Several days passed, and the daily teaching of Class One gradually entered a new track. The course was still presided over by Zhou Yi, but the content and format had been significantly adjusted, basically adopting the core framework previously proposed by Furina:
With real combat sparring as the main axis, focusing on tempering the students' on-the-spot adaptability and combat skills; regularly going to the Soul Tool Department's test area to learn the operation and application of basic spirit tools, and providing assessment of the possibility of shifting to the Soul Tool Department for in-depth development for those students who showed strong interest or corresponding talent.
In addition, the course also interspersed systematic explanations about the habits and distribution of various Soul Beasts, as well as knowledge related to Evil Soul Masters, to broaden the students' horizons and cognition.
Especially regarding the part about Evil Soul Masters, Zhou Yi explained it with extra detail and seriousness. Nowadays on the Douluo Continent, the activities of Evil Soul Masters are becoming increasingly rampant, and their traces are spread across the territory of the original Three Great Empires and the Sun Moon Empire.
Relying on strange and evil methods to Cultivate, they can often obtain terrifying combat power far exceeding orthodox Spirit Masters of the same Rank, and they act in a perverse and cruel manner, killing the innocent indiscriminately, having become a huge tumor endangering the stability of the continent.
Considering that if students are promoted to the Inner Court in the future, they are very likely to join the Shrek Supervision Team to execute dangerous missions such as clearing out Evil Soul Masters, it is undoubtedly of far-reaching necessity to let them understand these potential dangerous enemies in advance and master basic identification and response ideas.
When the class bell rang crisply, announcing the end of another lesson, most of the students in Class One had expressions of lingering interest or satisfaction. This training mode with real combat as the core made them truly feel the significant growth of their own combat experience, and their application of low-level spirit tools also became increasingly proficient.
The harvest was undoubtedly fruitful, far more interesting and effective than the boring theoretical indoctrination and simple physical running laps of the past. No one was willing to waste precious time to Cultivate on endless theoretical recitation and mechanized physical consumption; the pressure, adaptability, and growth brought by real combat were what they craved.
And according to the teaching plan, they would subsequently be organized to enter the periphery of the Star Dou Great Forest for field drills, to fight against Soul Beasts in the complex and changeable natural environment, and to Simulate real encounters.
This was not for the purpose of hunting—for the students of Class One who generally possessed the ability to deal with hundred-year Soul Beasts, defeating or injuring the target was not difficult; the real threat came from Soul Beasts over a thousand years old.
The focus of the teaching was on the complete process experience of "contact-confrontation-evacuation," not life-and-death combat. After all, the need to obtain a spirit ring did not exist at all times, and senseless killing would only increase the hatred of Soul Beasts, and might even attract terrible backlash.
The painful lessons brought by the Soul Beast frenzy that had erupted in history had long been written into the academy's textbooks. The students, who knew the terror of the beast tide, all understood that wantonly slaughtering low-level Soul Beasts in the Star Dou Great Forest was an extremely stupid and dangerous act, which was very likely to anger those powerful Ten-thousand-year Soul Beasts or even the legendary Vicious Beasts deep in the forest.
Therefore, under Zhou Yi's repeated emphasis and Furina's private reminders, everyone tacitly followed the principle of sparring and stopping when appropriate, usually just sparring a little with the Soul Beast, forcing it back or finding an opportunity to quickly disengage from the battle, and never entangling or killing indiscriminately.
Furina herself also participated in these real combat drills. She intended to try to circle and confront Soul Beasts purely relying on the Soul Power foundation granted by her first Martial Soul, cake, and her own physical quality, without relying on her Second Martial Soul Salon Solitaire or the Divine Artifact, radiance of the flowing still water. However, the result of the practice was somewhat embarrassing.
"Damn it! As expected, without a handy weapon and the assistance of Mademoiselle Crabaletta and the others, relying solely on this support system cake Martial Soul and these few fists and kicks... I am simply a combat-five-trash!" Furina was currently being chased by a group of hundred-year Wind Cloud Leopards known for their speed, looking somewhat disheveled.
While nimbly weaving and dodging through the forest, she lamented in her heart, "Dealing with a single Soul Beast might still be possible by relying on Soul Power to support a few rounds of entanglement, but facing a group... the cake simply cannot be used directly to fight!"
Fortunately, her own speed was extremely fast, and under the impetus of Soul Power, her figure was elusive, leaving that group of Wind Cloud Leopards far behind, never being caught.
This experience made her look forward even more eagerly to her cake Spirit Ability being able to derive a Spirit Ability similar to Oscar's "Mirror Sausage" in the future, which could temporarily copy the effects of others' Spirit Abilitys, such as a "Mirror Ice Cream cake" or something. In that case, even without summoning the Salon members, she would be able to possess diverse temporary combat means.
This small "setback" made her clearly realize that under the Law of the Douluo Continent, relying purely on physical techniques and basic Soul Power to confront Soul Beasts that are born with strong bodies and often possess special talents (especially when in groups) was indeed beyond her reach. She attributed this to the "basic Physique setting problem of Douluo people" and adamantly refused to admit that she was under-trained.
In the air, Wang Dong, who had spread his Light Goddess Butterfly wings and was floating easily, looked down at Furina, who was being chased "happily" by the Soul Beast below, and couldn't help but complain, "So, without using those powerful Martial Souls and Divine Artifacts, even someone as strong as Lord Water God would be chased all over the forest by Soul Beasts! This scene is truly rare to see."
Xiao Xiao, who was on the side, looked down with some worry: "Is Furina... really okay? Should we go down and help her?"
Huo Yuhao appeared very calm; he shook his head: "No need to worry. With Sister Furina's speed, those Wind Cloud Leopards cannot catch up to her. If there is real danger, she can summon helpers or use Soul Bone Skill to protect herself at any time. Let's wait a little longer, and when she has practiced enough, we will go back to the academy together."
"Okay." Xiao Xiao nodded, then remembered something, turned to Wang Dong, and a bit of small smugness appeared on her face, "By the way, Wang Dong, you must step up your Cultivate! My Soul Power Rank is now a notch higher than yours. Although the spirit ring age is temporarily not as good as yours, the gap is narrowing!"
Just a day ago, Zhou Yi had delivered the compensation promised by the academy to them. The two soul ascension pills, after discussion, were given to Wang Dong and Xiao Xiao to take, in order to improve their Soul Power. And Xiao Xiao herself had Cultivated the Cultivation Technique given by Furina, and her efficiency to Cultivate had greatly increased; combined with the soul ascension pill, her progress was particularly obvious.
As for the Spirit Bone, one was a ten-thousand-year left arm bone, originating from a powerful Soul Beast descendant possessing part of the Titan Giant Ape Bloodline, and the ability it endowed was biased towards strength amplification and a certain degree of gravity control. At Wang Dong's strong request, it was assigned to Wang Dong. Although Xiao Xiao and Huo Yuhao did not understand why Wang Dong would rather have a ten-thousand-year one than a 50,000-year one, they did not mind.
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