He Couldn't Have Asked for a Better Show

"That's enough for today. No need to run laps. All of you, go back to class. I'll have another teacher come and cover the lesson in a little while. Teacher Zhou Yi, come with me," Yan Shaozhe said.

When they reached the door, Yan Shaozhe suddenly said, "Xu Yanli, I have a small favor to ask you after class. When you have some time, come by my office."

After saying that, Yan Shaozhe turned and left, without waiting for Zhou Yi.

As for Zhou Yi, her face was ashen as she followed Yan Shaozhe out of the classroom.

The classroom had fallen silent when Yan Shaozhe arrived. The instant they were sure he and Zhou Yi had left, a burst of cheers erupted.

"Xu Yanli! Xu Yanli!"

The students excitedly gathered around him, chattering all at once, seemingly to thank him—or perhaps they admired him for standing up to authority and helping them beat their teacher?

"Brother Yanli, that was incredible! You even dared to talk back to that famous old witch from the outer court, Zhou!"

"Yeah! Thanks to you, we didn't have to run those hundred laps. We'd have been done for after that."

"Brother Yanli, you're our leader from now on! If you tell us to go east, we'll never go west."

"Exactly!"

Xu Yanli smiled and returned to his seat. The other students followed close behind.

"All right, all right. Go back to your seats. The teacher's only stepped out for a while. We should have a new teacher come and teach us soon." Xu Yanli crossed one leg over the other and waved them away.

The other students returned to their seats, laughing and joking, but the way they looked at Xu Yanli had changed.

"Hello, I'm Xiao Xiao," said the petite-looking girl beside Xu Yanli with a smile.

Xu Yanli turned to look at her and nodded, but said nothing.

Xu Yanli idly spun his pen as he waited for the next teacher to arrive.

But he hadn't managed to keep up the aloof act for even two minutes before Tang Ling interrupted him.

Tang Ling quietly leaned over and lowered his voice. "Brother, you were so cool just now. But you've offended a teacher at Shrek Academy. Will she make things difficult for you later?"

Xu Yanli chuckled, a meaningful glint passing through his eyes. "She'd have to still be around later to make things difficult for me."

Tang Ling froze for a moment, then scratched his head. He didn't seem to understand what Xu Yanli meant, but he didn't ask.

Meanwhile, in Yan Shaozhe's office—

"Zhou Yi, every time you expel a student on a whim, you use your husband to bury the matter. Shrek Academy has covered for you time and again, but you've gone too far this time," Yan Shaozhe said with a snort.

Zhou Yi's eyes held a stubborn, resentful look. "So what? He's just a little more talented than the others. Dean, if we keep a thorny student like him around, he'll be trouble sooner or later! Maybe he never truly intended to join Shrek Academy. Maybe he's a spy from the Sun Moon Empire."

In that moment, Zhou Yi had actually hit upon the truth. But how could anyone else believe her?

Shrek Academy desperately needed talented students who could make them look good.

"Hmph. You couldn't beat him or win an argument, so now you're smearing him? What kind of fool would send a twelve-year-old Soul King with fifty levels of cultivation undercover?" Yan Shaozhe gave a cold snort. "Especially in that godforsaken place called the Sun Moon Empire. They should have put someone with talent like his on a pedestal long ago."

A flicker of disappointment crossed Yan Shaozhe's eyes. He found himself thinking more and more that Zhou Yi was unbelievably stupid.

Though there was another possible reason: Mu En and Xuan Zi had vouched for Xu Yanli. After all, they had mentioned that his mother had ties to that person from the Star Luo Empire.

Of course, there was another reason he had kept standing up for Xu Yanli: Mu En had said that the flames in Xu Yanli's Martial Soul came very close to Ultimate Fire.

That wasn't important to him, but it was crucial to his disciple, Ma Xiaotao.

Xu Yanli probably never expected the old veterans at Shrek Academy to immediately rule out the most obvious answer.

Of course, he had never imagined that his mother had been so famous back then, either. After all, he had never met her.

"Zhou Yi, take some time to think things over. Your teaching methods need to change, too. I'll leave this class to Mu Jin," Yan Shaozhe said.

Zhou Yi gritted her teeth and said nothing. Her fists were clenched so tightly that her nails dug into her palms, but she didn't even notice.

Xu Yanli soon met their new teacher. It was Wang Yan.

After class, Wang Yan kept Xu Yanli behind.

"Could I ask what your Martial Soul can do?" Wang Yan adjusted his glasses and asked gently.

"It can heal, control, and defend. It can attack, too," Xu Yanli said calmly.

"A hexagonal Martial Soul?" Wang Yan pinched the corner of his glasses. His voice trembled slightly, apparently with excitement.

The sky gradually darkened. Dormitory 108.

Tang Ling lay on his bed, excitedly going over the day's "feat" with Xu Yanli.

"Brother Yanli, do you think Teacher Zhou will come tomorrow? Will she cause trouble for us? No, if she dares to cause trouble, we'll go straight to the dean again! The dean's clearly on your side!"

Xu Yanli flipped through the book in his hands and said calmly, "She won't. The dean already warned her today. If she's smart, she'll keep her head down for a while. At least she won't make things difficult for us in public."

Tang Ling nodded, then remembered something. "By the way, Brother Yanli, do you think Teacher Zhou will secretly rig the assessment? I heard she has a powerful backer..."

Xu Yanli closed his book, the corner of his mouth lifting into a meaningful smile.

"Good."

Tang Ling stared. "Good? What do you mean?"

Xu Yanli didn't answer. He just smiled.

Of course, he wouldn't tell Tang Ling that he hadn't come to Shrek Academy to graduate in peace.

If Zhou Yi really dared to tamper with the assessment, then that would be a show he couldn't have asked for a better chance to see.

The bigger the commotion, the more opportunities he'd have to poach talent.

After all, the worse Shrek Academy's reputation became, the more gifted students would be willing to follow him to the Sun Moon Empire.

Xu Yanli looked up at the moon and smiled, feeling at ease.

Zhou Yi...

She wasn't important. What he wanted was a certain degree of autonomy. At the same time, he wanted to test just how much leeway Shrek Academy would give him.

He hadn't expected it to exceed his expectations. He'd thought Shrek Academy would at least have some doubts.

Moonlight spilled across the window like water.

Xu Yanli suddenly thought of someone: Kong Deming. And then there was the inner court's senior sister, Zhang Lexuan.

It seemed that they both had Silver Moon Martial Souls. There had to be some connection.

And there was his cousin, Xu He—He Caitou. If he remembered correctly, He Caitou had Twin Martial Souls, didn't he?