Ma Rulong's Thoughts

"All right, enough nonsense. Before coming to find you, I already notified Xiao and the others to gather everyone. Now come with me to the Soul Arena."

After saying that, Jing Hongchen led Huo Yuhao out of the dormitory.

Soul Arena.

Ma Rulong stood with his arms crossed, watching Xiao Hongchen in the distance. He asked, "Xiao Hongchen, is the Hall Master really going to make a Soul Grandmaster a reserve team member? Although we regular members will be the main force in this Soul Duel Tournament, suddenly adding a Soul Grandmaster is far too strange. Even if Huo Yuhao broke your records one after another, his current strength is still insufficient."

At the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy, Ma Rulong was the captain of the regular team participating in this tournament.

Naturally, he placed great importance on whether they could defeat Shrek Academy. In his view, every team member had to be a carefully selected elite.

It was not that he thought Huo Yuhao was not an elite. It was simply that, although this elite possessed immense potential, he was still only a Soul Grandmaster and had yet to mature. Thus, Ma Rulong was utterly baffled by Jing Hongchen's decision to directly insert a Soul Grandmaster into the team.

"You're asking me? Who am I supposed to ask? I only heard Grandpa say that Huo Yuhao's soul skill is very powerful." Xiao Hongchen was also rather helpless. "But the problem is, no matter how powerful his soul skill is, Huo Yuhao is still just a Soul Grandmaster! Oh, and by the way, I, the reserve team captain, am already a Soul King—and a Fifth Level Soul Engineer!"

Some time ago, he had become a Soul King and a Fifth Level Soul Engineer. For Xiao Hongchen, the confidence that Huo Yuhao had once dealt a slight blow to had now swelled back up again.

The corner of Ma Rulong's mouth twitched. I'm asking about Huo Yuhao. Who asked about you? Could I possibly not know your situation?

He felt that Xiao Hongchen's current state was like those people who caught a fish and then went around showing it off everywhere.

Ma Rulong took a deep breath and said, "In any case, I am responsible for the honor of the empire and the academy. If Huo Yuhao fails to satisfy me later, then even if I have to defy the Hall Master, I will stop him from competing. We desperately need a championship to prove ourselves."

Meng Hongchen, standing nearby, said, "Senior Ma, Huo Yuhao's First Soul Skill is very powerful. I think that although he cannot be a regular team member at the moment, there is definitely no problem with him being a reserve."

She had experienced Huo Yuhao's Mental Detection Sharing and knew just how much that kind of soul skill could improve a team.

"Oh?" Ma Rulong looked at Meng Hongchen in surprise. "Really?"

"Of course it's true." Meng Hongchen nodded vigorously, then said with a smile, "Senior Ma, once you experience it later, you'll understand. Huo Yuhao is actually very impressive!"

Xiao Hongchen stared fixedly at Meng Hongchen and asked somewhat nervously, "Impressive? How impressive? Meng, did you secretly do something with Huo Yuhao behind my back?"

Meng Hongchen immediately said, "Xiao, I only experienced his soul skill!"

Xiao Hongchen let out a breath of relief. So she had only experienced his soul skill. He had thought the two of them had done something.

Ma Rulong said, "Meng Hongchen, no matter what you say, seeing is believing and hearing is not. I still need to assess Huo Yuhao. Generally speaking, the First Soul Ring of a genius soul engineer like him is a hundred-year soul ring. How powerful can a First Soul Skill granted by a hundred-year soul ring be?"

In Ma Rulong's view, under normal circumstances, most soul rings capable of granting powerful soul skills were ten-thousand-year soul rings or Hundred Thousand Year Soul Rings.

Meng Hongchen froze for a moment. "But his First Soul Ring is a ten-year soul ring."

Ma Rulong: ???

"What kind of joke is that? Even if a ten-year soul ring's soul skill mutated, Huo Yuhao's First Soul Skill shouldn't be particularly powerful." Ma Rulong was somewhat helpless.

At that moment, two figures suddenly appeared in the sky.

Jing Hongchen descended with Huo Yuhao, then looked cheerfully at everyone and said, "Looks like everyone is here."

"Dean!"

"Hall Master!"

"Grandpa!"

Everyone called out in turn.

Jing Hongchen nodded and patted Huo Yuhao on the shoulder. "All right, let me introduce him to everyone. This is the genius soul engineer, Huo Yuhao. I believe you've all heard of him already. From today onward, you will be teammates."

"Wait, Hall Master. May I first get a sense of Junior Yuhao's strength? As captain, I must be responsible for the honor of the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy!" Ma Rulong asked.

Jing Hongchen narrowed his eyes slightly. "Get a sense of his strength? Fine. But Huo Yuhao is only a Soul Grandmaster right now. Ma Rulong, as a Soul Emperor, you aren't thinking of bullying the weak with your strength, are you? How about this? Yuhao, Xiao, and Meng will form a team. You pick two more teammates, and then you can have a three-on-three match."

He did this out of selfish motives as well. After all, Xiao Hongchen and Meng Hongchen were his grandchildren, and he naturally hoped that his grandson and granddaughter could get along well with Huo Yuhao.

Therefore, he arranged for the two of them to be on the same team as Huo Yuhao. As for Ma Rulong, this man was indeed from Mingde Hall and could be considered one of the people under him as Hall Master.

However, in terms of closeness, Ma Rulong could not compare to his own grandson, granddaughter, and Huo Yuhao. After all, he was still hoping for Huo Yuhao to become his grandson-in-law!

Moreover, if Huo Yuhao did not display his strength, then even if he forcibly suppressed the matter, some people would still remain unconvinced. Of course, the main reason he did not choose a seven-on-seven format was to save time.

"Fine, I agree. What does Junior Yuhao think? Winning or losing does not really matter. This is essentially a friendly match anyway. However, I hope to see your strength during the match." Ma Rulong looked at Huo Yuhao and spoke slowly.

Huo Yuhao nodded and agreed directly. "All right, Senior Ma."

Under the worldview of Douluo Continent, many matters could be settled through competitions. Whether it was this sort of friendly match or Huo Gua challenging the Holy Spirit Cult's experts alone before the battle, they were essentially all competitions.

"Grandpa, Meng and I have a Martial Soul Fusion Skill. We're invincible under heaven. Do we really need another teammate?" Xiao Hongchen asked somewhat doubtfully.

Jing Hongchen slapped Xiao Hongchen on the head. With an unhappy expression, he shouted, "What do you know? Just do as you're told!"

"Oh! All right, Grandpa." Xiao Hongchen was somewhat unconvinced, but he did not have many relatives in this world, so he did not continue arguing.

Then Jing Hongchen looked at Huo Yuhao with a kindly expression and said gently, "Yuhao, don't be angry. Xiao, that brat, has had that rotten temper of thinking he's invincible since he was young. I spoiled him too much. I'll definitely straighten him out properly in the future! Everyone here was carefully selected and can be trusted. Besides, Ma Rulong and the others can take a beating, so you can attack with all your strength."

The implication was naturally that Huo Yuhao could use his Ultimate Ice Martial Soul without too many reservations.

Huo Yuhao looked at Jing Hongchen's kindly expression and immediately found it somewhat strange, but he still nodded. "All right, Dean. I'll go all out."