Makeshift Troupe

Abyss City.

A city on the southwestern frontier of the Heaven Dou Empire.

It was neither prosperous nor ruined.

Tough moss sprouted from the cracks in the city walls. One ear of the stone lion at the gate had weathered away, and the guards leaned against the gateframe, their heads bobbing as they dozed off.

Su Chen had chosen this place for one reason—seclusion.

If it was secluded enough, there would be no unnecessary eyes.

Without eyes, there would be no troublesome inspections.

When their group of seven emerged from the western side of the Star Dou Great Forest, they looked exactly like refugees fleeing famine: ragged clothes, bandages wrapped around their bodies, and sallow faces all around.

Iron Wall and Little Gold, the only two still full of energy, were currently in the Summoning Space.

After entering the city, Su Chen did not look for an inn.

He headed straight for a branch office of the Imperial Soul Master Administration.

Abyss City's Soul Master Administration was crammed into a two-story wooden building, squeezed between a braised beef shop and a tailor's shop, looking cramped and shabby.

The plaque above the door had long faded. In the words "Heaven Dou Empire Soul Master Administration · Abyss City Office," the lower half of the character for "Administration" had been rotted away by rainwater, making it look like the character for "summer."

Su Chen pushed the door open and entered.

Behind the counter, a slightly plump middle-aged man was frantically stamping a mountain of documents. Three buttons on his uniform had popped open.

Hearing footsteps, he spoke without looking up, his voice carrying the habitual perfunctoriness of someone who had done this for years.

"Certification is upstairs, martial soul registration is in the back courtyard, and appointments for awakening ceremonies are already booked through next month."

Su Chen's voice was calm.

"Academy registration."

The stamping paused for half a beat.

The middle-aged man finally looked up. His tiny eyes narrowed behind his lenses as he scrutinized Su Chen.

A youth, no more than thirteen or fourteen judging by his bone age, dressed in a faded outer robe with several crudely stitched patches near the hem.

Behind him stood six boys and girls of similar age.

One boy was carrying two large bags of freshly cooked braised beef in his left hand. His right arm was still suspended in bandages, clearly not yet healed.

"...Academy registration?" The middle-aged man adjusted his glasses, making sure he had heard correctly.

"Confirmed."

"Documents."

Su Chen took a stack of prepared papers from his robe and placed them on the counter.

He had spent two days forging them. The identity documents borrowed the name of a fallen noble family—one that had not produced a soul master in three generations and existed in name only. Su Chen had spent eighty gold soul coins to purchase full usage rights from an intelligence broker.

The middle-aged man picked up the documents and opened the first page.

"Academy name?"

"Sky Abyss."

"Founder?"

"Su Chen."

"Teaching staff?"

"Zero."

His pen stopped on the paper.

The middle-aged man looked up at him again.

"Zero?"

"I'll teach them myself."

The middle-aged man asked no further questions. Assuming it was merely a teenager's foolishness, he continued reading.

"Total number of enrolled students?"

"Seven."

"...Seven."

"Including me."

The middle-aged man set down his pen and vigorously rubbed his brow.

He had worked in this field for seventeen years. What absurd applications had he not seen? Someone had wanted to register an academy dedicated to teaching support-type soul masters how to dance. Someone else had wanted to open an aristocratic preparatory school that admitted only female students. There had even been an old man who wanted to register his family chicken farm as a soul beast breeding research institute.

But this sort of nested arrangement—founder, sole teacher, and one of the seven students—was something he had never encountered before.

Suppressing his irritation, he asked in an official tone, "Academy buildings and permanent teaching facilities?"

"I rented a courtyard."

"Rented?"

"A short-term lease. Three months."

"...History of operation?"

"Three days." Su Chen thought for a moment, then added seriously, "Counting from the moment I wrote down the academy's name."

The middle-aged man gently closed the documents, folded his hands, and rested them on the counter.

His expression held the particular calm forged by countless bizarre cases.

"Young man, I don't care whether someone deceived you or you're indulging in fantasies. Founding an academy is not child's play. There are one hundred and thirty-seven official soul master academies in the Heaven Dou Empire. Every year, more than eighty academies have their applications for Elite Tournament qualification rejected. Even the worst among those rejected have more than thirty students and five or six full-time teachers."

He extended a finger and pushed the stack of documents back toward Su Chen.

"I can help you submit the application, but it has a one hundred percent chance of failing review. Don't waste the twenty gold soul coins for the registration fee. Use it to buy yourselves something good to eat."

Su Chen did not take the documents.

"What are the review criteria?"

"At least five students with three rings or above, and at least one teacher holding qualifications as a soul master with four rings or above. Also, you must complete a strength verification in front of Administration officials." The middle-aged man recited it as smoothly as if reading from a textbook.

"Three rings?"

"Yes, Soul Venerable. That's the minimum threshold..."

Before he could finish—

Su Chen turned and glanced at the six people behind him.

Jiang Tieyi was laboriously tearing apart braised beef with one hand, the corners of his mouth smeared with glossy sauce.

Chu Yao stood with her arms folded against the doorframe. She gave Su Chen a slight nod, amusement gleaming in her eyes as though she were enjoying a show.

Mo Qianye stood in the farthest shadows, his hood pulled low.

Yan Wuji was wrapped in two layers of blankets like a statue. Though he was indoors, he looked as though he were still enduring the chill of the Star Dou Great Forest.

Ye Linglong's jade-green eyes swept casually over the plaques on the wall behind the counter, each one representing the rank of an existing academy in Abyss City.

Ling Shuang stood quietly at Su Chen's side without saying a word.

Su Chen turned back.

"You want a strength verification, right?"

"Yes, but you all..."

The middle-aged man's words were abruptly cut off.

Because four soul rings rose silently beneath Su Chen's feet.

Not century-old yellow.

Not millennium purple.

But abyssal black.

Silent as death.

The first ring: ten thousand years.

The second ring: ten thousand years.

The third ring: ten... thousand years.

The fourth ring: also ten thousand years!

A Four-Ring Soul Ancestor!

A thirteen- or fourteen-year-old Four-Ring Soul Ancestor!

A monster with four Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Rings!

The realization exploded in the middle-aged man's mind like thunder, leaving his entire body rigid.

Yet this was only the beginning.

Behind Su Chen, the six boys and girls who looked like refugees released their soul power at the same time.

Four black rings.

Four black rings.

Four black rings.

Four black rings.

Four black rings.

Another four black rings!

A full twenty-eight pitch-black Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Rings lit up and spun simultaneously within the cramped, dilapidated office!

The terrifying fluctuations of soul power instantly condensed into tangible shockwaves, blasting violently in every direction!

The owner of the braised beef shop next door had just poked his head inside to ask what the commotion was when the blast struck him head-on. He cried out, staggered back three steps, and fell flat onto the street.

Inside the office, papers whirled like snowflakes. An ink bottle toppled with a crash, and the various seals accumulated on the counter over seventeen years rattled loudly in a chaotic chorus.

The middle-aged man clung desperately to the edge of the desk just to remain standing.

His legs shook, not out of fear—after all, he had seen a Titled Douluo visit Abyss City—but from the absurdity and trembling shock of having everything he knew utterly overturned.

Seven people.

The oldest was fourteen, while the youngest was only twelve.

All of them were Four-Ring Soul Ancestors.

All of them possessed Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Rings!

He had sat here for seventeen years. He had seen the application forms of Heaven Dou Royal Academy and Gale Academy. Even the early registration documents of Shrek Academy had once passed through his hands.

Not a single academy had possessed such a godlike lineup from the very moment of its founding!

"The registration fee is twenty gold?"

Su Chen withdrew his soul power. The room instantly returned to calm, and his tone was so indifferent that it seemed as though nothing had happened.

The middle-aged man nodded mechanically.

Su Chen placed twenty gold soul coins on the counter, arranging them neatly one by one.

"...Approved. It's approved." The middle-aged man's voice drifted as he picked up the documents again. His fingers trembled as he turned to the stamping page and shakily raised the seal.

Suddenly, he stopped.

"The academy motto... Your academy's motto hasn't been filled in yet."

Before Su Chen could speak, Jiang Tieyi's muffled voice exploded from behind him.

"Full meals!"

Chu Yao smacked the back of his head.

Su Chen fell silent for two seconds.

"From the abyss, the strong shall rise; origin matters not."

The seal slammed down heavily.

Sky Abyss Academy was officially established.

The middle-aged man handed the stamped copy to Su Chen. After hesitating again and again, he finally could not hold back and asked in a dreamlike voice, "You... are going to enter the Elite Tournament?"

Su Chen accepted the documents, folded them, and tucked them into his robe.

"Yes."

"But do you know this year's seeded teams?"

"I do."

"Heaven Dou Royal Academy, Gale Academy, and Mingdao Academy directly under Spirit Hall." The middle-aged man paused, lowering his voice as though speaking of a taboo. "And there's another one... Shrek."

"Shrek Academy." When he spoke the name, there was a trace of reverence in his voice. "Their lineup this year is said to be their strongest in twenty years. The boy leading them is named Tang San... Rumor has it that he possesses twin martial souls."

"Mm."

Su Chen's reply was only one word.

The middle-aged man opened his mouth, but in the end, swallowed all the words he had wanted to say.

The seven of them turned and walked out of the office.

The door closed behind them.

The middle-aged man sat alone amid the mess, staring blankly at the documents scattered across the floor for a long time.

Then he abruptly pulled open a drawer and took out a sheet of special express stationery bearing a distinctive mark.

Recipient: Heaven Dou Empire Capital · Soul Master Administrative General Office · Advanced Soul Master Academy Elite Tournament Organizing Committee.

"Report: A newly registered academy in Abyss City has applied to participate in this year's All-Continent Elite Tournament. Academy name: Sky Abyss. Total students: seven."

He wrote to this point, paused, then used all his strength to add a private note at the bottom of the letter.

"Please, pay, close, attention."

--

On the street.

Jiang Tieyi chewed the last bite of braised beef, then contentedly wiped the grease from his left hand onto his pants.

"Boss, that academy motto of yours was way too refined."

"Would 'full meals' be better?"

"At least it's practical!"

Chu Yao rolled her eyes. "In the entire continent, only you could turn a soul master academy's motto into a cafeteria slogan."

Yan Wuji walked at the back, wrapped in blankets, and added expressionlessly.

"Better call it the 'Sky Abyss Feeding Grounds.'"

"You—"

Laughter echoed along Abyss City's narrow streets.

The setting sun stretched the seven youths' shadows long, laying them diagonally across the ancient bluestone road.

Behind them stood no grand school buildings, no revered teachers, and certainly no long legacy of history.

Yet three months later, the entire continent would remember this name.

—Sky Abyss.

A thousand miles away, in the imperial capital of the Heaven Dou Empire.

Shrek Academy's temporary residence.

A young man in a bamboo hat sat by the window, a crystalline Blue Silver Grass coiled around his fingertips, its blade-like edges glinting with a sharp chill.

Spread across the table before him was an updated list of participating academies that had just arrived.

At the very bottom of the list, an additional line of fresh ink had appeared.

[Sky Abyss Academy—Abyss City—Students: Seven]

The young man's gaze lingered on that line for a moment.

"An academy with seven people..."

Tang San withdrew the Blue Silver Grass and looked out the window.

The capital's sky was vast, and the setting sun was slowly sinking beneath the silhouette of the towering city walls.

For some reason, the instant he saw the words "Sky Abyss," his body—tempered by the Ice-Fire Yin Yang Well—felt an almost imperceptible chill rising from the depths of his soul.

It was not fear.

It was an instinct born of ancient bloodlines, a warning that he had encountered a worthy opponent.

Something was awakening from an unseen abyss, and it was... drawing near.