Shrek Academy wasn't an easy place for twelve-year-old Yali to fit in.
Although she awakened the extremely rare Prayer Angel Martial Soul, she was also constrained by the inherent limitation of this Martial Soul—its reliance on the faith of those it heals to enhance its cultivation—causing her cultivation speed to lag behind her peers. Coupled with her naturally weak physique, even at four rings, she struggled against attacks from three-ring Soul Masters, let alone in a place like Shrek Academy, teeming with experts.
Let's talk about her soul skills: Other soul masters rely on soul power to release soul skills, but the essence of the Prayer Angel is to consume her own life force to heal others. Therefore, for logical consistency, her first and second soul skills are focused on restoring her own condition, and she can only heal others starting from her third soul skill, Healing Spell. Adding her fourth soul skill, Divine Dispel, used to remove debuffs, this is her current strength.
Thinking about this, Yali wanted to curl up into a squid ball and shut herself off.
Everyone around her was discussing today's exam and team formation. The written exam was a piece of cake for Yali, but when it came to practical team formation, she was truly at a loss. She wished she could travel back in time to after the exam, she thought to herself, her mind blank with uncertainty.
She didn't realize until she noticed a hand had been waving in her line of sight for a long time.
"Eh?!" Yali jumped up in surprise and sat up straight. "I'm so sorry! Is there something you need?" She apologized as she looked up at the people standing in front of her. Then she saw the four class monitors standing in front of her.
Yali opened her eyes blankly.
"We're the ones who disturbed you. Sorry to have startled you, Yali." Leng Yaozhu looked at her apologetically, scratching her head sheepishly. "Um... have you already formed a team...?"
"Oh, oh, I don't have any!" A glimmer of hope suddenly appeared in Yali's eyes.
"Oh, really! That's great!" Leng Yulai exclaimed excitedly. "We came to ask if you'd like to join us. Zang Xin told us you have a healing-type martial soul, and my sister and I get hurt very easily when we fight, so..."
“Absolutely no problem!” In fact, Ya Li had been waiting for the opportunity to heal others, so that while helping others, her own cultivation would also improve, and she would finally be able to help.
Happiness came too suddenly. Good heavens, am I still half asleep?
When Cao Dezhi extended his right hand to her, and the other team members welcomed her to the team, that's what she thought. But soon the warmth from his fingertips told her that it was all real.
"Welcome to the team, Yali."
Cao Dezhi flashed what he thought was a friendly smile, but it clearly didn't work, as the other three gave him speechless looks. Ya Li was ultimately unsure whether he had actually smiled at all.
"Okay---! Welcome Yali!" The two sisters were jumping around Yali, and Zang Xin, who was standing to the side, could only interrupt their celebration with a wry smile: "Um... three beautiful ladies, although I understand that you are very excited right now, don't we still have two people to look for?"
"Oh right." Leng Yulai froze for a second, then immediately replied, "But that's much simpler, right? It's okay, even if our team has four strong attackers in the end, it doesn't matter. We can just use Power Brick to fly."
"Why don't we just go register first?" Leng Yaozhu suggested. "Anyway, our class is full. If any students who register later want to team up with us, they can register on their own. At worst, the last two students who are single will just join us. We can just tell the teacher." She looked around at the others. "Everyone should go back early today to prepare and rest. That way, we'll be in good shape for tomorrow." She finally looked at Yali. "Oh, by the way, Yali, let's exchange soul guide numbers. That way, we can look after you if you're not feeling well in the future."
Everyone said it was no problem; it was just opening blind boxes.
"Thank you all very much," Yali replied politely.
As everyone was preparing to return to the dormitory together, Zang Xin suddenly stood at attention, as if he had remembered something.
“Zang Xin?” Cao Dezhi sensed that this time it didn’t seem like he was being obnoxious. “What’s wrong?” he asked in a deep voice.
“Old Cao.” Zang Xin’s voice was also very serious. The two stared at each other for at least five seconds under the gaze of the other three beautiful ladies.
"What are you two doing?" Leng Yulai couldn't understand this avant-garde performance art.
Zang Xin ignored her complaints and said in a slightly trembling voice, "There's something very important that we forgot."
"Go on," Cao Dezhi said, vaguely sensing the seriousness of the matter.
"Teacher Huo Dong told us to develop our Martial Soul Fusion Technique before the midterm exam."
Silence speaks louder than words.
Then the three girls saw Cao Dezhi nod slightly to them in apology, signaling them to go back first. He then grabbed Zang Xin and rushed out the door, and the two of them spun out of their sight like tops.
"...Excuse me, this is the first time I've seen something like this. Is this normal?" Yali was still reeling from the sudden spinning top.
“This is the first time we’ve seen this either,” Leng Yaozhu said, withdrawing her gaze from watching the spinning top disappear into the distance, “but this should be quite normal for the two of them.”
"Anyway, neither of them is normal," Leng Yulai added, delivering another blow.