Running I

After dinner, the two of them went to the communal bathhouse to wash up.

After returning to the dormitory, Xu Jie flopped onto his bed. The rushing about these past days had truly been exhausting, and he needed an afternoon nap to refresh himself.

Seeing Xu Jie lying on the bed, Huo Yuhao thought for a moment. Rather than cultivating as usual, he lay down beside Xu Jie as well.

Brother Jie had said that people needed to relax. If they stayed tense all the time, the string in their minds would snap sooner or later. More importantly, he was tired too.

Not long after the two had fallen asleep, they were awakened by the bustling commotion outside the window. Xu Jie did not hurry to watch the excitement. Calmly, he picked up a towel and went to wash his face. Huo Yuhao, meanwhile, immediately leaned over the balcony to look down at the crowd below.

In the crowd, a youth with pinkish-blue hair had pinned a youth with light green hair beneath him, repeatedly shouting, "Do you submit?"

Children at that age were always fearless. Even while pinned beneath the other, the light-green-haired youth kept spewing all sorts of insults. Listening to the stream of abuse, the pinkish-blue-haired youth's face gradually flushed red and purple.

Even without using his martial soul, Soul Power still surged into his hand. His right fist, infused with Soul Power, swung toward the light-green-haired youth's vital area.

Xu Jie happened to see this as he returned from washing his face, but he was not worried for the light-green-haired youth. Things had reached this point; a teacher would definitely step in to stop them.

Just as Xu Jie expected, a young man suddenly rushed out from the crowd and caught the pinkish-blue-haired youth's right hand just before it struck.

Seeing that the attack had been stopped, the light-green-haired youth spewed insults even faster. The pinkish-blue-haired youth's eyes instantly reddened. A pair of blue butterfly wings appeared behind him, their colors shifting continuously from pale blue to deep blue. One yellow Soul Ring and one purple Soul Ring rose from beneath his feet.

"Thousand-Year Soul Ring!!!" Cries of shock rang out from the crowd. Even Huo Yuhao could not help being surprised. Seeing this, Xu Jie directly smacked Huo Yuhao on the head. "And you're surprised?"

"Hehe." After being smacked, Huo Yuhao chuckled. He understood what Xu Jie meant. After all, his first Soul Ring was a million-year one.

The instant the pinkish-blue-haired youth's martial soul appeared, the young teacher frowned. Without summoning his own martial soul, Soul Rings rose from beneath his feet one after another—yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black. A six-ringed Soul Emperor with the optimal ring configuration instantly suppressed the two of them, grabbed one in each hand, and vanished.

With both fighters taken away, the remaining crowd dispersed as well. Xu Jie looked at the sky and saw that it was nearly evening, so he brought Huo Yuhao to the cafeteria for dinner.

While they were there, the two discovered that they did not even know which class they belonged to. On their way back, they checked the notice board. Mm, Freshman Class One.

After dinner, the two did not return to the dormitory. Instead, they went to the plaza and began training. They first practiced several sets of Wudang Long Fist, then started running around the track.

Under Xu Jie's guidance, Huo Yuhao had long mastered the knack of practicing his skill while training.

Huo Yuhao discovered that ever since he had fused with Sky Dream Ice Silkworm, the cultivation speed of his Dragon-Elephant Prajna Skill had become much faster.

Over the next two days, Xu Jie and Huo Yuhao lived extremely regular lives: eat, cultivate, eat, cultivate, eat, cultivate... Unless they were using the restroom, they were either eating or cultivating, not wasting a moment.

When classes began on the third day, the two put on their own white school uniforms, pinned on the green Little Monsters badges that symbolized Shrek Academy, and arrived early at the white teaching building for freshmen. They sat in a corner of the classroom.

Xu Jie did not practice his skill or meditate. Huo Yuhao beside him, however, was constantly practicing and meditating. His talent was lacking, so he could only make up for it through hard work.

Before long, more and more people filled the classroom. Xu Jie noticed that the pinkish-blue-haired youth seemed to have been isolated by the boys. Not a single boy sat near him; they were all girls.

That made sense. Over the past two days, the matter involving the pinkish-blue-haired youth and the light-green-haired youth had spread everywhere. Dugu Lu had arrived at the dormitory early, cleaned it up, and prepared to welcome his new roommate. But when the new roommate arrived, he immediately started acting all high and mighty, saying something like, "Since you cleaned the dormitory so well, I'll allow you to live with me," followed by a whole lot of similarly condescending nonsense.

Damn it, even a nanny could not stand that. No, not even a nanny could endure it. If he did not get beaten up, how could anyone vent their anger?

This made Xu Jie feel even more brilliant for his decision not to go to that dormitory directly. If he had run into that guy when he went to the dormitory, he might well have beaten him up too.

Once nearly everyone had arrived, an old woman entered through the classroom door. She had wrinkled skin and white hair, dressed in a white robe. She looked very old, yet moved with astonishing speed as she strode straight to the lectern.

Xu Jie nudged Huo Yuhao awake from his meditation and waited for the old woman on the stage to speak.

The old woman's calm gaze swept from left to right, lingering briefly on Xu Jie and Huo Yuhao before turning toward the pinkish-blue-haired youth. She barked, "Wang Dong, Dugu Lu, stand up."

Wang Dong and Dugu Lu immediately stood.

The old woman looked at them and said, "You two are certainly impressive. Fighting on the first day of school. Although Shrek has a school motto that says those who dare not cause trouble are mediocre, you actually made such a scene that it reached the Academic Affairs Office. You've truly brought me great honor!"

"Get out there and run one hundred and fifty laps around Shrek Plaza."

The old woman stared hard at the two of them. Wang Dong and Dugu Lu seemed to feel the pressure and did not argue. They left the classroom to run their laps.

"Pfft!" Someone below suddenly laughed. The old woman's gaze snapped toward the students, and she shouted, "Hmph, you bunch of trash. You don't even dare to cause trouble. Get out there and run one hundred and fifty laps too."

The moment she said that, the students below immediately erupted into chatter. Fine, the two who had fought their way into the Academic Affairs Office were being punished—but now their group, who had not fought at all, were being punished too.

Someone immediately stood up. "Teacher, I refuse to accept this. Why should we be punished when we didn't fight?"

As soon as he spoke, many others below echoed him.

Seeing this, the old woman did not waste words. A terrifying aura suddenly filled the classroom. Six Soul Rings—yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black—released overwhelming pressure.

"Those who dare not cause trouble are mediocre. And you still have the nerve to argue? Get out there and run. You have only an hour and a half. Anyone who fails to complete one hundred and fifty laps within an hour and a half will be considered to have failed the assessment. Those who fail will be expelled immediately."

The classroom instantly fell silent. Xu Jie shook his head, endured the pressure, and led Huo Yuhao out of the classroom. The old woman's eyes immediately lit up at the sight. As expected of a genius with Ultimate Fire.