Chapter 125: New Friends

"A fifty-seventh-rank Soul King? I recall you were only fifteen this year, junior? And you were only thirty-seventh-rank when you left the academy last year?" (The fifteen years old Zhou Heng told the outside world was actually thirteen.)

Upon hearing Zhou Heng's self-introduction, the senior named Xiong Xin was immediately startled and blurted out Zhou Heng's information.

"Hm?" Zhou Heng gave a puzzled hum, not quite understanding why this senior he had never met would be so concerned with his information.

Feeling Zhou Heng's gaze, the burly Xiong Xin felt slightly awkward.

"Ahem, no, junior, I..."

"Alright, the truth is, although we were out training last year, we heard about you after we returned."

"I'm a bit of a curious person, so I asked around. I guarantee I absolutely have no other intentions."

As Xiong Xin spoke, he went to the side and pulled over a female Spirit Master who was perhaps just a bit shorter than him, but whose horizontal development was not a bit inferior.

"Look, junior, I'm already married. I really don't have any other ideas!"

Getting married in one's twenties was considered normal even in Zhou Heng's previous life, and on the Douluo Continent, it was already considered late marriage and late childbearing.

Although Zhou Heng was still not quite used to this state of getting married while still in school, he still nodded at the Spirit Master.

"Hello, senior sister."

"Hm, hello, junior. My name is Zhu Zhen, martial soul Storm Wild Boar, forty-second-rank Power-attack System Spirit Master." Zhu Zhen patted Xiong Xin on the shoulder and explained to Chen Ming, "Little Xiong doesn't have any bad intentions; he's just a bit curious."

"Little Xiong..."

Looking at Senior Xiong Xin's height of over two meters, Zhou Heng felt this nickname was somewhat inappropriate, but he did not show it.

"Curiosity is only human nature."

"By the way, Senior Xiong Xin, Senior Sister Zhu Zhen, what are you doing here?"

"Oh, it's like this." Xiong Xin pointed to his teammates, who were peeking at his awkward appearance and snickering.

"We are the team from the previous session. You know, although our Imperial Academy has two teams, one of which is even guaranteed a spot in the grand finals."

"But in reality, everyone knows that the team with the guaranteed spot is just sent over to get some gilding; it's considered good luck if they can survive the first round. The team that fights their way up is the main force."

"When we were in the previous session, we defeated the Nether White Tiger of the Star Luo Empire Royal Academy, but because the consumption was too great, we didn't beat the Spirit Hall Team later on."

Although in reality, even in perfect condition, Xiong Xin's team might not necessarily have been able to beat the Spirit Hall Team.

But in front of his junior, Xiong Xin still had to save a little face for himself.

As the saying goes, lose the match, don't lose the spirit.

What's more, if the Spirit Hall had faced the Star Luo Empire's Nether White Tiger, and they had faced the Spirit Hall Team's opponents, it wasn't impossible for them to have won against the Spirit Hall Team.

"Because we performed quite well, the Education Committee members called us back from the Star Dou Great Forest."

"They wanted us to keep an eye on the team for this session."

"Junior, you will definitely join the team, right? The future prestige of the Heaven Dou Empire depends on you!"

Xiong Xin scratched his head, looking at Zhou Heng, who had already reached the fifty-fourth rank at just twelve years old, and found it hard to imagine what kind of strength Zhou Heng could have in this tournament.

Even looking at the slowest progress, that would surely be at the level of a Soul Emperor, right?

And even if they couldn't win the championship in this tournament, then after training for another five years.

Basically, his soul power would be close to the level of a Soul Saint!

A Soul Saint! That is a realm that hasn't appeared in the Spirit Master tournament for the last hundred years!

And a twenty-year-old Soul Saint is not just at the level of having the potential of a Title Douluo, but is destined to become a Title Douluo in the future.

Although his own talent was good, looking at Zhou Heng, Xiong Xin couldn't help but feel a bit envious.

Clearly, Xiong Xin, who was just an ordinary Spirit Master, could never have imagined that according to the original world line, three Soul Kings and a large number of Soul Ancestors would appear in the next Spirit Master tournament all at once.

The continent, which looks calm now, will undergo earth-shaking changes in ten years.

Although Dugu Yan had a lot she wanted to say to Zhou Heng, because the field was full of Spirit Masters fighting, Dugu Yan had to take on the responsibility of captain, so after agreeing to have a good chat with Zhou Heng in the evening, she continued to pay attention to the selection of team members.

Seeing that Xiong Xin wanted to talk to Zhou Heng, Zhu Zhen didn't continue to disturb them, but instead took over Xiong Xin's responsibility and led the teammates to continue observing the situation, leaving space for Xiong Xin and Zhou Heng to talk.

Through their conversation, Zhou Heng learned that this Senior Xiong Xin came from a family of military generals in the Heaven Dou Empire; his father was a Soul Saint-level Spirit Master, and his grandfather had the cultivation of a Spirit Douluo.

He was once one of the two great marshals who stood alongside Ge Long in the Heaven Dou Empire, but because he was injured on the battlefield in his early years, he had to retire from the position of marshal early and stay at home to recuperate.

Xiong Xin and Zhu Zhen were childhood sweethearts, both coming from military families.

They grew up together and entered the Heaven Dou Imperial Academy together.

Because of their excellent performance, they both became members of the Heaven Dou Imperial Academy team, and then became the captain and vice-captain of that session.

Although the two of them did not have a Spirit Fusion Skill because their martial souls were too different.

But the two of them were very tacit in battle and could exert an effect of one plus one being greater than two; they were the strongest students in the academy.

After the last tournament ended, the two of them noticed their own shortcomings, so they prepared to go to the Star Dou Great Forest to train.

And their teammates also chose to follow the captain and vice-captain to venture out.

So that they could enter the army together in the future and become military generals of the Heaven Dou Empire.

The year Zhou Heng enrolled, they happened not to be in the academy.

After venturing out for nearly a year, the three Education Committee members sent people to the Star Dou Great Forest to find them and bring them back, wanting them to guide the new team.

And after returning to the academy, Xiong Xin and Zhu Zhen even joined forces to defeat a teacher at the Soul King level.

Perhaps because of his background, Xiong Xin had none of the bad habits of the nobility; he was shrewd and capable without too many ulterior motives, and his personality was very much to Zhou Heng's liking.

After chatting simply for a while, the two of them became friends.

Xiong Xin had no intention of prying into what kind of training Zhou Heng had received from the Poison Douluo, or how he had increased his soul power by seventeen ranks in over a year.

Instead, he carefully told Zhou Heng the story of how their team fought all the way through the All-Continent Advanced Spirit Master Academy Elite Tournament, occasionally adding some insights he had gained after venturing across the continent.

By the end of the conversation, Xiong Xin discovered that Zhou Heng seemed to be very proficient in combat. Sometimes he could casually mention soul power and soul skill control techniques that even surprised him.