Martial Soul Fusion Skill Turmoil

"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 of facts.

"Testing a new ability." Dean Yan repeated the four words, then suddenly laughed.

That smile held surprise, emotion, and a hint of profound meaning. "Kid, do you know that the strike you just unleashed nearly vaporized a small island on Sea God Lake?"

"I will pay for the damages," Mu Chen said.

Dean Yan froze for a moment, then burst into hearty laughter. The sound echoed across the vast, empty lake, startling several night birds in the distant woods.

"Pay? Can you even afford it?" He shook his head, walked to the massive trench, and crouched down, running his fingers over the mirror-smooth surface of the crater wall.

The sensation against his fingertips caused the smile on his face to slowly fade, replaced by a look of serious scrutiny.

"Complete vaporization, no signs of combustion. This indicates that 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 is the name of this Martial Soul Fusion Skill?"

"Light of the Vast Ocean." Wang Dong poked her head out from behind Mu Chen to answer the question for him. Her voice was still a bit weak, but her pride could not be hidden.

"Light of the Vast Ocean." Dean Yan murmured the name to himself and nodded. "A good name. The vastness of the Ocean, the brilliance of the Light—it is truly fitting."

He turned around, looking at the ruins in the center of the lake, and remained silent for a long time. The night wind whipped the hem of his white robes, and the moonlight cast a silver sheen over his snow-white beard and hair.

Then he turned back, looked at Mu Chen and Wang Dong, and said something that left them both slightly stunned.

"Practice well. As long as you don't hurt anyone, there's no need for compensation."

After saying this, his figure flashed and vanished into the night, leaving Mu Chen and Wang Dong standing by the devastated lakeshore.

"What did he mean by that?" Wang Dong looked up at Mu Chen.

Mu Chen watched the direction in which Dean Yan had disappeared, a flicker of contemplation in his blue eyes. Then he lowered his head and said to Wang Dong, "It means your Martial Soul Fusion Skill is very powerful. Let's go, head back and rest; there is much to do tomorrow."

He turned and walked toward the dormitory.

"Hey! Wait for me! My legs are weak and I can't walk!"

Mu Chen stopped, turned around, and crouched down in front of Wang Dong.

"Get on."

Wang Dong looked at the back before him—not particularly broad, yet exceptionally upright—and froze for two seconds. Then his face began to flush, the heat spreading from his neck all the way to his forehead.

"I... I can walk myself."

"Your soul power is depleted. It will take a long time to walk back, and catching a cold on the way will affect your condition tomorrow." Mu Chen's tone remained flat, as if stating a fact that required no discussion.

Wang Dong bit his lip, but eventually climbed onto Mu Chen's back. His arms wrapped around Mu Chen's neck, and he buried his face in the crook of his shoulder, burning hot.

Mu Chen carried him toward the dormitory. The moonlight cast the shadows of the two onto the maple-leaf-strewn path, merging them into one, indistinguishable from each other.

"Big Brother."

"Hmm?"

"Do you like the name Light of the Vast Ocean?"

"I do."

Wang Dong smiled, burying his face deeper. His breathing gradually steadied, and his body softened from its rigid state.

The fallout from the Light of the Vast Ocean was greater than Mu Chen had anticipated.

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 about the details of the Martial Soul Fusion Skill: the trigger conditions, soul power consumption, maximum destructive power, and duration. Every item was repeatedly verified and recorded.

Mu Chen's answers were airtight; he said what needed to be said and not a single word more. Wang Dong's side was much simpler; he hadn't known much to begin with, and aside from his sensations during the fusion and the path of his soul power circulation, he couldn't provide any further technical details.

After the questioning concluded, Dean Yan called Mu Chen alone into the Dean's office.

The old man sat behind a large mahogany desk, his hands clasped over his abdomen, staring at Mu Chen for a good long while before slowly speaking a sentence that made Mu Chen raise an eyebrow.

"You are no ordinary person."

Mu Chen did not respond, his blue eyes meeting Dean Yan's gaze calmly. This silence itself was an attitude: neither denying, nor admitting, nor explaining.

Dean Yan did not press the issue. Someone who had lived to his age knew well that every genius had their own unspeakable secrets.

He changed the subject, stating that the list of core disciples had been readjusted. Huo Yuhao's name would be added, but not to the Martial Soul Department; he would be admitted as a core disciple specially recruited by the Soul Guidance Department.

This was a first in the entire history of Shrek Academy: a student holding both a Martial Soul Department enrollment and a Soul Guidance Department core disciple qualification.

"Thank you, Dean Yan," Mu Chen said.

"No need to thank me. That kid named Huo Yuhao—his Spiritual Detection Sharing is indeed valuable. I was the one who misjudged him before. The reason Shrek is Shrek is not because we never make mistakes, but because we are willing to correct them." Dean Yan waved his hand, his gaze possessing a sharpness that pierced through the ways of the world.

Upon leaving the Dean's office, Mu Chen walked straight back to the dormitory. When he pushed open the door, Wang Dong was sitting cross-legged on the bed with a soul power theory textbook spread across his knees, though his eyes were clearly not reading the words.

"How was it? The old man didn't give you a hard time, did he?" He looked up, his voice carrying a hint of irrepressible tension.

"No." Mu Chen briefly recounted the conversation in the Dean's office, including the matter of Huo Yuhao's core disciple qualification.

Wang Dong listened in silence for a while, then closed the textbook and set it aside, wrapping his arms around his knees and resting his chin upon them.

He looked at Mu Chen, a complex emotion swirling in his powder-blue eyes.

"Everything you do is paving the way for those around you. Have you ever thought about how exhausting that is?" His voice was very soft, as if he were talking to himself.

Mu Chen sat down by the bed and remained silent for a moment.

"I'm not tired," he said.

Wang Dong stared at him for a long time, then let out a huff. She picked up her textbook again to shield her face, her voice muffled from behind the pages: "Suit yourself. You always have your reasons for everything anyway; I can't win an argument against you."

The corners of Mu Chen's mouth curved upward slightly.

Over the next few days, everything seemed to return to normal.

The championship medals for the Freshman Assessment were distributed, and Huo Yuhao officially began his classes at the Soul Guidance Department. During the day, he followed Fan Yu to learn basic soul guidance theory, and at night, he wrestled with piles of metal parts in the workshop, often returning to the dormitory late at night smelling of machine oil.

The nightly fusion cultivation between Mu Chen and Wang Dong did not stop either. After unleashing their Martial Soul Fusion Skill once, their control over the fusion became significantly more precise, and their cultivation efficiency steadily improved.

That door remained open.

They did not trigger the Light of the Vast Ocean every time they cultivated; that move consumed too much soul power. Given their current levels, they needed at least three days of rest after using it once before they could release it again.