Mu Tianyi's View on Zhou Yi, the Evil Fire Phoenix, Ma Xiaotao's Loss of Control

Gongyang Mo's eyes lit up. He reached out to shake hands with him, his smile as radiant as a sunflower facing the sun.

"Brother Tianyi, I'll be counting on you from now on!"

Mu Tianyi released his hand, turned, and continued walking forward.

Gongyang Mo naturally followed, keeping half a step behind him to his side.

He began to chatter incessantly about where he came from, what his martial soul was, his soul power level...

Mu Tianyi listened, occasionally offering a grunt of acknowledgment, his pace steady and unhurried.

The two walked side by side through the statue garden, heading toward the white freshman teaching building.

The white freshman teaching building was easy to find.

Mu Tianyi was more than familiar with the layout of the Shrek Outer Court.

Leading Gongyang Mo through a few twists and turns, he easily located the freshman registration office.

The registration process was not complicated.

Paying fees, verifying identities, collecting school badges and student IDs, and being assigned dormitories...

Neither of them was the type to drag their feet; in less than an hour, they walked out of the teaching building, each carrying a stack of items.

Gongyang Mo clutched his dormitory key, glanced down at the number, then leaned over to look at the one in Mu Tianyi's hand. A smile immediately rippled through his multicolored eyes.

"307. Oh, what a coincidence, we're in the same room."

Mu Tianyi looked down at his own key, confirmed the number was indeed the same, and nodded.

"Let's go, let's drop our things off first."

The two didn't rush to the dormitory, instead stopping in front of the bulletin board at the entrance of the teaching building.

The board was plastered with several notices written in black ink on red paper. The most prominent one read:

First-Year Class Assignments.

Mu Tianyi's gaze swept across it, quickly finding his own name.

First Year, Class One.

Above the list, the column for the homeroom teacher contained two characters—Zhou Yi.

Mu Tianyi's expression darkened the instant he saw the name.

Gongyang Mo, oblivious to the change in his companion, continued to look down the list with great interest:

"You're in Class One, and so am I... Huh, Zhou Yi? This name sounds like it belongs to a young person, though I wonder if this teacher is pretty."

"Let's go." Mu Tianyi interrupted him. His tone was calm, but anyone familiar with him would have detected the deeply hidden chill.

Gongyang Mo froze. He looked up to see Mu Tianyi's black-rimmed, gold-ringed eyes narrowing slightly.

He instinctively swallowed the rest of his sentence and obediently followed him away from the bulletin board.

Along the way, Mu Tianyi did not speak.

But inside, his mind was churning with significant turmoil.

Zhou Yi.

This was not the first time he had heard this name.

In the original story, this old lady... no, this middle-aged woman disguised as an old lady, was known for being "strict" and was the most feared homeroom teacher in the Shrek Outer Court.

However, Mu Tianyi never considered "strictness" a quality worth praising.

To establish her authority, Zhou Yi expelled several students every year at the start of the term.

Her methods were heavy-handed, her attitude extreme, and she threatened expulsion at the slightest provocation.

In Mu Tianyi's view, this wasn't education; it was management through fear.

If a teacher could only maintain order by making students afraid, then that teacher's level was nothing to write home about.

Not to mention her training methods.

Mu Tianyi quickly ran through the descriptions of Zhou Yi's training methods from the original story in his mind.

High-intensity running, weighted cross-country, extreme physical exhaustion...

It all sounded familiar. Upon closer reflection, wasn't this just the same old routine Yu Xiaogang had been playing with ten thousand years ago?

Ten thousand years had passed, the soul master system had evolved through countless generations, and martial soul theory had been updated through numerous versions, yet the training methods remained stuck in the primitive era.

Using such crude methods to train freshmen—those who could endure it would indeed become stronger, but what about those who couldn't?

Especially for auxiliary and healing-type soul masters, whose physiques were inherently weaker, forced physical exhaustion easily left behind hidden injuries that would affect their future soul power growth.

If something went wrong during training, the best-case scenario was a damaged foundation, and the worst was immediate expulsion.

Expulsion.

Damn it, expulsion again.

Mu Tianyi took a deep breath, the chill in his eyes deepening once more.

Shrek Academy is known for the motto: "We only teach monsters, not trash."

This statement sounds imposing, but Mu Tianyi never felt it was a correct philosophy.

True education should be tailored to the individual, not measuring everyone with the same yardstick.

Students who manage to pass the entrance exam for Shrek Academy are already the top geniuses of the entire continent; every single one of them is hard-won.

Using such a crude method to eliminate those who "do not meet the standard" is, in the final analysis, the incompetence of the educator, not the failure of the student.

What makes Mu Tianyi feel even more uneasy is: what will those students expelled by Zhou Yi think after leaving Shrek Academy?

Who will they hate?

Will they hate themselves for lacking talent?

Or will they hate the academy for its ruthlessness?

Mu Tianyi knows the answer without even having to think about it.

Every time Zhou Yi expels a student, she is creating a potential enemy for Shrek Academy.

If this continues, what Shrek cultivates will not be loyal followers, but a massive group of resentful adversaries.

Once these people scatter across the continent and become the backbone of various major families, what will their attitude toward Shrek Academy be?

Thinking of this, Mu Tianyi already has his conclusion.

This person, Zhou Yi, not only has backward educational philosophies and outdated training methods, but she is also damaging the foundation and reputation of Shrek Academy.

Having such a teacher at Shrek is a tragedy for the academy.

Mu Tianyi lowers his eyelashes, the golden specks in his eyes flashing and vanishing.

They have already invited their own death.

Mu Tianyi and Gongyang Mo walk side by side to the entrance of the dormitory building, their footsteps suddenly coming to a halt.

On the stone steps in front of the building stands a figure that could not be more familiar.

Silver-white hair, an aged face, and a hunched frame; yet, just standing there, he possesses an aura as deep as an abyss and as steady as a mountain.

The old man is currently lying on a recliner, his expression languid, as if he is basking in the sun.

The corner of Mu Tianyi's mouth twitches slightly.

Xuan Zu.

Why aren't you staying in the Sea God Pavilion, old man? What are you doing at the Outer Court dormitory building?

Are you on an undercover inspection? Or are you simply bored?

He suppresses the helplessness in his heart, walks forward, and calls out respectfully:

"Hello, Grandfather."

Gongyang Mo follows behind, and upon hearing this form of address, he assumes it is just some senior of the academy, so he bows slightly as well without paying much mind.

Mu En turns his head, glances at Mu Tianyi, his gaze calm and wearing a faint, inscrutable smile.

The old man says nothing more, merely giving an "en" as a response, then turns to the side to clear the path at the entrance.

Mu Tianyi pretends not to notice and walks inside without stopping.

Gongyang Mo follows closely behind, whispering:

"Brother Tianyi, do you know that old gentleman from just now?"

"I've met him a few times," Mu Tianyi says casually. "He's a senior in the academy."

Gongyang Mo says "Oh" and does not press further.

The two pass through the dormitory gate and enter the small courtyard in the center.

The courtyard is not large, paved with blue bricks, with a few old locust trees providing a canopy that casts a patch of dense shade.

The afternoon sunlight filters through the gaps in the leaves, casting mottled light and shadows on the ground.

In the very center of the small courtyard stands a person.

To be precise, a young girl.

A head of fiery red hair cascades down to her waist like a waterfall, the tips slightly curled as if they were leaping flames.

Her skin is fair, her features exquisite yet sharp, and there is a heroic spirit between her brows.

A dark red combat outfit outlines the girl's budding curves.

Mu Tianyi glances at her, his footsteps not stopping as he prepares to walk past her side.

In that very instant.

He keenly senses something is wrong.

The girl's shoulders sink slightly, her center of gravity shifts forward, and her breathing frequency changes from steady to rapid in a split second.

Mu Tianyi's eyes narrow slightly.

The next moment, the girl moves.

Her figure is like a bolt of red lightning; the blue bricks beneath her feet crack into spiderwebs as she launches herself forward, a punch aimed directly at Mu Tianyi's face.