One gloomy night, Wang Dong took a dispirited stroll along Sea God Lake.
She had been at Shrek for ten days, and she had discovered that life here was nothing like she had imagined.
Absurdly powerful classmates, teachers strict to the point of perversity, and that unreasonable expulsion rate... she was beginning to wonder what everyone had come to this academy for.
Because the teaching was good? Because the students improved quickly?
She had not felt any of that.
So she had been in a bad mood lately.
If the recruitment notice from that bastard roommate's family trading association had not shocked her a week ago, she might have quit school herself in a fit of anger.
Now, although that shock had faded, her urge to smash an already cracked pot had faded along with it.
Thinking of that roommate made Wang Dong's teeth itch.
That fellow clearly greeted everyone with a smile, yet for some reason, he was always lukewarm toward her.
If he disliked Wang Dong, she could not sense any hostility toward her, but if he liked her, why did he keep mocking her?
Thanks to him, her tolerance for trash talk had shot straight up. Words that would have sent her face burning red before she enrolled could no longer do her the slightest damage.
She had basically stacked up resistance.
The only good thing about rooming with him was that he rarely came back. Their supposedly shared dorm room was practically Wang Dong's private room.
Right, he probably was not in their room now either. Where was he, then?
Something stirred in Wang Dong's mind, and for some reason, she instinctively began searching the academy for that irritating fellow.
And sure enough, she actually found him.
He was training with his childhood sweetheart. What a pity for that childhood sweetheart, having grown up with such a nasty devil. Wang Dong thought she was a nice girl, too.
Without knowing quite what she was thinking, Wang Dong walked up and called out:
"Hey, what are you doing here?"
The three people in the middle of their practice fight immediately stopped and turned to look at Wang Dong.
The boy at the front, Lin Xi, sighed helplessly.
"Can't you tell? Are your eyes just decorations, like your brain? If you aren't using them, donate them to someone who needs them. They're wasted on you."
"...!"
Calm down. Calm down.
Wang Dong took a deep breath and barely suppressed her anger.
Countless experiences had taught her that she could never beat Lin Xi, whether in a battle of words or fists. She might as well give it a rest.
She gathered her thoughts and asked:
"Do you train like this every day? Is that why you're so strong?"
The biggest reason for her recent bad mood was that Zhou Yi had thrown the entire class into a panic. Everyone worried about whether they would be the next to get expelled, herself included.
After all, Zhou Yi's criteria for expulsion often had nothing to do with strength. The first time, for example, she had expelled those who shirked and cut corners; the second time, those who lasted the shortest.
Even Wang Dong, who had the highest cultivation in the class, could not guarantee that she would pass that crazy old hag's tests.
But that did not mean strength was useless.
The monster before her was living proof.
The reason Wang Dong's strength could not help her escape Zhou Yi's shadow was, put plainly, that she still fell within the limits of the rules. Lin Xi, however, was already strong enough to stand outside them.
The rules could not punish him, so naturally, he had no need to worry about what would happen if he broke them.
The most obvious example was that neither he nor his childhood sweetheart had ever followed Zhou Yi's classroom requirements.
Honestly, deep down, Wang Dong really envied them.
For the first time in a long while, she had begun to crave power.
Hearing her words, Lin Xi immediately looked at her as though she were an idiot.
"Are you kidding?"
He thrust the sword in his hand into the ground and curled his lips, looking at Wang Dong as though mocking her.
"Are you thinking that if you work as hard as we do, you'll become as strong as us and won't have to put up with that old hag anymore?"
Wang Dong nodded silently.
Yes, that was exactly what she was thinking.
Speechless, Lin Xi rubbed the space between his brows.
"Idiot. Who taught you to think like that? They've really poisoned your mind."
He paused, then said seriously:
"As long as you work hard, you're sure to succeed-that's the biggest lie in any world, especially this one. Do you think you work even one percent as hard as Yutong? Yet her rank is still lower than yours. That's pure suppression by talent. If your talent is poor, it's poor. No matter how hard you work, you can't reverse that gap. You can't reach my heights. 'There are no trash Martial Souls, only trash people' is complete nonsense. Don't let it fool you."
"..."
Wang Dong remained silent.
So it was true?
Deep down, she had actually known it too.
Even a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring should not, by rights, have allowed Lin Xi to perform like that.
After all, Soul Kings and Soul Emperors had Ten Thousand Year Soul Rings too, but Wang Dong had never seen any Soul King or Soul Emperor perform the way Lin Xi did.
That meant his Martial Soul itself was uniquely blessed. It had nothing to do with his configuration or hard work.
Just as her Martial Soul was innately stronger than ordinary butterfly Martial Souls, whose owners could mostly only serve as decorative vases, while she could wield the powerful light attribute.
So in the end, she still had no way to deal with Zhou Yi.
She shook her head in self-mockery and turned to leave.
Lin Xi suddenly called her back.
"Hey, I haven't finished."
"Hm?"
Wang Dong looked back in confusion.
After all that, what else was there to say?
Lin Xi sighed.
"Looking at you, you probably won't take in anything I say, will you? Then let's do this. Yutong, fight her."
"Huh?"
Wang Dong froze.
Her and Huo Yutong?
She waved her hands.
"Forget it. What are you thinking? I'm a Soul Grandmaster, and my Soul Ring combination even exceeds the optimal configuration. Even her only Soul Skill is white. What can she fight me with?"
"What, scared?"
Lin Xi curled his lips.
Wang Dong immediately grew a little angry.
She certainly could not beat him, but that expression clearly meant he thought she could not even beat Huo Yutong, a mere Soul Master.
He was looking down on her far too much.
"Fine, bring it on. Yutong, don't cry when you lose."
"...Those words go right back to you."
Huo Yutong took a deep breath and assumed an attacking stance.
Wang Dong gave a fierce smile.
"Don't underestimate me!"
As she spoke, her butterfly wings spread, and she lunged forward, flying toward Huo Yutong.
Although she could have flown into the sky and ended the fight directly with her second Soul Skill, that would have been too cheap. She was not about to do something so beneath her.
Let's see what Huo Yutong would do.
To her surprise, however, Huo Yutong merely held her stance without moving as she approached.
That left her feeling a little uncertain.
Come to think of it, she still didn't know what Huo Yutong's Martial Soul was.
Just as her butterfly wing was about to slice into Huo Yutong, a powerful emotion suddenly flooded her mind.
Fear.
Overwhelming fear.
Under such intense fear, the person standing before her seemed no longer that frail-looking, well-behaved little girl, but a Ferocious Beast!
What she did not know was that this was the effect of the Soul Skill called Spiritual Sharing.
After Huo Yutong had become proficient at observing and sensing other people's emotions, the second step Lin Xi had given her was to interfere with others' emotions through Spiritual Sharing.
She had never succeeded before. However, because of Zhou Yi, Wang Dong was now far from her usual state, so Huo Yutong succeeded for the first time.
As the sudden fear threw Wang Dong into disarray, Huo Yutong moved.
The longsword in her hand traced an elegant arc, slashing swiftly toward Wang Dong.
Wang Dong instinctively tried to dodge, only to discover in shock that, perhaps because of that inexplicable fear, the sword's image in her eyes had actually become illusory.
Mental Interference-not one of Tian Meng's four Soul Skills was useless.
Unable to tell which way she should dodge, Wang Dong gritted her teeth and twisted aside in a random direction.
The whistle of the descending sword rang beside her ear, and Wang Dong breathed a sigh of relief.
Good. It looked like she had gambled right.
Now it was her turn.
She had only been caught off guard just now. From here on, she wouldn't be the slightest bit care-
Before she could finish that thought, the fear that had been weighing on her suddenly vanished.
In its place came two utterly opposite emotions.
Joy and sorrow.
If the fear had merely thrown her into disarray, the influx of these two emotions sent her straight into a daze.
By the time she finally came to her senses, she found herself lying on the ground, with Huo Yutong's sword planted beside her head.
"..."
She... had lost?
Lin Xi came over and looked down at her.
"Well? Do you understand now? That's the difference in actual combat experience. Your rank may be higher than Yutong's, but you lost to her. That's what hard work does."
Lin Xi reached out and pulled Wang Dong up from the ground.
"Maybe hard work can't meet your expectations in this world, and it can't beat true geniuses, but it can make you a better version of yourself. Whatever happens, working hard is never a bad thing."
Staring blankly at Lin Xi, Wang Dong asked:
"Why are you telling me all this?"
Didn't this fellow love mocking her more than anything?
Lin Xi sighed and spread his hands.
"Because I feel like, at this rate, you'll get expelled by Zhou Yi before long. So I'm giving you a hand."
Wang Dong did not know that Lin Xi had seen a shadow of Tang Ya in her.
He had already gotten involved with her anyway, and probably would not be able to shake her off in the future. Since that was the case, it would be better to keep her under his eye.
Otherwise, who knew what might happen? In the original story, Bei Bei would never have imagined that Tang Ya would become an Evil Soul Master just like that.
Wang Dong pressed her lips together.
So she was already in that bad a state.
She shook her head with a bitter smile.
"You're right. I really was an idiot for getting hung up on something like this. Thank you."
As she spoke, she turned to Huo Yutong.
"Yutong, what you used just now was an emotion-interference Soul Skill, right? Could you find a way to use it to get me fired up?"
Huo Yutong did not answer her, but looked at Lin Xi instead.
Lin Xi nodded lightly.
Huo Yutong pursed her lips in displeasure and turned her large eyes toward Wang Dong.
Then Wang Dong felt a powerful surge of confidence, as though she could accomplish anything.
This time, she gave a genuine smile.
"Thank you both! I'm off to cultivate!"
With that, she ran off like a wisp of smoke.
For the first time, she felt that Lin Xi was surprisingly decent.
The night sky did not seem quite so gloomy anymore.