The small forest was dead silent.
Pairs of eyes stared blankly at the broken tree trunk.
A sharp intake of the forest's cool, fresh air.
So this is what a true big shot looks like?
He's practically a humanoid bear!
"Grunoo~"
The silkworm shrank back.
Trembling in fear.
The humanoid bear was way scarier than the little wind horse!
Su Hao was shocked too.
But beyond the shock, he had to admit Coach Bear had a point.
If you can't tear apart spirits with your bare hands, a spirit master needs to learn to hide themselves.
Recalling that barbecue gathering day,
If the wood mantis had bypassed the silkworm and come straight for him, could he have dodged the attack?
Coach Bear's first lesson to them was to play it safe.
A spirit master must know how to protect themselves out there.
The morning's big class ended.
Coach Bear called over the Tyrant Bear, who was playing with rocks in the rocky area with a rumble, and left together.
All the students finally let out a heavy sigh of relief.
Not out of fear.
They were just too exhausted!
After the demonstration battle came regular training.
Though it was called a combat class, it was really just a physical training session.
In the big black bear's words, a bunch of weaklings who can't even stand steady still expect to learn techniques?
A few students like Su Hao, whose spirits performed well, got some extra coaching.
The result was...
Even more exhausting.
"Grunooo_(′?`」∠)_."
The silkworm lay flattened on the ground like a giant caterpillar bread loaf, unable to move.
Truly out of combat.
Su Hao lay spread-eagled.
Exhaustion written all over him.
The spirit department students and their spirits were all in the same state.
The guys were drenched in sweat.
The girls glistened with perspiration.
Spirits had stars spinning in their eyes.
"Phew~ Ha! Twenty more laps!"
A voice full of energy rang out.
Su Hao turned his head to look.
The sunlight was blinding.
A figure on the track was running with difficulty.
Yet his smile remained as bright as ever.
Even his Kung Fu Dog, looking like a drowned rat, had switched from standing upright to crawling on all fours behind him.
As if sensing Su Hao's gaze, Li Songting turned his head, clenched his fist in the air, and mouthed a silent phrase:
"Keep going, continue."
Continue my ass (╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻!
Are you even human or a spirit in disguise, huh?!
"Grunoo~"
The silkworm weakly voiced its disagreement.
Even a spirit can't do that!
...
After resting for a good while, Su Hao slowly sat up.
He'd originally planned to go home for lunch, but now he really didn't feel like biking. He could only call home and stay for lunch at the school cafeteria.
The food at Ancheng No.1 High wasn't bad.
But the cafeteria was a bit far, over in the regular campus area.
As they walked, the group of wilted spirit department students drew a lot of attention.
Su Hao was the center of attention.
From time to time, classmates or students from other classes came over to chat him up.
"Tea for the big shot."
"Soup for the big shot."
"Nutrient drink for the big shot."
...
After the high-intensity training, attending cultural classes actually felt oddly relaxing.
Su Hao was furiously working on practice problems.
A set of spirit practice problems.
He'd already reached the comprehensive section.
[Please select the option that differs from the other three from the four choices below (__) (multiple answers possible), and explain the reason.]
This type of multiple-choice question was the most common in spirit department exams.
But this one...
Su Hao focused.
[A. Golden-Winged Celestial Silkworm B. Forest-Tai Wolf C. Earth-Walking Wolf D. Marionette]
"First, choose C, because the Golden-Winged Celestial Silkworm is wood-type, and among the four options, only the Earth-Walking Wolf is earth-type."
"Second, choose A, because the Golden-Winged Celestial Silkworm is the third-stage evolution of the silkworm, its final form, while the other options are all second-stage evolutions."
"Third, choose D, because the Marionette is a dual-type 'wood + psychic' spirit, while the others are single-type spirits."
"Finally, B can also be chosen, because the Forest-Tai Wolf is a rare spirit that can learn human language, and its final evolution, 'Wolf Doctor,' is known as the great inventor among spirits, while other spirits normally struggle to learn human language."
"In summary, this question selects ABCD."
After finishing,
Su Hao let out a long breath.
Who knew that even as a spirit department student, he'd still be struggling in a sea of problems.
Life is so hard.
"Gruno(;￢＿￢)"
The silkworm looked at him with disdain.
It shifted its position and went back to staring at a Chinese textbook.
Su Hao glanced over.
Paused for a moment.
Since when did the silkworm become so eager to learn?
He felt ashamed!
His passion for studying couldn't even match a silkworm's.
...
Saturday,
Inside the bedroom.
Su Hao started preparing a new training plan for the silkworm.
He hadn't planned to do it this early, but first, the school was taking the five-school joint practical exercise very seriously.
Five schools.
Ancheng No.1 High, Yunhua No.1 High, Yunhua Affiliated High, Xingyuan High, and Pingcheng No.1 High.
All were top key high schools from various cities.
Among them, Yunhua Affiliated High was the affiliated high school of Yunhua Spirit University, with teaching resources far surpassing Ancheng No.1 High.
That classmate from No.1 High with a soul power of 2.1 had been poached by Yunhua Affiliated High, and who knows what other geniuses they had!
Yunhua No.1 High was also strong, with many students entering top-tier institutions every year.
Xingyuan High was a private school, mostly attended by students from wealthy families, and their advantage in the spirit department was obvious.
Putting it all together, Ancheng No.1 High and Pingcheng No.1 High were the bottom-feeders, brothers in hardship.
Su Hao felt a lot of pressure.
His... silkworm couldn't even dominate at Ancheng No.1 High.
Wouldn't it get crushed in the practical exercise?
"That won't do, I have to speed up the silkworm's training progress..."
"If the silkworm still has the energy to read books, it means the current training intensity isn't enough."
Su Hao had already forgotten who it was that told the silkworm to learn some culture.
He glanced at the intelligence points.
After two months of accumulation, having finished all the new semester's textbooks, the intelligence points had reached 139.
"The potential from basic training hasn't been fully tapped yet, but I can start targeted intensive training."
Speed enhancement training (unlock with 30 intelligence points);
Spiritual power enhancement training (unlock with 60 intelligence points);
"Spiritual power is more important, I'll unlock the spiritual power enhancement plan first."
The intelligence points dinged and dropped by nearly half.
A substantial amount of information flooded into his mind.
Su Hao sat dazed for a full few minutes before gradually coming back to his senses, rubbing his slightly throbbing head.
"Good thing I didn't unlock both plans at once."
The amount of information was huge.
At least ten times more than the basic training materials.
It covered advanced techniques for using spiritual power, clever ways to use special moves, how to quickly recover spiritual power, and so on.
And most importantly, how to improve the quality of spiritual power.
"So that's how it is..."
"Before a spirit reaches the entry level, the limit of spiritual power isn't fixed. Some spirits barely reach a hundred, while others can reach a hundred and twenty, a hundred and thirty..."
This depended on how well the spirit was nurtured.
Su Hao figured they'd teach similar knowledge next semester.
But...
"By using unique nurturing methods, expanding the spirit's limits, letting it accumulate as much spiritual power as possible before the entry level, and then...
"It can even be compressed multiple times?!"