16 Freshman Examination

“Alright, that’s that. If you have any suggestions, you’d best bring them up quickly. I’ll give you a day to think about it. The other classes are also splitting up into teams, but they definitely won’t be as quick as you lot. Let them dawdle around and waste more of their time. When you return that piece of paper to me, you can be dismissed. When you get back, make sure to have a good rest. Nobody’s allowed to go around and start a mess. The freshman assessment will start tomorrow, and my goal is for all twenty-two of your teams to pass. If anyone gets eliminated, they won’t just have to pack their bags and leave. I’ll make sure to give you some memories that you’ll never forget.”

When the students of Class 1 saw Zhou Yi’s gaze, which had suddenly become heavy, they couldn’t help but fiercely shiver. There was no question about what sort of memories Zhou Yi would leave behind; they would probably be a nightmare for them.

The entirety of Class 1 suddenly filled with a murderous look for a moment. Even if it was just for the sake of not being abused by Teacher Zhou, they wanted to do their best to pass the assessment!

“Huo Yuhao, Wang Dong, Xiao Xiao, you three stay behind for a bit.”

When the other students handed over the white pieces of paper that had their future direction of cultivation written on it, they left the classroom to walk back to their dorms. The only people left behind in the classroom was Huo Yuhao’s group of three. At this time, the other classes were still enthusiastically explaining the division of teams for the freshman assessment.

“Alright, give it to me. What’re you hiding Wang Dong?” Zhou Yi took the three pieces of paper from Huo Yuhao’s group. Wang Dong immediately lowered his head and quietly took a few steps back, hiding behind Huo Yuhao.

As Zhou Yi looked at the three pieces of paper in front of her, the corners of her eyes twitched. Afterwards, she raised her head and looked towards Huo Yuhao, Wang Dong, and Xiao Xiao.

When Zhou Yi looked at them with that sharp gaze of hers, the three of them felt as if their bodies had been impaled.

“Alright! You three, let’s see what you’ve got.” She picked up one of the sheets of paper, then slammed it down onto the table.

“Alright!”

“Bang!” Huo Yuhao’s team of three simultaneously shivered.

“Control System.” Zhou Yi said coldly.

Afterwards, she took the second piece of paper and slapped it heavily onto the table.

“Control System!” Her voice had clearly gotten louder by quite a bit. Huo Yuhao was somewhat astonished as he looked at Wang Dong beside him. There was no doubt about it, this second piece of paper belonged to him!

“Bang—!” Zhou Yi’s last slap nearly crushed the teaching platform. “And Control System.”

“Ah?” This time, it was Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong’s turn to be astonished. The two cast their gaze towards Xiao Xiao, who currently had her head lowered and was fiddling with the corner of her shirt. From their first impression of her, Xiao Xiao should’ve been an auxiliary system tool soul master! How had she turned into a control system soul master?

The corner of Zhou Yi’s mouth twitched following the twitching of her eye. “Are you three brats doing this on purpose? Although the freshman assessment limits each team to having a single assault system soul master, it also states that you can’t all have the same cultivation direction. You three are really good, eh? You’ve all decided to be control system soul masters. Are you doing this on purpose? If it weren’t for the fact that the competition was starting tomorrow, I would’ve made you run ten hours in a row to clear your minds. Huo Yuhao, you can be the first to tell me what’s going on. What’s gotten into you? That spiritual-type martial soul of yours is extremely suitable as an auxiliary-type! What’s the meaning behind you becoming a control system soul master?”

Huo Yuhao hastily replied, “Teacher Zhou, I’ve always hoped that I could become a control system soul master. My Spiritual Detection can survey the entire state of the battlefield, and in addition to that, some of the future soul rings that my Spirit Eyes absorb will definitely have a few attack-type soul skills. Because of that, I don’t want to become a simple auxiliary-type soul master. Being a control-type soul master should be more suitable for my future growth.”

Zhou Yi slowly nodded her head and said, “You have a point; control system soul masters have better future prospects than auxiliary-type ones. The choice that you’ve made isn’t exactly wrong. I’ll consider you to have passed. Wang Dong, why are you hiding? Come on out. Even though Huo Yuhao and Xiao Xiao wrote down the words ‘control system’, they’re still a bit reasonable. But what about you? You, an assault system soul master, writing down the words ‘control system’… are you deliberately looking for trouble?”

“Uh….” Wang Dong carefully took a step back from behind Huo Yuhao and spoke with a self-mocking smile on his face, “Teacher Zhou, please don’t be angry. Honestly, I don’t think that it’s completely impossible for me to become a control system soul master with my strength. Right, I want to rely on my attack power to control the entire battlefield. Isn’t that a type of ‘control’? Furthermore, I can fly and launch long-range attacks. It’s shouldn’t be impossible for me to control the battlefield this way, right?”

“You…” Zhou Yi was almost angered to the point of laughing. Her eyes contained profundities as she stared at him. “Don’t think that I don’t know your real reasoning. You just don’t want to be split up with Huo Yuhao. I’ll just call you foolish for that. You clearly have the highest cultivation in the entire class, yet you’re barely enough to be called a genius. You’re smart, yet how you can be stupid to be point of being a drooling idiot? Just when have you ever seen an assault system and control system soul master split up? You’re right, they’ll be in different classes. However, assault system and control system soul masters are always together! You idiot! Change it for me right now!”

As soon as she finished speaking, she threw the piece of paper in her hand back towards Wang Dong.

“Cough, cough…” Although he’d been scolded and called an idiot, Wang Dong still seemed excited. He quickly changed the words ‘control system’ to ‘assault system’, before respectfully handing the paper back to Zhou Yi.

“Humph!” Zhou Yi snorted angrily. She directed her gaze towards Xiao Xiao last. “What about you, Xiao Xiao? If I’m not mistaken, your martial soul is the extremely rare Soulcrush Cauldron, which can be considered a top-ranked martial soul. The main effect of the Soulcrush Cauldron is to assist someone else; why did you put down the words ‘control system’?”

Xiao Xiao glanced at Wang Dong and spoke in a soft voice, “Teacher Zhou, my Soulcrush Cauldron is a bit different from an ordinary Soulcrush Cauldron. It can both attack and assist others. I’m even barely able to use it for defense. It can be considered a mutated Soulcrush Cauldron. It’s known as a Threelives Soulcrush Cauldron.”

Zhou Yi was stunned for a moment. “Xiao Xiao, don’t tell me you don’t know that if your cultivation direction is too messy, it’ll be disadvantageous towards your future development? I suggest that you lean towards one direction, and develop from there. Even if it’s a mutated martial soul, you’ll still have to have an direction when you’re adding soul rings.”

Xiao Xiao nodded her head and said, “I know, that’s why the main abilities I’ve chosen for my Threelives Soulcrush Cauldron are attacking and defensive ones.”

Zhou Yi furrowed her brow and said, “That’s also unrelated to control!” It could be seen that she was being extremely patient towards Xiao Xiao.

Xiao Xiao said in a meek voice, “But, I have another martial soul. It can manage both support and control.”

“Ah?” At this moment, it wasn’t just Zhou Yi who was astonished; even Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong had widened their eyes. Wang Dong’s shock was especially great. He’d always thought that he was an absolutely unrivalled figure within Class 1. He never thought that there’d actually be someone like her hidden within the class.

“Twin martial souls?” Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong said at practically the same time.

Xiao Xiao lowered her head shyly.

The look in Zhou Yi’s eyes flickered a few times. This was the first time that a situation like this had occurred in Class 1, which exceeded her control. After thinking to herself for a moment, she said, “Fine, be a control system soul master if that’s your wish. It’ll also be easier for the three of you to work together in the future. Even though the freshman assessment is only your first examination within Shrek Academy, it’s very important for your future cultivation path. The only way for you to have a chance to appear in the academy’s cultivation honor roll is for you to obtain a good ranking in the freshman assessment. Being in this class, I’m optimistic about the chances that you three have. I don’t even need to mention Wang Dong and Xiao Xiao; you two alone have talents and strengths that far exceed those of the other students. As for you, Huo Yuhao, even though you have an ordinary amount of strength and talent, you have a level of willpower that ordinary people aren’t able to even strive for, as well as an extraordinary spiritual-type martial soul. Without even taking Xiao Xiao’s second martial soul into account, you three already complement each other to a certain extent. I’ll give you a mission. In the freshman assessment, you only have one target: Become the champions! If you don’t return as the champions, then so be it for Xiao Xiao. However you two, on the other hand, will have to continue following me as you cultivate.”

Huo Yuhao nodded and said, “Teacher Zhou, even if we become the champions, I’ll still be willing to follow you.”

Zhou Yi was stunned. “You foolish brat, don’t you also think that I’m extremely strict? I know what they call me in private. You don’t have to lie to me to make me happy.”

Huo Yuhao shook his head before saying seriously, “No, Teacher Zhou. I truly am willing to follow you and continue learning from you. Even though you’re a bit fierce, I can still learn many more useful things from you if I do. I’ve occasionally observed the students from other classes; their growth hasn’t been nearly as large as our class’s—at least during these past three months.”

Zhou Yi’s face finally revealed the trace of a smile. Although her aged face didn’t look even remotely pretty when she smiled, this was the first time that Huo Yuhao had felt a sense of warmth from her body.

“Alright, you three can go back and rest. Remember, you three definitely have to become the champions of the freshman assessment. Also, I can at least tell you three this: Shrek Academy has an enormous amount of wealth. Out of all the assessments the academy holds, the champions of the freshman assessment and the champions of the outer courtyard’s graduation assessment receive the most generous rewards. As for what those rewards actually are…well, you’ll naturally find out when you become the champions of the freshman assessment. Head back and make sure that you’re in top condition. I believe in your strength.”

“Yes.” They all answered her simultaneously, before proceeding to leave the classroom together.

Once they’d left, Xiao Xiao looked as if she’d finally drummed up enough courage to ask something. “Wang Dong, can I talk to you for a bit?”

However, Wang Dong waved his hand and replied, “There’s no need. Right now, I have to go back and prepare for tomorrow’s competition. You can show us how amazing your twin martial souls are when the assessment starts, Xiao Xiao.” After he finished speaking, he grabbed Huo Yuhao’s shoulder and left.

When he saw the disappointment in Xiao Xiao’s eyes, Huo Yuhao smiled at her, causing Xiao Xiao to forcefully return the smile. They were still young, so the somewhat hazy feeling that they had towards the opposite sex often was solely based on the other party’s appearance. Although Wang Dong’s rejection had caused her to be slightly disappointed, she didn’t think much more about it. She only thought inwardly to herself, “What’s so amazing about you? Just wait till the assessment starts. When it starts you’ll see just how amazing my abilities are, humph!” Her arrogance had always been hidden within the deep recesses of her heart.

“You didn’t have to be so obvious when you rejected her, did you?” Huo Yuhao teased Wang Dong.

During the past three months, the two had become very familiar with each other. To Huo Yuhao, their intense life of cultivating had only been another way to temper his body. However, his mind had experienced an unprecedented amount of relaxation. At least here, every single student within the academy was equal; he didn’t feel anything that resembled the class division that he’d previously felt when he was in the Duke’s Mansion. As his mind had relaxed, his personality had begun to turn much more cheerful. He was no longer that reticent and shy youth that he’d been when he’d just arrived.

Wang Dong curled his lip and boastfully stated, “There are several girls who’ve liked me. Don’t tell me that I should accept all of them?” After he said this, he switched to a sagely tone of voice. “We’re still young, thus we should be focusing everything on our studies. How can we have other thoughts like this? Huo Yuhao, your mentality truly is unhealthy.”

“I….” Huo Yuhao couldn’t beat him in an argument. “You win!”

Wang Dong laughed cunningly and said, “Let’s go. Since we’ve been let out early today, you roast some fish for me to eat. We’ll be formally registering for the assessment tomorrow, so I’m guessing that the assessment will only start the day after. It seems that our time to show off has finally come.”

Huo Yuhao snapped back, “You eat roasted fish everyday! Will you ever get tired of it? Not only that, but the exam is the day after tomorrow! Shouldn’t you polish your skills before the battle?”

Wang Dong humphed. “You brain-dead idiot. You only know how to cultivate. Aren’t you scared of becoming an idiot that only knows how to cultivate?”

Huo Yuhao chuckled and said, “As they say, the clumsy bird leaves early to reach the forest first. Since I’m untalented, the only thing that I can do to compensate for my weaknesses is work hard. I’m sure you know that the main reason my soulforce was able to reach the seventeenth rank was because of the pills we took. I honestly think that I wouldn’t have a very high chance of passing the assessment with another group. Teacher Zhou’s clearly taking care of me by putting me in the same group as you and Xiao Xiao. If I don’t work even harder, wouldn’t I simply be letting her kindness go to waste?”

Wang Dong curled his lips and said, “Your talent might be nothing much, but your martial soul is still quite good. Don’t worry, with myself—a genius—here, don’t talk about a few freshmen, even some second year students might not be able to beat me. When the time comes, you only need to activate your Spiritual Detection Sharing and watch me do my job from the back. With me leading our group, becoming champions will be as simple as just stretching our hands out and grabbing it.”

Huo Yuhao reminded him, “Our Shrek Academy is till the number one academy in the world. It’s always been filled with hidden dragons and crouching tigers; you can’t be too careless. However, I think that Xiao Xiao’s quite strong as well. When the time comes, you two absolutely have to work together.”

He had four amazing spiritual-type soul skills, but Wang Dong only knew of his combined Spiritual Detection Sharing. As for his hand-to-hand combat skills, although he had a slight foundation in the Tang Sect’s secret techniques, simply relying on them and the strength of his martial soul wouldn’t be enough for a fair fight. It just just as Wang Dong had said—during the upcoming assessment, his greatest use would truly be his Spiritual Detection Sharing.

Even though Wang Dong could beat Huo Yuhao in a war of words, he couldn’t change how stubborn he was. When the two of them returned to their dorm room, they ended up meditating and cultivating. However, Huo Yuhao promised Wang Dong that he’d roast a few extra fish for him after the assessment.

Huo Yuhao’s seventeenth ranked soulforce could already condense into a white stream inside Huo Yuhao’s body. As it travelled throughout his body, following the circulation path of the Mysterious Heaven Technique, it seemed to pierce through his entire body, warming up his passageways. Not only was it comfortable, it also brought about an obvious improvement in Huo Yuhao’s cultivation.

After three months of bitter cultivation, Huo Yuhao was able to faintly sense that his passageways had expanded by a large amount. This was due, in part, to the subtle effects of the Mysterious Water Pill, as well as to the nourishing effect of the Mysterious Heaven Technique that he’d discovered by chance. Furthermore, his passageways were extremely elastic and durable now. In terms of physiques, Huo Yuhao was no longer inferior to anyone of the same age as him. However, the fact that he’d stepped onto the right path rather late was undeniable. It wasn’t very likely that he’d catch up to Wang Dong. Hence, he could only choose to improve alongsideh Wang Dong.

With his current cultivation speed, Huo Yuhao was confident that he could break into the twentieth rank by the time he graduated as a first-year student, thereby obtaining a second soul ring. According to his brother Skydream, his strength would rapidly soar when he obtained his second soul ring, especially when his ice-type martial soul truly had its own abilities.

Huo Yuhao looked forward to that moment very much. When that happened, he’d definitely be able to help Wang Dong a lot more when they fought side-by-side.

Time always passed extremely the fastest during meditation; evening soon arrived. Like yesterday, Huo Yuhao walked over to the canteen to clean his fish before he headed towards the academy’s entrance.

The flow of people at the academy’s entrance had clearly been reduced. Perhaps it was due to the upcoming freshman assessment, but a majority of the freshmen felt a sense of urgency, causing them to bitterly cultivate inside of their dorm rooms.

However, Huo Yuhao’s business wasn’t affected by this at all. When he arrived, a queue had already formed, with the person in front being, amazingly, Xu Sanshi.

“Ding—” Xu Sanshi handed Huo Yuhao a silver soul coin and said, “No need to hand me any change; just make sure to give me a big fish.”

Huo Yuhao chuckled and replied, “Big brother Xu, nothing can stop you, can it?”

The previous rift between the two had already closed. After beginning to see each other every day, they’d long become familiar with each other. After he became familiar with Xu Sanshi, Huo Yuhao discovered that, even though he wasn’t as gentle as Bei Bei, and even though he had a bit of a violent temper and a fiery disposition, he was still extremely sincere with his friendships.

Xu Sanshi laughed mischievously. “Who was the one that made me like what you roast? If I don’t at least get a bite of this every night, my dinner won’t taste delicious at all. I’ve eaten many roasted fish in the past, but not a single person was able to control the fire as well as you do. Even Jiang Nannan has praised your roasting technique. Right, I’ve heard that the freshman assessment’s about to start?”

Huo Yuhao nodded his head a few times and replied, “Yeah!”

Xu Sanshi said, “Then you have to work hard. You can’t get eliminated! If you do, I won’t be able to eat anymore roasted fish.” Even now, he still didn’t know that Huo Yuhao had been behind Bei Bei’s victory during their match. He only knew that Huo Yuhao’s talent was ordinary, but that he could roast fish extremely well. Actually, Huo Yuhao’s fame in Shrek Academy for his roasted fish was definitely greater than fame for his strength.

“Little Xu.” At this moment, a crisp voice suddenly rang out. When Xu Sanshi heard this voice, he immediately began to shiver. Huo Yuhao even saw a few hints of fear, but even more than that, helplessness, appear within his eyes.

The other diners that had queued up behind Xu Sanshi instantly quieted down.

A girl walked out from the academy’s entrance with slow steps, causing the crowd to open up a path for her in a very natural manner, so much so that they didn’t even dane to look at her; they all lowered their heads as she passed. Her appearance clearly exceeded that of Jiang Nannan’s appearance last time.

When Huo Yuhao raised his head to see who the girl was, he discovered that the newcomer was a red-clothed woman. Her body was slender and well-proportioned, with the first thing that most people would notice when looking at her being her slightly exaggerated peaks that were firm, towering, and lustful…

Her waist was extremely slim, with that slimness continuing all the way down to her thighs, where it suddenly arced out. Her legs were perfectly straight and round, while at the same time a strong aura of youthfulness that was emanated by her assaulted one’s senses.

However, her facial features couldn’t clearly be seen; she wore a red veil over her face. However, one could tell that she was definitely a beauty from just her eyes alone. Her faintly-pink eyes could easily make one feel as if his soul had been swept away. Fortunately, her gaze was extremely cold, which slightly suppressed the glow of rapture in her eyes that was capable of penetrating into one’s bones.

Xu Sanshi clearly seemed to recognise her. After summoning up some courage, he turned around. However, he didn’t look directly into her eyes; he lowered his head slightly instead, and replied, “Sister Xiaotao.”

At this moment, Huo Yuhao was even more astonished. Xu Sanshi was an untameable person with quite a fiery disposition, who had an even higher status than Bei Bei in the outer courtyard due to him being a fifth year student. Because of his great talent, many sixth year students were somewhat reverent of him; even teachers wouldn’t cause him to act like this! Just who was this red-clothed girl? After looking at the girl closely, both Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong felt as if she looked slightly familiar for some reason.

The red-clothed girl looked over at Huo Yuhao’s oven, then slowly walked up to Xu Sanshi and said, “Little Xu, you’ve come to eat roasted fish?”

Xu Sanshi nodded his head and said, “Yeah! Huo Yuhao’s roasted fish tastes extraordinary. It’s really tasty.”

A slight trace of curiosity appeared on the red-clothed girl’s eyes, and she said to Huo Yuhao, “Let me try one.” She wasn’t the type of fairy that wouldn’t eat the food of ‘common mortals’. Practically all of her days were spent cultivating, so she was naturally excited when she found something new.

Huo Yuhao subconsciously replied, “I’m sorry, I only sell thirty fish a day. Thirty people have already queued up today, so please come earlier on tomorrow.”

These exact words had been uttered by him countless times before. However, when his voice rang out this time, practically everyone standing in the queue simultaneously raised their heads to look at him with terrified expressions; even Xu Sanshi wasn’t an exception.

Following that, the people who’d been queued behind Xu Sanshi loudly dispersed and walked away as fast as they could, causing Huo Yuhao to become even more astonished.

The red-clothed girl smiled and said, “Okay, there’s no one left in the queue now. I think that I should be able to eat one now, right?”

Xu Sanshi continuously made a few gestures to Huo Yuhao with his eyes. Huo Yuhao wasn’t someone who didn’t understand how things worked. After nodding his head, he continued to roast his fish seriously.

However, Wang Dong who was at his side was somewhat indignant. “Who are you? Why did you disturb our business?”

The red-clothed girl raised her right hand, exposing her tender hand. On it, there was a large blood-like crimson ruby that was absolutely beautiful. The ruby flashed, causing a single gold soul coin to appear in her hand. She then passed it to Wang Dong and said, “I’ll take all of today’s roasted fish.”

Wang Dong wasn’t polite at all as he took the gold soul coin. Afterwards, he didn’t utter another word. Although this red-clothed girl was threatening to the point of scaring so many people away, she didn’t look unreasonable. Furthermore, he felt that something was wrong; a few traces of fear towards this red-clothed girl had actually appeared in his heart.

However, Huo Yuhao honestly replied, “I don’t need this much money. My roasted fish only cost five copper soul coins apiece.”

The red-clothed girl seemed as if she wasn’t willing to talk with him anymore. She indifferently said, “Just take it as a deposit. Just don’t ask me for money if I want to eat here in the future.”

“Okay.” Huo Yuhao nodded and replied whilst simultaneously continuing to carefully roast fish.

The red-clothed girl originally looked as if she’d come to find Xu Sanshi, but she didn’t even seem to care about Xu Sanshi now. Instead, she was now focusing on Huo Yuhao as he roasted fish.

After a short period of time, she let out a soft cry of surprise. “Your fire-controlling technique is this perfect?! Do you have a fire-type martial soul?” She herself was an expert in the field of fire, so she was naturally able to see that Huo Yuhao’s fire-control while he was roasting the fish had reached the apex of precision.

Huo Yuhao simply shook his head.

After a short period of time, he finished roasting the first four fish. Since nobody else was coming today, Huo Yuhao simply passed two to the red-clothed girl and two to Xu Sanshi. In reality, he didn’t just buy thirty mackerels everyday; any extra fish were naturally left to Tang Ya and Wang Dong.

When Xu Sanshi had first seen the red-clothed girl, he had clearly been somewhat distressed. He wasn’t even as passionate as he normally was whilst eating his roasted fish. On the other hand, the red-clothed girl slowly raised her veil, revealing her absolutely beautiful face, as she slowly began to eat the roasted fish.

Her movements were extremely graceful as she carefully ate the fish. However, Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong were stunned by the mysterious disappearance of the fish bones from her hand after she’d finished eating the fish. She’d clearly used her hands to eat the fish, yet there weren’t any oil stains on her hand at all.

Just what power was this? Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong glanced at each other, both seeing the shock reflected in each other’s eyes.

The two pieces of roasted fish were quickly finished by her. When she finished, the red-clothed girl nodded at Huo Yuhao and said, “Your roasted fish are very tasty. They seem to have been seriously made. Now then, let me see your martial soul.”

Her words had an irrefusable tone to them. Ever since the evil fire in her body had been suppressed by that mysterious ice element, she hadn’t disturbed by her martial soul’s overbearing demonism for a full three months. However, that icy aura had gradually been refined by her martial soul’s phoenix flames as time passed, causing a backlash to gradually appear. The reason that she was looking for Xu Sanshi was because of his Mysterious Underworld Turtle, which was currently the best water-type martial soul in the academy. If she borrowed a certain amount of his strength, she could suppress the evil fire in her body. To Xu Sanshi, this process was just like tempering iron into steel—it only brought benefits. However, it was extremely painful. That was why Xu Sanshi had immediately had a bitter expression when he saw her. Furthermore, this wasn’t the first time that she’d tormented him like this.

Huo Yuhao eyebrows furrowed slightly, while Wang Dong had an indignant look on his face. However, he was stopped by Huo Yuhao’s raised hand. He slowly raised his head and looked towards the red-clothed girl. After that, a faint golden light emerged in his eyes. As that happened, a sheen of purple rippled through his deep blue eyes.

Of all the secret techniques he’d learned from the Tang Sect, Huo Yuhao’s greatest improvement lay in the Purple Demon Eyes. Whenever he absorbed the purple qi that rose from the east every morning, his Spirit Eyes would naturally generate a siphoning effect. For him, a single day’s worth of cultivating the Purple Demon Eyes was better than ten days worth of cultivation for Bei Bei and Tang Ya. Because of this, his Purple Demon Eyes had improved extremely quick.

The red-clothed girl raised her long eyebrows slightly when she sensed Huo Yuhao’s mysterious Spiritual Detection Sharing.

Following the increase in his cultivation, the strength of Huo Yuhao’s soul ring had gradually begun to increase, as per the Skydream Iceworm’s words. The strength of his tolerance would determine how much strength his first soul ring could manifest.

In the beginning, although his first soul ring contained four soul skills within it, their effects had only been equivalent to that of a four hundred year soul ring. However, his first soul ring now possessed the power of a soul ring that was around six hundred years, with the maximum range of his Spiritual Detection and his Spiritual Interference now reaching a diameter of fifty metres. Furthermore, the effects of these skills were even more detailed than they had previously been.

Part of the first seal that the Skydream Iceworm’s had made within Huo Yuhao’s body had already been unlocked. As long as Huo Yuhao continued to make breakthroughs in his cultivation, the Skydream Iceworm’s powerful origin energy would automatically increase the strength of his first soul ring. This was something that other soul masters couldn’t even dare to dream about. His first soul ring would only continue to grow more terrifying as his cultivation level rose.

The Skydream Iceworm couldn’t give Huo Yuhao an instant power boost, but it had given him an astonishingly bright future.

Huo Yuhao kept his Spiritual Detection Sharing active for about ten seconds, before withdrawing it. After a few moments of what seemed to be shock, the red-clothed girl nodded towards Huo Yuhao. She then gazed deeply at the single white soul ring that rose up from his feet and said, “That’s the strongest ten year soul ring I’ve ever seen.”

Huo Yuhao replied in a very natural manner, “It’s still only a ten year soul ring.”

The red-clothed girl laughed softly and said, “I’m Ma Xiaotao, nice to meet you. If I have the chance, I’ll come back again to eat your roasted fish. Little Xu, let’s go.”

Xu Sanshi had a pained expression as he said, “Sister Xiaotao, can you please be a bit more gentle today?”

Ma Xiaotao gave him an indifferent glance, causing him to immediately correct himself, “I don’t have any problems, none at all.” As he spoke, he hurriedly walked in front of Ma Xiaotao and gestured for her to continue.

Only after the two had entered the academy did Wang Dong mutter, “Her name’s really tacky….”

Huo Yuhao said in response, “Can a name prove anything? Don’t you think that she seemed a bit familiar?”

Wang Dong was suddenly startled. “She couldn’t be that person we met at the lake last time, could she? She was also wearing red clothes… could she be a disciple of the inner courtyard?”

Huo Yuhao shrugged his shoulders in response, expressing his doubt.

A group of people came rushing back and queued at his stall as soon as Ma Xiaotao and Xu Sanshi had left. The person in front, who happened to be a fourth year student, overheard the conversation between the two. He immediately whispered, “Junior classmen, you need to quiet down a bit. You can’t just talk about disciples from the inner courtyard like that, especially senior Xiaotao.”

Huo Yuhao asked in astonishment, “She’s really from the inner courtyard?”

The upperclassman replied, “Obviously. Within Shrek Academy, red-clothed students are all seniors from the inner courtyard. I don’t know how many people there are in the inner courtyard, but seniors from the inner courtyard rarely come out. There’s also a ranking system in the inner courtyard, causing the competition there to be extremely intense. Despite how intense it is, senior Xiaotao is one of the top ten ranked students inside of the inner courtyard. Her strength is definitely not something that we can compare to. Senior Xu Sanshi seems to have a very good relationship with senior Xiaotao, thus he might get a recommendation from senior Xiaotao to the inner courtyard in the future, if he’s lucky.”

Wang Dong asked with curiousity, “You need a recommendation to enter the inner courtyard?”

The upperclassman replied, “That’s obvious! Well, I’m not entirely clear about the specific procedures one must follow to enter the inner courtyard. Supposedly, every single student from the outer courtyard that wants to enter the inner courtyard must obtain a recommendation from a student from the inner courtyard.”

Huo Yuhao was able to finish selling the rest of his fish without a hitch. By the time he was about to sell the last of them, Bei Bei and Tang Ya arrived side-by-side. Huo Yuhao took out the fish that he’d saved for them beforehand to treat them to a few roasted fish.

“Junior brother, the freshman assessment is about to start. I’ve just got obtained accurate info: You’ll be registering in the morning, while the assessment will start in the afternoon. You have to prepare well.” Bei Bei’s demeanor was still as gentle as before.

Huo Yuhao nodded and said, “I’ll definitely work hard to pass the assessment.”

Bei Bei laughed, while Tang Ya said, “Little Yuhao, even if I’m your teacher, I can’t just eat this many of your roasted fish for free. I’ll give you something nice. You can use it when the time arises.” As she spoke, she handed something that resembled a pouch to Huo Yuhao. “When you get back back to your dorm room, store what’s inside in your Twenty Four Moonlit Bridges. Make sure to be careful when you’re using it. Don’t hit any vital points. Also, you’ll need to start learning how to refine soul tools after the assessment. At that time, I’ll teach you a few more secret techniques.”

“Thank you, Teacher Xiao Ya.” Huo Yuhao received the pouch, roughly able to guess what was inside.

Wang Dong had a curious look on his face. He proceeded to ask, “Teacher Xiao Ya, I don’t think that you can use soul tools during the freshman assessment, right?”

Tang Ya unhappily replied, “What soul tools? Don’t you know what the Tang Sect is famous for?”

When Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong returned to their dorm room and opened the pouch, they were shocked. It was filled with hidden weapons. There were throwing knives, throwing needles, Bone Piercing Needles, as well as a dozen plus other types of hidden weapons. Furthermore, there were over a hundred of each of them. It was basically a warehouse for hidden weapons.

It was extremely obvious that Tang Ya had prepared these hidden weapons for Huo Yuhao since his martial soul had no way to attack. During these past three months, Huo Yuhao had slightly improved in his understanding of the secret techniques of the Tang Sect, and had even started to skim through the Hidden Weapon Hundred Separations. He was extremely bright and studious, which resulted in him mastering a few techniques. He didn’t have any problems using hidden weapons in a basic fashion. To these new students with only one or two soul rings, these hidden weapons were still a large threat.

As Wang Dong gazed at Huo Yuhao’s hidden weapons, he couldn’t help but curl his lips and say, “Your Teacher Xiao Ya is clearly looking down on me. With me there, there won’t even be a need for you to make a move.”