Chapter Forty: The New Semester’s Opening Assessment

The academic year system of the Douluo Federal Academy, much like in the previous life, is divided into two semesters. With half a year having passed, the winter break for the first semester of the first year is drawing to a close.

February 17th.

The Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineer Academy has also welcomed the start of the new semester.

In the first-year Sun Class of the Elementary Division, students gathered in groups of three or five, discussing the upcoming semester opening assessment. Before the month-long winter break, they had completed their final exams during the riot period of the Elementary Spirit Ascension Platform at the Mingdu Spirit Pagoda.

The Spirit Ascension Platform riot period is a side effect originally caused by the instability of the energy used to construct the platform. During this period, the spirit beasts inside the platform become exceptionally active, their numbers increase, and the level of danger rises significantly. Not only does the time required to absorb spiritual energy after slaying a spirit beast increase by a hundredfold, but if a soul master leaves the platform—voluntarily or involuntarily—during the absorption process, any unabsorbed spiritual energy is siphoned away by the nearest soul master. In other words, during the riot period, soul masters can seize spiritual energy from one another.

The Spirit Pagoda discovered a business opportunity in this process; even after advancements in soul guidance technology made the previously uncontrollable riot period manageable, they did not fix it entirely, choosing instead to operate it as a novel gimmick. The riot period occurs twice a year, and each of the eighteen pillars of the Spirit Pagoda is allocated three hundred slots per session. Three hundred slots may seem like a large number, but every location of the eighteen pillars is a first-tier city in the Federation. Mingdu, in particular, is the political center of the Federation, gathering the powerful and the elite.

The Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineer Academy expended a great deal of influence and resources to ensure all thirty-six students in the class could enter the riot-period Spirit Ascension Platform. Of course, the families behind the students also contributed their own efforts, finally securing the thirty-six slots.

The final exams of the previous semester provided the students of the Sun Class with a brand-new understanding of each other's strength. It was then that they discovered their class possessed not only the Heavenly Tiger Summoning of Jian Mochen and Kuang Zhantian but also a martial soul fusion skill.

It happened during a class squad skirmish. A six-member squad consisting of Long Chen, Jian Mochen, Kuang Zhantian, and three other classmates faced off against a four-member squad led by the class monitor and vice-monitors—Xu Zhao, Xu Yucheng, and Xue Liushuang—along with Weng Daimin. Everyone expected a fierce and spectacular battle, but they were shocked by the outcome: Long Chen’s six-member squad was effortlessly swept away and eliminated by the martial soul fusion skill of Xue Liushuang and Weng Daimin—the Goddess of Ice and Snow—ending their exam prematurely.

This made them clearly realize for the first time that even among martial soul fusion skills, the disparity in power can be vast. It was also because of this final exam that the class formed a definitive list of expectations for the seven spots in the "Seven Stars of the World":

The three monitors: Xu Zhao, Xu Yucheng, and Xue Liushuang;
The person second only to the monitors: Long Chen;
The person second only to Long Chen: Jian Mochen;
And the partners of the two martial soul fusion skills: Weng Daimin and Kuang Zhantian.

Thus, the six-year-olds realized that being "carried" by someone else was a reality in this world.

...

A few minutes later, the bell rang. However, the head teacher, Zhang Xuanfeng, did not appear at the classroom door.

"Beep! Beep!"

At the back of the classroom, Xu Zhao lowered his head to check a message just received on his soul communication device. The message was from the head teacher; it was brief, and he scanned it instantly. After reading it, Xu Zhao stood up and addressed the class: "The teacher sent me a private message, telling me to take you all to a certain place. Follow me."

With that, he walked out of the classroom at a steady pace. As the class monitor and a member of the forging committee, Xu Zhao held considerable prestige in the class. Consequently, the students quietly lined up and followed him.

At the front, Xu Zhao used the map provided in the message as a guide, leading the students through the elementary and intermediate sections of the academy until they reached a building in the core area of the advanced division.

The head teacher, Zhang Xuanfeng, was standing in front of the building waiting for them.

"Everyone is here. Take out your student IDs and follow me," Zhang Xuanfeng said, waving his hand to signal them to follow as he led the way into the entrance. The students complied, produced their IDs, and followed him inside.

Behind the gate was a relatively narrow corridor. The walls on both sides were as transparent as mirrors, yet they did not reflect the students' images. Zhang Xuanfeng quickly reached the end of the corridor, but he did not stop; he walked straight ahead. The moment his body touched the wall at the end, a flash of light occurred, and he vanished.

"Spatial technology?" Xu Zhao, walking at the front of the line, saw this and his expression turned subtle.

"Heh, it must be what I think it is."

Thinking this, he continued walking without hesitation. When he reached the end of the corridor, the light appeared again, and just like Zhang Xuanfeng, he vanished from the spot.

Somewhere within the building, in a circular room filled with the beauty of soul guidance technology, thirty-seven flashes of light flickered in succession. Zhang Xuanfeng and the students of the Sun Class appeared there one after another.

"This place is called the Hall of Primordial Souls. The opening assessment for this session of the Sun Class will take place here," Zhang Xuanfeng turned around and said to the group slowly. "In this Hall of Primordial Souls, you will battle against the primordial souls within. These so-called primordial souls are geniuses from the academy's history, simulated through technology."

"Because they are simulations, the further back in history a primordial soul is, the greater the discrepancy between their strength and the true historical figures. This discrepancy isn't that their strength is simulated too low, but rather, too high."

"Therefore, in the upcoming assessment, if you are unfortunate enough to encounter an ancient primordial soul and are defeated by them, do not be discouraged. You have merely lost to an ancient predecessor whose strength, due to myths, is seriously inconsistent with reality."

Xu Zhao listened to these words with a flash of surprise. He hadn't expected a briefing before the assessment, let alone such a candid revelation. Unlike the Tang Sect in literature, which simulated the strength of the Shrek Seven Devils of Huo Yuhao’s generation to an heaven-defying degree—and even then, had the gall to claim that the simulated versions were only seventy percent of their true strength.

Historically, nine-year-old Xiao Xiao—let alone joining the Tang Sect, she hadn't even joined Shrek yet—could use a variety of Tang Sect unique skills with extreme proficiency to defeat the nine-year-old Tang Wulin.

Nine-year-old Jiang Nannan used an overwhelming advantage to defeat the nine-year-old Xie Xie, who possessed a pseudo-twin martial soul and innate full soul power.

Nine-year-old Huo Yuhao, who wasn't even a soul master with ten levels of soul power, easily defeated the nine-year-old transformed Silver Dragon King. It was fortunate that ten thousand years ago, the Silver Dragon King was still slumbering and unaware of Huo Yuhao’s true historical strength; otherwise, with her pride, she surely would have been angered to the point of vomiting blood.

The ten-year Wind Baboon almost soloed the eleven-year-old Huo Yuhao, yet the dignified Master of Spirit Beasts supposedly lost to a nine-year-old Huo Yuhao.

Doesn't that imply: Ten-year Wind Baboon > Nine-year-old Huo Yuhao > Nine-year-old transformed Silver Dragon King?