Observation and Analysis

As soon as he left the Balak City Auction House, Lin Yuan turned into an empty alley, shed his disguise, and transformed into an ordinary young genius Soul Master.

That afternoon.

Lin Yuan hurried over a hundred li to Suotuo City.

First, he rented a room with a balcony, took out the flowerpot he had brought with him for burying the Heavenly Vial, and placed it on the balcony to collect Green Liquid.

Then he filled a tub with ice water and took out the three pieces of Millennium Whale Rubber he had bought at a high price.

The Supreme Sacred Heaven and Earth Technique circulated within him, and blue flames rose from his right hand. Lin Yuan grabbed one piece of Whale Rubber and quickly roasted it with the flames.

Before long, the Millennium Whale Rubber melted.

Lin Yuan swallowed the first piece in a few quick bites, then sat cross-legged in the ice water to refine it.

Once he finished refining it, he took out the second piece... and repeated the process.

When Lin Yuan finished refining all three pieces of Millennium Whale Rubber, he clearly felt that his constitution had improved tremendously.

Leaving aside the enhancement his second Soul Ring provided him.

If he had previously only been able to withstand a Soul Ring of one thousand or fifteen hundred years, then he could now withstand one of at least three thousand years.

By then, he had already spent a full day and two nights in his hotel room.

It happened to be the day registration opened for Suotuo City Intermediate Soul Master Academy.

Relying on his twenty-fourth-level Soul Power and powerful mutated Martial Soul, Thunder Bamboo, Lin Yuan, under the alias Lan Si, not only successfully entered Suotuo City Intermediate Soul Master Academy.

He also obtained numerous benefits, such as exemption from the entrance examination and a scholarship.

As it happened, today was also the day Shrek Academy recruited students.

Suotuo City Intermediate Soul Master Academy had no classes that day. After putting away his luggage, Lin Yuan simply pretended to be a student who had long admired Shrek Academy and had come to take the entrance examination, blending into the crowd.

As a result, he happened to see Dai Mubai with his right hand wrapped in bandages being refused by Li Yusong, who was in charge of registration for the first round, because he had no money to pay the registration fee. Dai Mubai looked so humiliated that he seemed ready to die of shame.

Fortunately, at the critical moment, Flender, who had an aquiline nose and wore square-framed glasses, stepped forward to resolve the situation. He promised that as long as Dai Mubai passed the entrance examination, he could pay the registration and tuition fees after receiving his future Soul Master subsidy.

Only then did Dai Mubai display his two yellow Hundred-Year Soul Rings and White Tiger Martial Soul, successfully pass the first round, and get led into Shrek Academy by Flender to take the subsequent examinations.

Lin Yuan guessed that the person secretly protecting Dai Mubai had already given them a heads-up.

That was why Flender had happened to appear there.

It was just like when Ning Rongrong entered Shrek Academy in the original story, and Ning Fengzhi had asked someone to deliver a letter to Flender.

Immediately afterward, Meng Baichuan and Meng Yiran also stepped forward.

Meng Yiran would turn thirteen in two days, so she had managed to enroll before reaching the age of thirteen.

Their Martial Souls were respectively the Dragon-Headed Cane and the Snake-Headed Cane, but their Soul Ring configurations were yellow, purple, and purple.

The moment he saw their Martial Souls and Soul Rings,

Lin Yuan could not help frowning slightly.

Earlier, when he sensed their Soul Power fluctuations, he had only made a rough assessment. Now that they had released their Soul Power, he discovered that their Soul Power was extremely high.

Meng Baichuan's Soul Power was roughly at the thirty-third level, while Meng Yiran's had reached at least the thirty-fifth level.

Such a cultivation speed was simply too bizarre.

Meng Baichuan had cultivated for only three years at most, just like him.

With innate full Soul Power at the tenth level, the first Soul Ring should increase one's Soul Power by three or four levels, the second by two or three levels, and the third by another two or three levels.

Even after subtracting the nearly twenty levels of inherent Soul Power growth, there were still thirteen or even fifteen Soul Power levels left.

An average increase of four or five Soul Power levels each year was excessively outrageous, even for a transmigrator with Innate Full Soul Power.

Meng Yiran's rate of Soul Power improvement was even more bizarre.

One had to know that in the original story, Meng Yiran had been sixteen years old—that was, three years later—when she broke through to the thirtieth level.

Her talent was not especially high.

Yet she had achieved results far beyond those in the original story three years ahead of schedule.

Even if she had eaten Whale Rubber as if it were rice, it should have been impossible.

Could she have consumed an immortal herb?

That seemed unlikely.

In recent years, Lin Yuan had constantly kept an eye on the Soul Master world. He might not have been able to find out which sect had produced a genius Soul Master.

But if a Titled Douluo had appeared, such a major event would have shaken the entire Soul Master world.

There was no reason he would have failed to hear about it.

If Meng Baichuan had obtained an immortal herb, it was impossible for him to give it only to Meng Yiran and not to Dragon Duke and Serpent Matriarch.

Could they possess a technique like Lin Tian's?

That seemed unlikely as well.

He had sensed no aura of danger from either of them.

"It seems there must be more to this matter. I'll need to observe them carefully."

As Lin Yuan pondered, some people had already been turned away because their Soul Power had not reached level twenty or because they were over the age limit.

Yet Shrek refused to refund the registration fees, and the two sides began arguing.

In the end, Li Yusong released six Soul Rings—white, yellow, purple, purple, purple, and black—and frightened away those causing trouble, while also clearly stating Shrek's admission requirements.

Everyone waiting in line scattered.

Lin Yuan followed the crowd and left as well.

The following evening.

After finishing his classes, Lin Yuan stayed in his single dormitory and cultivated for the entire afternoon. Then he changed into a fitted azure robe with a hood, put on a mask, entered the Great Soul Arena in Suotuo City, and registered under the name Qin Xuan for a one-on-one solo battle at the Soul Grandmaster level.

This was his third alias.

The first was Zu Zong, used to register as a Soul Master and claim the Soul Master subsidy. The second was Lan Si, used when he enrolled in Suotuo City Intermediate Soul Master Academy. The third was Qin Xuan.

Qin Xuan's opponent was a Soul Grandmaster whose Martial Soul was a battleaxe. He was a little over thirty years old, with one white and one yellow Soul Ring—the standard configuration of a lower-class commoner Soul Master.

Because his opponent's Soul Power had already reached level twenty-nine, Lin Yuan did not display overwhelming strength and instantly kill him.

Instead, after the opponent tangled with him for a while, Lin Yuan used his slightly superior strength to release the small-scale Bamboo Forest Illusory Sea. Then, relying on the confusion caused by the sea of mist, he used Lone Bamboo Throw and knocked his opponent off the arena with a single strike.

The victory had not been especially easy. In the spectators' eyes, he had won entirely by relying on the advantage of his Soul Ring configuration.

That kept him from appearing too conspicuous.

Afterward, he began to wait.

He waited for Flender to bring Meng Baichuan and the others to the arena to participate in Soul Duels.

This was a compulsory course at Shrek.

Perhaps because Dai Mubai's arm had not fully healed yet,

Flender only brought Meng Baichuan, Meng Yiran, and a red-haired chubby boy.

The red-haired chubby boy was undoubtedly the Brothel Phoenix, Ma Hongjun. His face was swollen and bruised, and when he looked at Meng Yiran and Meng Baichuan, his eyes held fear and ingratiation.

He had probably been taught a lesson during the day.

Lin Yuan was not concerned about that.

His true targets were still Meng Yiran and Meng Baichuan.

When he heard the broadcast call their names, Lin Yuan immediately walked to the spectators' section beside their arena.

They had registered for both one-on-one and two-on-two Soul Duels.

The city where Lin Yuan's parents lived also had a Great Soul Arena.

Lin Yuan had often disguised himself and entered it to participate in Soul Duels.

Judging from their battles with their opponents,

the two of them were extremely strong.

At the very least, Lin Yuan had never seen Soul Elders as formidable as them.