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The second academic year began.
School was back in session.
It was still the classroom of Class 1, Grade 1.
When Xu Yuan saw his classmates again, he immediately sensed a difference.
After all, it had been nearly half a year since they last met.
After finishing the first semester of the first academic year, Xu Yuan had skipped two vacations and an entire second semester, so he hadn't seen his classmates for quite some time.
"Class Monitor."
Even after half a year, Xu Yuan's popularity remained high.
Xu Yuan's gaze settled.
He looked at Tang Wulin, slightly surprised.
Tang Wulin seemed completely different, as if he had undergone some kind of transformation.
What was going on?
Had this guy improved so significantly in just half a year?
However, Xu Yuan only felt surprised for a moment. After passing by Tang Wulin, he glanced at the others.
Returning to his designated seat near the window in the second-to-last row, class time had already begun, and Wu Zhangkong and Shen Yi walked into the classroom together.
"Classmates, congratulations on starting the new academic year—none of you were eliminated," Shen Yi said with a smile.
...
After Shen Yi finished sharing her hopes for the new semester, Wu Zhangkong stepped forward to assign tasks.
"Now I'll announce your overall task for this academic year. Similar to last year's mech construction project, this will be a year-long assignment."
Wu Zhangkong's expression remained cold.
"First, your secondary profession levels must reach at least level three by the end of this year. Second, you must apply your secondary profession through practical experience. According to the evaluation standards of the academy's various associations, you'll need to accumulate a total of over 100,000 merit points by taking on tasks related to your secondary profession."
The first point set the minimum requirement for secondary professions.
By now, everyone should have reached level three or higher, which allowed them to begin learning techniques related to battle armor.
The second point, regarding the practical application of secondary professions, aimed to lay the foundation for advancing to level four in their secondary profession and to prepare them for attempting to craft battle armor at level three.
Xu Yuan estimated that next year, the students would likely begin the process of crafting battle armor.
Of course, producing tangible results would be impossible since they were only at level three in their secondary professions. However, they could start practicing.
Over the three years of the first grade, they were gradually stepping onto the right path, taking their first steps toward becoming battle armor masters.
"Class Monitor."
Just as Xu Yuan was about to leave, Wu Siduo approached him.
"What is it?"
"Mm." Wu Siduo nodded and explained, "This year, I want to try making battle armor. I was wondering if I could ask you, Class Monitor, to forge spirit alloys for me?"
"You're already a level five mech designer?" Xu Yuan asked in surprise.
Wu Siduo blushed slightly.
"Not yet, but I feel like I'm close."
"Sure. Once you've designed your battle armor blueprint, come find me to discuss the selection of rare metals. By the way, once you break through to level five mech designer, I recommend trying to challenge yourself by designing parts of a purple-grade mech. You don't need to design an entire purple-grade mech—just analyze the technology for each part and attempt to design them yourself."
The difficulty of designing a standard purple-grade mech corresponded to a level five mech designer. However, when broken down into parts, the difficulty fell between levels four and five.
"Thank you, Class Monitor!" Wu Siduo said excitedly.
Xu Yuan waved his hand dismissively.
"Who called me?" Xie Xie popped his head out, looking at Wu Siduo.
(T/N: Thank you in Chinese is also pronounced 'Xie xie')
"I didn't call you." Wu Siduo pushed him away, exasperated.
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After dispersing, Xu Yuan was chased down by Xie Xie.
"What? Do you have something to say?" Xu Yuan looked at Xie Xie, who had caught up to him, feeling somewhat puzzled.
He didn't interact much with this guy, after all.
"That... Class Monitor," Xie Xie hesitated, glancing around to confirm no one was nearby before asking in a low voice, "Class Monitor, did you successfully split one martial soul into two?"
Xu Yuan glanced at Xie Xie.
During the class officer assessment at the beginning of the first academic year, Xu Yuan had displayed three martial souls with different numbers of soul rings, leading some people to suspect he possessed triple martial souls.
However, no one had outright brought it up.
Of course, behind closed doors, there had been plenty of speculation.
Xie Xie and Tang Wulin had discussed it and concluded that triple martial souls shouldn't exist naturally. They guessed that Xu Yuan's Tian Yuan Brush and Tian Yuan Five Elements Spear were originally a single martial soul with two forms, which Xu Yuan had split into two separate martial souls.
As it turned out, they were correct.
"What about it? Do you want to completely split your two martial souls?" Xu Yuan asked curiously.
Xie Xie coming to him to ask about splitting martial souls—was it because of his own martial soul issue?
Xu Yuan remembered that Xie Xie's twin martial souls were technically two separate souls, but they had to share soul spirits and soul rings while possessing different soul skills.
Xie Xie let out a bitter laugh.
His twin martial souls were among the weakest he knew of.
Two daggers—not fully developed twins—they had to absorb soul spirits and soul rings simultaneously, severely hindering his growth.
Not only did he lack significant advantages, but this setup also obstructed his progress.
Of course, the two martial souls' differing directions—light and shadow—could be seen as a combination of light and darkness, so there was still potential for development.
"No," Xie Xie denied Xu Yuan's assumption.
His gaze was firm as he looked at Xu Yuan, his eyes filled with anticipation.
"Class Monitor, if you can split one martial soul with two forms into two separate martial souls, can you also fuse two martial souls into one?"
Xu Yuan understood.
It wasn't unexpected.
Xu Yuan had briefly considered this possibility before.
But it was just a fleeting thought—he hadn't given it much serious consideration.
Given Xie Xie's situation, Xu Yuan hadn't been interested.
At the time, he hadn't planned to help Xie Xie strategize either.
So, after a simple association, he hadn't delved deeper.
Now, however, Xie Xie had come to him, seeking help to completely fuse his two martial souls.
"Are you sure? It's still a twin martial soul, after all."
Xie Xie let out another bitter laugh.
A twin martial soul?
Please.
Compared to Yuanen Yehui's twin martial souls, which were individually powerful, his two little daggers were pitiful. And compared to Wu Siduo's twin martial souls, which had unparalleled compatibility and even possessed a self-fusion skill, his two daggers were more closely linked but couldn't fuse.
He still had to develop combination techniques himself.
How could he compare?
As for Xu Yuan, there was no need to mention him—his three martial souls each seemed to have unique advantages.
"It's possible. Martial souls are unpredictable, but I haven't done any research in this area. There's no need to rush," Xu Yuan shrugged.
"In fact, your martial souls are already in a fused state. If you continue developing combination techniques and unify the light and shadow attributes, you're essentially promoting the fusion of your two martial souls. If a strong external factor arises, complete fusion might be possible."
For example, under the influence of someone's Golden Dragon King bloodline, the dragon-like bloodline within your Light and Shadow Dragon Daggers could be strengthened and awakened, causing a mutation. In dragon form, it could simultaneously carry both light and shadow properties, achieving fusion.
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