A Sudden Change, a Martial Soul Appearing Ahead of Time!

—BOOM

Dark Assault landed squarely on the Human-Faced Demon Spider, shattering its entire body as the arena let out a roar of unbearable strain.

A cloud of dust billowed up.

The moment the Human-Faced Demon Spider died,

everything vanished.

Everything in the beast arena returned to nothingness, reverting to the void-like state that had floated in empty space before.

Their bodies slowly descended and touched the ground.

Lights lit up the surroundings one after another. En Zuo pulled down his hood, blocking the sudden glare. Huo Yuhao, unaccustomed to the brightness, covered his eyes and squinted as he followed behind En Zuo.

Huo Yuhao felt somewhat ashamed about the battle just now. He felt as though he had been no help at all. A single Spiritual Shock had nearly drained all his spiritual power.

"Brother Sky Dream, am I... too useless?" Huo Yuhao asked dejectedly.

"Yuhao, what nonsense are you talking about?" Sky Dream Ice Silkworm said unhappily, pointing at Elex, who had yet to awaken in the Sea of Spirits. "That undead holy mage from another world will become your teacher in the future. Even I am your wisdom soul ring. I won't allow you to call yourself useless."

Shen Qiu appeared before them once more, but his expression was now one of disbelief.

He had never expected Headmaster En Ci's disciple to be so fierce. He had heard long ago that En Zuo's first three soul rings were all ten-thousand-year configurations, but seeing him kill a four-thousand-year Human-Faced Demon Spider with absolute dominance in actual combat was another matter entirely.

That was a four-thousand-year Human-Faced Demon Spider!

If Shen Qiu had possessed only three rings and lacked the aid of a battle armor, he would have long since become a soul beneath the Human-Faced Demon Spider's feet.

There would have been no chance of victory at all.

No wonder En Ci had called him one of the dazzling twin stars alongside Long Yue, one of the two greatest monsters in Monster Academy today.

As for Huo Yuhao's performance, it could only be described as decent. Any other soul master would have achieved much the same result.

This had been entirely En Zuo's personal show.

"You are both outstanding. In the future, you will become the pillars of Monster Academy," Shen Qiu said, offering empty words of praise to comfort the dispirited Huo Yuhao.

Although he had seen Huo Yuhao's instinctive fear when facing the Human-Faced Demon Spider through the surveillance feed, Huo Yuhao had forcibly overcome his bodily instincts. That alone was enough to prove the firmness of his will.

En Zuo, however, was completely different from Shen Qiu.

What was lacking had to be made up for. Only by compensating for one's weaknesses could one become a powerful soul master. If someone could not even face their own flaws and instead indulged in others' insincere praise, they would only become a complete waste.

But En Zuo had no intention of lecturing Huo Yuhao in front of others. That would only leave resentment in his heart. Instead, he intended to use a gentler form of comfort.

When Shen Qiu went to report the results of this training session to En Ci, En Zuo asked Huo Yuhao, "Do you know where your weakness lies now?"

"My spiritual power... is too little..." Huo Yuhao lowered his head in shame. "After using Spiritual Shock once, it was completely drained. It didn't accomplish much."

"No, you did very well in that regard." En Zuo gazed at Huo Yuhao. "You have never cultivated spiritual power before, yet the force of your Spiritual Shock was enough to make a four-thousand-year Human-Faced Demon Spider temporarily lose control of its body."

"You poured all your spiritual power into one attack and fought with your life on the line. You did nothing wrong."

"Huh?" Huo Yuhao was at a loss. Faced with such undisguised praise, he always felt too embarrassed to accept it.

En Zuo said earnestly, "Yuhao, you have not truly recognized your own shortcomings."

"Your Spirit Eyes martial soul grants you incomparable scouting ability and an enhancement to spiritual power. But in your first few soul rings, you have too few offensive and even defensive methods. It is difficult for you to shed the title of an auxiliary soul master. Right now, what you lack is a powerful beast martial soul, as well as sufficient soul power to complement it."

"Soul power cultivation requires time to accumulate. There is no need to rush."

The words that followed were transmitted directly into Huo Yuhao's Sea of Spirits through spiritual power.

"When your soul power reaches level twenty, you can obtain your second martial soul. It will be the Ice Empress Scorpion, Ultimate Ice, that you saw in that fragment of the future."

"The sacrifice of the Ice Empress Scorpion in the Far North will bring comprehensive, ultimate improvement. Only after completing that ritual will you truly be qualified to set foot upon the peak."

How could Huo Yuhao not know these things? Yet instinctively, he had been avoiding that future.

That was Dai Yuhao's future. Huo Yuhao did not want to keep living in Dai Yuhao's shadow. Dai Yuhao's second and third martial souls had practically become the markers that distinguished him from Dai Yuhao.

When he had first arrived in this era, he had relived that horrifying scene every moment of every day. If he had not suffered so many devastating blows since childhood, he would have driven himself mad by now.

Now, he had thought he had long since let it go.

But when En Zuo brought up even the slightest related trigger, Huo Yuhao could no longer suppress the hatred in his heart. He hated the White Tiger Duke's Estate, and he hated Dai Yuhao even more.

"You should not fear that power. Since you can use it to establish the Spirit Pagoda, which will stand firm for ten thousand years, you can also use it to destroy the White Tiger Duke's Estate."

En Zuo saw Huo Yuhao's struggle and did his best to ease the knot in his heart. "That is a fated opportunity that belongs to you. No one can take it away."

"Take back the opportunity that belongs to you. Cultivate your soul power step by step, defeat Shrek in four years, and claim the championship of the All-Continent Young Elite Soul Master Tournament."

"Prove that you are qualified to take revenge on the White Tiger Duke's Estate." A breeze lifted his hood, revealing En Zuo's pale face beneath its brim. "Use this power to prove... that Dai Yuhao was wrong."

"Isn't that what you truly want?!"

"What exactly are you hesitating over? Tell me what confuses your heart."

That's right, what am I hesitating over...

Huo Yuhao's lively eyes turned red, like a vicious beast ready to devour someone. His voice was hoarse, yet firm and resolute. "I... I will never let that scene become reality."

The next moment, Huo Yuhao's body trembled. The pale red in his eyes turned into... gray, filled with the aura of death...

Even his Sea of Spirits turned gray, and the formerly dormant grayish-white bead vanished into the Sea of Spirits.

"Hatred will blind your eyes." An aged voice echoed through Huo Yuhao's Sea of Spirits.

When En Zuo saw the change in Huo Yuhao's eyes, how could someone familiar with the plot not know the source of the mutation occurring within him?

Elex had awakened.

En Zuo was relieved as well.

Without Elex, Huo Yuhao would race uncontrollably down the path of losing control, hurting both others and himself. But if Elex guided Huo Yuhao's hatred,

then it would become a controllable fuse.

En Zuo stood where he was, quietly waiting for Huo Yuhao and the final result.

According to the plot he knew, the gray in Huo Yuhao's eyes should have dispersed first...

But En Zuo was shocked to discover that a clear tear had somehow slipped from the corner of Huo Yuhao's eye, while his entire body radiated an icy, deathly stillness.

A gray soul ring rose from beneath his feet, and a faint phantom appeared behind Huo Yuhao.

That was...

En Zuo stared fixedly at the martial soul that should not have appeared at this moment, suppressing the shock in his heart.

"Holy Necromancer God, Calamity of the Undead, Elex!"