The written exam on the second day went smoothly, and as soon as the papers were handed in, everyone started chattering and comparing answers. It must be said that Shrek Academy was quite humane; the written exam and the practical exam were held over two days, avoiding the situation where students who didn't do well in the morning exam had lingering resentment, like "Why did I change A to C on the last multiple-choice question?", which affected their performance in the afternoon. Furthermore, it seemed that Teacher Huo Dong wasn't involved in setting the exam questions this time, which relieved the students in the class, as he usually didn't follow any set patterns.
The classroom was still noisy, but the front door was suddenly pushed open. Everyone fell silent and looked towards the door, only to find that it was the homeroom teacher from the next class who walked in. She walked to the podium and gestured for the students to listen: "There's been a slight change to tomorrow's practical assessment. The individual competition has been changed to a team competition." Hearing this, everyone's eyes lit up. This might not be so obvious in other schools, but at Shrek, the intention behind this change was already clear. Sure enough, the teacher continued, "We'll tentatively form groups of seven, and your class has a total of 49 students. There are no classes this afternoon. Before school ends, please form your teams and come to my office to register."
"Excuse me, teacher," a girl with gentle features raised her hand, and after receiving permission from the teacher, she continued, "Why didn't Teacher Huo Dong come today? Did something happen?"
Everyone quickly realized the problem. Huo Dong was extremely serious about his teaching duties. He had never even been late before, so his absence this time must mean he had run into some trouble. Suddenly, the entire class was inwardly rubbing their hands together, thinking that if something had happened to the teacher, they would definitely give the culprit a good beating.
They didn't have much time for self-congratulation. After hearing the question, the teacher replied expressionlessly, "He's busy with matters related to your practical exam, so don't worry."
The students' sincerity was shattered into pieces.
"I never expected the selection for the Shrek Seven Devils to start at this time," Zang Xin complained. The four familiar faces made wishes under the starry sky yesterday to advance towards becoming the Seven Devils, and today they're told they don't need to do anything; the positions of the Seven Devils have come to them on their own.
“It’s a good thing,” Cao Dezhi said, sitting to the side with his arms crossed. “Developing a team spirit early on will be of great help in the challenges to come.”
“But the problem now is that we need to find three more people,” said Leng Yulai, who was catching up on sleep while lying on her desk. “We already have two offensive types among the four of us, and if we don’t find support or defensive types soon, we’re doomed, meow.”
Sitting on the other side, Leng Yaozhu frowned. "If we can't find a defensive type, it's okay. We can make up for it with our own physical abilities. But if we can't find a support type, then we're really doomed. Take Yu Lai, for example. Every time she uses her soul skill, she gets on fire. Without a healer, she could end up in the ICU after a fight."
"Is this the secret about your martial souls that Teacher Huo Dong mentioned before?" Zang Xin immediately grasped the key point. Leng Yulai nodded with a sullen face, and Leng Yaozhu continued, "After all, we'll all be teammates from now on. Yesterday, Yulai and I said it wasn't good to keep it from you. Besides," she helplessly glanced at the office outside the door, "Teacher Huo Dong already knows everything."
"So, what's the situation for you two now?" Cao Dezhi asked. He had also noticed that the two sisters' martial souls had some flaws, and it was better to understand the whole picture before looking for teammates.
“As I mentioned before, our family’s hereditary martial soul is actually the Evil Fire Phoenix. Yes, the same martial soul as that Phoenix Douluo,” Leng Yaozhu explained. “Although the Evil Fire Phoenix is a top-tier beast martial soul, the evil fire it brings has a huge side effect—it causes people to lose their minds. This has been a problem that has plagued us for many years. According to records, the only known solution is to use the essence of the Blazing Apricot to remove the evil energy from the martial soul.” At this point, she smiled helplessly, “But this stuff is a rare and precious natural treasure, so even if we knew the method, we wouldn’t be able to implement it.”
Leng Yulai, who was still catching up on sleep, gave a thumbs up to indicate that this was the situation.
"Our mutations are neither good nor bad. Specifically, they cause flames or high temperatures around our bodies after we release our soul skills. So when we fight, you can see a white phoenix that's brighter than a light bulb and a black phoenix that's emitting black smoke. Because of this, we have to carry burn ointment with us all the time."
"So that's how it is..." Zang Xin was shocked after hearing this. "Then the most urgent thing is to find a student from the healing department to join us. We can't let you fight like this, hurting yourselves 800 times. Ah," he added as if he had thought of something, "and we have to find a proper healer. The kind who can heal by hitting people is out of the question."
“If we can’t find it, then so be it,” Leng Yulai finally peeked out from her arms, “My sister and I have survived all these years, and the side effects aren’t as bad as you think.”
“Yu Lai.” Leng Yaozhu’s tone suddenly turned cold. She then turned to Cao Dezhi and Zang Xin, saying, “My side effects aren’t too severe; being a third wheel at most hinders stealth operations. But Yu Lai’s injuries are real, which is why I’ve tried to minimize her involvement in combat.” Her eyelashes fluttered slightly, and when she looked up again, her gaze was resolute. “If in the end…”
"Stop, stop, stop," Zang Xin quickly waved his hand, "It's not like there's really no other way, don't look like that." He then cleared his throat, as if everyone's eyes were on me.
So the other three looked at him as if he were a fool, just as he had hoped.
"What kind of looks are those?" Zang Xin felt like he'd been hit with a thousand points of damage. "I really do have a way."
Leng Yulai's eyes lit up immediately. "What do you mean?"
"Doesn't anyone remember that I'm the vice class monitor in charge of daily life?" Zang Xin feigned a pained expression of being forgotten.
"So?" Cao Dezhi knew he was acting again without even looking.
"When school started, a girl wanted to apply to change to a single dormitory room because of health reasons, and I was responsible for registering her."
“I remember she was always there when we arrived at the classroom. So that Friday morning, when she hadn’t arrived yet, it was probably because she was sick. Leng Yaozhu hadn’t received a notice, which meant she couldn’t ask someone to pass on the message because she lived in a single dormitory, so I decided to do her a favor,” he winked smugly, “and told Teacher Huo that she was sick and needed to ask for leave. She rushed over during the break and did indeed have a fever.”
"You really know how to flirt." A ruthless person will never miss an opportunity to insult their brother.
Zang Xin rolled his eyes at him, then said, "That girl said she has a healing-type martial soul, and that we should ask her for help if needed. So I was thinking of inviting her to join us."
"Where is she? Where is she?!" Leng Yaozhu seemed even more excited than Leng Yulai, her eyes shining. "Zang Xin, you're such a good friend! Next time Cao Dezhi challenges you to a fight, take the two of us with you, three against one—"
"?"
"Look, over there." Zang Xin gestured in a direction, and everyone looked in the direction he pointed. In the second-to-last row of the classroom, a girl with long, dark green hair sat quietly, seemingly out of place with the hustle and bustle around her.
"Her name is Ya Li."