Chapter 3: Ma Hongjun
In the courtyard of the dormitory area at Shrek Academy, a silver-haired boy who was one meter and fifty centimeters tall was wielding an eyebrow-level steel long staff, his movements flowing naturally, each strike carrying the momentum of breaking through bamboo.
After a long time, he finished a complete staff routine, and with a flash of silver light from his right hand, the eyebrow-level steel staff disappeared as if by magic. The boy then walked to a table, picked up a glass, and began drinking large mouthfuls of chilled watermelon juice.
The boy was none other than Oscar. Two years had passed, and Oscar had grown taller and become even more handsome. His cold and handsome face was now covered in fine beads of sweat, adding to his charm.
Oscar was now eight years old, and in the two years that had passed, he had never slacked off in the slightest. His Soul Power had now reached level 18. That's right, he had improved by six levels in just two years.
Such an achievement would be difficult even for most powerful attack-type Soul Masters, but Oscar had done it. This wasn't a miracle but the result of Oscar's hard work.
Oscar was born with Innate Full Soul Power. Although food-type Soul Masters cultivate at a slower rate, his speed was at least much faster than that of ordinary food-type Soul Masters.
Over the past two years, in addition to focusing on his physical body, Oscar had never relaxed in his cultivation of Soul Power.
Ever since obtaining his first Soul Ring, starting from making ten sausages daily to exhaust his Soul Power before cultivating again, he had never stopped.
Now, Oscar could make twenty sausages at once and still have energy to spare.
In return, Oscar had made substantial progress.
His two years of uninterrupted effort had prevented his Soul Power from stagnating, maintaining a steady pace of improving three levels per year.
Oscar was certain that if he continued at this rate, he could break through to level 20 before he turned nine, and even reach level 30 by the time he was twelve.
However, as Soul Masters progressed in their cultivation, their progress slowed down. So the further Oscar went, the slower his cultivation speed would become. But Oscar wasn't worried; at worst, he could consume immortal-grade medicinal herbs to solve the problem.
Moreover, the money accumulated from selling the super-recovery large sausages Oscar made daily and Shao Xin's sugar beans over the past two years had reached an astronomical figure.
As his strength improved, the effects of the super-recovery large sausages also increased. Even though Oscar hadn't raised the price himself, his sausages were auctioned off, and someone would always bid higher on his behalf.
Not to mention that Shao Xin's sugar beans were auctioned together with his sausages.
Even Flender, for greater profit, had made Oscar's sausages a complimentary gift after auctioning off Shao Xin's sugar beans, causing Shao Xin's sugar beans to sell even better.
The storage soul device on Oscar's right index finger came from this. Now, Oscar lacked no small amount of money; one could say he wanted for nothing in terms of food and drink.
The storage soul device on Oscar's right index finger had a capacity of five cubic meters, was completely silver-white, matching his hair color and clothing perfectly. Although this storage soul device couldn't be considered large, it was sufficient to store some common supplies. This was also something he had earned with his own money.
Oscar was a grateful person. Now that he had money, the academy's food had also improved. Over these two years, Oscar had given the academy a total of 10,000 gold soul coins.
Although Shao Xin was already a money-making expert, Oscar was also making his own contribution to the academy. He had personally paid to renovate his own dorm room.
And with money, even though Flender and the city lord of Soto City didn't get along, Shrek Academy's situation had improved.
Although it was still located in a village, the environment was now completely different from before. Today's Shrek Academy was quite different from ordinary Soul Master academies, with a teaching environment that had the feel of a paradise on earth.
And this environment actually made Oscar feel comfortable. After all, he had fresh air and beautiful scenery every day, and if he wanted to go shopping, he could just go to Soto City.
The only drawback was that Shrek Academy still only had Oscar as its student. Although the academy's environment had improved, its requirements had not been lowered at all. In the past two years, not a single student who met the requirements had appeared.
So the academy still only had Oscar as its student, enjoying the individual guidance of several teachers.
After finishing a staff routine, it was already morning. The sun was beginning to rise, so Oscar washed his face before going to the cafeteria for breakfast.
Thanks to sufficient funds, the breakfast was also made very sumptuous by Shao Xin. After all, there were only so many people at the academy, so they didn't eat much.
Oscar took a roasted chicken, two eggs, three steamed buns, and a glass of hot milk—that was his breakfast.
Because he had always focused on training his physical body, Oscar had quite an appetite, but what he got in return was proportional to what he had put in.
Now, Oscar's physical condition was no worse than that of ordinary Beast Martial Soul Soul Masters of the same level, and was even stronger. Coupled with Oscar's Dragon Pattern Staff Technique, he could now fight ordinary powerful attack-type Soul Masters.
After breakfast, Oscar went to Zhao Wuji's courtyard. Because he had already completed his ordinary training, continuing further wouldn't be very beneficial.
Now Oscar trained under Zhao Wuji's gravity suppression, which could twice the results with half the effort. Zhao Wuji was also happy to see a student grow, especially since Oscar was now the academy's only genius student.
But when Oscar arrived at Zhao Wuji's courtyard, he discovered that Zhao Wuji wasn't there? This puzzled him. Zhao Wuji shouldn't have been away at this time.
At this time, Zhao Wuji should have been sitting lazily on the sofa waiting for him, ready to give him a combination of punches, calling it training.
Since Oscar couldn't find Zhao Wuji, he went to Flender's place. After all, only Flender was lazy enough to let Zhao Wuji do everything.
When Oscar arrived at Flender's courtyard, he happened to see Zhao Wuji talking with Flender, accompanied by a little fatty whose small eyes were darting around, not knowing what he was thinking.
"Dean, Teacher Zhao, why are you both here? And who is this?" Oscar asked.
In fact, when Oscar saw this little fatty, he had already guessed who he was. Wasn't this the future Evil Fire Phoenix Ma Hongjun?
"Little Oscar, I and Old Zhao were just about to look for you. This is your junior schoolmate, the academy's new student. His name is Ma Hongjun, and like you, he's also a genius," Flender said, pulling Ma Hongjun over to introduce him to Oscar.
The small Ma Hongjun heard Flender call him a genius and arrogantly raised his head high.
"New junior schoolmate, hello. My name is Oscar," Oscar greeted Ma Hongjun.
As Oscar sized up Ma Hongjun, Ma Hongjun's darting eyes were also looking at Oscar. He discovered that this silver-haired senior brother was so handsome! Looking at Oscar's well-defined figure, Ma Hongjun couldn't help but feel envious in his heart.
"Senior, you can call me Hongjun from now on," Ma Hongjun said, looking at Oscar.
"By the way, Dean, you said Hongjun is a genius. What level is he at now?" Oscar asked Flender.
"I just awakened his Martial Soul today. He has Innate Soul Power level 9, and his Martial Soul is a top-tier fire attribute Martial Soul. Although his Innate Soul Power isn't as high as yours, his talent is nothing to scoff at either," Flender explained to Oscar.
Hearing Flender's words, the little fatty Ma Hongjun's gaze toward Oscar instantly changed. His Innate Soul Power level 9 talent was still inferior to this senior named Oscar?
The other person had Innate Full Soul Power? No wonder his teachers before said that their Shrek Academy was a "monster" academy that only accepted "monsters." This "monster" didn't mean what Ma Hongjun understood as a demon, but rather a genius.
And the reason Ma Hongjun directly called Flender Teacher in his heart was because after awakening his Martial Soul, Flender had taken him on as a disciple, so Ma Hongjun had followed Flender back.
"It seems the Dean really has a sharp eye. To go out once and bring back a genius," Oscar said with a smile to Flender.
"Since you're here, Oscar, you can show Hongjun around the academy and take him to his dorm to get it settled," Flender said again.
Oscar helplessly sighed. This old man just loved to order people around. Oscar obediently took Ma Hongjun to tour the academy. Today's Shrek Academy was no longer the Shrek Academy of two years ago. Although its area hadn't expanded, its environment was now completely different.
The "rural" Ma Hongjun had never seen such a beautiful place. Thinking that this was where he would study in the future, Ma Hongjun began to feel a subtle sense of anticipation.
While chatting with the handsome senior, Ma Hongjun became more and more curious about this senior. But Oscar didn't expect that Ma Hongjun was actually quite talkative. While talking about the academy's situation with Ma Hongjun, the two of them toured the academy不知不觉 for the entire morning.
Finally, Oscar took Ma Hongjun to the cafeteria. After having a delicious meal, he took him back to the dorm.
Oscar didn't like living with others, even though he currently occupied a very large room all by himself.
So Ma Hongjun had to clean out a room for himself.
"Brother Oscar, you don't look much older than me," Ma Hongjun suddenly asked while cleaning his room.
"I'm eight years old, two years older than you," Oscar replied.
"Eight years old?"
Hearing this answer, Ma Hongjun was surprised. Oscar seemed much more mature, at least in his teens, right?
Plus, Oscar trained regularly and ate well, so he was already 1.5 meters tall, while Ma Hongjun was only 1.2 meters. So he thought Oscar must be quite a bit older than him.
"Brother Oscar, what's your Martial Soul? My Martial Soul is a Phoenix, which I call the Evil Fire Phoenix," Ma Hongjun asked again.
Previously, when Oscar had taken Ma Hongjun on a tour to familiarize himself with the academy, they hadn't discussed Martial Souls. This was because Oscar already knew what Ma Hongjun's Martial Soul was, and Ma Hongjun hadn't brought it up voluntarily, so Oscar didn't mention it either.
Now that Ma Hongjun was asking, Oscar naturally wouldn't hide it. After all, in Oscar's plans, this was to be his future little assistant.
"I'm an auxiliary-type Soul Master. My Martial Soul is the Supreme Sausage, making me an auxiliary-type Spirit Master at level 18," Oscar replied while making the bed for Ma Hongjun.
Besides Beast Martial Souls, other Martial Souls, including but not limited to plant, food, and object-type Martial Souls, were collectively called Spirit-type Martial Souls. Therefore, Oscar was an auxiliary-type Spirit Master.
"Auxiliary type, level 18?" Ma Hongjun was somewhat surprised.
Although he didn't know much, there were some knowledgeable people in his village. He knew that auxiliary-type Soul Masters were the most difficult to cultivate. Yet this senior Oscar in front of him was only eight years old and had already reached level 18 in Soul Power.
Ma Hongjun was secretly amazed in his heart. Was this really a senior with better talent than him? Ma Hongjun had already considered Oscar to have Innate Full Soul Power, and in fact, that was the case.
"There's nothing to be surprised about. As long as you work hard enough, nothing is impossible," Oscar said, turning to look at the surprised Ma Hongjun.