Chapter 70: Nighttime Conversation

Besides Gu You, the most impressive by far was Tang Wulin's moment of slaying that powerful soul beast. His right hand transformed into a golden dragon claw, clearly possessing an attack power far beyond his current level, allowing him to directly overpower and kill a hundred-year bipedal horned dragon.

And Xie Xie — his coordination with the golden dragon claw boy was exceptionally smooth.

As for the others, they were all undoubtedly elite among their peers.

No wonder, no wonder Eastsea Academy had spared no expense to bring them here. They hadn't even stayed in the spirit ascension platform for that long, but the experience and gains they achieved were undeniably immense.

The spirit ascension platform staff couldn't help but think this.

Wu Zhangkong slowly walked up to the six students and said calmly, "From today onward, the five of you will be a battle squad. Captain, Tang Wulin. Vice-captain, Xie Xie. As for Gu You, I have separate arrangements for you. Let's go."

Without waiting for their response, he turned and led the way toward the elevator.

The five exchanged bewildered looks, their faces full of surprise. A battle squad? And Gu You… was simply separate?

Wang Jinxi cautiously glanced at Gu You, while Zhang Yangzi's expression turned a little sour — but beneath the surface was mostly shame. Before coming here, he'd still held a competitive spirit, wanting to prove himself. But after witnessing everything that had unfolded inside the spirit ascension platform, that desire had utterly deflated.

He had thought Tang Wulin's ability to punch above his rank was already impressive. Who could have expected someone like Gu You to show up — an absolute monster of talent?

Not to mention personal strength, just the way he and Tang Wulin had handled themselves inside the platform was far beyond what Zhang Yangzi could manage.

Still, everyone had their admirable qualities.

Wang Jinxi, at least, had an excuse: he'd run into an overwhelmingly strong soul beast. But what about himself? His failure was entirely his own fault — pure recklessness.

On the way back, all six of them remained lost in thought, still immersed in the experience of today's battle. Zhang Yangzi was filled with regret, Tang Wulin was replaying the entire fight over and over in his mind, analyzing every detail, and even Gu You couldn't help but feel embarrassed by his own absurd blunders inside the platform.

But without a doubt, this first spirit ascension battle had left a deep mark on all of them.

Tang Wulin felt it most strongly of all. So this is what it's like to fight soul beasts… The sense of struggle, the fear — even knowing it was just a virtual space, the pressure of life and death still made his heart race. Combat training in this kind of environment was worlds apart from their usual practice.

On the spirit bus back to the academy, Tang Wulin suddenly noticed a faint warmth spreading through his body, starting from his spine. At first, it wasn't too strong, so he didn't pay much attention, but the closer they got to the academy, the more obvious it became.

The warmth spread through his limbs, bringing a strange, soothing comfort — and along with it, waves of drowsiness.

Walking beside him, Xie Xie suddenly noticed Tang Wulin staggering and quickly reached out to steady him.

"Tang Wulin, are you okay?"

"I… I don't know. I just feel so sleepy…"

The moment Xie Xie touched him, it was like a switch had been flipped. Tang Wulin's body went limp, and he nearly collapsed to the ground.

Wu Zhangkong stopped walking, surprised, and turned back. The others also noticed something was wrong.

In a flash, Wu Zhangkong was in front of Tang Wulin, grabbing his wrist.

By now, Tang Wulin had already slipped into a half-asleep state. A faint golden and blue light shimmered across his skin, and his aura was wildly fluctuating.

"This situation…" Long Hengxu, who had hurried over, suddenly thought of a possibility, and his eyes grew sharp.

Wu Zhangkong hoisted Tang Wulin up onto his back. "He's fine. His soul spirit is evolving."

Soul spirit evolution?

On the way here, Xie Xie had mentioned to Tang Wulin that the spirit ascension platform might allow a soul spirit to evolve — but the odds were extremely low. After all, hunting soul beasts was incredibly difficult. Even facing a mere hundred-year soul beast, a Soul Ancestor with no combat experience could easily end up failing. Plus, the absorbed energy only counted as a tenth of the beast's actual years.

But this time, Tang Wulin's luck had been extraordinary. He had directly absorbed the leftover energy from Gu You's shattered crystal bear, and with that, his spirit had smoothly advanced.

Everyone felt a flicker of envy — this was truly a heaven-sent opportunity.

Of course, the low starting base of his soul spirit was part of why the advancement was possible.

Gu You watched all this with an expression that practically screamed I've never seen anything so ridiculous. If he wanted to upgrade his own soul rings, he could do it anytime. All he had to do was pester Leng Yaozhu to take him into a high-level spirit ascension platform, hunt a few hundred ten-thousand-year soul beasts, and boom — black rings for his first two soul rings, no problem.

Back at the academy, Wu Zhangkong didn't say much else. He simply instructed everyone to go back to their dorms and meditate. Then, he called Gu You to follow him to his own quarters.

Tang Wulin was also brought to Wu Zhangkong's room.

Tang Wulin was a special case. His martial soul was undergoing an unusual mutation, so Wu Zhangkong needed to keep a close watch and make sure the evolution process didn't run into any danger.

Under the moonlit sky, Gu You and Wu Zhangkong sat on opposite sides of the dormitory window.

"You're from Shrek Academy, aren't you?" Wu Zhangkong guessed. Apart from that academy, he couldn't imagine anywhere else capable of producing a freak like Gu You.

"As you wish," Gu You replied softly.

"Then why come to Eastsea Academy?" Wu Zhangkong frowned. Shrek was the number one academy on the entire continent, with endless teaching resources and learning opportunities.

"I don't really know. I just didn't want to stay in that damned place." Gu You's voice was light.

If it had been anyone else from Shrek present, they probably would have cursed Gu You to the moon and back. But Wu Zhangkong was different. The death of Long Bing had left a thick, faintly bitter seal over his heart when it came to his former academy, though he could never forget the kindness it had once shown him.

"Do you think all evil soul masters are bad people?" Wu Zhangkong asked, turning his gaze to Gu You. This boy had personally fought against evil soul masters — he had to know.

"Not all of them," Gu You shook his head. "What's a bad person, anyway? Or a good person? Everyone's thoughts and personalities are different. Take a simple question — yes or no — but people with different beliefs will still find ways to twist it into hundreds of answers."

Wu Zhangkong was momentarily stunned by the answer. What good or evil? Most of the time, there was only injustice, only dissatisfaction with one's own fate.

"Wu-teacher, I've heard your story before. Because of my talents, I trained in the inner court from a young age, and there was an old man who would tell me stories every day. He often mentioned you. He said you disappeared for so long, never sent him letters, called you ungrateful. But I always guessed there had to be more to it.

"I never expected that when I finally decided to come to Eastsea, the first person I'd run into would be you. At first, I thought maybe it was just someone with the same name… but after today, after these few conversations, I realized — it really is you…"

(End of Chapter)

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