First Battle, an Overwhelming Victory

Before long, the dismissal bell rang. Wang Yan smiled and said:

"Alright, that's everything I needed to explain. I hope all of you achieve good results. I don't want a single student from our class to be eliminated during the Freshman Assessment. Class is dismissed. It would be best if you continued studying on your own after class as well."

With that, he walked out of the classroom.

Tang Wulin stood up and was about to leave as well when he suddenly seemed to sense something and shifted to the side. The next second, someone pounced through the spot where he had just been standing and crashed heavily to the floor.

That person rolled over on the ground and sprang to his feet, saying resentfully, "Boss, do you have eyes on the back of your head? You dodged even that?"

"I don't have eyes on the back of my head, but Yutong saw you and shared her Spiritual Detection with me."

Tang Wulin pointed at Huo Yutong in the distance and asked, "Zhou Sichen, did you need something from me?"

"Nothing really. Aren't we on the same team? I just wanted to ask whether we should train together some more and work on our coordination or something."

Zhou Sichen glanced awkwardly at Tang Wulin, then at Huo Yutong in the distance, who was pretending that nothing had happened, and sighed helplessly to himself.

This shameless couple only knows how to bully single people.

Tang Wulin gave a slight shrug.

"I don't think that's necessary. We already know each other very well, don't we?"

"...That's true."

Since Dai Huabin, formerly the strongest student in the class, had dropped out, Zhou Sichen, who had the second-highest Soul Power Level, became Tang Wulin's designated punching bag. He was practically beaten up by Tang Wulin once in every Combat Class.

Over these Three Months, Wang Yan had held twenty or thirty Combat Classes, including one-on-one, many-on-many, and even many-on-one battles. Yet Zhou Sichen had never won a single time.

His strength lay in his ability to summon multiple Summoned Creatures, easily creating a righteous situation where the many bullied the few. However, against a monster like Tang Wulin, whose absurd strength was written all over his face, this act of deliberately splitting his power instead made it nearly impossible for him to break through Tang Wulin's defenses. Even dealing damage was extremely difficult.

It was precisely because the repeated battles against Tang Wulin had left such a shadow over him that he changed his original choice of the Assault System and switched to the Control System on Wang Yan's advice.

The greatest advantage of his Precious Codex Martial Soul over other Martial Souls was the sheer breadth of paths available to it. Thus, changing his choice at the last minute had little impact, and it could even be said to have raised his future potential.

After three months of getting beaten up, Zhou Sichen was probably the person in the class who understood Tang Wulin's fighting style best. With Huo Yutong's top-tier support, there really was no need for further coordination.

This time, he finally would not need to get beaten up. With Tang Wulin and Huo Yutong as his partners, the pitiful ones would only be their opponents. The thought made Zhou Sichen feel utterly delighted.

Who will our first opponent be? Zhou Sichen thought happily.

Whoever it is, we should win easily enough.

In truth, he was absolutely right.

And interestingly enough, their first opponents were old acquaintances.

"Tang Wulin—!"

From across half the competition field, Zhu Lu glared at Tang Wulin's team with reddened eyes, looking ready to rush forward and fight them to the death at any moment.

When Dai Huabin dropped out, she had tried every possible way to plead on his behalf. Yet for some reason, the academy had been unusually resolute this time. In the end, neither her threats nor her enticements had any effect whatsoever.

At that moment, she had truly wanted to drop out with him. However, Dai Huabin's Big Brother, Dai Yueheng, talked her out of it.

"Zhu Lu, don't forget that you represent not just yourself, but also the Zhu Family behind you. Are you going to waste the place at Shrek that the Zhu Family fought so hard to secure for you? Besides, if you drop out too, then you really won't have even the slightest chance to get revenge!"

Although Zhu Lu had always been hostile toward Dai Yueheng, Dai Huabin's rival, she had to admit that he was right this time. Thus, she forced herself to stay.

As Dai Huabin's Fiancée, she had endured countless cold looks over the past three months, and her hatred for Tang Wulin had grown by the day.

In her Eyes, the person who had made her Fiancé lose all face was the Culprit, the root of everything.

Now that she faced Tang Wulin again, her fury naturally surged forth, nearly bursting out of her chest.

In sharp contrast to her were her teammates. Both wore miserable expressions, their faces looking utterly awful.

Everyone in First Year Class Seven had seen how Tang Wulin beat up Zhou Sichen during class. The problem was that aside from facing Tang Wulin, Zhou Sichen could be considered an undefeated champion in Class Seven.

Without question, unless they threw the match, this battle had already ended the instant the teams were assigned. The only thing they still needed to consider was how they could lose in a slightly less embarrassing fashion.

Seeing this strange group of students, the referee felt somewhat baffled. However, uncovering the truth was not his job. After having both sides introduce themselves, he said, "Alright, the match begins!"

The instant his words fell, Zhu Lu transformed into a black shadow and charged out.

For the suffering Dai Huabin had endured, she would make Tang Wulin and Huo Yutong repay it a hundredfold!

Unlike her, both of her teammates remained where they stood.

A crystal ball appeared in one of their hands, emanating an illusory glow, while the other drew a longbow and aimed it at Huo Yutong.

Their Martial Souls were the Phantom Crystal Ball and the Purple Maple Bow respectively, one belonging to the Control System and the other to the Assault System.

The moment Zhou Sichen saw that their opponents were these three, he broke into a grin. He sat down on the ground and said to Tang Wulin, "I'll leave it to you, Boss. I won't be helping against opponents at this level."

"Mm."

Tang Wulin nodded.

Whether it was the Phantom Crystal Ball with its hallucinatory effects or the Purple Maple Bow focused on long-range attacks, both were completely countered by Huo Yutong's Spiritual Detection Sharing.

And Zhu Lu, an Agility Attack Type soul master, had even less chance of winning against Tang Wulin.

Zhou Sichen truly did not need to make a move in this match.

Tang Wulin stomped down fiercely. A tremendous boom rang out, so loud that it made people wonder whether the ground had shaken, and he shot forward like a cannonball.

The referee rubbed his eyes in shock at the sight.

What had he just seen? A one-ring Assault System soul master was actually faster than a Two Rings Agility Attack Type soul master?

The competition field was not particularly large, and Tang Wulin and Zhu Lu were both among the fastest of their age. In only an instant, they collided.

Bang!

A deafening impact that sounded painful just to hear rang out. Zhu Lu failed to last even a single exchange before she was sent flying out of the competition field, crashing heavily to the ground and passing out.

Considering that this was only a match, Tang Wulin had not used the Golden Dragon Claw or the Golden Dragon Body. He had not even used his dragon scales. She probably was not badly injured and would recover after resting for a couple of days.

However, whether her team could still pass the Freshman Assessment during that recovery period was anyone's guess.

Their clash had been so swift that, by the time this side had already finished, the arrow from the Purple Maple Bow had only just flown toward Huo Yutong.

Tang Wulin did not even look. He flung out Bluesilver Grass and, guided by Spiritual Detection, directly shattered the arrow in midair.

Then Bluesilver Grass shot from his palm. Ignoring the distorted light of the Phantom Crystal Ball, it instantly bound the two students who were not skilled at close combat and dragged them before him.

Seeing Tang Wulin raise his fist, the two students, terrified of following Zhu Lu's example, hurriedly shouted, "We surrender!"

And so, Tang Wulin's group ended their first battle with overwhelming force.

They were also the team that defeated their opponents the fastest that day.