After the class meeting, textbooks were distributed. The entire morning passed with this routine. Lunch, then a nap.
When the afternoon bell rang, all the students were called to the playground. Along with their spirits. The students barely managed to form a PE class formation, while the spirits frolicked and played noisily. Su Hao picked up the silkworm baby and placed it on top of his head. The little one looked pitiful.jpg but yielded to Su Hao’s authority.
Fat Ren was in the same class as him. Su Hao glanced at the other classes and quickly spotted Chen Qi, Zhou Yuze, and a classmate named Ma Ruo or something. “Huh?” In the first class’s lineup, he saw a familiar figure. “Gu Lingyao, the genius most likely to get into a top spirit school in our year.” Su Hao felt like there was a narrator and turned his head, only to realize that Liu Dazui had somehow popped up again. But… “How do you know that again?” “This is called gathering intel on competitors in advance—know yourself and know your enemy, and you’ll… what’s the saying?” Liu Ren cleared his throat. “Gu Lingyao was a top student in her first two years of high school, never dropping out of the top three in her grade.” “But that’s not the key.” He shifted gears. “Gu Lingyao’s uncle is an intermediate spirit nurturer, and her father is an honorary member of the Ancheng Spirit Master Guild. Get it?” Su Hao got it. This was a level above the pay-to-win monsters. Liu Ren was completely crushed, his sanity hitting zero. Liu Ren: “???”
As they spoke, the homeroom teacher, Old Chen, walked up to them. Her sharp gaze swept over, and many whispering students immediately stood up straight, feeling that Old Chen was scarier than the dean. “Today is the first day of school, so the school has decided to give you a baseline test.” All students: “???” What’s the connection between the first day of school and a baseline test? Spirit training hasn’t even started yet! Students who hadn’t received advance notice changed expressions, mouths slightly open, but intimidated by Old Chen’s presence, they didn’t dare ask. Homeroom teacher Chen continued, “The test is simple. With your spirit, run ten laps around the track.”
Ten laps—four thousand meters! Regular exercisers could manage it, but many high school students lacked exercise. Even if the goal was to become a spirit master, shouldn’t it be about commanding spirits in battle? Why—spirit studies should be fun! Su Hao opened his mouth, looked at Liu Ren, and both wore bitter expressions. Liu Ren’s physical fitness was obvious from his little belly. As for Su Hao, he’d never run ten laps before—six or seven at most. The female students wailed—they had to run the same distance as the boys?! Old Chen’s answer was that spirit masters didn’t distinguish between male and female. Nor between strong and weak. For a moment, it felt like gray clouds shrouded the earth, darkness ahead. Huh, it really got dark? Oh, it’s the silkworm baby’s short legs covering my eyes.
Homeroom teacher Chen continued, “For this baseline test, the top ten will receive a month’s supply of spirit jade powder, and the top three will receive three months’ supply…” Su Hao snapped to attention. In his mind, he rapidly calculated using his sixth-grade mental arithmetic skills. One month’s jade powder was 2,250 yuan—how much was three months? Anyway, it was a lot! The entire spirit studies department had only a little over a hundred students across four classes. Top ten? Su Hao thought he could give it a shot—what if he made it? Most students from ‘ordinary families’ were instantly drawn to the reward, only the pay-to-win types like Liu Dafu didn’t care. Eyes gleaming, spirits blazing, rubbing their hands together.
The four spirit classes’ students all lined up on the track, with their spirits barely staying by their sides under their masters’ calming. Since there were many students, they were divided into several rows, with white chalk lines drawn on the track. Su Hao was in the middle row, next to Liu Fat Ren. The silkworm baby and the charcoal fire turtle stayed by their owners’ feet. Looking down, he saw many spirits just entering their growth stage, not much bigger than the silkworm baby. It was a bit crowded. Su Hao worried that stepping on a spirit would be a sin. Then he remembered the silkworm baby’s agile leaps in the trees… spirits were probably too nimble to step on.
The first class’s homeroom teacher, a bald teacher whose name he didn’t know, picked up a whistle and blew it sharply. The students in the front row shot forward. But, “Little earth wolf, where are you going!” “Mini pig, mini pig, where are you?” “Salted fish king, move, move already!” The piercing whistle and the sudden sprint of the students stirred up chaos among the baby spirits. The bolder ones ran wild on the track. The timid ones clung to their masters’ pant legs, trembling. Some spirits even ran onto the grass to nibble on it. Su Hao spotted a grass sheep—seemed normal enough. The ten-lap run was a massive crash scene, a mess before they even started. A bunch of rookie spirit masters were at a loss, unsure whether to keep running or chase their spirits first, whether they could catch them, and if they could make the spirits obediently follow… The teachers from several classes stood at a distance, watching coldly. “This batch of students isn’t good—can’t even manage their spirits, how can they be spirit masters?” said the male teacher from Class 3. The female teacher from Class 4 retorted, “As if the last batch was any better. Don’t forget how chaotic it was when you first contracted your spirit.” “Ahem, ahem.” The male teacher gave an awkward laugh. “There are still a few promising ones.” The first class’s homeroom teacher looked at the track.
By now, After the initial chaos, some students had started running with their spirits. And they gradually formed tiers. The third tier: students barely calming their spirits but needing to shout while running, or their spirits would slip away. The second tier: students with relatively obedient spirits, but the spirits’ speed lagged, forcing the students to slow down. The first tier: approaching the students’ usual running pace. “Your class’s Gu Lingyao is truly a key prospect—her spirit is well-trained,” said Old Chen from Class 2. “That’s to be expected, but a few other promising ones are a pleasant surprise—much better than the last batch.”
The first class’s homeroom teacher, surnamed Gu, had a notable trait compared to the other three—age. He was middle-aged, with thinning hair, but still energetic without a thermos in hand. He was the most senior teacher in the spirit studies department. Old Teacher Gu looked at the track. “Kung fu dog, silkworm baby, vine snake… what are their masters’ names?” “Wait.” He frowned. “What’s going on with the mini pig’s master?”
In the first tier, a male student was carrying a mini pig, running not slowly. The student was tall, seemingly well-exercised, and the mini pig was small, so carrying it didn’t affect his speed much, gradually closing in on the frontrunners. But several teachers frowned. The young homeroom teacher from Class 4 spoke up, “That seems to be a student from my class. Hmph, embarrassing me—I’ll note it down later. “This baseline test is meant to test the bond between master and spirit and the ability to command them. Forcibly carrying the spirit while running—how did he come up with that? Can’t he see the mini pig is uncomfortable?”