Chapter 51

The two cultivated all the way until it was time for lunch, which allowed them to fully replenish their spirit power. When they reached the dining hall, they were met with Xiao Xiao, their year mate waiting for them.

She smiled sadly as she leaned against the doorframe, "Hey you two. I just wanted to warn you about the team you are going to go up against. We lost pretty badly to them. Each of their team members individually, were much stronger than each of us. It was almost like they were mucking around and mocking us. They were pretty brutal. I just wanted to tell you to not underestimate them. You are our class one's last hope in the tournament and we are all cheering for you to win."

After saying so, she walked off. They both noticed that she did not have the excited bounce to her step as she usually would.

'She must have taken the loss very hard,' Yuhao thought.

Wang Dong nudged Yuhao's elbow with his own as he said, "We got this. Let's win not just for us, but for our class and Zhou Yi."

Before Yuhao could reply, a sharp voice of a girl rang out, "How shameless. You're not even scared of bragging. The champions will definitely be our Class 5."

Yuhao and Wang Dong simultaneously turned around to see three freshman students walking towards them. The person in the middle was Dai Huabin, someone who Yuhao was very much looking forward to defeating. The person who'd spoken, however, was a black-haired girl who was standing to his left.

This girl had very special eyes; the colour of her left and right eye were unexpectedly different. Her left eye was pale blue, while her right eye was pale yellow. As she focused her gaze on the duo, her pupils unexpectedly turned into vertical slits, making her look extremely peculiar. These eyes were the well-known eyes of a Hell Civet spirit master.

They were a genetic mutation that arose in many of the Zhu clan due to their clan with Hell Civet martial spirits, continuously marrying with the Dai clan, which is the White Tiger martial spirit clan. It is a relationship that has been happening for nearly fifteen thousand years, longer than almost any organisation or school. Because of this, despite it being incestuous, which is not viewed upon positively planet-wide, it is completely ignored by the masses.

Yuhao could not help but think, 'Their family relationship and ancestry are more 'pure' than any of the fanatical bloodlines from the Harry Potter world. I am surprised they don't suffer from more genetic side effects of inbreeding; however, I suppose the existence of spirit power would rectify these issues. Doesn't make it any less weird though…'

Dai Huabin had a stern but prideful look on his face, as he remained silent. After sweeping his gaze over the duo as if he was gazing upon his servants, he walked proudly into the canteen. On the other hand, the black-haired girl snorted disdainfully towards them. Contrary to the previous two, the last girl in Da Huabin's teammates smiled sweetly at them.

Yuhao smiled back in return before dragging the irate Wang Dong further into the dining hall to get their food. They quickly ate, choosing a slightly better window to improve their nourishment in preparation for the upcoming match before heading back to their dorm room to cultivate and relax.

Two hours later, Yuhao stood up from his bed, "It's about time, let's head to the Assessment Arena."

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The Assessment Arena seemed eerily quiet. Even though they'd already reached the finals of the freshmen assessment's knock-out tournament, there were no spectating students.

Shrek Academy did its best to keep an element of privacy regarding a student's abilities. Thus, students definitely wouldn't be able to spectate other's assessments. Any students who weren't participating in the assessment had to continue their classes. Thus, today was the day where there was the fewest number of students in the Assessment Arena.

However, a lack of students didn't mean that there was a small number of people present. Almost all of the teachers who didn't have any classes were gathered at the Assessment Arena to watch the finals. Even the Dean of Shrek Academy, Yan Shaozhe, had personally come to watch this match. Accompanied by Du Weilun and the other teachers, he walked up to the tall stage.

Even though this was only a freshmen assessment that was held three months after school had started, nearly all of the students from Shrek Academy's inner courtyard had revealed their talents during this freshmen assessment. As a result of this, they were regarded highly by the college and nurtured. The reason that Dean Yan Shaozhe had come was due to the extraordinary strength of this year's batch of new students. Normally, students of Shrek Academy would need around three years or so to reach the three-ringed rank. At the same time, becoming a Spirit Elder was required for third-year students to be promoted to fourth-year students.

However, there had actually been four new students who were already at the three-ringed rank. With this level of strength, they were practically guaranteed to enter the inner courtyard in the future. Even Yan Shaozhe himself wished to see which of the two teams would become the champions of this year's batch of freshmen.

However, the team he was paying the most attention to, as were the majority of the spectators was Huo Yuhao's team. They were a team of two who had dominated every battle despite their numerical disadvantage. Initially, the teachers of the outer-court students were shocked that Zhou Yi allowed only two of her students to make up a team, and they were all expecting the team to get knocked out very quickly. However contrary to expectation, they had beaten other three-ring led teams quite easily. Not mentioning their battle strength, just their two martial spirits were enough to attract attention; seeing as Wang Dong's Radiant Butterfly Goddess was a prodigious, unrivalled martial spirit and Yuhao's never seen before, Steel Space Dragon spirit, was equally unrivalled.

"Weilun, who do you favour in today's match?" Yan Shaozhe, Shrek's headmaster asked Du Weilun, the director of the outer courtyard's Martial Spirit Department.

Du Weilun chuckled. "If it wasn't for the monster Huo Yuhao, then I would be slightly more confident in Dai Huabin's team. However, he has had a massive impact during every one of their fights."

Yan Shaozhe nodded, "Let us see if he can pull anything else out to surprise us."

Both sides had arrived in the arena early. One side was making their preparations, while the other observed their opponents.

Even though Dai Huabin didn't recognise Huo Yuhao, he was naturally able to sense the threat that Huo Yuhao's team posed to him. In terms of numbers, his team was superior. While Yuhao was also a Spirit Elder, Wang Dong was only a Spirit Grandmaster. Based on purely a statistical standpoint, there is no reason for them to lose. However, Yuhao's team had already beaten both Ning Tian's team, Wu Feng's team and Xie Huanyue's team, all teams he would say are strong. The two of them made Dai Huabin feel threatened. Because of this, they'd made sufficient preparations before the match started; they'd even found the teams that had previously fought against Huo Yuhao's team and asked them about their fights in order to carefully understand Huo Yuhao's and Wang Dong's abilities. With all of this knowledge providing him with a massive advantage, Dai Huabin couldn't help but have his pride surface.

Yuhao, on the other hand, was preparing while thinking about how he should approach the battle. He definitely would like to use this battle to get some well-deserved payback for himself and his mother, however, the presence of spectators limited the extent to his actions.

'If I can't have large, deadly attacks, I should take advantage of the areas which won't kill him but still make him feel horrible…' Yuhao thought.

At that moment, the referee entered the vast Assessment Arena. All of the partitions had been removed during the afternoon, exposing the enormous Assessment Arena.

The referee waved towards both sides, motioning for them to enter the arena.

Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong cooly entered the arena. As per usual, Huo Yuhao stood in the front, while Wang Dong stood just behind him and to his left. On the other side of the arena, Dai Huabin stood in the middle as he walked into the arena, while the two girls on his team stood beside him.

The referee called the two parties to him and said in a deep voice, "The finals are about to begin, thus there will be a change in the rules. Listen well. As of now, you can move as you wish in the arena, but students with flying-type martial spirits are no longer allowed to fly more than ten meters into the air. For the sake of allowing you to display the entirety of your strength, you can go all-out with your attacks; don't hold anything back anything during the match. I'll take care of the situation if any problems arise. However, any participants I have to rescue will be disqualified from the match. Do you understand?"

"Understood." Both parties simultaneously replied. A peculiar light flashed through both Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong's eyes. At the same time, a trace of chilliness appeared in Dai Huabin's eyes as an incorporeal killing intent seemed to erupt from his body.

Although Dai Huabin wasn't the eldest son, he was still one of the White Tiger Duke's sons. He'd received the best education a child could since he was young. He hadn't just learned how to cultivate his martial soul; he'd also learned about how to participate in a war, as well as ways to kill others. The White Tiger Duke was a commander of one of the Star Luo Empire's three armies. As such, his sons would definitely obtain military experience in the future.

As a result of this, Dai Huabin had a much colder temperament than his peers; he already had the basic mannerisms of a soldier. Of the White Tiger Duke's many sons, he had the best amount of talent, which in turn made the White Tiger Duke value him highly. This had formed Dai Huabin's prideful, firm and ruthless personality. When he was only five years old, he'd personally killed his first young soul beast.

"Both sides, introduce yourselves."

"Huo Yuhao."

"Wang Dong."

On the other side, Dai Huabin's team of three exuded an obvious sense of hostility.

"Dai Huabin."

"Zhu Lu." The black-haired girl said.

"Cui Yajie." The pink-haired girl said.

The referee spread his arms wide and said, "Both teams, return to your sides of the arena. When I give the signal, you may begin attacking."

Both parties quickly reached their respective sides of the arena. The Assessment Arena was extremely large, thus, due to the distance between them, both parties had already become minuscule dots in each other's eyes.

The referee raised his right hand, then brought it down swiftly. Immediately afterwards, a clear 'Begin!' rang out in the ears of the participants.