Xuan Zi

After easily dealing with Wang Dong and the other two, none of the remaining teams in this examination area stood a chance of snatching victory from Jiang Yue's team.

It was not merely that no one tried to stop them. Whenever a team faced Jiang Yue's group, they would generally concede the moment the match began, with no intention of fighting a Soul Elder like Jiang Yue at all.

The combat power of a Soul Elder alone was enough to make every student present tremble in fear. On top of that, he was a Soul Elder with a thousand-year second Soul Ring, and his two teammates were both Soul Grandmasters. Unless such a team encountered another Soul Elder team, there was simply no way they could lose.

Even a gauntlet battle would not work.

Had they not seen that Jiang Yue had not even used his second soul skill when dealing with Wang Dong and the other two? Besides, who wanted to fight someone capable of catching a massive cauldron barehanded?

Forget using the Passionate Sword martial soul—even without using a martial soul, an ordinary eleven- or twelve-year-old child would probably be sent into a long, peaceful sleep by a single slap from him.

Moreover, a gauntlet battle could not truly be carried out. No team would sacrifice its chances in the following matches just to drain the Soul Power and stamina of an enemy they had no chance of defeating.

More importantly, even if they did drain Jiang Yue's Soul Power and stamina, another team would most likely reap the rewards in the end. The interests of the students in these teams conflicted with one another, so none of them would make such a losing trade—hurting the enemy by eight hundred while harming themselves by ten thousand.

Once all five matches had ended, added to their previous five victories, Jiang Yue and his two teammates had successfully concluded the round-robin portion of the Freshman Assessment with ten wins. Next would come the elimination rounds against the other high-performing teams.

There were probably fewer than ten freshman teams capable of achieving a perfect record of ten victories.

Jiang Yue was certain that, aside from his own team, the other three Soul Elder teams would have no trouble earning ten wins so long as they did not meet one another during the round-robin stage.

It could not be helped—the advantage of a Soul Elder was simply that great. After all, they had an additional thousand-year Soul Ring and a thousand-year soul skill, giving them an all-around edge over Soul Grandmasters.

Compared to Jiang Yue's ten straight victories, Wang Dong and the other two were somewhat dejected. In truth, though, they had still achieved the excellent result of eight wins. If their luck had not been so poor, their record could have been even better.

But luck was also part of strength. Whether it was Jiang Yue, the strongest freshman, or the Lan Sisters' Martial Soul Fusion Skill, neither was something Wang Dong and the other two could handle.

The Lan Sisters' Martial Soul Fusion Skill, Heavenly Net, possessed large-scale battlefield control capabilities. Its strength was simply excessive in the Freshman Assessment, where nearly everyone was a Soul Grandmaster or Soul Master, even if their martial souls were merely hair—Body Martial Souls of rather mediocre quality.

A Martial Soul Fusion Skill was not as simple as one plus one equaling two. A Martial Soul Fusion Skill unleashed by two Soul Grandmasters could rival the power of a high-level Soul Elder or even a Soul Ancestor.

Wang Dong and the other two understood this as well. None of them had expected to encounter a Martial Soul Fusion Skill, something rarely seen in the world of soul masters, during the Freshman Assessment. Nor had they expected their opponents to have not only a Soul Elder, but one with a thousand-year second Soul Ring. Their defeat had entirely been due to bad luck.

Having sorted this out, Wang Dong and the others' gloomy feelings vanished, and they returned to normal. They were even filled with fighting spirit, ready to show their prowess in the upcoming elimination rounds.

With their record of eight wins and two losses, advancing to the elimination rounds would not be a problem. So long as their luck was not too terrible, they could at least make it into the top thirty-two.

Why not set their sights higher? Was this not a bloody lesson right in front of them? If they ran into another Martial Soul Fusion Skill or a Soul Elder team, they would most likely lose again.

However, their goal was simple: becoming core disciples. Strictly speaking, Wang Dong, Xiao Xiao, and Huo Yuhao did not actually need to work this hard for the status of core disciple.

Wang Dong was a genius with a thousand-year second Soul Ring. So long as she did not perform badly, becoming a core disciple was practically guaranteed. Xiao Xiao possessed Twin Martial Souls and had no particularly powerful background. If Shrek Academy did not find a way to keep a genius like that, it might as well shut its doors.

Huo Yuhao's situation was somewhat different. At that moment, he clenched his fists, the desire in his eyes undisguised. He swore to obtain the status of a core disciple in the Martial Soul Department of Shrek Academy's Outer Court.

Seeing Huo Yuhao's reaction, Jiang Yue could not figure out what Huo Yuhao was thinking. Normally, by this point, Huo Yuhao should have already received Fan Yu's promise thanks to the unique advantage his Mental Attribute martial soul gave him in Soul Tools. Why did he still want to become a core disciple of the Martial Soul Department?

Who was Fan Yu? Although he liked that unreasonable woman Zhou Yi, no one could deny Fan Yu's own talent. Whether in martial souls or Soul Tools, Fan Yu was exceptionally gifted.

Fan Yu was already an Soul Douluo above level eighty. Given his current age, becoming a Super Douluo in the future was uncertain, but becoming a Titled Douluo would pose no problem whatsoever. That alone proved he was no ordinary figure on the path of traditional soul masters. Many people who specialized in cultivating martial souls did not possess Fan Yu's level of cultivation.

Not to mention that Fan Yu was also an eighth-level Soul Engineer. He would become the future vice dean and dean of Shrek Academy's Soul Guidance Department, its true person in charge. His accomplishments in Soul Tools were extremely profound, even surpassing Qian Duoduo and Xian Lin'er. He was the person on this side of the original Douluo Three Kingdoms most likely to become the first ninth-level Soul Engineer.

Put simply, it was practically set in stone that Fan Yu would eventually take over Shrek Academy's Soul Guidance Department and become one of the most influential figures standing at the peak of the entire continent. Calling his future limitless would be an understatement.

With a teacher whose talent, status, and future were all so outstanding after only a short period of normal development, Huo Yuhao truly had no need to care about the dispensable status of a core disciple in the Martial Soul Department.

The status of Fan Yu's personal disciple carried far more weight than that of a core disciple. A core disciple merely entered the notice of Shrek Academy's upper ranks, while the personal disciple of the vice dean of the Soul Guidance Department was practically one of Shrek Academy's own. At worst, he would become a powerful figure in the Soul Guidance Department in the future.

In the original story, although Huo Yuhao had not become a core disciple of the Martial Soul Department at first, his treatment was not lacking in the slightest. Even his meals were specially prepared by chefs, far better than what core disciples ate.

Thus, Jiang Yue truly could not understand why someone who could practically reserve the position of "Crown Prince of the Soul Guidance Department" cared so much about becoming a core disciple of the Martial Soul Department. Had Huo Yuhao still not figured out just how important Fan Yu was? He could not even distinguish what mattered more.

After the round-robin stage ended, Jiang Yue bid farewell to his two teammates and left Shrek Academy, heading for the counseling office in Shrek City.

A profession like counseling, which could both earn money and help him train his development of the Passionate Sword's abilities, naturally filled Jiang Yue with enthusiasm.

Before leaving the examination area, Jiang Yue spotted Wang Yan in the distance. Wang Yan had grabbed Huo Yuhao by the shoulders and was trembling with excitement, his face almost pressed against Huo Yuhao's.

Judging by his appearance, Wang Yan had likely learned from Huo Yuhao that he possessed a Body Martial Soul and was trembling with excitement as a result.

It could not be helped. Body Martial Souls truly were rare. They could not be steadily inherited and would only appear randomly in certain people. Even if both parents possessed Body Martial Souls, it would merely raise the odds of their descendants having one.

In this era, anyone in the soul master world who was not completely indifferent to outside news would certainly have heard of the Body Sect's fierce reputation. After all, the Body Sect was the number one sect in the world during this age.

Of course, even if the Body Sect was the number one sect in the world, that did not change the fact that Body Martial Souls were weak before undergoing a Second Awakening.

People only knew the Body Sect's prestige and saw the formidable combat power of its members, believing that Body Martial Souls possessed limitless potential. They did not know that such power came from a path of defying fate, summarized through countless generations of Body Sect predecessors—a potential awakened by Body Martial Soul masters who had survived brushes with death.

Neither Xuan Zi nor Mu En understood Body Martial Souls beyond what they had learned from Du Busi and Du Bisi. At Shrek Academy, unless a Body Martial Soul master possessed absurdly good fortune, it was impossible to complete a Second Awakening.

At night, on the edge of Sea God Island, a ragged old man who looked incomparably disheveled sat in the evening breeze.

His bare feet were immersed in the cool lake water. In his left hand was a roasted chicken, while his right held an enormous gourd. As he ate and drank, he listened to Wang Yan describe the promising students he had seen during the Freshman Assessment.

A level ninety-eight Super Douluo, bearing the title Taotie; the publicly acknowledged strongest member of Shrek Academy's Sea God Pavilion; the heir to the Sea God Pavilion—Xuan Zi.

Upon hearing Wang Yan report that a student possessed a Light Goddess Butterfly with a thousand-year second Soul Ring, Xuan Zi froze for a moment. He immediately took another bite of roasted chicken, his expression unchanged, but silently remarked to himself that young people these days had truly strange ideas.

When he heard about the owner of a Body Martial Soul Wang Yan had mentioned, Xuan Zi pursed his lips in disdain. Especially when Wang Yan said those students had potential, Xuan Zi impatiently raised a hand, signaling for Wang Yan to stop talking.

"A hair martial soul? It can barely be considered related to a Body Martial Soul. Its future potential is simply too low. It is hard to say whether they can even reach Soul Sage, much less complete a Second Awakening of their Body Martial Souls."

"If they cannot complete a Second Awakening of their Body Martial Souls, then I do not need to explain the strength of such Body Martial Souls, do I? Even with a Martial Soul Fusion Skill, they do not deserve too much attention."

"That little fellow whose martial soul is his eyes has considerably greater potential than those two girls with hair martial souls. The eyes are the windows to the soul, among the truly highest-ranked Body Martial Souls. The only question is whether he can complete a Second Awakening."

"I recall that there are Soul Elder students this year, right? Why are you telling me only about Soul Grandmasters and even Soul Masters? Do not tell me you have not paid attention to a single one of those Soul Elders."

Xuan Zi looked at Wang Yan. He believed he understood this grand-disciple of his who studied martial soul theory fairly well. Wang Yan could not possibly have ignored the higher-ranked students.

Especially since Wang Yan had already been assigned as the official homeroom teacher of Class One after the Outer Court Freshman Assessment—the class for control-type and assault-type soul masters. Under such circumstances, failing to pay attention to students likely to become troublemakers would not fit Wang Yan's personality.

Hearing Xuan Zi's question, Wang Yan slowly recounted what he had seen of Jiang Yue that day.

Wang Yan had naturally paid close attention to Jiang Yue, who had become a Soul Elder at eleven and was the only one among the four freshman Soul Elders not admitted to Shrek Academy through special recruitment.

After all, Jiang Yue would be a student in the class Wang Yan would teach in the future. He might even become the control-type class monitor. If Wang Yan did not pay him some attention, Wang Yan himself would think there was something wrong with his brain.

After hearing Wang Yan's report, Xuan Zi temporarily stopped eating and sank into thought, seemingly contemplating something within his mind.

"A sword martial soul, a thousand-year second Soul Ring, a freshman admitted through ordinary channels, and he caught a massive cauldron barehanded?"

Summarizing the key points in Wang Yan's words, Xuan Zi almost suspected that Wang Yan had fabricated this information to fool him.

If Jiang Yue truly was a Soul Elder with a thousand-year second Soul Ring, catching a Soul Grandmaster's massive cauldron barehanded would be perfectly normal. However, the prerequisite for all of that was that the student possessed a beast martial soul.

A thousand-year second Soul Ring did impose some requirements on one's physical condition. It was not that few people could meet them; rather, few geniuses could reach level twenty Soul Power at seven or eight years old while also possessing the physical strength needed to absorb a thousand-year second Soul Ring.

In the early stages of cultivation, the difference in Soul Ring age was limited. A single Soul Ring in the later stages could make up for it. If one deliberately remained at level twenty for a long time just to obtain a thousand-year second Soul Ring, that would be putting the cart before the horse for a genius.

Xuan Zi knew very well that even his martial uncle, who possessed the Bright Holy Dragon martial soul, had not reached level twenty Soul Power at eight or nine years old while also meeting the physical requirements to safely absorb a thousand-year second Soul Ring. Otherwise, his first four Soul Rings would have been yellow, purple, purple, black, rather than yellow, yellow, purple, black.

Xuan Zi had been in roughly the same situation back then. That was with one of them possessing the Taotie martial soul and the other the Bright Holy Dragon—both top-tier beast martial souls. Thus, Xuan Zi truly could not imagine how a tool martial soul could accomplish what neither of them had managed back then.

Was someone pouring resources into him? That was even less likely. Mu En and Xuan Zi had both received the best resources available in their day. Unless it was at least a sixty-thousand-year Soul Bone, what faction would dare invest so heavily in a child with an uncertain future?

Especially since Jiang Yue was not a specially recruited student and likely did not have any major backing, if it was not resources, then what could it be?

Suddenly, a flash of insight struck Xuan Zi's mind, and he thought of a possibility that made even him suck in a breath of cold air.

Twin Martial Souls. If that Jiang Yue possessed an exceptional beast martial soul, then everything made sense—the thousand-year second Soul Ring and stopping a massive cauldron barehanded.

The more he considered it, the more reasonable it all seemed. Xuan Zi felt that his guess was the truth of the matter.

"Interesting, interesting. This batch of freshmen is truly interesting. Little Wang, go to the Outer Court and tell Yan Shaozhe to save me a spot."