Butterfly Effect

Shrek Academy's school uniform color system corresponded to the age of one's Soul Rings.

Freshmen wore white, second- and third-year students wore yellow, fourth- and fifth-year students wore purple, and sixth-year students wore black. The legendary Inner Court disciples wore red uniforms, symbolizing one-hundred-thousand-year Soul Rings.

The arrival of Yin Chen and the other two swiftly attracted considerable attention from the surrounding crowd.

Yin Chen's striking short silver-white hair, his exceptionally handsome face carrying a calmness far beyond his years, and those deep, shattered-gold eyes made him stand out from the crowd like a crane among chickens, naturally becoming the center of attention.

The twin sisters at his side, Lan Susu and Lan Luoluo, were identical and sweetly beautiful, adding even more to the spectacle.

The yellow-clad students in charge of registration noticed them as well, surprise flashing through their eyes.

With their discerning eyes, they could naturally tell that the three possessed extraordinary bearing. In particular, the silver-haired youth at their head possessed a composure and steadiness far beyond the nervous peers around him.

"Let's go register."

Ignoring the gazes fixed upon him, Yin Chen quietly spoke to the twin sisters beside him before taking the lead toward the row of registration stations.

Lan Susu and Lan Luoluo obediently followed. The three formed a distinctive sight as they passed through the crowd and reached the end of the queue.

The entrance assessments proceeded quickly, and the line ahead of Yin Chen's group steadily moved forward.

Just then, another plain-looking carriage stopped outside the East City Gate.

The carriage door opened, and the blonde girl they had encountered once at the inn—Ye Guyi—nimbly jumped down.

She was still as bright and captivating as before. Her azure eyes curiously swept over the vast crowd, then fixed upon something as she walked straight over and joined the queue behind Yin Chen.

Yin Chen naturally noticed her as well, and a trace of barely perceptible surprise flashed through his eyes.

He instinctively glanced at the carriage, but did not see the unsettling black-robed figure step down.

Yet as one of the de facto sources of the True Blood of Myriad Karmas, even though its abilities mainly resided with Castorice, he could vaguely sense that the incomparably terrifying aura of the Nirvana Corpse was still lurking inside the carriage and had not gone far.

Before long, the carriage turned around and silently drove away, seemingly utterly confident that Ye Guyi would pass the assessment.

Looks like I really was wrong before.

Yin Chen laughed soundlessly to himself.

That blonde girl isn't emergency food at all. She seems more like someone being protected by that Nirvana Corpse.

Ye Guyi was clearly not an introverted person. Noticing Yin Chen's gaze, she immediately flashed him a brilliant smile and took the initiative to greet him.

"Hello! My name is Ye Guyi. What a coincidence—I didn't expect you to be here to enroll at Shrek Academy too."

Upon hearing the name Ye Guyi, Yin Chen's thoughts abruptly froze for an instant, and an absurd feeling welled up within him.

However, he was a man of exceptionally firm resolve. Not a trace of abnormality showed on his face as he swiftly composed himself and returned her greeting with a gentle smile.

"Hello, Ye Guyi. I'm Yin Chen, and these two are Lan Susu and Lan Luoluo. It certainly is a coincidence. I hope we can all successfully enroll."

Yet his heart was far less calm than his outward appearance suggested.

Ye Guyi... if his memories were correct, Ye Guyi was supposed to appear in the original story six years later, when Huo Yuhao participated in the Ming Capital Soul Master Tournament. She would represent the Ordinary Alliance in the Underground Soul Tool Tournament, and by then, she would already be a Soul Emperor-level powerhouse under the age of twenty.

But now... she had actually appeared here, applying to Shrek as a freshman?

This sudden variable had indeed caught him off guard.

But Yin Chen's mind worked quickly, and he immediately linked the clues to that powerful Nirvana Corpse.

That's it. The existence of that Nirvana Corpse must have altered Ye Guyi's original fate.

And tracing it back to its source, the cause of all this was the True Blood of Myriad Karmas possessed by himself and Castorice.

The changes I've brought are already starting to affect more and more people's fates like a rolling snowball.

Yin Chen clearly recognized that this was only the beginning of a butterfly effect that would sweep across the continent.

Ye Guyi's early appearance was merely the start.

Though somewhat surprised, he had long been mentally prepared for such developments and quickly accepted the fact with equanimity.

Just as Yin Chen and Ye Guyi exchanged a few simple words, a slight disturbance arose within the crowd.

A refined young man in Shrek's purple uniform and a pretty young woman in purple led a somewhat frail-looking black-haired, black-eyed boy directly past the long line of freshmen and over to the upper-year students handling registration.

Upon seeing the refined young man, the upper-year students in yellow uniforms immediately revealed respectful expressions and proactively greeted him.

"It's Senior Brother Beibei."

"And Senior Sister Tang Ya."

Someone among the dozen or so Outer Court disciples cried out softly.

Beibei was exceptionally renowned in the Outer Court. Hailed as the "Number One Attack of the Outer Court," he possessed the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon, once the world's strongest beast Martial Soul. At merely thirteen, he had already cultivated to the rank of Advanced Soul Elder and stood just one step away from becoming a Soul Ancestor. He had long been selected as an Inner Court disciple.

Such a genius naturally drew attention and respect.

Beibei briefly exchanged a few words with the students responsible for registration, then pointed at the frail black-haired boy beside him.

The upper-year students immediately nodded, showing no intention of stopping them.

Before long, Beibei and Tang Ya led the black-haired boy directly through the East City Gate and into the academy, under countless curious, envious, and even puzzled gazes.

"How can they just go straight in?"

"That black-haired boy looks about our age, doesn't he?"

Whispers arose among the freshmen in line, but no one truly stepped forward to question it.

Most people who had come here possessed some knowledge. They knew that the purple uniforms represented fourth- and fifth-year upperclassmen whose strength far exceeded theirs.

Besides, causing trouble at the entrance of Shrek Academy was hardly a wise move.

Yin Chen's gaze calmly settled upon the black-haired boy whom Beibei and Tang Ya had brought inside.

Huo Yuhao...

He silently repeated the name in his heart.

This was the child of destiny of this era.

However, he only looked at him a few more times before withdrawing his gaze.

At this point, even though Huo Yuhao had already fused with the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm, his Soul Power Level was only level eleven. In Yin Chen's eyes, he was unbelievably weak.

If not for the Tang Sect recommendation slot provided by Tang Ya, Huo Yuhao's apparent aptitude would not even have qualified him to stand here in line.

The road ahead is still long.

Yin Chen stopped paying attention and returned his focus to the registration station ahead.