Bang!
Smoke burst into the air!
The elderly teacher, whose voice was usually mild and unhurried, abruptly turned his head and lowered his eyes toward Jiang Naruto, who sat expressionless in the corner of the classroom.
The smoke beside him had yet to fully disperse. Several people around them all turned to look.
"Jiang Naruto, what are you doing?"
"Nothing happened. My Martial Soul just went out of control." Jiang Naruto remained impassive, lifted his eyes to meet the old teacher's gaze, and answered calmly.
His Martial Soul went out of control?
Could Martial Souls even go out of control?
The elderly teacher opened his mouth. His gaze turned odd, but in the end, he didn't expose Naruto's lie. He simply gave him a couple of reminders and let him off.
It was just a minor incident. In a moment, the classroom returned to normal.
"Sister Xiao Wu, what's wrong?"
Someone beside her suddenly called out in a low voice. Only then did Xiao Wu, her pupils dilated in terror, come back to herself. She turned her head, smiled, and indicated that she was fine.
The little brothers she'd taken in as work-study students yesterday didn't think much of it, and she easily fooled them.
After doing that, Xiao Wu turned her head almost imperceptibly and glanced toward Jiang Naruto in the classroom corner behind her.
A Soul Power Level of six made someone a genius at Notting Academy. But in the eyes of Xiao Wu, a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, he was no different from the ordinary people around them. Besides, Xiao Wu was still celebrating that she'd met someone with Innate Full Soul Power, so she'd paid even less attention to this "ordinary person."
Until just now,
The instant the corner of her eye passed over Naruto, Xiao Wu's ears flattened, and she hurriedly looked away.
What on earth was going on?
His Soul Power Level was lower than hers. He was only sitting there, and his whole body seemed full of openings. But why, exactly...
The instincts of a Soft Bone Rabbit were sounding the alarm at full volume!
Could she die?
Unaware of Xiao Wu's inner turmoil, Jiang Naruto let out a long breath.
"Phew..."
It looked a little strange. Jiang Naruto's face remained expressionless, yet a faint sound of relief had undeniably come from him.
Right beside "Jiang Naruto," Naruto bent over and hid beneath the desk. He glanced at the clone beside him. Apart from its somewhat stiff expression, it was already indistinguishable from him—and it was leagues beyond the thumb-sized Naruto from before!
As expected of a Heretical Genius...
As he marveled, Jiang Naruto patted his chest, still shaken.
The effect of this 100% increase in concentration was absurd. Having every stray thought completely cut away was terrifying. He really had to use it sparingly from now on.
"Um... I already believe what you said earlier. You didn't have to go out of your way to demonstrate it..."
Bibi Dong's laughter rang in his mind. She was never absent at times like this.
Jiang Naruto's face was covered in black lines. He couldn't be bothered to argue with this old auntie. While no one around him was paying attention, he dispelled the clone and returned to his seat.
The old teacher's hypnotic voice continued. After trying several more times, Jiang Naruto finally found the knack and managed to gain a little control over himself in his heightened state of concentration.
The time that followed was a simple routine: in the morning, he used [Ninja Student] to speed through the Ninja Academy Textbook in class; in the afternoon, he used [No Regrets Youth] for high-intensity training; then he went home at night and sat cross-legged to cultivate.
The days passed like that, one after another.
As a Soul Master Academy, even a junior one, Notting Academy still had a spacious Training Ground, large enough for all the teachers and students to use at once.
Alongside the training area, several rudimentary Soul Fighting Arenas, each about the size of a basketball court, had been marked out with white lines.
A burly man in a teacher's uniform paced back and forth before the students, his hands clasped behind his back. His voice rang out with vigor. "Listen up! We're Spirit Masters! Soul Fighting is bound to be part of your lives from here on out! We're at school now, and this class is meant to get you used to Soul Fighting ahead of time!"
"Don't graduate only to find you don't even know the rules of Soul Fighting! Some people even lose their lives in the Soul Fighting Arena!"
The crowd roared in reply.
Naturally, these weren't brand-new students. They were graduates who had turned twelve and spent six years at the academy.
Quite a few had crossed the threshold of Level Ten Spirit Master and obtained their first Spirit Ring.
Even so, their Soul Fighting was still dull. It wasn't much different from a street brawl. Don't expect a Ten-Year Spirit Ring to provide a decent Soul Skill. Even a Hundred-Year Soul Skill could be something as abstract and boring as "Blue Silver Bind," let alone these Ten-Year Spirit Rings.
But that didn't stop the neglected junior students from gathering along the edge of the Soul Fighting Arena and watching the white Spirit Rings at the others' feet with envy.
Jiang Naruto was the only one with his brows tightly furrowed.
He watched the people in the arena strike all kinds of poses they thought were incredibly cool, then start fighting, and felt embarrassed for them.
Don't expect much from the education at a junior Soul Master Academy. Jiang Naruto was secretly grateful that Dong Trumpet had guided him. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been any better than the two people in the arena.
Shaking his head as he walked away, he felt his arms growing sore and heavy. Jiang Naruto took off his weights, intending to end today's training with a few easy laps.
"Can I raise the intensity of my training any further now?"
As he ran, Jiang Naruto breathed out a puff of stale air, assessed his current physical condition, and asked.
The way [No Regrets Youth] enhanced physical training was obvious. A few days ago, the workload had left Jiang Naruto sprawled in exhaustion. Today, he could handle it with ease—and still wanted more.
"Your training intensity is already quite good. You're almost on par with the Spirit Hall elites." Bibi Dong's assessment was as nonchalant as ever.
As for whether the Spirit Hall elites she was comparing him to were six or twelve years old, she wouldn't say unless Jiang Naruto asked.
"So you mean I haven't caught up?"
Jiang Naruto's lips twitched. He picked up his pace a little. Were the geniuses of this world really that outrageous?
He clearly remembered that when Grandmaster trained the Shrek Seven Devils, the most exhausting thing they did was run with weights. He wore weights all day and did combat training until he was half-dead. Surely that wasn't worse?
Had they been running marathons?
Bibi Dong gave a dry cough.
"How could it be the same? They had all kinds of expensive medicinal baths, with Healing-type Spirit Masters on hand all day. Naturally, they could train without restraint. Could you do that?"
Jiang Naruto lowered his eyes and thought about it. It did seem to make sense.
Grandmaster had prepared medicinal baths for the Shrek Seven Devils, and Bibi Dong had prepared them for him too. He could only blame his own poverty—he had to scrimp and scrape, making do with the cheapest kind.
What's more, Shrek Academy seemed to have more than just Flender and Zhao Wuji as teachers. It was a high-level Soul Master Academy, after all. They had a food-type Soul Emperor who could act as a Healing-type Spirit Master and treat everyone.
Seeing Jiang Naruto lost in thought, Bibi Dong tactfully changed the subject.
"If you ask me, since you don't want to go to Shrek Academy, why not join Spirit Hall? Your talent is a little lacking, but under my guidance, you can still stand out."
"No. I don't want to sign myself away."
"How could you call that selling yourself? Spirit Hall provides you with cultivation resources, and you repay it with your strength. That's only right and proper."
Naruto shot Bibi Dong a sideways glance. How could this Saintess, who'd once been desperate to leave Spirit Hall for her lover, have the nerve to say that?
But if Jiang Naruto dared point it out right now, Bibi Dong would fly into a rage and start hissing again.
Over the past few days, Jiang Naruto had figured out Bibi Dong's temper. As long as Spirit Hall and Yu Xiaogang weren't involved, she acted perfectly normal. She was a little arrogant, but not tsundere. Bring either of them up, though, and Haji-Dong would bristle and hiss in an instant.
Not daring to linger on the subject, Jiang Naruto made up an excuse to brush it aside.
He could dodge the topic.
As for the root of the problem—Bibi Dong's twisted state of mind—Jiang Naruto could only stall for time.
He sighed. He had just withdrawn his awareness when the commotion nearby caught his attention. He looked toward the noise and saw that a crowd had gathered at the entrance to Notting Academy at some point.
At the center of the crowd was a road-worn carriage. Standing in front of it was Principal Jin, whose build gave him a prosperous look.
At the sight of the familiar carriage, the memories in Jiang Naruto's mind gradually came into focus.
Tang San... had come back?
Before you continue