Book 3: Fusion of Martial Souls

Chapter 18.2: The 33rd Arena—3v3

In reality, even though there was a significant gap between Ouyang Junyi and Huo Yuhao’s team in terms of strength, Wang Dong shouldn’t have been able to achieve victory as quickly as he did just by himself. However, don’t forget that he had the assistance of Huo Yuhao’s Spiritual Detection Sharing, which was equivalent to a six hundred year soul ring!

Huo Yuhao’s Spiritual Detection Sharing wasn’t a single skill after all; it provided assistance equivalent to two six hundred year soul rings. The help that Wang Dong had received from Huo Yuhao vastly exceeded the support that his opponents had received from their food system soul master.

Furthermore, Wang Dong also had a hundred year soul ring as his first soul ring, while his soulforce had already reached the twenty-fourth rank; his cultivation tremendously outstripped that of his opponent’s.

After withdrawing his wings, Wang Dong walked back to Xiao Xiao and Huo Yuhao and high-fived them in celebration. Xiao Xiao smiled. “Our class monitor is awesome. Wang Dong, how about you let me enjoy myself next time?” She was confident that, if she was the one who’d gone out, she would’ve also been able to defeat her opponents. The more she felt that Huo Yuhao’s Spiritual Detection was magical, the more she found herself entranced by it. Thus, the person she praised wasn’t Wang Dong, but Huo Yuhao.

Wang Dong chortled. “Don’t! Keep your strength hidden. These ten matches are merely appetisers to the three of us. It’s enough for just me to show off. We can’t let the other teams get a feel for our strength.”

Huo Yuhao chuckled. “Wang Dong makes a good point. Xiao Xiao, you’ll be our trump card.”

Xiao Xiao also laughed when she heard their words and nodded in agreement.

“Class 1’s ‘Team Huo Yuhao’ wins their first match.” After Wang Yan had announced the results of the match, he noted it down on the previous sheet of paper he’d pulled out.

On the other side, Ouyang Junyi’s team of three had already managed to crawl back to their feet. Wang Dong had been lenient on them, so they hadn’t suffered any real injuries. However, they had a look of embarrassment on their faces. They didn’t want to remain for even one more second after letting everyone see how easily they’d been defeated. Hence, they quickly ran away.

After Wang Yan had recorded the results of the match, he glanced back towards Huo Yuhao’s team of three. He inwardly thought, I reckon that this is Class 1’s trump card. The students that Teacher Zhou Yi has taught are extraordinary, as expected!

However, he still couldn’t figure out Huo Yuhao. Unlike the students, he was clearly able to understand the subtleties behind each team when they registered.

The name of this team from Class 1 was ‘Team Huo Yuhao’. In other words, Huo Yuhao was the leader of this team. However, if you looked at it from the perspective of their cultivation levels, Wang Dong and Xiao Xiao both outstripped him. To put it bluntly, with Huo Yuhao’s soul ring that was only of the ten year rank, as well as his cultivation that hadn’t yet broken through to the twentieth rank, he shouldn’t even have the qualifications to enter Shrek Academy.

Despite all of this, he was the leader of their team. That is to say, this student—who had a ten year soul ring—was the core of this team. Just why was this the case?

Wang Yan was a representative from the moderate faction of Shrek Academy’s theoretical school of thought. He had a large amount of knowledge on theory, while his ability to teach was extremely strong. Even though he was only forty or so years old, he was a highly ranked teacher that was second to none in the outer courtyard.

Obtaining a promotion as a teacher within Shrek Academy was even more difficult than obtaining one as a student. This was extremely obvious, as shown by Zhou Yi only being a middle-ranked teacher. This was naturally related to her terrifying teaching methods. On the other hand, Wang Yan was someone who could become a high-ranked teacher, and was someone who had the qualifications to teach inner courtyard students. From this, it could clearly be seen how strong he was in the field of theoretical knowledge. However, even he couldn’t understand what was going on with Huo Yuhao’s team, so much so that he couldn’t even tell what kind of soul master Huo Yuhao was.

Although they’d finished their assessment for the day, Huo Yuhao’s team of three didn’t leave. Instead, they stayed behind to observe the other two matches. They waited until the other matches had finished before bidding farewell to Wang Yan.

Wang Yan didn’t ask Huo Yuhao anything in the end. He believed that he’d definitely see Huo Yuhao’s abilities in the following matches.

The first round of the freshmen assessment quickly finished. The purpose of today’s assessment was more or less to allow the participating students to adapt to the assessment. However, tomorrow’s assessment would be much more challenging. The students would have to undergo two rounds of assessments in both the morning and the afternoon, totalling four rounds for the day. The third day, on the other hand, would be even more terrifying: All of the teams that were left would have to undergo five rounds that day, as the duration of the freshmen assessment was only three days long.

This assessment didn’t just train students in combat, but also in their ability to fight a prolonged battle.

When the second day of the assessment started, the students from Class 1 began to feel grateful for Teacher Zhou Yi. Fighting four matches in a single day wasn’t just a problem of soulforce consumption; the drain on their physical strength was extremely serious as well. After undergoing Zhou Yi’s hell-like training, the students from Class 1 clearly had a better ability to endure the physical drain from the constant battling than the students from the other classes.

After the match they’d fought on the first day, as well as the observations they’d made afterwards, Huo Yuhao was one-hundred percent certain that there were no opponents in their group capable of threatening them. Other than them, there was only a single student above the twentieth rank of soulforce.

The students from the other teams weren’t idiots either. Being under such intense conditions, they directly forfeited when they faced Huo Yuhao’s team in order to achieve better results later on.

Huo Yuhao’s team was in much better condition compared to the exhausted students of the other teams. Huo Yuhao’s team of three easily managed to achieve victory in all four of their matches, thereby obtaining a perfect result of five victories in five matches. With these results as a ‘safety net’, they’d basically passed the freshmen assessment already. Furthermore, these five victories caused them to be filled with confidence.

On the other hand, Wang Yan felt somewhat depressed as the proctor of the 33rd arena. Five matches had passed, yet Huo Yuhao’s team had fought in the exact same way in every match—Wang Dong would make move on his own, while Huo Yuhao and Xiao Xiao would simply sit back and watch. The match would end in a short period of time, causing him to remain mystified as to what abilities Huo Yuhao possessed. As a theory-based teacher, how could he not feel depressed?

“Huo Yuhao, you three come over here for a moment.” When the second day’s matches had concluded, Wang Yan called Huo Yuhao’s team of three over.

“Teacher Wang.” Huo Yuhao walked in front, with Wang Dong and Xiao Xiao flanking him.

As I thought. Wang Yan inwardly thought to himself. This Huo Yuhao truly is the core of their team!

“You three have obtained an excellent result of five victories in five matches. You must continue to work hard in your future matches, so that you can participate in the ranking tournament for the top sixty-four teams. However, tomorrow’s five matches won’t be nearly as easy as today’s were. After today’s matches have concluded, we’ll be drawing lots again, while teams who’ve lost all of their matches will be eliminated. When we draw lots, we’ll make sure that students from the same class won’t meet each other, but your previous results will also be brought into consideration. Tomorrow, you’ll definitely remain in the 33rd arena, but there’s a very high chance that you’ll meet a strong team, or even two, that are capable of challenging you.”

Huo Yuhao nodded and replied, “Thank you, Teacher Wang. We’ll definitely work hard.”