Hans, You'll Regret This!

Bang bang bang bang!

"Hans!"

"Hans!"

Hurried footsteps rang out beyond the dean's office, followed by urgent shouts.

Yu Xiaogang shoved open the office door without permission.

Hans sat behind his desk. Seeing Yu Xiaogang's frantic appearance, he frowned slightly.

"Xiaogang, what's wrong?"

Yu Xiaogang stepped forward and slapped Hans's desk, staring straight into his eyes as he said in a low voice, "Hans, do you know what happened at the academy yesterday?"

At first, Yu Xiaogang had assumed that the Qi Dao mentioned by those two young teachers was merely someone with the same name as the Qi Dao he knew.

But after pressing them for answers, the other teacher told him a cruel truth.

The Qi Dao they had spoken of was the very Qi Dao he knew.

Innate half-rank soul power, with a viciously mutated sword martial soul!

But what kind of person with innate half-rank soul power could defeat a Soul Master with a first soul ring while fighting above his level?

That was why Yu Xiaogang had rushed over to find Hans. He desperately wanted to figure something out.

How exactly had Qi Dao severely wounded Xiao Haijie with a single sword strike?

A useless martial soul master with only innate half-rank soul power could never accomplish something like that.

Unless...

His martial soul awakening report was fake!

He was not some loser with a viciously mutated martial soul and innate half-rank soul power. He was a genius with a benignly mutated martial soul and innate full soul power.

Only that could possibly explain how he had severely wounded Xiao Haijie with one strike.

Seeing Yu Xiaogang like this, Hans sighed.

"Xiaogang, I know what you want to ask."

"That child, Qi Dao, did indeed defeat Xiao Haijie fair and square, though Xiao Haijie had been careless as well."

"Stop!" Yu Xiaogang interrupted Hans and said in a deep voice, "I only want to know whether his innate soul power is really half a rank."

Hans sighed and shook his head. "Xiaogang, I know this is unbelievable, but I can confirm that the child's martial soul report was correct. And when he defeated Xiao Haijie, he was still only a half-rank Soul Scholar."

"Th-that's impossible!" Yu Xiaogang found it hard to believe.

"No, I need to study his martial soul myself. There must be something extraordinary about it!"

"Hans, didn't you want me to take him as my disciple?"

"As long as Qi Dao agrees to cooperate with my research into his martial soul, I'll agree to accept him as a registered disciple."

A hint of longing appeared in Yu Xiaogang's eyes as he spoke, completely forgetting how much he had previously looked down on Qi Dao for having innate half-rank soul power.

"Xiaogang!!"

Hans raised his voice, his expression growing more disappointed and angry.

"Have you not realized that you're being far too arrogant?"

"You're not looking for a student. You're looking for an experiment subject!"

"Not only would Qi Dao himself never agree to this, neither would I."

Yu Xiaogang was stunned, never expecting Hans to refuse him.

He said urgently, "Hans, I'm doing this for Qi Dao's own good. He's a Soul Master with innate half-rank soul power. Without my guidance, let alone reaching rank thirty, even breaking through rank twenty will be difficult."

"As long as he's willing to cooperate with my research, I won't hurt him!"

Hans snorted coldly.

"Xiaogang, there's no need to say any more. I will not agree!"

Yu Xiaogang gritted his teeth.

"Hans, you'll regret this!"

Hans remained unmoved and said in a deep voice.

"Xiaogang, I'm the dean here!"

Bang!

Yu Xiaogang stormed out in anger.

First-year classroom.

The first class of the school term.

As a junior soul master academy, the school primarily taught theoretical knowledge.

Of course, the soul power levels of Notting Academy's teachers were generally not high. Some of the lower-grade teachers had not even surpassed level twenty.

Naturally, it was unrealistic to expect teachers at level ten or so to teach practical combat.

In class, the first-year teacher stood at the podium introducing basic knowledge such as martial souls and soul power. At the end of the first lesson, the teacher also explained the basics of a common soul beast.

For a soul master—especially one of ordinary talent and no background—the academy was the easiest way to learn about soul beasts.

Otherwise, after graduating from a soul master academy, they could only acquire such knowledge through lesson after lesson paid for in blood and tears during soul hunts.

Unless they never hunted souls for their entire lives!

Otherwise, even if they paid a high price to hire a professional soul-hunting team, there was still a good chance that the team would simply pick any soul beast to fob them off.

After class.

The teacher from class came over to thank Qi Dao.

"Qi Dao, thank you for helping the teacher maintain classroom discipline."

The teacher looked quite young. During his introduction, he had mentioned that he was also a former student of Notting Academy.

It was just that his talent had been lacking, and he had failed to get into an intermediate soul master academy. After becoming a soul master, he could only return to Notting Academy to teach the lower grades.

Having been through it himself, he knew exactly how mischievous children who had just entered the academy could be. Asking them to sit obediently in the classroom and listen to dry, tedious soul master theory was basically unrealistic.

But Qi Dao's authority was simply too great. All it took was a look from him or a light cough, and the entire classroom would quietly listen to the lesson.

The young teacher had taught three batches of first-year students, yet he had never felt so at ease.

Qi Dao smiled. "I was helping myself as well. They were too noisy, and it affected my lessons too."

Hearing this, the young teacher could not help but sigh inwardly.

It would have been one thing if Qi Dao was merely powerful, but he was actually so sensible as well.

How wonderful it would be if every student were like him.

Unfortunately, he could only teach a student like this for one year.

Still, the young teacher liked diligent students like Qi Dao. He kindly said, "Qi Dao, if you want to learn more theoretical knowledge in the future, you can visit the academy library. I wrote down some insights back when I was studying as well. I'll bring them to you tomorrow. They may not be much, but I hope they can help you."

Qi Dao replied respectfully, "Thank you, Teacher!"

The young teacher smiled, then turned and left.

Soon after the young teacher left, another theory class began.

The afternoon was reserved for meditation practice.

Clearly, the academy also understood that it was difficult to expect a group of young children to meditate and cultivate on their own.

Without supervision, these students might not even cultivate for one or two hours a day.

In class, Qi Dao also got to know Wang Sheng.

There were two work-study students among this year's first-years, and Wang Sheng was one of them.

Wang Sheng's talent was no worse than anyone else's in the first year. He was also born with level three soul power.

But due to his background, he was not well received among the first-years.

Qi Dao did not deliberately correct this prejudice based on status. He merely told every one of them—

If you looked down on him, then pick up your fists and fight him!

Among soul masters, strength spoke!

If you were inferior in skill, what right did you have to look down on others?

Are kings and generals born to their stations?