Healthy Thoughts

The sun was high in the sky, and Huo Yuhao and his group were listening to the details of the exam in the shade.

"It's a relief the examiner didn't give you a hard time; I was already prepared to go and reason with them," Tang Ya said with a sigh of relief.

"Since you've passed, don't dwell on other things. Just focus on preparing for the combat portion," although his tone was flat, the smile he couldn't hide on his face showed that he was in a very good mood as well.

"Then let's celebrate by having some Grilled Fish. Yuhao will make it, it's decided." Afterward, Tang Ya dragged the two of them out of the city to catch fish, and thanks to their collective efforts, they all ate their fill.

The fish in the river were the ones who suffered; they had nowhere to hide under the Spiritual Detection, and after being scooped up with a Thunder Web, the whole family was brought up in one go. If fish could talk, they would surely sue them for electrofishing and have them arrested. Some clever ones managed to escape the range of the net, only to be electrocuted and float to the surface, flopping about; seeing that they wouldn't survive, Tang Ya kindly gathered them all up.

Tang Ya felt a bit guilty about some of the dead small fish, thinking there might be fewer fish next time, but then she smelled the aroma of the grilled fish and tears of sadness flowed from the corners of her mouth.

After the meal, they said their goodbyes, as Tang Ya and Bei Bei had to prepare for the entrance exams. There was no way they could keep accompanying Huo Yuhao.

On the way back, Huo Yuhao used the Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track; the more proficient he became, the more confidence he would have. Huo Yuhao and Wang Yi discussed it, and they concluded that there was no need to learn all the Tang Sect Secret Techniques. He wasn't a genius in this regard, and his learning progress wasn't fast. They should pick a few of the most suitable and urgently needed martial arts to practice; having too many skills was meaningless.

In the end, the Purple Demon Eye and the Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track were selected, while things like the Mysterious Jade Hand, Controlling Crane Capturing Dragon, and the Tang Sect Hidden Weapon Compendium based on those two were set aside for now. After all, if Huo Yuhao, an auxiliary, ever had to charge into the fray, he might as well wait for death, or if the enemy charged over and he hadn't defeated them yet, he might as well surrender. Keeping distance to ensure survival was the most important thing; only by staying alive could one output damage.

Drenched in sweat, Huo Yuhao returned to the dormitory, and after testing, his speed had indeed improved quite a bit. At his limit, he could maintain his top speed for one minute; unless they were an Agility-type Soul Master, no one could catch him if he didn't make a mistake during that time. This was the result without using Berserk; Huo Yuhao didn't have the energy to test that. The exam was right around the corner, and every time he used Berserk, he would be weak for a long time; to maintain the best physical state, Huo Yuhao suppressed the urge to use it.

In the evening, Huo Yuhao tidied up the room and ate some dry rations until he was full before starting to cultivate. However, a sense of hunger always accompanied him; dry rations without energy could no longer satisfy the needs of this growing body. He had to eat high-energy food, just like how Huo Yuhao wouldn't feel hungry in the Star Dou Great Forest; Spirit Beast Meat was what Huo Yuhao needed. But he couldn't live like a savage in the forest every day; cultivation required orthodox education.

Then he could only buy it. Wang Yi thought about Huo Yuhao's explanation to the examiner while calculating the money needed. This made him frown; he had to get into Shrek Academy. Wang Yi thought to himself that Shrek students wouldn't lack money, but where the money came from was a matter of strategy. Moreover, he could borrow some in the early stages and call it an investment, but resources in the later stages would be hard to find.

Thinking of this, Wang Yi felt a surge of ruthlessness, but then he thought about how Huo Yuhao would never agree to do bad things, which made his frown deepen. Suddenly, he thought of the two examinees who had fought and had a grudge, and the dark clouds in his heart lifted. After flipping through his memory and finding the history of the continent's families, Wang Yi, having figured out the path forward, laughed heartily: "This is an arithmetic progression of one plus one."

Early in the morning, Huo Yuhao, having finished cultivating the Purple Demon Eye, was listening to Wang Yi teach him how to answer questions during the exam, especially regarding his Soul Skills. Between hiding his Soul Skills and making up some nonsense, Huo Yuhao chose the latter. Wang Yi had already prepared for him to explain his three Soul Skills as one, using the Purple Demon Eye to explain the Soul Shock. After all, Ancestor Tang San could mutate the Blue Silver Cage into the Blue Silver Thorn Array, and he, Huo Yuhao, as a Tang Sect disciple, strictly followed the ancestor's spirit, applying theory to practice and achieving a leap-forward progress in the most mysterious spiritual realm. Was there a problem with that? Shouldn't he be praised? What a law-abiding Huo Yuhao, the examiners would surely be moved.

After finishing the instructions, Wang Yi stared straight at Huo Yuhao, his expression like someone who had discovered a treasure and was eager to share the joy with others.

Huo Yuhao didn't let him down and asked directly what was wrong. Wang Yi waved his hands with a beaming smile and said to him: "What did you see from those two people fighting?"

"Hatred?"

"Close, but that's not the essence of it. I saw war?"

"In my world, wars of aggression are class solidification, where the means of production are occupied by a minority and the self-rescue actions of the ruling class."

"Placed here, it's just that there are more variables. What happens when the total amount of resources remains the same but the ruling class grows larger? Those hereditary families and emerging families will inevitably fight for power, and to cover up domestic conflicts, they will inevitably launch foreign wars. This is our opportunity."

"Your ability is simply born for the era you belong to, you are a child of destiny!"

"I don't quite understand." Huo Yuhao listened to his words, feeling a bit confused.

"Sigh, you'll understand in the future. I'm just a bit worried about the variable of Soul Tools; I don't know if the dissatisfaction among the Soul Guidance Master group has reached a certain level. If it really has, then it's two bombs going off together."

"Huh, these two seem to be one, I have to think about it again."

"Anyway, hurry up and go to the assessment. If it really doesn't work, let Tian Meng help you."

"That would be cheating, right?" Huo Yuhao asked while running.

"What cheating? That's the power of your Soul Ring; if you don't use it, when will you?" Wang Yi scolded him, feeling that he was not living up to expectations. "Besides, the methods of those big families are definitely dirty, and you won't be able to find evidence. Even if you do, it's not against the rules, so how can you compete?"

Huo Yuhao looked at Wang Yi with suspicion, doubting the truth of this statement. The reputation of Shrek Academy had always been very good. Seeing Huo Yuhao's expression, Wang Yi realized that as an outsider, his words might not carry as much weight as the reputation of this ten-thousand-year-old academy. But if it's really such a good thing, why didn't they come to help when your mother died? Why didn't you report it to the authorities?

Involving the offspring of Duke White Tiger would definitely have a big enough impact; as the embodiment of justice, Shrek would surely help, right? However, Wang Yi didn't intend to expose this; Huo Yuhao was still young, and there was still enough time to let him doubt it himself. It was normal for a child without sufficient information channels to have a worldview constructed by public opinion. He would eventually discover the inconsistency between theory and reality. Was the theory wrong, or was reality wrong?

Wang Yi ended the inconclusive argument with a sense of anticipation and urged Huo Yuhao to hurry to the exam. Let him go see for himself; he just needed to raise a few questions at key nodes to keep him from going down the wrong path.

Huo Yuhao ran to the exam hall feeling a bit uncomfortable. After identity verification, he saw the examinees discussing things in a chatter. Listening carefully, he realized that the special ability assessment had been moved before the individual battle to prevent cheating.

There were quite a few students in the hall questioning: "These three rounds are a tradition passed down for thousands of years; the laws of the ancestors cannot be changed. Besides, why change it on our batch?" Similar remarks rose and fell, making it very noisy.

Huo Yuhao thought about it carefully and found that it didn't affect him at all. This change could be said to effectively prevent cheating in the exam and prevent people with connections from helping. With his wisdom, he couldn't think of any problems.

He had some questions he wanted to ask Wang Yi, but because of the argument just now, he couldn't bring himself to speak. When he was feeling awkward, Wang Yi spoke up directly, answering his questions; as an adult, there was no need for him to lose his temper with a child.

"Your thinking is correct. You should ask why this measure is only being held now. Now, observe carefully how many types of people are in the hall."

Huo Yuhao used his Spirit Eye to record the expressions and appearances of the people in the hall for comparison. He found that those dressed more plainly didn't care much, while the luxurious and wealthy were divided into those who were anxious and those who were very anxious. Those shouting loudly were the very anxious ones. Those who weren't anxious were mostly indifferent, with a cold and arrogant look, looking sideways at this group of clowns. They looked very confident.

He seemed to understand; this was someone who might not be able to achieve their goal and was therefore angry from embarrassment. The special ability assessment was a relatively subjective score; if one failed in the individual battle, they could still save it. The cost of bribing a Shrek examiner was very high. You had to bribe them to a level where Shrek Academy would also benefit, and Shrek's scale was enough to clash with a country. Not many people could afford this price, and there weren't many in history, but it was hard to guarantee that it wasn't done to build a good relationship with Shrek. This kind of cost was generally continuous; if you accept it, you have to handle things well and make it easier for my descendants to get in. This kind of relationship continues. The cost of repeated bribery is much less, but it's still not something an ordinary family can afford.

At this moment, the examiner walked in, frowning at the current exam hall discipline and the many students who looked like commoners: "Stop arguing, everyone be quiet. If you want to enter Shrek Academy, show your strength. Don't think about taking crooked paths; we don't accept trash."

"One more thing, those who don't know their own limits, hurry up and look in the mirror and go home; this place is not for you."

Huo Yuhao followed the teacher's instructions and entered the exam hall with a large group of people. After stating the exam discipline, the invigilator handed out the answer sheets. The questions didn't look difficult at all; they were just materials based on events that had happened recently, asking the examinees to answer questions. The questions included multiple-choice and essay questions, which were argumentative. These questions weren't obscure philosophical ones; as long as one had a normal brain and knew the correct moral values, there wouldn't be much of a problem. Shrek Academy had the confidence to discipline those with poor character; if they were a dragon, they had to coil, and if they were a tiger, they had to lie down. If they really didn't listen to discipline, they would just be kicked out.

Facts proved that this exam was very effective. Those who couldn't be disciplined were kicked out in this round, and those with poor character mostly knew how to behave during their school years. As for how they acted at home, Shrek couldn't control that. Huo Yuhao wrote furiously on the questions where the right and wrong were obvious at a glance. One question caught his eye: two children taking our academy's exam fought before the exam started, seriously disrupting social order. Our academy gave a serious punishment to warn the general public that Shrek is not a place outside the law. Please choose what you would do...

The fact that such a recent event was on the exam paper meant it was probably just written, right? While marveling at Shrek's swift and decisive style, his awe for the academy grew a bit more.

He quickly reached the last question. After all, he only needed to answer with the most simple view; he didn't need to find knowledge points from the material and write them down while linking them to the material for discussion. The last question was different from the previous moral questions; it was an essay about his own life, with no word limit. What kind of person do you want to become?

Not many people paid attention to this question, but being a person runs through the development of a "person" from beginning to end. Although it is said that a person is a person in society and the sum of all social relations, a person ultimately has subjective initiative and can change social relations.

Now the most urgent thing is what kind of person our child of destiny, Huo Yuhao, wants to become, and what he wants to do. At this moment, Huo Yuhao fell into memories. For the past few months, he had tried hard to forget the past and make himself happy. He was now all alone, and thinking about this, he couldn't help but feel sad. When taking revenge, the sadness turned into anger, but at this moment, he couldn't find an outlet for his sadness.

You ask about the Duke White Tiger issue? Huo Yuhao couldn't say he didn't hate him, but he couldn't build a concrete hatred. He didn't do bad things to the two of them, his mother and himself; at most, it could be considered dereliction of duty, lack of supervision, or indulgence. Huo Yuhao had no impression of his father at all.

You cannot build a concrete hatred for something that doesn't exist. If there is a chance in the future, Huo Yuhao will see if he really deserves to die, and then he will talk about it.

Huo Yuhao thought about the humiliation and persecution he and his mother had suffered, as well as his mother's teachings to him. The thread in his heart gradually became clear: I want to be a good person.

After setting the main theme, he began to write. To be honest, Huo Yuhao didn't have much ink in his belly, and it was understandable that he wrote few articles. There was a lot of room for improvement in the future.

After finishing the exam, Huo Yuhao asked with a relaxed mood: "Brother Wang Yi, how did I write? Do you think there are any problems?"

"Solid foundation, promising future." Having replied with only these eight words, he stopped speaking. For a young child, having the awareness to be a good person was enough. The concept of a "good person" was far too hollow without being tied to a specific individual; for instance, did one want to be a good person for the masters or a good person for the beasts of burden? These two types of people had very similar methods, making them easy to confuse. Perhaps it wasn't apparent in abstract topics, but once it came to the specific distribution of benefits, the irreconcilable contradictions between these two groups would become clear.

For example: labor is the source of value. This statement is absolutely correct; no one could say it is wrong, as it is written in the political Book after all. The facts are also as such: under effective labor, the total wealth of society increases when people work.

However, how did that saying go? "The bourgeoisie does its utmost to instill a viewpoint into the masses: the wealth of the capitalist is the wealth of the entire nation. Even the poorest patriot in the East End of London, upon thinking of Britain's wealth and industry, will involuntarily puff out his chest."

After all, private property is sacred and inviolable; what business is it of yours if someone else is rich?

Of course, Huo Yuhao could not yet understand these thoughts, but that was not a problem. Who hasn't been naive before?

When cognition and reality fail to align, there might be a period of growing pains, but once he turns that corner and combines it with his destiny, he will break out of his cocoon like a butterfly and transform into a dragon in the wind. Even the best theory must be combined with practice; once he reaches adulthood, he should begin to question things. He is at a happy age right now; although little Huo Yuhao's childhood was not very happy, "the past is beyond recall, but the future is worth pursuing." Most of the hatred had already been resolved, and what remained was not very important, provided they didn't jump right into his face.

Once he finished the exam and successfully enrolled, it would be a life filled with sunshine.

Huo Yuhao, having successfully passed the ideological exam, thought to himself.