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"Hi everyone, I'm your homeroom teacher, Chen Wenwen. I'll be teaching you the basics of being a practical soul engineer for the next three years. For now, let's start with introductions—tell us your name, martial soul, and your innate soul power level."
A beautiful young woman in her twenties with a calm, scholarly vibe walked into the classroom and spoke gently from the podium.
She looked really kind, and a bold student was the first to step up and introduce himself. "Hi, I'm Xie Wenyuan. My martial soul is a sword. I have innate level seven soul power. My dream is to become the strongest Sword God Douluo!"
The first one up was a chubby kid. A flash of white light appeared in his hand, and a plain-looking long sword appeared. But it had no soul ring, which meant he hadn't gotten his first one yet.
Chen Wenwen gently clapped her hands and smiled. "Very impressive, Xie Wenyuan! I believe you'll definitely become a Title Douluo someday. Keep it up!"
Being praised by a pretty and gentle teacher made Xie Wenyuan's chubby face flush red with excitement. He looked super proud as he glanced back at the other students.
Seeing this, the others couldn't hold back either. One by one, they got up to introduce themselves. Some talked about their hobbies, some about what they wanted to do in the future, and others about what kind of person they wanted to become. There was all sorts of stuff.
Every time someone mentioned a powerful martial soul or a high innate soul power level, the class would erupt in gasps, and Ms. Chen would respond with appropriate praise and encouragement.
This was Mingdu Junior Soul Engineer Academy, after all. Their Practical Control Soul Engineering class only had about thirty students, and none of the ones who had introduced themselves so far had less than level five innate soul power.
That made sense. Unlike the regular Soul Engineering classes, this one focused on powerful martial souls. That's why there was only one Practical Control class, but more than ten regular Soul Engineering classes.
In the Sun Moon Empire, Practical Control Soul Engineers didn't have the same status as regular Soul Engineers, and their requirements were tougher. So most people aimed for the regular track. Only a few opted for Practical Control, and even then, many didn't have the talent for it.
Of course, if someone couldn't get into Mingdu's Practical Control class, they could always try other junior academies. Most of those weren't nearly as strict as this one.
It didn't take long for all thirty-something students to finish introducing themselves. Eventually, it was Meteor's group's turn. Under everyone's gaze, Meteor stepped up first, giving Ms. Chen a polite nod.
Standing at the podium, he said softly, "Hi everyone, I'm Meteor. My martial soul is Molten Knight. I have innate full soul power, and I'm currently a level 14 one-ring Soul Master."
A burst of flames flared up. Meteor's right hand became encased in silver-white armor, and a pale purple soul ring floated around him. A light pressure from his soul power spread out, making the students closest to the stage hold their breath for a second.
The room fell completely silent. Ms. Chen covered her mouth with one hand in shock. "A thousand-year soul ring? That can't be real!"
"Whoa, that's amazing!"
"What kind of martial soul is that? It looks so cool!"
"Meteor's so cool too!"
The silence only lasted a second before the classroom exploded with chatter. Several girls had stars in their eyes as they looked up at Meteor.
Earlier, people had already been impressed with Xie Wenyuan's level seven innate soul power—that was already considered genius-level in the Sun Moon Empire. But full innate soul power? That was something usually reserved for royalty or the most ancient soul master families.
With level seven innate power, Xie Wenyuan had a real shot at becoming a Title Douluo if he took the Soul Engineer path and used enough resources. Even if he didn't make it that far, Soul Sage would still be possible.
After all, this wasn't the original three kingdoms of the Douluo Continent. Here, top-tier martial souls were extremely rare. Just having a decent one already put you in the elite category.
Gu Yue Na, unlike the others, didn't look surprised. From her point of view, it was only natural that someone chosen by the Goddess of Life would have this kind of talent.
Still, she frowned slightly. With her sharp senses, she could tell that Meteor's Molten Knight martial soul had a fire attribute. And more importantly, she detected a faint aura of destruction within his soul power.
Could he really be the heir of the Goddess of Life? Or was he actually linked to the God of Destruction?
But the divine aura of life around Meteor wasn't fake—she could tell that much.
Meteor didn't react to the crowd's awestruck, jealous, or admiring stares. He simply nodded to Ms. Chen again and walked off the stage calmly.
Even though he looked cool and composed, deep down, he was kind of enjoying it. Showing off a little in front of others always felt good. Even someone as steady as him got a bit of a thrill from it—though, to be fair, these were just kids, so the sense of achievement wasn't huge.
"My turn, my turn!"
As soon as Meteor got off the stage, Xu Tianzhen couldn't hold back. She was very interested in the whole "showing off in front of classmates, shocking everyone, and getting a bunch of fanboys and fangirls" thing.
Just as expected, Xu Tianzhen, Ye Guyi, and Liu Ying followed up one after another with their intros. The hype in the classroom just kept climbing. Even Ms. Chen couldn't maintain her calm, scholarly image anymore. Her shocked expression just wouldn't go away.
Finally, Gu Yue Na stepped up. "My name is Gu Yue Na. My martial soul is Silver Dragon. I have innate full soul power, and I'm a level 13 Soul Master."
After Gu Yue Na introduced herself, the whole class had officially finished. But everyone, including Ms. Chen, was still stunned.
Liu Ying looked over at the silver-haired girl with dragon wings on her back. Her eyes narrowed—she's definitely not ordinary.
Xu Tianzhen, Ye Guyi, and Meteor all looked at Gu Yue Na too. Aside from themselves, she was the only one in class who could match their level.
Meteor frowned slightly. Silver Dragon martial soul—this was a true dragon bloodline, possibly even the origin of all elemental dragon species. In terms of quality, it was actually superior to Ye Guyi's Angel martial soul and Xu Tianzhen's Sun martial soul.
The only thing left to figure out was how pure Gu Yue Na's dragon bloodline really was. But with full innate soul power, it had to be pretty strong.
That said, her first soul ring was yellow, so compared to Meteor and Liu Ying, she was still slightly behind.
Ms. Chen finally snapped out of it and looked at the group with sheer joy on her face. For a teacher, the quality of her students affected her career directly. What kind of lucky break was this? She'd just landed five students with full innate soul power—and two of them even had thousand-year first soul rings!
She could already picture the jealous looks from her coworkers when she returned to the teachers' lounge.
These days, full innate soul power wasn't quite as rare as it had been ten thousand years ago, but it was still the key to becoming a Title Douluo. A single class having five students with that kind of talent? The entire academy was going to freak out when word got out.
"....."