Douluo Continent: My name is Lu Mingfei, and my martial soul is Lu Mingze.

A soul bone that is 100,000 years old.

With its dark golden luster, fine patterns, and faint fluctuations of soul power, this item of this quality would be a treasure to be treasured in the Treasure Pavilion, and would be fought over by various forces in the auction house.

"No." Zhang Lexuan came to her senses and her first reaction was to refuse.

"You saved my life last time, I already owe you a huge favor. This is too valuable, I can't accept it."

"That's perfect, the more debts you have, the better." Lu Mingfei shoved the soul bone into her hand.

Zhang Lexuan was speechless at his twisted logic. Looking at the heavy soul bone in her hand, she didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

"Mingfei, do you know how many gold soul coins a 100,000-year-old soul bone can sell for outside?"

"I don't know, and I don't want to sell," Lu Mingfei shrugged.

"Selling it to someone else at the treasure appreciation event is called 'highest bidder wins.' Selling it to my senior sister is called 'internal friendship price.'"

"What's the friend's price?"

Lu Mingfei thought for a moment and then held up one finger.

Zhang Lexuan frowned slightly: "Ten million gold soul coins? This price—"

It's actually not bad, although it's a bit pricey.

"One gold soul coin, please."

Zhang Lexuan's expression froze.

She looked at Lu Mingfei very seriously, and after confirming that he was not joking, she shook her head with a helpless smile.

"This is too cheap."

"Not cheap." Lu Mingfei stood up and dusted off his hands.

"This bone can't be used to its fullest potential in my hands, but it can be put to good use in yours, Senior Sister. Besides, you've taken such good care of me before, so what's wrong with giving you a discount?"

"Anyway, I don't need one or two more soul bones. They'll just gather dust anyway, so I might as well give them to someone who can use them."

Zhang Lexuan lowered her head and looked at the soul bone in her hand. She remained silent for a long time before looking up at Lu Mingfei with a serious and solemn gaze.

"Mingfei, I've got it."

Lu Mingfei waved his hand, walked to the door, then turned back and added, "By the way, senior sister, just look after me in the academy from now on. If anyone causes me trouble again, you have to speak up for me."

Zhang Lexuan laughed out loud at his words, her gentle brows relaxed, and the gloom that had been weighing on her heart for days seemed to dissipate a little.

"Don't worry, with me here, no one will make things difficult for you."

Lu Mingfei smiled, turned around and left the training room.

However, Zhang Lexuan later used Jiang Nannan's mysterious influence to give Lu Mingfei a considerable amount of gold soul coins—although far less than the actual value, it was still the amount Zhang Lexuan could give to the best of her ability.

........................

The official announcement of the selection competition came three days later.

A notice was posted on the bulletin board saying that the academy would hold a selection competition for core disciples in three days.

The participants included all the core disciples of the Foreign Languages ​​Institute, as well as Lu Mingfei.

There were twenty-eight people in total, all of whom were elites from Shrek Academy.

On the day of the competition, many students gathered outside the Fighting Spirit Zone to watch the excitement.

Although the college did not publicly promote the selection competition, the news had already spread throughout the colleges and departments.

The gates to the battle arena were wide open, the venue had been cleaned up, and the surrounding stands were empty, with not a single teacher present.

According to the competition rules, all the teachers retreated outside the fighting area, handing over the entire venue to the twenty-eight participating students.

Lu Mingfei stood at the back of the entrance line, his hands in his pockets, his eyes scanning the crowd.

When Lu Mingfei's gaze fell on Xu Sanshi, he discovered that the other man was also secretly watching him.

Their eyes met briefly in mid-air, and Xu Sanshi immediately looked away, pretending to look at a moth on the ceiling.

Lu Mingfei's lips curled up slightly.

Just then, a gray shadow flew in from outside the Soul Arena.

Elder Xuan landed in the very center of the arena, still holding the wine gourd in his hand—though it was empty.

Since the Sea God Pavilion meeting, he hasn't filled this gourd with wine again, but he still habitually carries it around, occasionally pinching the gourd's belly with his fingers.

He stood in the center of the field, looking at the young trainees in front of him, remained silent for a moment, and then spoke in a deep voice.

"Listen up, you little ones. The core disciple assessment you're about to undergo is very simple; I call it 'Group Free-for-All.' Within this Soul Battle Zone, attack freely, fight however you want. There are no rules."

"Those who concede or are rescued are eliminated. The last seven remaining are the winners. Alright, teachers, you can all leave now. I'll say 'start,' and you can begin the fight."

The moment the words were spoken, the entire Soul Arena fell silent.

The twenty-eight people looked at each other in bewilderment.

None of them had ever seen this kind of assessment method before—no groups, no rules, no referees, everyone played together, and the last one standing was the winner.

This is no longer a simple martial arts competition.

The teachers retreated to the edge of the fighting zone.

At that moment, all the trainees' nerves tensed up simultaneously, and the air was filled with a sense of impending doom.

Elder Xuan raised the empty wine gourd in his hand and shouted, "Begin!"

His figure vanished the instant he finished speaking, as fast as if he had evaporated into thin air.

Huo Yuhao reacted extremely quickly.

He reached out with both hands at the same time, grabbing Wang Dong with his left hand and Xiao Xiao with his right. The soul-guided thrusters behind him suddenly burst out with dazzling light, propelling the three of them at an extremely fast speed toward the other side of the field.

But he's fast, and there are people faster than him.

Lu Mingfei had already stopped in front of Bei Bei and Tang Ya.

His speed was so fast that several students who were nearby were stunned, and none of them saw how he got there.

Lu Mingfei's gaze swept across the crowd and landed on Xu Sanshi.

Xu Sanshi was standing still, observing the situation, when he felt that gaze and froze for a moment.

Then he saw Lu Mingfei give him a bright smile, a smile that contained three parts friendliness, three parts enthusiasm, and four parts familiarity that sent chills down his spine.

Lu Mingfei waved at him.

"Sanshi!"

Xu Sanshi's eye twitched.

He took a deep breath, mustered all his willpower to force a smile, clenched his fists and then relaxed them, before taking heavy steps toward Lu Mingfei.

"Long time no see, Master Lu. May you be blessed."

Lu Mingfei walked up to him, patted him on the shoulder, and said with a smile, "Sanshi, in a situation like this, shouldn't we team up?"

Xu Sanshi's lips twitched.

To be honest, he really needed to form an alliance with Lu Mingfei. The way that freak chased after him and slashed him before was still his nightmare. It was better to be teammates than opponents, at least Lu Mingfei's knife wouldn't fall on his head.

"Master Lu is right," Xu Sanshi said with a forced smile, emphasizing each word.

"Follow Master Lu, and you'll get to eat meat."

Huo Yuhao, Wang Dong, and Xiao Xiao also arrived within a few breaths.

They quickly exchanged a glance with Beibei and Tangya, tacitly understanding the current strategy—to stick together, maintain their numerical advantage, and then defeat them one by one.

"Let's form a temporary alliance, avoid infighting, clear out the others first, and then each of us can rely on our own abilities, how about that?" Beibei looked around at everyone, her tone gentle but firm.

Everyone nodded.

Jiang Nannan looked over, and Lu Mingfei waved to her. She nodded and quickly darted into the group, standing two steps behind Lu Mingfei.

Several people gathered from different directions, forming a small defensive formation on one side of the Soul Fighting Zone.

Huo Yuhao activated his mental detection sharing immediately, linking everyone's minds together. The soul power fluctuations and locations of every opponent around them were clearly reflected in their respective consciousnesses.

The other contestants' expressions changed when they saw this.

Each of these people is a formidable opponent on their own, but now that they're all huddled together, they're practically an iron wall.

"Get them out of here first!" someone shouted from the crowd.

The remaining trainees quickly reached a consensus and surrounded them from all directions.

Lu Mingfei drew his Tang sword from his waist, the blade gleaming coldly in the light of the battle arena. He grinned at Xu Sanshi.

"Sanshi, let's go!"

Xu Sanshi took a deep breath.

"Brother Lu, you go ahead, I'll cover the rear."

"Good brother." Lu Mingfei patted his turtle shell, and then rushed out.

Xu Sanshi nodded: "A lifetime."