Douluo Continent: The Eye of Truth

Chapter 36: The Selection Begins, the First Eliminated Person

Zhou Yi's unpleasant voice interrupted the others' discussion: "Alright, this time is different from usual, it's an unexpected situation."

"You don't need to worry too much. There won't be any punishment if you lose the selection competition, because in addition to you, there are also third, fourth and fifth year students from the Soul Guidance Department and Martial Soul Department participating. As second year students, just do your best."

"Even so, there will only be about thirty people at most. Only seven people will be selected from them to participate in a special mission. You guys better do your best and at least don't get wiped out."

"Alright, you guys go back to the classroom now. Study and attend classes as usual, don't let it affect your concentration."

Upon hearing this, everyone left Zhou Yi's office.

"Yuhao, what's going on this time? It seems like a big commotion, affecting second, third, fourth, and fifth graders as well," Wang Dong said to his external brain.

Huo Yuhao shook his head: "I don't know, and don't overthink it. Just focus on your normal cultivation. Anyway, at least we second-year students still have an advantage in numbers, right? There are over thirty people, and we have more than a dozen of them here."

At this point, Huo Yuhao also found it somewhat laughable. It was no wonder that Shrek Academy had lowered the standards for selecting reserve team members to the second year. After all, apart from the second year, there might not be many capable students in the third, fourth, and fifth years.

Compared to the resources that were drawn from the original Three Kingdoms of the Douluo Continent, Shrek Academy has been facing a talent shortage in recent generations, with only the fresh blood of the second year offering any hope.

Of course, Xuanzi probably deserves some credit for this as well. After all, under his leadership alone, a number of inner court disciples were inexplicably lost in what should have been a relatively safe soul-hunting operation.

Over the next few days, Huo Yuhao continued to absorb the medicinal power contained in the potion, without doing anything else, because he discovered that his body seemed to be undergoing some subtle changes as he absorbed the potion.

Feeling the increasing power of his blood and qi within his body, Huo Yuhao gradually began to attempt some more dangerous maneuvers.

In the dormitory, Huo Yuhao sat cross-legged, his body immersed in a wooden tub filled with a special potion.

Shrek Academy naturally provides training chambers for its students, with all kinds of facilities, but the amount of gold soul coins consumed is not small. Even core disciples can only get a 50% discount at most.

After all, sometimes the cultivation of soul masters involves privacy, which mostly occurs among soul masters who have families or sects behind them, and these students naturally don't care about the small expense of renting a secret room.

However, this was still quite painful for Huo Yuhao. But because Wang Dong seemed to have a need in this area, he took leave these past few days to go into seclusion.

Now that Huo Yuhao is the only one left in the dormitory, there is naturally no need to rent any secret room anymore.

These potions were obtained by Huo Yuhao from the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile School's merchant guild in Shrek City over the past few days. In addition, he also obtained a sum of gold soul coins for future operations.

Crimson Vine, Bone-Piercing Wood, and Marrow-Cleansing Grass are all relatively common medicinal herbs that can hone the physical strength of low-level Soul Masters, but they are not very effective for high-level Soul Masters.

Huo Yuhao, on the other hand, needs to use these medicinal herbs to help stimulate his body more quickly in order to digest the potion's effects.

During this process, Huo Yuhao's physical body will be continuously damaged by external stimuli, but then it will be continuously repaired by the effects of the magic potion.

The Eye of Truth continuously records this process, thereby gaining insight into the subtle changes in Huo Yuhao's own body.

Although the physical structures of Soul Masters are generally the same, there are subtle differences due to variations in their bloodline, martial soul, growth environment, and cultivation methods.

Huo Yuhao is currently trying to filter out these subtle differences and, through the process of repair, gradually reshape the inconsistencies according to his own needs.

Seeing that his original short black hair had grown to his waist, Huo Yuhao controlled his mental power to transform into a sharp blade, and quickly restored it to its original state.

"Well, it can be considered a success, albeit barely. Thank you for watching over things, Elder Yi. You should go and get some rest now." Huo Yuhao breathed a sigh of relief.

Electrolux's aged voice held a hint of helplessness: "You're quite the adventurer, directly interfering with the physical body outside of its meridians and acupoints using energy. One wrong move and you could cause physical damage, let alone the fact that you're trying to modify it at its root."

"That's easier said than done. Your current strength is limited. Even with your extraordinary eyes, you can't act recklessly like this."

"Hehe, everything's fine, and it's almost done, isn't it?" Looking at the hair strands that, in his True Eyes, were structurally slightly stronger than other people's hair, Huo Yuhao was quite satisfied.

By manipulating soul power and blood energy with his mental power, Huo Yuhao attempted to strengthen his body, wanting to make its structure more solid and resilient.

Of course, Huo Yuhao wouldn't target those vital areas, so hair was naturally the best choice.

By imitating the martial soul structure of the two sisters, Lan Susu and Lan Luoluo, Huo Yuhao gradually modified his hair. Although it is not as good as a genuine hair martial soul, it is still much stronger than the body of an ordinary soul master.

This resilience is not due to the enhancement of qi and blood or the power of the soul, but rather to a fundamental structural change.

If the fundamental structure is the foundation, then the power of qi and blood and the power of the soul are additional amplifications of this foundation.

The reason why the physical strength of a Soul Master of the same level is generally inferior to that of a Soul Beast is because Soul Beasts far surpass Soul Masters in terms of basic physical strength. Unless a Soul Master's Martial Soul is powerful enough and the modification of the Soul Master's foundation is too excellent, it is the norm in the Douluo world that the human body is inferior to that of a beast.

Even at the level of gods, this is true. After all, gods have divine power, so how could divine beasts not have divine power?

While Huo Yuhao can't say that he has undergone a qualitative change in his body, since he can modify his hair, it wouldn't be difficult to gradually modify other parts of his body.

As for why it can only be considered a success, it's because Huo Yuhao currently possesses too little energy and blood essence.

With the power of the potion and Huo Yuhao's current soul power, he could only achieve the most basic enhancement of unimportant parts like his hair, and it wouldn't even reach the level of a martial soul, let alone other parts.

Huo Yuhao's goal, however, is to achieve a true physical martial soul – his own true self. By using his Eye of Truth as a foundation, he gradually transforms his entire body into a part of his martial soul, thereby strengthening his physical foundation.

He stood up and wiped himself clean. At this moment, Huo Yuhao's skin was light red and looked like a baby's skin, delicate and smooth.

This is because this layer of skin is a new skin that has just grown with the help of the magic potion, while Huo Yuhao's original skin was refined away by the power of the Crimson Blood Vine.

The originally dark red liquid had turned black, as Huo Yuhao had completely exhausted its medicinal power.

"I'm still too poor. If I could do it a hundred or so more times, I should be able to fully absorb the potion's power." After cleaning up and tidying up, Huo Yuhao thought with some regret.

However, he had no choice; he needed to save some Gold Soul Coins for bidding on the Soul Devouring Blade and couldn't spend them all on medicinal herbs.

However, Huo Yuhao's physique has already reached the level of Soul Master, and it won't be long before his soul power can also be upgraded by another level.

The next day, Wang Yan looked at the students below the stage and said, "The rest of you can leave now. Core disciples, please stay behind and come with me to the Soul Battle Zone later."

Because of Zhou Yi's prior notice, the core disciples all appeared in the classroom at this time. Huo Yuhao looked at Wang Dong. In the vision of the Eye of Truth, Wang Dong's other body parts were normal, but his hands seemed to have been strengthened.

It contains a considerable amount of stagnant energy that has not yet been fully absorbed, giving it a faint jade-like color.

"Judging by this, are they going to start playing with a sledgehammer?"

Wang Dong, however, had no idea what Huo Yuhao was thinking.

As the core disciples followed Wang Yan toward the Soul Battle Zone, Wang Dong approached Huo Yuhao and asked, "I wonder what the format of this selection competition will be. If it's still in teams, should the two of us and Xiao Xiao go together first?"

Huo Yuhao nodded but didn't say anything more, because this selection competition was organized by Xuanzi and wasn't as formal as Wang Dong had imagined. Whether he could stay or not was up to fate.

Soon, about ten official core disciples from the second year arrived at the Soul Fighting Zone, led by their homeroom teacher. At the same time, core disciples from other grades also arrived one after another.

Upon seeing Ning Tian, ​​Huo Yuhao nodded politely, as he remembered the agreement he had made with Ning Tian.

At the same time, he also remembered the message Ning Tian had given him when he was in a shop under the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile School: that he hoped Ning Tian could do his best to help her stand out from the selection.

"Perhaps she's already guessed something? But then again, with seven disciples, the official competition not far off, and age requirements for participants, anyone with a brain could figure out what's going on after a little investigation."

Although the age range was quite large this time, Huo Yuhao didn't think the difference in strength between the group was that big. Apart from Bei Bei, Xu Sanshi, Jiang Nannan, and He Caitou, who were all at the fourth ring, most of the other senior disciples were only at the third ring.

Among the second-year disciples, there is a mix of second-ring and third-ring soul power. If you only look at their strength on paper, the difference in soul power is about the same, not too much.

After everyone had arrived, an old man swayed over, carrying a gourd in his left hand and a chicken leg in his right. This setup clearly indicated his identity; who else could it be but Xuanzi?

Xuanzi, his eyes blurry with drunkenness, asked Wang Yan, "Young Master, is everyone here?"

"Everyone has arrived. There are 26 core disciples from the second to fifth year of the Martial Soul Department. However, only one person from the Soul Guidance Department came. According to the information submitted by the Soul Guidance Department, the others have been eliminated."

The arena for today's battle had been reserved in advance by Shrek Academy, and all other teachers and students had been cleared out.

Xuanzi led everyone to the center of the Soul Battle Zone, then looked at them and said, "The content of this core disciple assessment is very simple."

"I call it a free-for-all. Within the Soul Battle Zone, you can attack freely without any rules. Anyone who surrenders or is rescued is eliminated. The last seven remaining are the winners."

"Alright, teachers, get out of here. You can start fighting once I say 'begin'."

"Oh my god, really?" Wang Dong subconsciously moved closer to Huo Yuhao, and Xiao Xiao, upon hearing this, also stood beside Huo Yuhao without thinking much.

Not far from Huo Yuhao were Ning Tian and Wu Feng. At this moment, Wu Feng was still a little confused about the situation, while Ning Tian understood and quickly grabbed Wu Feng's hand and ran towards Huo Yuhao.

Several teachers quickly left the fighting area, and then Xuanzi raised his wine gourd and shouted, "Begin!"

He then disappeared, leaving only twenty-seven core disciples from the outer academy in the arena.

Huo Yuhao glanced at everyone and immediately unleashed a full-force mental attack on He Caitou.

Don't ask, the answer is always to stir up trouble.

Currently, the strongest Soul Master present is only a fourth-ring Soul Master, while He Caitou is both a fourth-ring Soul Master and a Soul Master.

Soul tools are already terrifyingly powerful in the early stages, not to mention that He Caitou is a master of them.

Huo Yuhao has no connection with the only core disciple sent by the Soul Guidance Department. He doesn't want to be hit by a Soul Guidance Cannon for no reason, or try to fight a Soul Guidance Device with a hidden weapon.

He Caitou covered his head, but did not fall down. However, his attack, which was about to be launched, was interrupted.

The sudden mental shock caused the soul power that He Caitou had already injected into the soul-guided cannon to flow back, resulting in some chaos in his soul power for a moment.

Looking at the four spirit rings at the opponent's feet, a hint of surprise flashed in the eyes of the crowd who were still in a daze.

After all, no one knew that this quiet, big guy from the Soul Guidance Department was actually a master at the level of a four-ring Soul Master.

Seeing that the other party was covering his head and seemed to be affected by some kind of soul skill, several core disciples who reacted quickly and were relatively close would not let go of this opportunity. They hurriedly used their martial souls to attack He Caitou.

After all, he was the only one in the Soul Guidance Department present, and he wasn't very familiar with anyone else. If they didn't attack him first, who would they attack first?

As a result, the unlucky He Caitou became the first core disciple to be eliminated, falling as the target of everyone's criticism.

However, the fact that they failed to make any contribution in the selection of core disciples is likely to be another blow to the status of the Soul Guidance Department in Shrek Academy.

(End of this chapter)