Petrification Soul Skill

After collecting their forms, the students entered the Beast Fighting Arena under the guidance of their respective homeroom teachers.

Outside the Beast Fighting Zone, over a hundred students from the two classes stood in neat lines, waiting for their assessments.

On a raised platform beside the Beast Fighting Arena stood Du Weilun, the dean of studies and chief examiner, along with four other teachers responsible for scoring. They observed the situation inside the arena.

Without Huo Yuhao needing to volunteer, Mu Jin patted him on the shoulder. "Yuhao, you go first."

Huo Yuhao nodded and was the first to walk toward the center of the Beast Fighting Arena.

Two teachers served as referees there. The chief referee on the left was the first to ask Huo Yuhao, "Which department do you specialize in?"

"Control."

Huo Yuhao answered calmly as he loosened up his limbs and prepared for battle.

The chief referee replied, "Choose the soul beast you wish to be assessed against. Remember, do your best to demonstrate the meaning of 'control.' You only have one chance, so know your limits."

"The soul beasts range from one hundred to one thousand years in age, measured in hundred-year increments. Age is not the sole criterion for scoring, so there is no need to obsess over a higher age."

After his final reminder, the chief referee waited for Huo Yuhao's choice.

"I choose a thousand-year one." Huo Yuhao did not bother with the flashy trick of simulating Soul Rings from the original story and simply spoke calmly to the chief referee.

The chief referee nodded. "As requested, a thousand-year soul beast will be selected at random for your assessment. Are you ready?"

Huo Yuhao nodded, then turned his gaze toward the enormous iron gate in the distance.

"The assessment begins." The chief referee made a gesture toward the distance. Mechanical clattering rang out as the huge iron gate slowly opened, revealing a pitch-black passageway that resembled a ferocious beast opening its maw.

The passageway was terrifyingly silent, as though there were no living creatures on the other side. Huo Yuhao narrowed his eyes. With his vision, he could naturally see that there was indeed a living creature within the dark tunnel.

It was simply absurdly small, like a rat only slightly larger than a palm. Its dusky violet fur swayed faintly in the wind, glimmering with electric arcs.

The instant Huo Yuhao met the purple rat's eyes, a violet streak shot out from the dark passageway, rushing from afar straight toward his chest.

Huo Yuhao remained where he stood. The third purple Soul Ring beneath his feet flashed, and a faint gray light emerged from his Spirit Eye, enveloping the violet streak.

Once the pale gray light completely covered the violet streak, it was all over.

The violet streak fell to the ground. The referees could see it rapidly petrifying beneath the gray light, turning into a teardrop-shaped Mu Jin.

The teardrop-shaped Mu Jin hung in the air for an instant before falling to the ground and shattering into pieces. A purple Soul Ring slowly rose from within the fragments.

Even Du Weilun was somewhat surprised by Huo Yuhao's move.

As the dean of studies for Shrek Academy's Martial Soul Department, he was no amateur. Almost the moment Huo Yuhao finished making his move, he blurted out, "This is Medusa's Petrification. It can completely petrify any form of energy into a solid. Destroying the petrified product will directly kill the target."

Du Weilun felt annoyed. The death of a thousand-year soul beast, especially one of such a rare species, counted as a loss for the academy. But when it came down to it, Huo Yuhao could not really be blamed.

After all, even Du Weilun had not reacted in time before Huo Yuhao instantly activated his Third Soul Skill and petrified it.

Its death from falling and shattering after petrification was not fundamentally Huo Yuhao's intention. The only person responsible for this soul beast's death was Du Weilun. Elder Gong, who managed the Beast Fighting Zone, would not hold such a matter against Huo Yuhao. The only one left to suffer would be Du Weilun.

Huo Yuhao turned to the two teachers, who still had not recovered their senses. "All right, teachers. My assessment is complete."

The chief referee studied Huo Yuhao, seemingly assessing how much Soul Power he had expended. Huo Yuhao looked back calmly and waited for the final score.

"Against a thousand-year soul beast: one hundred base points. Fifty combat points. Since the Purple Lightning Demon Mouse happened to be countered by your Third Soul Skill, there was an element of luck involved. Deducting ten points. Total score: one hundred and forty."

Huo Yuhao nodded at those words and turned to leave. Although this score was slightly lower than the perfect score he had earned in the original story after two rounds of showing off, it was within his expectations. He did not want to reveal too much of his edge. This was enough, after all. He had no intention of putting down roots here.

Wang Dong, however, felt indignant on Huo Yuhao's behalf. "They randomly chose the soul beast themselves. With that rat's speed, if you hadn't had this Soul Skill, you might even have suffered badly. How can they deduct points just because you happened to have a skill that countered it?"

Huo Yuhao shrugged and lowered his voice. "Why do you care so much about this trash assessment that does not control for any variables? When you are truly hunting soul beasts or facing soul beasts, there is no scoring system. You also cannot guarantee that other soul beasts will not interfere while hunting. This assessment is only meant to display our Soul Skills. Once you have shown them, the rest does not matter."

After hearing Huo Yuhao's words, Wang Dong nodded. She then turned her gaze toward Dai Huabin, gave a provocative snort, and said flatly, "Some people bragged that two people's scores would be higher than the combined scores of three people. Huo Yuhao alone has already scored one hundred and forty points. What are the two of you going to use to catch up?"

The theoretical maximum score for one person was one hundred and fifty, while two people could earn a combined total of three hundred. Yet Huo Yuhao alone had already achieved a high score of one hundred and forty.

In other words, as long as Wang Dong and Xiao Xiao each scored more than eighty points, victory was already guaranteed.

Wang Dong's early celebration was not without reason. Dai Huabin's expression, meanwhile, did not look too good. Still, he barely maintained the composure expected of someone from the White Tiger Duke Mansion. He merely snorted and did not respond to Wang Dong.

The following assessments went relatively smoothly. After all, Huo Yuhao had not unleashed the pressure of a hundred-thousand-year Soul Ring to scare every soul beast senseless this time. He merely completed a normal single-round wager match.

To Huo Yuhao, the wager match itself was not important. What mattered was that after winning it, he would set the killing trap he had designed for Dai Huabin...