Chapter 80: A New Semester

Time passes so quickly before you'd notice. Xiu Ye thought to himself as he stand in front of a full body mirror; staring at himself with a curled smirk on his face.

He looked much different as he was one year ago. 175cm tall, sharp mature handsome features, short spiky red hair, crystal bright golden eyes like it was really made out of real gold and lips curled into a confident smirk. He was wearing the eastsea academy's class zero uniform. With his looks and demeanor, he looked like an elite young noble student from a prestigious top tier academy.

A few weeks had passed since he started building the armor pieces of his Battle Armor and since then, some stuff happened.

The first is that he had only reached his cultivation to peak rank 31 and he'd predicted that he would have breakthrough a week later, a dark contrast to when he was a soul grandmaster. But considering with everything that had happened, jumping several ranks; a change of his physique and his fire attribute's evolution to ultimate, it was expected for his cultivation speed to slow down.

Next was his battle armor progress. With how limited he was currently with some specific resources, like black iron, he had only managed to forged two more armor parts: right part gauntlet and right vambrace. But he wasn't really too down about it. He has about a decade or so until shit hits the fan upon the continent and a half till evil soul masters go attack a public train.

Then he had came into the branch Tang Sect in the Eastsea City, to which he flat out denied its main secret techniques, like the Mysterious Heaven Skill, telling his attendee that he already has a perfect cultivation method, and had them exchange his entrance freebie for other more useful techniques like the Disorder Splitting Wind Hammer, in-depth knowledge of making Soul Tools, Soul Guidance Weapons, Battle Armor, Mechas and etcetera, and other resources he could get.

It had shocked the branch manager, his attendee, that had attended to him because Wu Zhangkong had told him what a genius he was and that lead to him being curious. Who would have thought that the kid would deny the main secret cultivation methods of Tang Sect?! This was the first in its entire history since its founding!

What's more, and something unsurprising, Tiangou began wandering around his inner world and study the numerous weapons scattered around.

Which is both a good and bad thing. It's a good thing because Tiangou could probably help find any faults hidden in his inner world that he wasn't able to notice, since she has thousands of years of knowledge, and help him fix it. And it's a bad thing because, well, it's Tiangou.

If she was able to change the form of Ryūjin Jakka, although it was mostly changed back into its former form by the latter's efforts, then there's a major possibility that she would mess around with his inner world and extend his progress on completing his reality marble.

That's what he gets when he wanted to help a powerful wild Deathly Hallow be his spirit soul.... who would have probably killed him on spot out of frustration for not agreeing to help him, no matter what she had said otherwise.

Then came the problem of his soul power. Despite having upgraded into a more compacted and dense quality of energy than before, nonetheless, it severely made him drain his soul power much more faster. The only saving grace here was that he seldom uses his soul power when not in the prying eyes of Spirit Pagoda, only using small amounts of soul power when he uses his Reinforcement when he fights with his fellow peers, who he only acknowledges though.

While Tiangou's immense, sealed soul power silently kept within his dantian and his soul power is concerning; Xiu Ye had some certain ideas for it, despite how dangerous it could be.

Finally, he hadn't noticed this until now, but he felt a small advancement of his spiritual power and change of elemental attributes.

When Xiu Ye awakened his martial, Ryūjin Jakka, got his first spirit soul soon after, and his deep innate connection with weapons, he had gained elemental attributes of fire, lightning and metal; now capable of producing and manipulating his brand of fire and lightning. With his spiritual power having advanced to Spirit Domain Realm, he had gained an innate ability to control several other elements.

He had became a wizard!

Jokes aside. Although Xiu Ye has the ability of bending and producing nine elements: fire, water, earth, wind, space, metal, lightning, light and darkness, he had a difference of manipulation, overall quality and power of a couple elements; mainly fire, lightning and metal, obviously.

But now, with Tiangou's soul power, spiritual power and essence mixing around within his body; elements such as darkness and space had become much more controllable and less energy expended to use. His control of these elements almost equalled to his current control with lightning and metal.

'Just one step at time, to reach the top of this world so I can finally relax...' He inwardly said with the corner of his lips curled up. Though he frowned as a thought came to his mind.

'Why is Spirit Pagoda, or Hua Wei specifically, so quiet?' He had thought the man wouldn't had easily given up in his pursuit of recruiting him. He had read enough stories to understand that most men like him in high positions wouldn't have easily given.

Xiu Ye let out a sigh, 'I can't do much without any information. I just have to keep my guard up.'

Ringing~ Heyo fool! Someone's calling for you!

Xiu Ye's lips twitched. He really has to change his ringtone. It was funny at first but it was just getting annoying now. He shook his head and picked up his soul communicator on the small wooden table by the left side of the mirror.

"Xiu Ye here speaking. Who is this?"

"Hey bro it's me!(AN: Mario~!)" Tang Wulin's familiar voice sounded from the soul communicator, bringing a smirk back on Xiu Ye's mouth. "Been a while since we last talked."

"Well, we would have hang out and talk earlier if you didn't immediately dived back into blacksmithing in the Blacksmith Association the moment you return from your trip from Heaven Dou City." Xiu Ye retorted.

"Hehe. S-Sorry." Tang Wulin said, embarrassed. Soon his tone turned into excitement. "Hey, wanna hear the adventures teacher Wu and I did in Heaven Dou City, Ye?"

"Hm. Sure, but not on the phone. Where are you right now? " Xiu Ye asked as he stepped out of his room and then walked down the hallway to second floor living room to have breakfast.

"About to head to school. I'll probably be there in around 30-40 minutes or so."

"Alright. Let's go and meet the others there by an hour. See you later." After getting a similar response by Tang Wulin, Xiu Ye put his soul communicator into his pocket and started getting breakfast.

Eastsea Academy's month-long calm came to an end with the new school semester starting and was once again bustling with noise and excitement.

Students streamed into the academy, all of them brimming with positivity. This was their second semester. After they finished it, they would advance to the next grade. Though they looked forward to moving up a year, the dreaded grade promotion exams loomed over them once more.

For those attending an intermediate Soul Master academy, they absolutely had to have reached two rings by the time they graduated from their six years in the elementary division, otherwise they wouldn't be issued a graduation diploma. On the other hand, those in the advanced division needed to have three rings to properly graduate.

Regardless of the academy, not every student could meet this requirement. Those in the upper years would be extremely pressed for time.

Though, there was one grade/class that was exempted: class zero. And two of its students are currently walking towards the academy entrance.

Xiu Ye grinned as he nudged Gu Yue's left arm, "Long time no see, Gu Yue. How you been?"

Gu Yue turned her head towards him, her normally emotionless and cold exterior, that she would give other people, fell into a warm and amicable smile. Giving off an air of a normal next door girl.

It's almost been an entire year since they'd met and had that, strange introduction with each other, and it could be said that they became close friends.

Since Xiu Ye showed that he probably knows more than he should about her, Gu Yue can be freely honest with him and vice versa. They started talking, spend time together, and both had tried getting to know more about each other, their greatest secrets, only to fail and talk about something else. Though both would try to not mention about Na'er.

Xiu Ye wanted to know how Na'er's doing and if she's enjoying herself well but he didn't want to further tell Gu Yue about how much he knows about them, the consequences would be severe as a certain Black Dragon King would probably just go screw it and kill him on the spot or Gu Yue would just straight up freak out and try to kill to him in a panic. While Gu Yue was just hesitant on telling him.

Nonetheless, even with all that, before they know it, they became friends and rivals.

Flipping her long jet black hair back, she replied, "Oh, nothing much. Studying and increasing my strength... you know, the usual."

Xiu Ye raised an eyebrow, not believing her, and pointed his right index finger to her eyes, "And it lead to your previous black eyes turning purple?"

Gu Yue's small smile slowly widened and she crossed both of her arms, facing him. "As I said, the usual. I got stronger and better than before."

"Hmm..." Xiu Ye hummed as he looked at her up and down. He raised an eyebrow; she really did get stronger. Just judging from her body he could tell the signs of her muscles being more toned and defined than before, yet still retaining the feminine qualities of a girl. Probably the work of some heaven and earth treasure she got from her people or it's just her physique.

Using his spiritual sense, he could sense the seven elements around her being more and powerful than ever before; which means her spiritual power had also took a great breakthrough.

Xiu Ye tilted his head and smiled, "Congratulations, you're the second most strongest person in the class." He then put his right hand on her head and started petting her. "Good, good..."

Gu Yue's smile froze and her face began to flush red and twitch. Blood vessels popped on her forehead and throbbed. Her eyes was on his amused ones and his patronizing smile.

"Y-You...!" She gritted her teeth and lashed her left leg out in blinding speed to the number one weakness of all men. Catching the students walking by them off guard.

In any normal situation, this kind of scenario would have lead to the unfortunate guy momentarily crippled. Unfortunately for her however, Xiu Ye had balls of steel.

Which, instead of a pained male scream that would make every male in existence to resonate and cover their junk, the pained yelp of a female was heard instead and followed a loud ding like metal being pounded.

Everyone was silent, wide-eyed and jaws dropped as they watched and heard the most unbelievable scene in history happening in front of them. Heck, Gu Yue herself was dumbfounded! She stared down at her leg, stuck between Xiu Ye's legs, and looked up to the unharmed boy, no, young man shooting at her with a smug shit eating grin.

"H-How, how is this possible?!" She screamed in absolute disbelief as she retracted her leg back, red and bruised, she started healing it up with the light element. Both of her arms went up in front of her, preparing for a retaliation.

The greatest weakness of men, the most targetable area of where most women would hit them, was shrugged off?!

Xiu Ye merely laughed at the looks he was getting and proclaimed with a smug grin, "What can I say? I've got balls of steel!" That proclamation got him both awed and disgusted looks from the surrounding students.

"...I don't know him." Gu Yue said with a flushed face cheeks, embarrassed at the looks she was getting from the surrounding students, and proceeded to walk towards where the entrance ceremony was.

"Hey Gu Yue! Wait up!"

"No! Stay away from me!"

A ceremony was held to welcome the new semester. Class zero stood at the very front of the first grade, three students neatly lined up in a row.

Indeed, there were only five students; Tang Wulin was missing.

Starting from the outside, Xiu Ye stood, followed by Gu Yue, Xie Xie, Mu Xi then Xu Xiaoyan.

Meanwhile, Wu Zhangkong expressionlessly stood with the teachers, completely unconcerned about Tang Wulin's absence.

Xie Xie whispered to Gu Yue, "Wulin couldn't have forgotten that the semester starts today, right? Why do you think he's so late?"

Gu Yue indifferently replied, "Do you think he's you?"

Xie Xie was speechless. "Just how biased can you be? When have I ever been late? Wasn't it him last time, too?"

Xiu Ye interrupted, "Then he definitely has a good reason. Just shut up and wait."

As the academy president began his speech, a hunched-over figure snuck over from the back to the very front before nudging Xiu Ye's side.

The corner of Xiu Ye's lips curved up, "Took you long enough. Did puberty finally hit you hard?" He said it loud enough that the others in class zero heard it.

Gu Yue, Xie Xie and Mu Xi snickered while Xu Xiaoyan tilted her head.

Tang Wulin's face blushed red, he had no excuse to give.

"I cultivated too much," Tang Wulin sheepishly said.

The ceremony continued without another hitch and after the customary motivational speeches, it soon came to a close. Teachers led their charges back to the classroom where they gave their own words of wisdom and encouragement before dismissing the students until the next day when classes would officially begin.

Naturally, class zero had the simplest proceedings with only five students including the newly arrived Xu Xiaoyan.

"Introduce yourself," Wu Zhangkong said to Xu Xiaoyan as soon as they entered their classroom.

Facing Wu Zhangkong with her usual bashfulness, she stood and said, "Hello, everyone. I'm Xu Xiaoyan. I'm 10 years old and my martial soul is the Starwheel Ice Staff. My soul power is at rank 17." She shyly smiled at them.

Standing at a height of 150cm, making her the shortest student of class zero. Her blue hair was styled in twintails, and she looked as if cut from jade. Her beauty was stunning and far exceeded that of Gu Yue's.

Xiu Ye raised his eyebrows, 'If I remember her right, she should become the number one control system soul master in the future.' The end of his lips curved up, a glint of anticipation flashed in his eyes. 'Looks like the next arc of the story is coming soon.'

The corner of Tang Wulin's mouth began to twitch when he heard her last sentence.

Wu Zhangkong nodded. "Over the next month, you need to prove your strength and adaptability with class zero. At the end, I will decide whether or not you will stay."

"Yes," Xu Xiaoyan cutely answered.

Wu Zhangkong turned to the other three. "You've had a month to rest, so I need to test your bodies again as well as run another combat test. You have half an hour to meditate and prepare." He turned back to Xu Xiaoyan. "Same for you."

In the results that followed, however, his usual calm bearing was breached.

There weren't any major changes in their physical strengths, except for Xiu Ye who's the only one with a major increase of his physical strength. While both Tang Wulin and Mu Xi numbers had a slight increase, but it was nothing of note except to Xu Xiaoyan who was left stupefied.

She wanted to turn to Xie Xie and ask, 'Are these guys even human? Are you sure they aren't soul beasts?'

Xu Xiaoyan's body strength was feeble to the point of being tragic, no different from an ordinary person's.

What surprised Wu Zhangkong instead were the results of the spiritual power test.

The first to take the test was Xie Xie.

His spiritual power had surprisingly broken past 50 and was now at 78. Finally progressing from the early stage of Spirit Origin realm to the late stage, he could almost upgrade his spirit soul to the thousand-year level.

This would have been a surprise to most of them, the exception being Xu Xiaoyan, but they'd witnessed what the boy had been through under the hands of a certain demon king.

The second to go according to Wu Zhangkong's plan was the newcomer, Xu Xiaoyan. He believed that since the academy allowed such a physically weak girl to join class zero, her special strength must lie in a combination of spiritual power and her ice-attribute trait.

Contrary to his expectations, however, Xu Xiaoyan's spiritual power was at 61 points, placing her in the intermediate stage of Spirit Origin realm.

Tang Wulin went next; his results left Wu Zhangkong and his classmates surprised.

"212 points?" Xie Xie read out the displayed number, incomprehension clear in his voice.

"Teacher Wu, are you sure there's no problem with the machine?" Xie Xie blankly stared at Tang Wulin.

Tang Wulin was also shocked, though, everyone glanced at Xiu Ye.

Everyone in the know twitched their lips. It's nothing compared to that monster.

"Gu Yue, your turn." Wu Zhangkong's momentary astonishment vanished, returning his expression to normal shortly after.

"T-two-hundred-seventy-eight?" Once more, they were stunned, but this time by Gu Yue's number.

Gu Yue clicked her tongue and looked away from Xiu Ye, who stared at her with a teasing smile.

A trace of a smile crept onto Wu Zhangkong's lips. These brats are really starting to look like monsters.

"Next, Mu Xi"

Xie Xie widened his eyes as the results came out and said, "200?! Oh come on!"

Mu Xi gave him a raspberry.

Xu Xiaoyan stared at them with wide eyes, she thought that with one month of preparation and extra training from her family's elders and her elder brother she would prove herself to stand equal to the students of class zero but after seeing these numbers, she finally understood how large the gap between her and the other five.

Xu Xiaoyan raised her hand. "Teacher Wu, I'd like to test my spiritual power again at night."

"Hm?" Wu Zhangkong turned to look at her. "Does the night affect your spiritual power?"

"Mn." Xu Xiaoyan nodded.

This had been her greatest secret, but her competitive nature dragged it out of her.

"Alright." Xu Xiaoyan smiled.

'But wait. What about him?' She turned her eyes towards Xiu Ye wondering why isn't teacher Wu have his spiritual power get checked.

A month ago, she and her older brother had previously met Tang Wulin and his friends in the Rebellion Spirit Ascension Platform so she had some information about them.

Tang Wulin was clearly the leader and probably the leader of his friends, despite only having one ring. But don't let that knowledge fool you, like how her brother had foolishly underestimated him for and she and him was killed for doing so. From that clearly one sided battle, Xu Xiaoyan would be certain that he was probably the strongest or second among his friends.

While she didn't witnessed any abilities displayed by his friends before, Xu Xiaoyan could deduce that Mu Xi should be second to Tang Wulin, on the account of being older, Gu Yue being next and Xie Xie being last.

That was the feel she got from them.

But Xiu Ye.... It felt like he was the true leader of his circle, the big boss. Xu Xiaoyan, despite only knowing them for a short while, could see the clear trust and respect from both Gu Yue and Xie Xie had towards Tang Wulin. But all of them; Tang Wulin, Xie Xie, Gu Yue and Mu Xi had the absolute respect, trust, admiration, gratitude and loyalty towards Xiu Ye. None more so than Tang Wulin.

She wouldn't even be surprise that he wouldn't hesitate to die helping him.

Staring at his back, intense curiosity lit up in Xu Xiaoyan's eyes.

❄️

Edit: Okay I forgot to account the 'mental' training Xie Xie had undergone when Xiu Ye was training him. My bad. Also the increase of spiritual power isn't too huge and shocking is because the latter had trained him more in the physical area. Spiritual power doesn't correspond in the physical training and more into the mind, that's why I forgot to change his spiritual power.

Thank you for joining my pa treon: Никита Рогов!

Join my pa treon to support me and read 7-8 advance chapters! Pa treon/FroztDouluo

Also, don't forget to hit that power stone button! It'll make me a very happy person to continue writing more of this story.