Chapter 16.1: Freshman Examination

Book 3: Fusion of Martial Souls
Chapter 16.1: Freshman Examination
“Alright, that’s that. If you have any suggestions, you’d best bring them up quickly. I’ll give you a day to think about it. The other classes are also splitting up into teams, but they definitely won’t be as quick as you lot. Let them dawdle around and waste more of their time. When you return that piece of paper to me, you can be dismissed. When you get back, make sure to have a good rest. Nobody’s allowed to go around and start a mess. The freshman assessment will start tomorrow, and my goal is for all twenty-two of your teams to pass. If anyone gets eliminated, they won’t just have to pack their bags and leave. I’ll make sure to give you some memories that you’ll never forget.”
When the students of Class 1 saw Zhou Yi’s gaze, which had suddenly become heavy, they couldn’t help but fiercely shiver. There was no question about what sort of memories Zhou Yi would leave behind; they would probably be a nightmare for them.
The entirety of Class 1 suddenly filled with a murderous look for a moment. Even if it was just for the sake of not being abused by Teacher Zhou, they wanted to do their best to pass the assessment!
“Huo Yuhao, Wang Dong, Xiao Xiao, you three stay behind for a bit.”
When the other students handed over the white pieces of paper that had their future direction of cultivation written on it, they left the classroom to walk back to their dorms. The only people left behind in the classroom was Huo Yuhao’s group of three. At this time, the other classes were still enthusiastically explaining the division of teams for the freshman assessment.
“Alright, give it to me. What’re you hiding Wang Dong?” Zhou Yi took the three pieces of paper from Huo Yuhao’s group. Wang Dong immediately lowered his head and quietly took a few steps back, hiding behind Huo Yuhao.
As Zhou Yi looked at the three pieces of paper in front of her, the corners of her eyes twitched. Afterwards, she raised her head and looked towards Huo Yuhao, Wang Dong, and Xiao Xiao.
When Zhou Yi looked at them with that sharp gaze of hers, the three of them felt as if their bodies had been impaled.
"Alright! You three, let’s see what you’ve got." She picked up one of the sheets of paper, then slammed it down onto the table.
"Alright!"
“Bang!” Huo Yuhao’s team of three simultaneously shivered.
“Control System.” Zhou Yi said coldly.
Afterwards, she took the second piece of paper and slapped it heavily onto the table.
“Control System!” Her voice had clearly gotten louder by quite a bit. Huo Yuhao was somewhat astonished as he looked at Wang Dong beside him. There was no doubt about it, this second piece of paper belonged to him!
“Bang—!” Zhou Yi’s last slap nearly crushed the teaching platform. “And Control System.”
“Ah?” This time, it was Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong’s turn to be astonished. The two cast their gaze towards Xiao Xiao, who currently had her head lowered and was fiddling with the corner of her shirt. From their first impression of her, Xiao Xiao should’ve been an auxiliary system tool soul master! How had she turned into a control system soul master?
The corner of Zhou Yi’s mouth twitched following the twitching of her eye. “Are you three brats doing this on purpose? Although the freshman assessment limits each team to having a single assault system soul master, it also states that you can’t all have the same cultivation direction. You three are really good, eh? You’ve all decided to be control system soul masters. Are you doing this on purpose? If it weren’t for the fact that the competition was starting tomorrow, I would’ve made you run ten hours in a row to clear your minds. Huo Yuhao, you can be the first to tell me what’s going on. What’s gotten into you? That spiritual-type martial soul of yours is extremely suitable as an auxiliary-type! What’s the meaning behind you becoming a control system soul master?”
Huo Yuhao hastily replied, “Teacher Zhou, I’ve always hoped that I could become a control system soul master. My Spiritual Detection can survey the entire state of the battlefield, and in addition to that, some of the future soul rings that my Spirit Eyes absorb will definitely have a few attack-type soul skills. Because of that, I don’t want to become a simple auxiliary-type soul master. Being a control-type soul master should be more suitable for my future growth.”
Zhou Yi slowly nodded her head and said, “You have a point; control system soul masters have better future prospects than auxiliary-type ones. The choice that you’ve made isn’t exactly wrong. I’ll consider you to have passed. Wang Dong, why are you hiding? Come on out. Even though Huo Yuhao and Xiao Xiao wrote down the words ‘control system’, they’re still a bit reasonable. But what about you? You, an assault system soul master, writing down the words ‘control system’... are you deliberately looking for trouble?”
“Uh….” Wang Dong carefully took a step back from behind Huo Yuhao and spoke with a self-mocking smile on his face, “Teacher Zhou, please don’t be angry. Honestly, I don’t think that it’s completely impossible for me to become a control system soul master with my strength. Right, I want to rely on my attack power to control the entire battlefield. Isn’t that a type of ‘control’? Furthermore, I can fly and launch long-range attacks. It’s shouldn’t be impossible for me to control the battlefield this way, right?”
“You…” Zhou Yi was almost angered to the point of laughing. Her eyes contained profundities as she stared at him. “Don’t think that I don’t know your real reasoning. You just don’t want to be split up with Huo Yuhao. I’ll just call you foolish for that. You clearly have the highest cultivation in the entire class, yet you’re barely enough to be called a genius. You’re smart, yet how you can be stupid to be point of being a drooling idiot? Just when have you ever seen an assault system and control system soul master split up? You’re right, they’ll be in different classes. However, assault system and control system soul masters are always together! You idiot! Change it for me right now!”
As soon as she finished speaking, she threw the piece of paper in her hand back towards Wang Dong.
“Cough, cough…” Although he’d been scolded and called an idiot, Wang Dong still seemed excited. He quickly changed the words ‘control system’ to ‘assault system’, before respectfully handing the paper back to Zhou Yi.
“Humph!” Zhou Yi snorted angrily. She directed her gaze towards Xiao Xiao last. “What about you, Xiao Xiao? If I’m not mistaken, your martial soul is the extremely rare Soulcrush Cauldron, which can be considered a top-ranked martial soul. The main effect of the Soulcrush Cauldron is to assist someone else; why did you put down the words ‘control system’?”
Xiao Xiao glanced at Wang Dong and spoke in a soft voice, “Teacher Zhou, my Soulcrush Cauldron is a bit different from an ordinary Soulcrush Cauldron. It can both attack and assist others. I’m even barely able to use it for defense. It can be considered a mutated Soulcrush Cauldron. It’s known as a Threelives Soulcrush Cauldron.”
Zhou Yi was stunned for a moment. “Xiao Xiao, don’t tell me you don’t know that if your cultivation direction is too messy, it’ll be disadvantageous towards your future development? I suggest that you lean towards one direction, and develop from there. Even if it’s a mutated martial soul, you’ll still have to have an direction when you’re adding soul rings.”
Xiao Xiao nodded her head and said, “I know, that’s why the main abilities I’ve chosen for my Threelives Soulcrush Cauldron are attacking and defensive ones.”
Zhou Yi furrowed her brow and said, “That’s also unrelated to control!” It could be seen that she was being extremely patient towards Xiao Xiao.
Xiao Xiao said in a meek voice, “But, I have another martial soul. It can manage both support and control.”
“Ah?” At this moment, it wasn’t just Zhou Yi who was astonished; even Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong had widened their eyes. Wang Dong’s shock was especially great. He’d always thought that he was an absolutely unrivalled figure within Class 1. He never thought that there’d actually be someone like her hidden within the class.
“Twin martial souls?” Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong said at practically the same time.
Xiao Xiao lowered her head shyly.