Wu Zhangkong said plainly,
"Alright. That's enough for today's lesson on Mechas. You only need to remember two core things:
First, truly powerful Mechas are called Battle Armor. The weapons wielded by the most powerful soul masters are all in the form of Battle Armor.
Second, within the next three years, each of you must determine a second profession related to Mechas."
Easy to remember—and exactly the kind of things Nan Fusheng and the others were most interested in. Today's class felt simple, but meaningful.
At that moment, Tang Wulin suddenly raised a question:
"Teacher Wu, when will we get to see a real Battle Armor?"
He had been listening carefully the entire time, and this was the one thing he truly wanted to know.
Wu Zhangkong glanced at him and replied,
"When you complete the first stage of combat training, you'll get to see one. Whoever finishes first sees it first.
As you are now, you're not qualified yet."
Combat training? Did he mean actual sparring between soul masters?
Before anyone could ask more, Wu Zhangkong continued,
"Our next class today is combat training. Right here, in the classroom.
Nan Fusheng, Tang Wulin—help move the desks to the side and clear the center space."
In here? Using soul skills in a classroom would easily destroy the place, wouldn't it?
All six students had the same doubt, but they obeyed anyway and moved the furniture as ordered.
"Tang Wulin, step forward," Wu Zhangkong called.
"Yes, sir." Tang Wulin quickly moved to the center.
"What did you think of your match yesterday?" Wu Zhangkong asked coldly.
Tang Wulin thought for a moment and replied,
"We were too eager to win. Since we're all classmates, we shouldn't have taken things so far. We should've held back."
Wu Zhangkong waved his hand dismissively.
"I'm not asking about that. I want to know how you performed during the fight. How did it feel?"
Tang Wulin answered honestly,
"It felt… chaotic. We didn't know each other's abilities well, so our response was messy, and our coordination wasn't great.
I mean, for the four of us. The other group had some teamwork, but they weren't exactly smooth either."
Wu Zhangkong snorted,
"Chaotic? That's putting it lightly. It was a complete mess."
The five other students blinked in surprise—except for Nan Fusheng, who remained calm.
They were supposed to be the elite of the first grade, handpicked for the newly formed Class Zero. Aside from Tang Wulin, most of them were highly confident in their abilities.
Where was this 'mess' he was talking about?
Staring directly into Tang Wulin's eyes, Wu Zhangkong said,
"Frankly, I'm disappointed. You four have trained under me for three months. Your coordination should at least be passable.
Yet from the very start, you abandoned your advantages. Xie Xie's broken arm? He deserved it."
Xie Xie froze. He hadn't expected the teacher to be this harsh.
Then, Wu Zhangkong unleashed a storm of criticisms, breaking down every flaw from the placement matches. He tore apart their performances with merciless precision—and the worst part? They couldn't argue.
His feedback was sharp and accurate, cutting straight to the core.
Finally, Wu Zhangkong declared,
"All six of you suffer from a common weakness. And it's the primary issue this combat course will address.
You severely lack real combat experience and practical fighting skills.
I'm not just talking about soul skills and martial spirits—you're lacking even more fundamental abilities."
Basic combat ability? Was that necessary for a soul master? Weren't soul skills enough to win battles?
Wu Zhangkong raised a brow.
"You're probably wondering—'Why does basic combat matter for soul masters?'"
Gu Yue spoke up,
"Yes, Teacher Wu. My ability is elemental control. In battle, I just need to overpower the opponent with elemental manipulation.
Whether it's one enemy or many, as long as my elements are strong enough, I can end the fight.
Basic combat techniques don't seem very useful to me. I should be focusing on soul power and spiritual strength instead."
Wu Zhangkong nodded slightly.
"If that's what you believe… then let's run a little test. Gu Yue, step forward.
You and Tang Wulin will attack me together. I won't use any soul skills. I'll suppress my soul power to match yours, around Rank 13. Martial spirit active."
As he spoke, Wu Zhangkong walked to the podium, grabbed a teaching pointer, and returned to the center.
Gu Yue took her place beside Tang Wulin. Same soul rank, no soul skills, not even full martial spirits? Wasn't this underestimating them?
Though they had trained together for three months and developed some synergy—Tang Wulin in melee and Gu Yue in ranged support—it wasn't nearly enough.
Because what came next was… a complete shut-down.
Wu Zhangkong used nothing but his elegant swordplay and a series of techniques from the Tang Sect's secret arts to utterly dominate the two.
By the time the brief battle ended, the other four students sat in stunned silence.
So strong…
Wu Zhangkong calmly returned to his position. He glanced briefly at the golden scales fading from Tang Wulin's right arm, eyes flickering with a thoughtful glint.
"Teacher… that was all just basic technique?" Xie Xie asked with wide eyes.
Wu Zhangkong nodded.
"Still think basic skills are useless? Basic technique is the foundation of everything.
Martial spirits and soul skills may empower a soul master, but how you use them is what determines your true strength.
Mastery of basic combat is how you learn to use them properly—this is true even for Battle Armor and Mechas."
"From today onward, for a long time to come, basic combat training will be one of your core subjects."
Of course, Wu Zhangkong had a deeper purpose. This session was a classic case of "killing the chicken to warn the monkeys."
He wanted to crush the arrogance of Zhang Yangzi and Wang Jinxi.
In their former classes, they were hailed as untouchable geniuses—unchallenged and unmotivated. If they weren't humbled early on, they'd only cause trouble in training.
So why choose Tang Wulin?
Simple. He was the one who beat the daylights out of both Zhang Yangzi and Wang Jinxi in the promotion matches.
They still had a bit of psychological shadow from it.
And as for Gu Yue, she was included because she challenged his viewpoint earlier. Wu Zhangkong hoped to temper her mindset and reinforce the class hierarchy.
After all, Gu Yue had also forced Zhang Yangzi and Wang Jinxi into using their martial soul fusion technique—she deserved to be used as an example, too.
But he didn't choose Nan Fusheng, for an obvious reason:
If another incident like that near-disfigurement from earlier happened, it would damage his authority as a teacher.
What he wanted was a clean, overwhelming victory, not chaos.
Besides, because Nan Fusheng had kept a low profile in the matches, Zhang Yangzi and Wang Jinxi didn't have a strong impression of him anyway.
Wu Zhangkong had spoken with Nan Fusheng about that performance in private (while under Time Worm influence). He had asked if anything was wrong.
Nan Fusheng had given him some kind of explanation… which Wu Zhangkong had accepted. Oddly, though, he couldn't recall what that explanation was.
No matter—if there's no issue, I won't press it. No point in damaging my authority further.
And the result? It worked perfectly.
Zhang Yangzi and Wang Jinxi were now sitting up straight, eyes glued to Wu Zhangkong, completely focused.