"Rank twenty-six. You pass."
"Rank twenty-nine. You pass too."
Tang San marveled inwardly. There really are plenty of geniuses out there.
"You two can head to the next round. Of course, you can also wait a little longer. If anyone else passes, you can take the tests together. That will help with the later rounds."
"However..." Seeing that there was no longer a queue, Tang San changed tack. "The three of you, please follow me. I'll take you two to the next round."
"Oh! Thank you. You're such a nice person," the beautiful girl with the single ponytail said without any malice.
The girl beside her, whose short hair reached her ears, was secretly laughing.
Tang San was not embarrassed. He introduced himself. "I'm Tang San. I'm a student here, more or less."
His speech sounded a little thick-tongued, as though he was not good at speaking Mandarin. Was that a regional accent?
"Zhu Zhuqing," Zhu Zhuqing added coolly.
"I'm Ning Rongrong," the short-haired girl said with a hint of pride, though she hid it well beneath her polite, gracious manner.
Tang San surmised that she must be a pampered young noblewoman.
Zhu Zhuqing's Qi Reading yielded much the same conclusion. The aura behind Ning Rongrong was a Radiant Qi Jewel that shone with seven-colored light.
"I'm Lin Like. Ning Rongrong and I are friends."
Lin Like spoke politely as well.
On closer inspection, there was something subtly unusual about this girl's bone structure too. Was he imagining it?
Tang San set those somewhat rude thoughts aside for now. Anyone who came was a guest.
They might well become his companions in the future. Pursuing the matter now could easily lead down an endless rabbit hole.
Zhu Zhuqing's expression grew slightly solemn. Looking at Lin Like's aura, she found it rather strange. She had never seen an aura like this before.
Several wheels with jagged teeth were fitted together, driving and turning one another.
She could not make sense of it, but Zhu Zhuqing kept her guard up.
Under Tang San's guidance, the three entered the academy grounds. The second and third rounds were held in the same place, and the fourth was not far away.
Grandmaster was the examiner for the second and third rounds, while Ma Hongjun, Dai Mubai, and Oscar watched and learned from the sidelines.
Those three were also responsible for the combat round.
One-on-one, two-on-two, and team battles were all available options.
However, no one had put on an outstanding performance yet, so the pass rate for the fourth round was still zero.
"Hmm. I'm sorry, but your choice of soul rings was poor. It has severely limited your potential for development."
Grandmaster was evaluating a boy's martial soul, explaining everything clearly and cutting straight to the heart of the matter.
Finally, he offered the boy a few directions for improvement.
"Thank you, Grandmaster."
The boy was deeply disappointed, but he had also gained a great deal. After thanking him, he left.
"Xiao San, are these the last applicants?"
Grandmaster asked. Behind him, the three boys saw Tang San arrive with three beautiful girls in tow, and their envy and jealousy surged.
"Wow! That pink-haired beauty with the ear-length hair is gorgeous! I've decided-I'm falling in love with her at first sight!"
"Zhu Zhuqing? Old Dai, your fiancée's come looking for you~ Hehe~ In that case, I, Young Master Ma, will make my move on this girl with glasses."
Unlike Oscar, who sounded somewhat serious, Ma Hongjun was merely running his mouth.
Now that he could keep his evil fire under control, he was an adolescent boy who desperately wanted a passionate, perfectly normal romance.
"Hey, Fatty, why aren't you planning to compete with Xiao San? Do you love your brothers more, or beautiful girls?"
Dai Mubai rubbed his nose, masking his guilty conscience by teasing Ma Hongjun.
"Hey, don't make it sound so ugly. Brother San lives above the smoke and dust of the mortal world. Only a fairy from heaven is worthy of him."
"Ahem!" Grandmaster stopped their horseplay and told Zhu Zhuqing and the others to release their martial souls.
"Hell Spirit Cat."
"First Soul Skill, Hellish Traversal. Second soul skill, Hell Stab."
Zhu Zhuqing introduced her martial soul quite briefly, then looked at Dai Mubai.
Her gaze made his scalp prickle. Although he had been placed under a hex back then, he had invited her along when he left.
But he had still shirked his responsibility, hardly behaving like a man.
"Gah! Seven, Seven..." Oscar suddenly cried out.
Ning Rongrong had released her martial soul, and its seven-colored radiance drew everyone's gaze.
It was the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, the hereditary martial soul of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, one of the Upper Three Sects!
It stirred considerable waves in everyone's hearts.
Oscar reacted most strongly of all. After all, his own martial soul was far superior to the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, and he still did not know whether it could be passed down.
If it could only be passed down through a single line like Nine Heart Begonia, that would be fine. They could get along politely, since it would not shake the pagoda's position as the world's number one support martial soul anyway.
But if it could be passed down...
Then Oscar would be in deep trouble.
I absolutely cannot expose my martial soul's true appearance or its actual effects.
Fortunately, he could reduce the food's quality to weaken its enhancement effects. Otherwise, people would immediately discover that it could provide percentage-based increases.
"What do I do, Boss Dai, Fatty? Suddenly, I don't want to fall in love at first sight anymore."
Oscar used Sound Transmission, a skill every Shrek Academy student had to learn.
"Then just lust after her looks. Once you've had your fun, run."
"She's from the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect! Judging by her bearing, she's almost certainly from the direct line. If I actually did what you said, you'd probably see my hot dog hanging from my head the very next day."
"Leave me out of your transmissions if you're going to mess around," Tang San said, telling them to behave.
The person who interested him most right now, Lin Like, was about to release her martial soul.
"Ta-da!" Lin Like released her martial soul. It was a tool martial soul.
Its appearance made Tang San's brows knit tightly.
It was a black box with a handle and a trigger at the rear. A bow-like projection extended from either side, connected by a string.
A Zhuge Repeating Crossbow!?
A hidden weapon?!
This girl's martial soul is a hidden weapon?
No, it isn't. This repeating crossbow isn't portable. It's not a hidden weapon-it should be called a conventional weapon.
Moreover, judging by Tang San's forging experience, its metal was highly unusual. It had been artificially worked, falling a little short of the seamless unity found in ordinary tool martial souls.
Still, it was exquisitely made. Had Tang San's forging skills not been exceptionally advanced, he might really have been fooled.
As for the soul power fluctuations coming from it, and the two yellow soul rings fitted around the repeating crossbow...
Tang San suspected that her martial soul was some mechanical core inside it.
This was truly inconceivable. A martial soul like this had almost never appeared on the Douluo Continent.
Tang San looked at Grandmaster and found him wearing a rare expression of bewilderment.
Grandmaster gave Tang San a meaningful look, and Tang San nodded.
He had spotted the clues.
The creases between Grandmaster's brows deepened. Then he asked tentatively, "Miss Lin, could this martial soul of yours be a soul tool?"
"Ah! No! My martial soul is just a crossbow. Its soul skills let it fire various kinds of bolts."
"Hey, hey, hey! Those people just called you Grandmaster, but you can actually get even something like this wrong?"
Ning Rongrong spoke up to defend her friend.
"..." Grandmaster said nothing. It had been a long time since anyone had looked down on him like this.
Now was not the time to get to the bottom of it. He would let things take their course.
"You pass. Go on to the next round of testing."
"All right, it's our turn to take the stage." Ma Hongjun rolled up his sleeves, only to discover that the two beside him had suddenly gone quiet.
Before you continue