Wang Yan, who was eager to verify his hypothesis with Wang Rui, awkwardly adjusted his glasses. He suddenly felt like he might have interrupted a subtle and delicate atmosphere.
Meanwhile, Wang Rui, who had been scolded by Huo Yuqing and felt guilty about it, rubbed his nose reluctantly and dragged his feet toward Wang Yan.
As he walked, he began a deep self-reflection: Am I spoiling Huo Yuqing too much?
Even if he was indeed at fault, he was still the Emperor Auspicious Beast, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion, a soul beast with a hundred-thousand-year cultivation standing at the top of the Star Dou Forest. How could he be afraid of a mere first-year student?
… Maybe it was because an angry Huo Yuqing gave off a motherly vibe. Kind of like… the disapproving gaze of a mom.
Now that he thought about it, Huo Hua nagging at him like this really made him look like a nagging mother…
Wang Rui's thoughts started drifting off in strange directions.
Wang Yan looked at his absent-minded expression and felt his gaze wandering. He cleared his throat.
"Wang Rui, my question might be a bit presumptuous, but I'm really curious. What exactly was the method you used to trigger that explosion at the end?" He adjusted his glasses again and spoke sincerely. "At the final moment of the match, I noticed you were deliberately forcing Zhang Jingkun toward a certain spot. Once he reached that position, an explosion occurred… but that wasn't a soul skill, was it? Could it have been a soul bone ability?"
"No, I don't think so." Before Wang Rui could answer, Wang Yan rejected his own guess. "Activating a soul bone ability usually has some kind of visible sign… It wouldn't be so silent and undetectable."
"If it wasn't a soul bone ability, then there's only one possibility left." The researcher in Wang Yan was practically glowing with excitement. He placed a firm hand on Wang Rui's shoulder. "Could this be… a natural talent ability possessed only by the most top-tier martial souls?"
"I guess you could say that." Wang Rui shrugged, neither confirming nor denying it.
Powerful martial souls often had innate abilities. For example, Xu Sanshi's Xuanwu Shield had an inborn soul skill, and in the original storyline, Miss Jin had used the same excuse to cover up her Emperor Auspicious Beast abilities.
[T/N: Miss Jin was the OG female Auspicious beast in ch 1]
For instance, the Golden Brilliance of Pride, which allowed her to control soul beasts.
"I've named this innate ability Flame Tide," Wang Rui said. "Unlike other fire-attributed martial souls, the Flame King Dragon Martial Soul doesn't heat up my body when I activate it, as long as I don't deliberately release my fire energy externally. Instead, the high-temperature fire elements automatically condense into high-density fire-element powder, which gets stored within the fur on my wings. When necessary, I can release it.
However, this high-density fire-element powder is extremely unstable. If subjected to violent impact, it will explode."
This explosive powder was actually naturally shed dragon scales formed during the Flame King Dragon's metabolism. To put it bluntly, it was basically flammable dandruff. From a practical standpoint, it was entirely reasonable as a martial soul's innate ability!
However, Wang Yan clearly did not see it that way. He gasped sharply, staring at Wang Rui in shock.
"…Wait. This? It's naturally produced, it doesn't consume soul power, and it explodes on impact?"
Wang Rui nodded in confirmation.
Wang Yan opened his mouth, then closed it. After several attempts, he finally squeezed out a sentence:
"This ability is incredibly powerful. To be honest, I've gone through a vast number of records, but I've never seen such a strong martial soul talent before… Wang Rui, I need to go apply for access to the inner court's research materials before we talk about this further."
Without even waiting for Wang Rui's response, Wang Yan hurriedly left.
———
The morning matches ended, and the top eight teams were fully determined. The quarterfinal matches would take place in the afternoon.
Ning Tian once again drew the lots. Their opponents were a team from the original storyline—the trio of Zhou Sichen, Long Xiangyue, and Cao Jinxuan from the other class.
These three had unusual martial souls and were quite strong. However, since Wang Rui didn't dare slack off anymore, the match ended cleanly without much struggle.
Meanwhile, Wang Dong's team was unlucky enough to face Dai Huabin's team in this round. With a significant gap in strength, plus Wang Dong not being fully recovered from the previous match, they were eliminated from the top four.
By the next morning, it was time for the semifinals.
The remaining four teams—twelve students in total—stood neatly in the competition arena.
This time, the host was no longer Du Weilun, but an elderly man dressed in white—the Martial Soul Department's Dean, Yan Shaozhe.
Standing next to him was a tall, burly man with steel-like white hair—Qian Duoduo.
As the head of the Soul Tool Department, Qian Duoduo naturally had to be present for the semifinals and finals. After all, this was his chance to snatch some talented students from the Martial Soul Department!
He discreetly scanned the students below while mentally reviewing their files, trying to identify any potential recruits that Yan Shaozhe might be willing to part with.
The three Soul Elders (Soul Masters above Rank 30) were immediately off the table.
Yan Shaozhe definitely wouldn't give up a single one of them, but Qian Duoduo had every right to watch the matches—Shaozhe couldn't stop him from attending.
Still, instead of dwelling on the inevitable losses, Qian Duoduo turned his attention to bargaining for the remaining talented students—seeing how much he could extract from Shaozhe in exchange for sending a few of them to the Soul Tool Department.
Of course, no matter what rivalry the two deans had in private, they never let it show in front of the students.
Yan Shaozhe maintained his usual gentle expression, standing on the stage as he gave his motivational speech to inspire the first-year students.
Meanwhile, Wang Rui raised an eyebrow below the stage.
Every single year, the dean probably said the exact same thing:
"I am very satisfied with this year's new students. You are the most talented first-years in the past hundred years. I..."
So... the most talented students are always the next batch, huh?
Ah… humans.
Wang Rui sighed in his heart.
His puppet, Di Feng, had once been Mu En's peer and friend. But now, Mu En's grandson was already an old man, standing on stage while Wang Rui himself was just another first-year student below.
Yes. That's right.
After the changes in fate, Yan Shaozhe was now a descendant of Ye Xishui and Mu En.