"Whew, finally finished."
In the room provided for the new students to rest.
Li Changsheng slowly withdrew the Mysterious Heaven Skill inner power he had released.
Beads of sweat the size of beans dotted his forehead. The mark of the Night-Startling Spear between his brows had gradually dimmed, no longer radiating the same murderous aura as before.
He lowered his head and looked at Li Zishuo, who sat cross-legged and practiced the Mysterious Heaven Skill.
Li Changsheng nodded with satisfaction.
Just now, during a spare moment, he had followed the God of Wisdom's step-by-step guidance to open up a cultivation pathway for the Mysterious Heaven Skill in Li Zishuo's body. He had also taught him the method and explained the specific way to practice it in fairly straightforward terms.
Though he didn't understand it very well himself, with the God of Wisdom there, none of that was a problem.
Li Changsheng wasn't stingy. In his view, a genius was a genius precisely because, given the same opportunities, they could far surpass others. Otherwise, they couldn't be called a true genius.
The Mysterious Heaven Skill was powerful. It marshaled one's Soul Power to reach an almost perfect meditative state, and even connected the meridians to the dantian. It was likely an impressive cultivation method even in a world where one drew in spiritual energy.
Li Zishuo was still cultivating, already in a state of Deep Meditation.
Only after turning around did Li Changsheng realize that it was almost the middle of the night.
He didn't disturb Li Zishuo. Instead, he turned and returned to his own room.
After several days of meditative cultivation, Li Changsheng himself hadn't improved very quickly.
He sat cross-legged in his room and entered a state of Deep Meditation almost in an instant.
The night passed in silence.
The next morning, at dawn.
When a dazzling, flickering glimmer appeared faintly over the distant mountain ridges, Li Changsheng had already stopped meditating and gone to the window. He gazed at the streams of ceaselessly surging qi in the distant sky. The vast, surging aura flowed without end, turning into pure power that poured into his eyes and became strands of purple light.
Cultivating the Purple Demon Eye had pushed Li Changsheng's vision to an astonishing degree.
But it was still far from enough.
With the God of Wisdom's guidance, the Purple Demon Eye could even manipulate a person's mind.
Li Changsheng only used it to observe.
A quarter of an hour later, when the sun finally broke over the distant horizon and bathed the earth, Li Changsheng reluctantly looked away.
After getting ready, he walked out the door.
As soon as he stepped outside,
Li Changsheng ran into someone.
The Seven Absolute Zither Master.
She stood at his door, apparently having waited there for some time.
Li Changsheng was taken aback. His brows furrowed beneath his mask. "Is something wrong?"
The Seven Absolute Zither Master said nothing. She lightly brushed her pale, luminous wrist with her hand, took a short sword from her Storage Soul Tool, and held it out to Li Changsheng.
"What's this?" Li Changsheng took the short sword.
It felt cold in his hand. He hadn't drawn it, but could sense its sharpness, along with traces of fluctuating Soul Power still clinging to it.
"Don't die."
The Seven Absolute Zither Master said something utterly baffling, then walked away down the corridor with light steps.
Li Changsheng was confused.
Only then did he notice that the Seven Absolute Zither Master's silvery-white hair, usually worn loose, had been tied into two braids today with pale-purple ribbons. They bounced with each step, looking quite lovely.
"Could this be a Soul Tool?" Li Changsheng had read the Level 10 Spirit Master's Notes and had some understanding of offensive Soul Tools.
He immediately poured his Soul Power into it.
Pfft!
The air rang with a sharp hiss, followed by a rapid series of cries like a bird's.
At the same time, the air suddenly turned chilly.
A flying Ice Bird with outstretched wings took shape above the Soul Tool in his hand. It swooped through the air in several arcs, seemed to find no danger, then flew straight back into the short sword.
"Huh? What kind of Soul Tool is this?" Intrigued, Li Changsheng tried it a few more times.
It didn't seem to consume much Soul Power. As for its offensive power...
The Ice Bird it formed seemed almost intelligent. If it didn't find anything that could harm Li Changsheng, it wouldn't attack.
Just as Li Changsheng was about to go out and gather with the others,
a childish, extremely excited shriek suddenly rang out from the room next door—Li Zishuo's room.
"I did it! Level 10 Soul Power! Yeah!"
The voice drew closer and closer, and then the door opened.
Li Changsheng saw Li Zishuo rush out at a jog, looking utterly exhausted yet incredibly excited.
He first ran straight toward Li Changsheng's room, only to realize that Li Changsheng was outside.
Then, in a single bound, he rushed forward, dropped to one knee, and looked up at Li Changsheng. Excitement surged through his pale face again as he threw his arms around Li Changsheng's leg and rubbed his cheek against it. "Big brother, I really admire you so much!"
Li Changsheng was stunned.
That was right—he was completely dumbfounded.
It wasn't because the other had broken through so quickly.
It was because Li Zishuo's sudden action had caught him off guard.
Soul Masters at the Soul Scholar level cultivated quickly to begin with. With a special method, they could make twice the progress in half the time.
That was right. When Li Changsheng opened up Li Zishuo's meridians, he used some of the scant blood qi stored inside the Night-Startling Spear to help him improve by a great deal—a very great deal.
Li Zishuo was intelligent, but his talent was somewhat lacking.
Li Changsheng had helped him not merely because he was his descendant. He also found Li Zishuo very endearing, and he'd wanted to give him a hand. That was reason enough.
Was this not a lovely sight along the path of cultivation?
"Good, get up, get up. You can keep admiring me even more from now on." Li Changsheng pulled Li Zishuo to his feet. Seeing his innocent, childlike face with the mask off, Li Changsheng smiled and teased, "Was kneeling something your dad taught you too?"
Li Zishuo straightened up. He froze for a moment, then fidgeted with his fingers and said, a little embarrassed, "Actually, I copied the part where Tang San's ancestor bowed to take a master..."
Li Zishuo didn't know much, but he understood perfectly well that he had reached his current level with Li Changsheng's help. In just a few days, his level had risen this far. Of course he sincerely admired Li Changsheng. He swore to himself that he would protect his big brother! Yes, his big brother!
Li Changsheng chuckled and shook his head at that.
Indeed, over the past ten thousand years, Tang San's journey had become a classic, and there were plenty of storytelling-style works about it.
"Enough. Now we can hunt Soul Beasts together and look out for each other. Come on, let's go. If we're late, there won't be any breakfast."
"Okay!" Li Zishuo nodded emphatically, excitement still blazing across his face. His cheeks even seemed to tremble.
"Put on your mask."
After putting away the Soul Tool the Seven Absolute Zither Master had given him, Li Changsheng set out with Li Zishuo, who had gone back to retrieve his mask.
Since they were staying in a dormitory building like a tenement, they still ran into a few people wearing different masks as they went downstairs.
After asking around, Li Changsheng had gotten a pretty clear idea.
At the Pre-Education Academy, masks were divided into four types according to grade.
First- through third-year students wore white masks.
Fourth-year students wore yellow masks with flower patterns.
Fifth-year students wore purple masks.
Ordinary sixth-year students wore black masks. Sixth-year prodigies like the Centrifugal Killing Mirror could wear any mask they pleased.
Although the Seven Absolute Zither Master was a new student like Li Changsheng, she was the Pre-Education Academy principal's disciple and therefore enjoyed priority privileges.
The upper-year students all hurried downstairs and then hurried off. They rarely stopped to talk to one another.
That might have had a lot to do with the fact that each dorm room housed only one person.
By the time Li Changsheng and Li Zishuo arrived, the Centrifugal Killing Mirror, the Seven Absolute Zither Master, and the others had already been waiting by the path for some time.
Their long-absent instructor, Gu Feibai, was there this time too.
Incidentally, the elegant, beautiful young woman was nowhere to be seen.
After Li Changsheng and Li Zishuo explained the situation to Gu Feibai and he confirmed it, Li Zishuo was also allowed to enter the Simulated Star Dou Forest area to hunt Soul Beasts and give his Martial Soul a Soul Ring.
Gu Feibai didn't seem surprised that Li Zishuo had improved so quickly.
Indeed, Soul Masters at the Soul Scholar stage improved quickly even under normal cultivation.
There were more than thirty new students gathered for the assessment.
They seemed to be one batch of students. Another group of Soul Masters would apparently arrive here after some time.
Under Gu Feibai's guidance, Li Changsheng and the others came to the Simulated Star Dou Forest area.
When he got closer, Li Changsheng realized that his earlier observations had been somewhat off.
Beyond the thick Soul Tool railings, what they had fenced in wasn't just a forest. It was a ravaging, eerily silent, terrifyingly treacherous forest that devoured people!
This time, Gu Feibai faced the new students with a grave expression. His voice was low as he said, "You can still choose to give up. Once you enter the simulated forest, your life or death will be up to fate. What I'm saying might violate the academy rules, but I still have to remind you: don't be so stubborn that you insist on hunting a Soul Beast all by yourself. That's what idiots do. You can form teams, or even take Soul Beasts hunted by others. Either is fine. The one thing you must not do is kill people. Of course, that depends on your own self-restraint..."
"However..."
As he spoke, Gu Feibai took out something that looked like a sphere and held it up for everyone to see.
"Each of you can wear this Spirit Power Recording Device. If one of you dies, we can retrieve it and see whether you were killed by a Soul Beast or by another person. You can get away with it if no one finds out. But if we catch you murdering another examinee, I'm afraid your little head will be placed in front of their gravestone."
Then he distributed the strange Soul Tools to everyone.
"Oh, and this thing must not be damaged or discarded. We'll collect them when you return. If anyone loses theirs, heh heh, you can go pay the fine yourself."
"There's no set time limit for the assessment. You can leave whenever you manage to make it out of here alive, but it's best not to keep me waiting too long."
Li Changsheng had been listening from beginning to end.
Gu Feibai was absolutely there to stir up trouble.
He was encouraging the others not only to hunt Soul Beasts themselves but also to snatch the dying Soul Beasts hunted by other people...
Of course, they could only snatch them if their Martial Souls were similar and their own Martial Souls could absorb dying Soul Beasts.
Still, after Gu Feibai put it that way, the difficulty had definitely increased.
Of course, that had nothing to do with Li Changsheng. He was just there to bully the weak.
After all, he was already nearly Level 15.
Then they lined up and entered the Simulated Star Dou Forest area one by one.
Before they had even fully entered, a few people from the same hometown had already formed a team.
Just as Li Changsheng and Li Zishuo were about to go in,
the Seven Absolute Zither Master came over again. This time, she handed Li Changsheng a sheet of paper.
Li Changsheng glanced at it and saw that it was a map. It marked the areas where various Soul Beasts lived in the Simulated Star Dou Forest, along with their ages.
Why would he ask the Seven Absolute Zither Master such a thoughtless question?
He nodded to her in thanks. He might not need the map, but he appreciated the gesture.
As the Seven Absolute Zither Master went back, she repeated the same words as before: "Stay alive."
Before you continue