Chapter Sixteen: Xiao Xiao

The next day, Huo Yuhao walked into the classroom looking deathly pale.

With no guidance or instruction, he had been forced to rely on a clumsy, trial-and-error method to grope for the sensation of releasing his spiritual power. Of course, he wasn’t the only one who had spent a restless night.

"Are you certain that's actually a special cultivation technique?" Wang Dong followed close behind, his dark circles prominent. The resentment radiating from him was almost tangible, turning into black smoke drifting upward from his head. "Are you sure you aren't just messing with me on purpose?"

All night long, the alarm bells of crisis had been ringing in his mind, as if someone had been firing guns and cannons right next to his head. That palpable sense of impending doom was impossible to ignore.

"Do I look like I’m playing a prank on you?" Huo Yuhao asked in a weak, hollow voice, barely possessing the strength to even form an expression.

"If I had known it would be like this, I would have kicked you out of the room in the middle of the night! From now on, if you can’t explain what you’re doing during cultivation, you can go sleep on the track!" Wang Dong sat back in his seat from the day before, his face dark, clearly wanting nothing more to do with him.

Fortunately, they didn't have to face that outrageous old hag today. They only had to spend the day in the classroom learning about spirit beast identification and listening to the teacher ramble on about stale spirit soul theories that had been picked apart by predecessors long ago—things like the "Ten Core Competencies of Spirit Souls."

It was hardly nourishing material, but it was useful for students who didn't aspire to reach the seventh or ninth ring, helping them secure stable jobs at other advanced spirit master academies later on.

"Sigh."

As he listened to the lecture in a daze, Huo Yuhao suddenly felt a poke in his elbow. The person sitting next to him was a young girl.

"Your name is Huo Yuhao, right?" Seeming unsure of how to start the conversation, the girl introduced herself softly and reached out a hand under the desk. "My name is Xiao Xiao."

"Yes." Huo Yuhao reached out and shook her hand lightly. "Hello. Is there something you need?"

He had an impression of this girl. Although she wasn't at the front of the pack of ninety students during the laps yesterday, she hadn't shown any signs of total exhaustion either. Considering her petite, fragile frame—she looked like she would topple over in a breeze—being able to keep up was nothing short of a miracle. Unless there was a special reason, it could only mean her spirit power rank was high enough that she had energy to spare.

"Um, it’s nothing, really. I just wanted to ask... how exactly did you improve your physical strength?" Realizing the question might be inappropriate, Xiao Xiao looked embarrassed. "Of course! You don't have to tell me if you don't want to! I was just a bit curious, that’s all..."

She possessed twin spirit souls, so her innate spirit power rank was naturally high. However, her cultivation speed and the age of her additional spirit rings were limited; the reason was that both of her spirit souls were tool spirits, and neither had any connection to her physical body. Without a strong foundation, she couldn't absorb high-level spirit rings, which in turn stunted her spirit soul's growth, further lowering her threshold for future rings.

If she didn't find a way to break this deadlock, she would likely fall into a vicious cycle, potentially unable to even absorb a hundred-thousand-year spirit ring in the future. Originally, Xiao Xiao had resigned herself to this step-by-step progression, hoping to barely scrape by as an eighty-ninth-rank Spirit Douluo to take over her family's forces. Who would have thought she would run into a freak like Huo Yuhao, whose physical body was abnormally powerful, here at Shrek?

*If only I could be like him... No, even just catching up to a mid-tier beast spirit of the same rank would be enough for me!* Xiao Xiao pursed her lips nervously, waiting for Huo Yuhao’s answer.

"Physical fitness? That—" Huo Yuhao opened his mouth, suddenly stuck on how to explain it. Should he say he happened to meet a goddess sister by chance? That he was chosen by her for unknown reasons? And that he was reborn under the blessing of divine power? There was no way he could say that!

"As long as you work twice as hard, you will naturally be able to temper your body," Huo Yuhao replied after a long silence, his expression calm. It was fine; the oracle didn't say that a believer must be honest. He wasn't violating his principles. Yes.

"Work twice as hard? You can reach that level just by doing that?" Xiao Xiao was stunned. Although it sounded like nonsense, she hadn't tried it herself, so she didn't dare to refute it. She braced herself and asked, "Then... can you tell me how to work hard effectively? I don't think I've been going about it the right way."

"..."

How was he supposed to answer that? Huo Yuhao decisively chose to ask for help. "Tian Meng, do you have any way to handle this?"

"Haah—" Tian Meng yawned, rolled over, and scratched his belly. "Haven't Tang Ya and Bei Bei been wanting you to join the Tang Sect? Why don't you just introduce her to them? Besides, the Mysterious Heaven Technique will satisfy her needs perfectly."

"But she's asking about how to improve her physical fitness..." Huo Yuhao felt a headache coming on.

"Then tell her to do weighted training. That Zhou Yi only knows how to make you run laps, but her general logic isn't wrong. Under the nourishment of spirit power, every time your body reaches its limit, it brings about a slight improvement." Tian Meng paused, then added, "Of course, this clumsy method doesn't work well after the third or fourth ring; it's only a path for low-level spirit masters to increase their spirit ring age."

If weighted laps were truly that effective, combined with Shrek’s world-class dining hall, they would have produced a mountain of super-spirit masters long ago. From the results, it was clear that these methods were merely the icing on the cake for strong beast spirits and had little real effect. Only those with a combination of non-corporeal tool spirits and auxiliary-type spirits would think these methods were significantly effective.

"Ahem... Teacher Zhou Yi's weighted training is rough, but it's still worth learning from." Huo Yuhao felt a bit thin-skinned, so he coughed a few times to steady himself before continuing to lead her on. "If conditions allow, you can try training in other ways."

Weighted? Other ways? Xiao Xiao was stunned, falling into deep thought. He didn't know what she had suddenly imagined.

"But you must remember, tempering the body can easily lead to damage. Before that, it's best to find a method of circulating spirit power that protects the body. You can try your luck with a senior named Tang Ya regarding that."

Seeing that she was actually taking it to heart, Huo Yuhao’s guilt grew. While chanting "I have sinned" in his heart, he steeled himself and continued, "Furthermore, a spirit master must train to release spirit and spiritual power independently of their spirit soul, and improve their control over their spirit soul... Of course, you must make sure to supplement your nutrition during this process."

Even though he was making it up, he figured it wouldn't hurt Xiao Xiao. After all, Huo Yuhao could already do these things. The Spirit Eye spirit soul was grounded in spiritual power, so with enough training, he could release spiritual detection without using spirit power. As for spirit power... with the spiritual power in his spiritual sea, bypassing the spirit soul to control his spirit power was effortless.

"Yes! Okay, I’ve remembered it all!" After listening to Huo Yuhao’s nonsense, a look of grateful relief appeared on Xiao Xiao’s face. "Thank you for the guidance!"

She actually believed him. And she believed it firmly. By the time the class ended, Huo Yuhao was still sitting there, covering his head with a guilty expression.

"Relax~" Tian Meng spoke lazily to soothe him. "These suggestions of yours only benefit her and won't delay her cultivation much. If you really feel guilty, just compensate her with a couple of high-age spirit bones once you become powerful in the future, wouldn't that work?"