I Welcomed a God

The sun was setting outside the gates of Shrek Academy.

Lu Renjia sat behind a table. He gave a bored yawn, then looked across the empty square and said to Lu Renyi beside him:

"Brother Yi, I don't think anyone else is coming. If that's it, let's pack up."

Lu Renyi raised his pocket watch, checked the time, and said:

"It'll be awkward if a teacher comes to check on us. Let's wait another half hour. We're already leaving half an hour early."

"Fine."

The two sat in their chairs, staring into space.

Just as they were bored enough to fall asleep, a swell of chatter came from the gate.

"Wow, that little blue-haired boy is so handsome!"

"Right? Those horns of his look so unusual. I wonder what his Martial Soul is. They look a bit like dragon horns."

Lu Renjia opened his sleepy eyes and looked toward the gate.

A blue-haired boy in a fitted white-and-gold outfit was walking toward them. His pale blue eyes were clear and bright, and a pair of dragon horns rose from his head.

The boy was Huo Yuhao, here to enroll.

At the sight of him, Lu Renjia put on a kindly smile and reached over to tug at Lu Renyi, who had fallen asleep.

"Hmm? What is it?"

Woken by Lu Renjia, Lu Renyi looked up at Huo Yuhao standing before him. He froze, his gaze darting instinctively to the horns on Huo Yuhao's head.

"Are you here to enroll, young man?"

After a moment of stunned silence, Lu Renyi came to his senses. He stood up behind the table and smiled at Huo Yuhao.

"Yes, senior. How do I enroll?"

"Let's test your Soul Power Level first."

As he spoke, Lu Renyi took a blue crystal ball from his clothes.

"This crystal ball can measure Soul Power below level forty. Just channel a trace of yours into it."

Ordinarily, they only had a crystal ball that went up to level thirty. But the quality of this year's freshmen was unusually high.

Several Soul Elders had already arrived, so the academy had been forced to upgrade their crystal ball.

Huo Yuhao was long accustomed to crystal balls.

He pressed a finger against its surface, sending a trace of Soul Power into it through his fingertip.

A dazzling blue light flared within the crystal ball. At last, the number "38" appeared on its surface.

"Holy shit!"

Lu Renjia and Lu Renyi cried out together at the sight of it. A twelve-year-old level-thirty-eight Soul Elder was terrifying.

The others who had come before him were Soul Elders too, but none had been above level thirty-five.

"Do you have a letter of recommendation? It's fine if you don't."

Shrek Academy required a letter of recommendation for admission, but that rule was meant for ordinary students.

The two of them had several recommendation letters from the lord of Shrek City tucked away in their desk drawer, each with the name left blank.

They were there in case an extraordinary genius arrived without a letter.

"Senior, here's my letter of recommendation."

Huo Yuhao took the letter Xu Jiawei had written for him from his Storage Soul Tool and handed it to Lu Renyi.

Lu Renyi took the letter. His pupils contracted.

It bore the seal of Star Luo City. The capitals of the three great empires generally did not issue recommendation letters, because a letter from one carried the weight of an entire empire.

The last person to enroll with a letter from Star Luo City had been the previous emperor of the Star Luo Empire. This year, even Dai Huabin had not received one. He had used a letter from a city under the Mingdou Defense Line instead.

Lu Renyi opened the letter, and its contents shocked him speechless.

"This—!"

Lu Renyi solemnly placed the letter with the enrollment form, then said to Huo Yuhao:

"Junior Huo, keep this enrollment form safe. Go straight ahead from here to freshman registration. Someone there will assign you a dorm room."

Huo Yuhao took the form, thanked him, and headed in the direction Lu Renyi had indicated.

Watching Huo Yuhao walk away, Lu Renjia nudged Lu Renyi with his elbow.

"Brother Yi, what did that kid's letter say? You looked so shocked."

"The kid has Twin Martial Souls."

"Twin Martial Souls? That makes two this year, doesn't it? What's with this year's freshmen?"

"That's not all. He also has an Ultimate Attribute."

"An Ultimate Attribute? That's outrageous!"

Lu Renyi said nothing about where Huo Yuhao's letter had come from. That was not something ordinary students like them had any business discussing.

Lu Renjia stared after Huo Yuhao, dumbfounded. It was as though he could see a peerless powerhouse emerging from this place.

Decades later, looking upon Huo Yuhao, who had become a god,

Lu Renjia and Lu Renyi, by then graduates of Shrek, could not help declaring with pride:

"I welcomed a god!"

Meanwhile, after paying his tuition at freshman registration, Huo Yuhao followed a teacher's directions to Shrek Square, where the dormitories stood.

The square was enormous, with ten statues standing at its center.

Huo Yuhao's gaze passed over the three statues of Shrek's founders and went straight to two of the seven behind them. One figure held a massive hammer in his left hand and a trident in his right. The other had golden hair, the character for "king" on his forehead, and hands shaped like tiger claws.

They were Sea God Tang San and God of War Dai Mubai, who had appeared three years earlier.

Huo Yuhao's cold gaze swept across the necks of their statues. Tang San, Dai Mubai, just you wait! One day, I'll make you pay for my mother's death with your lives.

After crossing Shrek Square, Huo Yuhao came upon a six-story dormitory building painted in four colors.

At its entrance lay a Gray-Robed Elder.

He looked extremely old, the wrinkles on his face nearly hiding his eyes.

Though his eyes glinted gold, they were clouded with age. His whole body seemed steeped in the stillness of death.

Huo Yuhao approached him, bowed, and said:

"Hello, sir! I'm a new student this year. Here's my enrollment form."

As he looked at the elder, Huo Yuhao instinctively swept the area around him with his mental power.

To his astonishment, although the elder was right before his eyes, his mental power sensed nothing at all.

As though he had felt Huo Yuhao's probing, the elder slowly opened his half-closed eyes. He looked toward Huo Yuhao, surprise giving way to a flicker of delight.

"Heh, it's been a long time since I've seen such a polite child. Don't be so reckless next time. Go on. Your room is on the right-hand side of the first floor."

The elder did not look at Huo Yuhao's enrollment form. He merely waved a hand to indicate that Huo Yuhao could go in.

Huo Yuhao was just about to enter the dormitory when the elder's aged voice came from behind him.

"Oh, and the floors above the second are the girls' dormitories. If you enter them without permission, you'll be expelled."

With that, the elder closed his eyes again and began to doze.