...
The midday sun was a bit dazzling. Just as get out of class ended, Hu Liena appeared right on time at the door of the elite class.
Seeing Xuan Hao surrounded by a group of young girls, who was expressionless but clearly enjoying the attention, Hu Liena shook her head helplessly, stepped forward and pulled him out of the crowd of girls.
"Let's go eat."
As the two walked along the tree-lined path to the cafeteria, Hu Liena looked at Xuan Hao, who seemed relaxed and carefree, and couldn't help but pour cold water on his enthusiasm.
"It seems you're settling in quite well?
Don't you find everyone very welcoming and the teachers very kind?"
"It's pretty good." Xuan Hao put his hands behind his head, with a blade of grass he had picked from somewhere dangling from his mouth.
"The teachers are great at lecturing, the classmates are nice to talk to, and everyone here is talented.
I love it here."
"Ha, naive." Hu Liena stopped and turned around, her expression becoming extremely serious.
"Junior brother, don't blame your senior sister for not reminding you.
The world of Soul Masters is a dog-eat-dog world, and the Martial Soul Academy is a miniature version of Douluo Continent."
"Most of the students here come from prominent families and have high aspirations. Competition among students is the norm, and is even tacitly approved and encouraged by the college.
As long as no one is killed or disabled, the teachers will not care at all, and will even watch the performance from the sidelines as if it were a show."
Xuan Hao blinked: "So what?
What does this have to do with me?
I don't want to be a school bully."
"If you don't go looking for trouble, trouble will come looking for you."
Hu Liena sighed and lowered her voice.
"Do you think being a disciple of the Pope is a get-out-of-jail-free card? Wrong! It's a gleaming mockery hanging around your neck!"
Xuan Hao was taken aback: "Huh?
I'm a disciple of the Pope. Shouldn't they treat me with utmost respect and bow down to me?"
"You wish," Hu Liena rolled her eyes. "His Holiness the Pope is indeed revered by thousands, but that doesn't mean his disciples will be loved as well.
On the contrary, because you are the Pope's disciple, everyone will assume that your talent and strength must be top-notch, otherwise you wouldn't be qualified to be in this position, or even embarrass your teacher!"
"This is almost a tradition at the Spirit Academy—defeating the Pope's disciple proves that you are stronger than the Pope's chosen one.
What an honor that is!"
At this point, a cold glint of recollection flashed in Hu Liena's eyes:
"Two years ago, when I was first brought back to school by my teacher, I was harassed for a whole year.
Whether it was my classmates or students from higher grades, people would block the classroom door, the cafeteria door, and even the dormitory door every day, challenging me under the guise of sparring."
"To put it bluntly, they're just looking for trouble; they want to climb over me to get ahead."
Xuanhao was stunned: "Then...the teacher won't do anything about it?"
"What do you care?
Mind children fighting?"
Hu Liena rolled her eyes.
"Why do they dare to bully you? Because you're weak! If you can't even control your own age, what right do you have to be the Pope's disciple?"
"If you're being bullied, you have to fight back! Fight them until they're afraid, fight them until they submit!"
Hu Liena waved her little fist and said with considerable pride, "Luckily, I am a Soul Master of the Mind Control type.
Among those of the same level, as long as their mental strength is inferior to mine, they have almost no power to fight back.
I earned my current peaceful life by maintaining a perfect record of victories in sparring for a whole year."
After saying that, Hu Liena looked at Xuan Hao with some worry: "You've only just entered school, and although you're a first-year student, your reputation is already too great.
In the coming period, whether it's those who want to make a name for themselves or those who feel unbalanced, they'll probably all be targeting you."
"After all, if you defeat the Pope's personal disciple, you'll gain fame and have a chance to be noticed by the bishops, the academic committee members, or even the elders.
If you're accepted as a disciple, that would be a meteoric rise."
Xuan Hao's lips twitched; he was completely distraught.
"No... Yesterday she assured me confidently that once I entered the Spirit Hall, no one would dare bully me, and I would receive the best treatment.
How come she changed her mind so quickly?
Isn't this like luring a dog in to kill it?"
"Pfft—"
Hu Liena was amused by his description and reached out to poke his forehead. "
What are you thinking?
When the teacher said no one would dare to bully you, she was referring to those high-level Soul Masters, such as the teachers in the academy, or those adult Soul Masters who are in their fifties or sixties."
"With the teacher's reputation, those people naturally wouldn't dare to lay a hand on you."
"But…" Hu Liena's tone shifted, a hint of schadenfreude in her smile, "As long as the age difference is no more than six years, they are considered peers in the Soul Master world.
Competition among peers is healthy and promotes growth.
How could a teacher possibly interfere in a fight between children?"
"If you can't even beat someone your own age, and you still cry and go back to the teacher to complain..."
Hu Liena gave him a look that said, "You figure it out yourself."
"So, do you think the teacher will stand up for you, or will she throw you into the fighting arena and train you half to death first?"
Xuan Hao: "..."
So, Bibi Dong's statement, "No one dares to bully you," was followed by a hidden explanatory clause:
(Note: This applies only to adults and in cases of force majeure. Fights between peers should be resolved independently. The final interpretation right belongs to the Pope.)
"You play it like this?!"
Xuan Hao's lips twitched, feeling as if his young heart had been brutally beaten by society.
"Is this some kind of trap to raise me like a treacherous snake in a wolf's den?"
Hu Liena patted him on the shoulder and comforted him earnestly:
"It's alright, senior sister believes in you. After all, you can pin me to the ground... cough cough, anyway, even I can't beat you, those little brats shouldn't be a match for you."
"As long as you beat them hard enough to scare them, they will naturally behave themselves."
Xuan Hao looked at his senior sister, who was smiling like a little fox, and then thought about Bibi Dong's "I'm doing this for your own good" expression, and sighed helplessly.
No wonder Bibi Dong inexplicably told him to be careful during dinner last night, and Hu Liena was also trying not to laugh. So that's what she was waiting for him to do.
While Xuan Hao was still processing this cruel reality and mentally ranting that Bibi Dong was a "big liar,"
Several figures suddenly appeared on the only road leading to the cafeteria.
There were three boys who looked to be eight or nine years old, a head taller than Xuan Hao.
The chubby boy in the lead crossed his arms, his face full of fat, and was looking Xuan Hao up and down with an extremely critical and disdainful gaze.
"Hey, Senior Hu Liena."
The chubby boy first gave Hu Liena a perfunctory greeting. Although his eyes showed some apprehension, he was clearly not afraid.
Then, his gaze was fixed on Xuan Hao.
"Is this the legendary new disciple of His Holiness the Pope?"
The chubby boy scoffed, pointing at Xuan Hao's beautiful silver hair, "Looks like a woman, skinny arms and legs, and he can be a disciple of the Pope?
I think he's just a gigolo who lives off women."
"Hey, newbie."
The chubby boy took a step forward, blocking the way, and a thick, earthy-yellow soul power fluctuation faintly emanated from his body.
"My name is Tuoba Xiao, from the Holy Dragon Sect. I've heard you're very powerful?
Shall we go to the Soul Arena and have a match?
Let me see if you're qualified to be His Holiness the Pope's disciple."
Hu Liena took a step back, crossed her arms, gave Xuan Hao a look that said, "See, I wasn't wrong," and then adopted a posture of watching a good show.
Xuan Hao looked at the "experience package" who introduced himself in front of him, and then at his senior sister who was watching the show, and sighed helplessly.
"Exercising before meals...?"
He twisted his neck, making a crisp cracking sound, and his originally sky-blue pupils contracted slightly, turning into dangerous crimson-gold vertical pupils.
"Alright, since it's a tradition, I'll do as the locals do."
Under the gaze of those crimson-gold vertical pupils, the fat on Tuoba Xiao's face suddenly stiffened, and his arrogant demeanor collapsed instantly, replaced by a fear that came from the depths of his soul.
"This...this is..."
Tuoba Xiao's pupils contracted sharply, his face turned deathly pale, and cold sweat poured down his forehead.
His prized family martial soul—the White Armor Earth Dragon, a top-tier sub-dragon martial soul renowned for its defense and strength among its peers—was now trembling uncontrollably within his body!
This fear even transcended the difference in soul power, directly affecting the depths of one's bloodline.
The two lackeys standing behind Tuoba Xiao were even worse off.
They also came from the Holy Dragon Sect and their martial souls were of the sub-dragon type.
At this moment, they were so overwhelmed by the invisible dragon's might that their legs were trembling and they could not even stand steadily.
They felt a faint urge to urinate in their crotches.
"Wait...wait a minute!"
Seeing the silver-haired youth who had already hunched over, poised to strike, Tuoba Xiao's fighting spirit instantly crumbled.
He instinctively raised his hand and shouted in panic, "I won't fight..."
"Welcome my lion's fangs!"
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