Today, the Blacksmith Association had an extra crowd inside it, a group of students wandering around the place, looking this way and that with open curiosity.
"No need to be shy, everyone. Just treat this place like your own home."
Arthur said it with easy generosity.
Just then, Zhen Hua arrived. He hugged Arthur first, beaming.
Then, puzzled, he asked, "Arthur, who are all these?"
"They're all first-years from Shrek," Arthur explained. "We're in the middle of finals."
"Ah, I see." Zhen Hua nodded in understanding.
He knew Shrek's finals well, of course. He'd been through them himself once.
A touch of nostalgia crept into his voice. "Your generation has it good, honestly. Back in our day, finals meant going out solo."
"That so? Ha ha." Arthur brushed it off.
Then he turned serious. "Teacher, I actually came here to ask for your help this time."
That word, "Teacher," made Zhen Hua glow all over. He thumped his chest. "Whatever it is, just say it! Your teacher will handle it!"
"Help me find some people."
"What kind of people?"
"Evil soul masters, in Skysea City!"
The smile froze on Zhen Hua's face. "Evil soul masters? Inside Skysea City?"
His tone turned grave. "What exactly are you planning?"
There was certainly no shortage of evil soul masters lurking in Skysea City.
Most of them were there to track his movements, since he was the Divine Craftsman. But they weren't especially strong. Skysea City had no shortage of Titled Douluo, so the evil soul masters sent to scout were mostly cannon fodder.
As the continent's only Divine Craftsman, Zhen Hua was, to the Holy Spirit Cult that was desperately short on Battle Armor, something like an irresistible beauty they couldn't stop burning for.
"You know how it is, for our exam we need to defeat soul masters at least five levels above us."
"I figure evil soul masters fit the bill perfectly. Kill two birds with one stone. That's why I came to ask the Blacksmith Association to help gather intel for me."
"Absolute nonsense!" Zhen Hua sputtered, his mustache practically bristling with anger. He raised a hand as if to knock Arthur on the head, then forced himself to stop halfway.
Then he launched into a long stream of muttering, the gist of which was simply: absolutely not.
Arthur pursed his lips. "Guess Teacher Mu Chen really is better after all. He'd never stop me."
The moment those words left his mouth, something in Zhen Hua snapped.
He let out a muffled grunt, nearly choking on his own outrage.
His face flushed red and hot, and he started shouting incoherently, "Mu Ye! Where are you, Mu Ye! Get over here right now!"
Mu Ye appeared beside them, still wearing his chef's hat, spatula in hand. "What's going on? I'm in the middle of cooking Arthur a couple dishes."
"Forget the dishes! Stop cooking for a second!" Zhen Hua snatched the spatula out of Mu Ye's hand and tossed it aside, his chest still heaving. He jabbed a finger at Arthur and appealed to Mu Ye, "Look at this kid! He wants to lead a bunch of children to go fight evil soul masters, and he's saying that old bastard Mu Chen is better than me because he wouldn't stop him!"
Mu Ye's gaze went back and forth between Arthur and Zhen Hua before he calmly picked the spatula back up. "Fighting evil soul masters, sounds fine to me. Those evil soul masters have had their eyes glued on you anyway. Might as well let the kids get some practice in while clearing up the mess for you. Two birds, one stone."
"You're taking his side too?!" Zhen Hua's eyes went wide, as if he'd just been hit with a double betrayal. "Those are evil soul masters! Not ordinary soul masters! Their soul skills are vicious as hell."
"It's no big deal if those kids die. What happens if something happens to Arthur?"
The nearby students: ...huh?
What kind of thing was that to say?
"With me around, nothing's going to happen." Mu Ye's tone stayed perfectly calm.
Dusk fell like spilled ink, and the streets of Skysea City slowly quieted as its citizens sank into deep sleep.
Yet across nearly every corner of the city, clashes between soul masters were erupting one after another.
At the top of the Blacksmith Association building, Arthur stood before a soul-guided detection screen, on which more than twenty red dots representing evil soul masters were being encircled, one by one, by green dots representing his students.
Arthur stood like the command center of a battlefield, his Spiritual Power blanketing the entire city, orders flowing out one after another.
He directed a series of scattered hunts, or precise pincer maneuvers, each in turn.
"Squad Leader, abandoned factory in the east district, two Soul King evil soul masters. Both poison-type!"
"We can't take these two one-on-one!"
Arthur gave the order. "Forget about the exam requirements for now, then. Focus on holding them off, support's on the way."
Then he contacted Gu Yue. "Gu Yue, get there right now and scrub the place clean with elemental force."
"Copy."
Gu Yue's figure hovered above the factory, both arms spread wide as elemental power gathered like a rising tide.
Streams of every element wove together into a net, pouring down in a cascade of multicolored light.
The poison mist dissolved under the wash of elemental force like ice melting into nothing, vanishing in an instant.
The two evil soul masters' faces changed drastically as they felt a powerful force crushing their soul power from within, making it hard to even condense their soul skills.
"Na'er, head to the south district right now."
"Got it."
Back in the Blacksmith Association, Arthur watched the red dot in the east district fade on the screen and kept issuing orders. "West district docks, Luo Guixing, Xie Xie, you two hold down that speed and attack-type evil Soul King. Watch out for his fifth soul skill, 'Shadow Kill.'"
At the same time, a furious shout came from the south district warehouse, Tang Wulin's voice. "Brother Arthur, there's a Soul Emperor here, I'm running on empty! The Blue Silver Grass holding him down is about to snap!"
On the screen, a dozen or so green dots surrounded the red dot in the south district, but it still wasn't enough. He was a Soul Emperor, after all.
Still, among those dozen or so green dots was Xu Xiaoyan.
"Xu Xiaoyan, the moment Tang Wulin can't hold on anymore, lock him down with Absolute Domain immediately. Na'er's almost there!"
"Yes!"
At the south district warehouse, the evil Soul Emperor glared viciously at the ring of children surrounding him.
He'd just broken free of Tang Wulin's Blue Silver Grass.
An instant later, he was ensnared in a cage woven from countless threads of starlight, unable to move at all.
"What is this thing!"
Before the evil Soul Emperor could react any further,
the warehouse ceiling was suddenly torn open, and a golden dragon plunged down through the gap, carrying with it a world-ending, apocalyptic pressure!
"Die!"
Na'er's dragon roar was deafening. In an instant, the great dragon slammed the evil Soul Emperor down and pinned him in place.
The evil soul master in the south district was dealt with.
Arthur immediately turned his attention back to the earlier situation at the west district docks.
"Luo Guixing, Xie Xie, holding task complete. Wu Sidou's arrived as support."
"Wu Sidou, fuse directly with your own martial soul, use Netherworld White Tiger to blow him apart!"
"Luo Guixing, Xie Xie, stay on guard. Once Wu Sidou releases the fusion and hits her weakened period, protect her."
"Copy that!"
In the darkness of night, the figures of the young students wove together into a net, sweeping up every last evil soul master in their encirclement.
Zhen Hua stood off to the side, dumbstruck.
The teachers secretly assigned to protect these students, who were scattered and darting all over the place, were equally stunned.
"This... this is a group of children?" Zhen Hua muttered to himself, his voice trembling.
He'd lived most of his life, seen countless prodigious soul masters, but never before had he seen a group of teenagers like this.
Thirteen, fourteen years old, facing off against Soul Emperor and Soul King level evil soul masters, and not only did they not flinch, they coordinated with such seamless precision, their roles so clearly divided, that they might as well have been battle-hardened veterans.
"Because I'm just that awesome." Arthur claimed the credit without a shred of modesty.
That reminded Zhen Hua of something, though. He asked, puzzled, "You're not getting in there yourself? What if one of them runs into something way too strong for them, something they can't even hold off?"
"Ah, that..." Arthur looked entirely unbothered.
Right on cue, one of the students called for backup.
"Damn it, the intel was wrong!"
"Squad Leader! Help, Squad Leader! The intel was off, this isn't a Soul Ancestor, it's a Soul Emperor!"
In a heartbeat, Arthur gripped the Holy Lance and hurled it.
The Holy Lance streaked through the air wrapped in pale golden light, carving a golden trail across the night sky over the city.
"Squad Leader, I can't hold on much long... huh? Squad Leader, you're the best!"
Watching this, Zhen Hua fell silent for a long moment. In the face of Arthur's uncanny, almost supernatural methods, he felt like his own status as a Titled Douluo had become something of a joke.