area51novel Chapter 65 The sword must be held in one's own hand.
Chapter 65 The sword must be held in one's own hand.
Chapter 65 The sword must be held in one's own hands (3,000 words)
After the awards ceremony, the class assignment process began. In accordance with Shrek Academy's tradition, there were four classes in each grade.
The offensive and control types were grouped into one class, the defensive and agile types into another, the support type warriors into a separate class, and finally, the food type, the healing type, and other special types of warriors and weapon masters were grouped into a fourth class.
Huo Yuhao and Xiao Xiao, being control-type disciples, and Wang Dong, being offensive-type disciples, were naturally all assigned to Class One. Among the core disciples, Dai Huabin, Cao Jinxuan, Zhou Sichen, Lan Susu, Lan Luoluo, and Wu Feng were also assigned to Class One.
As a defensive type, Xie Huanyue and Zhu Lu, as an agility-based type, could only go to Class Two, while Ning Tian, a support type, went to Class Three.
As for why Shrek Academy insists on dividing students into classes this way, nobody really knows. Anyway, this has been the basic class division for all six years of Shrek Academy's outer court. Although the content learned by the Agility/Attack and Defense systems is largely similar, and their Soul Ring acquisition and team roles differ, this is Shrek Academy's teaching arrangement.
It can only be said that the rise of geniuses often depends on the investment of resources and their own efforts. At most, the teaching of teachers can only play the role of increasing knowledge and popularizing common sense.
After all, not every teacher comes from a theoretical background and has enough extensive knowledge to answer students' questions.
Next came the introduction of the class advisors. After the classes were divided, the academy adopted a system of class advisors and assistant class advisors to manage the students. Since Zhou Yi had been suspended from her post, the teachers in charge of Huo Yuhao's Class One became Wang Yan and Mu Jin, the former class advisor of Freshman Class Nine.
"Alright, everyone, return to the teaching building according to the latest class assignments, led by your respective homeroom teachers. Huo Yuhao, you three come with me to collect your rewards," Yan Shaozhe announced.
Huo Yuhao and the other two followed Yan Shaozhe to the faculty office area located behind the senior teaching building. Yan Shaozhe's actual office was in the inner courtyard; he had only prepared a temporary office for himself in the outer courtyard. This office was located on the top floor of the faculty office area, right next to Du Weilun's office.
The temporary office was simply furnished, with only a few bookshelves, a tea table and chairs for entertaining guests, and a desk.
Yan Shaozhe pointed to the tea chairs and smiled, "You kids can sit here. All three of you performed exceptionally well in this freshman assessment, especially Huo Yuhao. If I'm not mistaken, you were the one who arranged Wang Dong and Xiao Xiao's battle plan, right?"
Huo Yuhao nodded without speaking, but gently lit up the only yellow spirit ring among the three spirit rings that appeared beneath his feet.
"Dean Yan, please do not deliberately reject my mental power."
Yan Shaozhe was stunned for a moment, then followed Huo Yuhao's instructions and withdrew his mental defenses.
The next instant, the entire office, along with the corridor and the view outside the window, appeared in his mind. Everything within the scope of his exploration was categorized and organized in a 360-degree, comprehensive way, and transformed into information that entered his brain. Yan Shaozhe felt as if he had gained an external brain; everything around him was suddenly clear and unobstructed.
Yan Shaozhe took several slow breaths, but the shock in his eyes did not diminish in the slightest. Such skill was simply the mark of a born Soul Master Commander! The compromise made at yesterday's Sea God Pavilion meeting now made Yan Shaozhe particularly want to go back on his word!
"Yuhao, I've wanted to ask you this before: why are you so obsessed with learning about soul tools? Your original spirit, the Spirit Eye, and your other ultimate ice spirit are already powerful enough. Do you really have enough energy for it?"
Huo Yuhao looked at Yan Shaozhe's undisguised serious expression with some surprise. After a moment of silence, he sorted out his thoughts and replied, "Dean Yan, I'm the kind of person who always prepares for the worst in everything I do. So my life motto has always been: if others have it, it's better to have it myself; the sword must be in my own hands."
"In my view, this sword, in today's era, refers to soul guidance technology. If I don't master it, and my future enemies do, it will threaten the safety of me and those around me. So even if I can achieve extremely high accomplishments in martial soul, I cannot sit idly by and watch the sword of this era fall into the hands of others while I remain indifferent."
"That's why, and it just so happens that I have some talent in soul tools, so I must hold the sword firmly in my own hands."
Yan Shaozhe stared blankly at the young man before him, as if he were seeing him for the first time. No wonder Xian Lin'er said he had a remarkable talent for understanding soul tools; so that's how it is.
Yan Shaozhe sighed softly and said, "Yesterday we had a meeting to discuss your future development. We, the traditional Martial Soul departments, all hoped that you could put down your Soul Guidance Device and focus on cultivating your Martial Soul. But in the end, both the Martial Soul and Soul Guidance departments compromised, allowing you to study two departments concurrently until your third year, after which you can decide for yourself. Now it seems that this result was very wise, right?"
Is it a meeting at the Sea God Pavilion?
Huo Yuhao immediately guessed it, and he now understood Yan Shaozhe's intention. So he was still trying to persuade him to give up the soul tool? Well, I'm sorry, I have no intention of giving up either side.
Huo Yuhao bowed slightly to Yan Shaozhe and said, "Thank you for your concern, Dean. I am very satisfied with the academy's arrangement. I am very grateful for the academy's dedicated cultivation."
Yan Shaozhe smiled and said nothing more. A ruby ring on his right hand flashed, and a leather pouch appeared in his hand.
This body appears to be a soul tool, with dark patterns faintly covering its brown exterior. Upon closer inspection, Huo Yuhao could clearly sense subtle fluctuations in soul power on it.
Yan Shaozhe glanced at Wang Dong and Xiao Xiao, whom he had just ignored, and said gently, "Children, given that you defeated three Soul Master teams and won the championship with a perfect record, the Academy's Education Committee has decided, after internal discussion, to grant you this award as an exception."
"Although there's only one, and you'll have to decide how to distribute it yourselves, this is the most precious prize the academy has given out for freshmen assessments in at least three hundred years. Open it and take a look." As he spoke, he handed the pouch to Huo Yuhao.
Huo Yuhao reached out and took it, then casually untied the rope on the leather bag.
A yellow light emerged from the skin without warning and slowly hovered in mid-air, much to the astonishment of Wang Dong and Xiao Xiao.
This was a small piece of left leg bone, only the size of a palm, emitting a pale yellow light. A dense fluctuation of soul power emanated from it, making the air in the entire office slightly viscous.
Wang Dong and Xiao Xiao were immediately shocked; they had never expected the academy to offer a soul bone as a reward. They knew that the value of a soul bone far exceeded that of a soul ring.
All soul beasts produce soul rings upon death, but the probability of producing soul bones is extremely low, one in ten thousand. Only high-level soul beasts have a greater chance of producing soul bones after death, and only a 100,000-year-old soul beast can consistently produce one soul bone.
Any Soul Master might fight tooth and nail over a Soul Bone, or even become enemies, because the boost it provides is simply too direct. Even setting aside the Soul Skills it grants beyond Soul Rings, the sheer amount of Soul Power and physique that can be increased by absorbing Soul Bones is enough to make any Soul Master unable to refuse.
It's easy to imagine just how incredible it is that Shrek Academy would bring out such a treasure this time.
However, Huo Yuhao had absolutely no interest in this thing. Putting aside his two super-grade ferocious beast-level torso bones and the Ice Phoenix Wings, his left palm bone alone was enough to easily defeat this left leg bone in front of him, which was of decent quality but somewhat useless to Huo Yuhao.
Without the slightest hesitation, Huo Yuhao casually handed it to Wang Dong and Xiao Xiao, saying, "You two can share it. This soul bone doesn't match my attributes."
Wang Dong immediately followed Huo Yuhao's suggestion and pushed the soul bone to Xiao Xiao, saying, "I won't take it, you can have it, Xiao Xiao."
Yan Shaozhe was stunned. "What I gave you was a soul bone, right? How come you've already passed it on to Xiao Xiao so quickly? What if Xiao Xiao keeps making excuses, and the three of you are planning to sell the soul bone and split the money?"
Xiao Xiao was dumbfounded. How could these two guys not feel any reluctance at all? This is a soul bone! You two better show some respect for a soul bone!
"You two, are you sure you're just going to give this to me like this? Yuhao was the one who did the most work!"
Huo Yuhao looked indifferent. "If it doesn't match, it doesn't match. If you don't want it either, then we'll ask Dean Yan to give us something else."
Wang Dong rolled his eyes at Huo Yuhao, "Is there anything more precious than a soul bone? Xiao Xiao, you keep it. We'll have to wait until next time."
Xiao Xiao took a deep breath, looked carefully at her two teammates, nodded slightly, put the soul bone into her pouch, and placed it into her storage soul tool.
Yan Shaozhe looked at the three children in front of him with satisfaction and couldn't help but nod.
"Alright, you've all been assigned tasks. Go back to your classrooms now."
Huo Yuhao and the other two respectfully bid farewell to Yan Shaozhe and were about to leave the office when Yan Shaozhe suddenly remembered that he had something important to tell Huo Yuhao.
"Wait a minute! Huo Yuhao!"
Huo Yuhao and the other two were startled by Yan Shaozhe's shout and turned around to look at him with confusion.
"Yuhao, I have something to ask you."
Huo Yuhao vaguely remembered something, but still asked calmly, "Dean Yan, is there anything I can help you with? Please just say so."
Yan Shaozhe walked solemnly to Huo Yuhao, patted Huo Yuhao's shoulders with both hands, and said, "You should still remember that woman in red from before. That's my disciple, Ma Xiaotao. Her martial soul cultivation needs your help with the ultimate ice soul power. So, if it's convenient, I'll have her come to you tonight."
Huo Yuhao immediately felt two gazes fixed on him from behind. He knew without a doubt that they were Wang Dong and Xiao Xiao, but since Yan Shaozhe had already said so, how could he refuse?
"Dean Yan, it's convenient for me. You can have her come to the Soul Guidance Department's experimental building at 7 p.m. to find me."
"Alright, alright! It's settled then!"
(End of this chapter)