Wulin's voice was as cold as ice. His gaze swept over Na'er as he gave a brief, clean account of the sparring session's context, deliberately emphasizing his final point: "That was nothing more than standard combat practice.
What you perceived as 'intimate' was simply an incidental overlap of movements. There is no need to let your imagination run wild."
Sparring practice?
Na'er shot a skeptical look at Gu Yue.
She knew better than anyone what was really going on. This was surely one of Gu Yue's schemes, deliberately using such tactics to seduce her Arthur!
No matter. Now that she was here, whatever underhanded tricks Gu Yue used to lure men in, she would crush every single one of them.
"Let's start with introductions. Name, martial soul, and spirit power level."
"Hi everyone, I'm Na'er. My martial soul is the Golden Dragon, and my spirit power is..." Na'er glanced sideways at Gu Yue. "31st rank, Spirit Elder."
The moment her words landed, the training hall went noticeably quiet.
Xie Xie's eyes went wide instinctively, and he couldn't help letting out a low exclamation: "31st rank?! Another Spirit Elder, nearly catching up to Arthur!"
Tang Wulin and the others nodded along, their eyes full of surprise.
Among the members of Class Zero, Na'er's spirit power level was nearly an entire tier ahead of theirs.
First Arthur, and now Na'er.
Two Spirit Elders.
And Gu Yue was close to breaking through to rank 30 as well.
Gu Yue glanced up at Na'er, her expression still calm. She had caught the deliberate provocation in Na'er's voice when she announced her rank.
Tonight, then. I'll break through tonight, she thought quietly.
Arthur leaned against the wall nearby, mildly surprised. Na'er and Gu Yue's spirit power levels were actually different?
"31st rank." Wulin considered for a moment. Na'er's display of strength convinced him that the time had come to schedule a physical assessment for the Class Zero students.
"Class dismissed. Get acquainted with each other for now." Wulin turned and walked out. "This afternoon, we'll conduct the baseline physical tests."
Get acquainted?
How exactly were they supposed to do that?
Na'er had already planted herself on one side of Arthur, Gu Yue on the other, the moment class ended.
Tang Wulin, Xie Xie, and the rest exchanged glances and wisely slipped away.
"Na'er, it's been a while." Only now did Arthur formally greet her. "To celebrate our long-awaited reunion..."
"Meet me at the canteen. My treat!"
Na'er was over the moon.
Gu Yue tilted her head, puzzled. The canteen? His treat?
---
The usually bustling canteen was now completely silent, filled only with the sounds of rapid, ravenous eating. Students kept stealing glances in the direction of the noise.
The table in front of Na'er had long since become a mountain of trays, with empty bowls stacked nearly half her height. Every dish brought out fresh was stripped bare within minutes.
Xie Xie and the others, passing by, stared with their jaws practically on the floor. Even Tang Wulin looked like a amateur by comparison!
Na'er gripped the rim of her tray with one hand, chopsticks flying to her mouth with the other, barely pausing even with her cheeks stuffed full. She called out to Arthur in a muffled voice: "Ten more servings!"
Arthur treating her to a meal had made her so happy that her appetite had simply exploded.
"When Arthur pays for the meal, no amount of food is ever enough!"
Gu Yue gave her a strange look, then felt compelled to point out: "This doesn't really count as him treating you. Class Zero members eat for free in the canteen."
Gulp.
Na'er puffed out her cheeks and hissed sharply at Gu Yue: "Hah!"
"Mind your own business! Nobody asked you to say anything!"
Gu Yue shook her head with a quiet sigh, quietly congratulating herself yet again that cutting Na'er out of her own body had been an absolutely correct decision.
Otherwise, the one sitting there right now, completely besotted over Arthur, would have been her.
---
That afternoon, Wulin led the Class Zero students into a room filled with a distinctly technological atmosphere.
Every wall and the floor was clad in silver metal panels, making it feel as though one had stepped into a silver-plated world the moment the door opened. Several precision soul devices were arranged throughout the space.
"We'll begin with the spiritual power assessment. Xie Xie, you're first." Wulin held his record sheet, his voice still cool, his gaze moving over the group.
Xie Xie stepped forward at once, completed the test as directed by the equipment, and the results showed a steady improvement in spiritual power, up by a full two points compared to his last assessment, placing him squarely within the normal range of progress.
Tang Wulin and the others followed, none of them breaking past one hundred points.
Wang Jinxi scored only eighteen points, far below the normal threshold.
Wulin studied the data, his tone even but clearly cautionary: "Wang Jinxi, you need to urgently work on raising your spiritual power. Your current level is too low and will hinder your future development."
Wang Jinxi simply gave a silent nod and said nothing more.
Three remained: Na'er, Gu Yue, and Arthur.
Wulin hesitated briefly, then called out: "Next... Gu Yue."
Gu Yue walked steadily toward the spiritual testing device.
Her expression was as composed as ever. The device slowly descended and settled against her head, and the numbers on the screen began leaping upward at a rapid pace.
One hundred... two hundred... three hundred...
They finally came to rest at five hundred and thirty-eight.
"Five hundred and thirty-eight points?" Wulin stared at the number on his sheet, a rare flicker of shock crossing his cool eyes. "Spirit Sea Realm!"
He was well aware that his own spiritual power was at the Spirit Sea Realm as well. Gu Yue's talent was genuinely exceptional.
Wang Jinxi had already begun questioning his own existence. He had taken the hardest hit of anyone here: he had only eighteen points. He had never paid much attention to spiritual power before, thinking eighteen was perfectly adequate as long as his strength was there.
Standing before Gu Yue's five hundred and thirty-eight, he looked like a cave dweller next to a star.
Na'er watched with a raised eyebrow. When Wulin finally called her name, she rushed forward eagerly.
The device this time displayed five hundred and thirty-nine points.
Exactly one more than Gu Yue.
"How pointless." Gu Yue understood clearly enough. In this life, Na'er's innate talent for spiritual power could not possibly surpass hers.
Obviously, Na'er had just drawn on a small portion of the Silver Dragon King's power that Gu Yue had once cleaved away from herself.
All of that, just to edge ahead by a single point.
"Using it for something like this... are you an idiot?"
In that moment, Gu Yue and Na'er reached the same conclusion about each other: the other one was an absolute fool of a dragon.
"Last one, Arthur."
Arthur pushed off the wall and walked calmly toward the testing device. The numbers on the screen began to stir.
At first they climbed steadily, quickly surpassing Tang Wulin and the others, and when they crossed five hundred, Wulin's fingers tightened ever so slightly around his record sheet.
The numbers showed no sign of slowing, making it clear that Arthur's spiritual power extended far beyond five hundred.
The climb continued: five hundred and forty, five hundred and fifty, six hundred... The very air in the room seemed to grow still. Every pair of eyes locked onto the screen, and without thinking, everyone held their breath.
Arthur had always suppressed his strength to such an unnerving degree that no one had ever been able to gauge its true scope. Now, at last, there was a chance to catch a glimpse through the numbers.
Wang Jinxi had long since lowered his head. Eighteen points against these figures was like comparing a speck of dust to a star. He had told himself before that eighteen was enough, that raw power was what mattered. Now, he had to admit: he felt small. Eighteen points looked worse with every passing second.
Xie Xie's mouth hung open. Even the shock from earlier had faded into something closer to numbness.
Na'er was completely unsurprised. Of course. Her Arthur was the most gifted of all!
When the number hit one thousand...
Click.
The device crashed.
Wulin knew exactly what had happened: the upper limit of this testing device was one thousand points. It was only meant for intermediate-level students, after all, and there had been no reason to use a higher-grade model. The cost alone would have been prohibitive.
(Note: The original numerical values for spiritual power will not be referenced going forward. Spirit power and strength will be expressed in terms of realm and level rather than specific figures.)