Research Scholar

Since Jiang Nannan still had classes to attend that morning, the two of them did not linger.

Rising from Lin Yan's embrace, Jiang Nannan blushed as she straightened the collar that someone had messed up.

"Brother, I'll be going first. I'll come find you again tonight, and then I'll take you around Shrek City properly."

Seeing the beauty before him, as intoxicating as fine wine, her charming eyes and brows brimming with allure, Lin Yan rose as well, warmth smiling in his eyes. "All right. We'll do whatever my Nannan says."

Jiang Nannan's lovely face showed a touch of shyness. Half bashful and half annoyed, she said softly, "You really are something~ Who's yours, anyway?!"

Lin Yan reached out and caught her soft, slender hand. Looking at the sweetly innocent beauty before him, he said clearly, "All right, all right. Then I'm our Nannan's, okay?"

At those words, beneath Jiang Nannan's willow-leaf brows, ripples stirred in her autumn-water eyes. Her gentle voice carried a barely perceptible note of delight and playfulness. "Bad man. I'm not talking to you anymore. I really have to go."

Though she said she was leaving, Jiang Nannan did not move at all. Her beautiful eyes seemed able to speak, gazing at Lin Yan with glimmering tenderness.

Seeing this, Lin Yan took a step forward and pulled her back into his arms.

Her crimson lips and pearly teeth were breathtaking, her peach-petal lips vivid as cinnabar, her collarbones delicate as jade. With beauty fit to topple kingdoms, Lin Yan lowered his head again and captured that alluring red, savoring its sweetness.

Jiang Nannan slowly closed her bright eyes, her fine lashes concealing her bashfulness. Her hands rested on Lin Yan's shoulders as she softly returned his kiss.

After a long while, their lips parted...

Jiang Nannan seemed to notice something unusual about him. Her gaze drifted as she said gently, "Brother, I really need to go."

Young bodies really were full of fire!

Lin Yan suppressed the stirring in his heart, nodded, and said warmly, "Go on, then. I should head over to the Soul Fighting Arena too."

"Mm-hmm!"

Jiang Nannan shyly tugged at the dress over her chest, which had wrinkled again, then walked reluctantly toward the door. Only when her figure had completely disappeared from Lin Yan's sight did he look away.

By the time Lin Yan arrived at the Soul Fighting Zone, Wang Dong'er happened to be fighting on the stage.

After her Martial Soul Possession, dazzling blue wings instantly unfurled from her back, while a strange blue-violet radiance enveloped her body.

At that moment, she truly seemed like a butterfly fairy descending into the mortal world. Unfortunately, this butterfly fairy seemed a little... irritable...?

Wang Dong'er went all out on the stage and swiftly eliminated her opponent with fierce, decisive attacks.

Lin Yan slowly walked to the side of the visibly excited Wang Yan. He clearly saw the man writing notes at high speed while muttering, "Light Goddess Butterfly! So this is the legendary Light Goddess Butterfly, said to appear only on those of extraordinary beauty!"

Lin Yan could not help sighing at the sight. If he could, he really wanted to drag that "Yu Xiaogang" from the first Douluo era over here and let him see what a true scholar looked like!

Compared to Yu Xiaogang's style of conducting research while getting tangled up with women, someone like Wang Yan, whose eyes held nothing but knowledge, was a true research scholar!

What? You were asking whether Lin Yan's own research attitude was proper?

Well, about that!

Lin Yan had something to say: he had never claimed to be a research scholar!

He was just an ordinary cheater, that was all!

Not wanting to disturb Wang Yan, who was wholly focused on recording and organizing the students' Martial Soul traits, Lin Yan quietly stood beside him and watched with great interest.

Though the fights in the arena looked somewhat like a bunch of amateurs pecking at each other in Lin Yan's eyes, the students who could enter Shrek were basically never weak in Martial Soul quality.

Observing firsthand and learning about these varied Martial Souls was also a form of cultivation for Lin Yan. Perhaps the bits and pieces he accumulated today would one day become the spark for a burst of inspiration.

Besides, watching more, thinking more, and letting his thoughts wander would also help the Prajna Heart Lamp in his sea of consciousness collect those thoughts that would otherwise vanish in an instant, turning them into lamp oil to store away for the future.

After another group of students finished their match and left the stage, the petite and delicate Xiao Xiao stepped onto the arena.

Her opponent possessed a beast Martial Soul known as the Swift Thunder Wolf. His Soul Power was at Rank 23, one rank higher than Xiao Xiao's Rank 22.

Their battle had initially been evenly matched, neither able to gain the upper hand. However, once Xiao Xiao used her second Martial Soul—the Nine Phoenix Flute—victory was immediately decided.

It was worth noting that Xiao Xiao's second Martial Soul, the Nine Phoenix Flute, had not yet been fitted with a single Spirit Ring.

Looking at it this way, the reason she had hastily chosen to attach a mere hundred-year Spirit Ring to her second Martial Soul within three months in the original story must have been another of Zhou Yi's sins.

Fortunately, Zhou Yi had long since vanished who knew where, and there were people here who recognized true talent.

After witnessing Xiao Xiao use two Martial Souls simultaneously, Wang Yan froze briefly before crying out in shock, "How is this possible?! Using two Martial Souls at the same time?!!"

Twin Martial Souls were rare, but Shrek was vast and powerful enough that Wang Yan had seen them before.

But Twin Martial Souls that could be activated simultaneously truly went beyond Wang Yan's understanding.

After all, due to the mutual repulsion between Martial Souls, even Soul Masters with Twin Martial Souls could generally only use one at a time. To use the other, they had to switch.

But where there was the ordinary, there was the extraordinary.

Xiao Xiao was an exceptionally special case. Because her two Martial Souls had an extremely high degree of compatibility and minimal rejection, she could activate both at once.

Ignoring Wang Yan, who had fallen into deep thought, the battle in the arena continued.

As time gradually passed and the final match came to an end, the class monitor and vice monitor of Freshman Class One were chosen.

They were Wang Dong'er and Xiao Xiao. As for Lao Huo?

Since Lao Huo's cheat had only arrived not long ago, although his performance had been impressive, he still did not win the class monitor position as he had in the original story.

After several exhilarating battles, Wang Dong'er's originally sour mood had eased somewhat.

But when she came down from the stage and walked over to Lin Yan, her nose caught the faint lingering fragrance that belonged to Jiang Nannan. Her lovely mood instantly became unlovely again.

However, looking at Lin Yan's calm expression, unchanged as always, Wang Dong'er opened her mouth only to realize she had no standing to ask anything. She could only silently force down the faint sourness rising in her heart.

Once all the students had gathered, Wang Yan temporarily suppressed the many unanswered questions filling his mind.

Yet from the way his gaze occasionally drifted toward Xiao Xiao, it was obvious that he was still thinking about it.

Lin Yan took all of this in and understood.

It seemed that with Zhou Yi gone and Wang Yan taking her place, Xiao Xiao should not repeat the mistakes of the original story and waste her talent for nothing.

Xiao Xiao had absolutely gone down the wrong path in the original story. Her pair of Martial Souls could be used at the same time: the Three-Life Soul-Suppressing Cauldron specialized in powerful attacks, while the Nine Phoenix Flute specialized in control. Together, they could directly produce an effect greater than one plus one.

Yet for some reason, she had developed both Martial Souls toward the control path, greatly weakening the unique advantage of her Twin Martial Souls.

Afterward, drawing on the battle details he had just recorded, Wang Yan pointed out the shortcomings and weaknesses everyone had exposed in combat.

After his round of commentary, the entire morning had passed just like that.