The Class Promotion Tournament was a tradition at East Sea Academy: weaker classes challenged stronger ones, and winning meant taking the opponent's place.
Right at the start of the term, the other classes were already gearing up for the tournament, but the students of Class One were not worried in the slightest.
What a joke. Even if a few prodigies had ended up in other classes for various reasons, could anyone beat Great Spirit Master Wei Xiaofeng?
Even if someone pulled off a miracle, Gu Yuena and Huo Yuhao would still teach them a hard lesson!
Why should Class One be the only ones traumatized by their terrifying strength?
With that mindset, while the other classes underwent tense combat drills, Class One's students remained completely at ease.
Still, as their teacher, Luo Yanglu had to take responsibility.
On the training grounds, Luo Yanglu produced a case and took out a bracelet.
"This bracelet is a portable soul tool designed to test physical fitness. When worn, it provides real-time feedback on your physical state and quantifies your stamina and physical conditioning into a numerical value. If your physical fitness improves, the number goes up."
Luo Yanglu smiled. "Physical conditioning is still very important at your stage. Every bit of strength you gain widens your options when choosing soul spirits later on. Not to mention, professions like Mecha Masters place no small demands on physical fitness.
"However, training and cultivation are ultimately your own responsibility. As a teacher, I am merely a guide, and class time is limited. You must rely on your own initiative.
"I trust that being able to see yourselves grow stronger step-by-step will keep you from slacking off, right?"
The students eagerly strapped on the bracelets. Xie Xie looked at the quantified fitness reading on his wrist and marveled inwardly.
*Is this the treatment Class One gets?*
Soul tools like this weren't even available on the open market. He had previously felt that enrolling here was a mistake, but now he no longer thought so.
"Keep in mind, though, that your bodies are still developing. Do not push yourselves past your limits. The soul tool has an alarm function; once triggered, it means you are approaching a critical threshold. Stop immediately when that happens, and don't harm yourselves."
"Yes, Teacher!" chorused the students.
After laying out the precautions, Luo Yanglu handed out the soul tools.
Gu Yuena took hers and felt an odd sense of familiarity. Subconsciously glancing at Huo Yuhao's wrist, she saw that he already wore one.
*Could he be the one who developed this?*
With that thought, Gu Yuena slipped it on, only to see the reading skyrocket, quickly breaching four digits.
"..."
She was the Dragon King after all; even with her low cultivation level at the moment, her physical fitness and constitution could never be poor.
Just then, Gu Yuena sensed an increasingly familiar spiritual ripple. Expertly connecting to it, she heard Huo Yuhao's voice:
"Press the button on the lower left and enter the passcode 3946. You can manually adjust the reading. A normal Great Spirit Master's physical fitness sits around two hundred."
*It really was his invention.*
Gu Yuena breathed a sigh of relief and followed his instructions, setting the display to a normal value.
On his end, Huo Yuhao glanced at the four-digit number displayed on his own brand-new fitness tester before putting it away.
This soul tool was only meant for an early transition period. Beyond a certain threshold, physical constitution could no longer be improved through ordinary exercise.
He had crafted this soul tool merely on a flash of inspiration while researching artificial soul spirit bloodline extraction techniques.
After finishing with the soul tools, Luo Yanglu taught everyone a brand-new meditation method—the Soul Spirit Symbiosis Meditation Method.
"This is a meditation technique developed by the Spirit Pagoda. When cultivating, you summon your soul spirit and use the Soul Spirit Contract to establish a special circuit between both parties. This achieves a bidirectional energy cycle, allowing the soul spirit to help circulate your energy. The higher your compatibility with the soul spirit, the faster your cultivation speed."
Looking down at the eager, bright-eyed students—especially Wei Xiaofeng, whose martial soul and soul spirit were identical—the corner of Luo Yanglu's mouth curled upward. "Of course, what I'm teaching you is a simplified version; its effect isn't quite that pronounced."
The students' expressions instantly fell.
Xie Xie remarked thoughtfully, "Teacher, could you be from the Spirit Pagoda?"
Between the soul tools and a proprietary Spirit Pagoda meditation technique, the man did not seem like an ordinary teacher at all.
Luo Yanglu smiled without answering, though his silence was tacit confirmation.
He then instructed the class to practice the meditation method, calling Huo Yuhao and Gu Yuena over to him.
"Your meditation methods both come from Ultimate Douluo and are top-tier techniques. You don't need to bother with this one."
Huo Yuhao was speechless.
He hadn't touched the meditation method Hua Yichen had applied for on his behalf.
Instead, he practiced a self-created technique combining his experience from ten thousand years ago with magic meditation principles. It accelerated both his spiritual power and Ultimate Ice cultivation. Combined with Gu Yuena's bloodline influence, the bottleneck debuff of Ultimate Ice between ranks 30 and 70 had been completely resolved.
Gu Yuena was equally silent.
She practiced a self-created elemental meditation method.
She hadn't touched the technique Teacher Leng had given her either.
Unaware that both youths before him were walking cheat codes, Luo Yanglu pondered for a moment before asking, "Student Gu Yuena, in which direction did the Heavenly Phoenix Crown lean while mentoring you? Cultivation, or actual combat?"
"Cultivation."
"Have you ever been to the virtual battlefield?"
"?"
Gu Yuena gave Luo Yanglu a puzzled look.
Seeing this, Luo Yanglu felt confident in his assessment.
"Yuhao, spar with Gu Yuena. Just keep it within limits. There are a few things I want to confirm."
The Heavenly Phoenix Crown had entrusted her disciple to their branch's care; they couldn't afford to neglect her progress.
Furthermore, according to Yichen, despite an initial unpleasantness, Yuhao and Gu Yuena got along quite well now. Taking good care of Gu Yuena would ensure that when Yuhao transferred to headquarters in the future, she would be willing to lend him a hand.
Hearing this, Huo Yuhao glanced at Gu Yuena, who looked back, her eyes flickering slightly.
The same thought crossed both of their minds: *How much strength is appropriate against this opponent?*
Going all out was impossible; throwing the match was the only way to get by.
...
The training field provided for Class One was expansive, easily accommodating combat drills for every student at once without feeling cramped.
Yet as Huo Yuhao and Gu Yuena took their positions at the center, the other students set aside whatever they were doing and gathered around to watch.
They were intensely curious to see just how formidable these two freakish geniuses were.
Seeing this, Luo Yanglu made no move to stop them. Keeping his eyes on Huo Yuhao and Gu Yuena standing ten meters apart, he pulled out a notebook and pen, calling out, "Begin!"
Gu Yuena made the first move, two yellow spirit rings lighting up around her. Ripples instantly washed through the air as wind blades condensed in a flash, completely sealing off all routes around Huo Yuhao. Seven or eight wind blades whistled toward him from tricky angles.
Huo Yuhao's eyes flickered, and three purple spirit rings appeared around him, drawing gasps from several classmates.
"Thousand-year spirit rings?" Xie Xie clicked his tongue at the crushing pressure radiating from the rings, yet felt a sense of inevitability.
For a Soul Elder at this age, it would be strange if his rings weren't thousand-year ones.
The moment the wind blades drew near, a faint glow lit up Huo Yuhao's eyes. Spiritual Detection flared to life. Combining it with his elemental perception from the Silver Dragon King's bloodline and his own vast experience, he instantly saw through the core of every wind blade. With a single thought—
*Crack!*
In an instant, all the wind blades shattered, dissolving into harmless currents of air.
Gu Yuena's brow furrowed slightly as a surge of cyan light washed over her, sending her speed soaring to a whole new level. At the same time, her hands moved rapidly. Clusters of blazing fireballs and rows of razor-sharp icicles swept toward Huo Yuhao like a torrential storm, yet all failed to make an impact.
"How many elements has she used?" Xie Xie's eyebrows twitched frantically. "How can her martial soul control so many elements?"
"None of it works, though."
Beside Xie Xie, Wei Xiaofeng's roommate, Zhang Yangzi, shook his head in awe. "Student Yuhao is neutralizing everything with zero effort."
*Effortless?*
Luo Yanglu secretly shook his head.
It wasn't easy in the slightest.
Elemental attacks were ultimately controlled through spiritual power. Whenever an elemental attack came within three meters of Huo Yuhao, his invisible spiritual power targeted the weakest point of its core, disrupting Gu Yuena's control and causing the attack to collapse.
This demanded a level of spiritual control that bordered on perfection—among all the spiritual-attribute Soul Masters Luo Yanglu knew, only Hua Yichen could pull off such a feat!
Chapter 37