Gongyang Mo's eyes lit up. He reached out and clasped his hand, his smile as radiant as a sunflower seeing the sun.
"Brother Tianyi, please look after me from now on!"
Mu Tianyi released his hand, turned, and continued forward.
Gongyang Mo naturally followed, walking half a step beside him.
He began chattering away about where he came from, what his martial soul was, what level his Soul Power had reached...
Mu Tianyi listened, responding now and then as he walked at an unhurried pace.
The two walked side by side through the statue district toward the white freshman teaching building.
The white freshman teaching building was easy enough to find.
Mu Tianyi could not have been more familiar with the layout of Shrek Academy's Outer Court.
After leading Gongyang Mo through several twists and turns, he easily found the freshman registration office.
The registration process was not complicated.
Paying the fee, verifying their identities, collecting their school badges and student IDs, being assigned dormitories...
Neither of them was the type to dawdle. In less than half an hour, they emerged from the teaching building, each carrying a stack of things.
Gongyang Mo held his dorm key, glanced down at the number on it, then leaned over to look at Mu Tianyi's. A smile immediately spread through his multicolored eyes.
"Three-oh-seven. Oh, what a coincidence—we're roommates."
Mu Tianyi looked down at his own key. It did indeed bear the same number, so he nodded.
"Let's go. We'll put our things away first."
The two did not hurry to the dormitory. Instead, they stopped before the notice board outside the teaching building.
Several notices written in black ink on red paper were posted there. The most conspicuous one read:
First-Year Class Assignments.
Mu Tianyi swept his gaze over it and quickly found his own name.
First-Year Class One.
Above the list, two words were written in the homeroom teacher column—Zhou Yi.
Mu Tianyi's expression darkened almost the instant he saw that name.
Gongyang Mo failed to notice anything strange about the person beside him and continued looking down the list with great interest.
"You're in Class One? So am I... Huh, Zhou Yi? That name sounds like she should be young. I wonder whether this teacher is pretty."
"Let's go." Mu Tianyi cut him off, his tone calm, though anyone familiar with him would have heard the deeply buried chill within it.
Gongyang Mo froze, then looked up to see Mu Tianyi's black eyes ringed in gold narrow slightly.
He instinctively swallowed the rest of his words and obediently followed him away from the notice board.
Mu Tianyi did not speak along the way.
Yet his heart was already churning with no small amount of turmoil.
Zhou Yi.
This was not the first time he had heard that name.
In the original novel, this old woman... no, this middle-aged woman disguised as an old woman, was known for being "strict" and was the homeroom teacher most feared by students in Shrek Academy's Outer Court.
But Mu Tianyi had never considered "strictness" a quality worthy of praise.
To establish her authority, Zhou Yi expelled several students at the start of every school year.
Her methods were forceful, her attitude extreme, and she readily threatened students with expulsion.
In Mu Tianyi's eyes, that was not education. It was fear-based management.
If a teacher could only maintain order by making students afraid, then that teacher's ability was nothing special.
Not to mention her training methods.
Mu Tianyi quickly reviewed the original novel's descriptions of Zhou Yi's methods in his mind.
High-intensity running, cross-country marches with heavy loads, pushing physical limits to the extreme...
Even hearing it sounded familiar. Once he thought about it carefully, wasn't this the same damn routine Yu Xiaogang had already worn out ten thousand years ago?
Ten thousand years had passed. How many generations had the soul master system developed through? How many times had martial soul theory been updated? Yet the training methods were still stuck in primitive times.
Training freshmen through such brutal methods would indeed make those who endured stronger, but what about those who could not?
Especially support-type and healing-type soul masters. Their constitutions were already weaker, and forcibly draining their physical strength could easily leave hidden injuries that would affect their future Soul Power growth.
If anything went wrong during training, the mild outcome would be damaged foundations; the severe outcome would be immediate expulsion.
Expulsion.
Fuck, expulsion again.
Mu Tianyi took a deep breath, and the chill in his eyes deepened further.
Shrek Academy prided itself on the saying, "We teach only monsters, not trash."
It sounded imposing, but Mu Tianyi had never thought it was a correct philosophy.
True education should teach according to aptitude, not measure everyone with the same ruler.
Students who could enter Shrek were already the finest geniuses on the continent. Every single one was hard to come by.
Eliminating those who did not "meet the standard" through such crude means was, in the end, the incompetence of the educators, not the students' failure.
What made Mu Tianyi even more uneasy was this: what would the students Zhou Yi expelled think after leaving Shrek?
Whom would they hate?
Would they hate themselves for lacking talent?
Or would they hate the academy for its cruelty?
Mu Tianyi did not need to think to know the answer.
Every student Zhou Yi expelled meant another potential enemy for Shrek Academy.
If this continued, Shrek would not cultivate loyal believers, but a large number of bitter enemies harboring resentment.
Once those people scattered across the continent and became the backbone of various great clans, what attitude would they have toward Shrek?
By this point, Mu Tianyi had already reached a conclusion.
Zhou Yi was not only backward in her educational philosophy and outdated in her training methods—she was also damaging Shrek Academy's foundation and reputation.
A teacher like that being at Shrek was the academy's tragedy.
Mu Tianyi lowered his lashes, and a golden gleam flickered through his eyes.
She had chosen the path to death.
Mu Tianyi and Gongyang Mo walked side by side to the entrance of the dormitory building, then suddenly stopped.
On the stone steps before the entrance stood an all too familiar figure.
Silver-white hair, an aged face, a hunched figure—yet simply standing there, he possessed the imposing presence of a deep pool and towering mountain.
The old man was currently reclining in a lounge chair, looking lazy as though he were basking in the sun.
Mu Tianyi's mouth twitched slightly.
Xuan Zu.
Why had you left Sea God Pavilion and come to the Outer Court dormitory building?
Was this an incognito inspection? Or were you simply bored out of your mind?
Suppressing the helplessness in his heart, he stepped forward and respectfully greeted him.
"Hello, Grandpa."
Following behind him, Gongyang Mo heard the form of address and assumed the man was some senior figure from the academy. He gave a slight bow as well, without thinking much of it.
Mu En turned his head and glanced at Mu Tianyi, his gaze calm and faintly amused.
The old man said nothing more. He merely gave an "Mm" in response, then shifted aside to clear the way through the entrance.
Mu Tianyi pretended not to notice and walked inside without slowing down.
Gongyang Mo followed close behind and quietly muttered:
"Brother Tianyi, do you know that old gentleman?"
"I've met him a few times." Mu Tianyi's tone was casual. "He's an old senior from the academy."
Gongyang Mo gave an "Oh" and did not press further.
The two passed through the dormitory entrance and entered the central courtyard.
The courtyard was not large, paved with blue bricks. Several old locust trees spread their canopies overhead, casting deep shade.
Afternoon sunlight filtered through the gaps in the leaves, scattering mottled patches of light across the ground.
Someone stood in the middle of the courtyard.
More precisely, a young woman.
A cascade of fiery red hair fell to her waist, its ends curling slightly like dancing flames.
Her skin was fair, her features exquisite yet sharp, and an air of heroism rested between her brows.
Her dark crimson fitted outfit outlined the beginnings of a young woman's curves.
Mu Tianyi glanced at her without stopping, intending to pass around her.
At that very instant.
He sharply sensed that something was wrong.
The young woman's shoulders dipped slightly, her center of gravity shifted forward, and in an instant, her breathing changed from steady to rapid.
Mu Tianyi narrowed his eyes slightly.
The next moment, the young woman moved.
Her body became a streak of red lightning. The blue bricks beneath her feet cracked into a spiderweb pattern as she shot forward, her fist aimed straight at Mu Tianyi's face.
Before you continue