Master of Nine Stars

Just as they had expected, Gan Lin was a complete wreck when the trio left.

Cradling the Snowball Cat in one arm and the Cloud Dog in the other, she truly had a hard time letting go. In the end, the Snowball Cat shattered into frost and snow and the Cloud Dog broke apart into mist, each drifting back into their respective masters’ bodies...

The trio went their separate ways outside the Martial Arts Arena. As Gan Lin walked away, she kept looking back over her shoulder, her gaze so heartbroken that it made Rong Taotao’s scalp tingle. He even started to feel like he’d become some peerless scumbag!

Gao Lingwei, however, knew what a drama queen her best friend was, so she didn’t feel burdened at all.

A day passed in a flash. The next day, the second semester of their freshman year officially began.

For the kids who’d spent the New Year at the Martial Arts Arena, there were no exciting new stories to tell, only endless days and nights of tedious training. But there was one upside: the other Little Souls had all advanced to the Soul Warrior Stage.

Even Sun Xingyu, whose aptitude was relatively poorer, had broken through her bottleneck three days ago and stepped into the Soul Warrior Stage.

As for people like Rong Taotao and Gao Lingwei who went to Songbai Town for the New Year... well, life certainly wasn’t boring. It was what you’d call colorful—so colorful they nearly got themselves killed~

THUD! In the small classroom, Yang Chunxi stood at the lectern, book in hand. She casually tossed the textbook onto the desk. ”Take out your *Snow Realm Soul Beast Encyclopedia* and turn to the table of contents.”

As she spoke, Yang Chunxi shot a smiling glare at Sun Xingyu.

Sun Xingyu stuck out her tongue sheepishly. She was by Rong Taotao’s desk, pestering him relentlessly, asking what the New Year’s Eve fireworks display in Songbai Town was like.

’How would I know what it was like?’

’I only know what the hospital looked like on New Year’s Eve, and what Soul Police Chief Ju looked like on New Year’s Day...’

At the lectern, Yang Chunxi skipped any sort of opening speech for the new semester and got straight to the point: ”What page is the Snowflake Wolf on?”

”Page 28,” Fan Lihua said softly.

”Mm, then turn to page 28. I’ll give you five minutes to review the key points about the Snowflake Wolf: its Soul Pearl and Soul Skills, morphological characteristics, living habits...” Yang Chunxi said as she stepped down from the platform.

With her hands clasped behind her back, her high heels went CLICK-CLACK on the floor, the only sound in the quiet classroom.

Five minutes later, Yang Chunxi suddenly spoke up. ”Turn back to the table of contents. What page is the Demon Snow Puppet on?”

”Page 64.” Fan Lihua answered directly, without even flipping back to the table of contents.

Yang Chunxi turned to give Fan Lihua an appreciative glance, but Fan Lihua quickly lowered her head and started flipping through her book.

In the back, Rong Taotao couldn’t help but grin. ’Damn, so this is what a top student is like?’

’Did she memorize the entire book or something?’

”Five minutes. Review the key points on the Demon Snow Puppet,” Yang Chunxi said.

Rong Taotao looked at the picture in the book. It was a strange, snow-colored doll with four limbs in a humanoid shape. It was pure white all over and had no facial features, which made it particularly frightening.

”Rong Taotao!”

”Here!” Rong Taotao stood up subconsciously.

Yang Chunxi: ”Close your book and tell me about the Demon Snow Puppet.”

With a well-behaved expression, Rong Taotao closed his book and said, ”The Demon Snow Puppet. An Excellent to Elite Level creature, 40cm to 60cm tall. 50cm is the dividing line; those under 50cm are Excellent Level, and those above are Elite Level.”

”They are not adept at moving and mostly hunt from fixed locations, hiding in tree branches or in the snow.”

”Demon Snow Puppets feed on blood. After a hunt, they like to soak in the blood of their prey’s corpse to nourish their bodies.”

”Its Soul Pearl is a wrist-type Soul Pearl. Its Soul Skills are Ice Crystal Needle and Ice Crystal Flash. It can use a frost and snow environment to summon hundreds or even thousands of ice needles to attack its enemies.”

”It can also use the ice crystals to make the Ice Crystal Needles emit a strange light, disorienting the enemy’s vision.”

”Mm, not bad.” Yang Chunxi gestured with her hand for Rong Taotao to sit down and continued to ask, ”What page is the Ice Blade Pinecone on?”

”Hm?” After waiting for two seconds without hearing a response from Fan Lihua, Yang Chunxi couldn’t help but look at her. ”Lihua?”

Fan Lihua’s pretty face flushed slightly red as she said shyly, ”Page... 87.”

Yang Chunxi smiled and walked over. She leaned down and gently ruffled Fan Lihua’s hair. ”If you know the answer, just say it. There’s nothing to be shy about, understand?”

”Mhm.” Fan Lihua nodded repeatedly.

”Hee hee...” In the back, Shi Lan couldn’t help but snicker as she watched Fan Lihua’s cute, bashful expression.

”Shi Lan!” Yang Chunxi suddenly turned her head to look at Shi Lan. ”The Ice Blade Pinecone. Tell me about it.”

”Uh...” Shi Lan made a face and scratched her hair. ”I think it stays on pine trees, looks like a pinecone, but it’s covered in ice blades?”

”What type of Soul Pearl? What Soul Skill?” Yang Chunxi asked as she walked over.

Shi Lan jumped in fright. Although Coach Yang was usually gentle, she was actually a bit scary when she put on a stern face.

”That, that one... um...” Behind Yang Chunxi, Jiao Tengda, who was in the front row, turned around and pointed to his arm.

Shi Lan’s eyes lit up and she blurted out, ”An elbow-slot Soul Pearl! The skill lets you form a sharp ice blade along your arm!”

Yang Chunxi walked up to Shi Lan in the third row, but Jiao Tengda in the first row stretched out his leg and pointed to his knee.

”Ah, I misspoke!” Shi Lan quickly corrected herself. ”It’s not an elbow-slot Soul Pearl, it’s a knee-slot Soul Pearl! It can form an ice blade on the lower leg! Yes! That’s it!”

Yang Chunxi stood in front of Shi Lan, bent her finger, and tapped her on the forehead. ”Jiao Tengda wasn’t wrong to tell you that. This Soul Pearl is a dual-slot Soul Pearl for both the elbows and knees.”

”Oof,” Shi Lan said, covering her forehead with one hand and smiling sheepishly.

In the first row, Jiao Tengda shivered and quickly turned back around, lowering his head to sneakily read his book.

’Does the teacher have eyes in the back of her head?’

Yang Chunxi turned around, looked at the students in the class, and said, ”Over the past month, you have all reached the Soul Warrior Stage one after another. This means you have at least two more usable Soul Slots.”

”The school has looked at your files and found that your empty Soul Slots are mostly concentrated in your wrists, ankles, elbows, and knees.”

”Therefore, the school has carefully selected the Soul Pearls of these three Soul Beasts for you to embed.”

Hearing this, Rong Taotao was stunned!

’So this is what Principal Mei meant last semester by ’ramping up our training’?’

’The Snowflake Wolf and Ice Blade Pinecone are one thing, but the key is the Demon Snow Puppet’s Soul Pearl. That’s not common at all.’

”But the school won’t just hand the Soul Pearls to you,” Yang Chunxi said with a smile. ”Last semester, because of the massive blizzard and the Extreme Night, you spent almost all your time training on campus.”

”But now, the sky has cleared up, the blizzard level has dropped significantly, and Hundred Corps Pass was also officially reopened to the public today. The school is preparing to organize a training expedition for the Junior Soul Class to the north of the Wall.”

”When the time comes, you’ll be led by your teachers, who will accompany you into the Snowfield to acquire these Soul Pearls. The teachers will not only act as your bodyguards but also as your Scouts, helping you search for traces of the three aforementioned Soul Beasts.”

”This will continue until all of you have fully equipped the Soul Pearl slots in your wrists, elbows, knees, and ankles.”

”Of course, we will only lead you to these Soul Beasts. We will not participate in the battles. Understood?”

”Wow! Long live Pine Soul!” Sun Xingyu raised her hands, clenched into little fists, and cheered excitedly.

Li Ziyi, also sitting in the second row, rested his chin in his palm and quietly watched Sun Xingyu’s side profile, a fond, doting smile on his face.

Yang Chunxi, who was standing in the aisle by the third row, suddenly took a step forward, positioning herself right between Li Ziyi and Sun Xingyu, blocking Li Ziyi’s line of sight. Li Ziyi’s expression stiffened slightly.

PFFFT... Rong Taotao, who had just taken a sip of his goji berry water, immediately turned his head and spat it out.

’Sis-in-law, huh... she’s pretty mischievous, isn’t she?’

It was unclear whether Yang Chunxi did it intentionally or not, but she really did just stand there without moving. She began to speak, ”This school-organized trip is a group activity. You won’t be split into small teams anymore. Instead, all ten of you will advance and retreat as one. Consider it a way to build cohesion in the Soul Class.”

”You’re all very familiar with sparring against each other. It’s time for you to face a real enemy.”

Lu Mang suddenly spoke up, ”Coach Yang, when do we leave?”

Yang Chunxi looked at Lu Mang, quite curious. In her eyes, it was understandable for the other students to be excited. But Lu Mang had been knocking around the Snowfield for a whole month, so why was he still so worked up?

Little did Yang Chunxi know that one trip to the Snowfield was not the same as another...

Over the past month, it was only on the very first day that Fu Tiance let the three of them loose, leading the three little ones far to the north in search of Soul Beasts.

For the rest of the time, the three of them just followed the squad on patrol at the foot of the city wall, standing guard from east to west.

How many Soul Beasts could there be at the foot of the wall? Besides, they were dealing with the poacher problem. Even if Lu Mang, standing guard, spotted a Soul Beast, he wasn’t allowed to leave his post to go kill it...

The mission of the Twelfth Corps this past month was to provide a safe training environment for the Social Practitioners, not to clear the area for them and wipe out all the Soul Beast resources...

So Rong Taotao and the others had basically spent a month drinking the wind and eating the snow.

Yang Chunxi replied, ”We’ll go north of the Wall in a week.”

”By the way, Zhao Tang, Lu Mang, Jiao Tengda. Your group from the Soul Class took first place in last semester’s finals. Now that the new semester has started, you can challenge any of the top ten freshman teams.”

”If you lose, you lose. But if you win, you’ll be exempt from the final exams this semester. You won’t have to participate in the ranking exams. That’s your reward.”

”Give me your answer by the end of classes today.”

Hearing this, the three in the front row looked at each other. They could challenge one of the top ten freshman teams?

They might not be able to beat the champion team, but a top-ten team?

There was a key factor here: as long as those students’ Soul Techniques hadn’t advanced to the three-star level, and as long as they hadn’t learned Snow Dance yet, there would be no qualitative difference in speed between the two sides. That meant they truly had a fighting chance!

”Go get ’em, Little Mango!” From the back row by the window came Rong Taotao’s blood-pumping voice. ”Pick one that hasn’t learned Snow Dance yet, and wreck ’em! What’s there to be afraid of!”

”Hell yeah, I like the sound of that! Let’s just do it!” Zhao Tang nodded immediately, a look of eagerness on his face.

Jiao Tengda, in the center of the front row, couldn’t help but turn around and give Rong Taotao a speechless look. ”You, troublemaker Tao’Er, you just love to stir things up, don’t you? You think you can fight them?”

”Huh?” As Jiao Tengda spoke, his expression turned a little strange.

He glanced at Gao Lingwei, who was sitting with her legs crossed, exuding the air of a cool, aloof goddess. Then he looked at Rong Taotao, holding his thermos...

That Gao Lingwei hadn’t been demoted to the Soul Class because of injury. She had parachuted in as the King of Guanwai. Even if Rong Taotao was a total deadweight, Goddess Wei should be able to carry him.

Besides, judging from last semester’s final exam matches, Rong Taotao, who had just been discharged from the hospital after serious injuries, had cleanly pulled off a 1-v-3 right here in the Martial Arts Arena!

Not to mention that time the two of them dueled, and Rong Taotao almost killed Gao Lingwei...

Jiao Tengda pushed up the glasses on his nose and muttered, ”Jeez, you two actually seem like you can fight!”

...