Night fell.
Inside the old house.
Su Hao slumped in his office chair, scrolling through a video site, feeling bored and restless.
The training for his three spirits had all gotten on track.
The Dream Moth was a bit playful, secretly up to who knows what, but it always completed its tasks on time.
The Ember Crow, as long as he guided it to spend its dazing time on training, was a diligent crow.
The Aqua Pony...
Su Hao glanced into the bedroom at the wardrobe plank kicked into a hole, and the hoof prints climbing from the floor up the wall—hoof prints that had dented the wall slightly.
He let out a faint sigh.
Undoubtedly, the Aqua Pony was incredibly gifted.
Just from the shape of the hoof prints, he could tell its control over spiritual power was almost instinctive.
"Still, I've figured out the right training method for the Aqua Pony."
Su Hao walked into the living room.
The TV was playing a cartoon. He glanced at it—it was the story of "Seven Little Lambs and the Wolf Castle Prince."
"What kind of stuff is this little one watching all day..."
He thought about turning off the TV.
But then he looked at the two large water spheres floating in front of the Dream Moth. Under its control, the round water balls were slowly being stretched into flat shapes.
—It was learning the Psychic Shield.
From the unlocked practice plans, Su Hao had picked one that suited it best.
Using high-quality, stretchable balloons filled with water and mixed with jade powder, he created a makeshift "spirit spring water."
Of course, it was a low-grade version.
Within a few hours, the spiritual power in the water would completely dissipate.
But the "spirit spring water" made it easier for the spirits to sense. Using the water spheres for shaping was the second stage of the little one's Psychic Shield training.
The first stage was materializing mental power for telekinesis.
That was "psychic power," and the Dream Moth had already completed that step back in the Changbai Mountain Primitive Zone.
Su Hao watched for a few moments.
Under the Dream Moth's control, the two water spheres shifted from a ★ shape to a § shape, looking like it was close to entering the third stage.
"Since the little one's practicing seriously, I'll let it slide this time..."
Su Hao headed to the study on the side.
The Dream Moth on the sofa (￢_￢) glanced his way, turned the water spheres into a grimace, then went back to watching the cartoon with gusto.
The Ember Crow, barely noticeable nearby, also stared for a bit, but struggled with its limited literacy and quickly lost interest.
Inside the study,
There had once been bookshelves filled with Su Hao's father's collection.
But after his parents moved to the new house, the books naturally went with them. Su Hao had converted the space into a small training room.
As soon as he entered, he heard panting.
A small, water-blue pony was running under the lights, its eyes glistening with unrepentant tears.
Su Hao looked at the treadmill specially designed for spirit training.
The belt was spinning very fast.
The clatter of hooves echoed steadily. Luckily, the treadmill had shock-absorbing measures, so it wouldn't disturb the neighbors downstairs too much.
But Su Hao was already thinking about moving.
He stepped closer.
The display showed a distance of 10.4 kilometers.
"Alright, keep going, push it."
"Run twenty kilometers today, twenty-one tomorrow, and soon you'll be a hundred-mile powerhouse."
"Xilu~ Xilu (?_?)!"
The Aqua Pony's heart ached.
But the Aqua Pony couldn't say it.
...
Time flew by.
Before Su Hao knew it, several months had passed.
Over these months, his life had been very routine.
Either he went to class, or he skipped it.
Inter-school exchange matches happened frequently.
Some were Ancheng No.1 High challenging other schools, others were other schools sending challenges.
Maybe because of this year's college entrance exam reforms, the XX Department (strikethrough) Spirit Alliance Dragon Kingdom Branch had allocated more educational resources, leading to frequent exchange matches.
When it came to challenging other schools, Su Hao turned them down.
For matches hosted at Ancheng No.1 High, he once joined in for fun, commanding the Ember Crow to take down five opponents without a scratch, then jumped off the stage himself.
'A genius's life is just this lonely and empty.'
Aside from exchange matches and routine training,
Su Hao occasionally caught Liu Ren and the others to have their spirits gang up on the Dream Moth.
And surprisingly, as more of their spirits crossed into the entry-level, it put some pressure on the Dream Moth.
The training results were decent.
—If not, there was no help for it. Ancheng had limited official spirit tamers, most of whom were older and held key positions. Su Hao could only find so many tool spirits to work with.
He made do.
One day,
He rode his creaky shared bike to school again.
He was a bit late.
"I don't know why, but there are fewer and fewer shared bikes now. Wastes so much time looking for one!"
Su Hao decided not to renew his monthly pass next month.
He turned to look at the Aqua Pony, which was running around playfully, feeling a bit frustrated that it wasn't more beast-like.
Why hadn't its spiritual power reached two hundred points yet!
Over the months, the Aqua Pony had grown a lot, now about chest-high to him.
If he really wanted to ride it, he could.
But it felt weird.
Like an adult riding a toy horse—a far cry from the majestic image he'd imagined of riding a Water Kirin into battle.
Besides, riding an underage horse wasn't right.
So he didn't.
Su Hao locked the bike and walked into the campus.
With the college entrance exam approaching, the atmosphere on campus grew more tense.
In the adjacent academic zone, students were everywhere in a hurry—on the lawns, in the small woods, in dim stairwells—people clutching books and reviewing wherever you looked.
Voices reading and reciting filled the air.
The spirit studies campus seemed less tense, but that was only because there were fewer people.
In reality, the pressure on spirit studies students was even greater.
Especially for those from ordinary families.
Contracting and raising spirits cost a fortune.
It was likely that because they chose spirit studies, their families had to tighten their belts.
If Su Hao hadn't been earning his own money, his family... might have been in the same boat.
Parents might not say it, but high school seniors weren't kids anymore—they knew the family's strain.
The closer the exam got, the heavier the invisible pressure.
Especially for those who weren't confident enough.
As for repeating?
For truly ordinary families, squeezing out another year and the money was even harder. If training resources couldn't keep up, repeating was useless.
They had to get into a spirit university!
From the school gate to the main road leading to the teaching building, motivational banners hung everywhere.
"One step away, spring dawn at Qujiang. We strive together, voices shaking the heights."
"The red sun rises, its path bright."
"The hidden dragon rises from the abyss, scales and claws soaring."
"Outscore the rich and handsome, defeat the spirit legacy kids."
Su Hao looked up. The most crucial hurdle of life, the dragon gate leap, was coming.
Especially now with spirit studies, the college entrance exam mattered more than ever.
But the nervousness he'd expected didn't come.
He couldn't help but marvel.
"Looks like my mental fortitude is already this strong."
Su Hao led his three spirits down the main road lined with twelve banners and arrived at Class 2's classroom.
The room was very quiet.
Even the spirits could feel the tension and oppression of the approaching exam.
Every time they looked up, they saw the countdown number hanging above the blackboard.
—Eighteen days until the college entrance exam.