We're Not Satisfied

At the time, Zhou Yi hadn't looked too closely. She'd assumed the people from the Martial Soul Department who recorded the information had exaggerated. After all, how could anyone possibly reach Soul King rank at twelve?

But judging by what she'd seen now, the students who'd enrolled in the outer court hadn't exaggerated at all. If anything, they might have underestimated him.

Xu Yanli was definitely above level fifty. He was very likely a high-ranked Soul King. He'd just said that he had an Ultimate Attribute, which meant his Soul King-level Soul Power might be able to erupt with the combat strength of a Soul Saint.

Black and white chased each other across Zhou Yi's face. Before long, her imposing air began to falter.

"You—you—you sit down first." Zhou Yi swallowed, then forced herself to maintain a teacher's composure. "We'll discuss this later. Let's start class first."

"Class? Weren't we supposed to run?" Xu Yanli didn't sit down as she'd told him to. Instead, he took two more steps toward the lectern.

Xu Yanli walked up to the lectern and tapped it in front of Zhou Yi, smiling. "Teacher Zhou, it seems you haven't answered my question yet. A teacher's duty is to impart knowledge, teach skills, and resolve doubts. I hope you'll clear things up for me."

When Zhou Yi didn't respond, Xu Yanli turned to the other students and said with a smile, "Everyone, are you satisfied with this? She came up here and scolded you, then did nothing but punish you with a hundred laps."

Xu Yanli paused and scanned the expressions of the other students before continuing. "A hundred laps today. What about tomorrow? The day after? If Teacher Zhou happens to be in a bad mood one day, can she just make up an excuse to punish us? Punishing us is one thing, but what if we accidentally offend her and she expels us?"

"We're not satisfied!"

Someone shouted first. Then, more and more voices joined in.

Xu Yanli looked at Wang Dong in surprise. It was obvious that she'd been the first to shout.

"Exactly! What gives her the right?"

"She can't expel us without reason!"

"This teacher is completely unreasonable!"

The commotion in the class grew louder and louder, and Zhou Yi, standing behind the lectern, looked increasingly grim.

In all her years teaching at Shrek Academy, Zhou Yi had never encountered anything like this.

Before, she'd simply let the students who left go. Her husband, Fan Yu, was one of Shrek Academy's rarest talents as a Soul Engineer, and he'd always kept things suppressed for her, so nothing had come of it.

Under her harsh pressure, nearly every student had always been obedient. She hadn't expected that a few words from one student would stir the entire class into standing up to her.

"Shut up, all of you!" Zhou Yi slammed her palm down on the lectern. It shattered the next moment. She looked furious. "Are you trying to rebel?!"

"Rebel?" Xu Yanli gave a soft laugh. "What is it, Teacher Zhou? Are you royalty? That's a rather serious accusation. Besides, all we want is to be treated fairly."

"If you can answer the questions I just asked, we'll go run right away without another word. But if you can't..." Xu Yanli pointed out the window, a faint smile playing in his eyes.

"You! What do you think you can do? You're just a student. Your talent..." Zhou Yi said coldly.

Xu Yanli gave a wry smile, his gaze turning icy. "You're right. I'm just a student. But we can go ask the dean of Shrek Academy to judge this fairly. After all, I'm a twelve-year-old Soul King at level fifty."

"You!" Zhou Yi trembled with rage, yet there was little she could do.

She knew perfectly well that if this matter blew up, it wouldn't do her any good.

And Xu Yanli was right. With his talent, even if he offended Fan Yu, Shrek Academy couldn't possibly expel a genius like him just for Zhou Yi's sake.

If the matter escalated, she herself might be the one held responsible and dismissed. To put it plainly, she didn't dare take that risk.

But she couldn't bring herself to admit defeat in front of the entire class.

Just then, the classroom door swung open.

A middle-aged man in a pure white robe walked in.

Xu Yanli glanced at Yan Shaozhe. He had to admit, Yan Shaozhe looked a lot like Ye Xishui, though he wasn't as good-looking as she was.

"What's all the shouting about? What's going on?" Yan Shaozhe looked around the classroom, then fixed his gaze on Xu Yanli and Zhou Yi. "I could hear your class from far away. You're the loudest ones in the entire teaching building. What happened?"

Zhou Yi looked as if she'd just seen her savior. She hurried forward and said, "Dean, you're just in time. This student, Xu Yanli, showed no respect for his elders and incited his classmates to defy their teacher. I request that the academy deal with him severely!"

Yan Shaozhe turned his gaze to Xu Yanli, his eyes carrying a hint of unreadable meaning.

Ignoring Zhou Yi, Yan Shaozhe studied Xu Yanli for a few moments, then asked quietly, "Xu Yanli, is that what happened?"

Xu Yanli's eyes were unreadable. He quickly gave a respectful half-bow and said, "Greetings, Dean. I only asked Teacher Zhou a few questions and stood up for my classmates—or, rather, I brought up some unreasonable things and asked a couple of questions."

The other students clearly knew right from wrong. They all chimed in, recounting what had just happened. They didn't embellish anything; they simply chose to state the facts.

After listening, Yan Shaozhe looked at Zhou Yi with greater displeasure and scrutiny.

Zhou Yi opened her mouth to argue, but realized there wasn't much she could refute. The other students had repeated the facts, and she had indeed said those things.

"Dean, this is just one of my teaching methods. I'm trying to teach them discipline..."

"I think you're trying to kill their spirit. And the questions they asked just now were perfectly reasonable: why did the students you expelled turn out to be geniuses elsewhere?" Yan Shaozhe said disapprovingly.

From the very beginning, Yan Shaozhe hadn't liked Zhou Yi much. Her husband was a vice dean of the Soul Tool Department, which had little to do with his Martial Soul Department.

As it happened, Yan Shaozhe had never cared for Soul Tools. Though, more specifically, he disliked offensive Soul Tools.

However, he was very interested in the Soul Tools from Xu Yanli's Xiaoyao Pavilion. After all, those things had certainly made their lives much more convenient.

"Teacher Zhou, I know you may have meant well and wanted to be strict with your students, but this isn't how you educate them." Yan Shaozhe immediately rejected Zhou Yi's approach.

Still, he didn't put it quite so harshly. He had to save her some face in front of the others.

Yan Shaozhe turned toward the other students in the class.