Huo Yuhao picked up a shrimp, peeled off the shell, removed the tail, and began to savor it.
The flesh was sweet and soft, and as it slid down his throat, a warm sensation spread through his body, as if he was being nourished by a surge of energy.
His skin took on a reddish hue, and the vortex of blood and qi within him began to spin wildly, digesting the immense energy.
The energy from the blood and qi vortex slowly flowed into his meridians, circulating along specific pathways. With each cycle, Huo Yuhao could feel his body becoming more resilient.
His muscles, bones, and internal organs were all strengthened by this nourishing energy, and his skin, which had initially turned a deep red, gradually became translucent.
By the time he finished the entire shrimp, the blood and qi vortex had expanded significantly, and Huo Yuhao's skin returned to its normal color.
"Having a blood and qi vortex really makes a difference," Mu Ye, who was watching from the side, nodded to himself.
Ordinary soul masters, without a blood and qi vortex, would take about a year to absorb the energy from a red jade shrimp, and much of the energy would be wasted. Their efficiency was incomparable to Huo Yuhao's.
Indeed, he had made the right choice in taking Huo Yuhao as his disciple.
Restoring the glory of the Body Sect was a duty he could not shirk!
As he thought this, Mu Ye glanced in the direction of Gu Yuena, and the smile on his face gradually faded, replaced by a look of confusion. "???"
After eating the red jade shrimp, Gu Yuena's face only showed a faint blush, which quickly disappeared.
Could Gu Yuena also have a talent for cultivating blood and qi?
Mu Ye's expression turned strange, and for a moment, he even considered the idea of poaching her from Zhenhua and Heavenly Phoenix Douluo.
But his thoughts were interrupted by two excited voices.
"What's that smell? It's so fragrant!"
"Isn't the food on the train supposed to be terrible? Why does it smell so good?"
A boy and a girl, both around fourteen years old, walked in from another carriage.
The girl quickly made her way to the small table where Huo Yuhao and the others were sitting. When she saw what they were eating, her eyes widened. "Ice crystal eel, starlight rice, and... red jade shrimp?"
As a member of the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Clan, Ning Yue had a broad knowledge of rare ingredients.
The first two were specialties of the far north, only enjoyed by disciples of major sects, and sometimes even in short supply.
The red jade shrimp, on the other hand, could only be obtained by Limit Douluo or Four-Word Battle Armor Masters. As the young lady of the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Clan, she had never even tasted it before, this was her first time seeing it.
This also indicated that the people in front of her were not ordinary, which made her suppress the urge to order something from the man who looked like a chef.
Unlike Ning Yue, who was focused on the food, the boy beside her turned his attention to Huo Yuhao, frowning slightly.
Huo Yuhao was currently eating his second red jade shrimp, and the fluctuations of blood and qi around him made the boy feel a sense of suppression, as if his own martial soul was being restrained.
But how could that be?
His martial soul was the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon, a top-tier dragon-type martial soul. What martial soul could possibly suppress his?
As one of the heirs of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Family and the strongest first-year student at Shrek Academy, Yu Longheng was not particularly arrogant, but he did have his own pride.
The idea of his martial soul being suppressed by someone else was unsettling.
Seeing the two youngsters enter, Mu Ye's expression remained unchanged, and he turned his gaze to a corner.
A woman with a forced smile emerged from the shadows. She appeared to be in her mid-twenties, with an extremely beautiful appearance. Her long, white hair cascaded down her back, and her dark green eyes flickered with alternating waves of life and destruction.
After appearing, she bowed slightly. "Greetings, Your Excellency! I am a teacher from Shrek Academy, currently observing the students' assessment. I did not mean to disturb your meal with your juniors."
Shen Ying had not expected to encounter a Titled Douluo on her second trip on the soul train since the assessment began.
She recognized the red jade shrimp, and the fact that those two children could so easily digest its energy was anything but ordinary. The middle-aged man she couldn't quite figure out might even be a Four-Word Battle Armor Master... or even a Limit Douluo!
Her luck... was only slightly better than that of the teacher whose student had been thrown out by the Spirit Pagoda. Fortunately, Yu Longheng and Ning Yue were relatively composed and hadn't caused any trouble.
"From Shrek Academy?"
Mu Ye gave her a once-over, his brow slightly furrowed. "It doesn't matter if you're disturbing us or not. This is the dining car, and anyone can come here. We haven't reserved it. Just make sure your assessment doesn't interfere with us."
Once, the Body Sect had been a sect that could rival Shrek Academy, but a war had changed everything.
Ten thousand years ago, Shrek Academy, as the pillar of the three great empires of Douluo, had been utterly defeated by the Silver Moon Douluo. Along the way, there had been incidents like the Death God's Envoy, which would be remembered for generations. In the end, due to various reasons, Shrek Academy had simply withdrawn from the battlefield.
The Body Sect, as the guardian sect of the Heavenly Soul , had fought to the last. More than two-thirds of the sect's disciples had perished, five of the eleven Titled Douluo had fallen, four were severely injured, and the sect leader had died, nearly causing the sect's legacy to be lost.
Now, because Shrek Academy had produced the Sea God, it had not suffered any major setbacks and had remained at its peak, glorious to this day, remembered by all.
The Body Sect, on the other hand, had nearly lost its legacy, and now only he, a 94th-ranked Titled Douluo, was left to hold the fort, forgotten by the world.
The stark contrast made Mu Ye feel no goodwill toward Shrek Academy, but he wasn't about to take it out on a few juniors.
Seeing that Mu Ye had finished speaking and was no longer paying attention to them, Shen Ying let out a soft sigh and sent a voice transmission to the two students. "Don't disturb them."
Ning Yue nodded, and she and Yu Longheng, who was still frowning slightly, found a seat and sat down.
Shen Ying glanced once more in the direction of Huo Yuhao and Gu Yuena, then quietly hid herself again.
"Longheng, what's wrong?" Ning Yue asked in a low voice, noticing that Yu Longheng was still subtly observing Huo Yuhao.
"His martial soul..." Yu Longheng started, then shook his head. "It's nothing. Let's get off at the next stop."
"But the next stop is Heavenly Spirit City," Ning Yue frowned. "The final destination of the assessment is Skysea City. Wouldn't it be better to go directly to the Skysea Alliance?"
Yu Longheng: "This is a cooperative assessment, and we'll have to face more opponents. The quality of soul masters in the Skysea Alliance isn't high, so it's hard to find good opponents. Let's go to other cities first to challenge them."
The academy's final assessment wasn't very friendly to support-type soul masters. Even though Shrek's support-type soul masters had combat capabilities, they still couldn't compare to battle-type soul masters. It wasn't fair to have them fight support-type soul masters five levels higher than themselves.
That's why there was the cooperative assessment. Although the difficulty was doubled, with his strength and Ning Yue's Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, they had few opponents.
According to some teachers and seniors, in the past, the final assessment had a bottom elimination system, where the lowest-scoring students would be expelled, and support-type soul masters couldn't team up... Their batch was much luckier, having caught a good time.
Ning Yue thought for a moment, then nodded. After all, she was relying on Yu Longheng, the strongest first-year student. "Then we'll go to Heavenly Spirit City. After that, where should we go to find opponents and increase our score?"
The score in the final assessment was closely related to whether they could enter the inner court. And once they entered the inner court and registered as disciples of the Tang Sect, they would have the chance to visit the "Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well" and obtain the legendary immortal herbs.
The ancestor of their Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Clan, Ning Rongrong, had transformed her Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda into a Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda with the help of immortal herbs and eventually became a god. Her goal in joining Shrek Academy was to obtain those immortal herbs.
Yu Longheng's eyes gleamed. "We'll go to soul master academies or... outside the thousand-meter radius of the Spirit Pagoda. That's where most soul masters pass through, and we can find opponents quickly!"
The immortal herbs were also what he sought, and he would do everything in his power to enter the inner court.
Hidden in the shadows, Shen Ying thought of the complaint letter the academy had received from the Spirit Pagoda and her brow twitched. But after a moment's thought, she decided not to say anything.
She had also experienced the academy's final assessment and understood the pressure the students were under.
The Skysea Alliance was located in the eastern part of the continent, while Shrek Academy was situated in the center. Even on a high-speed soul train, without any transfers, it would take three full days to reach.
The students only had fifteen days to complete the assessment and return to Shrek Academy, which would take at least six days round trip. Moreover, they had to find opponents to challenge in ten different cities, so time was tight.
As Elder Cai had said, this was an excellent comprehensive education lesson, testing the students' abilities in all aspects, food, clothing, shelter, transportation, strategy, and more.
As for running into someone they couldn't handle along the way... they had been warned not to provoke those they couldn't afford to offend. Everyone had to take responsibility for their own actions.
"Longheng hasn't forgotten the rule about not using soul power or any soul tools within a thousand meters of the Spirit Pagoda, so it should be fine," Shen Ying thought to herself.