Two similar figures stood together.

“Brother, so how about it? Is there a chance for you to make a move?” Dai Huabin asked resentfully.

Dai Yueheng snorted coldly. “You’d best give up. There’s no chance. Huo Yuhao’s even more talented than you. He has a skill called Spiritual Detection that can benefit every single one of his teammates. Furthermore, it’s obvious that Elder Xuan likes him a lot. The two consecutive matches we had were to show off his strength for everyone to approve of him. I don’t even need to tell you what kind of person Elder Xuan is again. Also, mother is very angry over this incident. Fortunately, father’s not home. Otherwise, you’d be in for a lot of trouble.”

“Mother has told me to pass on a piece of news to you. If there is a ‘next time’, nobody is going to help you. Do you know how much pressure mother suffered to keep this matter quiet? Even the royal family doesn’t dare to offend the academy. You were actually this rash?”

Dai Huabin’s eyes turned red. “Don’t tell me that you’re just going to let this go? Did our men die for nothing?”

“Bastard!” Dai Yueheng suddenly pulled his hand back and slapped Dai Huabin’s face. The latter staggered, and nearly fell to the ground.

“How old are you already?” Dai Yueheng asked sternly, “Do you not know the difference between the clan’s interests and your private grudges? If this were a soul master academy within our country, I’d have let you do anything you wanted. But this is Shrek! Don’t you know what the word ‘Shrek’ means? If you want to continue staying here, you’d better back down. Is this a place where you can simply do as you wish?”

“As for that Huo Yuhao, not only can we not go against him, we even have to rope him in. He’s still very weak now, but he has the sovereign abilities of a twin-souled soul master and an Ultimate martial soul. He’s a precious treasure even in our Shrek Academy. After the matter that you started, the old fellas from the academy will definitely protect him even more strictly. If you can rope him into our clan, do you know how many benefits we’ll get? Have you forgotten the task our mother gave us?”

Dai Huabin turned silent. Though his eyes were still filled with rage, he’d calmed down.

Dai Yueheng’s expression softened slightly. “Go back first. Don’t think too much about it. Even though you can’t take Huo Yuhao’s position, the other positions might not be as stable. Word hard, and you’ll have a chance to become one of the Seven Monsters. After this tournament, I’ll have the qualifications to graduate from the inner courtyard. I’ll return to our clan first, and prepare for our major project under our mother’s plans.”

“Okay.” Dai Huabin nodded. After he turned away and left, he sneered inwardly, “Dai Yueheng, weren’t you just born a few years before me? There’ll be a day when you won’t be able to strut around in front of me. Once I’m your age, I’ll definitely be able to surpass the current you.”

....

Morning. Amidst the misty gates of Shrek Academy, a group of people slowly walked out. From their ages, it was clear that they were students of Shrek Academy. However, they weren’t wearing their uniforms today. Some of the students were wearing clothes made of cloth, while some were wearing ones with flowery designs; all of them wore different things.

Flowery clothes weren’t necessarily beautiful, and ones made of cloth didn’t necessarily represent mediocrity. The most obvious delegates of the two types of clothes were Yao Haoxuan and Jiang Nannan.

As a result of his skinny body, Yao Haoxuan looked somewhat wretched with his flowery clothes on. On the other hand, the cloth-wearing Jiang Nannan looked incomparably elegant.

Huo Yuhao no longer wore the set of clothes he’s brought to the academy. However, he treasured the set of clothes his mother had made for him, and had thus placed them in the Twenty Four Moonlit Bridges. Currently, he was no longer the poor young boy who didn’t have a single penny to his name. The black set of warrior’s robes he wore made him look extremely nimble. Due to the changes that had occurred to his body, he looked fourteen to fifteen years old, even though he wasn’t even thirteen yet. The well-proportioned muscles underneath his robes seemed to contain an explosive amount of power within them.

Wang Dong was no longer as tall as Huo Yuhao, but his slender body, elegant aura, and clever yet beautiful eyes were extremely captivating. If the prettiest among the girls was Jiang Nannan, he was definitely the most handsome of the boys. In terms of pure appearance, he was comparable to Jiang Nannan.

The sun had just risen from the east, but they were already leaving the academy. This group of people naturally consisted of the official and preparatory teams of the Shrek’s Seven Monsters. Elder Xuan wasn’t the only person leading the group; Huo Yuhao’s teacher, Wang Yan, also tagged along with them.

Only now did Huo Yuhao know that Elder Xuan was Teacher Wang’s master. Only, Elder Xuan wouldn’t allow the former to address him as such. Elder Xuan liked his inheriting disciple very much, even though he wasn’t comparable to the other Heaven’s Chosen in terms of cultivation. Wang Yan could travel far along the path of research into martial souls, and he would be able to teach within the inner courtyard after two more years of practice.

The group of almost twenty people people walked together in twos and threes, but Elder Xuan was still as messy as ever, with his bottle gourd and chicken legs in his hands. The foodstuffs he ate seemed to alternate between chicken legs and chicken wings, and he didn’t seem to ever get bored of eating them.

Possibly due to the fact that he wanted to eat and drink, Elder Xuan didn’t walk especially quickly; he walked at around the pace of an ordinary person. This gave the entire group a relaxing and leisurely feeling. With their physical abilities, walking at such a pace was simply a type of pleasure.

Compared to when he had just entered the academy, Huo Yuhao had experienced an earth-shattering transformation. He’d entered by relying on the Tang Sect’s special quota, and not only did he have a pitiful amount of soul power, he didn’t even have a single attacking skill. His body was as frail as an ordinary person’s.

The fact that he was able to completely change everything within a short year couldn’t be fully attributed to his two intelligent soul rings; his painstaking hard work couldn’t be ignored. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Huo Yuhao had put in more than twice the amount of effort as the other students. He didn’t even have any time to rest.

Although he now possessed talent that made even the upper echelons of the academy approve of him, he didn’t dare to relax at all. He deeply remembered what his Teacher Wang Yan had told him; as a wielder of an Ultimate martial soul, his cultivation speed would drastically decrease after reaching Rank 30. At that time, his cultivation speed wouldn’t be comparable to that of an ordinary soul master. He could cultivate alongside Wang Dong, but he still paid attention to this matter. Moreover, he was even dual-cultivating in the Martial Soul and Soul Tool Departments. Thus, he had to work even harder.

After the earnest conversation he had had with He Caitou, Huo Yuhao paid much more attention to the Ultimate Soldier Plan. If he could become a person that could change the entire situation of a battlefield by himself, he would have the qualifications to seek his revenge!

Due to his current mentality, Huo Yuhao didn’t want to waste any time. Seeing that they weren’t walking too quickly, he immediately whispered to Wang Dong, “Let’s cultivate for a while.”

Wang Dong glared at him unhappily. “I’m gonna die of exhaustion. What bad luck I have, having a roommate like you.”

Huo Yuhao chuckled, “Haven’t you felt that you’ve been improving so quickly with me urging you on? You should be grateful to me.”

Wang Dong snorted, “I’d rather rest for a bit. Come. You’re not allowed to use Spiritual Detection.”

With that, Wang Dong ran straight towards Huo Yuhao. However, instead of colliding with him, he flickered around the latter’s body at a rapid rate.

Huo Yuhao continued to slowly follow the group, but they were at the very back of the group, and thus wouldn’t be afraid of anyone noticing them. Huo Yuhao raised his hand, then started to make pushing and pulling motions with a regular tempo. A pale, white light could faintly be seen at the tops of his hands.

Wang Dong immediately slowed down. Evidently, he’d sensed what Huo Yuhao was doing. However, he immediately accelerated using his soul power, doing his best to maintain his current level of speed.

Whilst walking together with Bei Bei, He Caitou turned around. He saw Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong with a weird look in his eyes and whispered, “Senior brother, isn’t Wang Dong using the Ghost Shadow Perplexing Tracks? What’s Huo Yuhao doing?”

Bei Bei naturally saw what the two of them were doing. He revealed a sincere look of admiration on his face. “Huo Yuhao’s using another secret technique of our Tang Sect. It’s called the Controlling Crane Capturing Dragon, and its user can use their soul power to release a pushing or pulling motion within a fixed range. It’s a skill that’s extremely practical in close-combat. I’ll teach it to you later. Actually, even if your martial soul isn’t a combat-oriented one, you’ll be able to wield a decent amount of strength in a close-combat situation once you’ve finished training in our techniques.”

Xiao Xiao looked towards the two of them with a somewhat envious look in her eyes, then moved closer to Bei Bei, “Senior brother, let’s try this out as well.”

Bei Bei couldn’t help but laugh. “We’re not too suitable for what they’re doing. The training they’re doing now is more suitable for people whose cultivations are closer to each other. If I use my Controlling Crane Capturing Dragon on you, you won’t even be able to use your Ghost Shadow Perplexing Tracks.”

Xiao Xiao’s lips pouted, “Those two are so close that they’re like the same person. I can’t interrupt them either! They’re both guys, so why are they so intimate with each other? Hmph!”

She was truly somewhat envious of the intimate relationship that Wang Dong had with Huo Yuhao. In the past, she’d thought that it would be much easier for her to mix around with guys due to the fact that she was a girl! However, the intimacy that Huo Yuhao had with Wang Dong was evidently much deeper than the friendship she had with them.

He Caitou gave a silly laugh, “Since the two of them can complete a fusion skill, they’re naturally close to each other. However, a martial fusion between two people who don’t share the same bloodline is quite rare. Xiao Xiao, why don’t I help you out? I don’t know how to use the Controlling Crane Capturing Dragon, but I can use some of my weaker soul tools to help you train your Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track. How about that?”

Though she felt that He Caitou’s extremely rugged body and black skin looked somewhat fierce, Xiao Xiao was always a very kind and straightforward person in her interactions with other people. Thus, she nodded, “Sure! I want to train hard as well. Otherwise, I’d deserve to be eliminated if I lagged behind them.”