Completely unaware that he'd been "disdained", Lin Yang began his official academy life.
For Soul Masters, cultivation was the foundation, but the academy hardly neglected coursework.
There were two morning classes every day, one of which was always basic education—history, geography, culture, and related topics.
There were also advanced classes like Spirit Studies, Soul Beast Identification, and Combat Training.
Though the content was simple, for a group of little brats who'd only just stepped onto the path of Soul Masters, it was already more than enough.
Afternoons were free time. Working students could use it to complete their assigned jobs; paying students could use it to cultivate.
If they felt like playing instead, no one would stop them.
The academy's graduation requirement was simple: obtain your first soul ring while enrolled.
If you hadn't obtained it after six years, you were out.
On the path of the Soul Master, if your first step was slow, every step that followed would be slower.
If you lacked talent and weren't willing to work hard, you might as well go home and sell sweet potatoes.
The working students all understood this. They were the most diligent group in the academy.
Lin Yang's life gradually found its rhythm as time passed.
After class each day, he would quickly finish the tasks assigned by the academy.
He spent half his remaining time in the library, studying various martial souls and soul beasts to prepare for his first soul ring.
The other half he devoted to brutal physical training, refining his Breathing Techniques and sword forms.
Back in the dorm at night, he would meditate and cultivate his soul power.
From the very first day of school, he received the basic meditation method.
But it turned out to be even cruder than he'd expected, not even as efficient as his own instinctive method.
He subtly probed Zhao Bufan and the others.
He discovered that when they cultivated, they never "saw" the drifting Heaven and Earth essence.
They could only grope for it like the blind feeling an elephant, making their efficiency inherently limited.
This must be related to his Transparent World.
Still, Lin Yang didn't let it go to his head.
Instead, he used those three months to keep learning and experimenting, combining his own nature and the Breathing Techniques to gradually refine a meditation method tailored for himself.
If someone could enter his spiritual sea, they would see—
A phantom yet blazing great sun hanging above that sea.
This was the fruit of four months of continuous effort since his enrollment: the Great Sun Meditation Method.
It was a perfect fit for Lin Yang.
That great sun was the manifestation of his vast spiritual power, the core that controlled spiritual force and refined soul power.
In deep meditation, its absorption of Heaven and Earth essence was three times faster than before, and its conversion efficiency had doubled.
Where twenty strands of Heaven and Earth essence had once been needed to refine a single strand of soul power, now ten were enough—and the resulting soul power was far purer.
Even outside of meditation, the great sun passively drew in Heaven and Earth essence. The efficiency was low, but it worked constantly.
Under the influence of the Great Sun Meditation Method, his originally attribute-less soul power began to carry a hint of searing heat.
This made his sword forms far more destructive. Every move rolled out with waves of heat, packing tremendous power.
If he then stacked Sun Breathing, his Mark, and the Transparent World on top—
Lin Yang guessed that Soul Masters at rank-30 and below would be no match for him.
Of course, that was only a guess. He wasn't arrogant enough to go challenge a rank-30 Soul Elder to "test it out".
With such a perfectly suited meditation method, his cultivation progressed by leaps and bounds.
In the fourth month after enrollment, Lin Yang's soul power officially broke through to rank 10.
"B-Boss, you said you're at rank 10 too?"
Wang Sheng stared at Lin Yang, jaw almost hitting the floor, shock plain on his face.
The other kids in Dorm Seven looked at him with the same mix of astonishment and envy.
How long had school been in session?
Four months at most—yet he'd gone from rank 7 to rank 10?
On average, one rank a month?
That speed was so outrageous that even those with innate full soul power might not be able to match it.
This monster of a genius was actually their working-student boss?
The most conflicted of them all was Zhao Bufan.
He was the oldest in Dorm Seven and had always been the strongest.
He had only just broken through to rank-10 Soul Scholar.
Before that, he'd been stuck at rank 9 for more than a year and only broken through by grinding away at it.
Yet Lin Yang had needed only a few months to reach the same level.
He'd thought that reaching rank 10 would let him pull ahead of Lin Yang.
Instead, he'd found that not only had he failed to leave Lin Yang behind, their gap had shrunk to nothing.
From here on, it might very well be his turn to get left in the dust.
The huge disparity left him depressed and frustrated.
But after silently watching Lin Yang surrounded by their dormmates, Zhao Bufan was quiet for a long time, as if making up his mind about something.
News of Lin Yang's breakthrough to rank 10 spread quickly. Their homeroom teacher even praised him heavily in front of the entire class.
Everyone was told to take him as an example.
Unsurprisingly, Lin Yang earned yet another batch of envious, jealous, and resentful looks.
He ignored them all. Aside from classes and cultivation,
He also had to prepare for hunting his first soul ring.
What type of soul beast to hunt, how many years of cultivation, what environment would make it easiest to find—none of that could be decided without research.
To obtain the most compatible soul ring possible, these preparations were essential.
Indeed, Lin Yang had no intention of joining the academy's annual end-of-term soul-hunting expedition. He planned to get his soul ring on his own.
The reason was simple. On academy hunts, the students' safety always came first.
The primary academy's faculty and high-end strength were limited. Only Principal Su Hong had rank-40 Soul Ancestor strength.
As principal, he wasn't going to personally escort the students.
Most hunts were led by two or three Grand Soul Masters or Soul Elders, taking a group of rank-10 children with almost no self-defense ability into the forest.
The teachers were already taking a huge risk. They weren't going to stake their lives on finding century-old soul beasts for them.
The choice of soul ring was left largely to luck. When they brought down a beast, whichever student it suited would get the ring.
What soul skill they gained was all up to fate.
No merit was required—only that the teachers make no mistakes.
Under those circumstances, it was no wonder that the vast majority of students' first soul rings were white.
Those with a yellow hundred-year first soul ring were extremely rare.
So from the start, Lin Yang hadn't planned to entrust his future to the academy. He would hunt alone.
Tang San had taken down a four-hundred-year Mandala Snake with hidden weapons. Was Lin Yang's toolkit really inferior to his?
After plenty of comparisons and research, Lin Yang narrowed down his choices to a few target soul beasts.
Leaving the library, he noticed the sky was already dark. He patted his stomach and decided to head for the cafeteria.
He had barely walked a few steps when a shadow flashed out from the side, just in time to block his path.
Lin Yang thought nothing of it at first. He shifted his body to go around.
But the figure stuck to him like glue, dogging his every move.
Lin Yang frowned slightly and looked up at the man, surprised.
That familiar buzz cut, that stiff "zombie" face, that persistent air of exhaustion—who could it be but Yu Xiaogang?
"Grandmaster?"