Being young is wonderful? Are you that old?

Meanwhile, a yellow soul ring slowly rose from beneath Dong Qianqiu's feet, revolving at an unhurried pace behind her.

A hundred-year soul ring.

One of the children waiting in line beside her sucked in a sharp breath.

"A y-yellow soul ring!"

"She already has a soul ring? She's only six!"

"Innate full soul power! She has innate full soul power too!"

Dong Qianqiu's expression remained unchanged. Once five seconds were up, she withdrew her martial soul, stepped off the platform, and returned to her place in line.

Two more children went before it was Ye Zhiqiu's turn. He walked forward unhurriedly, gave the teacher a harmless smile, and said:

"Ye Zhiqiu."

The teacher glanced down at the registration form, then looked him over. "Release your martial soul."

Ye Zhiqiu extended his right hand and willed it forth.

A pure white blade emerged from his palm, about a meter long and semitransparent. Its edges were so sharp that looking at them made one's eyes ache, and the entire blade seemed to hover between existence and nonexistence.

At the same time, a yellow soul ring rose from beneath his feet and hovered behind the blade, revolving unhurriedly.

A hundred-year soul ring.

Another hundred-year soul ring.

The field fell silent for a moment, then erupted again.

"Another hundred-year soul ring?!"

"What kind of day is this? Two hundred-year soul rings in a row?"

"What martial soul is that? I've never seen one shaped like that!"

"It feels so sharp... my eyes hurt after just one look."

The teacher stared at the blade in Ye Zhiqiu's palm, his pupils contracting slightly. He froze for two seconds before recovering, looked down through the registration form, then glanced back up at Ye Zhiqiu.

"Ye Zhiqiu... what is your martial soul called?"

"A mutated martial soul, Absolute Blade," Ye Zhiqiu answered honestly.

A mutated martial soul?

The teacher was momentarily stunned. A mutated martial soul this powerful? Even his skin prickled with pain.

"All right, put it away. Go back and wait."

Ye Zhiqiu nodded, withdrew his martial soul, and stepped off the platform to return to his place in line.

Another three or four children were tested next, but with Dong Qianqiu's and Ye Zhiqiu's hundred-year soul rings setting the bar, the children who followed seemed rather unremarkable, regardless of the quality of their martial souls.

The teacher did not mind. He continued recording everything as usual, occasionally asking a few extra questions when a slightly interesting martial soul appeared.

The testing proceeded quickly. In less than twenty minutes, all three hundred-odd children had finished.

Director Qian Zilai climbed the steps again and cleared his throat, holding the Amplifying Soul Tool.

"The class assignments are ready. Students whose names I call should gather by their assigned teachers. First-year Class One will focus on the power attack system."

He glanced down at the terminal in his hand and began reading the names.

"Class One, homeroom teacher, Teacher Jiang; assistant homeroom teacher, Teacher Liu. Students include..., Dong Qianqiu, Ye Zhiqiu..."

Once the list was finished, the students of Class One drifted over to the left side of the field.

Ye Zhiqiu walked unhurriedly amid the crowd, sweeping his gaze around. There were about thirty children, with boys and girls making up roughly half each.

The other children clustered in twos and threes, looking one another over and quietly discussing the test results. Only Dong Qianqiu had a small circle of empty space around her, with no one standing too close.

Ye Zhiqiu chose a spot near the back, put his hands in his pockets, and yawned.

"First-year Class One, gather over here." A male teacher in his early thirties clapped his hands, his voice clear and bright.

He wore a dark blue jacket, with closely cropped hair and clean-cut features. When he smiled, he showed a row of white teeth.

"I'm your homeroom teacher, Xu Rang. Just call me Teacher Xu. This is your assistant homeroom teacher, Teacher Liu You. She'll be responsible for your daily life and discipline."

Teacher Liu was a round-faced woman who looked a few years younger than Teacher Xu. She wore a cheerful smile and seemed quite friendly.

Xu Rang glanced over the little sprouts before him and got straight to the point. "There are thirty-one students in our class, mostly power attack system, with a few leaning toward agility attack and control. But the Junior Academy doesn't divide things that finely. For the first three years, you have only one goal: build a solid foundation."

He paused, then added, "Some of you already have innate full soul power, and some have hundred-year soul rings. But here, what's behind you doesn't matter. I'm looking at what comes next. All right, follow me. Let's find your classroom first."

With that, he turned and headed toward the teaching building.

Ye Zhiqiu followed the group.

Their classroom was at the end of the third-floor corridor, with a sign on the door reading "First-year Class One."

They pushed the door open and entered a room that was neither too large nor too small, furnished with thirty-one sets of desks and chairs. A soul-tool projection screen stood behind the lectern, and the windows on both sides faced south, providing plenty of light.

Xu Rang stood beside the lectern with a seating chart in hand. "We'll arrange seats by height. Find a seat yourselves, shorter students in front, taller students in back. Of course, if you'd rather not, you can tell me."

Ye Zhiqiu did not hesitate. He went straight to a window seat in the last row. There was no helping it: after looking around earlier, he had found no one taller than him. Dong Qianqiu alone came close.

Seeing Ye Zhiqiu sit there, Dong Qianqiu hesitated for a moment, then walked over as though nothing were out of the ordinary and sat at the desk beside him, near the aisle.

Ye Zhiqiu gave Dong Qianqiu a slightly surprised glance. Seeing that she was not looking at him, he thought nothing more of it.

The classroom soon filled up, and the teacher had them begin introducing themselves.

They each went through their introductions once. Thanks to his powerful spiritual strength, Ye Zhiqiu remembered them all, even without listening closely.

None were famous characters from the original story. Presumably, they were all NPCs, so he paid them little mind. The teacher also wanted Ye Zhiqiu to be class monitor, but he really did not want the job and refused. In the end, a girl took the position.

After the introductions came free time, during which they could wander around campus.

Watching the little kids brim with excitement and anticipation for the campus, Ye Zhiqiu could not help murmuring, "Being young is wonderful."

"???"

Hearing that, Dong Qianqiu, who had yet to leave his side, gave him a strange look.

Being young is wonderful? Are you that old? Aren't we both just six-year-old kids?

Only after the words left his mouth did Ye Zhiqiu realize what he had said. His expression did not change, though, and he even winked at Dong Qianqiu. His expression practically said, It was just an offhand remark. Don't take it seriously.

Dong Qianqiu looked at him for two seconds, then turned her gaze away.

She had never intended to strike up a conversation. It was just that hearing "being young is wonderful" from a six-year-old's mouth was so bizarre that she could not help giving him another look.

Now that she had looked, there was nothing more to say.

She stood and walked toward the classroom door at an even pace, her dark blue ponytail swaying gently behind her.

Ye Zhiqiu did not follow. She clearly had no interest in socializing; insisting on cozying up to her would only show that he could not read the room.

We're in the same class anyway. We'll see each other whether we look up or down. What's the rush?

He rose from his seat and stretched, his joints cracking twice, then ambled out of the classroom.

There were hardly any people left in the corridor. Most students had followed their assistant homeroom teacher, Teacher Liu, on a campus tour. Excited shouts drifted over from the field.

Ye Zhiqiu had little interest in touring the campus.

Things that seemed novel to six-year-olds looked utterly ordinary to an adult who had lived two lifetimes. Teaching buildings, cafeterias, training grounds, libraries—none were fundamentally different from the other public buildings in Heaven Dou City. It was merely a matter of size.

He walked to the end of the corridor and pushed open a side door. Outside lay a path lined with Chinese parasol trees.

He followed the path for about fifty meters, then sat on a bench beneath a Chinese parasol tree.

Ye Zhiqiu leaned against the backrest and closed his eyes for a while.

His first day of school had passed just like that, more uneventfully than he had imagined.

He had expected some fool with no sense to jump out and provoke him, allowing him to casually slap them down and establish his authority before his new classmates.

Yet there had not been a single one. Even people who struck up a conversation were few and far between.

His hundred-year soul ring that morning had probably cranked the intimidation up to the limit. When a bunch of six-year-olds saw a hundred-year soul ring, only one thought remained in their heads: this was someone they could not afford to provoke.

Ah, what a shame. I'd wanted to play Long Aotian for once.