After this practical combat exercise, Dugu Yan, Ye Lingling, and the others gained a more immediate sense of Yu Tianming's strength.
Strong.
Incomparably strong!
They were all Soul Masters, and their Soul Power was even higher than Yu Tianming's, yet their strength fell far short of his.
The Heaven Dou Royal Academy dormitories.
Unlike Nuoding Academy in its small town, the Heaven Dou Royal Junior Academy offered excellent accommodations, with two students to each room.
The boys' and girls' dormitories were also separate.
"Brother, this room is pretty nice!"
Yu Tianming followed Yu Tianheng into a dorm room and looked around.
Yu Tianheng had always had a room to himself. Now that Yu Tianming had enrolled, the two brothers could share.
In the rooms beside theirs were Yu Feng and Osler, and Shi Mo and Shi Mo, respectively.
"Of course!"
Yu Tianheng grinned.
Yu Tianming brushed his fingers over the desk's smooth surface, then pressed down on the fluffy goose-down quilt. The mattress immediately sank into a comfortable curve.
The window faced a stretch of Blue Silver Grass, stunningly beautiful in the lingering glow of sunset!
"These accommodations really are good."
Yu Tianming opened the wardrobe and found two brand-new uniforms hanging neatly inside. "They even prepared clothes?"
Yu Tianheng leaned smugly against the headboard, his hands behind his head. "The academy provides uniforms for every noble student. Your daily necessities just arrived-check the drawer."
Yu Tianming opened the bedside drawer. Inside, carved combs and a lamp were neatly arranged.
There was even a box of dragonblood rosin supplied exclusively to the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan.
He picked up a piece of rosin shaped like an ink stick and sniffed it lightly. "Isn't this the incense we use at home? Did the academy prepare this too?"
"Yes."
Yu Tianheng nodded. "Dragonblood rosin. This was prepared especially for us."
Yu Tianming understood.
This was a noble academy, after all. It was only natural that they served different dishes depending on who sat at the table.
Yu Tianheng suddenly tossed something over. "Catch!"
Yu Tianming caught it backhanded, feeling the cool touch of metal against his palm. It was a dagger inlaid with lightning-patterned jade.
The sheath was finely engraved with a Valstrax surrounded by crimson streaks of light. When he drew the dagger, an arc of electricity flashed along its edge.
"A birthday present. I was going to give it to you next month." Yu Tianheng scratched his head. "But since you've come to the academy now, it'll come in handy."
"Thanks, Brother."
Yu Tianming smiled sincerely and fastened the dagger at his waist.
Suddenly,
he heard a knocking sound at the window.
Shi Mo's large face was pressed against the glass, his nose squashed flat. "Tianming, Tian Heng! The cafeteria just got a shipment of Ice Crystal Fruit!"
Their room was on the second floor, and Shi Mo spoke while clinging to the window.
Behind him, Yu Feng was tossing pale blue Ice Crystal Fruits, each only the size of a longan, high into the air. Osler turned into a black shadow to catch them in midair, drawing repeated shrieks from passing female students.
"Ice Crystal Fruit?"
Yu Tianheng sprang from the bed with a kip-up and pushed open the window.
"Why is it so early this year?"
Shi Mo nearly toppled off the windowsill, but Yu Feng grabbed his collar and caught him. "Apparently, the north warmed up early this year, so the merchant caravan came ahead of... ow!"
An Ice Crystal Fruit struck him squarely in the back of the head, and Osler's figure flashed past a nearby treetop.
"Osler!!"
Yu Feng flung an Ice Crystal Fruit into the room, then immediately beat his wings and chased after Osler.
Yu Tianming raised a hand and caught the fruit thrown through the window.
Beneath its translucent blue skin, he could see ice-floc-like flesh slowly flowing. It felt cool to the touch without being bone-chilling.
Ice Crystal Fruit was a special fruit that ordinary people could not afford at all, growing only in the snowy forests of the north.
He gently bit through the skin, and crisp, refreshing juice immediately burst across his tongue, wonderfully icy.
"Eat slowly."
Yu Tianheng had already climbed out over the windowsill.
"These aren't anything rare. The clan buys a huge batch every year."
Below the dormitory, Dugu Yan stood with her hands on her hips and looked up. "What are you two dawdling for? If you don't hurry, Shi Mo and Shi Mo will eat them all!"
Two empty fruit baskets were already piled at her feet.
Ye Lingling stood quietly to one side with a faint smile on her face.
By the time the brothers arrived, Yu Feng and Osler were rolling around together on the lawn-fighting over the last twin fruit.
The two Ice Crystal Fruits were joined together, their surface covered in a rare pattern of frost flowers.
"Stop!"
Yu Tianming suddenly flicked out a stream of Dragon Energy.
The crimson current precisely split the twin fruit, and the two halves landed on the faces of the wrestling pair.
"Equal shares."
Yu Tianming picked up his own half and took a bite. "Speaking of this fruit..."
"Ice Crystal Fruit can actually increase ice resistance briefly, but the effect isn't very strong. Mostly, eating it just feels refreshing."
Ye Lingling suddenly spoke, her voice as soft as petals falling onto water.
"Fire-attribute Soul Masters see the most noticeable increase in ice resistance after eating it, though it only lasts a dozen or so minutes."
As she spoke, she offered him a handkerchief embroidered with begonia flowers, gesturing for Yu Tianming to wipe the corner of his mouth.
Dugu Yan's eyes darted, and she suddenly stuffed a fruit down Yu Tianheng's collar. "Does it not work for lightning attributes? Let me try."
"Yanzi!"
Yu Tianheng hopped about from the cold, his Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Martial Soul possessing him immediately as he chased Dugu Yan with electricity crackling around him.
The Shi Mo brothers seized the chance to form a human wall, only to have their hair shocked straight up.
Amid the laughter and horseplay, Yu Tianming noticed that fellow Osler secretly placing a few Ice Crystal Fruits on the windowsill of a girls' dorm room.
"Ooh-" Yu Feng drew out the sound teasingly, only for Osler to drag him into the bushes in a headlock.
"Hm? Osler had a simp phase too?" Yu Tianming raised an eyebrow. He remembered that Osler had no lover in the original story.
Time passed quickly.
Once the sun had completely set, the dorm supervisor came carrying a lamp to shoo them away.
Before everyone scattered like birds and beasts, Dugu Yan suddenly lowered her voice mysteriously. "There's a new instructor for tomorrow's practical combat class..."
"I heard he's a Soul Emperor expert," Shi Mo added, only for his older brother to cover his mouth.
Yu Tianheng raised an eyebrow. "How do you know?"
"Because..."
Yu Feng had only just opened his mouth when the supervisor's booming roar rang out from afar. "You little brats sneaking Ice Crystal Fruit before lights-out! Get back to your rooms now, this instant, immediately!"
The dormitories were especially lively that night.
Sneezes rose and fell from room to room-a side effect of Ice Crystal Fruit.
After meditating and cultivating his Soul Power for a while, Yu Tianming opened his eyes.
"Brother, about the new instructor..."
"He's most likely coming because of you." Yu Tianheng lay on his bed. "Your talent and strength aren't a secret. The academy knows about them too."
Normally, teachers at a junior academy were at most Soul Ancestors.
A Soul Emperor,
even advanced academies did not have many of those!
If anyone could attract a Soul Emperor teacher, it could only be a monster like Yu Tianming.
"With Soul Emperor cultivation, he'd be a Heaven Dou Grade teacher, the highest rank at the Heaven Dou Royal Academy. He should have some real ability."
Yu Tianming did not dwell on it. He would find out what was going on tomorrow.
He suddenly remembered the handkerchief Ye Lingling had offered him at dusk, with a tiny begonia flower embroidered in silver thread in its corner.
"That girl's handiwork is pretty good..."