Meanwhile, at Shrek Academy.
Thud.
The sound of a stone hitting the ground.
After hearing the Heavenly Curtain announce Shrek's mandatory training exercise, Ning Rongrong and the others, who had been running, felt their spirits shatter.
That was right—they had come to Shrek Academy to learn real skills.
Wasn't there supposed to be some kind of specialized training?
Why were they being made to run without any explanation?
They knew it was meant to build a foundation, but even the youngest of them was twelve, and the oldest, Dai Mubai, was already fifteen.
Shouldn't they be teaching them something more advanced?
Even Tang San was plunged into deep doubt.
First came the Ten-Year Solitary Bamboo the Heavenly Curtain had shown earlier, and now they were being made to run with stones on their backs.
This training method seemed utterly worthless.
Might Guy's extreme training had at least been to unlock the Eight Gates. Grandmaster wasn't teaching them any techniques at all—he was just making them run with stones on their backs.
What could that possibly teach them? Could Yu Xiaogang really turn Tang San into a running fanatic?
"Let's go back, Tang San. We can ask Grandmaster if he has any other training exercises."
"Okay."
Meanwhile, Yu Xiaogang had no idea that even though the video was about Zhou Yi, the backlash had landed on him.
Peerless Tang Sect.
Zhou Yi still looked calm, but she had quietly clenched her fists.
The video now playing on the Heavenly Curtain gave her a very bad feeling!
Elsewhere, Yan Shaozhe stared fixedly at the Heavenly Curtain, his expression grim.
He had never imagined that Zhou Yi's husband was Fan Yu, one of Qian Duoduo's subordinates.
What was more, Zhou Yi had been abusing Fan Yu's reputation to expel students at will.
But at that moment, Yan Shaozhe had no idea how furious he would be after watching the rest of the video.
The scene shifted.
Under Zhou Yi's threat of expulsion, the students finally managed to complete a hundred laps.
But a trace of coldness flashed in Zhou Yi's eyes.
In a detached, utterly emotionless voice, she began reading out the students' names.
Zhou Yi called out nine names in total.
The students whose names she called stepped out of line, their hearts full of anxiety. Then Zhou Yi announced that they were expelled.
The nine students were struck as if by lightning.
One of them tried to say something, but the next moment, the pressure Zhou Yi released scared him into silence.
"What, you have a problem with it? They had someone to help them, and you didn't. I only care about the result, not the process. Get lost!"
"If you make me angry again, I'll cripple your Martial Souls."
The scene on the Heavenly Curtain stopped there, but its voice rang clearly in everyone's ears.
"This is the excellent teaching method of our Teacher Zhou Yi."
"Those students had already passed Shrek Academy's entrance exam, yet Teacher Zhou Yi decided to hold another selection of her own."
"Why?"
"Zhou Yi kept saying she was judging the students' attitudes. But if that's what she cared about, why insist that they finish a hundred laps in one hour?"
The Heavenly Curtain's voice rose sharply. "Zhou Yi is talking nonsense. She claims she's judging their attitudes, but she's clearly using those hundred laps to weed out students with poor foundations."
"Everyone can admit that some of the nine students who were expelled could have finished the run but deliberately slacked off."
"But some of them simply couldn't finish it."
At that moment, the Heavenly Curtain's words stabbed into Zhou Yi's heart like sharp knives.
They tore apart the respectable facade she had put up.
Zhou Yi was still forcing herself to look calm, but her trembling body exposed how she truly felt.
That's not true. That's not true.
I did it for the students' own good. I wanted them to learn to obey.
Even now, Zhou Yi was still pretending.
But the next part of the video tore away her facade for good, revealing her ugly true face.
The scene on the Heavenly Curtain changed. It was no longer told from an all-knowing perspective.
Instead, it shifted to the perspective of someone watching the Heavenly Curtain.
"Your name is Xiaoqiang. You're a child from an ordinary family on the Douluo Continent—not particularly rich, but not poor either.
"When you were six, you reached the most important turning point in your life: Martial Soul Awakening. Though nervous, you successfully awakened your Martial Soul.
"You were lucky. Your parents weren't powerful Soul Masters, but your Martial Soul had mutated in a good direction. Your Innate Soul Power was level six.
"When your parents saw your Innate Soul Power was level six, they were overjoyed. They even held a special celebration for you.
"But once the celebration was over, the joy on their faces gave way to worry.
"You needed to cultivate and go to school, and both required money. But your family was just an ordinary one.
"After a night passed, your father came over, patted you on the shoulder, and looked at you without saying a word. Then he left home with grim determination.
"You knew he had gone out to earn money for you.
"At the same time, your mother began mending clothes for the neighbors. Whenever she had a spare moment, she took odd jobs.
"You knew they were doing it so you could make something of yourself one day—to walk the roads they never had and see the sights they never had.
"From then on, you cultivated diligently. You had few resources and no teacher to guide you, yet somehow, under those circumstances, you managed to meet Shrek Academy's entrance requirements and get accepted!
"When you received your acceptance letter from the Douluo Continent's highest institution of learning, Shrek Academy, you wept with joy and ran to your parents.
"When your mother learned you had been accepted to Shrek, she hugged you tightly, her body trembling, tears glistening in her eyes.
"But then you noticed the wrinkles on your mother's forehead—your mother, who had always cared about her appearance—and the strands of white hair among her black locks.
"Your joy vanished. You resolved to study hard at Shrek Academy, make something of yourself, and repay your parents."
By then, nearly everyone on the Douluo Continent had been drawn into the immersive perspective.
They saw at least a little of themselves in Xiaoqiang.
It was as if they themselves were Xiaoqiang in the Heavenly Curtain's story.
They stared fixedly at the Heavenly Curtain, wishing they could skip ahead to the moment when they had succeeded and could repay their parents.
It might have been a cliché, but it was something everyone hoped for.
Even Yan Shaozhe's anger had eased somewhat because of the video that had appeared so unexpectedly.
Thank goodness for this video. Otherwise, Zhou Yi really would have ruined Shrek Academy's reputation.
From what they had seen so far, this was clearly an inspirational story about a poor boy who worked hard to get into Shrek and then repaid his parents.
He had decided: he would record the video at once and broadcast it across the continent.
This would be Shrek Academy's recruitment video.
But in the next moment, the smile on Yan Shaozhe's face froze.
"Soon, the first day of school arrived.
"On that day, your father, who had been working away from home, made a special trip to see you off. Under your parents' expectant gazes, you entered Shrek Academy.
"But you didn't yet know that the darkest moment of your life was about to begin. You were about to meet the person who would ruin your entire life."
Before you continue