Xu Family Siblings

After Wu Zhangkong brought everyone from Zero Class back to Eastsea Academy, the staff looked at the area that had been erased from the giant screen, bitter smiles appearing on their faces.

"This is absurd..."

As the camera zoomed in, the area where the Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bear had just been displayed an eerie, utterly lifeless blankness.

The Spirit Ascension Platform's self-repair function was completely unable to restore that missing section. If the area remained like this for too long, it would inevitably affect the operation of the entire Spirit Ascension Platform.

"Report it to headquarters. This is no longer something our technology can handle."

After a night of rest, Xiling had recovered considerably, and Gu Yue's attentive care had played no small part in that.

That feeling of being carefully looked after stirred something unusual in Xiling's heart. It was not as though no one had ever cared for him before, but why did he feel this way only now? He could not quite understand it.

In the Zero Class classroom, everyone let out a sigh of relief when they saw that Xiling was all right.

Wu Zhangkong began his evaluation as well. "You all received decent scores in yesterday's exam."

"However, those scores do not belong to you. Xiling earned them for you. You all know that very well."

The classroom instantly fell silent.

They looked at one another, but no one argued.

Just judging by the spirit beasts they had encountered yesterday, if Xiling had not been there, they could never have all walked out of the Spirit Ascension Platform unharmed when the Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bear appeared. That was an ironclad fact.

Seeing their silence, Wu Zhangkong continued, "You are a team. You may trust and rely on one another, but you must never become dependent."

"Whether in exams, real combat, or the true soul master battlefield in the future, your fate can only ever be held in your own hands."

"No one can stand in front of you for your entire life. No one can always smooth away every danger for you."

"I know Xiling told you yesterday that he could safely carry you through this exam."

"But could you really accept that with a clear conscience, placing every danger, every bit of pressure, every life-or-death crisis on him alone?"

At those words, Xie Xie and the other four lowered their heads in shame.

Wu Zhangkong's gaze was grave as he spoke again. "Let me ask you another question. If you had been in a real forest at the time, without Xiling, what would have happened?"

"Facing those rampaging spirit beasts, would you still be alive and standing before me now?"

No one dared answer.

Because they all knew the answer perfectly well: no.

Only after a long while did Wu Zhangkong say, "Remember this. No matter when it is, no matter how great the reward, nothing is more important than surviving safely."

"Teacher Wu, I have a question. What should we do if we really encounter a spirit beast like the Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bear in the future?" Xie Xie raised his hand and asked.

Wu Zhangkong glanced at him. "Run. If you can't run, wait to die."

"Uh..." Xie Xie stared at Wu Zhangkong in astonishment.

Wu Zhangkong explained, "The Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bear is an extremely special kind of spirit beast. From the moment it is born, it is the king of spirit beasts. Its strength simply cannot be measured by cultivation age alone."

"However, the chances of you encountering a real Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bear are infinitely close to zero."

"After all, nearly all true Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bears were hunted down long ago."

"Because they're dangerous?" Zhang Yangzi asked.

Before Wu Zhangkong could answer, Xiling spoke first. "No. Because of human greed."

"Greed?" Of the five, everyone but Gu Yue wore expressions of confusion and incomprehension.

Xiling nodded. "Spirit bones have an extremely high chance of appearing in Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bears, which is why they suffered large-scale hunting."

"When the Spirit Pagoda was first established, its original purpose was to ease the relationship between humans and spirit beasts. But what Spirit Ice Douluo Huo Yuhao did not expect was that this intention would not be fully realized."

"The Spirit Pagoda solved the need to hunt spirit beasts for spirit rings, but it could not solve the issue of spirit bones."

"Spirit bones are a top-tier scarce resource that can greatly increase a soul master's combat power. They have no substitute, nor is there any way to artificially produce them."

"Spirit beasts nearing extinction is not due to this reason alone. Other factors are involved as well."

"But in the end, spirit beasts are on the brink of extinction not because of how much danger they pose to us humans, but because of how much benefit they can bring us."

After hearing this, Xie Xie and the others truly understood for the first time that this was the relationship between humans and spirit beasts.

"Big brother, don't be angry anymore," Xu Xiaoyan said timidly to her brother.

Xu Xiaoyu's face was so dark it looked ready to drip water. He could not help being angry. The family had paid an enormous price to obtain two slots for the rampage-period Spirit Ascension Platform.

Yet because of his carelessness, their journey in the Spirit Ascension Platform had ended so abruptly.

The more he thought about it now, the more he wanted to slap himself twice. He had clearly known who the other person was, clearly witnessed his strength, yet he had still insisted on throwing himself at him!

"Everyone who entered this rampage-period area yesterday should have been soul masters from Eastsea City. That guy is from Eastsea Academy, so the people behind him should be from Zero Class."

Xu Xiaoyan froze when she heard her brother muttering to himself. "Huh? Then that Great Demon King will be my upperclassman in the future? Please, anything but that!"

In the Xu Family, although Xu Xiaoyu was the only male descendant, his stubborn and arrogant nature made him rather unpopular with the family elders.

Xu Xiaoyan, on the other hand, was gentle and somewhat timid, and she was the darling of every elder in the family.

Xu Xiaoyan was exceptionally gifted, born with full innate soul power, but she herself did not particularly enjoy cultivation. Since the family already had an outstanding talent like Xu Xiaoyu, no one forced her to cultivate.

Then, not long ago, three years after her martial soul awakened, an internal family assessment discovered that her soul power had unknowingly reached Rank 17.

Moreover, the exceedingly rare Star Wheel phenomenon had appeared for the first time in the family's history, which was why the family finally began to take her seriously.

The Xu Family was one of the foremost great families in all of Eastsea City. Xu Xiaoyu and Xu Xiaoyan's father was Eastsea City's chief financial officer, a man of high status and great authority.

After discovering that his daughter possessed the family's legendary martial soul, he was naturally overjoyed. That was why he used his power and wealth to secure an additional slot in the rampage-period Spirit Ascension Platform.

He had repeatedly instructed Xu Xiaoyu to take good care of his sister and help her obtain more spiritual energy.

However, Xu Xiaoyan was naturally timid and had never undergone any soul master training. Once inside the Spirit Ascension Platform, she naturally shrank back at every turn and did not dare kill spirit beasts.

Xu Xiaoyu had absorbed quite a bit of spiritual energy himself, but his sister had gained very little because she did not dare kill spirit beasts.

He had only just managed to persuade Xu Xiaoyan that she had to make a move against the next spirit beast when he witnessed the enormous amount of spiritual energy left behind after Xiling slaughtered spirit beasts.

Then he thought that Xiling had killed so many spirit beasts that he should not have much soul power left. Wasn't this like heaven placing food directly into his mouth?

They were both three-ring Soul Elders. He refused to believe he could not defeat a Xiling who was out of energy, yet he had been instantly defeated!

Even now, he still could not understand how the gap between people could be so vast.

After returning, he not only had to endure the pain in his body but also received a harsh scolding from his father. How could he possibly be in a good mood?

"Hmph, I may not be able to beat you, but the people behind you might be another matter..." Xu Xiaoyu said with a livid expression.