"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Fireballs slammed into the ground, blasting up clouds of dust. Tang Wulin wanted to cry, but no tears would come. Isn't Brother Mingyuan just bullying me? How am I supposed to fight him when he can fly?
Tang Wulin grumbled furiously to himself as he dodged and scrambled in a sorry state. One moment, he stopped short and changed direction; the next, he hurled himself into a forward roll. The once-level field had been blasted into a landscape of craters by the fireballs.
If Tang Wulin paused for even an instant, fireballs would engulf him the very next second.
Hovering in midair, Jiang Mingyuan watched Tang Wulin scurry around below like a headless fly. The sight of his bedraggled state brought a curl to Jiang Mingyuan's lips.
A strange pleasure welled up inside him, beyond his control. It was a subtle sensation, as though some hidden switch deep in his heart had quietly been flipped. A tingling rush of delight shot up his spine to the crown of his head, even making his breathing a little lighter.
Jiang Mingyuan could not help himself. He increased the frequency of the fireballs.
On the ground, Tang Wulin, who had still been dodging with relative ease, felt the number of fireballs suddenly skyrocket. He barely evaded one, only for two or three more to follow on its heels. He groaned inwardly without end.
Tang Wulin narrowly dodged a fireball and seized the chance to whip his Blue Silver Grass, flinging dozens of fragrant fruits into the air.
With a casual flick of his finger, Jiang Mingyuan sent several fireballs over to intercept and burst them. A faint cloud of nerve toxin spread through the air.
Jiang Mingyuan's Phoenix Martial Soul possessed an innate purifying ability. As long as he remained clearheaded, Tang Wulin's meager toxins could do little to him.
But as the toxic gas slowly spread through the air, the spectating Class Five students were about to suffer.
By now, several dark lines had already creased Wu Changkong's forehead. These two were having a merry time playing, but every crater they left in the field would have to be paid for out of his pocket.
Wu Changkong summoned his martial soul, the Heavenly Frost Sword, and a wave of cold surged outward from its blade.
Controlling his ice-attribute soul power, Wu Changkong stirred up a cold current behind him. It kept the nerve toxin at bay, ensuring the other students' safety.
Tang Wulin rolled again, avoiding a fireball by a hair's breadth. The blast tore open the field, and he caught a flying stone. As he rose, he hurled it toward Jiang Mingyuan.
Thud!
Jiang Mingyuan did not manipulate his flames. Instead, a small metallic disc with a silvery sheen appeared half a meter in front of him. The stone struck it with a dull thud.
"Hehe. Wulin, stop struggling for nothing. Just surrender."
Tang Wulin looked up at the dozens of fireballs hurtling toward him and helplessly raised both hands. Jiang Mingyuan snapped his fingers, and the fireballs vanished just before they struck Tang Wulin.
Jiang Mingyuan landed in front of Tang Wulin and withdrew his martial soul. Grinning, he waved toward Wu Changkong.
"Teacher, I won!"
Tang Wulin poked Jiang Mingyuan's arm and asked quietly, "Brother Mingyuan, what was that little disc you used to block my attack?"
Jiang Mingyuan rolled up his sleeve, revealing a thin layer of silver armor over his arm.
"Here. This."
Tang Wulin reached out and poked it with a finger. The stuff was not very hard.
"Everyone, come over and line up." With the test over, Wu Changkong had roughly grasped each student's strengths and characteristics.
"I'll explain it properly when we have time." Jiang Mingyuan took Tang Wulin's hand and ran toward Class Five's gathering line.
Standing before the line, Wu Changkong said icily, "This test is over. I think you now have a rough idea of where your abilities stand. In my view, at least ninety percent of you performed very poorly in combat."
At this, quite a few students began sighing.
"Your foundations are all very weak. Starting tomorrow, I will arrange training to draw out your potential. Go back and get some proper rest today. Don't collapse from exhaustion tomorrow. Dismissed."
"Jiang Mingyuan, Tang Wulin, Xie Xie. You three, come with me." Wu Changkong tossed out those words coldly, then turned and left.
The three exchanged glances. Xie Xie rubbed his red, swollen eye socket, while Tang Wulin looked a little embarrassed. He was the one who had caused it with his fist.
"Let's go." Jiang Mingyuan was the first to follow.
Wu Changkong's office was not large.
Wu Changkong picked up his cup and took a sip of water, suppressing his frustration. My wallet is going to get thinner again.
He sat in his chair and looked at the three before him.
Jiang Mingyuan appeared perfectly at ease.
Tang Wulin looked a little timid.
As for Xie Xie, he was rubbing his eye socket with a pained grimace.
Wu Changkong's expression darkened. He took a disposable paper cup and filled it at the office's water dispenser. With a surge of cold, the water instantly froze solid.
"Here. Hold this against it."
"Thank you, Teacher Wu." Xie Xie accepted the ice and pressed it against his eye socket.
Wu Changkong swept his gaze over the three students before him. These three had performed the best in Class Five.
He first turned to Tang Wulin and offered his assessment. "Tang Wulin, your performance was fairly good. Your martial soul, Blue Silver Grass, seems to have undergone some beneficial mutation, greatly increasing its toughness. Although your soul power level is low right now, your tremendous physical strength makes up for that quite well."
"Thank you for the praise, Teacher Wu. I've been learning forging alongside my cultivation, and it happened to help me build up this strength." (At this point, Tang Wulin still did not know there was a seal inside his body.)
"Forging?" Wu Changkong frowned slightly and said sternly, "Why are you learning forging instead of focusing on cultivation? Your talent is already poor, yet you still aren't making the most of your time to cultivate. Won't learning something like forging only slow your progress even further?"
Faced with this rebuke, Tang Wulin did not know how to answer. Everyone who had known him before had praised his talent for forging. Why was Teacher Wu Changkong reacting so strongly?
"What you're doing is simply squandering what little talent you have. Do you want to become a blacksmith in the future? Let me tell you, without a sufficient soul power level to support you, you can only become a rank-two or rank-three blacksmith. It will be very difficult to advance any further."
Wu Changkong's words were rather harsh. Tang Wulin lowered his head, his face full of hurt. If he had not learned forging, he would not even have been able to become a soul master.
Jiang Mingyuan stretched out an arm in front of Tang Wulin. The smile gradually disappeared from his face.
"Teacher Wu. We came to Eastsea Academy to study, not to be berated by you. In all your years, has no one ever told you not to pass judgment before you know the whole picture?"
The temperature in the office abruptly rose several degrees. Jiang Mingyuan and Tang Wulin had known each other and walked side by side for nearly five years. He had witnessed Wulin's hard work firsthand.
"You can certainly sit here and use your own smooth-sailing life as grounds to accuse Tang Wulin of wasting his talent and his time. What you don't know is that if Wulin hadn't learned forging, he wouldn't even have been able to become a real soul master."
"You're well dressed, with powerful cultivation and a respectable income. But not everyone is like you. Do you know how many Federation Coins the lowest-grade ten-year soul spirit at the Spirit Pagoda costs?"
By then, Wu Changkong had also realized that his earlier words had been too harsh. He stood and reached out, his lips moving slightly as he tried to comfort Tang Wulin.
But Jiang Mingyuan slapped his hand away.