Published at 25th of March 2019 9:58 pm

Book 8: Advancing to the Second Year — Chapter 55.1: A Soul Engineer! Huo Yuhao’s True Strong Point

Fan Yu had a kind look in his eyes as he watched Huo Yuhao enter the field. After all, a teacher would always hope for their disciples to be outstanding. It was hard to find a good teacher, but finding a genius student was just as hard! Regardless of whether he was talented or diligent, the strict Fan Yu was extremely pleased. Even if he’d spent a longer period of time teaching He Caitou, Huo Yuhao’s status in Fan Yu’s heart had already exceeded He Caitou’s. He could tell that Huo Yuhao’s future achievements would far surpass He Caitou’s.

“Ye Canying, Tang Suifeng, Ling Xue.” Fan Yu turned around and called for the next batch of examinees.

Two male and one female student walked up hurriedly and respectfully greeted Fan Yu.

Fan Yu said, “You three, go up together. Your objective is to defeat him. If you can defeat him, you’ll pass this year’s advancement test.”

The three students were all around fifteen to sixteen years old. They couldn’t help but look at each other in confusion and dismay after what they just heard, Ye Canying blurted, “Teacher Fan Yu, are you sure? This fellow classman…”

Fan Yu furrowed his brows tightly. “Did you not hear me?”

Fan Yu was a special teacher in the Soul Tool Department. After the two Deans, he possessed the greatest authority within the department. Though the three students were bewildered, they didn’t dare to say anything more. They immediately entered the Testing Area with their soul tools fully equipped.

The proctor revealed a doubtful look in his eyes and shot an inquiring gaze towards Fan Yu.

Fan Yu walked over to him, then whispered, “That’s my inheriting disciple. I want to test his current limits. Don’t worry, this is appropriate. Start.”

“Okay.” The proctor naturally didn’t argue with Fan Yu’s decision. “Both sides, prepare yourselves.”

Huo Yuhao was startled when he heard Fan Yu send three students into the Testing Area. He could tell by their ages that they were at least third year students and maybe even fourth years. Although a portion of the Soul Tool Departments students were those who had been eliminated from the Martial Soul Department, they consisted mainly of auxiliary-type soul masters. However, this was still Shrek Academy! There were no weak students among those who had been able to last till Year 3 or 4. Huo Yuhao felt like his teacher’s confidence in him was slightly excessive.

Though he was inwardly astonished, Huo Yuhao didn’t plan on retreating. He closely observed these three students as he began to formulate a plan.

All three students all bore badges signifying their soul engineer ranks, they were all Class 2 soul engineers just like him.

“Start!”

Following the teacher’s shout, the three students facing him made a move simultaneously, and their soul rings rose from their feet. The eldest of the three, Ye Canying, had three yellow soul rings, whilst the other two had two yellow soul rings each. They quickly raised their arms as they released their martial souls and a flash of light erupted as they activated their soul tools.

In his current situation where he was fighting against a team of three people—which included a Soul Elder—by himself, Huo Yuhao wondered whether he had any chance at all. In a situation like this, he could only win if he had the element of surprise.

Two white soul rings suddenly rose from his feet, and his second soul ring flickered slightly. Afterwards, his body noiselessly became somewhat illusory, but the three students he was facing didn’t notice. Immediately afterwards, a scene that astonished them occurred.

A black, one-and-a-half meter-long metallic tube appeared on Huo Yuhao’s shoulder, then instantly shot out an intense ray of white light.

Not to mention the three students Huo Yuhao was facing, even the proctor was stunned by the scene in front of him. He was about to call for them to stop, but Fan Yu placed his hand on his shoulder, causing him to swallow the words he’d been about to say.

What was the metal tube? All of the students in the Soul Tool Department had seen it before, but none of them had used it besides He Caitou. It was a stationary soul cannon! Stationary soul tools were renowned for their might, and though they didn’t need too much soul power to be activated, it was extremely hard to control them. Because of this, even two-ringed Soul Grandmasters were able to use them, albeit with difficulty. However, each cannon shell was extremely expensive; a single shot cost over a hundred gold soul coins. The academy hadn’t even implemented a course for using it.

However, even if a person had never eaten pork before, they still would’ve seen a pig in real life in the past. When students entered the Soul Tool Department, the first lesson they had to attend involved observing the might of a stationary soul tool.

The stationary soul cannon that had appeared on Huo Yuhao’s body was identical to the one they’d seen in the past. They still clearly remembered the terrifying ten meter long, three meter deep ditch that had destroyed the ground when the cannon had been fired. Afterwards, their teacher had explained that soul masters who possessed less than six rings would definitely die if they received a head-on blow from a stationary soul cannon.

As such, how could the three of them not be stunned when they saw the white ray of light from the black tube? The white burst of light signified the firing of the stationary soul cannon; it was something irreversible! This wasn’t something that the Portable Soul Shield could block. Furthermore, they hadn’t even seen their Portable Soul Shields appear!

The only thing that they could do now was give up on their assault and run away. They also knew the problems that stationary soul tools possessed: They had to be manually aimed by someone, they couldn’t automatically lock onto an enemy.

The three of them simultaneously ran in three different directions. At this point in time, they no longer cared that they were undergoing their advancement test. Their lives were more important than that!

The quickest of the three was Tang Suifeng. His second soul ring flickered as a shadow suddenly appeared beside him. Immediately afterwards, he sped up and crossed the distance of ten meters with a single leap.

A faint smile appeared on Huo Yuhao’s face when he saw this. Beneath the astonished gazes of the spectating students, the stationary soul tool that had clearly begun its firing sequence soundlessly disappeared. Afterwards, he slid forwards in a specter-like manner towards the quick Tang Suifeng. Two blue lights appeared on his ankles as he sped up, causing his speed to quickly reach Tang Suifeng’s.

Tang Suifeng suddenly threw himself to the ground and curled himself into a ball. He then pushed his soul power to the limit, causing a layer of light to envelop him; this was the Portable Soul Shield he’d personally created in order to defend himself.

However, the explosion he’d expected didn’t arrive, leaving him astonished. Everything behind him seemed to be completely silent.

Tang Suifeng was stunned. Just what was that? Why didn’t the stationary soul cannon make any noise? At that moment, he subconsciously raised his head in order to see what had happened. As soon as he did so however, he saw a warm and smiling face in front of him.

Though the defensive abilities of the Portable Soul Shield wasn’t bad, it was better suited towards long-range attacks; in other words, it was better used to defend against soul power. Its defensive capabilities against physical attacks weren’t very good.

A dagger that flickered with an incandescent light noiselessly penetrated Tang Suifeng’s shield. The instant he finished raising his head, the blade of the knife reached his eyes and softly tapped his head.

Afterwards, the smiling face disappeared.

“Tang Suifeng, eliminated.” The proctor’s voice rang out. This was just the way it was. If Huo Yuhao had taken advantage of the opportunity he’d had to attack him, he would’ve been cleanly stabbed by the White Tiger’s Dagger.

When they heard that Tang Suifeng had been eliminated, the other two knew that they’d been duped.

As students of Shrek Academy, they’d trained in the academy for many years. Their battle experience was relatively plentiful, thus they didn’t bother to think about how Huo Yuhao had tricked them. On the contrary, they simultaneously launched attacks towards him.

The soul tools they used to attack him were both placed on their arms, and were both similar. There was a golden box on each of their arms, which when activated, three thin, golden tubes would simultaneously spit out a ray of white light.

This was a Class 2 soul tool known as the Soul Light Ray. The principle behind it was to compress the user’s soul power via the use of the formation located within the core of the soul and then fire it out. It had a relatively decent amount of destructive power.

There were many ways to examine the strength of a soul tool, but the most important factors taken into consideration were its destructive power, attack range, and attack radius.

The Class 2 Soul Light Ray’s attack could reach a hundred meters, and its destructive power was roughly equal to that of a long-range soul skill from a Soul Grandmaster.

Ye Canying and Ling Xue simultaneously made their move as they fired six light rays each. Though they weren’t very well coordinated with each other, they were both extremely familiar with they way a soul engineer fought. The twelve light rays encapsulated an extremely large area and sealed off Huo Yuhao from evading their attacks.

However, the instant they fired their Soul Light Rays, they felt themselves go absent-minded for a brief moment. This caused their attacks to deviate from their intended targets slightly.

At this moment, they were about thirty-or-so meters away from Huo Yuhao. Though their attacks had only deviated by slight amount, it exponentially increased the time they took to reach him.

Huo Yuhao immediately activated the Ghost Shadow Perplexing Tracks, which caused his figure to flash slightly. He accurately found a place where the twelve light rays wouldn’t reach him, thus causing their attacks to harmlessly pass him.

At the same time, Huo Yuhao raised his arms. The soul tools on his arms were identical to those of Ye Canying and Ling Xue; they were both black, wristguard-like pieces of metal that had been fastened to his arms. The metal boxes opened following his muscle-movements, which caused three tiny tubes to reveal themselves on each of the two wristguards.

Yan Canying and Ling Xue’s immediately released their Class 2 Portable Soul Shields in order to defend themselves. Once a Soul Light Ray had been fired, it would enter a short cooldown period that would prevent it from being fired repeatedly.

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