Brother Luck, Xiao Yan, and the Broken Defense of Wang Yan!

Ning Tian spent a great deal of effort finally convincing the thick-headed Wu Feng that she was truly unharmed.

The four of them walked together into the Shrek Academy administration building to register for the new school year.

Ning Tian headed toward the registration point for Class Three, while Xiao Yan, Xiao Xiao, and Wu Feng walked straight to the Class One desk.

At the administrative table, the senior student in charge of registration handed over a quill.

Xiao Yan took the pen and signed his name on the registration roster.

His gaze swept down the list, keenly catching a blank signature line.

Behind Huo Yuhao's name, it was completely empty; there was no red checkmark indicating he had reported.

Today was the final day of registration for the new school year.

Logically, if a new student missed the deadline, there was only one outcome: immediate expulsion from Shrek Academy, pack your bags and leave.

Xiao Yan set down the pen, his mind clear.

That kid Huo Yuhao was likely suffering quite a bit in the Extreme North.

However, this tardiness was hardly a dead end for him.

Over at the Spirit Soul Department, Fan Yu and Qian Duoduo had long since viewed him as the future of their department. Even if he didn't show his face for half a month, those two would certainly step in to protect him, even fabricating all sorts of reasonable excuses to shut the Spirit Department up.

Still, Xiao Yan rubbed his chin, a sense of anticipation for the show to come rising in his heart.

He had intercepted and taken the Ice Empress, leaving that fellow, the Sky Dream Ice Worm, empty-handed in the core of the Extreme North.

For the sake of its grand god-making plan, it would inevitably have to seek out another Ultimate Ice spirit beast suitable for a second martial soul.

Although the Extreme North had many ice-attribute spirit beasts, very few could truly reach the threshold of Ultimate Ice.

The Ice Jade Scorpion was undoubtedly what the Sky Dream Ice Worm was most familiar with.

If that big worm, desperate and flustered, went off to trick or deceive one of the Ice Empress's subordinates... once Huo Yuhao revealed his second martial soul in the future, and the Ice Empress, lying dormant in his Sea of Consciousness, sensed the aura of her own kin, the scene would likely be quite lively.

As his thoughts drifted, the three of them finished the registration procedures.

They reunited with Ning Tian and walked together toward the dormitory area.

The four agreed to meet at the Beast Fighting Zone early tomorrow morning for the advancement assessment, then went their separate ways to their dorms.

Pushing open the wooden door of his single room, he found that because it had been vacant for a month, fine dust floated in the air, and the wooden desk was covered in a layer of gray.

Xiao Yan didn't bother looking for a broom or rag.

He walked to the center of the room, raised his right hand, and pinched the air with his index and middle fingers.

Void Zither Playing, Wind Chant: Dust-Cleansing Melody.

Invisible zither notes rippled from his fingertips, the precisely controlled sound waves penetrating every corner of the room.

The dust clinging to the furniture was subjected to high-frequency vibrations, peeling off the surfaces one after another. Guided by the sound waves, they gathered in mid-air into a dense gray ball, which was then precisely tossed through the open window into the mud outside.

Fresh air filled the room once more.

Xiao Yan took off his outer robe, hung it up, sat cross-legged on the wooden bed, closed his eyes, and entered a deep state of meditation.

The Art of the Fuxi Emperor began its circulation.

The three primal forces of essence, energy, and spirit converged within his body in an endless cycle.

His physical strength, spirit power foundation, and Sea of Consciousness maintained a perfectly synchronized ascent under the governance of this top-tier cultivation technique.

Moreover, having absorbed a spirit soul and a spirit ring during his trip to the Extreme North, his spirit power had already reached level fifty-six.

Deep within his Sea of Consciousness, the Fuxi Bagua Formation Map shone with brilliant starlight.

Xiao Yan could clearly foresee that the next qualitative change for this technique would come at level sixty.

Once his spirit power broke through to level sixty, his mental power would undergo a massive leap, reaching the peak of the "tangible yet intangible" realm.

At that point, the capacity of his Sea of Consciousness would double, enough to accommodate the spirit souls of two beast-level entities: the Ice Empress or the Ice Bear King, Xiao Bai.

Outside the window, the moon slanted westward, and the night passed quietly in his rhythmic breathing.

The next morning, the dawn breeze carried a hint of coolness.

The four of them met downstairs and headed straight for the Beast Fighting Zone in the northwest corner of the academy.

The Beast Fighting Zone was a grand, ancient-style structure within Shrek Academy.

Towering gray stone walls encircled a massive oval spectator stand, with dark brown bloodstains and old claw marks still visible on the walls.

As they approached the gate, they could smell the stench of beasts mixed with the scent of metallic rust in the air. From deep underground, the muffled roars of beasts echoed—the various spirit beasts kept in steel cages below, creating an intense sense of oppression.

The four walked into the arena, where many classes were already lined up on the stands waiting.

They quickly found the Class One formation in an excellent position directly facing the main arena.

At the very front of the line, the homeroom teachers, Mu Jin and Wang Yan, were checking the headcount against the assessment list.

Ning Tian waved at the three of them and headed alone to the Class Three preparation area on the side.

Xiao Yan, Xiao Xiao, and Wu Feng walked over and stood behind the two teachers of Class One.

Wang Yan noticed the movement behind him, turned around, and pushed up the black-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose.

Seeing that these were the three most gifted students in the class, the habitually earnest and responsible teacher wore his usual gentle smile and casually tossed out the "three opening questions" that made the vast majority of students' scalps tingle and left them struggling to cope.

"How was your vacation? Did you slack off on your cultivation? Have you had any breakthroughs in soul power, and what level are you at now?"

If ordinary students heard these three questions, they would likely avoid eye contact out of guilt.

But for the three who had just undergone a transformation over the break, these questions had no bite.

Wu Feng crossed her arms over her chest and proudly puffed out her bosom.

"In response to Teacher Wang, I haven't slacked off; I just broke through to become a level thirty-one Soul Elder."

Hearing this, Wang Yan's eyes lit up, and he nodded with a smile.

Reaching the Soul Venerable realm at the start of the second year was the mark of a top-tier talent, even by Shrek Academy standards.

Seeing this, Xiao Xiao, who was standing in the middle, clasped her small hands behind her back, tilted her head to look at the gray stone dome above, and drew circles on the ground with her toe.

"Sigh, my vacation was miserable. I was forced to exercise my body every single day." Xiao Xiao feigned a distressed expression and sighed. "I didn't have any major breakthroughs, just happened to absorb a ten-thousand-year soul ring along the way, barely reaching level forty-three Soul Ancestor. It's just so-so, nothing special."

Her cute, dainty tone, paired with such infuriatingly smug remarks, was devastatingly effective.

Xiao Yan watched his younger sister's performance from the side and silently critiqued her in his heart.

Her acting has indeed improved compared to before, but her body language is still a bit over-the-top and lacks natural flow.

Upon hearing the words "level forty-three Soul Ancestor," the smile on Wang Yan's face instantly froze, and his hand, which had been adjusting his glasses, stopped in mid-air.

The muscles at the corners of his mouth twitched uncontrollably.

A twelve-year-old Soul Ancestor! And she called that "so-so"?

Wang Yan forcibly suppressed the shock in his heart, turned his stiff neck, and cast his gaze toward Xiao Yan, who had remained silent the entire time.

He swallowed a mouthful of dry saliva, bracing himself for an even more violent impact.

Xiao Yan smoothed the cuffs of his moon-white robe, his black eyes devoid of any ripples, his tone as calm as if he were discussing the morning weather.

"Level fifty-six soul power, just a stroke of luck."

The air fell into a dead silence at that moment.

Mu Jin, standing to the side, gasped, and the assessment list in her hand nearly dropped to the floor.

As for Wang Yan, he slowly withdrew his gaze and silently lowered his head, staring blankly at the tips of his shoes.

At this moment, he felt a tightness in his chest and a stinging sensation in his eyes.

He had spent half his life in bitter cultivation, yet he was now only a level fifty-something Soul King.

As a teacher, his own cultivation was actually on par with a twelve-year-old student in his class, and his foundation was far less profound than the other party's.

Being a homeroom teacher was just too stifling!