First Encounter with Tang Wulin

"All right, your sparring ends here. Come gather over here." As Lin Yu and the Black Bear Soul Elder were more or less deciding the victor, Ye Yingluo clapped her hands, then raised her left hand to signal the six of them to gather.

She first sent the three second-years off to rest, then looked at Lin Yu and the other two. "For your first time working together, that was pretty good. Your formation was a little scattered, but it was enough for a newly promoted class's sparring session. After all, in the best-case scenario, your opponents would only be Class Two."

A smile appeared on Ye Yingluo's face. She was clearly very satisfied with the results of this joint sparring exercise, but immediately afterward, she turned to Lin Yu.

"The only thing you need to watch out for is this, Lin Yu: poison-type control has always been subject to extremely strict standards in academy sparring. Even I can't easily judge this for you, so you'll have to make a thorough assessment of the power of your own poison. After all, attacks from poison-type Soul Masters often cause irreversible damage."

"So, make sure you control the extent of it during the promotion matches. Only you can judge that for yourself."

Lin Yu nodded. He had never placed much hope in Eastsea Intermediate Soul Master Academy, which had yet to show its true capabilities.

Poison attributes were inherently difficult to control. It was hard to assign a fixed standard of power to a cloud of poison. At most, one could roughly estimate its range of power based on soul power, and even that method could often only determine its lower limit.

Yet the destructive power of poison depended most importantly on its upper limit. As for just how powerful that upper limit was, one could only test it with a life. Naturally, that was unacceptable for a Soul Master academy like Eastsea Academy.

After all, every student here was at least a rank-ten Soul Master. In the Federation, they could all be considered potential resources.

If several of them died in a small academy event like the promotion matches, their dean would not be able to keep his job.

Seeing Lin Yu nod, Ye Yingluo revealed a smile. She then called the six of them onto the vehicle. Rather than returning directly to Eastsea Academy, she first took them to a high-end restaurant in Eastsea City for a meal, mainly to thank the second-year students for using their rest time to help train her students. Lin Yu and the others had merely benefited from it.

By the time they returned to Eastsea Academy, it was already time for afternoon classes to end. Ye Yingluo briefly went back to manage the class, while Lin Yu and the others were simply let go.

From then on, the contrast between First-Year Class One and Class Five became rather interesting.

The training group of First-Year Class Five worked harder than Class One's students, while Lin Yu and the others, as reserve members of First-Year Class One, actually lived at an even more relaxed pace than the Class One students.

They trained once every other afternoon or so, facing all kinds of opponents. Their average strength was at the two-ring level and above rank twenty-five.

For Zhang Yangzi and Wang Jinxi, this was still a challenge, but when Lin Yu faced opponents like these, they usually could not even force him to use a soul skill.

On a rest day, Lin Yu followed the map he had bought to the Eastsea Forging Masters Association, intending to rent a forging room. Forging Masters Association rank certifications were recognized across the continent, so naturally he did not need to retake the test for a third-rank forging master certification.

When Cen Yue received Lin Yu and saw the third-rank badge in his hand, he was slightly stunned. Later, Mu Chen, the president of the Forging Masters Association, also came specifically to meet Lin Yu.

However, when Lin Yu said that he had trained under the Qi Sect, Mu Chen's enthusiasm faded somewhat. He merely smiled at Lin Yu, then patted him on the shoulder. "Your teacher truly is a very capable man. But while following him, it's fine to learn his skills. It would be best not to learn how he conducts himself."

Lin Yu found those words rather baffling. Just as he was about to ask about them, he heard the clanging sounds of forging coming from the room next door.

Judging from the rhythm, Lin Yu could roughly tell that the other party was at the Hundred Refinements level and was carrying out Hundred Refinements forging.

By the forging principles of his previous life, this was no easy task. But in this world, Hundred Refinements and Thousand Refinements sounded somewhat different starting from the very first hammer strike. The general principle was that the degree of purification differed, so the methods required also differed.

Someone with a slightly higher level of skill in Thousand Refinements could clearly hear the difference between the sounds of a second-rank forging master performing Hundred Refinements and those of someone at the same level performing Thousand Refinements.

Seeing Lin Yu turn his attention toward the forging room next door, Mu Chen smiled. "The one forging in there is a kid about your age. He seems to be around half a year younger than you, and he's very talented."

Lin Yu narrowed his eyes, then asked Mu Chen, "Is his name Tang Wulin?"

Mu Chen was visibly taken aback, then nodded and asked Lin Yu, "You know each other?"

Lin Yu shook his head. "No, but we're both from Eastsea Academy, and we both came from Aolai City. Back in Aolai City, we were both at Red Mountain Junior Soul Master Academy. He was already quite famous at Red Mountain Junior Academy. Bottomless Blue Silver Grass and the Strongman were his two nicknames at that academy."

Mu Chen's lips curled up as he asked curiously, "What does Bottomless Blue Silver Grass mean?"

Lin Yu explained, "His martial soul is Blue Silver Grass, and when he had his first meal, he ate enough for seventeen people by himself."

Mu Chen was stunned again. Then, with a slight twitch at the corner of his mouth, he said, "Then that nickname can't exactly be called particularly offensive."

Lin Yu nodded, then rose to his feet. "In that case, President Mu, I'll head to the forging room I rented and get to work."

Mu Chen nodded. At the same time, he took out a black card and a small soul communication device, handing them to Lin Yu. "These are benefits available to third-rank forging masters. This type of soul device is standard equipment from the association. It can connect to the association network and remotely handle simple association procedures, such as booking assessments. This card contains two million Federation credits. You can also use it to collect three standard cubic meters of metal from the association every month."

Lin Yu reached out and accepted the two items, giving Mu Chen a slight nod. At that moment, the door to the forging room next door opened with a snap.

Tang Wulin and Lin Yu met each other's eyes. Tang Wulin spoke first. "So it's you. I remember seeing you back at Red Mountain Academy."

Lin Yu nodded. "Not just at Red Mountain. We also met during Eastsea Academy's opening ceremony. You were staring at your homeroom teacher the whole time, so you didn't notice me."

At the mention of that, Tang Wulin hesitated slightly, seeming to recall Long Hengxu calling Lin Yu's name. He immediately scratched his head and smiled apologetically.