozhe repeated those four words, then suddenly smiled.
There was surprise in his smile, along with emotion and a hint of deeper meaning. "Kid, do you know that what you just did nearly blew a small island in Sea God Lake to smithereens?"
"We'll pay for it," Mu Chen said.
Yan Shaozhe paused, then burst into laughter. His laughter echoed across the empty lake, startling several night birds in the distant woods.
"Pay for it? Can you afford to?" He shook his head and walked over to the enormous trench. Crouching down, he ran a finger over its smooth, mirrorlike wall.
The sensation beneath his fingertip slowly made the smile fade from his face, replaced by a serious scrutiny.
"Completely vaporized, without a trace of burning. That means the temperature and energy density reached an extremely high peak in an instant."
He stood up, brushed the dust from his hands, and looked at Mu Chen with unprecedented gravity. "What's this fusion skill called?"
"Light of the Vast Ocean." Wang Dong poked her head out from behind Mu Chen and answered for him. Her voice was still a little weak, but she couldn't hide her pride.
"Light of the Vast Ocean." Yan Shaozhe murmured the name, then nodded. "A good name. The vastness of the ocean and the brilliance of light—it fits perfectly."
He turned around and stared at the ruins in the middle of the lake, falling silent for a long time. The night wind billowed the hem of his white robe, while the moonlight silvered his snow-white hair and beard.
Then he turned back to Mu Chen and Wang Dong and said something that left them both momentarily stunned.
"Keep practicing. Just don't hurt anyone, and there's no need to pay for the damage."
After saying that, he vanished into the night with a flash, leaving Mu Chen and Wang Dong standing beside the ravaged lake.
"What did he mean?" Wang Dong looked up at Mu Chen.
Mu Chen gazed in the direction Yan Shaozhe had disappeared, a flicker of thought crossing his blue eyes. Then he lowered his head and said to Wang Dong, "It means your Martial Soul Fusion Skill is powerful. Come on. Let's go back and rest. We have plenty to do tomorrow."
He turned and headed toward the dormitory.
"Hey! Wait for me! My legs are too weak to walk!"
Mu Chen stopped and turned around, crouching in front of Wang Dong.
"Get on."
Wang Dong stared at the back before her—not particularly broad, but exceptionally straight—and froze for two seconds. Then her face flushed again, the heat spreading from her neck all the way to her forehead.
"I-I can walk by myself."
"You've run out of Soul Power. It'll take a long time to walk back, and catching a chill on the way will affect your condition tomorrow." Mu Chen's tone remained calm, as if he were stating a fact that wasn't up for discussion.
Wang Dong bit her lip, but finally climbed onto Mu Chen's back. Her arms circled his neck, and she buried her face in the crook of his shoulder, burning hot.
Mu Chen carried her toward the dormitory. Their shadows fell across the maple-leaf-strewn path in the moonlight, overlapping until they were indistinguishable.
"Big bro."
"Mm?"
"Do you like the name Light of the Vast Ocean?"
"I do."
Wang Dong smiled and buried her face even deeper. Her breathing gradually steadied, and her body softened from its earlier stiffness.
The uproar caused by Light of the Vast Ocean was greater than Mu Chen had expected.
Early the next morning, he and Wang Dong were summoned separately to the academic affairs office.
Two senior elders from the Martial Soul Department took turns questioning them in detail about the Martial Soul Fusion Skill: its activation conditions, Soul Power consumption, upper limit of its power, duration, and more. They repeatedly confirmed and recorded every detail.
Mu Chen's answers were watertight. He said what needed to be said and not a word more. Wang Dong's account was much simpler. She hadn't known much to begin with, and beyond describing how the fusion felt and the path along which her Soul Power flowed, she couldn't offer any further technical details.
After the questioning, Yan Shaozhe summoned Mu Chen to the dean's office alone.
The old man sat behind a wide redwood desk, his hands clasped over his abdomen. He stared at Mu Chen for a long while before finally drawling out a remark that made Mu Chen raise an eyebrow.
"You're no ordinary person."
Mu Chen didn't respond. His blue eyes met Yan Shaozhe's calmly. His silence was an answer in itself: no denial, no admission, no explanation.
Yan Shaozhe didn't press him. A man who had lived as long as he had knew that every genius had secrets they couldn't speak of.
He changed the subject, explaining that the list of core disciples had been revised. Huo Yuhao's name would be added, but not under the Martial Soul Department. Instead, he would be specially admitted as a core disciple of the Soul Guidance Department.
This was a first in the history of Shrek Academy: one student holding enrollment in the Martial Soul Department while also qualifying as a core disciple of the Soul Guidance Department.
"Thank you, Dean Yan," Mu Chen said.
"No need to thank me. That boy, Huo Yuhao—his Spiritual Detection Sharing really does have value. I misjudged him before. The reason Shrek is Shrek isn't that we never make mistakes, but that we're willing to correct them." Yan Shaozhe waved a hand, his gaze sharp with insight into the ways of the world.
After leaving the dean's office, Mu Chen went straight back to the dormitory. When he opened the door, Wang Dong was sitting cross-legged on the bed with a textbook on Soul Power theory spread across her knees, though she clearly wasn't looking at the words.
"How did it go? That old Yan didn't give you a hard time, did he?" She looked up, unable to hide the tension in her voice.
"No." Mu Chen briefly recounted his conversation in the dean's office, including the news about Huo Yuhao's core disciple status.
Wang Dong listened, then fell silent for a while. She closed the textbook and set it aside, wrapped her arms around her knees, and rested her chin on them.
She looked at Mu Chen, complex emotions in her pink-blue eyes.
"Everything you do is paving the way for the people around you. Have you ever thought about how exhausting that must be?" Her voice was very soft, as if she were talking to herself.
Mu Chen sat down on the edge of the bed and was silent for a moment.
"I'm not tired," he said.
Wang Dong looked at him for a long time, then snorted and picked up her textbook again, holding it up to hide her face. Her voice came muffled from behind the pages. "Suit yourself. You always have your reasons for everything you do. I can't argue with you."
The corners of Mu Chen's mouth curved slightly.
Over the following days, everything seemed to return to normal.
The freshmen assessment champion's medal was awarded, and Huo Yuhao officially began his classes in the Soul Guidance Department. During the day, he studied basic soul tool theory with Fan Yu. At night, he struggled with a pile of metal parts in the workshop, often returning to the dormitory late at night smelling of machine oil.
Mu Chen and Wang Dong's nightly fusion training also continued without interruption. After releasing their Martial Soul Fusion Skill once, the two had gained noticeably finer control over the fusion, and their training efficiency steadily improved.
That door remained open.
Light of the Vast Ocean didn't activate every time they trained. The move consumed too much Soul Power, and at their current levels, they needed at least three days of rest before they could use it again.