Peaceful Days at the Academy

As the dismissal bell rang, even Wang Dong dropped onto the ground on her butt, gulping down air.

Huo Yuhao merely shook his head and casually sat down on the ground.

Seeing all the students collapse, Zhou Yi waved toward the distance. A white-clad man dressed in an exceptionally flamboyant manner drifted over.

Two yellow, two purple, three black—seven rings. A Soul Sage whose Support Type martial soul was the Tree of Life.

As this Soul Sage activated his Martial Soul Avatar, leaves drifted down one after another, landing on the students.

They felt a cool sensation spread through their bodies. Their damaged meridians, muscles, fatigue from the intense exercise, and injuries all rapidly recovered.

As the saying went, give a slap, then offer a sweet date. Since it was the first lesson, Zhou Yi naturally would not go too far in order to establish her authority.

That was why she had specifically used Fan Yu's connections to invite this Soul Sage.

They would not receive such treatment in the future. After all, Zhou Yi herself was only an outer court Soul Emperor, while this Soul Sage was a genuine Inner Court Disciple.

"Damn, the Tree of Life? That's really pulling out all the stops." Feeling his strength gradually return, Wang Dong clicked her tongue in amazement beside Huo Yuhao.

Seeing Wang Dong look as though she had never seen the world, Huo Yuhao suspected that Ancestor Tang had lowered her intelligence again. Otherwise, how could a little princess of the Clear Sky Sect say something like that?

Seeing the teasing in Huo Yuhao's eyes, Wang Dong's little face reddened. "What are you looking at? The Tree of Life martial soul is rare to begin with, okay? Aside from the single-inheritance Nine Heart Begonia martial soul, the Tree of Life is nearly unrivaled among healing-type martial souls."

Once the treatment was complete, the white-clad man quickly left without another word. Apart from a nod of acknowledgment, he did not spare another glance for Zhou Yi, who stood to the side with a respectful bow.

The students climbed to their feet one after another. Feeling the novel changes in their bodies, they no longer cared about the terrifying image Zhou Yi had established earlier and began whispering among themselves.

This was precisely the effect Zhou Yi wanted. By alternating pressure and leniency, these inexperienced young students would naturally fall into her rhythm. Once she expelled another "unqualified" student—

After another round of pressure and leniency, followed by the reestablishment of authority, the remaining students would naturally no longer dare resist and would be hers to manipulate.

This time, without the incident caused by Huo Yuhao in the original story, Zhou Yi directly expelled the student with the weakest constitution due to his martial soul.

"Alright, pack your things and get out," Zhou Yi said coldly.

"The rest of you should not celebrate too soon either. The task I assigned was for you to keep running until the dismissal bell rang before counting your laps."

"Other than Wang Dong and Huo Yuhao, all of you failed. Normally, with my personality, every one of you would be punished. But I'm not some demon, and today is only your first day of academy life."

"But all of you remember this: it's not that I won't punish you. Your punishment is merely being noted down for now. Do you understand?!"

"Understood!" the students hurriedly answered.

"Alright, class dismissed. Everyone, take your Iron Clothes back with you."

"Tomorrow, other teachers will teach you theory, but the afternoon after tomorrow will be my class again. By then, I do not want to see a single piece of trash."

With that, Zhou Yi turned and left, leaving behind the young students who had finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Only after Zhou Yi had left did everyone truly relax.

"Teacher Zhou Yi doesn't seem that bad."

"Yeah, yeah. At least she didn't punish us again."

"Teacher Zhou Yi is actually pretty nice."

Listening to the students around her, who were so naive that they were almost laughable, Wang Dong—having been enlightened by Huo Yuhao—could not relax at all.

Although Zhou Yi had raised the so-called punishment high this time, she had ultimately set it down gently, seemingly letting everyone off.

But she had indeed expelled a student, and she had done so according to Zhou Yi's rules rather than Shrek Academy's rules, even though that student was not yet familiar with the others.

And wasn't the so-called punishment itself something Zhou Yi had decided upon? Why could everyone else simply turn a blind eye to it and even conclude that Zhou Yi was a "good teacher" because of what she had done at the end?

Huo Yuhao patted Wang Dong on the shoulder. "Alright, stop thinking about it. Class is over, so let's go back first. You have plenty of time to think it over properly. Don't just stand here."

After returning to the dormitory, Huo Yuhao took a change of clothes to wash up in the communal bathroom, leaving the room to Wang Dong.

While washing, Huo Yuhao recalled what he had seen earlier and could not help falling into thought.

Is that a Martial Soul Avatar? But isn't it simply enlarging the structure of the martial soul within one's body, filling it with Soul Power, using Soul Rings as its framework, and manifesting it outside the body?

Still, it does seem to use that as a medium to greatly amplify the Soul Skills of one's previous Soul Rings.

But if that's all there is to the principle, could I directly dismantle other people's Martial Soul Avatars—or even their martial souls—and use their Martial Soul Avatars to amplify Soul Skills of different attributes?

Or... who says a Martial Soul Avatar has to be used by a Soul Master? If I imprint a Martial Soul Avatar onto a Soul Tool in the form of a Soul Tool Core Array, could it replace the function of a Martial Soul Avatar?

And could the amplification provided by such a Soul Tool stack with the original Martial Soul Avatar?

As his thoughts gradually drifted, Huo Yuhao sat outside the dormitory after finishing his bath, continuously conceiving and refining his ideas.

As for why he did not go inside? Huo Yuhao had no interest in a twelve-year-old brat, nor did he want to invite unnecessary trouble or use such methods to "build" a relationship.

After a while, the dormitory door finally opened from within. Wang Dong had also finished washing. She wore a spotless white shirt, her complexion rosy.

Droplets of water still hung by her cheeks as she rubbed her hair with a dry towel. Her soft, androgynous features paired with her pink-blue hair made her strangely alluring.

If Huo Yuhao had not known she was actually a girl, this little pretty boy would truly have made him want to say, Brother, you smell amazing.

But knowing her true identity, Huo Yuhao naturally had no excessive thoughts. After all, three years was the minimum sentence, and the death penalty was the maximum.

Even though he was now in an Otherworld called Douluo Continent, the values instilled in Huo Yuhao from childhood to adulthood would never allow him to entertain any improper thoughts about little girls who had barely grown up.

"Finished?" Without further conversation, Huo Yuhao stood and walked inside. After putting away and organizing his belongings, he got dressed and headed out again.

His destination was naturally the outer court library. Huo Yuhao needed to hurry and record, organize, and sort through the valuable books so that he could formulate the next stage of his plans based on that information.

At the same time, with the help of the newly acquired First-Grade Soul Power Aggregation Array · Self-Named and First-Grade Soul Power Conversion Array · Self-Named, Sky Dream Ice Silkworm had experimented and successfully extracted and combined the advantages of the two arrays.

He made them operate within Huo Yuhao's body, further accelerating his cultivation speed considerably.

However, because of this, the circulation route of Soul Power inside Huo Yuhao's body had become even more complicated. Even if ordinary Soul Masters with relatively weak Spiritual Power knew the route, they would be unable to achieve the same effect.

Alright, it's about time to go back. Letting out a breath of turbid air, Huo Yuhao put down the book he had been using as a cover, then took several more books to register for borrowing.

It was already late. Huo Yuhao had gained the knowledge recorded in more than a hundred books this time and needed to return to integrate and organize it. It was time to leave.

After returning to the dormitory safely and peacefully, Huo Yuhao found that Wang Dong was still awake and seemed to be waiting for him.

"What is it? Why aren't you asleep this late? There are classes tomorrow." Huo Yuhao casually placed the borrowed books on the table, sat on his bed, and asked lazily.

"I was waiting for you. I have a few questions I want to ask you." Wang Dong hesitated for a moment before speaking.

Huo Yuhao did not refuse, merely saying, "Go ahead. Whether I answer depends on my mood."

Without realizing it, Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong talked until deep into the night. Wang Dong started the conversation, and they went from Zhou Yi, the other students, and the academy to all sorts of messy topics—families, nations, the continent, and even the entire Soul Master world.

Huo Yuhao went from replying absentmindedly at first to gradually getting into the mood, chatting with Wang Dong about everything under the sun. Other than things he should not say, Huo Yuhao told Wang Dong quite a lot.

Things Wang Dong, who had been born in the Clear Sky Sect and raised under the doting care of Tai Tan and Niu Tian, would never know or think of.

At the same time, that night brought Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong much closer. Huo Yuhao's heart, which had been somewhat tense since he had transmigrated here and arrived in this unfamiliar world, also eased and relaxed considerably.

Maybe this world isn't as terrible as I thought. Other than Ancestor Tang, everything else seems pretty good? Still, strength matters most. My time to relax is over. It's time to keep working hard.

Lying in bed, Huo Yuhao thought this before his spiritual body entered the Spiritual Sea once more to continue completing the tasks he had planned.

Early the next morning, although they had both gone to bed late, Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong still rose early as Soul Masters and went to the cafeteria after breakfast.

"Whew, I'm stuffed. There's still a while before class. Want to take a walk by Seagod Lake to relax and digest?" Wang Dong suggested.

"No, thank you. Where are the books I gave you last night? Go back and read them properly. I picked out every one of those treasures especially for you." Huo Yuhao spoke with a smile.

There was no way he was going to Seagod Lake. Not in this lifetime. Whoever wanted to deal with that crazy woman Ma Xiaotao could do it themselves. He certainly would not.

Remembering the books Huo Yuhao had handed her yesterday, Wang Dong showed a trace of embarrassment. "What kind of books did you borrow? Unofficial histories about the ancestors of the Shrek Seven Monsters and other Shrek Academy seniors."

"I really don't understand why you borrowed them."

Huo Yuhao smiled faintly. "You don't understand? Official history is edited by people, making its truth difficult to see clearly."

"But unofficial histories are different. When unofficial histories from different eras corroborate one another, together with echoes from official history, the truth of the original history can sometimes emerge."

"Only through unofficial histories and strange accounts can we deduce part of the history that has been sealed away."

"If you can understand this, it means your brain has truly begun working."

"Think it over carefully. Those books are enough to keep you busy for quite a while. I'm heading to the library to borrow some new books. See you in class." With a wave of his hand, Huo Yuhao slipped away.

Soon, the day passed without incident. The morning martial soul classification class and afternoon Soul Beast age identification class quickly came and went.

Huo Yuhao discovered quite a few flaws in them. The teachers at Shrek Academy were, to put it bluntly, a group of traditional Soul Masters whose minds had been stuffed full of muscles and Soul Ring ages.

Much of what they taught was not even as detailed or practical as the rigid records in books.

Learning this stuff is practically asking for trouble in the Star Dou Great Forest. No wonder the Inner Court Disciples suffer such high casualties. Without protection from high-level Soul Masters, anyone who truly follows this knowledge to hunt Soul Beasts is gambling with their life.

Then again, perhaps this is Shrek Academy's distinctive approach to hunting Soul Beasts. Compared to ordinary hunting teams that proceed cautiously, it's only natural for Shrek Academy—confident in its status as the Number One Academy on the Continent and believing its students are all elites—to use more aggressive methods.

After all, the only people who can directly jump their Soul Ring age from a hundred years to a thousand, then from a thousand to ten thousand, are probably Shrek Academy students. You would be hard-pressed to find anyone else like them.

"Whew, class is finally over. I was bored to death listening to that." Wang Dong complained beside Huo Yuhao. Students this age truly found it difficult to study anything conscientiously.

Although Wang Dong, who came from Clear Sky Fortress, was somewhat strange when it came to emotional intelligence, her theoretical knowledge was quite solid. Naturally, she did not think much of the theory courses offered to Shrek Academy's first-years.

"Come on, let's eat. We won't make it in time for dinner otherwise." Wang Dong grabbed Huo Yuhao and ran down the corridor.

Huo Yuhao did not pull free. Instead, he overheard students from several other classes talking.

"Did you hear? It seems several students from different classes disappeared this morning."

"I heard they dropped out?"

"No, no, it has to be ghosts. I heard—"

"Yeah, one of Shrek's Ten Unsolved Mysteries is Seagod Lake shrouded in white mist. They say several newly enrolled students disappear every year."

"Hey, don't scare me. Where did you hear that?"

"Of course, senior students told me."

Looks like that hurdle has mostly passed. To be safe, I should stay far away from that cursed place called Seagod Lake from now on.