"Bang—!"

A burst of cyan-gold flames erupted, and to the astonishment of the crowd, the boy, who was encased in hard scales, was swept into a terrifying wave of fire. His scales shattered into pieces under the intense heat and the force of the explosion, turning into black embers that fell into the burning cyan flames. He was immediately knocked unconscious.

"Qian Yuelong, 2 points!"

Wei Ming announced the results of Qian Yuelong's final match.

However, Qian Yuelong, surrounded by azure flames, did not withdraw her martial soul and soul power as before. On the contrary, her aura began to rise steadily, and her soul power surged like boiling water. When the azure flames rose several meters high, seemingly reaching a critical point, her soul power, which was stuck at level 38, broke through the shackles and entered the ranks of level 39.

"Slap! Slap!"

"Clap clap clap!"

The number of isolated applause gradually increased until it eventually formed a continuous chorus.

Qian Yuelong was overwhelmed by the congratulations from her classmates and the envious and longing gazes of others.

"Congratulations on breaking through to level 39 in soul power! I believe that soon our academy will have another genius Soul Master!" Wei Ming clapped his hands in blessing, genuinely happy for Qian Yuelong's further improvement in strength.

"It definitely will."

Qian Yuelong smiled and returned to the line, listening to Wei Ming announce the rankings.

The first place, without a doubt, belongs to Qian Yuelong, the control-type weapon spirit master.

With 25 wins and no losses, they have accumulated 50 points.

Second place: Hu Liena, a control-type battle spirit master.

With 18 wins, 3 losses, and 4 draws in 25 matches, they have accumulated 40 points.

Third place: Xie Yue, a powerful offensive Soul Master.

With 16 wins, 5 losses, and 4 draws in 25 matches, they have accumulated 36 points.

Fourth place: Yan, a powerful offensive type Soul Master.

With 15 wins, 4 losses, and 6 draws in 25 matches, they have accumulated 36 points.

Fifth place: Sun Chuantao, a powerful offensive Soul Master.

With 13 wins, 5 losses, and 7 draws in 25 matches, they have accumulated 33 points.

Sixth place: Xu Yu, a support-type weapon spirit master.

With 12 wins, 5 losses, and 8 draws in 25 matches, they have accumulated 32 points.

As a support-type Soul Master, Xu Yu can be considered a capable Soul Master.

Seventh place: Zhang Ping, a speed-attack type Soul Master.

With 13 wins, 7 losses, and 5 draws in 25 matches, they have accumulated 31 points.

The scores of the other students in Class 3 fluctuated between 23 and 30 points.

The differences between each person are not significant.

But the reality is that a difference of just one point can make all the difference.

The top seven, as Wei Ming previously stated, will form a group and receive careful training.

If Qian Yuelong and her friends can retain their elite class spots in the monthly qualifying rounds, they will remain teammates until they graduate from the academy.

"The top seven, stay. I have something to tell you. The rest of you, disperse and rest."

Wei Ming began clearing the area.

The afterglow of the setting sun shone on the scattered dark clouds in the sky, and patches of fiery clouds were scattered across the sky in distinct layers, reflecting the original blue curtain into golden and red colors, weaving together a flowing picture that was incomparably beautiful.

Wei Ming stood with his hands behind his back and said calmly, "Starting tomorrow, you will study and train as a team of seven. You will still be members of my Class 3, but your training courses will be different from those of the other students. The teaching tasks will be more arduous and tiring than theirs."

"If you feel you can't handle any more strenuous training, you can leave now."

The process of cultivating soul power is tedious and boring. Many soul masters have the talent for cultivation, but often find it difficult to calm down and cultivate, or their cultivation speed is slow. The small bottlenecks between each level cannot be overcome for various reasons, which will lead to the slow growth of soul power.

The Soul Master Academy exists for this reason.

What the teachers at the academy need to do is find ways to help students gain insights and improve their spiritual practice through external educational guidance.

However, the ability to adapt to heavy external pressure also tests one's mindset.

None of Qian Yuelong and the others moved.

Wei Ming nodded. "Very good. Then I take that you have already resolved not to be afraid of hardship or fatigue. From now on, I will not assign you any other coursework or tasks. Your primary task is to see each of you improve your soul power in the shortest possible time!"

"You can use all the resources the academy can provide to its students, including medicinal baths, slots in advanced simulated environment training rooms and the time spent training there, multiple gravity chambers, and other academy facilities and resources. But in the end, I want to see the results!"

"Um, Teacher Wei, may I ask, what is the shortest time you mentioned?" Zhang Ping, a girl with short chestnut hair standing at the end of the line, asked hesitantly.

Wei Ming looked at Qian Yuelong.

The group exchanged glances, roughly guessing the timeframe Wei Ming was about to reveal—

"The deadline is when Qian Yuelong breaks through to level 40 of soul power."

"If you all haven't made any progress by the time Qian Yuelong breaks through to level 40, I will revoke the special treatment you seven have received. That's right, I'll revoke it for Qian Yuelong too, because you are a team. You share the good times and the bad."

Qian Yuelong revealed her crescent-shaped eyes: "." What a fine example of treating everyone equally and collectively.

Wei Ming raised his right hand and made a "five" sign, saying, "You have five days to arrange as you see fit. After five days, I will find suitable seven-person teams of opponents for you to spar with, which will help you get to know each other better and improve your teamwork."

"By the way, each elite class forms a seven-person Soul Master team. In the bi-monthly quota challenge, in addition to the individual competition, there will also be a team competition between classes. There will be generous credit rewards, which can be used to exchange for various resources."

Seven people: "."

These free resources are indeed not so easy to obtain.

Pretending not to notice the subtle expressions on the seven people's faces, Wei Ming waved his hand and said, "That's all I have to say. You can introduce yourselves to each other first and get to know each other beforehand. Okay, dismissed."

The seven people left on the playground looked at each other in bewilderment.

Qian Yuelong hummed in response and began introducing herself: "You all know my name and soul power level, so let me introduce my martial soul. My martial soul is called Floating World Golden Lotus. My first soul skill is Azure Flame, which can be used for both offense and defense, and can also be used to change the form of my martial soul. My second soul skill is a control skill called Moon Worship, a mental control soul skill. As for my third soul skill, it's a healing soul skill. I think our team doesn't need a healer for the time being."

The other six people: "???"

"Yuelong, how come your third soul skill is a healing soul skill?!" Hu Liena, who was hearing Qian Yuelong introduce her third soul skill for the first time, also looked astonished.

Qian Yuelong blinked and dodged the question, saying, "Well, it's a matter of necessity. What about you?"

She passed the ball to Hu Liena and the others.

The group took turns introducing themselves.

Hu Liena, Xie Yue, and Yan are all old acquaintances to some extent.

Relatively unfamiliar, Xu Yu is a level 28 support-type weapon spirit master. His weapon spirit is the Golden Scepter, a top-tier support weapon spirit, on par with the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, the number one support weapon spirit on the continent. It has no healing abilities, and like the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, each of its spirit skills provides a boost to different attributes.

Zhang Ping, a level 27 agility-based Soul Master, whose Martial Soul is the flying-type Golden Swallow.

The last unfamiliar teammate, Sun Chuantao, is a level 27 offensive-type Soul Master. It is worth mentioning that his Martial Soul is called the Ring Giant Blade, which is somewhat similar to Xie Yue's Crescent Moon Blade Martial Soul, but its attack power is stronger than the Crescent Moon Blade. He can even control the Ring Giant Blade to multiply for defense.

—A side note—

P.S.: The other three are 3 or 4 years older than Xie Yue and the others, and their soul power levels are normal.

(Starts making empty promises) Let Mo Li slack off for two more days before locking him up in that little dark room, and I'll make sure he writes two chapters a day!

(End of this chapter)