The class Zhou Yi taught was completely unbearable

" A race hated by the gods?"

Huo Yuhao didn't really understand what she meant.

Ten thousand years ago, the first-generation Shrek's Seven Devils had ascended to godhood. Ever since, people had revered them from generation to generation—at least in the Douluo Three Kingdoms, all he ever heard were good things about them.

He'd never heard anyone say that the gods hated anyone.

"When Sea God Tang San became a god, he was about twenty years old, if I remember right," Chi Qiu said. "In twenty years, he crossed that threshold and gained the eternal life every living thing dreams of."

"Xiao Wu, a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soft Bone Rabbit who had reincarnated as a human, also successfully ascended to the Divine Realm."

"And before either of them was born, Di Tian had already endured eight hundred bolts of Tribulation Lightning during his eight-hundred-thousand-year tribulation. It lasted eighty-one days. When the final bolt faded, Di Tian was already incredibly weak... but he was still breathing."

"The Tribulation Lightning hadn't meant to put Di Tian through hardship so he could emerge transformed. It had only wanted him to die there, and never advance his cultivation any further."

"Heaven doesn't treat humans who are about to become gods that way."

"The gods clearly hate us, yet they allow us to possess strength and intelligence. They make us spend millions of years realizing our plight, even though there's absolutely no way to change it."

"And that rabbit seems to have completely forgotten that she used to be a Soul Beast. If she'd helped the Soul Beasts—even if she'd just said a word on behalf of her own kind—perhaps... the Soul Beasts wouldn't be in this state now."

At this point, Chi Qiu's voice turned unexpectedly mournful. "The Star Dou Great Forest has shrunk considerably since I was born."

As Huo Yuhao listened to Chi Qiu's account, he suddenly thought of the Duchess.

She hated him and his mother, but she hadn't secretly killed them while Dai Hao was away. Instead, she'd locked them in a woodshed and tormented them over and over.

She'd allowed him to undergo Martial Soul Awakening and cultivate Soul Power, yet she'd also made him watch as his mother was beaten to death. Wasn't that another kind of torment?

That was right. The Duchess hadn't been afraid of him and his mother at all. What would she have to fear? She had the Star Luo Empire backing her. Could Huo Yun'er and a child who hadn't awakened the White Tiger Martial Soul possibly threaten her?

She'd simply looked down on them and wanted to torment them.

At the thought, Huo Yuhao's fists clenched.

"I understand what you're saying," he said. "I understand why you don't like these statues."

Chi Qiu simply turned away, no longer looking at the statues. "No. Just pretend I never said any of that. It was my mistake to make you listen."

After saying that, she turned as if to leave.

Huo Yuhao caught her by the sleeve. "There's nothing wrong with it."

"You learned about my hatred on the day you guided me here. Now I know about yours, too. Isn't that only fair?"

Chi Qiu paused, slightly startled.

"Before this, I always thought you were here to keep an eye on me and make sure I returned to the Star Dou Great Forest regularly. But after hearing what you said, I feel like we've become friends."

"Mom said friends share what's on their minds."

Huo Yuhao spoke sincerely, with the simple longing for friendship of a child his age. He'd grown up in the stifling environment of the Duke's Mansion, and ever since he could remember, he'd been forced to shut his heart away.

Aside from Brother Sky Dream, Chi Qiu was the first person to stay by his side for a long time after he left the Duke's Mansion. Even if she probably wanted something from him, he still hoped they could become friends.

A few students walked past them just then. When they saw the statues, they too sighed, "Lord Sea God is so majestic."

Chi Qiu's tense expression finally softened. "Friends... We can be friends."

"Great." Huo Yuhao smiled, then added, "Calling you by your name feels too distant. Can I call you Qiu'er?"

As he said the name, the few inexplicable marks in his Sea of Consciousness glimmered faintly.

"Call me whatever you like." Chi Qiu turned her back to him. "After all, you came up with that name."

"Okay! Qiu'er."

Afterward, the two chatted a little more about their class schedules.

Huo Yuhao learned that he hadn't been assigned to Zhou Yi's class. Apparently, that class was already full, so he'd ended up in the little-discussed first-year class four.

Chi Qiu, on the other hand, had the misfortune of being assigned to Zhou Yi's class.

"Before I left, I saw Wang Dong's schedule. She's in Teacher Zhou's class, too." Huo Yuhao patted her shoulder in consolation. "If anything happens, you can ask her for help. She seems a little spacey, but she should be reliable."

"Okay." Chi Qiu nodded, clearly agreeing with Huo Yuhao's description of Wang Dong.

Huo Yuhao hadn't deliberately looked at Wang Dong's schedule. His Spirit Eye Martial Soul simply gave him incredible eyesight.

After their chat, they went to the cafeteria for lunch together. In the afternoon, they returned to the school gates and continued selling grilled fish. They set aside two big fish with plenty of sauce for Wang Dong, then packed up and went back to the dormitory to cultivate for the evening.

When he returned to the dormitory, he saw that there was already a mattress on his bed.

The next day, Huo Yuhao had just sat down in class and opened his textbook when a chorus of groans came from the classroom across the hall. A flurry of footsteps then echoed through the corridor.

The teacher at the front of their classroom hadn't even started teaching. She awkwardly adjusted her glasses and said,

"Everyone, try to get used to it. That's Teacher Zhou Yi's teaching style in the class next door. Focus your attention back here. We're starting the lesson."

Even so, the students couldn't help peering out the window curiously. Huo Yuhao didn't need to crane his neck to satisfy his curiosity—he simply hid his Soul Ring beneath the desk and activated Spiritual Detection.

That was the good thing about a white ring: it wasn't conspicuous at all.

In fact, there wasn't much difference between it being lit up and not.

Through the scene relayed by Spiritual Detection, he saw that only Wang Dong and Chi Qiu remained in their classroom. Everyone else had already gone to the field. He couldn't detect anything farther away yet, but from the blurry image at the edge of his range, it seemed like they were... running?

Just then, he heard Wang Dong say, "Didn't you just say we had spirit?"

A stern woman's voice answered, "Did I say having spirit meant you didn't have to run? Go! Run a hundred laps, and finish at the same time as everyone else!"

"Then why did you keep us here?" Chi Qiu sounded just as hostile. She hadn't even learned to use human honorifics yet. "Just so we'd think we didn't have to run, let us be happy for a moment, and then crush that happiness?"

Zhou Yi sneered. "I've already started the timer. If you don't finish, you'll be expelled all the same."

Chi Qiu looked ready to explode, but this time Wang Dong pulled her along, and the two of them turned and ran toward the field.

"Why are you pulling me?" Chi Qiu tried to shake her off.

What kind of temper did an Auspicious Beast have? She couldn't stand being treated unfairly for no reason, in such a ridiculous, inexplicable way.

But in the end, it seemed the two of them had gone out to run after all... By this point, Huo Yuhao had a headache. The students' comments about Zhou Yi hadn't been exaggerated!

But if they spent the entire class running, would they even have a lesson?

Seeing that the teacher in his own classroom had already begun drawing a diagram of the cultivation system on the blackboard, Huo Yuhao hurriedly started copying as fast as he could, preparing three sets of notes.

When the bell rang, Huo Yuhao let out a long breath and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

Copying three sets of notes was just too exhausting.

He packed up his meager supplies—a small notebook and a pen—then hurried into the corridor. Across the hall, students from class one were returning in ones and twos. There seemed to be fewer of them, though.

Had they really been expelled? Did this teacher named Zhou Yi actually have that authority?

A little while later, he spotted the familiar blond hair and pinkish-blue hair among the returning students. He breathed a small sigh of relief.

Wang Dong looked completely worn out, while Chi Qiu was expressionless, as if she hadn't even broken a sweat. She wasn't out of breath at all; there were only a couple of drops of sweat at her temples. Even though she'd transformed into a human, a Soul Beast's physical toughness remained.

"Over here!" Huo Yuhao waved to them. Chi Qiu gave a slight nod and helped Wang Dong over.

"What happened?" Huo Yuhao looked at Wang Dong hanging off Chi Qiu's shoulder. For once, he was glad he hadn't ended up in Zhou Yi's class.

"I don't think that woman deserves to be called a teacher," Chi Qiu said, delivering her verdict with casual bluntness.

Wang Dong added, "She didn't teach us a thing the entire class and just made us run a hundred laps. Anyone who didn't finish would be expelled! She even said that support-type students wouldn't be spared on the battlefield, so we all had to run. But you can't just make people who've never exercised run a hundred laps right from the start! Shouldn't she take it gradually?"

Clearly, when two hot-tempered people got together, their resentment added up to more than the sum of its parts.

"Every other class was having lessons, but we learned nothing! It's not like we don't have physical training classes! Is she going to keep doing this?" Wang Dong launched into a rapid-fire rant.

Huo Yuhao handed the two of them his notes. "I saw some of what was going on with Spiritual Detection, so I copied notes for you, too."

"Really?" Wang Dong finally lifted her head.

"Really," Huo Yuhao said. "So don't worry about missing out on what you need to learn. If you can't learn anything in her classes, just sit in on ours."

"Did you have time?" Chi Qiu asked. She guessed that Huo Yuhao had used his spiritual power, but copying three sets of notes was still too much.

"It was a little tiring, but you have it harder in Teacher Zhou's class, so I'm fine."

"Wait." Wang Dong seemed to have recovered. She raised a hand. "Don't push yourself, Yuhao. If you want to copy notes quickly, there's something that might come in handy."

"What?" Huo Yuhao grew interested.

"When we don't have classes this afternoon, come with me to the shops beside the Soul Tool Department's teaching building. I'll show you."

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