When Nan Zhuliu brought Wang Yan out of Shrek Academy, he spotted Huo Lingtong still standing there at a glance.
"Sorry for the wait."
Huo Lingtong shook her head.
"Let me introduce you. This is Wang Yan, Teacher Wang, an outer court teacher at Shrek Academy."
Huo Lingtong reacted at once. "Hello, Teacher Wang."
Wang Yan forcibly suppressed his excitement and asked, "You must be the Lingtong Zhuliu mentioned, the one whose Body Martial Soul is her eyes?"
Huo Lingtong nodded.
Wang Yan drew a deep breath, his expression involuntarily tightening. "Are you a member of the Body Sect?"
Huo Lingtong shook her head. Before they came, Nan Zhuliu had told her to act as though she knew nothing about the Body Sect. "What's the Body Sect?"
"Wonderful!" Wang Yan could not help exclaiming, drawing the gazes of everyone around them.
Nan Zhuliu was somewhat speechless. "Teacher Wang, I know you're excited, but calm down first."
Wang Yan coughed twice in embarrassment. "Sorry, I lost my composure. After all, this is my first time encountering a Martial Soul with a Body Martial Soul."
"This isn't the place to talk. Let's go somewhere else."
Seeing Wang Yan turn and head straight toward Shrek Academy, Nan Zhuliu knew this was settled.
Huo Lingtong was a little nervous. She had never imagined there would come a day when she could step through Shrek Academy's gates. Her little heart thumped wildly, and she unconsciously edged closer to Nan Zhuliu.
Nan Zhuliu patted her little head, signaling that she need not be nervous.
Once they reached a tree-lined avenue and confirmed that hardly anyone was around, Wang Yan cornered Huo Lingtong and unleashed questions like a barrage of cannon fire, too many for her to handle.
The questions coming one after another left Huo Lingtong's head spinning.
Moreover, having never attended school, she did not understand her own Martial Soul very deeply either. Faced with most of Wang Yan's questions, she could offer nothing but ignorance.
Seeing this, Nan Zhuliu stepped in at just the right moment. "Teacher Wang, even an expert like you who specializes in Martial Soul theory doesn't know much about Body Martial Souls because they're so rare, let alone Lingtong. Why not look at her Soul Skill? After all, Soul Skills determine a soul master's future direction."
Wang Yan seemed to awaken from a dream. "Right, right, right. Her Soul Skill. Let's see her Soul Skill."
Huo Lingtong quickly mobilized her Soul Power and poured it into her Spirit Eyes.
As a faint golden sheen veiled her deep-blue Spirit Eyes, a bright yellow ring slowly rose from beneath her feet.
The first Soul Skill of Spirit Eyes, Spiritual Detection, activated.
Spiritual Sharing activated.
The instant Spiritual Detection Sharing fell upon Wang Yan, his burly frame shuddered.
He felt as though he had become a deity. Time slowed to an incredible degree, and everything around him became exceptionally clear. Wherever his gaze reached, a long string of clear information immediately appeared...
He could not help murmuring to himself, "This Soul Skill is simply unbelievable. I've never seen such a miraculous Soul Skill before. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it a divine skill..."
Meanwhile, Nan Zhuliu, who was also experiencing Spiritual Detection Sharing, found it quite novel too. However, he could take it in far more readily than Wang Yan and did not lose his composure or become incoherent with shock like the latter.
Before long, feeling that Wang Yan had probably experienced enough, Huo Lingtong withdrew Spiritual Detection Sharing.
As Wang Yan gradually came out of savoring the wonders of Spiritual Detection Sharing, he immediately looked at Huo Lingtong in excitement, his eyes blazing with fervor.
Startled by his creepy-uncle look, Huo Lingtong hurriedly hid behind Nan Zhuliu.
"Lingtong, would you like to join our Shrek Academy?"
Huo Lingtong's eyes lit up, but she hesitated again when she thought of Shrek Academy's stringent admission requirements. "But I haven't reached Shrek Academy's admission requirement of rank fifteen Soul Power, and I don't have a recommendation letter from a major city."
"It doesn't matter if you haven't met the requirements. As a teacher at Shrek Academy, I still have the authority to recommend one student for admission."
"Can I really?" Huo Lingtong threw her arms around Nan Zhuliu in excitement, nearly jumping three meters straight up on the spot. "This is wonderful!"
Nan Zhuliu could not help smiling too.
Watching this scene, Wang Yan revealed a smile whose meaning was unclear.
With Wang Yan's help, Huo Lingtong completed her enrollment procedures without a hitch.
Before leaving, Wang Yan reminded her, "Lingtong, you've now entered Shrek Academy to study, but that doesn't mean you can stay at Shrek Academy forever."
"As the continent's number one academy, we have extremely strict requirements for our students. In three months, the academy will hold another major examination to select the true new students. I hope you won't slack off from now on, will cultivate diligently, and will ultimately become one of those who stays."
Huo Lingtong nodded firmly. "Teacher Wang, I definitely won't let down your expectations of me."
Wang Yan smiled and nodded. "All right, go take a look at your dormitory."
The outer court student dormitory stood just behind the teaching buildings. It was the largest building in all of Shrek Academy and could be recognized at a glance.
The outer court student dormitory was six stories tall in total. The lower three floors housed the boys, while the upper floors housed the girls.
Nan Zhuliu's room was on the first floor, while Huo Lingtong's was on the fourth, so the two parted at the stairway.
Nan Zhuliu glanced at his room number: "110."
Although it was not Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong's room from the original story, he still harbored a sliver of hope, gambling that Tang San had not noticed him yet.
The room was small, only about ten square meters, with two single beds on opposite sides, a desk between them by the window, and two sheet-metal wardrobes.
Since no one had lived there for over half a month, everything in the room had accumulated a layer of dust that was neither particularly thin nor particularly thick.
If outsiders had not been barred from freely entering the student dormitory, and if the other new students had not all been people with no shortage of money, Nan Zhuliu would have wanted to hire someone to clean it.
With a sigh, Nan Zhuliu still cleaned the room until it was spotless as quickly as he could.
During their meal, seeing only greens and plain rice in Huo Lingtong's bowl, Nan Zhuliu could not help frowning. "Didn't I give you a banknote worth a hundred gold soul coins? Why are you eating so little?"
Huo Lingtong guiltily rubbed her earlobe. "I can't earn money yet, so it's better to be frugal. The greens taste pretty good too."
Nan Zhuliu let out a long sigh, then firmly pulled her along to get another, lavish serving of food. "Eat well first. Don't think too much about anything else."
"Eat to this standard from now on, understood? Money isn't a problem."
Huo Lingtong's head was almost buried against her chest, her voice as faint as a mosquito's buzz. "Understood."
Seeing her like this, Nan Zhuliu knew it looked like they would have to return to the old trade after all.
After the meal, Nan Zhuliu took Huo Lingtong to Shrek City and had a grill for cooking fish custom-made for her.
"Your grilled fish tastes very good. Using it to earn yourself some living expenses seems like a pretty good choice."