Chapter 259: Xiao Hongchen's Rebuttal
Spectator Stands
Xiao Hongchen's gaze locked onto Xu Sanshi, his eyes burning with intensity.
Truth be told, he desperately wanted to fight Xu Sanshi.
After all, he had awakened his martial soul for the second time and needed a worthy opponent to test his newfound strength.
But in the end, he restrained himself.
The reason was simple Lin Xi had advised him not to reveal his second awakening.
According to Lin Xi, since they were currently studying at Shrek Academy as exchange students, showing too much talent might lead Shrek Academy to end the exchange program prematurely and even try to eliminate them before they returned.
In the past, Xiao Hongchen had respected Shrek Academy, viewing it as the undisputed number one soul master academy a sanctuary revered by soul masters across the continent.
Even many in the Sun Moon Empire couldn't help but admire it.
As the former number one genius of the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineering Academy, he had always seen Shrek Academy as his greatest rival.
After all, before the previous Continental Soul Master Tournament, the Sun Moon Empire had never won a championship every time, their dreams were shattered by Shrek Academy.
However, after witnessing Shrek Academy's shameless tactics during the tournament, the halo of admiration surrounding it completely crumbled in Xiao Hongchen's eyes.
And with the Sun Moon Empire's victory, his respect for Shrek had completely vanished.
Now, Xiao Hongchen's only goal was to gather intelligence on Shrek's main team members the more information he had, the greater the advantage for the Sun Moon Empire's future battle teams.
In the last tournament, Shrek had forfeited due to their cheating scandal, leaving the Sun Moon Empire unable to collect much useful information.
That was why he arranged for He Caitou to fight Xu Sanshi it was a direct way to gather precise data on their soul skills and combat styles.
He only recently learned from Huo Yuhao that He Caitou had defected from Shrek Academy, though he didn't know the exact reason.
However, Xiao Hongchen had his suspicions given He Caitou's past crime of stealing soul tool blueprints, it was likely that he had betrayed Shrek Academy to become a stronger soul engineer.
Xiao Hongchen suddenly asked, "Lin Xi, who do you think will win?"
Lin Xi pondered for a moment before responding, "Xu Sanshi, of course.
While many believe that soul engineers are superior to soul masters below the Soul Sage level, there's a problem Shrek's soul engineers are weaker than Sun Moon's soul engineers."
"I've observed Shrek's soul engineering division carefully.
Their evaluation standards aren't strict enough.
For example, Shrek's so called 'Rank 5 Soul Engineers' produce subpar Rank 5 soul tools.
If they were in the Sun Moon Empire, their work would barely qualify them as Rank 4 Soul Engineers."
Xiao Hongchen nodded in agreement.
The Sun Moon Empire had strict evaluation criteria for soul engineers.
If someone's work barely met the standard for a higher rank, they wouldn't be promoted unlike Shrek, where the standards were looser, leading to inconsistent skill levels among their soul engineers.
He smirked.
"This is going to be a one sided massacre.
Too bad He Caitou is about to tarnish the reputation of the soul engineers who came before him."
"Of course, it's not really his fault.
After all, he never received a proper soul engineer education, so he naturally can't demonstrate the true power of a soul engineer."
"Hmm? So that's your prediction?"
A calm voice interrupted them.
Wang Yan approached with a polite smile.
As Shrek Academy's former team advisor, Wang Yan hadn't been heavily punished for the tournament scandal.
After all, Elder Xuan was the one truly responsible for what happened.
In fact, because Wang Yan had stood up for his students, the Sea God's Pavilion had promoted him to an inner court professor, now specializing in theoretical research rather than teaching.
Though his status had risen, he still held some resentment toward the Sea God's Pavilion elders.
He understood that Elder Xuan was important to the academy, but every time he thought about the dead students and Shrek's reputation as a cheater, he couldn't help but feel disheartened.
After all, Elder Xuan had only received a light punishment losing his Shrek Guardian Vice Commander position, which he probably didn't even care about.
If anything, Elder Xuan was probably happy to have more time to drink and eat chicken legs.
Wang Yan smiled at Xiao Hongchen.
"You seem very confident in Xu Sanshi's victory, but I disagree."
"I believe He Caitou has the upper hand."
Xiao Hongchen was intrigued.
"Professor Wang, you seem very confident in He Caitou?"
"Of course," Wang Yan nodded.
"You'll see soon enough."
The three of them turned their attention to the arena.
Sure enough, after a fierce battle, He Caitou emerged victorious, using barrage firepower to overwhelm Xu Sanshi.
The gamblers who bet on Xu Sanshi looked like they had just lost their life savings.
Meanwhile, Xiao Hongchen had gathered valuable combat data on both fighters.
But what truly surprised him was He Caitou's impressive performance.
Even by Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineering Academy standards, He Caitou would be considered an elite soul engineer.
"No wonder Huo Yuhao wanted to recruit him," Xiao Hongchen mused.
"This guy really is a soul engineer prodigy…
Huo Yuhao's eye for talent is as sharp as ever."
He then turned to Wang Yan, cleared his throat, and admitted,
"Professor Wang, you were right.
He Caitou won for two reasons
First, he's a skilled soul engineer.
Second, Xu Sanshi's battle strategy relies on catching opponents off guard.
But He Caitou was already familiar with his fighting style."
Wang Yan nodded.
"That's right.
He Caitou is one of Shrek's best soul engineers.
Shrek Academy has always been on the right path, cultivating exceptional talent in both soul engineers and soul masters.
This environment allows our students to truly thrive."
He thought to himself He Caitou was the only official candidate for Shrek's 'Extreme Soldier Program.'
Unless Xu Sanshi unlocked his bloodline's full potential, he had no real chance against a soul engineer loaded with firepower.
However, Xiao Hongchen shook his head and immediately countered Wang Yan's argument.
"Professor Wang, I have to disagree.
He Caitou could've achieved even more if he had trained elsewhere.
I won't deny that Shrek helped him…
But at the end of the day, his strength is his own achievement not Shrek's."
(End of chapter.)
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