Reaching Rank Ten

Completely unaware that he had been "looked down on," Lin Yang officially began his academy life.

As a Soul Master, cultivation was naturally his foundation, but there was no shortage of other classes either.

Of the two classes every morning, one was always the most basic quality education, covering history, geography, humanities, and related subjects.

Aside from that, there were advanced classes such as martial soul studies, soul beast identification, and Combat Training.

Although most of the material was elementary, it was more than enough knowledge for a bunch of little sprouts who had only just stepped into the realm of Soul Masters.

Afternoons were free time. Work-study students could use this time to finish their assigned work, while self-funded students could cultivate.

Of course, if they felt like playing instead, no one stopped them.

After all, the academy's graduation requirement was simple: obtain their first soul ring during their studies.

If they failed to obtain their first soul ring within their six years at school, then, sorry, they could only withdraw.

On the path of a Soul Master, falling behind by one step meant falling behind at every step.

If they had no talent and refused to work hard, they might as well go home and sell sweet potatoes.

The work-study students all understood this, so they were also among the hardest workers in the academy.

As time passed, Lin Yang's life gradually settled into a routine.

After finishing his classes each day, he would quickly complete the tasks the school assigned him.

He spent half his remaining time in the library, learning about various martial souls and soul beasts to prepare for his first soul ring.

He spent the other half training his body like his life depended on it, practicing his Breathing Style and Sword Forms.

When he returned to the dormitory at night, he continued meditating and cultivating Soul Power.

Lin Yang had obtained the Basic Meditation Method on his very first day at school.

However, this meditation method was even cruder than he had imagined. It was not even as efficient as meditating on his own.

He had privately sounded out Zhao Bufan and a number of other students.

He discovered that when they cultivated, they did not "see" the free-floating Heaven and Earth Essence,

and could only sense it like blind men feeling an elephant. Naturally, their efficiency could not be high.

This was probably related to the Transparent World.

But Lin Yang did not become smug because of it.

Instead, over these three months, he kept studying and working through possibilities, combining his own traits with those of his Breathing Style to perfect a meditation method suited to him as much as possible.

If someone could have entered Lin Yang's Sea of Consciousness at that moment, they would have discovered,

above his Sea of Consciousness, an illusory yet blazing sun.

This was the result of four full months since Lin Yang had enrolled: the Great Sun Meditation Method.

The Great Sun Meditation Method suited Lin Yang perfectly.

That sun was the manifestation of his immense spiritual power, the central hub for mobilizing his spiritual power and refining Soul Power.

In Deep Meditation, he absorbed Heaven and Earth Essence three times as quickly as before, while his efficiency in converting it into Soul Power had more than doubled.

Previously, twenty strands of Heaven and Earth Essence became one strand of Soul Power. Now, he needed only ten, and the resulting Soul Power was pure.

Even when he was not meditating, the sun passively absorbed Heaven and Earth Essence. Although its efficiency was very low, its advantage lay in its persistence.

Under the influence of the Great Sun Meditation Method, his originally attribute-less Soul Power also began taking on a scorching attribute.

This greatly increased the might of Lin Yang's Sword Forms, sending waves of fire surging with every move, their power immense.

If he combined them with Sun Breathing, the Demon Slayer Mark, and the Transparent World,

Lin Yang reckoned that no Soul Master with three rings or fewer would be his match.

Of course, speculation was only speculation. He was not arrogant enough to find a three-ring Soul Elder to test himself against.

With the support of the Great Sun Meditation Method, which suited him perfectly, Lin Yang's cultivation advanced a thousand miles a day.

In his fourth month at the academy, his Soul Power officially broke through to rank ten.

"B-Boss, you're saying you broke through too?"

Wang Sheng stared at Lin Yang, his jaw nearly hitting the floor, his shock plain to see.

The other roommates in Dorm Seven also wore expressions of shock and envy.

How long had it even been since school started?

Four months at most, and he had cultivated all the way from rank seven Soul Power to rank ten?

An average of one rank a month?

With such an outrageous cultivation speed, even the legendary innate full soul power could hardly amount to more than this.

Was a genius like this really the boss of their work-study students?

Among them, Zhao Bufan wore the most complicated expression.

He was the oldest in Dorm Seven, and also had the highest cultivation.

He had only recently broken through to the realm of a rank-ten Soul Master himself.

Before that, he had spent more than a year stuck at the hurdle between ranks nine and ten, only breaking through through slow, painstaking effort.

Yet Lin Yang had reached the same realm as him in just a few months.

He had thought that breaking through to rank ten would let him pull ahead of Lin Yang,

only to discover that not only had he failed to pull ahead, but the gap had closed until they stood at the same starting line.

From here on, he might be the one left far behind.

This enormous disparity left him feeling lost and dejected.

But as he watched Lin Yang surrounded by the others, Zhao Bufan remained silent for a long while before finally seeming to make up his mind about something.

News of Lin Yang's breakthrough to rank ten soon spread, and the substitute homeroom teacher gave him lavish praise in front of the entire class.

The teacher told everyone else to take Lin Yang as their example and cultivate diligently.

Unsurprisingly, Lin Yang received another round of envious, jealous, and resentful looks.

Lin Yang ignored all those complicated gazes. Aside from attending classes and cultivating according to his routine,

he also needed to use his remaining time to prepare to hunt for his first soul ring.

What kind of soul beast to hunt, what age would be most suitable, and which environments offered the best chance of encountering it-all of these required extensive information to verify.

If he wanted to obtain a soul ring that suited him as closely as possible, these preparations were essential.

That was right. Lin Yang did not intend to join the soul hunting operation the school organized at the end of each school year. Instead, he planned to go soul hunting himself.

The reason was simple: the academy's soul hunting operations put the students' safety first.

A junior Soul Master Academy had extremely limited teaching staff and high-end combat strength. Only the dean, Su Hong, had the strength of a Four-Ring Soul Ancestor.

As dean, he could not possibly take students out soul hunting.

Most soul hunting operations were led by two or three teachers who were Soul Grandmasters or Soul Elders, taking a group of students who had only just reached rank ten and had almost no ability to protect themselves out to hunt soul beasts.

The teachers leading them already had to bear enormous risks, so they were even less likely to risk their lives venturing deep into the Soul Hunting Forest to search for soul rings over a hundred years old.

Their choice of soul rings was also largely left to chance. Once they killed a soul beast, its ring went to whichever student suited it.

What Soul Skill they obtained was entirely up to heaven.

They sought no merit, only to avoid mistakes.

Under these circumstances, the vast majority of students ended up with white first soul rings.

Students whose first soul ring was a yellow hundred-year soul ring were few and far between.

So, from the very beginning, Lin Yang had never intended to entrust his soul ring to the school. He planned to go soul hunting himself instead.

Tang San could kill a four-hundred-year-old Mandala Snake with Hidden Weapons. Were his own methods any worse?

After comparing various factors, Lin Yang finally settled on several possible targets.

By the time he left the library, it was already growing late. Lin Yang rubbed his stomach and prepared to head to the dining hall.

He had barely taken two steps when a figure darted out from the side, happening to block his path.

Without thinking much of it, Lin Yang turned slightly, preparing to walk around.

But that figure followed him like a shadow, clinging like a dog-skin plaster.

Lin Yang frowned slightly and raised his head to look at the figure, immediately feeling surprised.

With that familiar buzz cut and zombie face, along with the air of dejection that refused to disperse around him, who else could it be but Yu Xiaogang?

"Grandmaster?"