Time flew like flowing water, and in the blink of an eye, a year had passed. At only eleven years and six months old, Oscar's soul power had broken through from level twenty-seven to level thirty, needing only one Soul ring to become a true Soul Venerable.
In these two years, besides not falling behind in his own soul power cultivation, Oscar had also made great progress in sword dao practice.
Now he could completely be called a swordsman. The Frost Moon Sword Manual was thoroughly familiar to him, and in wielding a sword, he was second to none.
What satisfied Oscar most was that he had mastered one of the most core skills of a swordsman—sword flight.
That's right, sword flight.
Besides sword flight, Oscar had also mastered sword qi, though his sword qi was somewhat different from sword qi at Gai Yue and Chen Xin's level.
Both Chen Xin and Gai Yue were existences who had mastered true sword intent. Their sword qi was in no way inferior to Soul skills, and in some respects was even more practical than Soul skills.
Oscar's sword qi, however, was combined with the condensing characteristic of his external Soul bone. Although it lacked sword intent and might be somewhat weaker in power, before obtaining his seventh Soul ring—that is, when facing opponents without martial soul true bodies—Oscar would not be at a disadvantage.
And when Oscar could face opponents with seventh Soul ring martial soul true bodies, by that time he might have comprehended true sword intent, and his sword qi would improve accordingly.
Therefore, although the external Soul bone couldn't allow Oscar to absorb Soul rings, it provided him with things that were in no way inferior. It had completely given Oscar strength comparable to an assault-type soul master.
It could be said that Oscar's progress over these two years was very obvious and tremendous. His teacher Gai Yue had lost count of how many times he had sighed at Oscar's extraordinary talent.
Besides Oscar, the various teachers at Shrek Academy had also improved nicely, all thanks to the whale gelatin hunted and captured at sea two years ago.
Gai Yue's soul power had broken through again, reaching level eighty-four. Flender and Zhao Wuji's soul power had also reached the levels from when they appeared in the original story—they were now at levels seventy-eight and seventy-six respectively.
Not just the two of them, Shao Xin, Lu Qibin, and Li Yusong had also reached the levels from when they appeared in the original story.
Shao Xin was still a bit short—he, like Oscar, had reached a bottleneck and needed to obtain a seventh Soul ring before reaching the strength from when he appeared in the original story.
Now at level seventy, Shao Xin needed only one Soul ring to become Shrek Academy's third Soul Sage.
Besides the teachers, Ma Hongjun had also gone from level twenty-two to level twenty-five. His strength improvement had maintained an average pace, and he hadn't slackened either.
Moreover, over these two years his self-created Soul skills had been refined considerably, giving his close combat ability a huge boost.
Most importantly, his second Soul skill was still the same as in the original story, called Blazing Fire Phoenix—when using the Soul skill, flame power increased by fifty percent.
However, besides this, his Soul skill had another characteristic: it could enhance the Soul skill's power by consuming his evil fire.
In other words, the evil fire Ma Hongjun normally accumulated through cultivation could not only be released through this Soul skill, but when there was enough evil fire, it could also increase the Soul skill's power, making his explosive strength even higher.
It could be said that the phoenix bloodline second Soul ring Flender had carefully selected for him had completely changed Ma Hongjun, freeing him from worrying about evil fire.
As long as he felt he couldn't hold on anymore, he could just release his second Soul skill and fight someone. This greatly improved the impact evil fire had on Ma Hongjun.
Now that Oscar and Shao Xin had broken through, Shrek naturally had reason to celebrate again. However, they didn't immediately go to obtain Soul rings because today was the academy's new student registration day.
Oscar had broken through to level thirty at noon, but he himself wasn't particularly excited because he had already anticipated this.
However, there was one thing Oscar was rather concerned about—according to age calculations, this year should be when Dai Mubai enrolled at Shrek. He just didn't know if this fellow had come to Shrek Academy like in the original story.
It wasn't that Oscar had any particular thoughts about Dai Mubai. It was just that having read the original story, Oscar knew that Shrek Academy basically hadn't had any students in recent years. Having one more Dai Mubai now could add some popularity to the academy.
Moreover, speaking honestly, from the original story's perspective, Dai Mubai's talent wasn't bad. When Dai Mubai appeared in the original story, he was fifteen years old but already had soul power as high as level thirty-seven.
And this was the result of him wasting his talent playing with girls every day. If that was the case, Dai Mubai's talent was definitely not bad—perhaps even better than most geniuses.
It's just that the image shaped for him in the original story was somewhat ridiculous; ordinary people would find it hard to like him.
However, Oscar wouldn't have any thoughts about Dai Mubai just because of the original story's influence. After all, coming to this world, Oscar had discovered that novels and reality still had quite a few differences.
So no matter what Dai Mubai was actually like, he would only know after experiencing it personally.
He just didn't know if Dai Mubai had actually come to register at the academy. With this thought in mind, Oscar didn't even eat lunch and went straight toward the registration area.
Passing through the courtyard, Oscar could see quite a few people inside the academy. These people could enter the academy, proving they had passed the first test. But Oscar knew that like in previous years, these people would be eliminated in the later tests.
However, it was worth mentioning that although the academy looked simple, it now had everything it should have, and the environment was like a paradise. It had indeed attracted quite a few prospective students.
The only thing missing was perhaps the mimicry cultivation grounds that a true advanced soul master academy would possess. But mimicry cultivation grounds required not only time and effort to build, but funding was also a huge money pit. So Shrek Academy currently didn't have one.
However, Oscar himself had set up a simple mimicry cultivation ground. Since his martial soul was a sausage, he had set up a kitchen. Actually, it couldn't really be called something he had set up, because this thing was converted from Shao Xin's kitchen.
But since Shao Xin had already broken through to level seventy, ordinary mimicry cultivation grounds basically had no effect on him anymore.
So this thing was only of some use to Oscar. However, Oscar's cultivation speed hadn't improved much; instead, his cooking skills had advanced rapidly. Now Oscar himself could cook a good meal.
Oscar made his way to the battle soul platform in the square. At this moment, two people were standing on the battle soul platform—one was Ma Hongjun, and the other, Oscar guessed, should be Dai Mubai, because his appearance was indeed distinctive.
With golden hair flying freely, twelve-year-old Dai Mubai stood about 1.78 meters tall. He had heterochromatic eyes, handsome features, and an extraordinary bearing.
Although Ma Hongjun was only nine years old, having absorbed two Soul rings, his height was already 1.68 meters—only about ten centimeters shorter than Dai Mubai.
However, in terms of temperament, although Ma Hongjun didn't have Dai Mubai's aristocratic air, his handsome and masculine face possessed a calmness and confidence that Dai Mubai lacked.
This was learned from following behind Oscar all these years. In Ma Hongjun's eyes, among his peers, only Oscar was worthy of being his big brother—everyone else had to step aside!
What's more, the Dai Mubai before him had the same soul power level as him—only level twenty-five!
At this moment, Oscar had already walked to the high platform in front of the battle soul stage. Zhao Wuji, acting as referee, and Ma Hongjun and Dai Mubai on the stage preparing to fight had all noticed him.
Seeing Oscar, Zhao Wuji chuckled: "Little Ao, you broke through?"
"Easy peasy." Oscar nodded, then looked at Dai Mubai: "And this is?"
Ma Hongjun chimed in at this moment: "Brother Ao, he should be the only student this year who has a chance to enroll in our Shrek Academy. His name is Dai Mubai."