Shrek City, Tianying Pavilion.
In a private room, three men and three women, six young people, were raising their glasses in celebration. These six were Zhu Ziyang, Jiang Nannan, Tang Ya, Bei Bei, Xu Sanshi, and Xue Weiwei.
To congratulate Jiang Nannan on successfully entering the Inner Courtyard, Tang Ya specially booked a banquet at Tianying Pavilion as a gift from a good friend. As for the deposit, it was naturally paid by Young Master Bei Bei.
"Wuwuwu ~ Nannan, after you enter the Inner Courtyard, I'll be the only one left in the dorm!" Tang Ya feigned sadness, wailing.
"Doesn't that suit your intentions?" However, Jiang Nannan didn't fall for it, directly exposing her little scheme and laughing, "This way, Bei Bei can go to the dorm to find you without any reservations, can't he?"
"Uh uh ~" Tang Ya, her thoughts exposed, immediately blushed. She raised her hand, pretending to scratch Jiang Nannan, and said, "You naughty Nannan, just watch me shut that little rascal's mouth!"
The two girls started to playfully bicker. Everyone present couldn't help but laugh.
Although all six people present were no older than fourteen, their spirit power level was at least level 32.
The one with the lowest spirit power was naturally Tang Ya. Her Blue Silver Grass Spirit was truly a hindrance. If Tang Ya hadn't worked extremely hard and continuously received medicinal pills for assistance, she most likely wouldn't have reached level 32 at the age of thirteen. However, from now on, Tang Ya should no longer be restricted by the quality of her Spirit.
The girl had excellent luck. During the holidays, when she went with Bei Bei to search for her third spirit ring, she originally intended to absorb a high-quality plant Spirit Beast spirit ring as suggested by Zhu Ziyang. However, by a strange twist of fate, she absorbed a Celestial Spirit Grass that had just reached a thousand years of cultivation as her third spirit ring.
Celestial Spirit Grass, a top-tier plant Spirit Beast with life attributes, is extremely rare and has very demanding growth conditions. Once it matures, it possesses extremely profound life energy. It is said that Ten Thousand Demon King, one of the Ten Great Fierce Beasts, evolved his life level by devouring a Celestial Spirit Grass with nearly ten thousand years of cultivation, allowing him to grow from an ordinary Demonic Eye Tree into the current King of Ten Thousand Demons.
After Tang Ya absorbed the Celestial Spirit Grass spirit ring, not only did her spirit power reach level 32 in one fell swoop, but her Spirit also evolved from the ordinary Blue Silver Grass Spirit to the top-tier plant Spirit, blue gold spirit grass, possessing pure life attributes! It can be said that Tang Ya is now a genius whose talent is no less than that of Bei Bei, Xu Sanshi, and others.
Because of this, Tang Ya became even more grateful and respectful towards Zhu Ziyang. She attributed most of her transformation to Zhu Ziyang. She understood very well that if Zhu Ziyang hadn't enlightened her in time, making her change her long-standing incorrect Blue Silver Grass spirit ring path, she would inevitably follow in the footsteps of her parents and predecessors. How could she have sought the Sky Star Vine as her second spirit ring, and even more, how could she have encountered the Celestial Spirit Grass on the way to find the Black Jade Bamboo! All of this stemmed from Zhu Ziyang's words back then!
She was truly filled with endless gratitude towards him, filling her with hope for the revitalization of the Tang Sect! Although her Spirit was no longer Blue Silver Grass, given that she was currently one of only two members of the Tang Sect, it was best to abolish the outdated custom of "only Blue Silver Grass users can be the Sect Master." Once the Tang Sect was revived, she would definitely give Zhu Ziyang the position of Tang Sect Chief Elder! These were the girl's biggest thoughts after breaking through to the three spirit rings.
Apart from Tang Ya, the spirit power of the other three also exceeded level 35. Among them, Bei Bei and Xu Sanshi both had level 36 spirit power, one after the other, as if they were competing. Xue Weiwei's spirit power was exactly level 35. With their talent, they might reach the Spirit Ancestor realm by their fourth year. No wonder the Outer Courtyard teachers hailed their generation as "Heaven-Defying Talents," because at this rate, decades later, this generation of students could produce at least four Titled Douluo-level powerhouses!
The last time multiple Douluo-potential geniuses appeared simultaneously was in Yan Shaozhe and Xian Lin'er's generation, nearly a hundred years ago.
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Academy life settled into a routine. On this day, a group of Inner Courtyard Disciples gathered at the Inner Courtyard Martial Arts Arena.
The new Pan-continental Elite Soul Master Competition would be held two years later. Shrek Academy, as the continent's top academy, had held the championship for countless consecutive sessions. Despite this, it still attached great importance to it.
According to custom, for each Soul Master Competition, Shrek Academy would send two teams, fourteen members in total. Seven main team members would come from the Inner Courtyard, and seven reserve team members would come from the Outer Courtyard. Generally speaking, the reserve team members of the current competition would become the main team members of the next competition, ensuring that each main team member would have participated in the Soul Master Competition twice.
However, this session presented an exception. The reserve team, which was supposed to become the main team for this session, experienced a severe shortage of members. Ma Xiaotao, who had served as the reserve team captain, withdrew from the team indefinitely due to Spirit reasons, and whether she could return was still unknown. Additionally, two other reserve team members dropped out of Shrek Academy for some unknown reasons and never entered the Inner Courtyard.
This led to the reserve team, which was about to become the main force for this Soul Master Competition, having only four members left. This was absolutely unacceptable. And so, this scene unfolded today.
Among all the Inner Courtyard Disciples in the academy, anyone whose age would not exceed twenty two years later was urgently summoned to the Martial Arts Arena. The academy's high-level officials planned to select three students from among them to join the main team and become key participants.
Currently, among the Inner Courtyard Disciples who met this condition, excluding the four main team members and Ma Xiaotao, there were only four, and Zhu Ziyang and Jiang Nannan were prominently among them.
At the Martial Arts Arena, the four main team members and four candidates had all arrived. The Elder presiding over today's selection was Xian Lin'er.
"Elder Xian, everyone is here." The speaker was Zhang Lexuan. She was there to assist Xian Lin'er and serve as a judge.
"Good, then let's get ready to start," Xian Lin'er said indifferently.
Following Xian Lin'er's command, the eight Inner Courtyard Disciples each took action. The four main team members retreated behind Xian Lin'er. They were:
Acting Captain, Dai Yueheng, attack system, level 55 Spirit King, Spirit White Tiger.
Member, Ling Luochen, control system, level 48 Spirit Ancestor, Spirit Ice.
Member, Gongyang Mo, support system, level 51 Spirit King, Spirit Rainbow Dragon.
Member, Chen Zifeng, attack system, level 49 Spirit Ancestor, Spirit Soul Chasing Sword.
"Yueheng, who do you think will become our teammate?" Gongyang Mo leaned close to Dai Yueheng, asking in a soft voice. He had a slender build and a face like a jade coronet, truly a handsome man. However, his feminine demeanor and slow movements made his handsomeness transform into a peculiar kind of delicate beauty. When he spoke, he always inadvertently gestured with an orchid hand, giving people a feeling of tender vulnerability.
"If you talk to me like that again, I'll pluck your feathers!" Dai Yueheng suppressed his discomfort, saying in a low voice.
"Hehehe, don't be angry!" Hearing this, Gongyang Mo immediately reined himself in a bit, standing tall and proud, actually displaying a touch of graceful elegance.
"I don't know about others, but Junior Brother Ziyang will definitely be able to become our teammate," Chen Zifeng said in a deep voice. He was of average height, with a calm demeanor and a warm smile, and was quite familiar with Zhu Ziyang.
"Zifeng is right. Although Ziyang is only thirteen years old, his spirit power has already reached level 45, even more outstanding than Ma Xiaotao. Unless the academy wants to keep him hidden, he will definitely become our teammate," Dai Yueheng said. He had a very good impression of Zhu Ziyang.
"What we lack is not Zhu Ziyang, but an agility-attack system Spirit Master," Ling Luochen said with a strange expression. She was probably the first among the four to know Zhu Ziyang. She continued, "According to a normal team's configuration, we should focus on Xi Xi and Nannan. One of them will definitely become our teammate."
Ling Luochen's words were very correct, and this was also Xian Lin'er's thought.
She directly designated Zhu Ziyang to join the main team; this was also Mu En's intention. In Mu En's words, it was to give Zhu Ziyang some opportunities for tempering.
Then, she added an unfamiliar name to the list: a Soul Tool Department student who was about to be promoted to the Inner Courtyard. Xian Lin'er designated him as a reserve member for the main team, temporarily joining it. The reason for this decision was for Ma Xiaotao. As the most powerful main team member currently, even if Ma Xiaotao was temporarily unable to return to the team due to Spirit issues, the academy would reserve her spot. Unless Ma Xiaotao was truly unable to participate two years later, Dai Yueheng would always be the acting captain.
Xian Lin'er did not consider Yao Haoxuan. To be honest, Yao Haoxuan's Spirit and abilities were somewhat superfluous in the team.
What Xian Lin'er truly needed to consider was the agility-attack system member of the main team. Only Jiang Nannan and Xi Xi met the conditions. In fact, if not for concerns about negative influence, Xian Lin'er would have wanted to directly choose Jiang Nannan as the main team's agility-attack system Spirit Master. After all, Jiang Nannan was her mother's direct disciple, and how could the disciple of the continent's top agility-attack system Spirit Master be anything but excellent?
However, she only thought about it. After all, Jiang Nannan's spirit power was only level 41, and it was unlikely she would break through to Spirit King in two years. Xi Xi's spirit power, on the other hand, was level 45, making her probability of reaching Spirit King higher. Shrek Academy's main team could not have members below Spirit King, but Xian Lin'er was still willing to give Jiang Nannan a chance.
Therefore, Xian Lin'er decided to have the two of them engage in a duel. Whoever won would be the last main team member.