"Good, everyone's here," Wang Yan said, with a look of approval and appreciation at his students gathered around the table.
They were in the meeting room and they were about to discuss their upcoming match.
"First things first, Yuhao. Thanks to your performance in the first match, Shrek Academy's reputation has skyrocketed and thus the other academies are more frightened and wary of us." Wang Yan said with a slight smile.
"With that, we can expect some of our opponents to have low confidence and fear in their hearts when they confront us since they have no idea what our true strength might be."
Everyone else smiled and showed excitement in their eyes, how could they not take this opportunity to easily win their battles? Fairness never existed in battles, only victory.
Those that were close to Huo Yuhao showed their appreciation by patting his shoulder.
Wang Yan continued, "Also, Huo Yuhao has expectedly become the center of attention and leader of the team in all of their eyes. To them, he is equivalent to the legendary ancestor Tang San!"
"To us, it's already like that!" Bei Bei said with a smile.
Faced with the looks of support from everyone, even Huo Yuhao wasn't thick-skinned enough to take it and said. "Teacher Wang, please cut to the chase already and tell us what you found out about our opponents."
Seeing the embarrassed look on Huo Yuhao's made Wang Yan and the rest chuckle.
Wang Yan pressed his hands together and said, "During these past two days, I've carefully examined the matches between the other academies and compiled as much information as I can about them."
"This first elimination round can only be described as 'fierce'. None of the other academies won as easily as we did. Even the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy struggled a bit with their opponents; it took them around ten minutes to conclude their battle. This means that we'll definitely have enough time to conserve and strengthen our energy."
"The round-robin phase of the tournament will begin tomorrow. In fact, the list of matchups for the round-robin is already out. It seems to have been compiled based on the order of the teams that passed this elimination round. My next objective is to come up with a plan for tomorrow's match."
After their experience with the group of Evil Soul Masters and having heard much of his instructions for the past several days, everyone had completely accepted Wang Yan as the leading teacher of the team.
Wang Yan sweeps his gaze at everyone, specifically at the outer courtyard students. "Huo Yuhao, Wang Dong, Xiao Xiao, Wu Feng, and Ning Tian are all my students, as such I know quite a bit about their abilities."
"However, I don't know too much about the rest of you. I hope that you all can tell us about your soul skills, as it will have an impact on the plan that I'm going to arrange for the upcoming matches."
Normally, soul skills were a soul master's biggest secret. However, the situation wasn't the same inside the academy, let alone now that they were on the eve of an important match. Therefore, it was normal for Wang Yan to ask this question.
Tang Ya, Bei Bei, Xu Sanshi and the rest shared a look and nodded.
Tang Ya took the lead and said, "I have other skills and secret techniques that can be used in battle, but since teacher Wang is only asking for my soul skills, then here: Bind, Parasite, Saros Pythonweb, Toxic Blight; these are my four soul skills."
Afterwards, she carefully explained both the characteristics of his soul skills and their usage. Then, it was Bei Bei, Xu Sanshi and Jiang Nannan's turn, as expected, their soul skills as Soul Ancestors were equally amazing.
When it came He Caitou however...
He Caitou's expression was a little strange, blank and his lips thinned. Everyone stared at him confusedly, what's going on?
"Caitou, considering the fact that you're a soul engineer, there would usually be no need to inquire about your soul skills. However.... the current situation is a bit special. We have to make use of everything at our disposition. If possible, could you please tell us about your martial soul?" Wang Yan asked He Caitou, the latter getting a bit red.
Huo Yuhao inwardly snickered, he knew what was making his senior brother so tight-lipped about his martial soul. He showed it to him(his shadow clone) months ago, and it was indeed a little... strange.
Just thinking about it made him look away with a suppressed laughter, ignoring the couple of looks he was getting. Some of them, especially Tang Ya, finally recalled He Caitou's martial soul and they all tried hard to suppress their laughs and giggles.
He Caitou looked up to the ceiling with a embarrassed expression on his face, he released a deep reluctant sigh. "Alright, I'll tell you. But I'm sure that none of you will be willing to use it. That's why I didn't bother to show it."
Wang Yan smiled and said, "It's alright, everything has its use. Come on, let us see your unique martial soul."
He Caitou looked around and, lacking self-confidence, said, "You aren't allowed to laugh."
Ma Xiaotao nodded seriously and replied, "Fine. We won't laugh at you. Now come on, don't waste anymore time. Show us this martial soul of yours that you're so reluctant to reveal to us."
He Caitou dark face blushed as he said, ".....This daddy has a thick cigar."
"....."
"What did you just-?!"
However, she didn't even have the chance to release her anger, when four soul rings, two yellow and two purple, suddenly appeared from beneath He Caitou's body. His first soul ring lit up, and a black and long thing appeared in between his index and middle fingers...
The room immediately went dead silent. He Caitou looked around, and—save for Huo Yuhao, Tang Ya and the rest—Ma Xiaotao, Ling Luochen, Xi Xi, and Wang Yan were dumbfounded. He quickly remarked, "You're not allowed to laugh! You promised that you wouldn't!"
Too late.
"Pfft-!" The entire room immediately exploded into laughter. Everyone began to laugh; even Huo Yuhao was no exception.
It was just too damn funny! Even some of them, who had already seen it before, couldn't help but laugh.
They laughed so hard that the sound could even be heard in the corridor outside.
Their laughter happened to be heard by the leader of the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy's main team, Ma Rulong, who happened to be passing through the corridor. His expression immediately changed when he heard them.
Why were these guys from Shrek Academy laughing so hard? The round-robin would begin tomorrow!
"Y-You all..." He Caitou became so angry from the shame he felt. He struck back fiercely by immediately stuffing the long cigar he was holding into Xu Sanshi's wide open mouth and quicklylit it up with the lighter he always brings with him.
"You-!" Xu Sanshi started to cough as he was almost choked by the smoke.
He Caitou snorted and grumblingly said, "Bunch of jerks. This is why I didn't want to show it, but you all still forced me to. You guys promised me that you wouldn't laugh! But what did you? Hmph!"
He snappily glared at Huo Yuhao and the others, "Also, junior brother and the others already know this! Why are you laughing?!"
"Pfft, s-sorry. It's just too funny," Huo Yuhao said between laughs, wiping tears from his eyes.
Everyone else quickly offered their apologies as they slowly calmed down, though most were still trembling in laughter.
They had laughed so hard that even their bellies had begun to hurt, especially Ma Xiaotao. At first, she thought that He Caitou was cursing her, but who would have thought that it was just his soul incantation.
"He Caitou, tell me this! What category does your martial soul belong to? Pfft," Ma Xiaotao asked while trying to hold back her laughter. After asking her question, she couldn't bear it anymore and started to laugh again.
He Caitou was indignant and replied angrily, "You're a senior student from the inner courtyard, and despite that, you don't even know such basic information? Only food-type martial souls need a soul incantation to appear. Therefore, I'm a food-type soul master!"
Just as He Caitou was explaining things, Xu Sanshi cried out in surprise. He took the thick cigar out of his mouth. Next, to everyone's surprise, he brought it to his mouth again and took a deep breath, exhaling a mouthful of smoke afterward.
The meeting room was immediately filled with the smell of tobacco... and a hint of chocolate?
"This thing is not bad! My mind has become clearer after just smoking it twice, it feels really pleasant. Also, why does it taste like chocolate?"
He Caitou snorted, "It comes with all flavors."
"Oooh! So, does it come in coconut flavor? I love coconut."
The nearby Bei Bei laughed as he interjected, "Sure! Holding Caitou's thick cigar with coconut flavor in your mouth must surely taste good, right?"
Huo Yuhao, Wang Dong, Xiao Xiao, Wu Feng and Ning Tian weren't too clear about the meaning of her remark, since they were too young, but everyone else burst out laughing.
Xu Sanshi's face immediately turned red and the nearby Jiang Nannan and Tang Ya lowered their heads; their faces even redder than Xu Sanshi's.
"You pervert," Tang Ya lightly smacked the back of Bei Bei's head. She was extremely indignant and embarrassed of his joke since she had used He Caitou's cigar beforehand.
But judging by the smirk on Bei Bei's face, he regretted nothing.
"You!" Xu Sanshi stomped furiously towards Bei Bei and tried to push the cigar into his mouth, "Since you're so curious about it, you should also get a taste of it!"
"Piss off!"
But Bei Bei wasn't planning to open his mouth even if the alternative was death and so, he struggled with all his might.
The two fought each other like children, earning them only giggles by their teammates.
...
Fun Fact: I play three gacha games every day: Wuthering Waves, Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail. Also, did you know that HSR has a collab with Fate Stay Night next year? I'm saving up for possible Saber or Archer collab appearance!
Also, this chapter and others more like it in the future is mainly to show how they connect with each other as friends and comrades. I'm intending for them to not be tossed aside later down the story, unlike what the original did. Seriously, look them up and wonder why didn't they become Gods. Bei Bei and Xu Sanshi especially.
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