A few days later, the three members of Lin Yao's team stepped into the assessment area for the first time. On one side stood a raised platform where the teachers could watch the competing teams.
All the teams entering the knockout rounds had already secured their places at Shrek. This tournament was more a showcase of their potential, with a focus on showing off their skills. It also let the teachers get a sense of who the true top students were and who was just coasting.
The teachers from the Martial Soul Department who were involved with the new students had basically all arrived.
The one calling roll was Du Weilun, the Martial Soul Department's director of instruction. When he called the names of Lin Yao and his two teammates, his gaze lingered on Lin Yao for a moment.
"You're the team the dean personally ordered to be advanced straight to the top sixty-four?" Du Weilun asked Lin Yao calmly.
Lin Yao answered just as calmly, "Yes, Director Du. We were surprised when we heard that request, too. We've never seen anything like it before."
After Du Weilun said this, the other teams turned their attention to Lin Yao and his teammates. Once they confirmed it was true, their expressions varied.
Not every student was qualified to know the truth about Shrek Academy, and special privileges were the easiest thing to inspire wild speculation.
Especially a privilege personally granted by someone like Yan Shaozhe. It was only natural that some people would start imagining things.
It wasn't that those people didn't know Lin Yao. First, they couldn't imagine the good intentions behind Shrek Academy's decision. Second, they assumed Lin Yao's earlier victory had been a show staged with the help of inner-court students.
Soon, Du Weilun, the Martial Soul Department's director of instruction for the outer court, finished calling roll. Next came the draw. Since this was only the freshman assessment, there were no elaborate ceremonies.
Lin Yao drew a lot on behalf of his team. The sixty-four teams in the knockout rounds were divided into thirty-two matches, with two teams paired off in each.
As luck would have it, Lin Yao's team drew Wang Dong and Huo Yuhao's team in the very first round.
What surprised Lin Yao was that Wang Dong and Huo Yuhao didn't look nearly as bedraggled as they had in the original story. They hadn't even been late; they had arrived at the arena on time with Xiao Xiao.
There was no sign of any Soul Power link between the two, as if the Martial Soul Fusion Skill didn't exist for them at all.
Had history gone off course? Lin Yao wondered. Then he turned his gaze toward Huo Yuhao and his teammates.
After checking their lots, Huo Yuhao and his teammates also looked over at Lin Yao.
As Huo Yuhao and Lin Yao's gazes met, another kind of fierce tension, almost tangible as gunpowder, flared on the viewing platform.
"Teacher Zhou, looking for your seeded team? I just checked the draw. What a coincidence—your seeded team has been matched against one of my class's seeds. They're over there, in Assessment Zone Eight. Who do you think will win?"
Mu Jin came over to Zhou Yi, looking rather pleased with herself, and spoke in a low voice.
Zhou Yi's eyes narrowed at once. "Mu Jin, you think your students are guaranteed to win?"
Zhou Yi wasn't absolutely confident that Huo Yuhao's team could beat Lin Yao's. She simply looked down on everyone else and hadn't bothered to find out who the two seeded teams in Mu Jin's class were.
It was just like when she'd been surprised to learn Ning Tian came from the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect. Looking down on everyone else was Zhou Yi's worst failing; she thought far too highly of herself.
Having been at odds with Zhou Yi for a long time, Mu Jin knew her temperament all too well. Suppressing her wild glee, she taunted Zhou Yi without changing her expression.
"So what if I do? Your Class One has such good results, doesn't it? Let's see how many of your students make it through the round of sixty-four. When the draw ended, I saw that one of my seeded students had been matched against your seeded student, and it put me in a wonderful mood.
"Ever since you expelled my younger brother despite my begging you not to, this is the first time I've felt so good. I heard you're hoping for a senior title. Looks like that's going to fall through again, doesn't it?"
Zhou Yi didn't even look at Mu Jin's taunting expression. Her gaze settled on the competition arena below, on the three students in Assessment Zone Eight, as she said blandly, "Want to make a wager?"
That was exactly what Mu Jin had been waiting for. Leaning against the railing, she said smugly, "Of course. Let's skip the fancy stuff and go with slaps. If my team wins, I'll slap you three times. If yours wins, you can slap me three times. How about it?"
Zhou Yi feigned indifference. "Just slapping each other would be boring. Let's add a Soul Bone to the wager. Dare you?"
Mu Jin paused, then glanced at Zhou Yi and thought, You really don't know when to quit. She said, "Of course. But don't regret it. Shall we put it in writing now?"
Zhou Yi gave a disdainful snort. "First, you haven't won yet. Second, I may not lose."
Mu Jin leaned against the railing and laughed and laughed, growing more and more unrestrained.
Zhou Yi frowned at her reaction, then asked in a low voice, "What are you laughing at?"
Mu Jin stopped laughing and gently lifted Zhou Yi's chin with her fingers. "Let's get this straight first. You agree to the wager?"
Zhou Yi shoved Mu Jin away in disgust, then gritted her teeth. "Don't touch me! If I've agreed to the wager, I'll honor it. But you haven't won yet."
Mu Jin casually wiped her fingers, then said, "Next time you make a wager, you should take a good look at the other person's situation first. You're still completely in the dark."
Zhou Yi froze. Mu Jin continued casually,
"The team facing the only seeded team in your class is the one from my two seeded teams that got a direct pass to the top sixty-four."
Mu Jin's words struck Zhou Yi like a bolt from the blue. She grabbed the railing in front of her, her Soul Emperor-level strength bending it out of shape. Turning to glare at Mu Jin, she said,
"You set me up?!"
Mu Jin covered her lips as she replied, "I didn't set you up. You're just as stupid as a pig. You make a huge wager with someone, staking your dignity and wealth, and don't even know what kind of strength they have. If you're not a pig-brain, then what are you? With a brain like yours, you think you deserve to be a senior teacher? Shrek lets you scrape by here, and that alone is generous!"
On the competition platform, Lin Yao and his two teammates stood at one end, while Huo Yuhao and his two teammates stood at the other. The moment Huo Yuhao saw Lin Yao, he had little hope of winning. He immediately used his spiritual power to speak quietly to his teammates...
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