"Hey, Wang Dong! You lost to me back then. What do you mean by going back on your word now?"
Xiao Xiao squeezed over and spoke.
"Hmph, of course I wouldn't try to snare a white wolf with empty hands."
Wang Dong took out a bottle of pills.
"These are my Clear Sky Sect's secret medicine, Sea Emperor Pills. Taking one can raise your Soul Power by one level at the Soul King stage without any side effects!"
"Wow! As expected of the Clear Sky Sect! Rich enough to do whatever they want!" Everyone nearby immediately looked envious when they heard that.
Lu Yu stared at the bottle, sensing a thick divine aura inside.
He wouldn't eat those things even if she gave them to him.
"Classmate Wang Dong, I think you ought to have some self-respect. I'm not very fond of people who are too forward."
"Hmph, are you scared?!" Wang Dong understood what Lu Yu meant, and her already flushed face grew even redder. She didn't know why she wanted to return to that dorm room so badly.
Perhaps it was because she wanted to reclaim her pride after being defeated twice in a row.
"Fiiine, but those pills are too valuable, so I won't take them. I've been curious about the secluded Clear Sky Sect for a long time. I'll ask you for one piece of information about it. As its young master, you should be able to make that decision, right?"
"No problem. When it comes to Clear Sky Sect matters, what I say goes. No one refuses anything I want to do."
Seeing Lu Yu agree, Wang Dong put away the bottle and sat down in her seat.
Soon, everyone submitted their preferred teams. After carefully reviewing each one, Wang Yan pointed out the weaknesses in several teams and made some adjustments to create more sensible arrangements.
"Then the team roster is settled. Over the next few days, I'll gather information about opponents from the other classes and leave it in the classroom. Make sure you don't forget to collect it. Of course, you can also ask me any questions about combat."
After explaining all the details, Wang Yan announced that the meeting was over.
"Grandmaster Lu, has that Wang Dong fallen for you?"
On the way to the Soul Tool Department's teaching building, Xiao Xiao nudged Lu Yu with her elbow.
"Maybe. Outstanding people are popular wherever they go, after all. Oh, there's something I should tell you: Wang Dong is a girl."
"What?!" Not only Xiao Xiao, but even Huo Yutong beside her widened her eyes.
"No way. If she's a girl, why does she keep insisting on moving back into the dorm? Has she really fallen for you?"
"I think she might have some other scheme. Master, you need to be careful."
Huo Yutong spoke up to warn him. Going by what her master had said, there was something very wrong with Wang Dong.
"Yutong is right. From now on, try to steer clear of her when you see her. Don't be alone with her in private, and don't eat anything she hands you."
Thinking of those pills brimming with divine aura, Lu Yu looked toward the statue of Tang San standing in the square not far away.
He could now be certain that Tang San had noticed him, but for some reason, he was sending both his daughter and pills. There was something strange about it all.
Why does it feel unsafe to get too close to Wang Dong?
Still, he had no intention of leaving Shrek for now. After all, the Soul Tool Department supplied him with ample resources, and the New Student Competition's rewards were coming up soon.
He had heard that the reward for first place was exceptionally generous. He wondered whether it might be a Ten Thousand Year Soul Bone.
The Freshman Assessment would take place in the Martial Soul Department's assessment area.
The next day, nearly a thousand students from ten classes arrived at the assessment area in a mighty procession.
By then, the grounds had been divided into fifty sections, each a rectangle twenty meters to a side, separated by partitions.
All the new students were gathered there in the morning to be assigned to groups.
Time soon leaped ahead to the afternoon.
"Attention, all new students. There are ten minutes remaining before the assessment begins. Any new student who arrives fifteen minutes late will be considered to have forfeited."
The announcement played three times. Lu Yu and the others also arrived at their assigned section. The teacher responsible for that section happened to be their homeroom teacher, Wang Yan.
"It looks like everyone's here."
Wang Yan picked up a file.
"First round of the assessment. Freshman Class One: Lu Yu, Huo Yutong, Xiao Xiao. Freshman Class Three: Ouyang Junyi, Chen Junfeng, Zhao Haochen."
"You may enter the arena. You may only release your Martial Souls after I announce the start of the match."
The moment they entered the arena, Lu Yu and his two teammates paused.
The three across from them were precisely the three Soul Masters Xiao Xiao had defeated one against three when she set up her challenge arena on the first day.
"Hmph, we meet again. This time, we're definitely going to beat you."
"Uh... good luck."
Hearing their bold threat, Xiao Xiao couldn't quite muster any enthusiasm, but out of respect, she would use her full strength to finish them off immediately.
According to Lu Yu's plan, Xiao Xiao and Huo Yutong would handle most of the fighting. He would only act when they encountered opponents of sufficient caliber (whose Martial Souls were of sufficiently high quality).
"Begin!"
After Wang Yan announced the start, two Soul Rings, one yellow and one purple, lit up behind Xiao Xiao. Three Three-Life Soul-Suppressing Cauldrons were instantly summoned and hurtled toward the opposing trio.
Her second ring is a thousand-year one, just like Wang Dong's!
Wang Yan was shaken at the sight of the Soul Rings behind Xiao Xiao. Only a handful of people throughout Shrek's history had possessed a thousand-year second ring, yet he had encountered two in a single year.
"We surrender!"
Just as the Three-Life Soul-Suppressing Cauldrons were about to strike them, the three shouted without hesitation.
"Huh?" Xiao Xiao forcibly changed her Martial Soul's direction, smashing three large craters into the ground.
Ouyang Junyi and the others gulped. Had they not surrendered quickly enough, those huge cauldrons would have smashed into them.
"You're surrendering just like that?"
Wang Yan was also taken aback. Why had they surrendered without even fighting? Had the other classes gathered such excellent intelligence that they already knew Lu Yu's trio were Class One's seeded team?
"Yes, we surrender."
Ouyang Junyi spoke. Originally, the three of them had wanted revenge, but now that their opponent's Thousand-Year Soul Ring had lit up, what the hell was there to fight for? She had beaten all three of them with a single hundred-year ring. Now she had added a thousand-year second ring, while their strength had barely improved. They certainly weren't her match. They were better off saving their stamina for tomorrow's battles.
"That felt a little... easy."
Xiao Xiao felt rather uncomfortable. Forcibly redirecting those three cauldrons had made even her flat chest swell with pent-up frustration. Fortunately, after learning from Jiang Nannan, she had become considerably more broad-minded in the psychological sense, and she still wore a smile.
"I hope the upcoming battles will let me fight to my heart's content."
Unfortunately, they encountered no powerful opponents on the second day either. With Huo Yutong's Spiritual Detection assisting her, none of their opponents in the day's four matches could get past the Three-Life Soul-Suppressing Cauldrons, and Xiao Xiao easily won them all.
"Why does it feel like, with Yutong's help, all I have to do is activate my Second Soul Ring and ram them?"
"That's how a wheelchair works. You'll get used to riding in it."
The third day.
"Sixth round of the assessment. Freshman Class One: Lu Yu, Huo Yutong, Xiao Xiao. Freshman Class Three: Huang Chutian, Lan Susu, Lan Luoluo."
As Wang Yan finished speaking, the six competing students stepped into the arena.
Of the three from Freshman Class Three, one was a muscular, yellow-haired boy who looked like a pointy-headed Power Attack System type at first glance. As for the other two...
Lu Yu and his teammates couldn't help being startled when they saw them. They were twins.
The twins had long blue hair so silky they could have advertised it, lovely faces, and curvaceous figures with perky rears. Merely standing there, they were enough to make an ordinary person unable to look away.
Lu Yu also found it a little difficult to shift his gaze.
Of course, it wasn't because of the sisters' looks, but because of their almost identical hair Martial Soul Fragments.
Moreover, the auras of the two Martial Soul Fragments were extremely similar.
Similar auras meant that the two of them possessed...
A Martial Soul Fusion Skill!
Before you continue