"Whoa!"
Inside the Education Committee office, a chorus of shocked exclamations rang out.
The ones reacting so strongly were naturally Yu Tianheng, Shi Mo, Shi Mo, and the others.
As for Ye Yu, Dugu Yan, and Ye Lingling, they all remained calm and collected.
Dugu Yan, in particular, felt a hint of disdain in her heart.
A thirty-four-year-old Soul Emperor—was that supposed to be impressive?
Her A-Yu was only seventeen!
And he had also reached the Soul Emperor realm.
More than that, he had compressed his soul power nine times, possessed a Soul Core comparable to that of a Titled Douluo, and had even successfully condensed a Soul Core, a feat that had never been achieved in the annals of history.
The quality of his cultivation far surpassed that of an ordinary Soul Emperor!
Besides, Dugu Yan herself had already reached Rank 45. At this rate, she would also break through to Soul Emperor before thirty-four without breaking a sweat.
"Hello everyone, my name is Qin Ming. From now on, I'll be your team instructor. Please take care of me!"
Qin Ming stood up and offered a friendly smile and cupped fist salute to the group.
Meng Shenji stepped forward and added with a kindly chuckle, stroking his white beard:
"According to Teacher Qin Ming's plan—"
"To avoid exposing your soul skills while ensuring sufficient group battle experience—he intends to lead you through major Great Spirit Arenas in various kingdoms and duchies."
"You'll be participating in team battles as your training."
"Go back and get prepared today. You'll depart tomorrow."
Then, Meng Shenji continued:
"Because students Ye Yu, Dugu Yan, and Lingling have already reached the Soul Ancestor rank, they're at a different level than Yu Tianheng, Shi Mo, and the others. They can't participate in the Soul Elder tier of team battles together."
"So, the academy plans to assign three Soul Elders as substitute members."
"One of them will be an auxiliary-type, and another a control-type, both fixed roles."
"The third substitute can be selected by you based on the team's needs."
"These are files from the advanced division of the academy—promising students with decent spirits and cultivation."
As he spoke, Meng Shenji placed a thick stack of documents on the table.
"Teacher Qin Ming, why don't you choose for us?"
Yu Tianheng, clearly impressed by Qin Ming's credentials, respectfully offered the documents to him.
Qin Ming gently pushed them back and smiled.
"No need. You should decide for yourselves."
"After all, they'll be joining your team in combat."
"Do you all understand each other's spirit abilities?"
"If not, I suggest you share now, so you can make the best decisions about who to recruit."
"Sounds good!"
Yu Tianheng stood up. "Let's start by introducing our martial spirits."
"I'm Yu Tianheng. My spirit is the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon, currently Rank 38, power-attack type Soul Elder."
After him, Shi Mo, Shi Mo, Yufeng, and Oslo each stood to introduce themselves.
Shi Mo and Shi Mo (the twins) had the Black Tortoise Turtle as their martial spirit, both Rank 37, defense-type Soul Elders.
Yufeng and Oslo had the Wind Chime Bird and the Ghost Leopard, respectively, both Rank 35, agility-attack type Soul Elders.
"I'm Ye Yu. My spirit is the Blue Silver Spirit Jade Tree. Currently Rank 48, control-type Soul Ancestor."
As Ye Yu spoke, everyone in the room, including Meng Shenji, Bai Baoshan, Zhi Lin, and the others, froze.
"Ye Yu, wasn't your martial spirit the Blue Silver Spirit Jade Vine?" Meng Shenji asked with a furrowed brow.
"It evolved again. Accidentally," Ye Yu replied nonchalantly, with a faint smile.
With a thought, he summoned his martial spirit behind him.
It resembled the previous vine form but now had the thickness of a tree trunk, adorned with white flowers—the Blue Silver Spirit Jade Tree.
The sight left everyone stunned: Meng Shenji, Bai Baoshan, Zhi Lin, Qin Ming, even Yu Tianheng—wide-eyed in shock.
Another evolution?!
Was this guy for real?!
Martial spirit evolution was a legendary occurrence. Yet here Ye Yu was, speaking about it like it was a casual hobby.
The entire room fell into stunned silence.
Yu Tianheng, especially, couldn't help but think of his uncle, Yu Xiaogang, who had spent his life obsessed with spirit evolution—with no success.
Maybe someday, Ye Yu could help him realize that dream.
"Congratulations, Ye Yu."
"Another successful evolution—truly remarkable," Meng Shenji exclaimed, setting off a wave of congratulatory remarks from the others.
After that, Dugu Yan and Ye Lingling introduced themselves:
Dugu Yan: Spirit - Biphosphorous Snake, Rank 45, power-attack type Soul Ancestor
Ye Lingling: Spirit - Nine Heart Begonia, Rank 42, support-type Soul Ancestor
Since the three substitutes were meant to temporarily fill in for Ye Yu, Dugu Yan, and Lingling in Soul Elder–level battles, the decision fell to Yu Tianheng's group.
After some discussion, they selected:
Zhu Zhu, a control-type Soul Elder (Rank 33) with the Crystal Spider spirit
Shan Lie, a power-attack Soul Elder (Rank 34) with the Scarlet Flame Tiger spirit
Xiao Yu, a support-type Soul Elder (Rank 32) with the Jade Bamboo Flute spirit
With the lineup finalized, the group was dismissed and told to return to the academy the next day for departure.
The next day
After bidding farewell to his grandfather, Dugu Bo, Ye Yu met up with Dugu Yan and Ye Lingling. Together, they headed to the academy.
At the marble plaza in front of Heaven Dou Imperial Academy, Qin Ming was already waiting.
Once everyone had gathered, he led the team toward their first destination: Häagen-Dazs Kingdom (哈根达斯王国), to register at the Great Spirit Arena in its capital city.
After arriving, the team registered for team battles.
However, since they hadn't trained together before, only the Soul Elder group—Yu Tianheng and his five teammates—could participate at first.
Ye Yu, Dugu Yan, and Ye Lingling, as Soul Ancestors, could only watch from the sidelines.
Qin Ming suggested they participate in solo or duo battles in the meantime for practice.
But Ye Yu had no intention of doing that.
Since he couldn't join the team battles for now, he had another plan:
He wanted to quietly slip away and head to Soto City, infiltrate Shrek Academy, and seize a certain opportunity.
His grandfather, Dugu Bo, still lacked a suitable soul bone to store the Biphosphorous Poison.
Coincidentally, Ye Yu had just obtained the external soul bone Demon Willow Fluff (蒲魔絮).
This bone's ability gave him an idea—
What if he used it under the guise of helping Tang San, offering to save his life...
...and stealthily took the Eight Spider Lances from him?
Also, since the academy term across the continent was about to start, he needed to hurry.
So Ye Yu approached Qin Ming and requested a temporary leave from the team, saying he had personal matters to attend to and wouldn't be able to participate in battles at this time anyway.
This made Qin Ming frown deeply.