Ugh, why were they so hard to manage...
Wang Yan looked at Class One behind him, where the atmosphere was subtly tense, and felt his temples throb.
He was a little tired, but what exhausted him even more was that he was now the only homeroom teacher for Class One. Wang Yan raised a hand and rubbed his temples. The academy had originally assigned Zhou Yi to teach alongside him, but for some reason, just before the assessment, he had suddenly been informed that Zhou Yi was being transferred back to teach third years. There had not even been an explanation.
No one had been assigned to replace her afterward, leaving Wang Yan to support Class One alone, inside and out. From class schedules to discipline, from promotion assessments to student disputes, everything fell on him.
"Yuhao, why did you come back?"
Xiao Xiao walked on Huo Yuhao's right, her eyes full of curiosity. She remembered that Huo Yuhao had clearly gone to the Soul Guidance Department before, and he had been studying quite seriously there.
"A senior family member told me to come back."
"Oh, okay."
Xiao Xiao nodded, but she was still curious about what Huo Yuhao had just said. "Was that true? You could take care of Dai Huabin in one minute?"
Huo Yuhao had not even blinked when he said it. Xiao Xiao was starting to wonder whether he really could defeat Dai Huabin within a minute.
"If I went all out, half a minute."
Huo Yuhao was not being overly confident. In his eyes, half a minute was already more than enough.
The three continued walking and soon ran into Dai Huabin's group of three nearby. Or rather, those three had approached them on their own?
"What, you want to fight now?"
Huo Yuhao stopped, his gaze meeting the angry tiger eyes opposite him.
Seeing that Huo Yuhao still did not take him seriously, rage nearly burst from Dai Huabin's eyes, but he managed to suppress it.
"The promotion assessment is about to begin. Dare to make a bet?"
Huo Yuhao raised an eyebrow. "A bet? On what?"
"Our assessment results. The stakes will be the prize from that competition."
Dai Huabin stepped half a pace forward, his eyes boring straight into Huo Yuhao's face.
That was the bet Dai Huabin proposed.
When they heard that the stake was the competition prize, Huo Yuhao and the others frowned and looked at Xiao Xiao. They had given her the competition prize back then.
"Fine."
"Fine." Xiao Xiao's voice cut in from the side, crisp and decisive, without the slightest hesitation.
It was only a hundred-year Soul Bone.
Although Xiao Xiao felt a little reluctant after saying it, she knew that this hundred-year Soul Bone was not much to her. Still, she could not help sighing inwardly. Since when had I started treating a hundred-year Soul Bone like cabbage? Just a few months ago, I thought one was already an incredible treasure.
"Then let's confirm the stakes. The prize from that competition was a hundred-year Soul Bone. If we lose, I'll give you the Soul Bone. But if you lose, I don't want your Soul Bone. I want one of your legs."
After receiving Xiao Xiao's agreement, Huo Yuhao did not hold back. He directly demanded one of Dai Huabin's legs.
Across from him, when Dai Huabin heard that the prize was actually a Soul Bone, a burning look appeared in his eyes. The White Tiger Duke's Estate did not lack Soul Bones, but a hundred-year Soul Bone was not something any soul master would casually discard. His gaze lingered on Huo Yuhao's face for a moment, and the corner of his mouth twisted into a cruel curve.
"Fine..."
"What are you doing?!"
Wang Yan's voice split through the air from the corner of the corridor. He had noticed the disturbance here earlier, sensed that something was wrong, and hurried over immediately. On the way, he had heard the stakes both sides had proposed.
In the end, under Wang Yan's forced intervention, the wager was changed to kneeling and apologizing.
As a teacher, he would not allow his students to gamble their body parts and futures!
After setting the wager, Wang Yan looked at Huo Yuhao's group and Dai Huabin's group, feeling utterly exhausted. It was clearly just the first-day promotion assessment, yet the atmosphere made it seem as if they were about to settle some personal vendetta in the arena. Raising a hand to rub the back of his neck, Wang Yan felt that he would probably lose a few more hairs.
At that moment, the deans and vice deans of both the Martial Soul Department and Soul Guidance Department were seated in the teachers' viewing area above the Beast Arena. Yan Shaozhe sat near the center, holding a cup of steaming tea, while Xian Lin'er and Qian Duoduo sat beside him. They had all come here for the same purpose.
Naturally, they had learned of the conflict and wager between the two sides.
"Is there some conflict between Yuhao and Dai Huabin?"
Xian Lin'er asked Yan Shaozhe. Huo Yuhao had previously belonged to the Martial Soul Department, so if there were any conflicts, Yan Shaozhe should have known something about them.
"It should just be the conflict from the freshman assessment back then."
Yan Shaozhe spoke. After learning that Huo Yuhao was the descendant of that Limit Douluo, he had begun investigating Huo Yuhao's experiences at Shrek Academy. He discovered that aside from meeting Dai Huabin during the freshman assessment, the two had no other grievances.
"That's good."
Hearing Yan Shaozhe say it was nothing serious, Xian Lin'er relaxed as well. She had been worried that Huo Yuhao and Dai Huabin might have some special conflict. If it was only a minor dispute, that senior probably would not need to intervene. Conflicts among the younger generation should be resolved by the younger generation themselves.
Based on Shrek's recent exchanges with Xia Liang, Xian Lin'er felt that he was not the sort to bully the young with his seniority.
"The assessment is about to begin. You will fight soul beasts face-to-face inside the Beast Arena. At the same time, you will choose the soul beasts you wish to face yourselves. Different soul beasts are worth different points, and each person's assessment requirements are different. Assault-type soul masters may need to defeat their soul beasts, while control-type soul masters will focus on controlling them and may not necessarily need to defeat them."
Wang Yan began explaining the various requirements of the assessment. After all, not every martial soul was focused on combat.
The promotion assessment was about to begin.
Dai Huabin represented Class One and entered first.
Just like in the original story, it was a thousand-year Wind Tiger.
A thousand-year soul beast was the highest-ranked soul beast in this assessment. It was worth the most points, but it was also the most dangerous. In past promotion assessments, students had chosen thousand-year soul beasts before, but without exception, they had all been core disciples of the assault type with more than three soul rings. Dai Huabin fully met those requirements.
In the end, Dai Huabin killed the thousand-year Wind Tiger and earned a high score of 145, only five points short of full marks.
"Dai Huabin, compensate the academy for the losses caused by killing the soul beast within ten days. Otherwise, the academy will strip you of your core disciple status."
That was the price Dai Huabin had to pay for killing the Wind Tiger. However, to the White Tiger Duke's Estate, a thousand-year soul beast was nothing precious.
After killing the Wind Tiger, Dai Huabin looked at Huo Yuhao in the waiting area with murderous intent in his eyes.
The two stared at each other from afar. Compared to the killing intent in Dai Huabin's gaze, Huo Yuhao's eyes were completely calm.
"My turn."
Huo Yuhao stepped forward as Class One's second participant.
"I choose a thousand-year soul beast."
"A thousand-year one?"
The referee teacher frowned, his recording pen pausing in midair. Just as he was about to say something, a voice reached his ear.
"Let him choose."
Hearing the familiar voice, the referee teacher froze slightly before recognizing its owner. From the corner of his eye, he glanced toward the elevated teachers' viewing area. Yan Shaozhe was holding his teacup and looking toward the arena, his expression unchanged.
Since the dean had spoken, there was nothing the referee teacher could do. He could only offer a brief reminder. After all, the student before him only had two soul rings in cultivation.
"In close combat, even if we want to rescue you, it will take time. If you can't hold on, make sure to say so in advance."
"Mm."
Huo Yuhao nodded and walked toward the assessment area.
Just like in the original story, it was that Flame Lion King. However, in Huo Yuhao's current eyes, it was merely a little cat that could breathe fire.
The instant the Flame Lion King saw Huo Yuhao, it charged straight at him.
Watching the charging Flame Lion King, Huo Yuhao slightly lowered his stance and extended one hand, using the Ice Empress Soul Bone together with Gold Particle Mode on his right hand.
There were no special effects, nor did Huo Yuhao make any grand movements. With one hand, he pinned the Flame Lion King to the ground.
"Wuu..."
The Flame Lion King, more than ten feet long, was forcibly pressed down by an irresistible force. It tried to struggle, but after struggling twice, it found that the force was pressing against its skull like a mountain. The low growl in its throat turned into a wronged whimper.
It did not dare move. Soul beasts sensed levels of power more directly than humans did. It could clearly feel that if that palm pressed down even another inch, its skull would shatter.
At that moment, everyone in the stands fell into dead silence.
Only a small number of powerful people saw what Huo Yuhao had actually done, and they also discovered Huo Yuhao's second martial soul.
"You knew already?"
Yan Shaozhe looked at the two from the Soul Guidance Department opposite him, only to see that they were equally astonished.
"No."
"I'm leaving. Huo Yuhao, full marks!"
After seeing Huo Yuhao's martial soul, Yan Shaozhe was immensely excited. When Huo Yuhao had been in the Martial Soul Department before, Yan Shaozhe had merely been normally pleased. But the current Huo Yuhao made him excited!
Ma Xiaotao was finally saved!
By then, the crowd below had already erupted in excitement.
"Full marks?!"
Wang Yan stared at Huo Yuhao's perfect score, too shocked to speak. However, he then looked worriedly toward his class.
"Dai Huabin, do you remember the wager?"
Huo Yuhao's group walked over to Dai Huabin's group of three.
Do you remember the wager?!
Those words pierced straight into Dai Huabin's heart. The son of the White Tiger Duke! The heir to the White Tiger Duke's Estate! The most talented member of the White Tiger Duke's Estate in years!
With so many honors surrounding him, Dai Huabin was undoubtedly proud. But did he truly have the courage to endure defeat?
Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. Dai Huabin looked at the people around him. Nearly everyone had heard the wager between him and Huo Yuhao, and Wang Yan had witnessed it as well...
"I... was wrong!"
Huo Yuhao coldly glanced at the kneeling Dai Huabin. He felt completely refreshed, then turned and walked away. This was only the first step...
Come to think of it, someone would come to ambush Yuhao in a few days, right? Perfect. I'll take him to the White Tiger Duke's Estate for a visit.
Xia Liang recalled Dai Huabin's ambush against Huo Yuhao in the original story. Back then, the White Tiger Duke's Estate had not paid much of a price.
But this time was different... Huo Yuhao no longer had only those old, weak, sick, and disabled people from the original story behind him.
Perfect. They could collect a little interest from the White Tiger Duke's Estate.
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