The two of them were immediately overjoyed. They quickly walked over to her, and Huo Yuhao hastily asked, “Xiao Xiao, have you recovered?”

Xiao Xiao giggled. “Naturally! I have twin martial souls, so I’m obviously very talented. How long did you guys think I’d have to rest after a little scene like that? As a matter of fact, there’s nothing wrong with me anymore. Let’s go, I’ll treat the two of you to lunch. Let’s eat something nice for lunch today so that we can make sure we’re well fed when we beat those fellas in the afternoon till they can’t even take care of themselves. Hehe.”

Huo Yuhao smiled, then moved his right hand forward. Once again, Wang Dong immediately placed his hand on top of Huo Yuhao’s hand as fast as he could, while Xiao Xiao’s ended up at the very top. The three of them looked at each other, and confident smiles appeared on their faces.

“We’ll be the champions.”

Lunchtime had just started, so not many students had arrived. The instant they said that they’d be champions, the slightly sharp voice of a girl rang out, “How shameless. You’re not even scared of bragging. The champions will definitely be our Class 5.”

Huo Yuhao’s group of three simultaneously turned around to see three freshman students walking towards them. The person in the middle was Huo Yuhao’s personal enemy, Dai Huabin. The person who’d spoken, on the other hand, was a black-haired girl who was standing to his left.

This girl had very special eyes; the color 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 trio, her pupils unexpectedly turned into vertical slits, making her look extremely peculiar.

Dai Huabin had a stern look on his face, but he remained silent. After sweeping his gaze over the trio, he walked proudly into the canteen. On the other hand, the black-haired girl snorted disdainfully towards them. However, the other girl in their group—who had long pink hair—smiled sweetly at them. Her smile was extremely charming; so much so that it seemed to seep into one’s bones. Clearly, these two girls were Dai Huabin’s teammates.

Wang Dong and Xiao Xiao were about to explode, but they were stopped by Huo Yuhao. Dai Huabin clearly hadn’t recognised him, and after Huo Yuhao’s internal struggle earlier, he’d been able to remain calm on the surface when he’d met him again.

“A war of words has no meaning. Let’s settle it in the Assessment Arena after lunch.” After speaking indifferently, Huo Yuhao walked into the canteen with his companions in tow.

If this were a normal day, Huo Yuhao would never eat the Academy’s most expensive, top-ranked dishes—even if someone were to treat him to them; they were simply that expensive. However, today was a different story. Xiao Xiao had overdrawn herself yesterday, and her body needed nourishment. In the end, Xiao Xiao wasn’t able to treat them to the meal, as Wang Dong took the initiative to pay the bill. It wasn’t that Huo Yuhao didn’t want to pay it, but he gave up after seeing the numbers on the bill. The money he’d accumulated after selling roasted fish for a few months he’d been in the academy still weren’t even enough to pay for his school fees next term. Furthermore, the school fees required for second year students was supposedly even more expensive.

Dai Huabin’s group of three naturally ate the best food in the canteen as well. The two parties weren’t far away from each other, and the faint smell of gunpowder had already started to permeate through the air. Only, none of them dared to start a fight. After all, their match in the afternoon was more important.

After eating lunch, Huo Yuhao’s trio found a quiet place by the Sea God’s Lake to study some battle tactics for their match in the afternoon. They were about to face an extremely strong opponent, and it was impossible for them to not be nervous. Even though they were only freshmen, and though their strength couldn’t be considered anything within Shrek Academy, this championship match was of the utmost importance to them; any minor detail could decide the final victor of the match.

“It’s about time, let’s head to the Assessment Arena.” Xiao Xiao said.

“Yup.” Huo Yuhao nodded.

At that moment, Wang Dong suddenly said, “Yuhao, hug me for a second.”

Xiao Xiao’s eyes immediately widened. However, she quickly returned to normal when she saw a chilly killing intent appear in Wang Dong’s eyes.

Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong had a somewhat tacit understanding between themselves. His body shook, and he immediately understood what Wang Dong meant.

“Wang Dong..”

Wang Dong smiled indifferently, and a cold light flickered through his eyes. However, his voice was extremely gentle, “If we don’t try, how will we know?”

Huo Yuhao took a deep breath and stopped speaking. Afterwards, he spread his arms and hugged Wang Dong.

—-

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 amount 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 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, even students of Shrek Academy would need around three years or so to reach the three-ringed rank. At the same time, a cultivation of three rings was required for third year students to be promoted to fourth year students.

However, there had actually been three 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 was Huo Yuhao’s team, due to Du Weilun’s report. By relying on the strength of two Soul Grandmasters and a Soul Master, Huo Yuhao’s team had actually managed to beat both Ning Tian and Xie Huanyue’s teams, who were both Soul Elders. Furthermore, Wang Dong and Xiao Xiao’s performances could definitely be described with the word ‘breathtaking’.

Wang Dong’s Radiant Butterfly Goddess was an unrivalled martial soul that was second to none, even in Shrek Academy. On the other hand, Xiao Xiao’s potential as a twin-souled soul master was even larger. Soul masters who possessed twin martial souls had been rarities during the early days of the Douluo Continent, and that still held true to this day. Even as the number one academy in the world, Shrek Academy currently only had three students, including Xiao Xiao, with twin martial souls. However, the other two students were already disciples of the inner courtyard, and they were all ranked among the top 10 overall students of the Academy.

As for Huo Yuhao, Du Weilun had also explained his situation to Dean Yan Shaozhe. Huo Yuhao had a rare Body Soul, which was a spiritual-type martial soul as well. Unfortunately, he hadn’t had a good upbringing, which had resulted in him only being at Rank 17. Furthermore, he only had a ten year soul ring. Although he had a relatively decent amount of talent, the flaws in the starting steps of his cultivation couldn’t be fixed. At the same time, there was also the question as to whether or not he’d be able to obtain a sufficiently strong soul ring as the holder of a spiritual-type martial soul. Due to the culmination of these factors, Du Weilun had put quotation marks around Huo Yuhao’s name, and had also expressed his unwillingness for Huo Yuhao to become a core disciple of the Academy.

Yan Shaozhe was still reassured by the way Du Weilun was handling things. As the Director of Studies, Du Weilun had a very insightful gaze, while both being fair and impartial at the same time. He’d made extremely important contributions to Shrek Academy as a whole by nurturing a large quantity of outstanding students.

However, Yan Shaozhe wasn’t the only Dean of Shrek Academy. He was the Dean of the Martial Soul Department, but Shrek Academy also had a Dean of the Soul Tool Department. Together, these two Deans managed everything in the Academy.