Douluo Continent: Ink Bamboo as a Cauldron to Break Through Ten Thousand Heavens

Chen Cheng didn't bother to say anything. These students were unrelated to him, and the academy had a set number of new students eliminated each year. You say you failed because Zhou Yi's messy micro-management? Sorry, but that's because you weren't hardworking enough or strong enough. Shrek Academy only needs monsters…

I can easily imagine the college's reaction, so I'd better just focus on doing my job well for now.

Thinking this, Chen Cheng casually went to another section, where the battle was nearing its end. He saw two agility-type Soul Masters besieging a defense-type Soul Master wielding a large shield; it seemed the side whose Soul Power ran out first would win. He felt these new students either hadn't practiced teamwork much or lacked practical combat experience.

In this situation, one person could easily engage the defensive Soul Master wielding the large shield while the other looked for an opportunity, conserving one person's stamina and Soul Power. The shield-wielding Soul Master would not only have to defend against one person's attacks but also be wary of the other, who hadn't yet made a move. This approach might reduce Soul Power consumption slightly compared to simultaneously defending against two attacks, but the mental fatigue would be significantly greater, as there would always be a potential attacker to guard against. Two people could take turns attacking to wear down the opponent, while the other attempted a decisive blow. Even if that failed, the Soul Power and stamina consumption would be much lower than it is now.

In the end, the two agility-based teams won. There was no way around it; with generally low soul power, defensive soul masters were not very effective against agility-based ones. These two were essentially using their strength to throw bricks and forcefully exhaust the enemy's soul power.

Shaking his head, Chen Cheng headed to the next section.

The assessment just started here. There were two boys and one girl on each side. The two boys' martial souls were a longsword (weapon martial soul) and a blue cat (beast martial soul), one being a strong attacker and the other a fast attacker. Chen Cheng wasn't interested in these two. Shrek Academy was never short of geniuses, and these minor characters from the original work were even less worthy of attention. The only one who interested him was the girl whose martial soul was a pocket watch. Chen Cheng guessed that she might have time-related abilities and would consider whether to report her depending on the situation.

On the other side, the three boys had a very simple and straightforward setup: one with a powerful lion-type martial soul, and two with agility-type martial souls. At the start, the boy with the lion-type martial soul immediately took a large stride to block the boys with longsword and blue cat-type martial souls, while the two agility-type boys quickly went to find the girls behind them. The boy with the blue cat-type martial soul initially tried to stop them, but as soon as he turned around, he was slapped by the boy with the lion-type martial soul in front of him, leaving him no choice but to brace himself and fight back.

Meanwhile, facing two agility-type Soul Masters rushing towards her, the girl holding the pocket watch seemed unfazed. Two Soul Rings lit up, and then the two men's movements seemed to slow down. Just as they were about to attack the girl, their figures appeared in the same spot they had been a moment before.

"Remaining calm under pressure, demonstrating precise judgment. Her first and second spirit skills should respectively slow down time and reverse time for a moment. Judging from their actions, they couldn't reverse time completely, but rather returned it slightly to the position of the previous moment. Such a spirit has great potential and is worth recording. Cao Jinxuan seems to have a similar ability. Oh right, I remember the city lord who defended Shrek City during the beast tide was called Time-Space Douluo, wasn't he? However, his abilities were more focused on space. If this girl can go further in the realm of time, it would be quite remarkable."

The two agility-type boys quickly exhausted the girl's soul power, forcing her to leave the field. However, the lion spirit was also struggling alone. It was entangled in front by the longsword boy, who was also a power-type boy. One of them was ambushed from behind by the boy with the blue cat spirit. The other two boys were eliminated before they could even defend themselves.

In the end, the strong attack type plus the agility attack type fought against two agility attack types, and the victory was not in much suspense.

"Hmm, this girl perfectly restrained the two of them for a long enough time with her precise understanding of martial souls. Judging from her appearance, she seems to be aiming for a control or support strategy, relying on her martial soul to control the field. However, theoretically, she will lack offensive means. After all, with such strong control methods, she probably won't give up on further strengthening them. So, after controlling the opponent, she can defeat them on her own by using a soul tool. We can exchange ideas later. She has a promising future."

Chen Cheng then visited several more sections, but still didn't go to watch any of the matches mentioned in the original work.

"Sigh, as expected, none of these people are particularly outstanding. Either they lack practical experience and don't fully understand their own abilities, or they lack teamwork. Actually, at this stage, the difference in soul power between the two sides is very small. Most of them are at the second ring, so it's more about teamwork and skills." Chen Cheng shook his head and only recorded the information of two or three students who seemed somewhat interesting after looking for a while.

"Perhaps I'm thinking wrong. I should have looked for matches from the stronger teams in the original work. If someone can hold their own against them for a few rounds or even fight to a draw, that's the kind of person I should be recording! After all, in the original work, these people mostly became stepping stones for the ones who ended up like them. Maybe some promising talents slipped through the net and weren't noticed by the academy."

With that in mind, Chen Cheng arrived at the division where Dai Huabin's group was located.

But things didn't turn out the way Chen Cheng had imagined. The match began, and Dai Huabin was possessed by a white tiger! Dai Huabin's entire body swelled up, his clothes were stretched open, his blond hair turned black and white, and his claws shot out as he charged towards the three opponents!

"Wow, how can they be so wild? Hey, Zhu Lu and Cui Yajie haven't even activated their martial souls yet? They're so confident! But then again, Dai Huabin was already in his thirties when he entered school, and it seems like he'll be another two or three levels to forty now? Wow, with that talent, he'll probably be a Soul Emperor by his third or fourth year? Oh right, I think he participated in the second competition, and he was indeed a Soul Emperor, but he was completely subdued by Captain Wang Qiu'er, and then he secretly fell for her, what a masochist..."

Chen Cheng was lost in thought below the stage, while the other three on stage were equally shocked. A freshman, a three-ring Soul Master! He charged over with his Martial Soul activated! It's worth noting that there were one-ring Soul Masters like Huo Yuhao among the freshmen. To encounter a team like this, whose combined Soul Rings were equal to Dai Huabin's alone? Was this some kind of joke?

  

Thinking this, their hands moved quickly. The three of them got into position, the defensive-type Soul Master shielding the support-type girl behind him, and then the other offensive-type Soul Master stepped forward to meet Dai Huabin...

"Seriously, are you guys brainless? Do you really think your team's offensive specialist has any chance of winning against a three-ring Soul Master like Dai Huabin? He'll get instantly killed. Do you even have a chance then? Uh, it seems like you didn't have a chance to begin with, but what if..."

As expected, Dai Huabin was not surprised but delighted to see him coming. He went straight to meet him, swung his right hand and struck the opposite shoulder. The attack-type soul master staggered and took several steps back before he could dissipate the force. He almost knelt on the ground, and his martial soul was almost disintegrated from the pain.

Just as he was about to get up, he heard two exclamations from his teammates behind him. He only had time to look up once before he saw Dai Huabin's claws already reaching for him. Caught off guard, he had no choice but to admit defeat. The next instant after admitting defeat, Dai Huabin turned around and unleashed a White Tiger Blazing Light Wave at the support-type Soul Master in the distance, without any hesitation. The two people in the distance were still in shock at their teammate being instantly killed. In their haste, the defensive-type boy didn't have time to block the attack for the support-type girl, so the girl left the arena under the protection of the referee.

The remaining defensive-type Soul Master was naturally a foregone conclusion; he surrendered before Dai Huabin's ferocious claws could even reach him.

"Well, it's not like there were no gains. At least we've seen the abilities of the strongest newcomer so far. He's proficient in soul power, combat skills, and the ability to seize opportunities. He also inherits his family's talent for developing his martial soul, so he can just follow the path paved by his predecessors. The only weakness might be his mentality. In the original story, Huo Yuhao broke his defenses quite a bit later on, and then he tried to assassinate Huo Yuhao..."

Thinking of this, Chen Cheng's previously admiring gaze turned cold. A person's character always comes first. Like that little guy from Brooklyn, even without superpowers, he would repeatedly stand up and fight back against bullies to defend the honor of frontline heroes. Others, even those injected with the super-soldier serum, could never create another Captain America. Powerful abilities in the hands of those with flawed character are more likely to lead them astray, making them fanatical and dangerous.

As for Dai Huabin, regarding the weak, he had been accustomed to bullying them since childhood, showing no mercy whatsoever. Regarding his brothers, he was two-faced; for the sake of reputation and his father's favor, he wasn't indifferent to his own brothers' ambitions. Regarding his lover, even though Zhu Lu often acted without thinking, she was still a link between their families, and had always been genuinely devoted to him. If he didn't like her, he should have just rejected her directly! She had been with him for so many years, and then turned around and became a sycophant to Wang Qiu'er, always wanting more than she had. If it weren't for his slightly changed character in Qiankun Wenqing Valley, he would have wanted to kill him the moment he saw him. Regarding justice, what sense of justice did this guy have? He never valued other people's lives, possessing an air of aristocratic superiority, and was even willing to gamble with other people's bodies and futures without much hesitation, and when he lost, he couldn't afford to lose and hired assassins. The worst part is that this guy has no brains. In Shrek City, on Shrek Academy's territory, he hired the White Tiger Duke's men to assassinate someone he had just had a grudge against. Does he think his academic career is going too smoothly? If he does this again, Chen Cheng will definitely slap himself a hundred or two hundred times if he can graduate smoothly.

He stopped looking at their section, feeling that if he stayed any longer, his sense of justice would overwhelm him and he might not be able to resist slapping Dai Huabin.

Having found the assessment area for Huo Yuhao and his two friends, and responding to Xiao Xiao's warm greeting, Chen Cheng felt much more at ease.

"Why didn't you take a break during the rest period? Only Wang Dong and Huo Yuhao exerted their strength just now?" Chen Cheng walked over and chatted with the bouncy Xiao Xiao, a smile involuntarily spreading across his face. When she felt unhappy, Xiao Xiao's innocence was often like a breeze blowing from the lakeside on a hot summer day, sweeping away the gloom and discomfort.

"It was all Yuhao's suggestion. He said that there aren't any strong opponents in the round-robin tournament right now, so we should show our abilities as little as possible. Wang Dong's abilities are too obvious and not suitable for hiding, while Yuhao's abilities are not obvious to the average person, so there is no need to hide them. Therefore, I have not made a move and can only watch these two dominate the field."

Xiao Xiao looked very depressed, but she cheered up when she heard Chen Cheng praise their tactics.

"So, Brother Chen Cheng, are you here to watch our assessment?"

Huo Yuhao, who had finished meditating and recovered, came over when he saw Chen Cheng and Xiao Xiao talking.