After helping Dai Youheng complete his registration, the Wind Wolf guard promptly took his leave and returned to Star Luo City to report back.
Dai Youheng stood inside Shrek Academy's imposing gates, watching the bustling students around him, all brimming with youth and vitality. His brows furrowed slightly.
He realized he had made a mistake-not a huge one, but hardly a small one either. Although he had devoured that simp Youheng's soul power, martial soul, and even soul rings, he had neglected to absorb his memories!
An oversight... he thought. Which class was this guy in again? What was his dorm room number? And who was his roommate?
Just as he stood there, trying to search the few remaining fragments of that simp's soul for this everyday information, an anxious, clear voice rang out behind him. "Dai Youheng!!"
Dai Youheng turned to see someone dressed as a boy hurrying toward him. She wore Shrek Academy's uniform, but it did nothing to conceal her peerless beauty.
She had short pink-and-blue hair, skin fairer than snow, and features as exquisite as heaven's most perfect masterpiece. Her large eyes were glistening with anxiety.
Her beauty would have left even many women feeling ashamed of their own looks.
Dai Youheng was handsome enough himself, but compared with her, he truly fell a notch short.
He was still wondering who she was when she rushed up to him and asked urgently, "Dai Youheng! Have you seen Yuhao? Today is the last day to register for the new term, but he still hasn't come back! Where on earth did he go?"
He had initially been unsure who this newcomer was.
But hearing her search so urgently for Huo Yuhao, coupled with looks more beautiful than a woman's, Dai Youheng immediately realized her identity. Who else could she be but Wang Dong, the wielder of the Light Goddess Butterfly martial soul and the "good brother" who shared Huo Yuhao's dorm room and was exceptionally close to him?
He remembered the original story. After the first school year ended, Huo Yuhao had gone to the Far North to acquire his second martial soul, the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion. With the help of the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm and the Ice Empress, he had also obtained the second soul ring for his Spirit Eyes. The process had taken so long that he had ultimately arrived late.
Apparently, this was precisely when Wang Dong was running around in anxious circles because she could not find Huo Yuhao.
"Don't worry. Huo Yuhao is fine," Dai Youheng replied calmly. "He'll be back soon. By the way, Wang Dong, let me ask you something. Does our academy have a rule about changing dorm rooms for the new term?"
Wang Dong froze at his words, keenly sensing something amiss. In the past, Dai Youheng had always been unusually warm and friendly whenever he mentioned Huo Yuhao, constantly calling him "Yuhao" or "little brother Yuhao." When had he ever used his full name in such a flat tone as he did now?
And he had actually asked a basic common-knowledge question like whether the academy had a rule about changing dorm rooms?
"Changing dorm rooms?" Although Wang Dong was puzzled, she was more worried about Huo Yuhao at the moment, so she replied irritably, "Of course not! Once your dorm room is assigned, it stays the same until graduation! You don't even know that?"
"Oh, so my room is still...?" Dai Youheng deliberately slowed his speech, pretending to struggle to remember.
Wang Dong's heart was burning with anxiety. She was in the middle of searching desperately for Huo Yuhao, so how could she have the patience to wait for him to finish? She interrupted him outright. "Of course it's still Room 107! Right next to Room 108, where Yuhao and I live! How could you forget even that?" Her tone was distinctly impatient.
"Thanks!" Having obtained the information he wanted, Dai Youheng's lips curved in an almost imperceptible smile, though his thanks sounded somewhat perfunctory.
What's with this guy today? Why is he acting so strange? Wang Dong watched Dai Youheng turn and walk away, her delicate brows knitting slightly. Although he had thanked her, his tone had contained none of his usual flattery or enthusiasm. Instead, there had been a sense of distance and indifference.
"Forget it. What does how he acts have to do with me?" Wang Dong shook her head, casting that little doubt aside. "Finding Yuhao comes first!" She immediately turned to continue seeking out Bei Bei, Tang Ya, Xiao Xiao, and Huo Yuhao's other acquaintances to ask for news.
Meanwhile, following the signs, Dai Youheng easily found the first-year dormitory building and went straight to the door of Room 107.
He pushed the door open. It was a standard two-person dorm room, simply furnished but tidy. By the window, a boy sat at a desk, intently reading a thick book that gave off faint fluctuations of soul power.
The book was rather unusual. Its cover had an antique appearance, and only its first two pages contained detailed illustrations of soul beasts with accompanying text. The remaining pages were completely blank.
Hearing the door open, the boy looked up. When he saw Dai Youheng, a friendly smile appeared on his face. "Youheng, you're here. How was your break?"
Dai Youheng's gaze swept over the peculiar book as he quickly analyzed it. That isn't an ordinary book. It's a martial soul! His soul power level is somewhere in the twenties, and he has two soul rings, so only the first two pages of his book have any content. Among the students in Huo Yuhao's year, there's only one person with a book-type martial soul that has these traits!
An appropriately warm smile appeared on his face as well. Setting down his luggage, he said naturally, "Zhou Sichen, long time no see. You really work hard, quietly studying your martial soul even at a time like this."
The boy named Zhou Sichen smiled a little sheepishly and closed the tome martial soul in his hands. "Ah, don't get me started. The teachers call my martial soul a top-tier tool martial soul, but there are just too many directions it could develop in. Having so much flexibility only makes choosing harder. My teacher keeps telling me to think carefully about which direction I should take."
His tome martial soul was extremely unusual. It could absorb the soul energy of all kinds of soul beasts and turn it into soul skills within its pages.
In other words, whatever soul beast he hunted, he could summon that soul beast to fight for him in battle. His current two pages of soul skills summoned an Earth Demon Bear and a Flame Demon Tiger, both of the power attack system. That was why he was agonizing over his choice of a third soul ring.
Some suggested that since his first two soul skills were both of the power attack system, he might as well follow that road to its end, gathering nine power-attack-type summoned beasts and taking offense to its utmost limit.
Others felt that since his tome martial soul was so rare and interesting, he ought to develop it in every direction, adding defensive, control-type, and even support-type summoned beasts later to make his fighting style more varied and flexible.
Zhou Sichen was deeply torn over this. Seeing his roommate return, he instinctively wanted another opinion. "Youheng, you came at just the right time. Since my first two soul skills are both of the power attack system, what do you think I should do next? Keep piling on power attacks, or start changing direction?"
Dai Youheng was straightening his bedding. Without even looking up, he replied flatly, "Whatever."
Before you continue