Finals

Several dozen thorns spun at high speed and stabbed forward, trying to tear open the mass of hair that was about to envelop Wang Dong. But the strands formed by the Lan sisters' martial soul fusion skill, Heavenly Net, were simply too tough. Even Wang Dong's soul skill, Wing Guillotine, could not cut them apart, much less the thorns controlled by Yao Shi.

Fortunately, the countless barbs on the thorns caught the encroaching hair, opening a gap in the Heavenly Net.

"Wang Dong, get back now!"

Seeing that the hair caught on the thorns was still slowly closing in, Yao Shi hurriedly switched Wang Dong back.

Wang Dong had reacted by then. Hearing Yao Shi's shout, she immediately flew through the gradually shrinking gap and returned to the team's original position.

"Thanks, Yao Shi. Without you, I almost went down."

After returning to the team, Wang Dong panted heavily. Constantly using soul skills to fend off the hair had clearly drained her greatly. If Yao Shi's summoned thorns had not arrived in time, she might really have been eliminated by the twins.

"Ah, what a pity. We didn't manage to take out their assault-type fighter."

Seeing that the Lan sisters had collapsed unconscious on the ground from the massive expenditure of using their martial soul fusion skill, yet had failed to take Wang Dong with them, Huang Chutian felt somewhat regretful.

"Still, he should have used up a lot too and probably can't act anymore. Two support types for one assault type—this trade isn't a loss."

"They only have one support and one control type left. One against two, the advantage is mine."

Seeing that Wang Dong had also dropped to one knee from excessive exhaustion, Huang Chutian regained his confidence.

Just as he was thinking this, he saw Yao Shi raise a hand and place it on Wang Dong's back. A vast surge of energy poured forth, instantly restoring what she had just expended. Wang Dong immediately became full of vigor again.

Seeing this, Huang Chutian cursed inwardly, Bro, this is cheating.

What a joke. Did it count as cheating if no one was regulating it?

Watching the three of them across from him look completely unspent and ready to gang up on him three against one, staring at him like tigers eyeing prey, Huang Chutian panicked.

"What's so impressive about three against one? If you've got the guts, come out and fight me one-on-one!"

Yao Shi chuckled. "Bro, times have changed. If we can gang up on you, why bother fighting one-on-one?"

As soon as Yao Shi finished speaking, Huang Chutian heard creepy little "heh heh heh" laughs from the other side, and then...

"Thorn Pierce!"

"Butterfly God's Light!"

"Cauldron's Swing!"

Watching several dazzling attacks fly toward him, Huang Chutian saw a phantom appear before his eyes, beckoning to him.

"G-great-grandma, aren't you dead? Why are you suddenly here?"

The phantom did not answer and gradually faded away. What greeted him instead were the attacks of Yao Shi's trio. With a deafening boom, smoke filled the air, and Huang Chutian was blasted out of the arena.

Fortunately, in his martial soul possession state, Huang Chutian was thick-skinned and tough-bodied. Being blown away only caused his martial soul possession to dissipate, leaving him unconscious.

At the side of the arena, Wang Yan's eyes widened as he stared at the scene before him in disbelief. First, he had been stunned by the Lan sisters' martial soul fusion skill, and then by Yao Shi's miraculous recovery method.

In the previous matches, Yao Shi had always used vines, so Wang Yan had assumed his martial soul was some kind of vine. But now, he saw Yao Shi simply raise a hand and instantly restore the soul power his teammate had expended.

Wang Yan felt rather frustrated, inwardly curious. What exactly is your martial soul, possessing control, offense, and recovery abilities all in one?

"Teacher, shouldn't you announce the result?"

Wang Yan was still thinking about the match and had clearly forgotten to announce the assessment result. Hearing Yao Shi's words, he came back to himself and hurriedly said, "Yao Shi's team wins."

As he spoke, Wang Yan stepped forward, intending to carry the unconscious Lan sisters off the stage after their soul power had been exhausted. Before he could act, Yao Shi tossed two green balls of light toward them. The light entered their bodies, instantly restoring them to full condition. They slowly woke up and thanked Yao Shi.

Wang Yan was dumbfounded.

Was this student's recovery ability being handed out wholesale? How could he cast it so casually, with no backlash and no cost?

"Hey, sis, give me one too."

Huang Chutian had also woken up by then. Seeing what Yao Shi had done, he hurriedly called out to him. Clearly, he had mistaken Yao Shi for a girl as well.

Hearing that, Yao Shi glanced at him. "Call me Dad."

"Dad."

Yao Shi's eyelid twitched.

Impressive. No shame at all.

Without saying anything else, Yao Shi casually tossed another ball of light toward Huang Chutian.

The ball of light sank into his body, and he let out a muffled groan, his expression twisting in discomfort.

"Thanks, Dad."

The scene immediately became awkward. Yao Shi and the other two ignored him and quickly left the assessment area. He was afraid that if they stayed any longer, that guy might actually get off on it.

The Lan sisters also covered their faces in embarrassment, as though they were saying that this guy was not their teammate.

The assessments continued in an orderly manner afterward. Under Yao Shi's leadership, their team kept winning all the way through. The only troublesome team had been Ning Tian's: one support-type Soul Elder and two Grand Soul Masters. The Seven Treasure Glazed Pagoda's amplification was indeed powerful. If not for Yao Shi's rapid recovery ability, and if both sides had been dragged into a war of attrition, Xiao Xiao and Wang Dong alone truly would not have been able to handle them.

Soon, the freshman assessment entered the finals. At the same time, this was the final match that would determine the champion of the freshman assessment. Yao Shi's next opponent was Dai Huabin.

At the moment of the finals, not only the students but nearly all the teachers of the outer academy had gathered in the assessment area to watch. Even Shrek Academy's current headmaster had come personally.

"Dean Yan, which of these two teams do you think has the better chance of becoming champion?"

As the two teams stepped onto the arena, Du Weilun spoke to Yan Shaozhe beside him.

Hearing this, Yan Shaozhe looked at the two teams onstage and smiled. "I still favor Dai Huabin's side. Although the other team has also won every match, Dai Huabin's team is clearly stronger overall."

"But the other team is from Zhang Lexuan's class. With her level of instruction, their strength surely won't be much worse than Dai Huabin's team, will it?"

"Oh? This team was actually trained by that child Lexuan?"

Hearing Du Weilun's words, Yan Shaozhe was somewhat surprised, but his gaze soon dimmed.

"Alas, if that incident had not happened, she might still be cultivating peacefully in the inner academy instead of being sent to the outer academy by Elder Xuan to recuperate."

He sighed regretfully before continuing his assessment. "Although they were trained by Lexuan, so their strength cannot be weak, the gap in their martial souls is still not something they can make up for."

"Wang Dong's martial soul is unique even within Shrek, and it has some potential. Xiao Xiao's mutated cauldron-type martial soul also has fairly good development potential."

"As for that Yao Shi..."

Yan Shaozhe paused before continuing, "If I remember correctly, his records say that his martial soul is a tree branch, right? A tree branch martial soul that contains so much life force yet can only summon vines is ultimately somewhat inferior."

Because the previous assessments had all been conducted separately, teachers above the rank of department head had only come here to watch the finals. Furthermore, Yao Shi had not used his recovery methods during the semifinals and had only used vines to assist, so they had assumed that his tree branch martial soul could merely summon vines.

Yan Shaozhe continued, "On the other hand, Dai Huabin is a Soul Elder, and both he and his teammates possess top-tier beast martial souls. And don't forget, the Dai Clan and Zhu Clan also have a martial soul fusion skill, practically an invincible existence below the Soul Ancestor rank."

Du Weilun chuckled. "Haha, Dean Yan, our ancestor Tang San was able to become a god with the Blue Silver Grass martial soul. Perhaps Yao Shi might become a god through vines too."

Yan Shaozhe merely smiled faintly. "Director Du, ancestor Tang San did not become a god solely through the Blue Silver Grass martial soul. Don't forget that he had twin martial souls. Surely you don't think that child onstage has them too?"

Du Weilun had just been about to continue when he heard the broadcast calling for the referee to take the stage, so he stopped.

Yan Shaozhe waved a hand and smiled. "All right, Weilun. We can discuss the rest later. Go down and oversee the match first."