Heavenly Profound Academy! (Please invest! Please send recommendation votes! Please send monthly votes!)

In the blink of an eye, the Douluo Continent's annual school enrollment season had arrived.

Because of Shrek Academy, almost all Soul Master academies in the original Douluo Three Kingdoms began their school year in the same month. Shrek Academy opened admissions first, and ten days later, the other intermediate and advanced Soul Master academies began recruiting new students one after another.

For now, the Heavenly Profound Academy did not have the standing to break with convention.

The Heavenly Profound Academy, whose full name was the Heavenly Profound Soul Master Academy, took its name from "Northwest Profound Heaven." Its predecessor was the Yongdu Advanced Soul Master Academy, jointly established by the Black Dragon Duke's estate and the Yongdu City lord's estate. To meet the Black Dragon Duchy's development needs, it had begun upgrading and restructuring three years earlier. It was now the duchy's foremost Soul Master academy.

The academy stood in the southeastern outskirts of Yongdu City, covering roughly ten thousand mu. Its location was exceptionally favorable, with mountains, rivers, and lakes, beautiful surroundings, and easily defended terrain. The Black Armor Guards, the Black Dragon Duchy's most elite army, were also stationed nearby, ensuring its security.

The Heavenly Profound Academy was divided into intermediate and advanced divisions, corresponding to intermediate and advanced Soul Master academies. Both offered six-year programs, while the intermediate division was further divided into the Martial Soul Department and the Soul Tool Department.

As a Soul Master academy combining intermediate and advanced education, it maintained an enrollment of around twenty-five hundred students in its intermediate division and roughly five hundred in its advanced division. Among academies of the same type, that was only an average size.

Those numbers sounded small at first, and upon closer consideration, they really were small. Still, it was understandable. After all, aside from enjoying some renown within the Black Dragon Duchy, the Heavenly Profound Academy remained an obscure, third-rate academy on the continent.

The Heavenly Profound Academy's intermediate division required applicants to be no older than twelve and have soul power of at least rank ten. These were the standard admission requirements for intermediate Soul Master academies across the continent. Almost every intermediate Soul Master academy, including those in the Sun Moon Empire, followed them.

The sole exception was Shrek Academy, whose outer court required applicants to be no older than twelve and have soul power of at least rank fifteen.

Shrek Academy's outer court admitted around a thousand new students each year, twice as many as the Heavenly Profound Academy.

Viewed that way, the Heavenly Profound Academy certainly seemed unremarkable: its standards were lower than Shrek Academy's, yet it admitted fewer students. But the comparison itself was deeply unfair. Everyone knew the two were simply not comparable.

After all, Shrek Academy drew students from all three Douluo kingdoms. Every year, several thousand Soul Masters applied for admission. In both the number and quality of its prospective students, it was indisputably the best on the continent.

By contrast, the Heavenly Profound Academy drew students only from the Black Dragon Duchy. Though a country in name, it was actually no larger than a province. They were on entirely different levels, with no basis for comparison.

To put it in painfully blunt terms, comparing Shrek Academy to the Heavenly Profound Academy was an insult to Shrek Academy. Still, the Heavenly Profound Academy did not mind. It was merely a newly established Soul Master academy and had no need to compare itself with Shrek Academy for the time being. Nor did anyone else compare them.

To graduate from the Heavenly Profound Academy's intermediate division, students had to reach rank twenty in soul power and obtain their second soul ring.

The much smaller advanced division required applicants to be no older than eighteen and have soul power of at least rank thirty. These were also the current standard admission requirements for advanced Soul Master academies across the continent.

An eighteen-year-old Soul Elder was universally recognized as a genius Soul Master on the continent.

To graduate from the advanced division, students had to become Four-Ring Soul Ancestors. This was also the graduation requirement at the vast majority of advanced Soul Master academies on the continent.

The Heavenly Profound Academy still had a long road ahead before it could become one of the continent's first-rate Soul Master academies!

Many factors had prompted the Yongdu Advanced Soul Master Academy's restructuring into the Heavenly Profound Academy, but they could be summed up in two main reasons. First, the Black Dragon Duchy needed a first-rate Soul Master academy to attract talented people. Second, Qin Xu needed a Soul Master academy.

As the ruler of a country, Qin Xu could no longer attend Shrek Academy or Di'ao Academy as generations of dukes before him had done. Yet Qin Tianji did not want him growing up secluded within the palace. Thus, they needed a Soul Master academy like the Heavenly Profound Academy, one entirely under the Qin Family's control.

This was the fourth year since the Heavenly Profound Academy had been renamed and restructured, and its most important year yet, because Grand Duke Qin Xu was about to enroll as a student. At the same time, the Young Genius Class, composed of gifted Soul Masters, had finally moved from planning into reality.

Today, the final day of the enrollment season, was the day Qin Xu entered the Heavenly Profound Academy. It also marked exactly forty-five days since he had awakened his martial soul.

"Your Highness, this is the academy's Living Area. The detached villas you see here are the residences prepared for our elite students. The students in the Young Genius Class will also live in these detached residences."

Li Wei, the headmaster of the Heavenly Profound Academy, led a large group as he personally introduced the academy's surroundings and layout to Qin Xu and Zhang Lexuan.

"Grandpa Headmaster, just call me Qin Xu," Qin Xu said with a smile. "Right now, I'm a student of the Heavenly Profound Academy, not the grand duke. Besides, you're my grandfather's dear friend. Whether in an official or personal capacity, you shouldn't keep calling me Your Highness."

Headmaster Li Wei was a Soul Douluo expert and had been a close friend of Qin Xu's grandfather, Qin Zhu, during their time at Shrek Academy. After graduating from Shrek Academy's inner court, he had accepted Qin Zhu's invitation and moved his entire household to Yongdu City. Fifty years had passed since then.

"Hahaha, very well. Then this old man will overstep a little," Li Wei said with a hearty laugh. "Student Qin Xu."

"Yes, Headmaster," Qin Xu replied.

The group followed the path deeper into the Living Area.

The Living Area was where the students went about their daily lives. Their dormitories, dining hall, and various recreational facilities were all concentrated here.

The Heavenly Profound Academy was divided into four main areas: the Living Area where students lived, the teaching area where classes were held, the Comprehensive Zone that housed management offices, and a plaza. The Living Area and teaching area were the largest, each occupying forty percent of the academy's total grounds. The rest was taken up by the Comprehensive Zone and the Heavenly Profound Plaza.

There was an artificial lake in the Living Area. Its most prominent structures were four long, broad, tall buildings, standing to the left, right, front, and rear along its four sides, separating the Living Area from the teaching area. These were the student dormitory buildings, two with seven floors and two with six.

Apart from the four dormitory buildings, there was also a sprawling three-story building: the Academy Cafeteria.

In addition, small detached villas were scattered throughout the Living Area. These were the elite residences Li Wei had mentioned. There were only thirty of them, and each could accommodate no more than four students.

This made the Heavenly Profound Academy's dormitory hierarchy plain to see. There were three tiers: double rooms, single rooms, and detached villas. Double rooms and single rooms were provided for ordinary students in the intermediate and advanced divisions respectively, while the detached villas were reserved for elite students.

"Student Qin Xu, Student Zhang Lexuan, this villa will be your dormitory." Li Wei stopped in front of a lakeside villa and addressed them both.

"Mm!" Zhang Lexuan surveyed the villa and its surroundings. It was quiet and secluded, and she was very pleased. Although it could not compare with the royal palace, among the continent's other academies, it would undoubtedly rank among the very best.

Starting today, Zhang Lexuan had also officially enrolled in the Heavenly Profound Academy as a student in its advanced division. This was both to make it easier for her to look after Qin Xu and to prepare for the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Soul Fighting Tournament four years later.

Qin Xu also examined the villa. It stood right in the center of the Living Area, with no other buildings within two hundred meters. Around it were only the lake and trees. The nearest buildings were two other lakeside villas, three hundred and four hundred meters away.

It was indeed very quiet, and he would not be disturbed. He was very satisfied.