The Yuhao Chronicles - Volume 1 Chapter 41

Shrek Academy’s assessment area was located at the north-central part of the Martial Spirit Department and was adjacent to the Spirit Duelling Area. However, the Examination Area was much larger than the Spirit Duelling Area. To the outer courtyard students, this was a paradise for outstanding students, where they could display their abilities, but was a nightmare for weaker students. There would always be a large number of students expelled after failing their assessment every year. A large majority of the assessments would be held in this Examination Area.

The Examination Area was oval-shaped. Unlike the Spirit Duelling Area, which was enclosed, the Examination Area was basically an open field. It was only encircled by short walls, while inside it was separated into many small areas by partitions. These partitions could be moved at any time to alter the size of the Examination Area.

The Examination Area would always be divided the most whenever the freshman assessment happened. It wasn’t just because of the large number of new students, but also because there was still a limit to the destructive power and attack range that new students had. Because of this, they didn’t need too large of an area to allow them to fully display their abilities.

The Examination Area was roughly twenty-thousand square metres large but was currently separated into fifty areas. Every single partitioned area was around four hundred square metres in size and was a twenty by twenty-metre square. This was already sufficient for new students, who generally only had one or two soul rings.

After the intense division of groups in the morning, the assessment formally started in the afternoon. Because this was the first day of the assessment, all of the teams could leave after finishing only one match. This was done for the sake of letting the new students adapt, at least somewhat, to the schedule. The academy had stationed a teacher in each of the fifty areas in order to complete the registration process for the assessment. The lot drawing for today’s matches had already been done that afternoon, and the academy did all they could to ensure that no teams from the same class would meet each other during the ten-match round-robin tournament.

Other than Class 1, which only had eighteen teams, the other classes generally had at least thirty teams. Unless there were students that had performed extremely poorly during their first three months at Shrek Academy or had Zhou Yi as their teacher, those in charge of the freshmen classes would generally always give them a chance to take the freshman assessment.

There were a total of two hundred and eight three teams participating in the freshmen assessment, which meant a total of eight hundred and forty-eight students. Out of these two hundred and eight three teams of students, only a hundred and fifty of them would be able to remain and formally become first-year students to continue studying. The rest of the teams would be eliminated and expelled.

Whilst studying at Shrek Academy, the competition was undoubtedly fierce and cruel. However, this also resulted in students working even harder under this intense atmosphere, allowing them to stimulate even more of their potential. This had, in turn, allowed Shrek Academy to survive ten thousand years without becoming weak at all.

There were a total of fifty arenas for the freshmen assessment, which meant that every single arena would have five or six teams within it. It wasn’t just today; they would also compete with other teams from the same arena tomorrow, up until they’d finished competing with all the teams in the same arena as them. Afterwards, the winners would be redistributed into new groups, allowing them to finish their ten-round competition.

The team of Wang Dong and Huo Yuhao was assigned to the 33rd arena. After they ate lunch, they returned to their dorm rooms in order to meditate for a while, then met back up when it was time to. The arenas with the Examination Area were extremely easy to look for since each arena was quite obviously labelled. The two roommates managed to find which arena they were supposed to be in quite quickly.

The students from the other classes who were also meant to be in the area had already arrived. Some of them looked nervous, while some of them seemed eager to begin. All of them were only kids, around eleven or twelve years old, so they couldn’t really conceal their thoughts. When they looked at each other, their eyes clearly exposed the hostility they had for one another. After all, only half of them would continue to remain within Shrek Academy. Even though the freshmen assessment only had a total of ten rounds, every single round would affect their future.

“New students, please pay attention. Please immediately enter the Examination Area to participate in the freshmen assessment. There are still ten minutes left for you to enter. Any students that are late will automatically forfeit their assessment.”

The booming voice from the loudspeaker rang throughout the entire academy; it was loud enough to travel through every nook and corner of the academy. At this moment, most students’ expressions became quite serious. Everyone’s first match was about to begin; they’d be lying if they said that they weren’t nervous.

The freshmen assessment was extremely important, so the academy’s announcement wasn’t really that useful. All of the freshmen had already arrived at their designated arenas in order to make preparations for the upcoming assessment.

A teacher that looked to be around forty walked into the 33rd Area. He looked like an extremely average person; he didn’t give off any sort of threatening aura. He had a smile on his face, as well as an extremely friendly appearance. As such, he was as different as heaven and earth when compared to Zhou Yi. After counting the number of people present, he smiled slightly. “Very good. We have a total of five teams participating in the freshmen assessment today, and it seems that you’re all present. Allow me to introduce myself first. I’m Wang Yan, and I’ll be your proctor for the next two days.

“Greetings, Teacher Wang.” The students hurriedly bowed in respect.

Wang Yan chuckled. “No need to be so polite. I’ve always treated everyone as a friend while I’m teaching, and from now until the end of our time together, you’ll all be my little friends. As such, I don’t wish to see anyone get hurt. Although this assessment determines whether or not you can continue to study at Shrek Academy, I have to remind you that this is still only an assessment. You absolutely mustn’t hurt your opponents too badly. If that happens, I’m afraid I’ll have to ask him to leave and report the incident to the Academy.”

He spoke with a very gentle tone and downplayed the entire matter. Although he didn’t mention the consequences for crippling one’s opponent, every single student that was able to enter Shrek Academy was a child prodigy. They naturally understood the implications behind his words and nodded to express their understanding.

Wang Yan smiled. “Since that’s the case, we can start now. If we end earlier, you can go back early to train for tomorrow. A slight sense of urgency is definitely a good thing for you youngsters.”

As he spoke, he took out a sheet of paper and glanced over it. Afterwards, he raised his head and said, “For the first match, of the first round of the freshmen assessment we will have Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong from class one and Ouyang Junyi, Chen Junfeng, Zhao Haochen from class three. Due to a number issue, one team only has two members however the staff have assured that it is fine to continue with a two versus three battle. The five of you can enter the battlefield and take your sides. When I announce the start of the battle, you can release your martial spirits. Enter.”

There were five teams of students, thus three matches would be held within the 33rd arena each session, with one team having a double up every time. Yuhao and Wang Dong glanced at each other confidently, then quickly walked towards the north-western corner of the arena.

They positioned themselves quite carefully. Huo Yuhao stood in front with Wang Dong standing in arms reach behind him. As for the other team, they naturally chose to stand at the south-eastern corner of the arena.

Seeing that both parties were in position, Wang Yan nodded. “Start the assessment.”

The two parties instantly released their martial spirits. Huo Yuhao released only his Steel Space Dragon spirit as it was enough to win this battle. Not one to sit around and let others prepare as they wished, he immediately used the Ghost Perplexing Track to charge straight at his enemy.

As he moved, he released his second spirit ring and used both skills simultaneously, increasing his overall defence by seventy-five per cent as long as he kept his forward momentum up. Even though it is most likely entirely overkill, it is better to be overprepared and suffer no damage than underprepared and suffer the consequences.

Wang Dong movements were in sync with his own, as his pair of dazzling blue and purple wings unfurled as he flew directly behind him. The beautiful pair of wings he released temporarily distracted the three boys allowing Yuhao to close in almost the entire twenty-metre distance between them.

Luckily for the boys, they were not overestimating themselves, especially when the academy staff had decided that their opponents were strong enough to compete together without a third teammate. As soon as the battle started, and just before they got distracted, they had released their martial spirits. One of the boys was a food system martial spirit, more specifically a drumstick food type. The other two were both agility types, being a Sword-beak Hummingbird and a flexible sword spirit.

Zhao Haochen, their food system spirit user attempted to use his first spirit ring, only being able to summon his food into his hand before Yuhao’s spirit-boosted, Spirit Emperor Rank body crashed into him, knocking him off of his feet and sending him flying outside of the area. The two drumsticks that were in his hands flew aimlessly out of bounds as well.

In this brief moment of conflict, the other two boys had attempted to swing their respective spirits at Yuhao’s exposed back, only to be whacked extremely hard on their sides by the flats of Wang Dong’s Bright Goddess Butterfly’s wings. The force behind it knocked them off their feet in a similar manner to Yuhao’s own efforts, sending them the two metres necessary off the edge of the arena.

Not only was Wang Ya, but all of the surrounding students and teachers who had witnessed the fight were deathly silent. From start to finish, the fight had not even lasted for over six seconds, with the losing team not even being able to release a skill to defend themselves, aside from the food type spirit master.

As some of the students who were just about to start fighting witnessed this, several of these teams could be seen moving several more metres away from the outside boundary to not end up in a similar situation. Previously, everyone thought the arena was too little distance from the competitors in front, and while this still is in effect, now it is also too little distance from the boundaries behind them.

As for the losing team from class three, they were all sprawled on the ground still, staring into the sky with a lost look on their faces. They had trained and cultivated so hard for this assessment, and yet in their first battle, they were beaten. No, dominated and destroyed. As they laid there, they began to question everything that they had worked towards so far.

Seeing this mentality developing, Wang Ya moved down towards them to check for injuries and stop them from mentally crushing themselves. Even he could see how much of a monstrous pair Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong were. No wonder the monstrous teacher Zhou Yi herself, said they would be fine. Alas, Wang Ya does not even know a tenth of what they are capable of.

As Wang Ya managed to get the uninjured, just winded students, back off from the floor, he lightly admonished them for betraying all the hard work they have put in over the past few years over one loss. They each looked down at the floor, embarrassed at how easily they turned to giving up, especially in front of hundreds of students and quickly scurried away back to their rooms to get away from the gazes of their year mates.

He assessment proctor looked back at the remaining four teams, he announced, “Class 1’s ‘Team Huo Yuhao’ wins their first match.” After Wang Yan had announced the results of the match, he noted it down on a sheet of paper he’d pulled out before making his way back over to the side of the arena, ready for the next match. Slowly, the other arenas began starting their matches, however, everyone still had Team Huo Yuhao’s domination stuck in their minds.