Doubts about him

*One week later*

Grade 1

Shen Yi arrived on the platform and approached the lectern. "Let's begin class."

Tang Wulin whipped his head around to find her staring right at him. Taking the cue, he shot up like a rocket from his seat and shouted, "Stand up!"

The entire class rose with him. "Good morning, Teacher."

Shen Yi nodded, satisfied. "Take your seats."

Her gaze moved from Tang Wulin to the rest of the class, sharp and discerning like a hawk's. "Today we're having combat class. You'll be fighting together in your mecha making groups. You won't be sparring with each other, but with either me or Teacher Wu. Group leaders, lead your groups out! We're leaving now." Shen Yi and Wu Zhangkong made for the door without a second glance.

A combat class?

'and the Buddha died'.

The sparring arena sat on the south side of the school building's first floor. After passing through a wide corridor, the students found themselves in the large circular arena. It was over one hundred meters in diameter, with all sorts of machines lining the perimeter for recording battles, analyzing said battles, and acting as safeguards in case of accidents.

Unlike where they had fought it out for the class presidency, this was a genuine sparring arena!

While injuries inflicted in the virtual battlefield also made their way into reality, the danger of death did not loom above the students. They could not die in there and as such fought more aggressively, taking more risks than they would have had they been in the real world.

This was not the case here.

Shen Yi and Wu Zhangkong ascended the stage. The students diverted to the sides and lined up at the edges of the platform.

Shen Yi swept her piercing eyes through the crowd. "Naturally, combat class consists of live combat. Today's focus is teamwork. As I've said previously, together with your groups, you will fight me or Teacher Wu. Apart from our battle armors, we will use our full power." Her lips curled slightly upward. "Any group that defeats us will get full marks. Otherwise, your score will depend on your performance. Decide who you want to fight: me or Teacher Wu. We will also be judging your decision. You will have five minutes to discuss, then the battles will start with the class council group."

The first battle was of course Tang Wulin and his team. They faced Teacher Wu Zhangkong. They lost.

Fan Lin was last due to his special circumstances.

Soon it was his turn. He chose Wu Zhangkong. All the classmates were sneering at him for choosing to do his project alone.

Fan Lin got inside the ring pro kabbadi style. He let out his spirit rings. One purple, one green ring lit up around him.

He has improved a lot in the past two weeks he was in Shrek. His spirit power has increased. How much he didn't know. But it had increased alot. He was a level 29 Soul Grandmaster. His physique was also stronger than before. The nourishment from Shrek's food was far higher than Eastsea Academy's cafeteria. But all that didn't matter since he was strong from the start. Mere Soul sages have been his munchies since a long time ago.

He also wanted to check where did he existed in the spirit master world and for that, he needed to assert dominance and take one step at a time. For now, it was the Soul sage Wu Zhangkong.

Wu Zhangkong got on the fighting ring. Fan Lin was standing opposite him.

Wu Zhangkong stared at Fan Lin. Fan Lin decided to joke to ease the pressure. "Do you like little boys, why are you staring at me?" 

[Fan Lin used taunt. It was embarrassing.]

Except Fan Lin didn't know how to make good jokes.

Wu Zhangkong directly attacked. Fan Lin immediately used his second spirit soul ability and there was a huge wall between them. Wu Zhangkong attacks didn't even scratch the crystal walls. Fan Lin immediately create three more crystal walls to trap Wu Zhangkong. He also created an extra one above the four Walls. Wu Zhangkong was enscaled in the cube shaped crystalline construct.

1 minute passed since Wu Zhangkong was trapped in the construct. He was unable to get out. He admitted defeat. Fan Lin won.

Why do waste energy when you can just trap the opponent and let it die by itself? Plus Daimondheads crystal also has explosion capability. It can be exploded with just a single thought.

None of the students cheered. They were just looking at him.

"Come to my office later." Wu Zhangkong said to me.

"Yes Sir." Fan Lin replied and went to sit at the corner. There were no fights left.

Following this exercise in group combat, the students came to acknowledge the two teachers' might. They were all powerless before the two, except someone they wouldn't acknowledge.

After combat class, everyone had made various gains and losses from the battles, but neither Shen Yi nor Wu Zhangkong stepped forward to comment. They simply ended classes for the day.

This was Shrek Academy's teaching style. Students were left to ponder and comprehend on their own without excessive pointers from others. Whether the students could identify the problem and come up with a solution was up to them.

Only those who could walk this path to the very end were called true geniuses.

Fan Lin followed the teacher to the office of Wu Zhangkong. Wu Zhangkong went to his chair and sat down. Fan Lin also sit down. Opposite him, that is.

"What is your second soul ability called?"

Teacher Wu directly went to the point.

"Crystal control." Fan Lin replied.

"Spirit Soul?" He asked again.

"Human faced spider. Hundred year old Spirit Soul."

"Martial soul?"

"Blue Silver Grass. Innate level 2 soul power."

"First spirit soul?"

"Five poison snake. Ten year old defective spirit soul. Thousand year old soul skill- energy body."

"Your file said you came from Glorybound City and entered Eastsea Academy one year after Wulin but you both are of same age. Why is that?"

"We were classmates in red mountain academy. I failed in my second year due to being sick. I had to repeat it. Hence I was late."

"You went to Earthrock Alliance and entered Shining Moon Academy. Why?"

"I was recommended by someone from my long lost relatives."

"Ok. You can go." Finally Wu Zhangkong ended our conversation.

"Yes Sir." I greeted him and left his room.

'Did he check on me just now. Does he know something?'

After Fan Lin went away Elder Cai came out from behind the sofa where he was previously sitting. Fan Lin didn't even sense her.

"So what are your findings?" Elder Cai asked Wu Zhangkong.

"He is weird. He hates eating meat for unknown reasons. He is a pure vegetarian. Till now he had went to spirit ascension platform for 113 times. He didn't kill a single soul beast in all those times. But he killed humans and absorbed their leftover spirit energy. Truly inefficient. He isn't a spirit beast reincarnation. Spirit Pagoda had already checked that and given the green light. Even if he is one, he is doing a really bad job of hiding his intentions."

"Any other information." She asked as if she knew he hadn't told her everything.

"He is from Glorybound City. The same as Tang Wulin. He also went to Eastsea Academy for two years. After that he went to Shinning Moon Academy on the recommendation of Earthrock Alliance President. He got his Shrek Academy entrance quota there. It seems like the quota was pre-planned to be given to him. The Shining Moon Academy hadn't been given a single quota from their school opening. It was only when he went to study there that they got the quota. He went to the spirit ascension platform for 112 times in that same year. He was given special permission by the principal to leave school whenever he needed to and Spirit Pagoda had tried to solicit him a few times but failed due to unknown reasons."

"He is really hardworking. He attends classes at the morning. The goes to boundless forest to cultivate. He trains his body every night till exhaustion and fells asleep in the forest most a lot of times. He sleeps less than an hour everyday. He sleeps normally on his weekends? During training, his first soul skill is always used and not just training, he uses it everywhere where spirit souls are permitted. As for why is he working hard for, we don't have much information on that."

"We have a lot of eccentric students this year."

Elder Cai said while rubbing her temples with her hands. She could feel the headaches that were coming her way.