Back at the academy, Wu Changkong walked in front, with the four of them trailing behind, heads lowered.
"All right, tell me what you did wrong."
Tang Wulin spoke first. "Teacher Wu, we shouldn't have..."
"I'll settle accounts with you three later. Yan Qing, you first. What did you do wrong?"
Yan Qing lowered his eyes and composed himself, answering with complete seriousness:
"I didn't cheer in time when you displayed your divine might, Teacher."
Wu Changkong rubbed his brow.
"Who told me the other side was a god-class mecha pilot?"
"You even made me use my Battle Armor."
Yan Qing had only just remembered this part of the story and warned Wu Changkong ahead of time. Originally, Guang Biao could have stamped his feet at the academy gates for a while longer.
Instead, he got his beating ahead of schedule.
As for Guang Biao's strength, Yan Qing had embellished it considerably. Teacher Wu had been away from Shrek for too long and had never formally fought him.
The mecha squad captain back in Shrek City had possessed strength starting at the Titled Douluo level, at the very least.
That was why Wu Changkong had used his full strength in his haste. Otherwise, they would have had to wait until returning to Shrek Academy to see his complete Battle Armor.
The days that followed were relatively uneventful. Yan Qing traveled between the academy, the Blacksmith Association, and the library.
Life on that three-stop circuit was exceedingly dull. Perhaps the only entertaining part was teasing Mu Xi at the Blacksmith Association.
Yan Qing had run into a small problem with an order at the Blacksmith Association that week. He had accidentally forged a customer's Hundred Refinement accessory into a Thousand Refinement one.
After all, even an improvement in quality counted as goods not matching the order. Hundred Refinement could range from a hundred refinements to nine hundred, but it absolutely could not be Thousand Refinement.
That left him stuck with this semifinished piece.
Before long, however, Yan Qing found a way to give it away. He spotted the blacksmith registration information hanging in the lobby.
At the Blacksmith Association's reception desk, Mu Xi was fiddling with some parts on the counter to pass the time.
Yan Qing walked over with practiced ease and lightly tapped the counter.
"Beautiful Miss Mu, since you're so free, let me quiz you. What day was it thirteen years ago today?"
Mu Xi looked up, her brows knitting slightly. Even after thinking for quite a while, her eyes remained blank.
"I don't know."
She shook her head honestly.
Yan Qing smiled.
"Thirteen years ago, a fairy was born."
"Happy birthday!"
Yan Qing placed the accessory in front of Mu Xi and left without looking back, not waiting for her to react.
Mu Xi looked at the gift in her palm, then at the boy's departing figure, her pretty face faintly flushed.
That guy actually remembered my birthday.
He went to the Blacksmith Association to make money, but his purpose in visiting the library was to research the system missions.
In particular, that mission to seize Tang San's fortuitous opportunities was hardly easy.
If Yan Qing could cultivate to become a God King, he would definitely give Tang San two resounding slaps when they met.
Unfortunately, his current strength and standing made seizing those opportunities difficult.
The main storyline was also progressing steadily. Tang Wulin had been frantically taking on forging jobs lately, and the Golden Dragon King's first seal within him was about to be unlocked.
Yan Qing had also thoughtfully provided the future Golden Dragon King with some financial support.
He had to admit that he approved of Tang Wulin. His only flaw was having such a heaven-defying father.
Their third promotion match was against first-year Class Five.
Tang Wulin disappeared before the match. Naturally, Yan Qing knew where he had gone.
He simply disappeared along with him, waiting until the Little Golden Dragon King unlocked the Golden Dragon Claw before appearing together to face Class One.
The outcome went without saying. The three of them could already have steamrolled the opposition, and now they also had Yan Qing, this demon king, protecting them.
They treated the match like an order to be filled.
First-year Class One suffered a crushing defeat against Class Five. Considering that Class Five's strength was indeed overpowered,
to prevent them from smashing their way through sixth year, creating an extremely unfriendly gaming experience that would make students quit Eastsea Academy Online,
the first-year Class Zero from his memories was born.
Yan Qing also got to see Yu Zhen in person-the dean of Eastsea Academy.
He had to admit that this dean had far too little screen time. He was usually as elusive as a divine dragon, neither head nor tail to be seen, which had left Yan Qing thinking all along that Long Hengxu was the headmaster.
"Young geniuses, after our discussions, we have concluded that your individual abilities far exceed those of your peers. The academy does not wish to bury your talents..."
[He delivered a string of righteous-sounding remarks.]
Then each of them received an Eastsea Academy endorsement form, and first-year Class Zero was officially established!
After all the twists and turns, six people ended up joining Class Zero.
They were Yan Qing, Tang Wulin, Gu Yue, Xie Xie, Wang Jinxi, and Zhang Yangzi.
Of them, Wang Jinxi's Martial Soul was the Instant Bone Dragon, while Zhang Yangzi's was the Golden-Winged Peng. Both had originally been Class One students, and the pair could also perform an incomplete Martial Soul Fusion Skill.
After a week of training, Wu Changkong brought the six of them to a metallic room with a distinctly high-tech feel. Today was their attribute-testing day.
Holding a form, Wu Changkong glanced at Tang Wulin and said:
"We'll start with the strength test. Yan Qing, you're first."
Yan Qing drove a full-force punch into the machine.
Bang!
Left fist: one hundred kilograms.
It was an unremarkable result. Yan Qing's Martial Soul was at a slight disadvantage in a contest of strength.
Sure enough, in the subsequent tests, his strength was only a little higher than Xie Xie's and Zhang Yangzi's.
As for Tang Wulin, his current strength made him a humanoid tyrannosaurus.
His right-hand strength reached a terrifying one thousand three hundred and forty-eight kilograms.
If he used the Golden Dragon Claw, he could even smash the machine apart.
After one machine was wrecked, the next test was spiritual power.
"Wang Jinxi, you're first this time."
There was a method to Wu Changkong's ordering. He generally went from weakest to strongest.
Sure enough, Wang Jinxi's spiritual power was a pitiful eighteen points.
Xie Xie and Zhang Yangzi came next. Neither had particularly high spiritual power, both hovering around forty points.
The fourth name Wu Changkong called was Tang Wulin.
Tang Wulin sat before the machine while everyone gathered around the data console.
The number kept climbing.
45, 50!
He had actually broken through the Spirit Origin Realm and reached the Spirit Connection Realm!
It finally stopped at sixty-six!
Wu Changkong was somewhat conflicted over whose name to call next. After a moment's hesitation, he still had Gu Yue go first.
Gu Yue's result did not disappoint either, reaching a terrifying one hundred and fifty-three points.
Many Soul Elders did not even have a hundred points of spiritual power. The significance of that result spoke for itself.
Naturally, Yan Qing was last. Everyone had noticed the pattern too. Could Teacher Wu believe that Yan Qing's spiritual power would exceed even Gu Yue's one hundred and fifty-three?
Gu Yue turned to watch the machine. She was a little curious too. As the Silver Dragon King, she had planned to improve according to the upper limits of human strength from the outset, sometimes staying just a little weaker than Tang Wulin.
How could anyone else surpass that, unless he was a Soul Beast too?
The moment Yan Qing put on the testing helmet, the numbers on the display climbed like a rocket.
Fifty, one hundred!
It had passed a hundred points.
It was still rising!
Xie Xie cried out:
"Why isn't it slowing down?"
The number shot straight past two hundred, and even Wu Changkong could no longer sit still.
Even Yun Ming, the current Sea God Pavilion Master, had not possessed such high spiritual power when he had two rings.
Three hundred points! Four hundred points!
The members of Class Zero were growing numb watching it. Fortunately, the number finally began to slow at five hundred, settling at five hundred and one.
The Spirit Sea Realm. Yan Qing had only celebrated his ninth birthday a short while ago. On the Douluo Continent, this could be called unprecedented.
Xie Xie was utterly dumbstruck.
"How can a result like that even exist?"
"You're just scared."
"Six-six-six. Who wouldn't be scared of that?"