Roll Up

Chen Ping did not run into any more acquaintances after that, and his dormitory remained completely empty.

He did not know whether a room in his dormitory had happened to be vacant, or whether his roommate had taken one look at the dormitory's conditions and gone straight out to rent a place—or even stay in a hotel.

In any case, throughout these first few days of the new students' enrollment, no one had come to Chen Ping's dormitory.

Delighted by this, he simply turned his own bed sideways and stood the other one upright against the wall, forcibly squeezing out an area large enough for physical training.

However, this also made Chen Ping quite critical of Shrek's living conditions.

The place was tiny enough that even living alone, Chen Ping felt somewhat cramped when exercising, let alone when washing up and the like.

And what about cultivation? What if his roommate got an upset stomach halfway through cultivating, rumbled off to the bathroom, then rumbled back?

Even if most students were self-disciplined enough to understand that maintaining absolute silence while others cultivated was an unspoken mutual understanding, a few reckless youngsters were bound to appear. Any new student saddled with such a roommate would have a hard time.

For precisely that reason, Chen Ping was secretly rather delighted that he had a single room to live in.

Figuring that there was still roughly half an hour before class began, Chen Ping chose not to continue cultivating in the Dormitory Building and headed straight for the Teaching Building.

The white Teaching Building's doors stood wide open, but only a few scattered Sixth Year Students in Black Uniforms passed by Chen Ping. He had arrived a little too early.

He leisurely walked into his classroom. Seeing that it was completely empty, Chen Ping soon found a window seat in the First Row.

If he wanted to become a qualified Juan Wang, how could he fail to carry forward the spirit of Seat Occupying?

He had set out an hour early, which made him not only the first to arrive at Class Nine, but also the first person in the entire New Student Teaching Building to reach Class Nine.

This was the benefit of mastering Movement Meditation and the Left Circle Right Square technique. As long as Chen Ping wanted to, he could cultivate anywhere without worrying too much about being disturbed.

Taking out a textbook for First Year New Students, Chen Ping quickly flipped through the contents. He immediately Breathed a sigh of relief.

The System-generated Five Three for Five Years of Soul Hunting and Three Years of Mock Exams was indeed useful. Most of the knowledge points in the book were included in it.

The Shrek Outer Courtyard was, in essence, a mixed Junior High and High School for Soul Masters. Perhaps the academic pressure would become heavier in the later grades.

However, the thin textbook in Chen Ping's hands was already telling him that during these first few years, Shrek students would not face much pressure from theoretical studies.

This was beneficial not only to the other students, but to Chen Ping as well. After all, no matter how hard he worked, his energy was ultimately limited.

The more time he devoted to studying Soul Master and Soul Beast theory, the less time he would have to study Soul Tools.

Having figured this out, Chen Ping immediately entered study mode. He planned to finish chewing through all the knowledge points in this book that were not recorded in the Five Three within a week, then squeeze out extra time to study Soul Tools.

But this led to one thing.

When the other students of Class Nine gradually arrived in the classroom after eating their fill, the first thing they saw was Chen Ping, a book in his left hand and notes in his right, completely absorbed in his studies.

For a moment, a tremendous anxiety arose from the depths of every student's heart as they entered the classroom. It came from humanity's most fundamental source, and was called the anxiety of falling behind.

I came this early, and there's already someone here before me?

Coming early is one thing, but he's actually devouring the textbook?

The Shrek students who could arrive at the classroom early in the first place might not have been particularly studious, but they still hoped to leave a good impression on their teacher.

Now, seeing Chen Ping in a state of ignoring everything beyond his ears and focusing solely on reading the sage's book, they immediately fell silent, not even daring to greet him.

They hurriedly found suitable seats. Regardless of what books they had in their Storage Soul Guidance Devices, they took them out one after another and began reading.

Ning Tian and Wu Feng were among them.

They were also members of Freshman Class Nine, and they had arrived only slightly later than Chen Ping.

When they saw Chen Ping, the two of them were genuinely astonished. He was actually a New Student in the same grade—and the same class—as them?

But when the two saw that Chen Ping's gaze had not shifted in the slightest because of their arrival, and that he remained focused on flipping through his textbook, Ning Tian and Wu Feng could not help feeling tense as well.

In their Sect, the two of them belonged to the type whose Cultivation Talent was good enough that no one would nag them even if their Theoretical Performance was somewhat lacking.

Yet just a few days ago, the two of them had been suppressed by Chen Ping, a One Ring Soul Master, using nothing but an Insect Staff. They had unleashed several Soul Skills, but still failed to gain the slightest advantage.

The arrogance they had developed from being unrivaled among their peers in cultivation speed had been rubbed away by more than half that very night.

Now that they saw Chen Ping arrive at the classroom first and read his textbook without looking away, not even interested in paying attention to the people entering the class, how could they continue chattering?

The two hurriedly chose seats in the First Row, sitting down directly to Chen Ping's right. They carefully examined what book Chen Ping was reading.

Then, copying what he was doing, they also began previewing the material before class.

It was like a chain reaction caused by falling dominoes. Ning Tian and Wu Feng saw Chen Ping opening his book, so they subconsciously opened theirs as well.

Then the students behind them saw that three people had already arrived in the classroom and were all sitting there silently reading. Their heads buzzed as though they had been struck by a heavy hammer.

They immediately sat down in a flustered but quiet manner. Whether or not they could actually absorb the material, they opened their textbooks and stared at them first.

Remembering any knowledge points was secondary. They had to open their books and ease the anxiety of not being part of the study process first.

If the chain reaction had stopped there, it would have been nothing more than a minor matter. But the students in the neighboring class were neither blind nor deaf.

When Class Ten saw that Class Nine was as quiet as if no one were there, they craned their necks over for a look. Seeing that the entire class was bowing their heads and studying, their eyes nearly popped out of their heads in an instant.

These Lesser Soul Masters from Class Ten returned to their classroom in a daze and immediately began studying, spreading the latest wave of the involution virus.

Soon, this habit of bowing their heads to read spread like a genuine virus from the classrooms at the end of the corridor, slowly reaching the middle of the corridor and the corridor entrance.

"Of the ten classes in the Freshman Grade, only the students in our Class One are chattering away inside the classroom, squawking like a hundred ducks."

"I took a deliberate look inside. The farther back the classes are, the more students there are reading!"

"My name is Zhou Yi, and I'm your Class Teacher. I'm not sure how many of you will be able to walk with me through the coming year."

"But I'll tell you this: in my class, no trash will ever pass the assessment. And as far as I'm concerned, every last one of you is trash!"

Suddenly, an extremely unpleasant, hoarse voice rang out from the corridor entrance, like a middle-aged woman's voice coming from a cracked gong. Even the Freshman Class Ten at the far end of the corridor could hear it loud and clear.