As night gradually fell, Huo Yuhao's spirit had fully recovered, and he was preparing to leave the library.
Although Shrek Academy's outer court library was open around the clock, few people ever came here.
"Time to head back. Once I'm there, I'll organize the records of the books I entered earlier and see if there's anything of value. Hopefully, it's not all worthless junk," Huo Yuhao thought to himself, though he didn't have high expectations.
After all, from his brief browsing earlier, the outer court library of Shrek Academy contained an overwhelming amount of disorganized and repetitive information,especially in those reorganized books from ten thousand to three thousand years ago.
There was little useful knowledge on cultivation or martial souls, and even the descriptions of soul beasts were incomplete, mostly pieced together from scattered sources.
It could only be said that Shrek Academy had truly inherited Yu Xiaogang's patchwork style. They were masters of stitching information together,after all, Shrek had been a rising force at the time.
Though backed by divine support, their foundation was shallow, so they copied a bit from here and borrowed some from there, mixing it all together into what they called "Shrek Academy's research findings."
Even so, Huo Yuhao wasn't disappointed. His goal was to study the entire library. No matter how much trash it contained, there had to be some hidden treasure among it all.
When he returned to the dormitory, his eyes involuntarily drifted toward Wang Dong's half of the room. It was still a mess. Though it looked like it had been tidied up, the items were still scattered haphazardly.
Wang Dong was nowhere to be seen, and Huo Yuhao didn't care where she went. He simply lay down and drifted into sleep.
His consciousness entered his spiritual sea, where he saw the Skydream Iceworm already fast asleep, snoring softly.
"The Skydream Iceworm really is a genius,sleeping while letting his spiritual power circulate automatically to help me cultivate."
Seeing this, Huo Yuhao didn't bother him. As long as the Iceworm did his assigned work, whether he slacked off or not didn't matter.
"My body is asleep. I might as well take this chance to tidy up my spiritual sea."
With a wave of his hand, all the knowledge he had memorized turned into floating books.
Even without opening them, Huo Yuhao knew exactly what each book contained.
The spiritual sea was a reflection of one's self-awareness, and the more one understood oneself, the more effectively the spiritual sea could function.
When Huo Yuhao wanted to materialize his knowledge, he could manifest it in the form of books.
"These are useful pieces of knowledge. Those are useless nonsense."
After some quick sorting, he categorized the books he had mentally copied from the library.
"Now, I'll extract any slightly useful information from the useless ones."
He waved his hand again. The books flipped rapidly, and the text began to float up, forming streams of words circling around him within the spiritual sea.
Once the useful information was extracted, the remaining junk was swept away and sealed deep within his memory. Just reading that trash was torture enough.
"These remaining ones, I'll sort them too." The refined knowledge was then organized by category and frequency of use.
The most useful ones were those related to observation and detection, since they helped Huo Yuhao verify what he saw with his "Eye of Truth."
This improved his understanding and usage of the Eye of Truth.
"All right, that should do it. Time to test it out."
Within his spiritual sea, several vague silhouettes appeared,people he had fought with or observed closely before.
Among them were the instructor from the entrance exam, Beibei and Tang Ya, and that chubby boy with the support-type martial soul.
Huo Yuhao chose Beibei as his subject, since Beibei's martial soul and soul skills were the most thoroughly recorded.
"When a martial soul is activated, besides soul power, there seems to be another type of substance or energy flowing."
"So that's how he transforms into the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon."
"Other soul masters have similar reactions when activating their martial souls, though the composition and arrangement of energies differ."
"With my current spiritual power, I can't replicate transformations at that level yet."
After several failed attempts, Huo Yuhao gave up trying to simulate martial soul possession through spiritual projection.
"But I can still learn from his soul skills. I've already tried a few times privately,my martial soul can mimic the Thunder Dragon Claw, though without the proper amplification from Beibei's martial soul."
"With the same amount of soul power, its strength is about thirty percent weaker, though the effect is roughly the same."
"It's a lightning-shaped attack that can detach and be controlled to some degree."
"Lightning is intangible, yet tightly linked and drawn together."
"So, could I use the same method to manipulate other elements through soul power?"
"My previous attempt with pure spiritual power failed,it dissipated too quickly once it left my body."
"Although the Thunder Dragon Claw mainly uses soul power, it essentially attracts external elements to cooperate, making it more durable and powerful than relying on spiritual power alone."
After experimenting throughout the night, Huo Yuhao managed to reproduce effects resembling other elements, but using the Thunder Dragon Claw's energy pattern could only bring out half its strength at best, with only minor elemental traits.
"Still not enough. But I don't have time to keep testing today. Maybe I should start with soul skills of other attributes. Each element likely has its own pattern, but I know too little right now."
With that thought, Huo Yuhao left his spiritual sea. "In any case, this path is feasible. If I keep improving, I might eventually break free from the traditional soul master system."
"Once I can form my own soul skills, creating a soul ring myself shouldn't be too difficult. That could be my next direction."
When he woke up, it was already late. Wang Dong had just woken up too, looking unusually cheerful, even smiling.
Waving her hand, Wang Dong greeted him, "Morning."
Huo Yuhao gave her a glance, nodded slightly, and left the dormitory without a word.
"In this academy, it's probably all about Tang Sect business now. But it has nothing to do with me. Better get to class early,I don't want Zhou Yi to target me."
After breakfast, Huo Yuhao went straight to the classroom. He was one of the earlier arrivals, though others soon came in groups, chatting as if they had already become close friends.
Huo Yuhao sat near the back. The classroom was huge, large enough to hold a hundred students.
Soon, Wang Dong arrived too, followed by a few admirers enchanted by her looks.
She didn't seem interested in talking to Huo Yuhao and casually picked a seat for herself.
When the bell rang, a gray-haired elderly woman entered the classroom.
After walking to the podium, she scanned the room coldly. Within moments, the students who had been chatting noisily felt an invisible pressure.
The room fell silent. Zhou Yi finally spoke, her voice hoarse and grating like a cracked gong.
"My name is Zhou Yi. I'm your homeroom teacher. I'm not sure how many of you will graduate from my class."
"Because in my class, no trash will ever pass the assessments. I train monsters, not fools."
Many students looked angry, while others,who had heard of Zhou Yi's fearsome reputation,immediately straightened up, hoping to avoid her wrath.
"All right, anyone who's fought since enrollment,stand up!" After sweeping her gaze across the room and noting the defiant faces, Zhou Yi spoke again.
The class remained silent. No one stood up. It hadn't been long since enrollment, and unless someone was arrogant or temperamental, fights were unlikely.
Seeing no one respond, Zhou Yi sneered. "A bunch of cowards. Don't you know Shrek Academy's motto? Those who don't dare cause trouble are useless. Everyone,get out!"
"You have one hour to run a hundred laps around Shrek Plaza. Anyone who doesn't finish,expelled!"
Indeed, Zhou Yi intended to establish her authority. She wanted to expose both the obedient and the rebellious students early on.
That way, she could tame them one by one in the future,turning them into true members of Shrek. The teachers at Shrek had always used this method, though none as extreme as Zhou Yi.
But Zhou Yi had powerful backing from Fan Yu, so she didn't care how many she expelled.
The class erupted in shock, but Zhou Yi swiftly suppressed them with her strength. How could a group of low-ranked soul masters resist the pressure of a Soul Emperor?
With no choice, everyone obediently went outside to run.
Huo Yuhao watched coldly, finding the whole thing absurd,but he could do nothing. In this world, strength ruled. Zhou Yi bullied the weak, and he was weak.
If you're weak, you're wrong,there's nothing to argue.
But who can guarantee they'll always be the strong one?
At least for now, no one could.
Huo Yuhao followed the crowd out of the classroom. Wang Dong walked beside him and whispered, "Hey, Huo Yuhao, are you okay? Your soul power's only at level twelve, right? Can you really finish a hundred laps?"
"If you can't, you'll get expelled. Want me to help you? Oh, by the way, Sister Xiaoya agreed to let me join Tang Sect yesterday! We're sectmates now!" She grinned proudly.
"She said since we joined at about the same time, if I'm older, you'll have to call me senior brother! Need my help? The old witch didn't say we couldn't assist each other."
Huo Yuhao just rolled his eyes at her, saying nothing.
As Wang Dong wondered what that meant, she suddenly felt a chill down her back and noticed Zhou Yi at the rear of the line, watching her with a playful expression.
Then she remembered,Zhou Yi, being a Soul Emperor, could easily hear everything they said at this distance. She glared angrily at the silent Huo Yuhao.
Huo Yuhao looked back, confused. "What's wrong with her? So dramatic."
Soon, the group began running around Shrek Plaza,one lap, two laps, three laps…
No matter how exhausted the others looked, Huo Yuhao wasn't tired. Though his body was weak, his soul power wasn't.
While others had to constantly use soul power to recover stamina, he didn't need to,thanks to the Skydream Iceworm's support, his soul power circulated endlessly.
Where others drained their soul power little by little, Huo Yuhao's endurance was nearly equal to that of a Soul Elder, almost reaching the level of a Soul King. That was the benefit of autonomous soul power circulation.
This advantage would only grow stronger as he advanced. Thus, despite being only level twelve, Huo Yuhao easily ran among the leading group.
Zhou Yi watched him, her expression unreadable.
"This kid… something's off. He entered through the Tang Sect's recommendation, yet his soul power is this low,but he's running so easily. Is it because of his martial soul? Or something to do with Tang Sect?"
Meanwhile, Huo Yuhao had activated his Eye of Truth, observing the flow of soul power in everyone around him, recording it all to refine his own cultivation methods.
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