Book 3: Fusion of Martial Souls

Chapter 15.4: Three Months

Huo Yuhao had observed the students from the other classes, but he hadn’t been able to sense the same sort of temperament from them. It was just as Bei Bei had said: Even though Zhou Yi was a very strict teacher, one would definitely become an outstanding student, or even a true expert in the future, so long as that person could persevere through her classes.

Zhou Yi beckoned towards Huo Yuhao, causing him to hurriedly walk towards the teaching platform and take a stack of papers from her. He didn’t need Zhou Yi to tell him what to do, as he quickly handed them out to every single student in the class.

Zhou Yi said, “After the freshmen assessment ends, your classes will be in line with your abilities. Write down the direction you wish for your future cultivation to go, and give it back to me later.”

The direction she was referring to was organized as such: Assault, Defense, Control, and Auxiliary. These were the four types of soul masters. During the first three months of teaching, everyone would be together in the same class. However, once the true freshman classes had started, everyone had to be separated. After all, the difference in cultivation paths between soul masters from different categories was extremely large.

After Huo Yuhao had returned to his seat, he was the first one to write down which direction he was going to follow. He naturally wrote down the words ‘Control System Soul Master’, before signing the bottom of the page with his own name. However, he didn’t notice that Wang Dong, who was sitting next to him, had glanced at the contents of his page before writing down his own.

Zhou Yi said, “You’re all students that I’ve taught. Even though you’ll be split into different classes after this assessment, I hope you brats won’t forget the things that I’ve taught you. Hand your papers back to me after class. Now then, I’ll go over the main points of the freshman assessment.”

As she was speaking, Zhou Yi turned around and walked back to the blackboard. She then drew a few lines, and proceeded to write the word ‘Battle’ in the middle of the blackboard.

“Battle. That’s right, you’ll have to fight in the freshmen assessment. Furthermore, it’s a battle that everyone has to participate in. I know, the tool soul masters amongst you lot, and especially the auxiliary and food system ones, will find this very strange. ‘Why do you have to participate in the fight as well?’ Well, you didn’t hear me wrongly. You all have to appear on the battlefield too, just like the battle soul masters. Even though Shrek Academy educates all types of talented soul masters, your ability on the battlefield is still the most important thing. I told you all this once before, on the day that school started. Ever since the appearance of soul tools, the line dividing the types of soul masters has begun to blur. Even if you’re an auxiliary or food system tool soul master, you’ll still be able to explode with an extremely strong combat power by relying on soul tools. However, where will your combat instincts come from? Don’t tell me that a soul master can just be given a soul tool, and will then be magically able to survive by dim-wittedly standing around on the battlefield? Obviously not. Your combat instincts have honed from real battles. Because of this, all of you will have to undergo this combat assessment.”

“Of course, the academy naturally won’t allow auxiliary system tool soul masters to fight with assault system battle soul masters, that’s just too unfair to you lot. As such, the freshmen assessment will be conducted using a form of team battles. However, there won’t be too many people in a team. Ultimately, the academy has decided that this year, there will be three people per team. This is a rather high number for people at your age to attempt to synergize well with. When you’re making your groups, you can only have one assault system soul master at most, while your other two team members can be chosen as you wish. We’ll first put students who are in the same dorm room together into teams, and let you make the rest of your teams as you wish. As for people who aren’t able to join a team, we’ll draw lots to decide your teams. If you wait a moment, I’ll give you a rather rational plan to create your own teams.”

“The freshmen assessment will be conducted with every single student from the entire year participating, as the number of students who’ve joined Shrek Academy year is quite large. This time, there’ll be a total of almost three hundred teams of students participating in the freshman assessment, but only half of them will be able to remain in the academy, which also means that only the top one hundred and fifty teams will pass. This ranking will be based off of how many points you accumulate in your battles.”

“Your matches will be organized via lot drawing, with every team having to fight in at least ten matches. Finally, a ranking will be created based off of the number of matches you’ve won. Of them, the top sixty-four will have a knockout round, with the top four teams in each getting a different prize. The prize for the champion will be extremely precious.”

Every student in the room was listening with rapt attention. To them, the freshman assessment was the key that decided whether or not they could stay in the academy. If they were eliminated, they could only return and choose another sub-first ranked college. If they did, they might not be able to ever become a pinnacle expert on the Douluo Continent. They’d already worked hard for three months; nobody wished to get eliminated at this point in their studies.

Zhou Yi indifferently said, “Our class currently has sixty-seven people, thus we can make twenty-two teams, with one person remaining. I’ll divide all of you up according to your martial souls, and after doing some careful analysis, I’ll help you make your teams. If anyone isn’t satisfied, you can change your teammates after returning to your dorm. However, if no one disagrees when we register tomorrow morning, then you’ll have to strictly follow my arrangements. If you do, I think you’re all pretty clear on what’ll happen.”

“Song Qinghan.” Zhou Yi said in a low voice.

“Present.” A somewhat small student quickly stood up. He’d never been too conspicuous within the class, so he clearly hadn’t thought that Zhou Yi would call him out first.

Zhou Yi said, “Every teacher in charge of a freshman class can propose that a student directly pass the assessment. The person that I’m choosing is you. After observing you for a while, I believe that you’re the most suitable to join the Soul Engineering Institution and continue cultivating. Do you have any problems with that? Right now, you have two choices. You can either join to the Soul Engineering Institution, or you can pack your bags.”

Overbearing, she was truly too overbearing. Every single student within the class simultaneously looked over at Song Qinghan.

“I’m willing to go to the Soul Engineering Institution. Thank you, Teacher Zhou.” Song Qinghan didn’t resist Zhou Yi’s overbearingness at all, excitedly jumping up and down. The reason that he’d came to Shrek Academy had been to enter the Soul Engineering Institution in the first place!

Zhou Yi gestured for him to sit back down. “Next, we’ll be splitting you into teams. The first team is Huo Yuhao, Wang Dong, and Xiao Xiao.”

Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong practically stood up at the same time. They’d originally been willing to form a team anyway, but when they heard Zhou Yi personally group them together, they looked at each other and were able to see the happiness reflected in each other’s eyes.

The other person who stood up with them was a female student who sat in the front row. She wasn’t tall. In fact she was quite small, just like Song Qinghan. She didn’t particularly stand out in the class, either. Her various abilities seemed to rank amongst the middle of the class.

The little girl wasn’t especially beautiful, but she had a delicate and pretty look, and could at least be appreciated. Her face had a hint of bashfulness when she turned around. However, her gaze directly went right past Huo Yuhao and landed on Wang Dong’s increasingly handsome face. Her face reddened, before she turned back around and lowered her head.

“For the second team, we’ll have Zi Hao, Ma Qingshuang, and Leng Leng.”

“For the third team, ….”

Zhou Yi looked and sounded very overbearing, but after she’d finished announcing the division of the teams, every student in the class seemed to have been relieved of a heavy burden.

As Huo Yuhao coolly observed the class, he couldn’t help but let out an inward sigh of admiration. Even if Teacher Zhou normally had a cold expression on her face, and was very strict, in reality, she thoroughly understood every single one of her students. These groups had clearly been thoroughly thought out by her.