Bulbasaur, Wake Up, They Think We're Pushovers...

Outside the hall, the setting sun cast a golden sheen over the magnificent Spirit City.

Carlson led Lin Xia toward the distant cluster of buildings that housed Elite Academy, the symbol of Spirit Hall's hopes for the future.

For some reason, though, Lin Xia could not shake the chill lingering in his heart, as though some invisible, cold gaze had fixed itself upon him.

It seemed that after arriving in Spirit City, his cursed luck had stepped onto an even grander stage and become even more notorious.

The moment that thought surfaced, Lin Xia hurriedly shook his head.

He kept telling himself that he was overthinking it.

But Lin Xia quickly realized that he might have been wrong. His rotten luck seemed to be acting up again.

After getting him settled in, Carlson looked at Lin Xia and spoke with utmost seriousness.

"No matter how impressive your records are, they must be proven in actual combat. Spirit Hall never wastes resources. Lin Xia, are you willing to prove that you are worthy of Spirit Hall's full support?"

"This is a trial that every student joining Spirit Academy must undergo!"

After a moment of silence, Lin Xia nodded. He had already come this far.

For the sake of growing stronger quickly, no matter how unwilling he might be, he had to do it!

"I, Lin Xia, am willing to prove myself with my strength."

Carlson gave Lin Xia an approving look.

"Since that is the case, I'll make sure those little beasts give you a proper welcome. Don't hold back. Your performance will directly affect your standing and resources within Spirit Hall."

Lin Xia nodded. That was easy enough to understand. After all, competition drove progress.

Spirit City Elite Academy, exclusive training grounds for the junior class.

The air was filled with the mingled scent of fresh grass, sweat, and the invisible pressure of Soul Power.

At the edge of the field, Envoy Carlson stood with his hands behind his back, his expression stern. Before him stood two groups.

On one side was Lin Xia. His figure looked somewhat slender in the vast training ground. His deacon's robe had been replaced by the standard Elite Academy uniform, yet it could not conceal the calmness beyond his years in his brows, nor the faint weariness forged through hardship.

Bulbasaur lay quietly by his feet, its crimson eyes half-closed as if dozing. Yet the tip of its Vine Whip rested alertly against the ground.

On the other side stood more than a dozen boys and girls around ten years old. They wore matching academy combat uniforms and looked spirited and sharp-eyed. Their Soul Power fluctuations were clearly stronger than those of their peers, and three or four of them had steady auras—they were unmistakably Soul Grand Masters above level twenty!

Their faces were full of eager excitement, a trace of indignation at being underestimated, and... when they looked at Lin Xia, undisguised curiosity and blazing fighting spirit.

Carlson's deep, resonant voice shattered the silence of the grounds and reached everyone's ears clearly.

"Let me introduce him. Lin Xia, seven years old, an eighteenth-level battle soul master. Martial soul: Bulbasaur."

He paused, sweeping his gaze across the trainees with their varied expressions.

"He is the new student recommended by Elder Salas, personally received by His Holiness the Pope, and admitted to Elite Academy as an exception..."

Carlson briefly recounted Lin Xia's experiences, immediately drawing a wave of gasps.

"Gasp—"

A series of suppressed breaths sounded out. Upon learning of those nearly unbelievable accomplishments, these favored children of heaven were still deeply shocked.

Their gazes toward Lin Xia instantly changed. Astonishment, doubt, and wariness replaced their earlier contempt and excitement, while their blazing fighting spirit was like a fire doused in hot oil, burning even fiercer!

Personally noticed by His Holiness the Pope!

That alone was a supreme honor—and immense pressure. If they could defeat him... wouldn't that prove they were stronger?

"So."

Carlson's voice suddenly rose, carrying an unquestionable authority.

"Your opponent today is him!"

The atmosphere instantly tightened!

Yet Carlson's next words were like an ice cube tossed into boiling oil, plunging the entire training ground into strange silence.

"The rules are simple. All of you, attack together. Whoever can defeat him in the end, or completely suppress him for more than ten breaths, will earn their team an additional ten percent of this quarter's core resource quota!"

"If no one succeeds, your resources will be reduced by five percent!"

Dead silence!

Lin Xia abruptly raised his head, his pupils shrinking. For the first time, undisguised shock appeared on his face as he stared straight at Carlson.

All of them together?

He suspected that he had heard wrong.

Although the children across from him might have been inexperienced in combat in his eyes, there were more than a dozen of them, including several Soul Grand Masters!

He might not fear a series of one-on-one fights, but all of them rushing him at once... No matter how confident he was, this was too absurd!

The boys and girls across from him were completely dumbfounded as well. One by one, they gaped in disbelief, wondering whether their ears had deceived them.

"Tea... Teacher Carlson?!"

A taller boy with the strongest Soul Power fluctuations, clearly one of the group's leaders, could not help crying out. His face was full of shock and disbelief.

"You said... all of us together? Against him alone?"

He pointed at Lin Xia, his eyes filled with a sense of absurdity.

"He's only an eighteenth-level soul master! The weakest among us are already seventeenth- or eighteenth-level soul masters! Isn't this..."

Another short-haired girl with a fiery temper could not hold back either and cut in.

"Exactly! Teacher, who are you looking down on?"

"Sure, his record sounds terrifying, but who knows whether it was just luck? If all of us attack together, what if we can't stop in time and hurt him? He just got here!"

"Yeah, yeah! Teacher, just make him admit defeat. There's no need to fight at all!"

"Isn't this just bullying? It wouldn't be interesting even if we won..."

"Exactly. Fists and feet have no eyes. With that tiny body of his, if he really gets hurt and His Holiness the Pope holds us accountable..."

The crowd erupted, but there was no malice in their voices. Instead, they were full of sympathy for Lin Xia, whom they saw as the weaker party, and confusion over the rules.

They thought Carlson had gone mad. This was practically asking them to gang up on someone with connections. Winning would bring no glory, while losing would be even more humiliating—and they might even get themselves into trouble.

Listening to their overlapping calls for him to surrender and their words of concern, seeing the pity in their eyes as though he would be carried into the infirmary any second, Lin Xia was left speechless.

Looking down on me?

Just because my Soul Power level is low?

He, Lin Xia, had fled from Notting City to Star Luo, charged from Yue Hongsheng's poison garden into the stomach sac of an Illusion Demon Spider. When had anyone ever underestimated him like this?

But Lin Xia was not angry. Instead, a playful smile curved across his lips.

He tilted his head slightly. His voice was not loud, yet it rang clearly beside Bulbasaur's ears.

"Bulbasaur, wake up. They think we're pushovers... Later, give them a proper welcome!"

"Bulba!"

Bulbasaur suddenly opened its crimson eyes and let out a low growl, all traces of its earlier laziness gone.

Its small body instantly tensed, and a wave of Soul Power carrying the scent of vegetation quietly spread outward.

The seed bulb on its back emitted a gentle emerald glow. Its Vine Whip silently rose and swayed lightly through the air like a venomous snake poised to strike.

It understood Lin Xia's meaning. More importantly, these ignorant little brats actually dared to look down on its trainer?!

Carlson took in the changes on both sides, and a trace of barely perceptible satisfaction flashed through his eyes.

This was exactly the spirit he wanted!

Without another word, he sharply swung his arm downward, his voice exploding like thunder.

"Begin!"