Elimination Round Begins

Mu En made no attempt to hide his appreciation for Jiang Yue. Zhang Lexuan could tell that Mu En was in a far better mood today than usual.

When had Mu En last displayed such joy? It seemed to have been when Bei Bei awakened his martial soul and took his first step onto the path of a soul master. Too much time had passed, and Zhang Lexuan could not remember clearly.

At the thought of Bei Bei, the emotions Zhang Lexuan had only just managed to ease grew heavy once more. She knew that matters of the heart could not be forced, and that none of it was Bei Bei's fault.

After all, the matter of her being raised as his child bride had been decided by Mu En. Bei Bei had only been an infant at the time.

Besides, what normal person would develop romantic feelings for an older sister who had cared for them since childhood?!

Zhang Lexuan understood this. Back then, Mu En had made that decision only because both of Bei Bei's parents had passed away, driven by a tangle of emotions. In the end, that arrangement had merely served everyone's needs. No one was to blame.

Seeing Zhang Lexuan like this, Mu En could only sigh silently, his heart filled with regret and self-reproach over the words he had spoken back then.

That night, in the dormitory, Jiang Yue sat cross-legged on his bed. Spiritual power and soul power surged continuously around him as he replayed the scene of his earlier sword dance in his mind, hoping to use his recollection of that feeling to reach the Three Apertures Heart in one go and truly take his first step into the Distraction Control Technique.

Within his sea of consciousness, Jiang Yue worked hard to control the three emotion swords circling around him.

While Jiang Yue cultivated diligently, Dream Iceworm was extremely comfortable, curled up and sleeping peacefully in the sea of consciousness.

Since nothing resembling the incident in the original story, where Huo Yuhao had been attacked at Sea God Lake, had happened to Jiang Yue, Dream Iceworm had remained asleep without showing the slightest sign of waking.

Electrolux was still in the form of a gray bead, utterly ordinary in appearance. No one would have guessed that it contained a wisp of the remnant soul of an unparalleled powerhouse from another plane, who had torn through the barriers between worlds to descend upon this one.

Without Mu En's help, it was still rather difficult for Jiang Yue to simultaneously control three swords in motion as he had before. To do that again, he would have to wait until he could use the Three Apertures Heart proficiently.

Moreover, the Three Apertures Heart was only the beginning. Aside from Unfeeling Sword, his second martial soul that he would not reveal unless it was absolutely necessary, Jiang Yue still had four swords in total.

Passionate Sword, along with the swords of joy, anger, and sorrow, already made four swords. To control all four, he would need the Four Apertures Steadfast Heart.

But that was not even the main issue. Once Jiang Yue reached Rank 40 and absorbed a soul ring, he would condense another emotion sword, bringing the total to five. By then, he would need the Five Apertures Scattered Heart. Raising the Distraction Control Technique by several realms in a short time would be extremely difficult.

What gave Jiang Yue the biggest headache was what came after the seventh ring. Once all seven emotions had condensed into emotion swords, even if no new emotion swords appeared with the eighth and ninth rings, he would still have eight swords. Adding Unfeeling Sword made nine, while the highest level of the Distraction Control Technique was only the Seven Apertures Exquisite Heart.

Jiang Yue hoped that by then, his spiritual power would be enough to support him in controlling so many swords without relying on the Distraction Control Technique.

Given the current situation, Jiang Yue felt that he had to obtain the Spirit Devouring Carving Knife as soon as possible and let Electrolux's remnant soul stabilize and awaken completely. That way, he could gain access sooner to the complete cultivation system for a mage's spiritual power from Holy Magic Continent and raise his own spiritual power sooner.

Glancing at the gray bead that had remained quietly tucked away in a corner of his sea of consciousness without any movement for years, Jiang Yue silently encouraged himself.

Soon. By now, the Spirit Devouring Carving Knife had definitely appeared at Starlight Auction House. It might even have failed to sell several times already.

Realizing that it was getting late, Jiang Yue turned his gaze toward Dream Iceworm, who was curled up nearby and dreaming sweetly, before leaving.

Sleep. All the strength you save now will have to be used up later. If things went badly, I might even need Dream Iceworm's Dream Finger for my fourth soul ring.

Leaving aside how much his physical constitution would improve after obtaining Living Gold, based solely on Jiang Yue's current physique and spiritual power, he would definitely be able to absorb a soul ring of around fifteen thousand years once he reached Rank 40.

For a soul beast over ten thousand years old, if its bloodline was somewhat rare and powerful or it possessed special abilities, then at the very least, a Soul Emperor-level powerhouse would be needed to ensure a reasonable chance of victory—and that had to be a Soul Emperor with an optimal soul ring configuration. Only Soul Sage-level powerhouses or above would have a fairly high chance of success.

But if they encountered a powerful ten-thousand-year soul beast species, even a Soul Sage might only be able to flee. The most representative example was the Darkgold Dreadclaw Bear, which at the ten-thousand-year level could contend against an ordinary hundred-thousand-year soul beast.

There were not many spiritual-type soul beasts above ten thousand years old to begin with. Unless he went to Evil Forest, finding one would require a long search. And because of the peculiar nature of spiritual-type soul beasts, one careless mistake could easily get someone killed the moment they met one. The danger was simply too great.

Jiang Yue felt that asking the Maple Leaf City Lord, who possessed Soul Sage-level cultivation, to help him hunt a ten-thousand-year spiritual-type soul beast was far too difficult. The reward for Shrek Academy's freshman assessment could not possibly include helping him hunt such a soul beast either.

Unless someone on the level of Taotie Douluo Xuan Zi or Dragon God Douluo Mu En spoke up. In any case, Jiang Yue did not believe that Yan Shaozhe would help him obtain a soul ring before he had joined Shrek Academy.

Jiang Yue had no solution to that either. The soul beasts he needed were simply too rare. There were plenty of high-year soul beasts, and he could casually list a long string of names, but he knew far too few at the ten-thousand-year level.

If it truly came down to it, he could absorb a lower-year soul beast from a decent species. Dream Iceworm's origin power could raise the soul ring's age anyway. As long as the species and the soul skill it provided were good enough, Jiang Yue could accept it.

When he withdrew from his sea of consciousness, sunlight had already streamed through the window into the dormitory, driving away the darkness inside.

Jiang Yue, who had sat all night, slowly rose and stretched his slightly stiff body. Feeling that his soul power had increased a little more, he was extremely confident that he could break through to Rank 40 before the first-year break began.

Jiang Yue was already Rank 38. There were still more than six months before the end of the first year, and even if breaking through the bottleneck required more time, he remained full of confidence.

At the very latest, once he obtained the Spirit Devouring Carving Knife, awakened Electrolux, purified it, and fused with it, he would reach Rank 40.

After putting on the white freshman uniform, Jiang Yue grabbed a quick meal at the cafeteria and headed toward the assessment area. Today was the day the elimination round began.

Jiang Yue was quite confident about his team's first elimination match. The other three Soul Elder teams had also maintained perfect records, so the four teams would not face one another in the first round. Zuo Fan and Lu Bei were not weak either and would not hold the team back, so Jiang Yue felt no pressure at all.

There were sixty-four teams participating in the elimination round, which meant that thirty-two battles would be held in the assessment area that morning. On the surface, the pace and frequency of the matches were much gentler than during the round-robin stage.

There was one match in the morning and another in the afternoon. The entire elimination round would take only three days, about the same amount of time as the round-robin stage. Including the rest day in between, the entire freshman assessment lasted just one week.

Once Du Weilun confirmed that all students participating in the elimination round had arrived, he immediately announced its start. The representatives of each team went onstage in turn to draw lots.

Jiang Yue's team was quite fortunate. They had drawn one of the relatively weaker teams among all those in the elimination round, so the outcome held no suspense whatsoever.

The afternoon was much the same. The team they faced was not strong, and none of the four teams with Soul Elders encountered one another in their two matches that day. All of them successfully advanced into the top sixteen.

The odds of those four teams facing one another next had become extremely high.

After all the day's matches ended, Xie Huanyue immediately brought his two teammates over. The two appeared to be brothers. They were somewhat thin—skeletal would have been a more accurate description. Strangely, their arms were rather long, making people instinctively assume that their martial souls were something like long-armed apes, the sort that affected arm length.

"Divine Doctor Jiang, I haven't eaten any food you made these past two days, and my appetite has suffered badly. I've gotten thinner."

To make his words more convincing, Xie Huanyue slapped his belly twice, sending waves through his fat-filled stomach.

Jiang Yue did not know what to say. His gaze moved back and forth between Xie Huanyue's eyes and his stomach, but he truly could not see any physical change in Xie Huanyue compared with before.

"We've been preparing for the elimination round lately, so bear with it a little longer. The elimination round will be over in two days. Tell me what you want to eat then, and I'll make it."

"That'd be great. Sure enough, for my loss-of-appetite problem, I still need Divine Doctor Jiang to treat me."

"By the way, we've all made it into the top sixteen. The chances of us meeting next aren't small. Even if I end up facing you, Divine Physician Jiang, I'll still give it my all. I'll definitely show you the value of all this fat you fed me through your cooking."

"Haha, I'm looking forward to it. Win or lose, we have to carry the other person's share all the way to the end."

Although Xie Huanyue ate rather a lot, Jiang Yue found being around him very comfortable. At the very least, during this time, Jiang Yue and Xie Huanyue could be considered meal buddies.

No cook disliked being praised, and no diner wanted anything more than delicious food.

"Hey! What are you people plotting over here? Today's matches are already over, so why haven't you left? Are you secretly exchanging intel?"

A clear female voice suddenly rang out, her tone more teasing than anything else. Turning around, they saw Wu Feng standing with her hands on her hips as she looked at Jiang Yue and Xie Huanyue.

Ning Tian and another delicate girl with light green hair and dark green eyes stood a short distance behind Wu Feng, offering Jiang Yue and the others awkward yet polite smiles.

"No matter what you plan, the freshman assessment champions will definitely be Young Master and me. You'd better honestly fight for second place instead!"

"Heh, pretty arrogant. You really don't look like someone who cried last night."

"Hey! Why did you have to bring that up now?!"

The momentum Wu Feng had been building instantly collapsed. She gritted her teeth, looking as though she wanted to bite someone.

"Alright, Feng. Didn't you say you had something to discuss with Jiang Yue?"

"Oh, right. You interrupted me just now, and I nearly forgot the important reason I came to find you. Ahem. You should prepare to thank me properly. Otherwise, you might somehow end up becoming the chicken used to scare the monkeys."

"According to reliable information, since Class One had the fewest students eliminated during the freshman assessment, their class teacher will very likely continue serving as Class One's teacher after the assessment."

"Class One is the class for the control and assault systems. In other words, the two of us will most likely have that teacher as our homeroom teacher."

"We've already heard some rumors about that teacher. As the strongest one in terms of cultivation, you'll probably be targeted. So? Aren't you going to thank me for telling you this?"

"Is that so? That really is useful information. Thank you, Wu Feng."

"Hehe, that's more like it. I'll accept your thanks."

Hearing the news Wu Feng had brought, Jiang Yue could not help wondering whether someone was pulling strings behind the scenes again.

A teacher who had expelled the lowest-ranked students in her class before the freshman assessment, then disregarded the relationships among her students during the assessment and forcibly formed teams based on the paper data she knew in order to improve her class's numbers.

Why would such a teacher be appointed the homeroom teacher of First-Year Class One after the freshman assessment? Could no one else see that something was wrong? That seemed unlikely. The only explanation was Zhou Yi's husband, Fan Yu.

After all, at least Zhou Yi's numbers looked good on paper. With a husband like Fan Yu, someone with boundless prospects, backing her up, there was nothing wrong with letting her be a homeroom teacher so long as Zhou Yi did not lose her mind and target those core disciples favored by the martial soul department.

Because of Shrek Academy's rules, core disciples naturally could not be expelled just because Zhou Yi said so. Those most likely to enter the inner courtyard in the future would also be core disciples. As for the other students, Zhou Yi could toss them around however she pleased. In any case, they would not be Shrek Academy's own people.

Thinking it over, Jiang Yue felt that it was not impossible for Zhou Yi to become the vice homeroom teacher of First-Year Class One, just as in the original story. However, that was not what concerned him. What concerned him was what Wu Feng had just said: Zhou Yi might very well use him as the one she suppressed to establish her authority.

Jiang Yue had no favorable impression of Zhou Yi. He would not find it strange no matter what she did.

He only hoped Zhou Yi would not go looking for trouble. Otherwise, even if it meant directly exposing his second martial soul, he would leave Zhou Yi with an unforgettable memory.

Unfeeling Sword's innate martial soul ability to ignore defenses would be enough to give Zhou Yi a taste of her own medicine if it caught her off guard. And if that was not enough, he still had the nuclear-level self martial soul fusion skill, Emotion Shakes Heaven. Though using Emotion Shakes Heaven would be like using a cannon to kill a mosquito. There was simply no need for it.

"Tch, just an outer courtyard homeroom teacher, and you're all this scared? I even considered you my opponents. Now it seems you're nothing but useless people like everyone else."

At that moment, Dai Huabin happened to pass by and overhear what Wu Feng had said. Taking in Jiang Yue, Wu Feng, and the others' reactions, he immediately gave a disdainful snort.

"How can you talk like that?! You eavesdrop on people and still act so arrogantly!"

"I'm simply telling the truth. If you can't stand hearing it, pretend you didn't."

"Dai Huabin, I hope you can still be this bold when you get to Class One. You'd better replace that teacher, or I'll look down on you too!"

"I'm not stupid enough to make an enemy of a Shrek Academy teacher for no reason just because of a few words from you."

"Enough. Stop showing off with your mouth, Dai Huabin. Was the lesson I gave you last time not enough, so you came here specifically to make your presence known?"

Just as Wu Feng was about to continue, Jiang Yue reached out and stopped her.

Ever since being defeated by Jiang Yue, Dai Huabin had not dared to cause trouble in front of him. Perhaps he wanted to use this freshman assessment to wash away his previous humiliation, which was why he had deliberately come over to spout some trash talk.

First-year students were not allowed onto the Soul Fighting Arena, after all. Under those rules, if Dai Huabin wanted to settle things with Jiang Yue, he either had to patiently wait until they became second-years and could enter the Soul Fighting Arena, or find an opportunity to fight openly and fairly.

The freshman assessment before them was an excellent opportunity, and Dai Huabin naturally would not let it pass.

"Jiang Yue, remember this. This time, you'll definitely be the one lying on the ground! The freshman assessment champion can only be me!"

"I'll return those words to you unchanged. You might not even get the chance to face me. There are two other Soul Elder teams by my side, after all. I'm not your only opponent."

"Hmph, them?"

"What? You think you can definitely beat them?"

Dai Huabin said nothing, but his expression had already completely exposed what he was thinking.

Wu Feng, who had already been provoked by Dai Huabin's sudden appearance, immediately stepped forward and glared at him. Seeing her sister act that way, Ning Tian promptly followed suit, while Xie Huanyue naturally was not afraid of Dai Huabin either.

One was a divine chef who could make him delicious food, while the other was the second son of the White Tiger Duke's Manor, someone he did not know at all. Even with his eyes closed, Xie Huanyue knew which side to choose.

Just like that, a few words from Dai Huabin had offended all the other first-year Soul Elders. If the White Tiger Duke's Manor learned of this, they would probably scold him to death.