Five Battles, Five Victories, Wang Yan's Encouragement

That blow made both of their hands ache at the same time, and the next moment, they felt a sharp pain in their chests as well.

Wang Dong had already arrived behind them. Beneath the wings of the Light Goddess Butterfly, two drops of blood blossomed.

"The first match is over. Freshman Class Two wins!" This time, Wang Yan directly experienced the power of Huo Yuhao's first soul skill. Naturally, he did not pay too much attention to Huo Yuhao, merely marveling that such a rare type of soul master—a spiritual-type soul master—had appeared among this year's freshmen.

He then recorded the result in the notebook he carried with him. At the same time, he glanced at Huo Yuhao and understood why this team was called Huo Yuhao's team. He also began to wonder what Huo Yuhao's second soul skill might be.

Led by Huo Yuhao, Wang Dong and Xiao Xiao left the arena after their own match ended, rather than staying to watch the remaining matches as they had in the original story.

In the cafeteria, the three held their meal trays as they ate and reviewed their actions that day. Xiao Xiao could not hold it in any longer and asked Huo Yuhao, "Yuhao, isn't it a little overconfident for us to leave without even watching?"

Huo Yuhao shook his head and said to Xiao Xiao, "Being cautious is a good habit, but the prerequisite for caution is having a brain. At our current stage, if there's a difference in strength, you can't come up with a strategy to counter them in a single night. And at this stage, most people only have two or three soul skills anyway. There's no real information gap. Even if there were, just like I said, all you'd get from one night would be anxiety, not anything useful."

Wang Dong immediately chimed in, "Rejecting internal friction is the only way to compete better."

Xiao Xiao thought about it, then nodded, agreeing with Huo Yuhao's view.

After dinner, as the three were about to return to their dormitories, Huo Yuhao reminded them, "Get some rest early tonight. Don't use today's matches as a reference for how intense the later matches will be. Today was only for adapting to the competition format and getting familiar with the process. The real stuff starts tomorrow."

Xiao Xiao and Wang Dong nodded at those words. Just as Huo Yuhao had said, the assessment schedule would become much denser the next day, with two rounds in the morning and two in the afternoon, four rounds in total. The third day would be even more terrifying: every team had to compete in five rounds. The entire Freshman Assessment lasted only three days.

And Huo Yuhao's team, with every member possessing two soul rings, stood out like a crane among chickens in their entire area.

As a result, when other teams saw Huo Yuhao's group standing opposite them, most chose to put on a token display before conceding, preserving their strength for the more evenly matched battles ahead.

Huo Yuhao's group completed five consecutive victories with astonishing ease. With a record of five battles and five victories, they had basically already completed the Freshman Assessment process.

Without Zhou Yi's pressure that they absolutely had to win the championship, if the three of them had been a little more arrogant, they could have started celebrating already.

And this was only the second day. The gap had already been established, and there were still five matches remaining. Those matches would determine whether they could enter the top sixty-four.

Huo Yuhao had been spoiled about this. Even if history had diverged somewhat due to the butterfly effect, the championship reward would at the very least be a soul bone.

"Huo Yuhao, Wang Dong, come here for a moment." After the second day's matches ended, Wang Yan called Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong over.

Xiao Xiao exchanged glances with Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong, then remained where she was, waiting for the two of them.

Huo Yuhao walked forward with Wang Dong and soon stopped before Wang Yan. "Is there something you need, Teacher Wang?"

Huo Yuhao's voice was calm and unhurried as he looked at Wang Yan. He showed neither confusion nor the nervousness one might feel before a teacher.

"Congratulations on achieving a perfect record in the first five matches." After calling them over, Wang Yan immediately congratulated them.

"Teacher Wang, shouldn't you have called all three of us over?" Huo Yuhao asked with a smile, clearly seeming to be standing up for his companion.

Wang Yan coughed lightly, then revealed his true purpose. "You two are the most outstanding students I've seen so far. Having two soul rings at your age is already exceptional, and having a thousand-year second soul ring is even rarer."

"You must work hard as a team and go as far as possible. The Academy's rewards are very generous."

Wang Yan continued with some more meaningless pleasantries, while Huo Yuhao casually gave him a few perfunctory responses.

"You're quite good. I think highly of you. Go back and rest." After offering Huo Yuhao a few words of encouragement, Wang Yan waved them away.

Huo Yuhao gave Wang Dong a look, then led her toward where Xiao Xiao was standing.

After they left, Wang Yan looked at Huo Yuhao's back and muttered to himself, "To be neither servile nor overbearing, neither arrogant nor impetuous, at such an age—he truly is a promising talent. Teacher Mu Jin has had much better luck than Teacher Zhou Yi this year."

Huo Yuhao did not care how Wang Yan evaluated him. What concerned him more now was that he had yet to finish stepping through one small minefield.

He had deliberately avoided the direction of Sea God Lake during this period and had yet to run into the crazed Ma Xiaotao. He did not know whether being forced by Ma Xiaotao to use Tian Meng's One Finger meant that this minor ordeal had passed.

Based on Huo Yuhao's understanding of how these fated events worked, probably not. It had likely only been hidden away, waiting to reappear at some unknown time.

But they were still in the middle of the assessment, and Huo Yuhao truly had no mood to dwell on such matters.

The journey back to the dormitory was quite smooth as well.

The moment the dormitory door opened, Wang Dong shot into the bedding like an arrow released from a bow, plunging headfirst onto the bed. Only her two long legs remained exposed as she kicked off her shoes.

Huo Yuhao leaned against the windowsill nearby, watching Wang Dong's antics with some speechlessness. After a while, he turned his gaze toward the direction of Shrek Academy's main gate.

Ling Luochen seemed to have gone on another soul-hunting mission. At that moment, she hurried in through the main gate, with faint bloodstains still clinging to the edges of her Shrek Inspectorate cloak.

Seeing this, Huo Yuhao could not help but marvel at how absurd the erosion of fate was.

Ling Luochen had undertaken quite a few bloody missions. Then the others who were also part of the Shrek Seven Devils could not possibly have been useless either. These seven had been through countless battles; their combined practical combat experience must have been greater than that of the strongest Soul King, Mr. Death God, had throughout his entire life.

Yet during that soul-hunting mission, they had been treated like firecrackers and casually blown away by the Death God Soul King.

Regarding this matter, Huo Yuhao even felt a little sympathy for Xuan Zi. After all, for the Shrek Seven Devils to perform so miserably was indeed beyond anyone's expectations when examined closely...