Book 4: The Golden Road

Chapter 24.1: The Bet

Wang Dong laughed. “Are you a masochist? Right, let’s cultivate for a while here. Once Old Lady Zhou comes back and sees that we were cultivating while she was gone, she’ll definitely think that we’re very hardworking. I’m sure that her mood will improve as well.”

Huo Yuhao knocked him on the head and said, “You’re an expert at doing these crafty things.”

“Rubbish, you’re the one who’s doing crafty things. We’ve got a match in the afternoon, and we were somewhat drained from the match earlier, so what’s wrong with recovering as soon as possible? Are you gonna do it or not? Hurry up.” As he spoke, he took off his shoes and sat on the sofa in a cross-legged position. After that, he extended his hands out towards Huo Yuhao.

Huo Yuhao had always cultivated whenever he had free time, so naturally, he wouldn’t refuse. He mirrored Wang Dong’s position and placed his palms against Wang Dong’s palms. Then, they simultaneously circulated their soul powers.

As their soul powers circulated and fused with one another, it felt somewhat different from yesterday’s cultivation. Their soul powers seemed to have become more intimate, and their cultivation speeds during the initial stages of the fusion were clearly much faster than they were yesterday; the Haodong Power had already appeared in the instant they touched. As they willed it, the Haodong Power circulated along their cultivation paths at a speed that was at least 10% faster than yesterday.

When they started cultivating, they shut their eyes. As such, they didn’t notice that three blue, purple, and gold lights had slowly emerged from their palms. These three lights revolved around their arms and started to hover around their bodies, and gradually, a layer of color appeared on their bodies.

Originally, they were merely planning on recovering some of their soul power. However, they quickly entered a meditative state once their cultivation started, resulting in them losing all awareness of the world.

Not long after they began cultivating, Zhou Yi returned with another person in tow. If the two of them had been awake, they would’ve definitely been astonished. This was because the person that Zhou Yi had brought back was their proctor during the round-robin tournament, Teacher Wang Yan.

Zhou Yi was startled by the appearances of the two as they cultivated, while Wang Yan was completely astonished. Afterwards, the two of them unexpectedly gave each other a signal to remain silent.

An inquiring look appeared in Zhou Yi’s eyes, but Wang Yan merely shook his head. After that, he quietly walked towards their bodies and squatted down, observing their conditions. In addition to that, he started to carefully pay attention to the soul power undulations they were generating as they cultivated.

As he continued to pay attention to them, the astonishment on Wang Yan’s face increased. He subconsciously started to rub his hands.

Zhou Yi and Wang Yan had known each other for a while; she knew that this action of his signified his nervousness and excitement. Moreover, she was a teacher herself. As such, she could also sense how unusual Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong’s current state was. At the very least, she had never seen something like this before. Two soul masters were unexpectedly cultivating together, and not only did their soul powers not interfere with each other, they even fused together. They could see how quickly they were cultivating from the circulation of the three lights, and knew that even a three-ringed Soul Elder wouldn’t be able to cultivate as fast as them!

After completing thirty-six cycles of cultivation, Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong stopped. The two managed to completely recover the soul power they had lost during their earlier match, and they even managed to increase their cultivation levels by a step.

The two of them simultaneously let out a sigh, slowly retracting their respective soul powers. This then caused the three lights revolving around their bodies to slowly dissipate.

As they opened their eyes, the two felt somewhat refreshed. Their current cultivation speed was simply too satisfying. However, they were quickly startled by the scene in front of them.

“Teacher Zhou, Teacher Wang?” To his astonishment, Huo Yuhao saw Zhou Yi and Wang Yan seated on chairs not far away from the sofa, fully concentrated on them.

Wang Dong was also astonished. Only then did the two remember that they were still in Zhou Yi’s office.

Huo Yuhao spoke with a slightly embarrassed voice. “Teacher Zhou, we wanted to recover some of our soul power and prepare for the afternoon match. That’s why we…”

Zhou Yi waved her hand and said, “No need for any explanations. Being hardworking is always a good thing. This person is Teacher Wang Yan, an excellent teacher from the Academy’s theoretical faction. He’s even one rank higher than me as a teacher. He’s very well-learned with regards to martial soul fusion skills.”

Wang Yan smiled slightly and said, “I don’t think that I need to introduce myself. We’ve met before. I was their proctor during the round-robin tournament.” The current him had already regained his usual calm look, but as for whether he was truly calm on the inside, only he himself knew the answer to that.

“Teacher Wang.” Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong simultaneously bowed to him respectfully.

Wang Yan nodded his head and said, “I’ve carefully observed your cultivations. In the beginning, I didn’t believe what Zhou Yi told me, but now, I’ve realised that I was inexperienced. Now, I can testify to Zhou Yi with a 100% certainty that you two have completed a martial soul fusion, and that you possess a fusion skill.”

Zhou Yi looked at him with a somewhat astonished expression on her face, but she didn’t interrupt him.

Wang Yan continued. “Your soul powers are actually so compatible that they didn’t even conflict with each other at all when they fused together. Moreover, the fusion even assisted your cultivation. This has never been seen in the ten-thousand-year records of Shrek Academy. There’s only one explanation for this—that is, your martial souls are perfectly compatible, achieving a perfect 100% compatibility rate. Only this legendary occurrence could allow your soul powers to perfectly fuse without any distinctions whatsoever, and allow you to share your cultivation speeds. Congratulations. I can even foresee that you two will definitely become Chosen of our Shrek Academy in the future.”

Huo Yuhao couldn’t help but secretly admire Wang Yan as he listened to his words. He’d heard of the words ‘Perfect Compatibility’ from the Skydream Iceworm, but Wang Yan was able to deduce this by merely observing their cultivations, even though he didn’t fully understand them. It was no wonder he was a representative of the Academy’s theoretical faction.

Puzzled, Wang Dong asked, “Teacher Wang, since that’s the case, why did our fusion skill fail today? Huo Yuhao and I tried it out earlier, but nothing happened!”

Wang Yan chuckled. “Do you think that fusion skills are ordinary soul skills? How could the activation of a fusion skill be so simple? Your martial souls and energies have to be at their peak conditions for a fusion skill to be activated. This is the first time I’ve ever seen two people with perfect compatibility rates, but according to my experience, there’s a fixed resting period for the activation of a martial soul fusion skill. Moreover, you won’t be able to activate it during this time period. This period normally lasts seven days, but that will gradually lessen as your cultivations increase. This will happen all the way until you can completely master your fusion skill.”