Class Promotion Tournament 1

Half an hour later, Tang Wulin and Zhou Changxi woke up one after the other.

Tang Wulin woke with only a slight ache and pressure in his head and weakness throughout his body. He was otherwise unharmed. He had merely overextended himself by unleashing a large-area soul skill in a short span of time. His spiritual power had been drained in an instant, and his body had been unable to bear the strain, causing him to faint. After briefly regulating his breathing, he recovered most of his strength.

Zhou Changxi, on the other hand, had nowhere near as easy a time.

The dull pain of his broken bones still spread through his entire body. Every breath carried a faint stabbing pain, leaving his face pale and his breathing weak.

Recalling today's battle, then remembering the humiliating sight of himself being sent flying by a single lash from Tang Wulin several days earlier, Zhou Changxi was filled with a jumble of emotions.

When he first took the initiative to attack, he had still harbored some defiance and a desire to test Tang Wulin. He had intended to seize the opportunity to teach the seemingly weak boy a lesson, prove his own strength, and recover the dignity he had lost in his previous defeat.

But after these two battles, every shred of arrogance and resentment had been crushed.

At last, he saw with absolute clarity the gulf between his strength and Tang Wulin's—a gulf as vast as the distance between heaven and earth.

Now, Zhou Changxi no longer dared entertain even the slightest thought of provocation or contempt. Only profound shock and admiration remained in his heart. He silently lowered his head, not daring to say another word.

After regulating his breathing, Tang Wulin slowly walked back to the field from the infirmary.

The training ground had already taken on a different appearance. Everyone had switched to one-on-one combat, with classmates pairing off to fight as collisions of soul power erupted one after another.

Aside from Zhou Changxi, who had fainted earlier and was still recuperating, Xie Xie, with his rank-eighteen soul power, had become the strongest student present. He held an overwhelming advantage against the ordinary freshmen.

But just after he had easily crushed several classmates, Wu Changkong suddenly raised his hand and called him forward to spar.

The outcome was never in doubt.

In a single exchange, Xie Xie was defeated instantly and utterly crushed before he could even make out the path of his opponent's sword.

Tang Wulin had just reached the edge of the field and happened to witness this utterly one-sided exchange. His heart tightened.

Just then, Wu Changkong's cool gaze abruptly fell on him, and he said evenly, "You, come here."

Tang Wulin's scalp immediately prickled. His face filled with helplessness. "Seriously, Teacher Wu? We still have to fight?"

"No more words." Wu Changkong held the slender belt sword, his tone perfectly calm. "You only need to withstand one strike from me. Regardless of the outcome, today's combat training will end."

Hearing this, Tang Wulin did not dare relax in the slightest.

He knew all too well how terrifyingly powerful this teacher was. Ordinary soul skills would accomplish nothing.

If he continued using Blue Silver Grass to build a defensive shield, it would certainly be shattered in an instant. If he created a blind spot to conceal himself, that would be equally meaningless against Wu Changkong's terrifying spiritual perception, which far surpassed that of ordinary people.

Ordinary methods could not stop this strike.

In the flash of a spark, Tang Wulin gritted his teeth, raised his hands, and pulled two hefty Thousand-Refined Tungsten Steel Hammers straight from his storage space!

The two hammers settled heavily into his hands, their cold metallic weight filling his palms.

Wu Changkong's normally tranquil eyes shifted slightly, a trace of surprise flashing through them.

Yet in that fleeting pause, his flexible sword had already closed in on Tang Wulin, its edge radiating a chilling sharpness!

At this critical moment, Tang Wulin abandoned defense. Instead, he swung the heavy hammers with both hands, pouring all his bodily strength into them as he smashed the two Thousand-Refined Tungsten Steel Hammers toward Wu Changkong's face!

Strike where the enemy must defend!

Wu Changkong had not expected such an aggressive approach. As the heavy hammers bore down on him, he immediately withdrew his sword to defend and raised his hand to block with precision.

Bang!

A deep, thunderous impact erupted!

Wu Changkong did not move, but the entire arm that had met the heavy hammers was instantly struck by a violent, numbing shock. A heavy, domineering force spread through his arm and into his whole body.

He was faintly startled, though his expression remained unchanged.

In the next instant, the flexible sword flashed coldly once more. Its tip darted out like a snake leaving its lair, aiming straight for Tang Wulin's throat!

Tang Wulin inwardly sensed trouble. He instantly returned the hammers to his storage space as soul power surged through his right palm.

"First soul skill—Blue Silver Forest!"

Dense masses of emerald-green Blue Silver Grass burst from the ground in an instant, surging like a tide around Wu Changkong's limbs in an attempt to lock down his movements.

To Tang Wulin's surprise, Wu Changkong neither dodged nor evaded. He made no attempt to defend himself.

He seemed intent on personally testing just how terrifyingly resilient and powerful this Blue Silver Grass—a trash martial soul scorned by the world—truly was.

In the blink of an eye, the resilient Blue Silver Grass wrapped around him in layer after layer, tightly binding Wu Changkong's wrists and legs until there was not a gap left.

Delighted that he had succeeded, Tang Wulin abruptly exerted strength through both arms and pulled backward with everything he had!

But a second later, his expression changed slightly.

Wu Changkong stood where he was, straight as a pine tree, without moving an inch. He seemed rooted in the earth, steady as a boulder.

"I don't believe it!"

Tang Wulin clenched his teeth, unleashed every ounce of his physical strength, and poured all his soul power into the Blue Silver Grass before pulling fiercely once again!

This time, the taut vines finally bent slightly. Wu Changkong, who had remained planted in place, was actually dragged slowly forward, leaving faint skid marks across the ground!

Even the wind at the edge of the field fell silent.

Wu Changkong's face remained cool and calm, without the slightest ripple, but towering waves of shock had already surged through his heart!

He could clearly sense that the force exerted by the boy pulling with all his might on the vines wrapped around him amounted to more than a thousand jin!

A freshman only nine years old, with rank-twelve soul power, could produce such terrifying force using nothing but a Blue Silver Grass soul skill and his physical strength!

This was simply not power that ordinary Blue Silver Grass could possess!

One punch settled the outcome, and Wu Changkong saw through the Blue Silver Grass's abnormality.

Although Tang Wulin's strength and the resilience of his Blue Silver Grass had already surpassed common sense, the gap in their cultivation and foundations remained insurmountable.

After the brief stalemate, Wu Changkong's gaze sharpened slightly, and he stopped testing him.

With one hand, he shook away the Blue Silver Vines wrapped around him, then delivered a simple, light punch. It carried no tremendous surge of soul power, yet contained consummate control and technique as it landed precisely on Tang Wulin's shoulder.

Bang!

Tang Wulin felt a gentle yet irresistible force strike him. His balance instantly collapsed, and he staggered several steps backward, completely losing the ability to resist.

The dust had settled. The outcome was decided.

Old ginger was, after all, the hottest.

Wu Changkong withdrew his strength and quietly looked at the boy before him, who was breathing a little hard yet still had clear, steadfast eyes. After a long silence, he finally spoke, asking softly:

"Do you really have only this one martial soul?"

The question carried immense gravity.

He had seen countless Blue Silver Grass soul masters, countless trash martial souls and ordinary martial souls, yet he had never seen Blue Silver Grass that overturned common sense like this.

Its binding strength, the vitality of its vines, its extraordinary resilience, the range of its domain control... every aspect had utterly broken through the limits of an ordinary rank-twelve Blue Silver Grass soul master.

A pulling force of a thousand jin and a martial soul quality more than a hundred times greater than others of the same rank should never have appeared in an ordinary boy.

Thoughts churned in Wu Changkong's mind, and he immediately recalled the continent's ancient, secret history.

Across the entire Douluo Continent, from ancient times to the present, only the Tang Sect had truly devoted itself to studying and cultivating Blue Silver Grass.

Everyone knew that Blue Silver Grass had numerous innate shortcomings and a limited ceiling. Reaching the pinnacle was extraordinarily difficult, let alone touching the highest realm.

During the era of Spirit Ice Douluo Huo Yuhao, the Tang Sect had gradually declined, losing its former glory and leaving countless people puzzled.

Despite knowing full well that Blue Silver Grass had innate flaws and that its cultivation path was fraught with hardship, successive sect masters of the Tang Sect had stubbornly persisted in making it the core of their inheritance, nurturing Blue Silver Grass soul masters generation after generation.

Outsiders merely thought the Tang Sect was stubbornly clinging to tradition and imprisoning itself in the past. They did not know that the sect's thousand-year obsession had never been with an ordinary stalk of Blue Silver Grass.

They had wagered the rise, fall, and very survival of their entire sect simply to await one exceedingly unlikely miracle—

The appearance of a true Blue Silver Emperor.

What they wished to cultivate had never been a top-tier soul master, but—a god.

It was precisely this near-mad obsession, this gamble with the sect's future, that had caused the Tang Sect to channel its resources to an extreme, unbalance its development, and ultimately descend step by step into decline and decay.

And now, everything Tang Wulin displayed finally allowed Wu Changkong to faintly glimpse the truth behind that ancient obsession.

The boy's Blue Silver Grass had long since broken free of its ordinary shackles.

Resilience far beyond common sense, utterly terrifying binding power, an unimaginable force of a thousand jin, and unique domain characteristics...

Every detail proclaimed the singular nature of this Blue Silver Grass.

Hearing Wu Changkong's question, Tang Wulin quickly nodded. "That's right. I only have one martial soul."

Wu Changkong scrutinized him with a piercing gaze, making Tang Wulin uncomfortable from head to toe. After a while, Wu Changkong asked no further questions and merely said evenly, "Rest for five minutes."

The five minutes passed in a flash. At Wu Changkong's command, the entire class quickly assembled.

His dark green eyes swept across everyone, his tone cold enough to pierce bone. "The matches end here. Do you know how I would assess that battle? Rotten wood cannot be carved."

"I personally tested Tang Wulin's first soul skill. His physical resilience does indeed far surpass that of ordinary soul masters, but that doesn't mean there are no ways to deal with him. Yet what did you do? Tang Wulin merely created an opening, and every one of you blindly threw all your soul skills at it, only to be caught in a single net."

"What's more, Tang Wulin's martial soul is Blue Silver Grass, universally acknowledged as a trash martial soul. With so many of you joining forces, you still couldn't defeat him. I'm deeply disappointed in you."

Even as Wu Changkong reprimanded the students, he pondered inwardly. Tang Wulin's physique far surpassed that of ordinary people, but could strength that so easily reached a thousand jin truly belong to a nine-year-old child?

"Tang Wulin, Xie Xie, come with me to the teaching building. Everyone else is dismissed."

Wu Changkong led the two boys into his office. As soon as he entered, Tang Wulin discreetly looked around. It was much like his secondary school teachers' offices in his previous life, roughly ten square meters in size, with only a desk, a bookcase, and a chair inside. For a teacher, these conditions were already quite good.

Wu Changkong's dark green eyes settled on Tang Wulin. "Your performance today was passable, but you failed to make full use of your advantages. Ordinary Blue Silver Grass would never possess such formidable resilience. I won't ask about the reason for now. However, your soul power is far too weak. If I'm not mistaken, the moment you restrained the entire class, your soul power was already exhausted to the point of unconsciousness. You only managed to remain standing for a few more seconds because your powerful physique supported you. Also, what's the story behind that hammer of yours?"

Tang Wulin hurriedly explained, "I'm a blacksmith."

"A blacksmith?" Wu Changkong's tone grew somewhat stern. "As a soul master, why are you studying forging? Your innate capabilities already fall short of others', yet you're wasting your energy on such irrelevant matters."

Tang Wulin coughed lightly twice and hurried to smooth things over. "Teacher Wu, can I explain this to you later?"

"Pfft." Xie Xie covered his mouth beside him and snickered.

Wu Changkong turned to look at Xie Xie.

"What? You're still laughing at him? Twin martial souls, innate full soul power, and yet your cultivation is only rank eighteen."

"Tang Wulin's innate soul power was only rank five, and he has to set aside time to learn forging. It's understandable that he's only reached rank twelve. What about you? You have innate full soul power, yet your cultivation has stalled at rank eighteen. Do you actually think that's something to be proud of? As an Agility Attack System Battle Spirit Master, you don't even understand what a surprise attack is. In the end, you were caught in Tang Wulin's net instead."

After hearing this reprimand, the smile on Xie Xie's face vanished without a trace.

Wu Changkong slowly sat back in his chair, no longer even bothering to look at Xie Xie, his heart filled with disappointment. With the aptitude granted by his innate full soul power, he should already have securely broken through to the Two-Ring Soul Grandmaster realm at nine years old. Yet the boy before him clearly had not put his heart into diligent cultivation at all.