"Is that Huo?"
A young girl standing a little further ahead overheard their conversation and turned around with a surprised look. She was fairly tall, even slightly taller than Huo Yuhao. Her short golden hair was neat and tidy, her large water-blue eyes framed by long lashes, and a few charming freckles dotted her cheeks.
Disciples from these great sects naturally had sharp eyes, and judging by Huo Yuhao's aura alone, he clearly wasn't an ordinary commoner.
She politely gave Huo Yuhao a courteous smile. "Hello, I'm Ning Tian, and this is my partner, Wu Feng."
So it was those two. In the original storyline, the two of them had a lesbian relationship that even made the great Tang God King in the divine realm speechless. Eventually, Ning Tian was changed into a male character. Both of them ended up achieving quite a bit, representing the academy in the second Spirit Dou Competition of the storyline, though they mostly served as a foil to Wang Qiuer.
The original Seven Treasure Glazed Sect only dared to call themselves the Nine Treasure Glazed Sect because their ancestor, Ning Rongrong, the first of the Seven Wonders, had consumed a celestial herb. However, since the herb is hard to find and their descendants were limited by their spirit soul traits, their spirit soul could only be developed to seven rings.
Even so, excluding the Dragon God cheat, in the context of the second Dou storyline, this spirit soul remains the world's top auxiliary-type spirit soul.
These two were Huo Yuhao's first targets after entering Shrek Academy. There was no other reason—if he wanted resources to improve himself later on, he needed sufficient funds.
Behind Ning Tian stood the Nine Treasure Glazed Sect, which had been enriched and settled for ten thousand years. They were incredibly wealthy—truly loaded.
"How about we help each other during the test? Let's form a team," Huo Yuhao straightforwardly proposed an alliance, silently apologizing to another minor character, Nanmen Yun'er, who was so marginalized she might as well not exist.
"With you?" Wu Feng's beautiful eyes showed some caution. But after Huo Yuhao activated his spirit soul to share his soul detection with them, the two girls looked at him wide-eyed.
This Huo Yuhao was no ordinary Huo Yuhao. With his current spiritual power, his soul detection radius had reached several kilometers, almost covering half of Shrek City—and he was holding back quite a bit!
This guy was destined to become at least a great commander on the battlefield! Ning Tian and Wu Feng exchanged shocked glances and decided that they absolutely had to befriend him!
"Alright, we're a team then." Wu Feng slapped Huo Yuhao on the shoulder casually. She was straightforward by nature and liked to be direct.
"Let's pass the test first." Huo Yuhao smiled confidently. The two girls were equally confident, nodding in agreement.
Another reason Huo Yuhao formed a team with them was that he didn't want to interact too much with Tang Wutong—who would soon appear as Wang Dong, Wang Dong'er. Who knew how many divine consciousnesses Tang God King had planted in her? Accidentally attracting attention would be troublesome.
The Shrek Academy physical fitness test was divided into several parts: strength, endurance, spiritual power, reaction, and speed. Each had a maximum score of ten points. Only those who scored over thirty points in total had a chance to advance to the next round. If someone scored a perfect ten in any one category, they could advance directly to the second round.
Although many were in line, the testing speed was not slow because they were divided by test type. Soon it was Ning Tian and company's turn.
Huo Yuhao looked at the huge soul-guiding machine for the strength test and couldn't help but think of the golden dragon king suppressed in the divine realm. With the bloodline boost from that beast, any brute-force beast spirit soul would be a mere kid before him.
Because Ning Tian and Wu Feng specialized in different development paths, their final scores differed. Wu Feng scored 9 in strength, 8 in endurance, 3 in spiritual power, 7 in reaction, and 7 in speed. Ning Tian scored 5 in strength, 5 in endurance, 9 in spiritual power, 8 in reaction, and 5 in speed—barely passing.
This test mainly measured the comprehensive physical ability of spirit masters, so offensive-type spirit masters tended to score higher easily.
After finishing their round, the two girls didn't immediately move on to the next test, instead showing great interest in seeing Huo Yuhao's results. In their eyes, his spiritual power should surely be perfect, but as for other physical tests, he might not do better than them.
Since entering the testing area, Huo Yuhao had kept his spiritual detection active, absorbing the scores of all participants. By observing how much effort they put in during tests, he could estimate their scores. For example, how much force was needed to score a 5 in strength—he already had a clear idea.
Showing off felt good, but he didn't want the Sea God Pavilion to notice him too soon.
After absorbing the million-year soul ring of the Heavenly Dream Ice Silkworm, Huo Yuhao actually didn't have a clear idea of his own physical ability. He only knew that in a test one month before leaving the Holy Spirit Church, his pure physical strength had reached the Spirit King level. As for spiritual power in the Spirit Realm, the third Dou competition had clarified that this level was at least that of a titled Douluo.
If he wanted, he could easily pass with full marks.
Huo Yuhao smiled at the two girls watching nearby, then walked to the strength test machine. He took a deep breath, pretending to exert his full strength, and punched out.
Boom!
The machine precisely scored him a 6 based on his punch strength.
Six points—already a bit higher than Ning Tian. While the girls were still guessing his other scores, Huo Yuhao moved to the endurance test and scored another six points.
"That kid's already beating Ning Tian in two categories!" Wu Feng was defending Ning Tian when Huo Yuhao reached the spiritual power test and scored yet another six.
This... Ning Tian and Wu Feng finally understood what he was up to, and couldn't help but laugh and groan at the same time.
Soon, Huo Yuhao casually scored six points each in the reaction and speed tests as well.
A total of 30 points—just hitting the minimum passing line.
"So, how about that? Cool, right?" After finishing, Huo Yuhao came back to the two girls, grinning mischievously and acting like a troublemaker.
"You're hiding your strength!" Wu Feng puffed her cheeks, clearly annoyed but adorably so.
"No way, I gave it my all, okay? I almost got kicked out," Huo Yuhao raised his hands in surrender, making a pitiful face as if explaining his hardship.
"You…" Wu Feng tried to hit him, but Ning Tian stopped her.
"Yuhao, do you have other plans?" Ning Tian was much sharper than Wu Feng and quickly realized that Huo Yuhao didn't want to draw too much attention from the academy.
"Too clever girls aren't liked by anyone." Huo Yuhao kept smiling, but Ning Tian caught a faint threatening glint in his slightly narrowed eyes.
It was like being stared down by a hundred-thousand-year-old soul beast. Ning Tian felt a chill run down her spine, and her gaze toward Huo Yuhao turned terrified. As the young sect leader of the Nine Treasure Glazed Sect, and a practitioner of the Seven Apertures Exquisite Heart, she was peerless in spiritual power, yet she had been easily crushed by Huo Yuhao.
Casual Wu Feng didn't notice the spiritual clash between the two, just sneered, "With those puny arms and legs, no girl would probably like you."
Huo Yuhao laughed heartily and headed toward the practical combat test checkpoint first.
"Feng, this Huo Yuhao is no joke." Ning Tian's heart churned turbulently. Though their spiritual power clash lasted only a moment, it made her feel as if she faced a titled Douluo powerhouse within her sect.
"Hmph, I wouldn't be so sure." Wu Feng smugly grabbed Ning Tian's hand, not taking her words too seriously.
After all, they had grown up together and knew exactly how outstanding Ning Tian's spirit power was among peers. In the original storyline, Ning Tian was ranked among the top three new students in spirit power this year.
The practical combat test involved either teaming up or dueling with Shrek Academy's instructors, who would score candidates based on their combat skills. This test had a maximum of 50 points, and combined with the previous physical fitness score, candidates needed a total of 60 points to pass the entrance exam.
Though called a practical combat test, it was also a test of a spirit master's character and social skills. Every year, the best young talents from across the continent came to the entrance exam, all full of pride. How they managed relationships and found suitable teammates for high scores was also a form of test.
(End of chapter)
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