Time Flew By

The setting sun shone down on the group, its light glinting off their handsome or beautiful faces. There was one exception: a huge lump had swollen up on his face. The others didn't openly make fun of him, but they kept sneaking glances at him and couldn't help laughing.

In the end, Xu Sanshi couldn't take it anymore. So his face was swollen—what was the big deal? Getting hurt in a fight was perfectly normal, wasn't it? He couldn't even bring himself to scold them. This was the second time, so however you looked at it, it was his own fault. But Huo Yuhao's ability was just too unfair; he had no way to explain himself.

He could only cover his face and walk ahead so they wouldn't see it. Xiao Xiao also joined this somewhat unfamiliar group. Not everyone got the chance to enter the circle of the very best geniuses. She had wondered how Huo Yuhao could beat Dai Huabin, but his performance now was practically the answer: only a genius could keep up with other geniuses.

Xiao Xiao knew, though, that she had only gotten the chance to meet these people because of Huo Yuhao. She had to seize this opportunity. It was just that the girl seemed to be looking at her strangely. She hadn't noticed anything unusual about Bei Bei yet; they simply hadn't spent enough time together. Women were better at understanding the differences between other women.

But she would figure out the reason through talking with them. She wasn't as slow on the uptake as Huo Yuhao. Girls just matured earlier than boys. While most little boys were still playing in the mud, some girls had already started dressing up.

And so the sun and moon rose again and again, their light falling in an endless cycle on these young people. A few times, someone joined them, only to apparently decide they couldn't stand a certain someone and stop coming along. They walked through crowds that seemed to stretch on forever, leaving the hubbub behind them.

They feared no hardship, no matter the wind or rain. The rain beating against the leaves along the road gradually turned to snow, and winter arrived. The trees went dormant. Since they were a special species that didn't shed their leaves in winter, they probably saved the city's street cleaners a little work.

But that created a new problem. Every year, snow weighed down branches until they broke and fell on pedestrians. There were still plenty of ordinary people in Shrek City; a population of over a million couldn't possibly consist entirely of Soul Masters. With that kind of strength, they could have united the world.

As it happened, the timing coincided with the end of the term at Shrek. So, to give the students something to do, the school held its annual snow-clearing drive. It strengthened the ties between Shrek's students and the residents, and kept the students from losing touch with ordinary life.

It also gave the students a chance to interact. Plenty of people never took the first step; without a good excuse, they wouldn't act. The school had no choice but to come up with this plan to encourage them to mingle as much as possible and prepare for the upcoming final exams.

Huo Yuhao was among them, but he no longer had to worry about that. He already had teammates. Now something else was bothering him. Before, he'd wondered why they had such a long stretch of free time.

Now that he was experiencing it for himself, he understood: time was really tight. Though, to be honest, it was his own fault. His foundation was terrible, so he'd fallen a little behind in his academic classes. Now the consequences had caught up with him. He was no longer the confident Huo Yuhao who'd arrived at the start of the term; homework and exams had bent his back.

And there was even worse news: the exams had been moved up. They wanted to renovate and upgrade the Soul Guidance Department's classrooms, and get this bunch of nuisances out of the way as soon as possible, so they'd come up with this plan.

That made their already limited time even tighter. Like the tree in front of him, its branches weighed down by snow, Huo Yuhao had gone from relaxed to anxious in an instant. But the anxiety in his heart couldn't immediately turn into action. Once you'd enjoyed too many easy days, it was hard to change course. It was like people who'd grown up under a certain education system and adapted to university as soon as they got there.

Going to bed late and waking up late had taken a toll on his health. Literally. Huo Yuhao had been too complacent. It was easy to let yourself go once the pressure was gone. Wang Yi tempted him in his mind every day: don't study now, there's plenty of time later; you can always study tomorrow. Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow—there are so many tomorrows! Now there wasn't enough time.

As Huo Yuhao swept the snow, he kept half an eye on the branches, checking for trouble, while cursing Wang Yi under his breath. It was all his fault for encouraging him to slack off. Still, he wasn't that far behind. He would never neglect his Soul Power cultivation. Wang Yi might nag him about everyday matters, but he wouldn't meddle with the most important thing: his cultivation.

If Huo Yuhao had really slacked off on that, Wang Yi wouldn't have allowed it. Thanks to Huo Yuhao's hard work, his Soul Power had actually reached level 20 some time ago. But because of the final exams, he hadn't embarked on the path Tian Meng had planned for him. Tian Meng had protested at first, but it was two votes to one. After a democratic vote, Huo Yuhao stayed here to take his exams.

Huo Yuhao didn't know what Tian Meng was in such a hurry for. You couldn't ignore future gains just for what was right in front of you. So short-sighted. Besides, he could still cultivate Soul Power without absorbing a Soul Ring. It wouldn't affect him later. Building up his strength now also helped Huo Yuhao stay calm.

His Soul Power was practically the lowest in the whole year, and he'd teamed up with Xiao Xiao. A lot of people found that unbelievable. They didn't know what was really going on, and Huo Yuhao had no way to change their minds. But their perception of him still put pressure on him. He cared about it a lot.

Even if things improved later, the experience would still leave a mark on him. There was nothing he could do but let time change the way he felt.

As Huo Yuhao swept the snow absentmindedly and worked out his study schedule—he had to make a plan, since time was running out—a snowball suddenly hit him. Some of the snow slipped inside his clothes and melted, jolting him awake. Even though he'd fused with Tian Meng and gained an ice attribute, it was still only an illusion of one.

It only made him a little less afraid of the cold, saving him the money he would have spent on a padded coat. It didn't do much else. Once he had an ice-attribute Martial Soul, he wouldn't be afraid of the cold anymore. This was one of the few times he'd get to experience it.

"Who was that?" Huo Yuhao turned around and saw the group. He didn't even have to think; it could only have been them. He stopped worrying about everything else and immediately struck back.

Outnumbered, Huo Yuhao was quickly beaten back. But the others soon fell into an argument and split apart. After several more rounds of infighting, they were left to fight on their own. Huo Yuhao joined the fray again and counterattacked. In all that chaos, he was right at home.

His abundant Spiritual Power and the exceptionally clear vision provided by his Spirit Eye made it easy to see the others' attacks. They were only playing around and hadn't activated their Martial Souls. How much could their physical differences really matter? In one-on-one fights, it was Huo Yuhao's turn to shine.

After Huo Yuhao had finally vented the anger he'd felt at the start, someone caught on.

"Huo Yuhao, no wonder you're Bei Bei's junior fellow disciple. You're so underhanded—you've learned nothing else from him, just that!" The one grumbling, of course, was Xu Sanshi. He'd been everyone's main target. Heat rose from his body as he moved around in the snow, melting the white snow that had hit him and soaking his clothes.

And so half the day passed amid laughter, and Huo Yuhao hadn't studied again. Laziness had taken over once more.

No. Tomorrow, I'll definitely study. That was what Huo Yuhao told himself.