Wang Zhong took two deep breaths, patted his dizzy head that Yan had shaken, and said thoughtfully.
"Nana, although I understand why you want to form a team, it's because the spirit master world is too dangerous, and you're worried that one of us three might die in a sudden conflict between spirit masters."
"The strength of a team is always greater than that of an individual, that's what you think, right?"
Hu Liena pursed her lips and nodded seriously.
Scratching his head hard, Wang Zhong continued, "Nana, have you ever thought that this kind of thing might be a bit too early for us?"
Hu Liena blinked, completely not understanding.
"Think about it, we haven't even been in school for half a month, and we only have a very superficial understanding of spirit masters."
"We don't really know what the spirit master world is like. We can't define it as vicious or deceitful just because someone important died."
"Besides, our spirit's development direction is what we each want. The teachers haven't set any for the three of us."
"Under these circumstances, if we rush to form a team, our future development or our future might be affected."
"You don't want to stagnate someday, do you!"
Hearing Wang Zhong talk for so long, Hu Liena pouted and said aggrievedly, "After saying so much, you don't want to team up with me, do you?"
Headache, Wang Zhong had a terrible headache. Hu Liena's expression clearly showed she didn't want to reason with him, and with the angry glares from Xie Yue and Yan, his chest felt even more constricted.
Can't you all mature a little!
"Fine! Fine! Fine! It's just a team, let's form it, form it, form it!"
"I agree, let's form a team, just like when we used to play, alright!"
Wang Zhong rubbed his forehead, wishing he could cry. Hu Liena's tactic never failed on him, and it always worked.
"Really, you're not lying?" Hu Liena pouted, her small face looking wronged, but her beautiful eyes were clearly filled with smiles.
"Yes, yes, yes, I'm not lying."
Wang Zhong nodded affirmatively, then sighed inexplicably. He knew she was faking it, but he just couldn't bring himself to refuse.
A year ago, when Wang Zhong was five years old, he wandered into a dense forest near the orphanage out of curiosity. There, he discovered a ball of light with the most magnificent colors.
The brilliant radiance of the light instantly captured Wang Zhong's entire attention. As he walked forward in a daze and grasped the light ball, a terrifying current surged through his body.
Wang Zhong was instantly sent flying backward, and the most peculiar thing was that the light ball dissolved into his body the moment he held it.
Intense pain spread from his palm to his entire body, causing Wang Zhong to faint on the spot.
When he woke up again, Wang Zhong was back at the orphanage, and in front of him was Hu Liena's slightly red-eyed face, filled with fatigue and worry.
And at this time, a full seven days had passed!
After Wang Zhong fainted, his entire body began to inexplicably heat up, his skin turning red, like a perfectly cooked prawn.
The moisture in his body evaporated at a visible rate, and even his blood seemed to boil, seeping out from under his skin.
Every time Hu Liena wiped his body, she would look at the basin of blood-colored water and cry helplessly.
In this situation, even the院长 thought he wouldn't live long and shook his head, telling Hu Liena to give up and not waste her energy. Yet, Wang Zhong miraculously endured it and survived.
This amazed the院长.
Later, Wang Zhong learned from the院长 that the first to discover him were Hu Liena, Xie Yue, and Yan.
Because his physical condition was not right, the three dared not move him rashly. Hu Liena suggested that Xie Yue and Yan go back to find the院长 first.
When the two returned with the院长, the scene before them almost scared the院长, a Soul Elder of level forty, stiff.
A little girl, holding a sharp stone she had picked up from somewhere, with tears streaming down her face, gritting her teeth, and trembling with her small body, stood in front of a pack of jackals, refusing to retreat, fiercely protecting the person behind her.
From then on, Wang Zhong knew that he owed Hu Liena not only the seven days of constant care but also the life-saving grace that was willingly given, even at the risk of her own life!
Remembering these past events, Wang Zhong's heart softened, and he smiled helplessly.
"However, I think our current problem isn't about forming a team."
Wang Zhong exhaled forcefully and leaned back, lying down.
"Six months from now, that all-grade competition can decide our future!"
"Spirit Hall Academy, the all-grade competition!"
Xie Yue picked up the conversation at this point, his tone becoming unusually heavy.
The Spirit Hall Academy has five grades from top to bottom, corresponding to Soul King, Soul Elder, Soul Venerable, Great Spirit Master, Spirit Master, and Spirit Soldier, respectively, based on their soul power levels.
Each grade is further divided into five levels: A, B, C, D, and E, based on the students' potential, spirit strength, and combat ability.
A-level is the highest, enjoying the greatest privileges within the academy, and receiving the most cultivation resources and teacher attention.
For example, the future development direction of a spirit, which Wang Zhong mentioned earlier, is one such aspect!
Every A-class student will have at least one Soul Saint-level powerhouse as their homeroom teacher, who will formulate a strict and systematic development plan for each student's spirit characteristics and manifestations.
As long as the students cultivate diligently, they can minimize the chances of delaying or wasting their talent due to wrong choices.
This alone is enough to make students of other levels envious.
What's more, there is the most important aspect: the acquisition of soul rings.
Every time a spirit master advances a level, they must hunt spirit beasts to obtain soul rings. Otherwise, their soul power will reach a bottleneck and they will be unable to improve further.
Soul rings provided by spirit beasts can be classified by their age: ten years, one hundred years, one thousand years, ten thousand years, and one hundred thousand years.
The longer a spirit beast lives and the longer it cultivates, the more terrifying its combat power becomes, and the difficulty for spirit masters to hunt it increases exponentially.
For students from common backgrounds, the possibility of hunting them individually is virtually nonexistent!
Furthermore, although the Spirit Hall Academy does offer services to help students hunt spirit beasts, the cost of these services is a terrifying astronomical figure that students cannot afford, and those teachers may not even be willing to act.
Only for A-class students, when they break through, their homeroom teacher will personally lead a team to hunt them in the Soul Hunting Forest or the Star Dou Great Forest, and it is all free!
Finally, and most importantly, in terms of daily expenses, with E-class at 1 gold soul coin as the baseline, D-class is 10, C-class is 100, B-class is 1,000, and A-class reaches a staggering 10,000.
Keep in mind that one gold soul coin is enough to support a commoner family of three for at least three months of sustenance.
This extreme resource allocation makes A-class a "sacred land" that all students strive to enter at all costs!
However, the number of A-class spots is limited.
After the Spirit Hall awakens students' spirits and abilities, classes are assigned based on soul power levels. Only those with soul power levels of seven or higher can enter A-class.
Moreover, the worst part is that this year's A-class spots have become the largest in the history of Spirit Hall Academy due to the appearance of Wang Zhong and the other three, with a total of seven.
The previous year, which is this year's second grade, only had three.
Wang Zhong, Hu Liena, Xie Yue, Yan, plus the other three auxiliary spirit masters in the class, these seven will become the targets of challenge for all first-year students.
The other three auxiliary spirit masters are fine. As long as their auxiliary abilities are outstanding and they don't slack off in their soul power cultivation, very few auxiliary spirit masters will be demoted; most will be promoted.
As for Wang Zhong and the other three, as control and assault-type spirit masters, they must participate in challenge matches one after another. If they lose more than one-fifth of their matches, they will be forced to be demoted.