Tell Me What the Fuck a Surprise Is?

"That's right, the grand prize!"

Just then, El spoke up from the side.

Under the somewhat frozen gazes of all the first-year students, he stepped onto the competition platform, smiling brilliantly.

"Your prize is a little activity with me called a Soul Fighting match."

Are you kidding?!!

The members of the team that had drawn the red ball turned their necks with stiff little clicks.

They looked at Yan Shaozhe, their eyes filled with bewilderment, doubt, and a trace of terror.

Their team, all of them with two rings, was supposed to fight a monster who could thrash a Soul Emperor? Seriously?

Seeing everyone's strange expressions and the looks they cast his way, Yan Shaozhe couldn't stop the corners of his mouth from rising. He cleared his throat and said:

"This is the surprise the academy has prepared for you!"

"El is indeed extraordinarily gifted, so there really was no need for him to go through the Freshman Assessment step by step.

Therefore, the academy decided to place him directly in the quarterfinals of the Freshman Assessment, where he could compete against fellow prodigies like yourselves."

"Of course, we also know that you all went through grueling round-robin matches and elimination rounds to get where you are now."

"If we simply inserted someone into the quarterfinals, you certainly wouldn't accept it..."

"Pfft!"

Listening to Yan Shaozhe spout nonsense with a perfectly straight face while the students below increasingly questioned their entire existence, Du Weilun couldn't quite keep it together.

"Director Du, what are you doing?"

Yan Shaozhe paused, his brows furrowing.

"This is the Freshman Assessment. As the Director of Education, you must be serious! Serious, do you understand?"

But Dean, the corners of your mouth haven't come down either.

The words made a lap around Du Weilun's mouth before he swallowed them back into his belly. He pressed his lips tightly together, lowered his head, and nodded.

He looked as though he was humbly accepting the criticism, but only he knew what was really going on.

-He was afraid that seeing those freshmen looking as though they'd eaten shit would make him lose it again.

Yan Shaozhe continued:

"So, we arranged a draw first. The selected team will compete against El for a place in the rankings."

"If El wins, he will receive a quarterfinal spot and participate in the remaining matches."

"And if El loses, the team that defeats him will receive guaranteed admission to the inner court."

"Oh, right. El has no teammates. He is the only member of his team."

Yan Shaozhe smiled.

"That is the surprise the academy has prepared for you."

"A direct ticket to the inner court, and the chance to have a supergenius as your sparring partner!"

"Well? Is that enough of a surprise?"

First, tell me what the fuck a surprise is?!

This is a scare, okay!

Fighting a monster like that counts as a surprise??

"We concede!"

All three members of Class Five's quarterfinal team wore stiff smiles.

Remembering Zhou Yi's miserable fate, they conceded without hesitation.

What a joke. Even adding all three of their Soul Power Levels together probably wouldn't put them above Zhou Yi!

They were supposed to fight El?

Give them a break. They'd die!

What if El failed to hold back?

Besides, making it this far was already a combination of luck and strength. The top eight was enough for them.

Not wanting to be flattened by a truck, the three students from Freshman Class Five decisively left the assessment area.

"All right, then. Our final roster has now been decided."

"Everyone, let's draw prizes again-oh, I mean lots."

Yan Shaozhe took out a new draw container.

And this time, the results were...

"What?! We're fighting El?!"

Looking at the number-one lot in his hand, Lu Renjia's face turned somewhat ashen.

This damned hand. How could its luck be so good?! He gritted his teeth.

"It's all right."

Meanwhile, although his teammates also looked grim, they weren't frightened into forfeiting outright like the students from Freshman Class Five.

They were in the same class as El, so after spending a few days with him, they felt they understood him somewhat.

As long as nobody provoked him, El was actually fairly easy to talk to.

Not to mention that their team had Lu Renjia.

As one of the few people who had dealings with El, he surely wouldn't come to any harm.

So...

"Getting to fight a powerful opponent with everything we have, while our safety is guaranteed, really does count as a special reward."

Lu Renjia's teammate Zhong Yin spoke softly.

They wouldn't have to worry about being killed, nor would they have to worry about hurting their opponent.

They could give it their all and get an early taste of a life-or-death battle!

"Phew..."

Lu Renjia closed his eyes, then exhaled a stale breath.

Then he opened his eyes, determination filling them.

He looked toward Arena One.

The black-haired, red-eyed boy stood there, beckoning to him.

"Come fight."

El said only those two words.

"All right!"

Lu Renjia's trio stepped forward without hesitation.

"El, please give us your guidance!"

The old man's game with the unruly children began.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Huo Yutong's trio also faced their opponents.

"Freshman Class Two, Xie Huanyue."

"Freshman Class Two, Luo Tianlong, Luo Tianba."

"A Soul Elder team. We finally ran into one."

Seeing the combination of one hefty fellow and two skinny monkeys opposite them, Wang Dong'er sighed, then the fighting spirit in her eyes burned even brighter.

"Freshman Class One, Huo Yutong, Wang Dong, Xiao Xiao."

The three introduced themselves as well.

Their fighting spirit had long since begun to boil.

Since the Freshman Assessment began, aside from the Martial Soul Fusion Skill of the sisters Lan Luoluo and Lan Susu giving them a slight surprise, they had steamrolled every other team.

Among two-ring teams, their squad no longer had any rivals.

In other words, the three of them had long wanted to face a genuine Soul Elder team to test their current strength!

"Begin!"

At the referee's command, both sides unleashed their Martial Souls simultaneously.

Three Soul Rings rose from Xie Huanyue. His figure, which had previously qualified only as a compact hefty fellow, instantly grew taller, turning him into an even burlier, even more swollen hefty fellow plus.

As fragile agility attackers, the Luo brothers promptly tucked themselves behind Xie Huanyue, using their tank's charge to approach their opponents while keeping themselves fresh.

Unfortunately, they had run into a wallhack.

Huo Yutong's Spiritual Detection Sharing supplied every piece of information on the arena. Wang Dong immediately circled behind them through the air, preparing to burst down the fragile opponents first and thin their numbers.

Xiao Xiao, meanwhile, controlled the Three-Life Soul-Suppressing Cauldron, sending it down to suppress the charging Xie Huanyue.

"Cauldron's Tremor!"

Shock waves reverberated in front of Xie Huanyue, halting his advance.

At the same time, Wang Dong's Butterfly Wing Guillotine was already poised, and she slashed straight down at the Luo brothers below.

Under normal circumstances, as a Power Attack System fighter, such a straightforward attack would be unlikely to land directly on agility attackers whose core advantage was speed.

But at that moment, Xie Huanyue was in front of them, blocked by the Three-Life Soul-Suppressing Cauldron, leaving them no room to dodge forward.

If the two agility attackers dodged this blow, Xie Huanyue would take a direct hit from Wang Dong'er's Soul Skill!

Even so, the Luo brothers chose to dodge.

With silver mantis blades growing from their arms, the two became blurs, splitting left and right before nimbly charging back toward Wang Dong!

They seemed intent on sacrificing Xie Huanyue to an injury in exchange for taking down Wang Dong, the strongest attacker on Huo Yutong's team and the one who held air superiority, in a single rush.

But that plan was doomed to fail.

Although both were faster than Wang Dong,

with Spiritual Detection Sharing, Wang Dong still narrowly evaded the two mantis arm blades by the slimmest of margins.

Her Butterfly Wing Guillotine continued unabated, slashing viciously into Xie Huanyue.

Although the match had only just begun, both sides fought with extreme aggression, with danger springing up at every turn.

In short, it was quite a spectacle.

Compared with the foregone conclusion on El's side, this back-and-forth struggle undoubtedly drew the teachers' attention more readily.