A Day of Class, Ultimate Attribute Teaching

Huo Chen walked along the path leading to the teaching building. Morning light slanted across the flagstone road, stretching his shadow into a long, slender outline.

The leaves of the plane trees by the roadside swayed gently in the breeze. Dewdrops on the leaves refracted tiny glimmers of light, as though shattered gold had been scattered across the ground.

His steps were lighter than usual.

The scenes from last night kept replaying in his mind: Ice Empress standing at his door, moonlight outlining the profile of her slightly nervous face.

She had sat at the edge of the bed, her fingers clutching the hem of her clothes, her voice so soft as though she feared disturbing something fragile. When she leaned into his arms, her hurried breathing gradually steadied, and her stiff body slowly relaxed.

And when he woke this morning, she had been lying on her side beside him, morning light reflected in her eyes as she softly said, "I won't regret what happened last night."

He would probably remember those words for a long time.

The corners of Huo Chen's lips unconsciously lifted. He realized he was smiling and tried to restrain it, but the warmth seeping from his heart was not something he could simply suppress.

"Good morning, Teacher Huo!"

Several first-year girls approached from the opposite direction. Upon seeing him, they all stopped and bowed respectfully.

Their eyes shone with a mixture of admiration and curiosity. This young Limit Douluo had become one of the academy's most talked-about figures after the freshman assessment.

"Morning." Huo Chen nodded without slowing down.

"Teacher Huo seems to be in a really good mood today, doesn't he?" one of the girls whispered to her companion.

"Shh, don't say things like that!"

"It's true. Didn't you see him smile just now?"

"Teacher Huo smiles normally too, okay..."

The girls' whispers scattered on the morning breeze. Huo Chen did not turn around, but the smile on his lips deepened slightly.

As he entered the teaching building, students in the corridor greeted him one after another.

There were freshmen as well as upper-year inner court students. Ever since Elder Mu had publicly acknowledged him during the Sea God Pavilion meeting as someone on par with the senior elders, his standing within the academy had become self-evident.

Huo Chen responded to them one by one as he continued toward the classroom reserved for core disciples.

The core disciple system officially began after the freshman assessment. Every morning, the ten core disciples attended separate classes, where the academy's finest teachers taught them more advanced cultivation theories and combat techniques.

As Class One's homeroom teacher and one of the primary instructors for the core disciples, Huo Chen was responsible for teaching them about martial soul advancement, attribute cultivation, and combat strategy.

When he pushed open the classroom door, all ten core disciples had already arrived.

Huo Yuhao sat in the first row by the window. An open notebook lay before him, and he held a pen as he previewed the day's lesson.

Wang Dong sat beside him, propping up his cheek with one hand as he stared blankly out the window. Xiao Xiao sat in the row behind Huo Yuhao, quietly flipping through a basic textbook on soul power circulation.

Ning Tian and Wu Feng sat together, discussing something in low voices.

Cui Yajie sat beside them, occasionally chiming in.

Dai Huabin sat in the last row by the wall, expressionless, his gaze resting on the desk as though he were lost in thought.

Zhu Lu sat beside him, equally quiet. The sisters Lan Susi and Lan Luoluo sat on the other side, sharing a single textbook with their heads pressed together, their pale blue hair nearly hanging onto the desktop.

"Class begins." Huo Chen stepped onto the platform and placed his lesson plan on the desk.

Everyone straightened up.

"Today, we'll discuss the shortcomings and breakthrough paths of ultimate attributes."

Huo Chen got straight to the point. Picking up a piece of chalk, he wrote several key terms on the blackboard. "Ultimate attributes—ultimate ice, ultimate fire, ultimate lightning, ultimate wind. These attributes possess extremely strong combat advantages in the early stages, but as your level rises, they all encounter a common bottleneck."

He drew an ascending curve on the blackboard, then marked a striking turning point halfway along it.

"This bottleneck is called 'attribute saturation.'"

The sound of pages turning through notebooks rose from below.

"So-called attribute saturation refers to the point at which, after your soul power reaches a certain level, your martial soul's capacity to bear a single attribute reaches its limit. If you cannot break through that limit, then no matter how high your soul power rises, the power of your attribute will not undergo another qualitative increase." Huo Chen put down the chalk and swept his gaze across the class. "Take ultimate ice as an example."

Huo Yuhao's pen paused for a moment before he continued writing.

"At lower levels, ultimate ice can easily freeze opponents of the same rank and even allow you to challenge those above your level. But once your soul power reaches Rank 30 or Rank 40, you will discover that your freezing effect has less and less impact on higher-level opponents. It is not because your soul power is insufficiently strong, but because your ice attribute has already reached the carrying limit of your current martial soul."

He paused, his gaze lingering imperceptibly in Huo Yuhao's direction for an instant. "There are two ways to break through this limit. The first is to seek out more powerful ice-attribute soul rings and forcibly increase your martial soul's carrying capacity. This method produces quick results, but it is highly dangerous. If the soul ring's age exceeds the martial soul's tolerance, it may instead damage the martial soul's origin."

He raised two fingers. "The second is to open up a new 'attribute dimension' within the martial soul. It is not simply about increasing the strength of the ice attribute, but integrating the power of other laws upon the foundation of ice, so that your ice is no longer merely ice."

Huo Yuhao looked up and happened to meet Huo Chen's gaze. His heart stirred slightly. Wasn't what Uncle meant by 'integrating the power of other laws' exactly the path of my second martial soul, Myriad Calamity Cold Prison—Nine-Tailed Ice Nether Scorpion? Rebirth Profound Nether Frost itself fuses the law of reincarnation, which is why it can surpass ordinary ultimate ice.

Huo Chen did not call on him by name and merely continued, "The second method is more difficult, because it requires sufficient understanding of your martial soul as well as the right opportunity. But once you succeed, your attribute will break through its original limits and enter an entirely new level."

He began explaining in detail how to sense the boundary of a martial soul's carrying capacity during cultivation, how to expand attribute dimensions through soul power circulation, and how to choose suitable soul rings to complement an attribute's advancement.

The students below took notes rapidly. From time to time, someone raised a hand to ask a question, and Huo Chen answered each one.

The atmosphere throughout the lesson was focused and efficient.

As Huo Yuhao took notes, he occasionally looked up at his uncle on the platform.

He kept feeling that his uncle was somehow different today. He could not say exactly how. His tone was still as steady and clear as ever, and his explanations remained easy to understand while going deep into the subject, but there seemed to be an extra hint of softness in his eyes. It was as though he had something hidden in his heart that brought him joy. Though he did not show it openly, that sense of happiness still leaked out from the corners of his eyes and brows now and then.

Huo Yuhao lowered his head and continued writing, but the corner of his own mouth curled up as well. Whatever had put his uncle in such a good mood, he was happy for him.

The two-hour lesson soon approached its end. Huo Chen finished the final key point, put down the chalk, and brushed the dust from his hands. "That's all for today. When you return, each of you will write an analysis report on your own martial soul's attribute carrying capacity and hand it in tomorrow."