Destroying the Rotten and Pulling the Withered

The sun had made a rare appearance, shining brightly and sweeping away the chill brought by the accumulated snow. On the ground, the Shrek Academy martial arts arena was buzzing with the heat of ongoing matches. The enthusiastic students paid no mind to the cold season, and the aura of youth swept away the frost just the same.

Gasps of surprise rose one after another; the strong are praised wherever they go. Every team gave their all to defeat their opponents. There were no hidden powers or complex tactics from adults here. There was only the simplest, raw exchange of blows, devoid of any flashy, showy techniques. This was due to factors like age and experience, as well as the fact that their power systems were not yet fully developed.

The first two soul skills are generally for attack and defense, while the third soul skill invariably becomes an amplification skill. This is the optimal result derived from countless drills by the great clans. In other words, the true foundation of a great clan only begins to show at the three-ring level, where strength undergoes a qualitative leap; it is only in the next semester that the gap in strength truly begins to widen.

At that time, three-ring soul masters will emerge. Unfortunately, they haven't appeared yet, so one cannot blame Huo Yuhao for suppressing the generation. This was the commentary Wang Yi provided while Huo Yuhao was fighting in the arena. The chuunibyou words made Huo Yuhao's blood boil, and he wanted to stop fighting right there on the field to go beat up Wang Yi. What comforted him was that no one else could see him.

Otherwise, he didn't even dare to imagine how socially awkward that scene would have been. This left Wang Yi very disappointed, thinking that this Shrek Academy wasn't all that great—it didn't even have a commentator, and the atmosphere couldn't even be stirred up. He would have to suggest a reform. Then, he was looked down upon by Huo Yuhao, who wondered what kind of ability Wang Yi had to go and make demands of the academy.

Then, Huo Yuhao successfully entered the elimination tournament. The tournament format here was a double-elimination system, completely formal, to prevent teams that performed poorly or seeded teams from colliding and causing dissatisfaction with the rankings, which would lead to rumors of a rigged system. It was meant to minimize the soil for injustice to the greatest extent and select the most outstanding geniuses.

Huo Yuhao took a look but didn't understand how the losers were ranked; that would have to wait until the matches were played out one by one. Regardless of the rest, Huo Yuhao only needed to know that as long as he kept fighting and kept winning, that was all that mattered. This was the most energy-efficient way, as he would play the fewest matches, while the losers would play the most. Few people could withstand such high-intensity fighting for so long.

In history, it wasn't as if there hadn't been records of teams from the loser's bracket winning ten or more matches in a row, but those teams usually had the strength to win the championship to begin with, and only ended up there due to accidents or internal strife causing a drop in performance. The true champion almost always emerges from the winner's bracket, and even if a team from the loser's bracket makes it to the finals, they are still just another opponent.

Miracles are hard to come by unless your strength has an absolute, massive leap. However, for the current duo of Huo Yuhao and Xiao Xiao, there was no such worry. "Kill the gods if they block, kill the buddhas if they block" was the perfect way to describe their current state. They were all trash, though they couldn't exactly say that out loud right now.

Super long-range control combined with a one-hundred-percent hit rate attack. The matches ended in two rounds. The simple way to solve their combination skill was to just tank the two hits, as they would have no strength left afterward; mainly, Huo Yuhao could only use it twice, and even that was a stretch. He had to rest for a long time before the next match, and the intensity of the winner's bracket matches suited them perfectly.

Just like that, they marched forward triumphantly, and this peculiar configuration of a one-ring paired with a two-ring entered the winner's bracket finals. The next step was the championship, and they were only two steps away from the title.

As for the people they had defeated, they were not even worth a glance. "It is your honor to see my back now; chasing my footsteps later will only bring you despair." Wang Yi was whispering similar chuunibyou phrases in Huo Yuhao's ear again, diluting some of the joy of the winning streak and the pride and arrogance that came with it.

This wasn't actually Wang Yi's intention; he really just wanted to tease Huo Yuhao. Children are only fun during these two stages: now, while they are learning and haven't yet gained a deep understanding of the darkness of society, and after six months when they start to crawl but aren't yet as noisy as a newborn baby all night long.

You tease them and find that this child is really fun; as for other times, forget it, it's really annoying. Those who say children are good are usually outsiders; they only feel the fun of the child after a brief contact, like Lord Ye who loved dragons only in name. As he thought about it, Wang Yi wondered what would happen after Huo Yuhao had children, and what kind of person he would become.

Suddenly, he had a mischievous idea: he must trick Huo Yuhao into having a child in the future and torment him severely. Since he wouldn't listen to him properly and had so many ideas of his own, he should let him experience his own pain when he tried to educate his child. Consequently, a sudden, inexplicable burst of laughter made Huo Yuhao's perception of Wang Yi as a normal person begin to waver.

A few times would have been fine, but doing it every day shattered the perception Huo Yuhao had built up based on Wang Yi's initial seriousness. He really was a very abstract person, especially when you had nothing to do. And when you did have something to do, he wasn't necessarily reliable either. Thus, Huo Yuhao learned how to handle interpersonal relationships with boys.

As long as your skin is thick enough and you are abstract enough, you will have friends. In short, closing yourself off is absolutely not the way; making friends is an indispensable experience in a person's life. His relationship with his friend Xiao Xiao was also not ordinary. In the end, Wang Yi took on the role of teaching by example. Huo Yuhao just had to copy and paste, using the same words and actions he used with Wang Yi on others.

While Huo Yuhao and Xiao Xiao were training and celebrating, Wang Yi had already snuck away. Huo Yuhao was already used to it; Wang Yi often ran to the library to read. He had originally wanted to engrave the books into his Sea of Spirit, but he was refused. Wang Yi's reason was that reading in the library felt better, and it was harder to get distracted, allowing for better focus.

He even gave him an example of himself: Huo Yuhao didn't want to study once he left the classroom, a fact everyone could see. Thus, Huo Yuhao was persuaded and fled in defeat. Every argument ended in his defeat, and he had become a bit sensitized to it, yet this created a rebellious psychology, causing him to memorize every key point Wang Yi made.

He waited for Wang Yi to say something that Huo Yuhao thought was a contradiction, only to bring it up and try to defeat him on that point, but all attempts ended in failure. He was still lacking in life experience.

Wang Yi's destination this time was not the library, but the old man who always hung around. Neither side asked about the other's identity, and they began to communicate quite naturally. Whenever Wang Yi encountered something he didn't understand, he would ask him. It was through his guidance that he found that Family Chronicle. The Shrek library was simply too vast, and the books were as numerous as the stars in the sea.

One had to find a suitable guide or the correct book title. A librarian was a very good profession. This exchange was just like the usual ones, discussing academics and the situation of the various kingdoms. However, during this time, Wang Yi proposed adding commentary to the matches, and the other party readily agreed.