First Training

Compared to Class Five, Class One's assessment method for new students could only be described as far less intense, though it looked much more proper.

The day after the candidates were selected, Ye Yingluo directly took Lin Yu and the other two out of Eastsea Academy. Outside the academy, she rented a place similar to a Soul Arena.

Three second-year students came along with Lin Yu's group. Apparently, they had once been Ye Yingluo's students and had been dragged over as volunteers.

There was some mismatch between the second-year and first-year schedules, so what Ye Yingluo was doing did not really count as an abuse of authority.

Still, from the standpoint of fairness, even if they were the top three first-years, facing second-years of middling strength directly was generally not low-intensity training.

That was, if Lin Yu, a Soul Elder-level player, had not been carrying them.

During the Dragon King era, Soul Masters' overall strength had become heavily polarized. High-level Soul Masters relied on Battle Armor to form an entirely new combat system, allowing them to surpass the high-level Soul Masters of ten thousand years ago. But low-level Soul Masters, especially those who had yet to come into contact with Battle Armor, had been severely weakened in every practical sense.

During the eras of Soul Land One and Soul Land Two, three one-ring non-support-type Battle Soul Masters would never have been unable to break through a two-ring Soul Master's defense. Yet in the Soul Land Three era, before acquiring Battle Armor, a Soul Master's rank determined everything.

Thus, this sparring match became extremely dramatic. Wang Jinxi and Zhang Yangzi fought a second-year Soul Elder on equal footing, while the two second-year Great Soul Masters found themselves equally unable to break Lin Yu's defenses.

Lin Yu truly did not even release his soul rings. With nothing more than a pair of forging hammers, he could smash aside the attacks sent his way.

Even when the occasional attack grazed him, the soul power flowing over his body would directly knock it away.

Ye Yingluo observed Lin Yu with a slight frown. It was giving her a headache that she could not accurately judge her team's actual strength. Then, after the two teams switched opponents and Lin Yu finally faced the opposing Soul Elder—

Lin Yu finally put away his pair of forging hammers and released his Jade-Scaled Seven-Extinction Flower martial soul. Dark green vines from the Jade-Scaled Seven-Extinction Flower wound around both of his arms.

The three purple soul rings beneath his feet made Ye Yingluo's heart jolt.

Of course, Ye Yingluo recognized the Jade-Scaled Seven-Extinction Flower, the plant-type treasure recorded in ancient texts. She could not help but worry; the violent poison of this plant was simply too terrifying.

For a moment, Ye Yingluo could not be sure whether Lin Yu could properly control his poison. It would be troublesome if he truly injured the second-year students who had come to help.

Lin Yu also knew that he could not go for the kill here. He did not release the Jade-Scaled Seven-Extinction Flower's poison immediately, merely swinging the vines and lashing them toward his opponent.

This second-year student was rather interesting as well. His entire body was dark-skinned, and he stood as tall and solid as an iron tower. His martial soul was a black bear, and he attacked solely by swinging his bare palms.

As he fought and moved, Lin Yu suddenly felt as though he had returned to a certain special time.

The second-year student before him, however, was nowhere near as carefree as Lin Yu. Although Lin Yu did not deliberately activate the Jade-Scaled Seven-Extinction Flower's poison, the poisonous vines still left a numb, itchy pain wherever they struck.

They were far more stimulating than an ordinary whip soaked in cold water.

Though both were Soul Elders, their soul power endurance differed greatly. Lin Yu had not released his martial soul at the start. Only after facing this Soul Elder had he barely begun using its power, and he had not used a single soul skill.

Before this, however, the Soul Elder had repeatedly used several rounds of soul skills in order to pressure Wang Jinxi and Zhang Yangzi, while keeping his martial soul active throughout. By now, he had already consumed a considerable amount of soul power.

After all, in a straightforward two-on-two battle between two Great Soul Masters, even without using their martial soul fusion skill, Wang Jinxi and Zhang Yangzi possessed martial souls of far higher quality than the two second-year Great Soul Masters.

As a result, Wang Jinxi and Zhang Yangzi had drained some of that second-year Soul Elder's soul power, while Lin Yu was fighting with nearly full reserves. Nothing was obvious at first, but after the second-year Soul Elder unleashed all three of his soul skills at Lin Yu once more—

His lack of soul power gradually became apparent. And it was not just his soul power; his stamina was beginning to fail as well.

When the second-year Soul Elder had first been dodging Lin Yu's whip techniques, he had still put on a decent performance.

He could still make broad movements to evade Lin Yu's attacks, but later on, he could only rely on his martial soul's raw attributes to take the hits.

Even now, Lin Yu calmly flicked the vine whip in his hand, while the second-year Black Bear Soul Elder had already begun panting heavily.

Lin Yu did not press his advantage. Instead, he quietly watched the Black Bear Soul Elder, waiting for his next move.

This was not a life-or-death battle, after all. Otherwise, in the very first exchange, Lin Yu could have released poison with one hand and used any one of his three thousand-year soul skills to take down this Black Bear Soul Elder outright. There would have been no need to drag things out until now.

After Lin Yu brought his whip down from above onto the Black Bear Soul Elder's head, the sparring match finally came to an end.

The Black Bear Soul Elder stretched his limbs and said to Lin Yu, "Impressive. No wonder you have the highest soul power among this year's new students."

Lin Yu withdrew his martial soul. Clearly, the Black Bear Soul Elder had not recognized it as the Jade-Scaled Seven-Extinction Flower. In truth, that was normal. Even during the era of Soul Land Two, this martial soul had only been somewhat famous within plant-type circles.

By now, it was practically a fossil-level plant that existed only in books. Only someone under special circumstances like Lin Yu could possibly mutate such a martial soul. Ordinary people found it difficult to possess one like it, or even encounter a similar plant.

Furthermore, Lin Yu had not released any poison throughout the entire match. He had only used the vines' whipping power against his opponent, making the other party assume that his martial soul possessed only physical attack methods. Naturally, that made it even harder to determine exactly what martial soul it was.

But Lin Yu did not care about that. He had never intended to practice controlling his poison release in training like this.

Compared to fragile human sparring partners who were as brittle as paper, soul beasts in the Life Platform—whose health data had been secretly modified, with their health bars practically quantified outright—were much better suited for practicing poison control.

For Lin Yu, the only purpose of this training was to observe Wang Jinxi and Zhang Yangzi's soul skill activation speed and grasp the rhythm of their attacks, so that he could avoid disrupting each other's moves.

As for coordination, it could only be Lin Yu coordinating with Zhang Yangzi and Wang Jinxi. If he tried to coordinate his poison with them, he would only send them off together with their sparring partners.