Xiao Wu revealed her Martial Soul, stunning everyone

Qin Ming's coldness was within Xiao Yao's expectations.

In the original story, Qin Ming had been quite friendly toward Tang San and the others, but that was in private.

When teaching, however, he was notoriously strict and tormenting, a trait he had inherited directly from his teacher, Flender.

Yu Tianheng and the other members of the Heaven Dou Royal Team even called him a tyrant behind his back.

That alone offered a glimpse of his attitude toward teaching.

At Heaven Dou Royal Academy, he was also one of the few teachers who neither courted the powerful nor played favorites. He scorned students who had entered through their status without possessing any ability of their own.

In his eyes, perhaps Xiao Yao and Xiao Wu were also children of officials whom the crown prince had recruited for some purpose.

Xiao Yao and Xiao Wu followed Qin Ming past the various cultivation facilities ahead, getting a close look at their effects and how they were used.

Xiao Yao had come prepared, while Xiao Wu had long since been dazzled by all the equipment, itching to try it herself.

Finally, Qin Ming brought the two of them to the foot of a teaching building and handed them over to a woman of twenty-seven or twenty-eight.

"Teacher Feihong, these are the two. Please test them."

Feihong was not a peerless beauty like Xiao Wu, Qian Renxue, or Shui Bing'er, but her looks were still first-rate.

Moreover, she possessed something those three beauties lacked: the allure of a mature woman. Her figure curved in all the right places, and she looked graceful and captivating in her work attire.

"Of course, our academy's youngest Heaven Dou Grade teacher," Feihong teased.

Xiao Yao did not know whether he was imagining it, but Qin Ming's face reddened for an instant.

"I'm only rank fifty-nine, just a Heavenly Supreme Level teacher. Don't say things like that, Teacher Feihong."

"It's only a matter of time. Come, children, let me measure your bone age." She addressed that last sentence to Xiao Yao and Xiao Wu.

Xiao Wu was the first to offer her fair, soft hand.

When Teacher Feihong touched it, her eyes first widened. Then she rubbed and squeezed in disbelief, checking more than just her wrist.

Finally, she said incredulously, "Seven. Only seven years and eight months. Teacher Qin Ming, have you made a mistake? She should be attending a junior Soul Master academy, not coming here."

Even Qin Ming's cold face showed some astonishment. Xiao Wu looked like a youthful girl of around fifteen. Even allowing for Soul Power accelerating physical development, she should have been at least twelve.

How could she be a little girl of only seven?

He pushed Xiao Yao forward as well. "Teacher Feihong, check his bone age too."

After cultivating the Incomplete Chapter of the Seventy-Two Transformations, Xiao Yao could already alter his bone age and Soul Power fluctuations at will.

He thought for a moment, then displayed a bone age he considered suitable.

"Twelve."

Only then did Qin Ming breathe a sigh of relief.

Heaven Dou Royal Academy was primarily an advanced Soul Master academy, with an intermediate Soul Master division as well. Although most students were over eighteen when they enrolled, exceptionally talented boys and girls of twelve could also be admitted as special exceptions.

In his view, Xiao Yao must have been the only one enrolling. Xiao Wu was merely a little girl accompanying her older brother to watch the fun.

"Teacher Feihong, perhaps I made a mistake. Only this boy is enrolling. Please test his Soul Power too."

"That's not right," Xiao Wu said brightly. "I'm here to enroll too."

Feihong said gently, "Little girl, the minimum admission requirement for our Heaven Dou Royal Academy is a Soul Master with a hundred-year Soul Ring. Not just anyone can enroll."

"I've been a Soul Master for ages!"

"Teacher Feihong, please test her Soul Power," Qin Ming said.

By his judgment, his earlier guess might not have been entirely correct. These two children might not have been the product of His Highness the Crown Prince's political dealings. Perhaps he had truly taken a liking to their talent.

That twelve-year-old boy might be a Soul Grandmaster above rank twenty, and this girl, not yet eight, might already be a Soul Master as well.

With talent like that, they would be qualified to enroll even at his alma mater, Shrek Academy.

Feihong clearly deferred to Qin Ming. Since he had spoken, she did as he asked, placing the Soul Power crystal ball before Xiao Wu.

Xiao Wu reached out and released her Soul Power.

The pink light that burst from the Soul Power crystal ball was so dazzling that neither teacher reacted at first. It took them a while to adjust.

"Twenty... rank twenty-five?"

Teacher Feihong's mouth hung wide open. Her enticing, rosy lips could practically fit an egg between them.

Qin Ming's expression was particularly spectacular as well. Rank fifteen had already been his highest expectation for this girl.

This was a habit he had developed through his experiences at Shrek: imagine a more extreme situation, and no matter how inconceivable the event, he would not be surprised.

Reality proved that he still had not been bold enough.

A seven-year-old rank twenty-five Soul Grandmaster-had anyone like that ever existed in history?

"Abba, abba, abba."

It had left him unable to speak properly.

Xiao Yao could still understand what he meant and placed his own hand on the crystal ball.

Since he had already lied to Qian Renxue, the Soul Power he would show in this test was fixed.

"Rank thirty-one."

Twelve years old, rank thirty-one.

In the past, this result would also have caused a sensation throughout the academy, but after the shock Xiao Wu had delivered, it could only surprise them a little.

"Abba, abba, abba."

After communicating with Qin Ming in a language neither child understood, Feihong turned and left.

Xiao Yao guessed that she was going to fetch someone with more authority in the academy.

Sure enough, three elderly men, all at least eighty years old, soon approached.

Their strides stirred the wind. Feihong even had to reveal her Martial Soul to keep up.

The elderly man in the middle strode over. "Are these the two?"

He was asking Qin Ming, but before an answer came, his hands were already on Xiao Yao's and Xiao Wu's wrists.

One could well imagine just how excited he was.

"Seven, twelve. They really are this young!"

Although he had already heard it from Teacher Feihong, confirming it himself was another matter altogether.

The old man warmly placed his hands on their shoulders. "I am Meng Shenji, chief of the Heaven Dou Royal Academy's education committee. Could you show me your Martial Souls?"

Xiao Yao and Xiao Wu exchanged a glance, then each summoned their Martial Soul.

Xiao Wu's already long, beautiful legs grew even longer and more shapely. A layer of pink light covered her rabbit ears, and her eyes took on a red tint.

Two Soul Rings rose beside her. One was fairly normal, yellow, but the other was yellow tinged with purple, firmly locking the gazes of Meng Shenji and his two companions onto it.

"Th-this Soul Ring-how old is it? It must be just a little short of a thousand years!" a plump old man beside Meng Shenji cried out.

The five people present other than Xiao Yao wore much the same expression.

They had thought Xiao Wu had already given them enough surprises, never expecting there could be more.

That was only because theirs was an academy under the Heaven Dou Imperial Family.

Had this been a clan or sect, they probably would have bestowed the position of Holy Maiden on Xiao Wu right then and there.