The Academy Tournament's Early Trial Training

"Ah... Open up."

Ma Xiaotao blew on the Whale Rubber pinched between her fingers, melted by Phoenix Fire, then stuffed it into Su Wen's mouth and clapped her hands in satisfaction.

"I don't really need this..." Su Wen chewed the several-thousand-year-old Whale Rubber that melted as soon as it entered his mouth. It tasted like wax, and at the same time, he could not help feeling a little regretful.

Whale Rubber could increase one's physical strength, thereby affecting the age limit of the Soul Rings one could obtain.

After ten thousand years, the "maximum Soul Ring age limit" theory researched by Grandmaster had also gradually lost effectiveness (only for top-tier geniuses). Nowadays, it instead gave off a rather strong sense of inflated numbers. Wang Dong'er's second Soul Ring was even a thousand-year one, yet looking across the entire academy, everyone's reaction was rather ordinary, without much amazement.

But he did not need to obtain Soul Rings, so to him, this thing was rather useless.

"Mm-hmm."

Ma Xiaotao gave a casual little hum.

"Wait..."

Su Wen froze for a moment, then suddenly realized it. This Whale Rubber did not only enhance strength—it also had the effect of increasing endurance...

Fuck!

"Sigh, Xiao Wen is here too."

A warm voice sounded.

Inside the Inner Courtyard's detached dormitory.

Several figures walked in one after another. Seeing this scene between Ma Xiaotao and Su Wen, they did not show much surprise. Instead, quite a few of them wore teasing expressions. Clearly, most of these Inner Courtyard Disciples knew about the relationship between the two.

"Senior Yueheng? And..."

Su Wen paused.

He was familiar with all these people. Rather than familiar, it would be more accurate to say they were rather famous figures in the Original Work.

Gongyang Mo, Dai Yueheng, Chen Zifeng, and the others.

In other words, they were the main force who would go to the tournament on behalf of the academy two years later. But in order to highlight the protagonist's halo, they had swiftly "lost their minds" and charged headlong into the depths of a cave when the enemy situation was still unclear, suffering heavy casualties and also creating the first Soul King.

It was also because of this that Su Wen had never stopped thinking about the Ice Burst Technique.

There was no other reason. It was simply too useful, most suitable for the weak to overcome the strong and to explode forth at critical moments.

A Soul King had been able to play Xuan Zi in the palm of his hand and severely wound an entire team of elites. The Corpse Explosion Technique had played no small part in that—he just did not know whether this evolution would allow the Ice Sovereign to learn the Divine Skill that was the Ice Burst Technique.

"Tell me, what are you looking for me for?"

Ma Xiaotao curled her lips. Like an oversized body pillow, she sat beside Su Wen and hugged his arm tightly.

"Dean Yan said that although the competition is still two years away, as the previous reserve team and the main force of this squad, we need to start coordinating in advance. Especially since you and I are the captain and vice-captain, Xiaotao, we need to prepare even earlier..." Dai Yueheng kept his gaze straight ahead.

"What's there to coordinate? Those good-for-nothings from the Sun Moon Empire aren't even enough for me to beat on my own." Ma Xiaotao raised her brows, sounding rather impatient.

"..."

Su Wen fell silent.

If things followed the Original Work's plot, the Shrek main force, with everyone uninjured, really would not have dragged things out with the Sun Moon Empire for so long. Most likely, they would have steamrolled all the way through and continued the glory of the previous ten thousand years.

All he could say was that the protagonist's halo was too terrifying.

It lowered the intelligence of a bunch of supporting characters, causing more than half of them to leave the stage, and only then did the protagonist group get the chance to turn the tide. After all, if these guys did not leave the stage, where would Huo Gua get his chance to show off in the arena...

"Dean Yan said it."

Gongyang Mo coughed lightly.

Everyone instantly looked at their noses and their noses at their hearts, pretending nothing had happened as they hummed softly.

"Then let's go." Ma Xiaotao stood up helplessly.

Since her teacher had spoken, the most she could do was grumble. She still had to go.

Just as Ma Xiaotao strode her long legs to the door, she realized that not a single person had followed. Her beautiful eyes froze. "What are you standing around for? Let's go."

"Ahem, Dean Yan said to bring Xiao Wen along too," Dai Yueheng said, looking slightly awkward.

"Why bring him? He's not one of the Shrek Seven Devils. Even if he is, that would be the next generation," Ma Xiaotao said suspiciously.

"Recently, a round of Inner Courtyard graduation Assessments just ended, and quite a few Inner Courtyard seniors left one after another. We're short on people. Dean Yan only managed to gather six opponents for us, so we're still missing one," Dai Yueheng said, spreading his hands.

To be honest, when Dean Yan had said that, he had also been a little dumbfounded. A youth who was only preparing to go to the Star Dou Great Forest in a couple of days to obtain his third Soul Ring—putting him into a match against Shrek Academy's main team, would he really not get hurt?

He knew how terrifying this youth's talent was.

Reaching Soul Elder at ten years old was quite shocking even across the entire history of Shrek. Whether they had even been Soul Grand Masters at ten was another matter entirely, but one thing was one thing and another was another.

In a team where the average level difference was twenty levels, the team he was on would probably have to specially assign someone to protect him, right?

Dai Yueheng was currently level fifty-seven. He did not think Su Wen could take even a single move from him...

However, since Dean Yan had spoken, he could only follow orders.

"Sure."

Before Ma Xiaotao could speak, Su Wen stood up, his expression eager.

Within the Sea God Pavilion, apart from several Pavilion Elders and powerful figures with real authority like the dean, Ma Xiaotao was the only one whose strength was closest to his, and she was also of the same generation. But the two of them rarely sparred. After all, just wearing down her Evil Fire was already enough for him to endure.

This also meant he had very little real combat experience.

After all, he had not enrolled yet, and he was too lazy to go to the Outer Court to find a few people at the same level to practice and spar with. Now that he finally had a chance to test his own strength, how could he let it slip by so easily?

On the way to the Duel Arena.

Dai Yueheng chatted and laughed with Su Wen.

Su Wen did not feel much ill will toward Dai Yueheng. The dirty business inside White Tiger Duke Mansion had nothing to do with him from beginning to end. After all, he was a transmigrator, not someone who had inserted himself into Huo Gua's point of view. Besides, it was a trap set by the Tang God-King; blindly getting involved would not be wise.

He felt quite sorry for that unlucky kid, but it went no further than sympathy.

After all, in his impression, Huo Gua was not exactly reliable either. He was the textbook example of mud that could not be plastered onto a wall. As the Child of Destiny, countless opportunities had been thrown his way along the journey, all to lift him up to a high position. And the result?

His mother's revenge was brushed over in a single stroke. For the sake of so-called love, the Tang God-King had kept a tight noose around his neck. Where was his dignity?

Dai Mubai's face in the Original Work made people want to charge into the book and slap him twice.

To glare angrily at Dai Yueheng for the sake of that kind of protagonist—only someone with water in their brain would do that...

Of course, the moment he saw Dai Yueheng, he could not help thinking of the legendary king of losing from the Original Work, Dai Huabin. He fought again and again, lost again and again, and because he became so ashamed and angry that he tried to assassinate Huo Gua, he enraged Shrek Academy and nearly got ordered to withdraw from school. He lost down to his last pair of underpants.

They would still be classmates when the time came. Just thinking about it was amusing.

But that was still a matter for a year later.

"We're here..."

Everyone arrived at the Duel Arena.

Both the Outer Court and Inner Courtyard had their own independent Duel Arenas. It was a venue similar to a gymnasium, except the Inner Courtyard's was much smaller. After all, the entire Inner Courtyard had fewer than fifty people in total, and sometimes there were not even as many spectators as referees...

"You're all here?"

Yan Shaozhe looked at everyone with a beaming smile.

"Good. Since everyone is present, I'm sure you all know why you've been called here. Then let's start with self-introductions. Xiaotao, you go first."

"Ma Xiaotao, rank fifty-nine assault-type Soul King, martial soul Fire Phoenix," Ma Xiaotao said with a nod.