Freshman Assessment

"Doctor, please hurry and check whether something's wrong with me. I feel like I've been under too much pressure lately. Even my appetite isn't as strong as it used to be."

"How about you put down what's in your hands first? This is a psychological counseling room, not a place for you to eat. Besides, what you're eating is my lunch!"

"What does it matter? It's all the same. Doctor Jiang, don't stand on ceremony—hurry up and eat. If you don't, it'll all be mine."

On a relatively quiet commercial street in Shrek City stood a simply yet elegantly decorated shop, one that made people feel noticeably better the moment they looked at it.

The shop had no eye-catching signboard, yet students in Shrek Academy uniforms entered from time to time. Among them, first-year freshmen were the most numerous. A careful count would reveal that freshmen alone made up more than half of the shop's customers.

The street had not originally seen much foot traffic compared to other areas of Shrek City, until this shop took root here and introduced a profession that even many well-traveled merchants in Shrek City had never heard of: a psychologist.

This shop's fees were expensive. The cheapest treatment plan reportedly cost fifty Gold Soul Coins, while the costly ones could reach several thousand. It was far beyond what ordinary people could afford.

Furthermore, the shop's owner seemed to be a student of Shrek Academy, so most of those who came here were academy students. Only rarely would one or two lavishly dressed people visit.

Sitting beside the neatly arranged table, Jiang Yue looked speechlessly at the large ball of flesh constantly stuffing food into his mouth, feeling rather embarrassed.

This "large ball of flesh" wore an ill-fitting freshman uniform. He was at least 1.7 meters tall, and his waistline was also over 1.7 meters. As he wolfed down food, the fat on his body jiggled without pause.

Jiang Yue was beginning to wonder whether this guy had come to cause trouble. How did this look anything like a loss of appetite?

Normally, Jiang Yue kept some candies and snacks here for his clients. But now, not only had those snacks been wiped out, even the lunch Jiang Yue had prepared for himself had been cleanly devoured while he wasn't paying attention.

"Xie Huanyue, if you want to eat, can you go back to the academy? This is only a counseling room, not a cafeteria that provides meals!"

"You've already come here four times this month, and every time you clean out all my food. Please, can you stop coming here to plague me?"

"Tch, Doctor Jiang, you're really stingy. It's not like I haven't paid. Besides, I've only come four times this month. Is that really necessary? You opened this place to treat illnesses and save people, so don't fuss over a little ingredient expense."

"The problem is that this month has only been going for five days! You came here four out of those five days—how is that not a lot?!"

"Isn't that because Doctor Jiang's cooking is too delicious? The academy cafeteria isn't bad either, but it can't compare to yours. Besides, I've gotten tired of cafeteria food after eating it all the time."

That was right. This fatty was Xie Huanyue, one of the few Soul Elders among the freshmen, with the defense-type Pippi Elephant Martial Soul.

Including the Xie Huanyue before him, Jiang Yue had already gotten to know several other Soul Elders among the freshmen before the freshman assessment began.

Over these three months before the freshman assessment, Jiang Yue spent nearly all his free time in this counseling room. With the innate advantages of his martial soul, along with his current mastery of the powers of joy, anger, and sorrow, providing psychological counseling to Shrek Academy students under heavy mental pressure was absurdly easy.

No one in the entire outer courtyard had soul power more than two soul rings above Jiang Yue's. Whether in soul power or spiritual power, Jiang Yue utterly crushed the outer courtyard students. Naturally, he could easily influence their emotions and help them complete their counseling.

Generally speaking, the students who came here were merely under a little too much mental pressure. Very few had genuine psychological problems. All Jiang Yue needed to do was use the Passionate Sword to reduce the sorrow in their hearts and amplify their joy.

Because the results were outstanding, Jiang Yue had become extremely well-known in the outer courtyard. His fame had already reached roughly the same level as Bei Bei and Xu Sanshi.

Many students who had undergone psychological treatment here fondly remembered that feeling of being light and carefree, their thoughts crystal clear. Some had even become slightly addicted to it, gradually turning into repeat customers of Jiang Yue's.

Among them, Xie Huanyue was the most frequent visitor of all. Or rather, Xie Huanyue treated Jiang Yue's counseling room as a restaurant, always coming around mealtimes.

Fortunately, the Gold Soul Coins Xie Huanyue paid each time—no, Xie Huanyue's sincerity—moved Jiang Yue. So Jiang Yue simply turned a blind eye to Xie Huanyue treating the counseling room like a diner.

"Phew—I'm full. Thank you, Doctor Jiang. You're truly miraculous. You cured my loss of appetite in no time. But I feel like Doctor Jiang's treatment only cured me temporarily, so I'll need to come back for follow-up appointments."

"Dinner, right? Got it. What do you want to eat tonight?"

"Doctor Jiang, that isn't what I meant. But if you insist that I come back for a follow-up tonight, I suppose that's fine. Go easy on the scallions."

"Come to think of it, why is it that you, Doctor Jiang, are clearly a... uh, well... psychologist, yet your cooking is so delicious? You use such simple ingredients, but eating it still puts people in a good mood. Is your cooking some kind of special treatment method?"

"Diet therapy is also a form of treatment. Besides, no one but you treats this place like a restaurant!"

Xie Huanyue licked his lips, seemingly savoring the flavor of Jiang Yue's cooking. One look at him made it clear that if he hadn't already been too full to eat, he could definitely have kept demolishing Jiang Yue's food.

As for why Xie Huanyue liked his cooking so much, Jiang Yue had a theory of his own.

Emotions. Just as Huo Yuhao's grilled fish had a special quality, Jiang Yue's food also carried a unique flavor.

Jiang Yue had discovered that he could cook with emotions when he earned his first pot of gold since opening the shop. Filled with joy, he had personally cooked several dishes to reward himself, only to find that their taste was somehow different. After several experiments, he discovered this ability.

When he first figured out this ability, Jiang Yue's feelings had been extremely complicated. His Passionate Sword Martial Soul was already highly compatible with the divine position of a certain fellow in the heavens, and now he had gained another such ability. If that fellow found out, forget the divine position—he would probably pass all his skills on to Jiang Yue himself.

Including, but not limited to, cooking.

Over the three months before the freshman assessment, Jiang Yue had earned more than ten thousand Gold Soul Coins through his own efforts. All he could say was that the money of soul masters from great clans was truly easy to earn.

Together with the Gold Soul Coins he already had, he was still some distance away from one hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins. But there was still plenty of time before the end of this school year.

At worst, after the freshman assessment ended, he could work at this counseling room during the day and set up a stall on the snack street outside Shrek Academy at night.

Jiang Yue refused to believe that, with his current abilities and a little flash bomb added to his dishes, he still wouldn't be able to make money.

At any rate, judging by his current rate of earnings, Jiang Yue no longer needed to consider selling himself for money.

And of that huge sum of Gold Soul Coins, Xie Huanyue before him had contributed quite a lot. Though his money was for meal expenses, not treatment fees.

"The freshman assessment starts tomorrow, so this counseling room will be closed for a while. Starting tomorrow, don't come here anymore."

"Ah?! If I can't eat Doctor Jiang's cooking, what am I supposed to do about my loss of appetite?!"

"Bear with it for a while. Mm, that's the only way."

"All right. What a pity. If Doctor Jiang and I weren't in different classes, we'd definitely be on the same team. The freshman assessment championship would be ours for the taking. By the way, who are you teamed up with, Doctor Jiang? I've never heard you mention it."

"I just found two people whose strength is passable. They can't compare to you guys."

This year's freshman assessment was held in teams of three. If one did not form a team independently, the academy would draw lots to determine one's teammates in the end.

What kind of capable person could get left behind?

Jiang Yue's goal wasn't merely to pass the freshman assessment. It was the soul bone offered as the champion's reward. That was Jiang Yue's safety net, so there was no way he would let it go.

Under such circumstances, Jiang Yue naturally couldn't wait until the last minute. He had already found two Grand Soul Masters in the class whose strength was decent enough.

Compared to one-ring Soul Masters, Grand Soul Masters could play a far greater role. In the original story, by the later stages of the freshman assessment, there hadn't been a single one-ring Soul Master left aside from Huo Yuhao.

Even so, Jiang Yue's team still fell short compared to Ning Tian's group of three Soul Elders.

Wu Feng and Ning Tian had grown up together. Xie Huanyue and the Luo brothers had developed some coordination over the past three months. Dai Huabin and Zhu Lu could even use a martial soul fusion skill.

Looking at it this way, Jiang Yue instead appeared to be the weakest one. He and his teammates were a hastily assembled team with no coordination whatsoever—or at least, that was what those who didn't know Jiang Yue thought.

After Dai Huabin had been defeated by Jiang Yue, he had kept his mouth shut about what exactly happened in the dorm that day. Therefore, aside from Dai Huabin, only Huo Yuhao among the freshmen knew that Jiang Yue possessed a thousand-year second ring.

Of course, Jiang Yue wasn't the only one with a thousand-year second ring. Wang Dong had one as well. He might even turn out to be the dark horse of this freshman assessment.

"So that's how it is, Divine Physician Jiang. If we run into each other, don't hold back. Make sure you give it everything you've got."

"Don't worry. Since it's a competition, naturally I'll go all out to show you my respect."

"Actually, you don't need to go quite that all out. Speaking of which, we're already core disciples. If it weren't for Soul Elders like you, I probably wouldn't even be interested in this freshman assessment. I'd want to compete with you instead."

Core disciple—this was the most important status an Outer Court student at Shrek Academy could possess. Nearly every Inner Court disciple had once been a core disciple of the Outer Court, and core disciples enjoyed many benefits that ordinary disciples did not.

Jiang Yue, Ning Tian, Xie Huanyue, and Dai Huabin were all Soul Elders. Their cultivation far surpassed that of the other freshmen. If even they couldn't become core disciples, the other students would have even less chance. Shrek Academy had therefore simply decided to grant the four of them core disciple status in advance, then announce it together with the others after the freshman assessment.

Battle intent rose in Xie Huanyue's eyes as he looked at Jiang Yue. He was looking forward to fighting the other Soul Elders in his year.

Besides, this concerned their reputations. When the time came, whichever of the four Soul Elders failed to enter the top four would be embarrassed.

Of course, that depended on Shrek Academy's arrangements. If any of them ran into each other before the semifinals, there was nothing they could do about it.

That afternoon, Jiang Yue received several more clients who needed psychological treatment and earned quite a few Gold Soul Coins. After having dinner with Xie Huanyue, he returned to the dormitory.

The next day, Jiang Yue brought his two teammates to the assessment area, which had been divided into evenly sized sections by partitions.

Since the freshman assessment had only just begun, the freshmen were given time to adapt. They only needed to take part in one match that day.

The freshman assessment was divided into a round-robin stage and an elimination stage. During the round-robin stage, the academy would try its best to ensure that students from the same class did not face one another, avoiding such internal battles whenever possible.

The two people following Jiang Yue felt no pressure at all. Both were Grand Soul Masters, and neither was from the auxiliary system. Jiang Yue was even a Soul Elder. Unless they encountered another Soul Elder team during the round-robin stage, Jiang Yue could cover for everything. There was no way they could lose.

Jiang Yue's group wasn't very lucky. The teacher assigned to supervise their section was an elderly woman with wrinkled skin, white hair, and a white robe.

When she saw Jiang Yue's group and the opposing team arrive, the old woman cast them a cold glance. A faint pressure from her soul power spread outward, instantly making everyone except Jiang Yue tense up.

"Let me introduce myself. My name is Zhou Yi, and I'll be your assessment teacher for the next two days of the round-robin stage."

"If you fail to give it your all during the match, or if you engage in any cheating, I will personally throw you out and report you to the academy."

"If you understand, the match begins now!"

After Zhou Yi barked at them, Jiang Yue's teammates immediately pulled him to one corner of the platform. Their opponents had also taken their positions, waiting only for Zhou Yi to announce the start.

"Are you two going up, or should I make a move?"

"No need, Brother Jiang. You're our trump card. We haven't even encountered any difficult opponents yet, so leave this one to the two of us. Otherwise, we'll look completely useless."

"Fine. Don't force yourselves. If there's a problem, call out to me."

With the two of them shielding him in front, Jiang Yue practically retreated to the outermost edge. He had already sensed the extreme nervousness of the opposing three. Unless they had absolutely no confidence at all, they wouldn't have been that tense.

Jiang Yue was certain that the three people before him couldn't all be Grand Soul Masters. Otherwise, they should have had at least some confidence.

Though he didn't need to act, Jiang Yue stood at the edge and watched the people on the platform with complete focus. At the slightest problem, he would immediately step in.

There was no rest period during the freshman assessment. Once someone was injured, it would certainly affect their later matches. To make things easier going forward, he had to pay close attention to his teammates now.

Seeing that Jiang Yue had no intention of making a move, Zhou Yi couldn't help frowning.

She didn't know what Jiang Yue was thinking. Was he looking down on his opponents, or did he have confidence in his teammates?

Zhou Yi didn't know, but she instinctively disliked Jiang Yue's behavior. If he had been her student, Zhou Yi could guarantee that anyone who dared to be so overconfident would be expelled on the spot.

There were quite a few teams participating in the freshman assessment, and half of them would be expelled from Shrek Academy.

Jiang Yue's group had good luck. All three opponents possessed only one hundred-year soul ring, and one of them was even from the auxiliary system. They simply couldn't compare to Jiang Yue's side.

The result was obvious. Jiang Yue's group won, and they won without the slightest suspense.

"Class Five's Jiang Yue team wins one match."

Once the victor had been decided, Zhou Yi immediately announced Jiang Yue's team as the winner.

Seeing that the two people who had fought on the platform had clearly taken their lead from Jiang Yue, who had not even made a move, Zhou Yi also understood who the core of this team was.