Early morning.
The assessment zones were already packed with freshmen.
As yesterday's top seed in their division, Su Wen's trio only needed to wait for the second- or third-place teams from other divisions to challenge them, then finish today's four matches.
As for Xiao Xiao…
He had already informed Yan Shaozhe in advance; otherwise, that man wouldn't have shown up at the crack of dawn to watch a freshman assessment with zero gold content. Right now he was standing beside Du Weilun, waggling his brows at him, then jerking his chin toward Xiao Xiao in the seventh division. After getting Su Wen's tacit approval, he secretly flashed an OK sign.
If this girl really adds soul rings to her second martial soul, that would be a dereliction of duty on his part as Dean of the Martial Soul Department.
"Freshman Class 2, Su Wen… versus Freshman Class 7, Huang Chutian's team."
As the referee's voice fell—
Huang Chutian and a pair of blue-haired girls wore faces full of despair. What kind of perverse matching is this? They'd just lost to Xie Huanyue from Class 2, and now they had to face the real big boss among all the freshmen.
Rumor had it he'd recently defeated one of the Outer Court's Twin Stars, The Eternal Defense.
What a rotten hand from fate…
"Wu Feng, stand to the side and don't make trouble," Su Wen said blandly.
"There are four matches today. Let's finish early."
"Huh?!! I, a dignified level-25 Soul Soul Grandmaster, am 'making trouble' in your book?" Wu Feng's beautiful eyes widened; she looked like she wanted to take a big bite out of Su Wen's arm.
"…" Su Wen shrugged.
"Match… begin!" The referee's call rang out.
Fangs emerged at Huang Chutian's lips; Martial Soul possession took hold. His body was covered in jet-black fur, his uniform split apart in an instant, revealing explosive muscles as he lunged at Su Wen.
Meanwhile, Lan Susu and Lan Luoluo's pale-blue long hair surged like a tidal wave, sweeping down on Su Wen—Martial Soul Fusion Technique: Heaven's Net!
Didn't expect them to open with their trump card.
Su Wen raised an eyebrow.
The next instant—
A deep-blue scorpion silhouette appeared in the arena.
Its emerald luster shone brilliantly under the sun. Though small, no one dared take it lightly.
Many cast glances toward the instructors in the first division and abruptly stood up in shock. "Is that an Ice Jade Scorpion?!! No—seems it's not an ordinary Ice Jade Scorpion!"
"Could it be the legendary Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion? Someone's Martial Soul is that?"
"But wait, didn't this kid show a mutated wind baboon as his Martial Soul yesterday? What's going on?"
"I heard from Mu Jin he's a summoner-type. Could he be like Zhou Sichen from Class 1…?"
"No way. Zhou Sichen can only summon century-old soul beasts, but this Ice Jade Scorpion's power looks like it's beyond a millennium!"
Su Wen stood in the arena, lowering his palm slightly.
A polar blizzard instantly swept through the entire field.
"Domain of Eternal Frost!"
The icy wind howled as if the arena were frozen solid. This kind of wide-area attack with ultimate ice attributes might only slow an equal-level opponent, but in a one-sided matchup it's pure dimensionality reduction.
"Urgh…"
Huang Chutian's face twisted in terror.
He could clearly feel his body temperature plummet, as if he'd been thrown into the heart of the Extreme North in an instant. Such extreme cold could make a Soul Grandmaster faint within minutes and turn him into an ice statue.
Even as he resisted with all his might, the flow of his blood crawled like a turtle.
"I surrender!"
As he forced out that final word—
He froze in place, body completely rigid.
The Lan sisters' Fusion Technique, Heaven's Net, gradually iced over under the polar chill. Strands of sky-blue hair danced in the air, but the foremost lock barely reached Su Wen before freezing solid.
Like a vivid painting—
Time stopped across this heaven and earth.
"Achoo~!!"
The referee jumped onto the platform and immediately sneezed, looking bewildered. Even as a Soul King, he couldn't withstand this cold?
"Um, Student Su Wen…" He hesitated, looking at Su Wen.
The latter's lips curled.
He snapped his fingers lightly.
With a crisp crack, the ice and snow in the arena began to melt.
The pale-blue hair receded as the Lan sisters' soul power bottomed out, returning to normal length. The two didn't faint, but they were nearly drained dry. Huang Chutian slowly came to, a shiver running through him. Just now he'd felt like he was trudging through an endless world of ice and snow—if Su Wen hadn't held back, the end of that snowfield might have been the end of his life…
"Wha—"
Only then did the surrounding freshmen on break and some upperclassmen who had come to watch burst into loud discussion in the first division, noise shooting skyward.
"Ultimate Ice!"
Cui Yajie blurted, excited.
"That's definitely the Ultimate Ice attribute!"
"So that means the mutated wind baboon he showed earlier was just the tip of the iceberg. Ultimate Ice is his real trump!"
"Then why not keep it hidden?" Dai Huabin snorted.
"…"
Zhu Lu and Cui Yajie exchanged a look. The latter glanced at Dai Huabin like he was an idiot—do you think a match like this could ever force him to show a trump card? With your White Tiger transformation?
Su Wen is here to style on people, pure and simple.
"Hmph!"
Knowing he'd misspoken, Dai Huabin snorted and turned away.
"All right. As long as we take top three, the Academy's rewards are still quite good. And with a core disciple status, you can enter the Inner Court and follow in Brother Yue Heng's footsteps," Zhu Lu comforted.
Dai Huabin's face finally eased a bit.
…
Outside the arena.
Their second opponents surrendered on sight of Su Wen, so Su Wen simply took Ning Tian and Wu Feng to find Yan Shaozhe.
He was currently watching Xiao Xiao's team.
They were stomping a team of early-teen-level Soul Masters. Chen Yanjin was especially vicious, seemingly venting yesterday's frustration. Huo Yuhao remained hidden. Xiao Xiao manipulated her Three Lives Soul Sealing Cauldron, half-distracted…
"Wonderful, wonderful!"
Yan Shaozhe clapped and cheered.
He was very satisfied with Xiao Xiao's support-control.
Her use of the Three Lives Soul Sealing Cauldron, and the second Martial Soul, Nine Phoenix Dancing Flute, even made him consider taking her as a disciple.
With such talent, given proper cultivation, a future Super Douluo was practically nailed down. And her background made him even more tempted—just a small sect from the Heavenly Soul Empire, easy to bring into his camp.
"This Zhou Yi really has a death wish…"
Cold light flickered in Yan Shaozhe's eyes.
"As Dean of the Martial Soul Department, you're a bit undeserving of the title. If it were me, I'd have acted already. Why bother with all this?" Su Wen said with a grin, fanning the flames.
"I will take this girl under my wing," Yan Shaozhe narrowed his eyes.
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