Huo Yuhao stifled a smile. “Right, you’re so hardworking. In fact, you’re so hardworking that you cover your head with your blanket every day so as to not get up in the morning. I wonder who this ‘hardworking person’, the one who’s asked me not to wake him up every morning, is.”

“Humph!” Wang Dong snorted and pushed Huo Yuhao away as he took large strides towards the dorms. Huo Yuhao laughed as he hurried after him. When they arrived back at their dormitory, they greeted the old man who was reclining near the entrance, then headed to their room.

“Come here, let me take a look. Let me see just how much your cultivation’s increased now that you’ve obtained your second soul ring and a second martial soul.” Wang Dong said as he plopped himself down on his bed.

Huo Yuhao laughed. “You’re so anxious. Could it be that you’re trying to prepare for the bet that we have in the afternoon? Since it’s a score-based test, I reckon that we’ll add all of our scores together and compete against their combined score. Don’t tell me that you’re not confident in yourself?”

Wang Dong glanced at him. “Of course I’m confident in myself. I’m just not confident in a person who’s holding us back like you.”

Huo Yuhao was left speechless when he heard this. He immediately took off his shoes and sat down on Wang Dong’s bed in a cross-legged position. “Here, I’ll let you experience just how awesome this brother of yours really is.” After hearing the Skydream Iceworm refer to himself as his brother everyday during their journey, Huo Yuhao had learned to use the phrase as well.

Wang Dong unhappily spat, “Didn’t I give you a set of bedding? Why’re you sitting on my bed?”

Huo Yuhao replied, “Come on, stop that bad habit of yours. Hurry up.”

Wang Dong didn’t press the issue. He turned to face Huo Yuhao, then pressed his palms against Huo Yuhao’s. Immediately afterwards, a look of astonishment appeared on both of their faces.

They were both able to sense that their soul power fusion had formed a powerful soul power, which had in turn substantially increased both of their soul power. Furthermore, it wasn’t a simple quantitative change; it was such a substantial improvement that it could be considered a qualitative change. When they’d separated one month ago, their Haodong Power could be described as a tiny brook. Their fused soul power now however, was practically akin to a small river. As the turbulent soul power flowed throughout their bodies, they both were able to clearly sense that their soul power was circulating at 150% its original speed.

The majority of what Huo Yuhao felt was the explosive increase in Wang Dong’s soul power, but Wang Dong felt something different; he discovered that not only had Huo Yuhao’s soul power increased by a substantial amount, but the width of his passageways had doubled as well. The amount of Haodong Power the two had created was relatively enormous, yet it wasn’t inhibited at all when it circulated through Huo Yuhao’s passageways. It managed to complete an entire revolution without any difficulty at all. In fact, Huo Yuhao’s circulation speed even exceeded Wang Dong’s. It was as if a heavenly treasure had been used on Huo Yuhao’s body, causing an astonishing transformation to occur to it. When the Haodong Power had finished flowing through Huo Yuhao’s body, Wang Dong sensed a formidable burst of power from his body.

Though the two felt astonished, they’d already started cultivating. As such, they didn’t dare to be careless at all. They hurriedly guarded their minds and gradually entered a meditative state.

They cultivated all the way until lunchtime before stopping. When they finally slowly withdrew their palms and opened their eyes, both of them had a somewhat strange gaze in their eyes as they looked at one another.

They’d only cultivated for two hours, yet they both felt that their soul power had distinctly increased. With this sort of cultivation speed, they could potentially raise both of their soul powers by a single rank in less than a month! This cultivation speed was simply too astonishing.

“You’re simply a freak!” Wang Dong couldn’t help but blurt out.

Huo Yuhao unhappily retorted, “Then what about you? Aren’t you one as well? This was a combination of me being well-prepared and my good fortune.”

Wang Dong smiled mischievously. “It’s no wonder that you were so confident when you made that bet with Dai Huabin. Don’t worry, as long as your score in the advancement test is higher than Zhu Lu’s or Cui Yajie’s, our chances of winning will be extremely high. I’ll definitely work hard in order to beat Dai Huabin’s score.”

Huo Yuhao nodded, then asked, “Are you saying that the proctor will be able to notice if we cheat?”

Their minds were practically connected at this point, as Wang Dong naturally understood what he was thinking. “I’m afraid that it’ll be extremely difficult. However, I can sense that your control has increased by a substantial amount, so it should be fine if you’re careful. We have to make Dai Huabin and the rest kowtow before us. Let’s see whether he’ll dare to be so unbridled after that.”

When he and Wang Dong reached the canteen, they learned that Huo Yuhao’s lunch quality hadn’t dropped, despite him being stripped of his privileges as a core disciple of the Martial Soul Department. A thirty-or-so-year-old chef was already waiting for them outside. When he saw Huo Yuhao, he immediately approached them.

“You’re Huo Yuhao?”

“And you are?” Huo Yuhao could guarantee that this was his first time meeting this man.

The middle-aged man who was dressed as a chef smiled. “I’m Master Fan Yu’s personal chef. From here on out, I’ll personally be bringing you your food.” Once he’d finished speaking, he handed Huo Yuhao the box of food he was holding.

Huo Yuhao stared blankly. Once he came back to his senses, a warm feeling immediately spread through his heart; his teacher was truly too thoughtful. He thanked the chef and accepted the box of food. Once he had, he and Wang Dong entered the canteen together.

Wang Dong said, “You’re really great! You even have someone to deliver food to you. The core disciples of the Soul Tool Department are truly treated in an extraordinary manner.”

Huo Yuhao chuckled. “Go and order your food.”

When Huo Yuhao opened the box of food he’d received and saw the food inside of it, he couldn’t help but feel astonished. This meal was simply too sumptuous!

To Huo Yuhao, the food that the core disciples of the Martial Soul Department had been able to eat had already been of the best quality. However, the food that Fan Yu’s personal chef had given him exceeded that by more than a single level.

Inside of the box were two dishes, a bowl of soup, and large bowl of rice. They seemed extremely simple at a glance, but the ingredients that had been used to make them could be described as precious treasures.

There was a piece of paper that labeled the food inside of the box as well, with instructions written on it that detailed which food should be eaten in which order so as to obtain maximum efficacy from the ingredients as well.

Firstly, he needed to drink the soup that had been made from a hundred year jade ginseng stewed together with the essence of a gastrodia elata1. Huo Yuhao was no longer the previously ignorant kid that he had been; after enjoying the benefits of a core disciple of the Martial Soul Department for an entire year, he had a certain level of understanding towards these top-level ingredients. He could also roughly calculate that the cost of this bowl of soup alone exceeded fifty gold soul coins.

The Martial Soul Department’s canteen served a similar dish, but it contained a mere ten year jade ginseng instead of a hundred year ginseng. As such, its ingredients were very inferior when compared to the dish in front of him. This bowl of soup could nourish the brain and body, and was considered an exceptionally good type of nourishment.

Of the two dishes, one of them contained the simmered muscles of a hundred year Earth Dragon. These Earth Dragon muscles had been obtained from a genuine Earth Dragon. The combat strength of a hundred year Earth Dragon was absolutely at the pinnacle of hundred year soul beasts, as it was the representative of power-type soul beasts. Its muscles could nourish both the muscles and bones of a human being, thus its benefits were especially great for a teenager like Huo Yuhao.

When Huo Yuhao opened the dish, he found out that the Earth Dragon muscles had unexpectedly been turned into a soft stew. It would’ve had to have been cooked for at least three full days to reach this degree of softness! Not only was it incredibly delicious, it was also incredibly beneficial to eat.

The other dish contained the marrow of an Azure Bird, and was served with bean sauce. The Azure Bird supposedly had a trace of the Phoenix bloodline, and not only was its marrow delicious, it was also extremely nourishing to the bones of a human being.

These three dishes altogether could be referred to as the Dragon Muscle Phoenix Marrow Jade Ginseng, and regardless of if you were talking about its nourishing effects or its price, all three of them were first-class dishes.

Even the rice was special; it was known as Crystal White Jade Rice and it seemed to be filled with tiny pearls. It could replenish one’s Qi and would nourish one’s body, thus increasing one’s physical strength.

The material price along for this meal surpassed a hundred and fifty gold soul coins!

When Wang Dong returned from ordering his food, he took a look at his own food, then looked back at Huo Yuhao’s. A strange light appeared in his eyes once he did so. “Yuhao, I’m jealous now. I want to go to the Soul Tool Department as well. When did the Soul Tool Department’s food become that good? I heard that the food that their core disciples eat in their canteen is far inferior to what we of the Martial Soul Department get! However, it seems like the Martial Soul Department needs more nutritious food.”

Wang Dong’s information wasn’t wrong, but that only applied to ordinary core disciples of the Soul Tool Department. Was Huo Yuhao ordinary? Not only was he Fan Yu’s direct disciple, he was also the Soul Tool Department’s first-ever core disciple with twin martial souls. The Soul Tool Department had placed all of their hope on him, but even Huo Yuhao didn’t know this.

Huo Yuhao chuckled, then pushed some of his food towards Wang Dong. “Here, we’ll split it fifty-fifty. Give me half of your food. We can taste many different things this way.” He didn’t even wait for Wang Dong to reply before he impolitely shoved a large amount of Wang Dong’s food onto his plate and began to eat it with large mouthfuls.

Wang Dong silently gazed at him when he saw this. However, in the end, he didn’t refuse Huo Yuhao’s offer. Thus, he and Huo Yuhao ate the two different dishes available for the core disciples of the Martial Soul Department and the Soul Tool Department together.

——

The Beast Duelling Area.

As the largest specialised area within Shrek Academy, it was also the largest building within Shrek Academy. The space that the Beast Duelling Area occupied was as large as all of the buildings and dorms within the Martial Soul Department, including Shrek Plaza, combined.

Within the entire Douluo Continent, academies that could use their power to actually capture and raise soul beasts were as few and far between as phoenix feathers and qilin horns. Of them, Shrek Academy was the one and only academy that could achieve such a scale as the Beast Duelling Area; even the royal families of the various empires were unable to do something create something like it. Capturing and raising soul beasts wasn’t easy. One had to maintain the wild nature of a soul beast whilst keeping track of the different diets and habits different soul beasts had. At the same time, one also had to ensure their own safety whilst ordering them about. Investing in something this huge was something that ordinary soul master academies simply wouldn’t dare to even dream of.

The taxes obtained from Shrek City every year all went to Shrek Academy. And of this enormous sum of money, an entire third of it went into the Beast Duelling Area. It was obvious what sort of investment the Beast Duelling Area needed.

Students who’d just entered the academy would generally feel that the school fees alone were expensive, but students who managed to enter the Beast Duelling Area wouldn’t have this feeling. The amount of money they paid as school fees compared to the investments that Shrek Academy made was akin to comparing the glow of a firefly to the radiance of the moon.

Other than the taxes received from Shrek City, another form of income that Shrek Academy received came from the Soul Tool Department. Every year, the soul tools created by the Soul Tool Department would be sold outside of the academy. However, these sales were limited to the Heavenly Soul Empire, the Dou Ling Empire, and the Star Luo Empire; they didn’t include the Sun Moon Empire. This was also the reason that Yan Shaozhe had said that Qian Duoduo was rich.

1. A Chinese herb.