The Freshman Assessment Begins! (Please Bookmark)

The day of the freshman assessment arrived quickly.

The freshman assessment officially began that afternoon.

"Class monitor, how about we find an open space and practice a little?"

Beside him, Xiao Xiao spoke softly to Wang Dong. The battles would begin that afternoon, so they could use this free time to briefly familiarize themselves with combat.

"Hm? Practice?"

Wang Dong froze for a moment. He had never considered it. He turned to glance at Xiao Xiao, then at Huo Yuhao beside him.

"Yeah. Yuhao and I are both control-type soul masters, so we can fight you and get a basic feel for each other's soul skills."

Xiao Xiao said this, though if possible, she would have preferred to team up with the handsome Wang Dong. But if she teamed up with Wang Dong, there would be no one to spar against them. They could not exactly throw Huo Yuhao alone onto the other side for a one-against-two fight, could they? That would be far too unfair.

"You and Yuhao..."

Wang Dong looked at Huo Yuhao. It was not that he did not want to get familiar with their abilities, but he truly did not want to fight Huo Yuhao.

The two had sparred during the past three months. At first, things had been fine, with most matches ending in draws. But later on, Huo Yuhao had grown increasingly stronger, to the point where Wang Dong was having trouble holding his own.

In the end, Wang Dong had wanted to try out the ability Huo Yuhao had displayed when he entered that golden mode last time.

At the time, Wang Dong had thought, No matter what, we should be evenly matched, right? I have hidden tricks too.

But the final result had been one to nine.

One punch from Huo Yuhao, and Wang Dong had been unconscious for nine seconds.

After that, their sparring matches had all stopped at the right moment. Wang Dong did not want to take another punch.

Huo Yuhao's growth had come through the training of Xia Liang and Electrolux.

Electrolux had distilled the essence of the boxing techniques from his memories, stripping away the unnecessary and combining them into thirteen basic boxing forms, all of which he taught Huo Yuhao.

The way each form exerted force, shifts in footwork, and breathing rhythms—Electrolux taught Huo Yuhao every detail without leaving anything out.

Then, Huo Yuhao honed his proficiency and combat skills through nightly sparring matches against monsters. He had no idea how many times he had been revived.

Under such intense combat conditions, his strength naturally improved far faster than Wang Dong's, who had lived the pampered life of a young master.

"I'm support."

Huo Yuhao answered. At present, only Wang Dong knew about his combat strength. Though Huo Yuhao had not intended to hide it, perhaps keeping his fighting ability concealed would let him catch people off guard in battle?

"Then we can fight."

The moment Wang Dong heard Huo Yuhao say that, he knew they could do it. He was only afraid that Huo Yuhao would join the battle too. If that happened, there would be no point playing.

"Then let's give it a try."

The two then found an open space. Wang Dong spread the wings of his Radiant Goddess Butterfly and flew into the air.

A white soul ring rose behind Huo Yuhao. Xiao Xiao, with two soul rings circling around her, froze when she saw it. It really was a ten-year soul ring?

People outside had discussed it before, but Xiao Xiao had not expected it to be true.

I need to protect Yuhao properly. I can't let Wang Dong bully him.

At that moment, Wang Dong on the opposite side felt a phantom ache in his cheek when he saw Huo Yuhao's opening stance.

You're playing support this time, so you can't hit me, okay?

Wang Dong snorted inwardly. His wings fluttered slightly, and a ring of pale blue soul power ripples spread out from beneath his feet.

He planned to show Huo Yuhao just how dominant he was among other soul masters. Without Huo Yuhao's monstrous close-combat ability, facing one two-ring soul master and one one-ring soul master was practically a dimensionality-reduction strike.

The final result was naturally Wang Dong's victory. After all, even with Huo Yuhao's support, Xiao Xiao's strength could not surpass Wang Dong's.

However, throughout the entire battle, Wang Dong had not tried to take out Huo Yuhao, the support. This discovery left Xiao Xiao rather confused.

Wasn't the support supposed to be targeted first in a fight?

While the three rested briefly, Xia Liang, inside the sea of consciousness, sensed something unusual in Xiao Xiao's Three Lives Soul-Calming Cauldron martial soul.

"This cauldron..."

What was wrong?

Tianmeng moved closer. He found Xia Liang's behavior rather strange.

"Nothing."

Xia Liang shook his head, but inwardly, he remained puzzled. He had actually sensed a faint fluctuation of fate within the Three Lives Soul-Calming Cauldron.

No wonder it was a national treasure?

In ancient legends, cauldrons symbolized the suppression of mountains and rivers and the gathering of fortune. Though the Three Lives Soul-Calming Cauldron was still low-grade, its essence stemmed from this ancient type of weapon martial soul, and it had thus been touched by a trace of the world's destiny.

Xia Liang had read plenty of fanfiction as well. If not for Huo Yuhao's cheat-like fortune, then Xiao Xiao would surely have been the protagonist of this era.

All he could say was that those around a protagonist never lacked fortune.

That afternoon, Huo Yuhao's team began their first assessment in Area Thirty-Three.

As expected, their first opponents were easily dealt with by Wang Dong.

"This Huo Yuhao team is quite strong. They should be able to take first place in this area, but I wonder how they would fare against Huang Chutian's team."

The assessment teacher, Wang Yan, watched Huo Yuhao and the others on the stage from a short distance away. He had already formed some preliminary judgments about this team's strength.

After several days of assessments, Huo Yuhao and the others finally encountered something they had not anticipated.

Martial soul fusion skill—Heavenly Net!

However, although martial soul fusion skills were powerful, Huo Yuhao still instantly defeated it. With his current spiritual power, he could easily interrupt the Lan sisters' martial soul fusion.

Just when everyone thought Huo Yuhao's team was about to lose, the Lan sisters collapsed to the ground. In the end, Huo Yuhao's team won without any real danger.

"Huo Yuhao's team wins!"

After the match, Huo Yuhao's team was asked to stay behind.

"Huo Yuhao, I'd like to ask you something. What is your martial soul?"

The person who kept Huo Yuhao's team behind was naturally Wang Yan. He could not help it—he was simply too interested in Huo Yuhao's martial soul.

After observing Huo Yuhao's matches for so long, Wang Yan found that even with all his experience, he could not tell what Huo Yuhao's martial soul actually was.

Naturally, Huo Yuhao had no need to keep his martial soul secret.

"My martial soul is my eyes."

"Eyes?!"

Upon hearing the word "eyes," Wang Yan gripped Huo Yuhao's shoulders tightly with both hands.

"Your martial soul is your eyes?"

"That's right."

Huo Yuhao was confused. Why did Teacher Wang Yan look so excited?

Wang Yan took a deep breath and asked a crucial question.

"Are you from the Body Sect?"

Hearing "Body Sect," Huo Yuhao shook his head blankly and asked in confusion, "The Body Sect? Teacher Wang, I've never heard of it."

"It's good that you're not. It's good that you're not."

Hearing that Huo Yuhao was not from the Body Sect, Wang Yan became even happier.

"Excellent, this is wonderful. No wonder you only have a ten-year soul ring, yet the soul skill it provides is so effective. So you have a body martial soul. What a pity—if you had come to the academy earlier, I would have helped you obtain a first soul ring at the maximum possible age no matter what."

Once Wang Yan learned that Huo Yuhao possessed a body martial soul, many of his questions were immediately answered.

"Alright, go back and rest. Compete well!"

"Brother Xia Liang, what is the Body Sect?"

On the way back, Huo Yuhao asked Xia Liang.

The Body Sect—did it consist entirely of body martial souls?

"A sect made up entirely of body martial souls. Their creed is that all soul masters with body martial souls under heaven are one family."

"However, they act tyrannically. Once, in order to hunt a hundred-thousand-year soul beast, they entered the Star Dou Forest and triggered a beast tide."

The Body Sect truly treated its own people well, but their actions were excessively domineering and reckless. No one knew how many innocent people had been harmed by the beast tide they caused.

"A beast tide?"

Although Huo Yuhao had no impression of the beast tide Xia Liang mentioned, since it involved a hundred-thousand-year soul beast, its tragedy was already beyond what he could imagine.

"Someday, we need to visit the Body Sect."

Xia Liang said this because he wanted to study the Body Sect's records on body martial souls, their second awakenings, and the secrets of the body.