Lucky Kid

"Place your hand on this crystal ball."

On the first floor of the Main Teaching Building, before the Admissions Office desk of the Academic Affairs Office, a slightly balding middle-aged teacher handed a Blue Crystal Ball to Ling Yi. His expression was calm as he spoke at an unhurried pace.

"Alright." Ling Yi nodded obediently and stretched out his fair little hand, pressing it against the crystal ball.

Just as when Innate Soul Power had been tested during the Martial Soul Awakening Ceremony, a powerful suction force emerged from within the crystal ball and drew the soul power from Ling Yi's body into it.

At once, a brilliant blue light lit up inside the crystal ball. It spread from a single point of starlight until a third of the entire crystal ball was emitting a faint blue glow. Only then did the light stop spreading.

"Hm?"

The middle-aged teacher froze at the sight. His gaze shifted back and forth between the crystal ball and Ling Yi's face before he turned to look at the Martial Soul certificate on the desk. At the same time, he did not forget to channel soul power into the crystal ball, knocking Ling Yi's hand away.

Feeling the soul power that had been drawn into the crystal ball return to his body in an instant, Ling Yi lowered his gaze slightly and looked at the now-dark crystal ball. He quietly mused, This crystal ball is obviously a Soul Tool. It's being used to test soul power, but since it can absorb a Soul Master's soul power and then return it almost without loss in the blink of an eye... could it be used as a soul power storage tool? Like a blue potion for restoring mana?

"Student Ling Yi." The middle-aged teacher spoke, interrupting Ling Yi's thoughts.

"Teacher." Ling Yi refocused on the enrollment matter at hand and answered respectfully.

The middle-aged teacher picked up the Martial Soul certificate on the desk and looked it over again. With a hint of curiosity in his voice, he said, "Your Martial Soul certificate states that when your Martial Soul awakened last year at the age of six, your Innate Soul Power was only half a level. Yet now your soul power has actually reached over Level 3. Such progress in merely one year... tsk, tsk, tsk..."

"Teacher." Ling Yi showed neither nervousness nor panic at the man's words. He merely smiled innocently and said, "I don't know why, either. Uncle Yan Bin, who presided over my Martial Soul Awakening Ceremony back home, found it strange too after he learned about it..."

"Yan Bin?" The middle-aged teacher had never heard this unfamiliar name and did not think much of it. Still, since the man had presided over a Martial Soul Awakening Ceremony, he was presumably a low-ranking Deacon of Spirit Hall.

Ling Yi's next words confirmed his guess.

"Mm." Ling Yi scratched his head and introduced him with an innocent expression. "Grandmaster Yan Bin is a Deacon at the Spirit Hall in our town."

At that, Ling Yi paused, giving the middle-aged teacher and the other teachers who had noticed them time to absorb the information before continuing.

"Later, Uncle Yan Bin came to our village and stayed at my house for several days. He said he wanted to observe how I cultivated..."

Upon hearing this, three or four teachers around the Admissions Office desk in the Academic Affairs Office pricked up their ears and listened in silence.

Ling Yi spread open his right hand, though he did not summon his Martial Soul. He simply continued, "After about a week, Uncle Yan Bin told me that maybe it was because my Martial Soul is Blue Silver Grass, and the environment around our village is full of Blue Silver Grass. Without realizing it, it fit some sort of state called 'mimetic cultivation,' which was why my cultivation speed was like this..."

"Mimetic cultivation?" The middle-aged teacher and the other teachers nearby all frowned.

As teachers, they were not unfamiliar with the term. Based on Ling Yi's account, what Deacon Yan Bin had meant should have been a Mimetic Cultivation Environment.

The issue was that throughout the entire Waterwood Principality, there were only three known Mimetic Cultivation Environments capable of increasing the speed at which Soul Masters cultivated soul power.

The only one open to outsiders was Plant Academy—the sole advanced Soul Master academy in the principality. Even then, it was only available to the academy's elite students.

"Waste Martial Soul Blue Silver Grass has an advantage like this?"

No one knew which teacher had suddenly muttered that in a low voice, but it snapped everyone else in the office out of their thoughts.

Ling Yi, who had also heard it, did not become angry or dejected over the words "Waste Martial Soul." Still wearing an oblivious expression, he looked at the middle-aged teacher and said, "Teacher, I cultivated in the dormitory last night. It was much slower than cultivating in my village..."

As he spoke, a trace of shyness and embarrassment appeared on his fair little face. He continued, "Um... c-can I plant some Blue Silver Grass beside my bed in the dormitory?"

"Plant Blue Silver Grass?" The middle-aged teacher was taken aback, clearly not expecting Ling Yi to say that.

Ling Yi's face immediately showed fear that the teacher would refuse. He hurriedly said, "J-just in bamboo tube cups... or small flowerpots would be enough—"

"It won't take up much room, and... and it won't affect the other students."

Seeing Ling Yi act like this, the middle-aged teacher could not help but laugh. He shook his head, then raised his hand before Ling Yi could speak again and handed him the Martial Soul certificate he was holding. "Fine, plant it if you want. As long as it doesn't affect the other students and you don't make a mess of the place, it's fine."

"Alright!" Ling Yi's eyes brightened. He reached out with both hands to accept his Martial Soul certificate and replied with a smile, "Thank you, Teacher. Don't worry, I'll definitely be careful. I won't affect the other students, and I won't leave things lying around..."

"Enough." The middle-aged teacher waved a hand and lowered his head to fill in a few entries on a form on the desk. "Your registration here is complete. Remember to go to the first floor of Building No. 3 to update your dormitory information."

"Take advantage of these next few free days to familiarize yourself with the academy. School will begin in another seven or eight days. If you want to plant that Blue Silver Grass of yours, do it early. Don't let it delay your classes later..."

"Alright, alright."

Ling Yi gave the middle-aged teacher a slight bow. "Then... goodbye, Teacher—"

Then, he bowed to each of the other teachers around him and politely bade them farewell. "Goodbye, Teachers."

Faced with such a polite and obedient Ling Yi, while not every teacher in the Academic Affairs Office responded with a kind smile, none of them treated him coldly.

And for Ling Yi, who had only just arrived, that was enough.

As they watched Ling Yi's departing back, the five teachers in the Academic Affairs Office remained silent for a time, each pretending nothing had happened as they quietly attended to their own work.

After a while, the middle-aged teacher in charge of admissions raised his head, swept his gaze around the room, and curled his lip. "Alright, stop putting on an act. What do you all think?"

As he spoke, he lifted the enrollment information form he had just filled out for Ling Yi and gave it a shake before the others.

"What's there to think?" someone replied indifferently. "From what that kid said, a Spirit Hall Deacon has already gone to verify it. That's simply how things are. There's nothing to discuss..."

"In the end, it's only Blue Silver Grass."

"Exactly." Another person chimed in. "Everyone knows Blue Silver Grass grows everywhere in the countryside and wilderness. Since that kid's Martial Soul is Blue Silver Grass, cultivating in a place with lots of Blue Silver Grass does fit the conditions of a Mimetic Cultivation Environment..."

"But that only works for a Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul like his. With my Azure Light Leopard Martial Soul, could I possibly keep a whole pack of leopards?"

Hearing that, everyone could not help nodding subconsciously.

That was true. If Mimetic Cultivation Environments were so easy to create, there would not be so few of them across the entire Douluo Continent. Only forces with a certain level of foundation could possibly possess one.

As for the possibility that Ling Yi was lying, no one even considered it. First, Ling Yi's behavior and his age of seven led them to believe him from the outset. Second, everything Ling Yi had said was easy to verify. North River Mouth Town was only a day's journey from Mu Zhi City for ordinary people, while for Soul Masters like them, it would take only one or two hours.

"What a lucky kid," someone remarked.

Someone else dismissed it and said again, "So what? In the end, it's only Blue Silver Grass!"

"Even if it's Blue Silver Grass, he still has a chance of cultivating to Level 10 and becoming a Soul Master..." the previous speaker could not help rebutting. "Our academy recruits dozens of new students every year, but after six years, fewer than half of them successfully become Soul Masters!"

"..."