"I appreciate everyone's kindness. If there's a chance..."
With his goal achieved, Xiao Zi visibly cooled off, subtly avoiding Wang Dong as she drew closer.
Regardless of who won this match, the soul bone would belong to him. What looked to outsiders like a righteous helping hand was actually catching a white wolf with empty hands-he lost nothing and still won everyone's goodwill.
Between Qian Renxue's collection and the treasure chests he had opened along the way, Xiao Zi had accumulated quite a few soul bones. Even if their attributes suited him and their ages were acceptable, he couldn't absorb them.
Yet soul bones were Blood River Treasures, several times more plentiful than in Douluo I. They could be bought and sold, or bartered for scarce resources. Take the Auction House, for instance: it offered all sorts of soul bones, metals, and medicinal herbs. There was always something that suited him.
"Xiao Zi, there's someone over there," Qian Renxue's voice suddenly rang out.
Following the direction she indicated, Xiao Zi glanced out of the corner of his eye and saw an elderly woman concealed in the shadows, her piercing gaze sweeping over the group.
According to the original plot, Zhou Yi was supposed to step out and stop this. With Xiao Xiao's soul bone at stake, how could someone so protective of her own students hold herself back? If Dai Huabin had still been in Class One, she would surely have expelled him.
Seeing someone step in to defuse the situation, she simply stayed off to one side and watched. Things were going Huo Yuhao's way, after all. Why not?
As for "Li Lezi," her impression of him was nothing special. When she first heard that Mu Jin's Class Two had received a transfer student who was also Dai Huabin's new lackey, she suspected the Duke's Mansion had sent him to take revenge on Huo Yuhao and seek justice for their son.
She couldn't help regretting it a little. Had she known, she would have held off on expelling Dai Huabin, waited for Li Lezi to arrive, and caught them both in one net!
So she seized on the loophole of his transfer admission and secretly reported him to Du Weilun, expressing her concerns to see whether they could shut him out and keep him from studying at Shrek. That was what had led to Xiao Zi being taken to the Academic Affairs Office.
If he hadn't had two purple soul rings to his name, along with the tacit approval of Dragon God Douluo Mu En, Zhou Yi really would have succeeded.
What sort of mental gymnastics was that? Even the worldly Destruction God King probably couldn't have made sense of it. But if Zhou Yi were a normal person, she wouldn't have expelled students without considering the consequences and earned herself the mocking nickname of "old spinster."
Xiao Zi's actions just now made her assume he was on Huo Yuhao's side, and her burning urge to expel him gradually died down. A student from another class, and a noble's lackey at that-so what if his martial soul talent was good? He was still destined to work for someone else. Hardly worth mentioning.
Shrek wanted peerless geniuses, not servile lackeys who bowed and scraped. People like that were destined to become stepping stones, never achieving anything great.
Having convinced herself, Zhou Yi quietly withdrew and paid "Li Lezi" no further attention.
The advancement assessment consisted of each class sending out a few representatives to fight hundred-year soul beasts one-on-one. Every student in a winning class would advance, while the losers would be eliminated.
But that was only meant to scare the students. If a truly gifted student were expelled, Shrek would be the unhappy party and would try every possible means to keep them.
Inside the Soul Beast Arena, everyone wore a solemn expression.
The enormous inner arena could accommodate ten thousand people, displaying Shrek Academy's wealth at every turn. The entire construction was vast and spectacular; calling it magnificent and grand was no exaggeration.
They lined up by class, listening to the soul beasts' low, muffled roars as an oppressive, tense atmosphere filled the air.
After making the wager, driven by his promise to Xiao Zi and his hatred for the Duke's Mansion, Huo Yuhao had added another condition: whoever lost would kowtow three times to the other party, knocking their head audibly against the ground in front of everyone.
Dai Huabin had initially been unwilling, but agreed after receiving his master's instructions. Naturally, there was no shortage of biting mockery as they hurled Zu'an-style abuse at each other.
Xiao Zi accepted this arrangement calmly. Win or lose, everything would follow the predetermined course, while he played both sides and earned himself another wave of goodwill from the protagonist's group.
As he entered the arena, he looked toward the spectator stands, where the immortals stood thick as hemp. Besides Academic Affairs Director Du Weilun, there was a middle-aged man in white who looked deeply calculating, and another man wearing glasses who seemed equally shrewd.
They were the deans of Shrek's two principal departments, the Martial Soul Department and the Soul Tool Department: Yan Shaozhe and Qian Duoduo.
Xiao Zi suddenly realized that this world's setting differed slightly from the original story. Some characters remained out of sight or simply didn't exist. For instance, Yan Shaozhe and Qian Duoduo were overseeing this advancement assessment, whereas in the original, Du Weilun alone had done so.
Below the stands, a burly old man with an imposing presence stood in the arena. He was Beast King Douluo Gong Changlong, who was responsible for this assessment and also raised the soul beasts, juggling several duties.
Huo Yuhao was the first to enter, walking into the arena under everyone's expectant gazes. On the way, he deliberately glanced at Xiao Zi and gave him a reassuring look, indicating that he absolutely would not lose and that Xiao Zi could rest easy.
Xiao Zi responded politely, then resumed his indifferent expression once their gazes parted. He didn't particularly care about the outcome.
Huo Yuhao's plan was simply to follow his bungling adviser Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's suggestion and frighten the soul beast away with the ferocious beast aura of his second martial soul, the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion. Xiao Zi considered it child's play, but it was enough to show off before a bunch of children in their teens.
It would also frighten every soul beast until their legs went weak and they couldn't muster even the slightest thought of resisting. The advancement assessment would effectively be ruined, and Dai Huabin would lose before he even fought.
In the Soul Beast Arena, Huo Yuhao selected a hundred-year soul beast, naturally drawing a chorus of boos, especially from Dai Huabin. "With that pathetic ability, you still have the nerve to compete? Be a good boy and kowtow to me!"
Huo Yuhao ignored him, simply watching the charging soul beast. A vast aura burst from his body and swept toward it as a terrifying Extreme Ice Storm descended!
The soul beast's legs went weak with fright. It collapsed straight to the ground, losing control of its bowels and bladder, unable to muster even the slightest thought of resistance. It fainted from terror on the spot!
That wasn't the end of it. The Extreme Ice Storm spread rapidly, and every soul beast prostrated itself beneath that pressure, not daring to act up.
The faces of everyone in the stands changed drastically. Yan Shaozhe and Qian Duoduo exchanged a glance, trying hard to discern what was happening. Gong Changlong, the keeper, was even more shocked. He felt nothing but bloodline suppression carrying the aura of an ancient ferocious beast. Even he froze for a moment!
In contrast to everyone's disbelief, Xiao Zi maintained the same indifferent expression from beginning to end, looking every bit like a master who stood aloof from worldly affairs.
From the Sea of Consciousness, Qian Renxue asked, "Is that the four-hundred-thousand-year-old Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion? If I'm not mistaken, there's also a million-year-old giant bug?"
The two had been chatting on and off since the match began. Only when Huo Yuhao revealed the oppressive aura of a ferocious beast from the Far North did their conversation turn to this subject.
Xiao Zi nodded. "Both of those soul beasts came from the Far North. If things follow the original plot, there'll be a seven-hundred-thousand-year-old Heavenly Snow Woman joining them later..."