For a team, the boost provided by an outstanding control-type soul master was without a doubt immense.
Without needing Xu Zihuang's reminder, Tuoba Yu and Nanmen Yuner tacitly unleashed their most powerful soul skills, preparing to settle the battle.
Xu Zihuang's counter just now had occurred almost in an instant.
Noticing the state of the field, Tuoba Yu and Nanmen Yuner no longer hesitated in the slightest.
Earthen-yellow soul power condensed thickly around Tuoba Yu's body. For the first time in the freshman assessment, he activated his second soul skill.
"Second Soul Skill—Earth Dragon Array!"
Under the shroud of rich earth-element aura, the marble-paved arena suddenly quaked.
Smoke and dust erupted. With a series of booming roars, two massive dragon heads formed of solid rock broke through the ground, raising their colossal heads high behind Tuoba Yu.
The White Armored Earth Dragon, as its name implied, was a type of earth dragon. Though the quality of his martial soul was still inferior to Wu Feng's Red Dragon, any martial soul bearing the name "dragon" was never weak.
Its command over earth elements ranked at the very top among all earth-attribute martial souls.
Each dragon head was over two meters wide, triangular, covered in armor-like stone plates. Huge curved horns jutted upward, while their necks, still connected to the ground by stone, showed that this was not yet the complete White Armored Earth Dragon form—limited by Tuoba Yu's cultivation.
Lightly tapping his toe, Tuoba Yu landed atop one of the dragon heads, directing the two to surge past the crystal-encased bear and tiger, diving down toward Zhou Sichen and Long Xiangyue in the front.
Meanwhile, Nanmen Yuner blurred into a jade-green streak, targeting the weakened Cao Jinxuan at the rear.
As she lunged, her hands joined above her head. Emerald light condensed into a crescent-shaped blade that cleaved straight toward him.
Her first soul skill was Jade Blade, transforming her arms into blades. Combined with her second soul skill, it became Jade Slash.
Agility-attack battle soul masters were known for speed and lethal strikes. The power of this blow was self-evident—the emerald blade carved a graceful arc through the air.
And the strike had a locking effect, making it impossible to evade.
Zhou Sichen and Long Xiangyue exchanged a glance, both seeing helplessness in each other's eyes.
Zhou Sichen's Compendium martial soul was indeed powerful, its soul skills unrestricted by attribute. But it carried one enormous flaw: each skill could only exist once at a time. The Earth Bear he had summoned through his first skill could only exist singularly—until it died, he could not summon another.
Now, with both the Earth Bear and Flame Tiger trapped in Xu Zihuang's second soul skill, Mirror of Ruin, he was, in every sense, completely harmless.
What could he do, smash people with the Compendium in his hands?
Long Xiangyue's situation was no better.
Tool martial souls could usually be recalled and re-released at will. For example, his boomerang, once thrown, could be withdrawn and re-summoned instantly. That was one of the advantages of tool martial souls.
But once his boomerang had been encased in those jagged dark-red crystals, he lost all connection to it.
He was even worse off than Zhou Sichen—at least Zhou Sichen still held his martial soul.
As for Cao Jinxuan, suffering soul skill backlash, nothing more needed to be said.
As captain, Zhou Sichen decisively shouted:
"We surrender!"
Tuoba Yu and Nanmen Yuner halted at once. The supervising teacher stepped into the arena and announced the result.
Yu Tianhuang's team smoothly advanced into the top eight.
Though Tuoba Yu and Nanmen Yuner had shown impressive strength in this match, the teachers in the stands had all seen the truth clearly.
The real key to turning the tide was Xu Zihuang.
For these freshmen, he was simply an overwhelming force from another dimension.
From the stands, Mu Jin walked to Du Weilun's side and softly asked:
"Director Du, do you think Yu Tianhuang's team qualifies to become core disciples?"
Du Weilun was stunned for a moment, then shook his head after a pause.
"Yu Tianhuang is certain to become a core disciple. But Tuoba Yu and Nanmen Yuner's martial souls lack sufficient potential. We'll have to see."
As the Martial Soul Department's teaching director, he not only possessed great strength, but also sharp vision.
He could clearly see that the team's victory had been completely orchestrated by Xu Zihuang.
To put it bluntly, replace Tuoba Yu and Nanmen Yuner with any other two Great Soul Masters, and the outcome would likely have been the same.
At Shrek Academy, where geniuses gathered, the White Armored Earth Dragon and Jade Bird martial souls were not especially remarkable.
Among assault-type soul masters, Dai Huabin's White Tiger and Wu Feng's Red Dragon both surpassed Tuoba Yu's White Armored Earth Dragon in quality.
And with the limited number of core disciple slots, almost all in past generations went to assault-type or control-type soul masters. Very rarely would agility-attack or defense-types be chosen—unless they possessed martial soul fusion techniques that transformed their power, or like Xu Sanshi, had extraordinary talent.
Thus Nanmen Yuner's chances of becoming a core disciple were slim.
Hearing Du Weilun's words, Mu Jin sighed regretfully.
As a teacher, of course she wished brighter futures for her students. But at Shrek Academy, the strong always rose. Exceptions were not made just because of her wishes.
The freshman assessment knockout stage reached its end. By noon, the top eight had been decided.
Of these eight teams, four were led by freshmen who had already reached the rank of Soul Elder.
Even Du Weilun couldn't help but marvel—this year's class was far beyond previous ones in quality.
Only eight teams remained. That afternoon, when Xu Zihuang led Tuoba Yu and Nanmen Yuner back to the arena, they immediately drew intense attention from the other seven teams.
Beside them was Ning Tian's team, also from Class Nine.
When Xu Zihuang approached, Ning Tian smiled and nodded in greeting. Ya Lu too excitedly greeted Xu Zihuang, then quickly fell back to whisper with Nanmen Yuner, her eyes occasionally flicking toward Xu Zihuang and Ning Tian at the front.
Tuoba Yu, as always, played his role as a transparent background.
Wu Feng, however, looked conflicted. "Indignant but powerless" described her perfectly. She desperately wished Ning Tian would stay away from Xu Zihuang, but recalling Ning Tian's warning, she dared not provoke him further.
Most importantly—she couldn't beat him.
"Yu Tianhuang's team, step forward to draw lots." For once, the usually stern Du Weilun's expression softened as he addressed Xu Zihuang.
Taking the lot Xu Zihuang drew, he announced loudly:
"Number One."
One of the already-drawn teams visibly stiffened—they had been matched against Xu Zihuang's team.
In truth, they were the weakest of the top eight. But since they had already made it this far, they had no choice but to give it their all.
It was worth noting that none of the four Soul Elder-led teams faced each other in the quarterfinals.
Unsurprisingly, the four advancing to the semifinals were Xu Zihuang's team, Dai Huabin's team, Xie Huanyue's team, and Ning Tian's team.
The next day, the freshman assessment would determine the top three.
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