Another Encounter with Dai Huabin

After securing another victory that afternoon, Huo Yuhao and the other two had successfully advanced into the semifinals.

Mu Jin had specially arranged a celebration banquet for the three of them in the academy dining hall. To make it easier for them to talk, after offering a few simple congratulatory words and symbolically taking a few bites, he left first.

Huo Yuhao, Wang Dong, and Xiao Xiao were all in excellent spirits. Wang Dong and Xiao Xiao in particular had been the stars of both matches today. In trendy terms, they had thoroughly stolen the spotlight.

Huo Yuhao was also considering what came next. Although he had no attachment whatsoever to Shrek Academy,

he still needed to squeeze out more benefits during his time in the Outer Court before leaving, if only to use it as part of his future reputation.

Huo Yuhao was not worried that Shrek would force him to stay. With Time Reversal as his safety net, any method Shrek used to keep him would be completely transparent to him.

And after studying at Shrek, as long as he built up a name for himself, whether or not he obtained that Outer Court graduation certificate was not actually that important.

As the continent's number one academy, Shrek Academy and the small vendors around it had quite a few information brokers who supplied intelligence to other forces.

Some major powers with exceptionally far-reaching connections had already learned part of the truth about Huo Yuhao's current results.

Shrek was extremely confident in its atmosphere and its ability to win people over, so it did not mind letting those forces know the caliber of its students. This was, in fact, a form of mutual tolerance and balance.

By allowing those forces to learn of achievements that did not matter much to Shrek Academy's own interests, while using the academy's formidable strength as a deterrent, Shrek could ensure to the greatest extent that its geniuses would not be taken out while traveling outside.

In this era, everyone was smart. The purpose of eliminating members of the younger generation was merely to improve one's own prospects, not because someone had nothing better to do than buy arsenic and court death.

That was why people from Shrek Academy were generally so flamboyant. The more flamboyant a student was, so long as they could maintain it, the safer they were outside.

On the other hand, those students constantly hovering on the brink of elimination, barely scraping by, were more likely to become warnings when certain forces clashed with Shrek, suffering disasters they did not deserve.

As they ate their fill, Xiao Xiao said excitedly, "After tomorrow, we can hold a championship celebration!"

Huo Yuhao nodded, then said to Xiao Xiao, "I looked at the matchups. Among our remaining opponents, only Dai Huabin is left. If we beat him, we'll have the championship."

Just after Huo Yuhao said that, an abrupt voice rang out behind him.

"Who are you beating?"

Hearing the voice, Wang Dong and Xiao Xiao could not help peering behind Huo Yuhao.

Three new students were walking toward them. Huo Yuhao recognized the one in the center at a glance. It was Dai Huabin, the enemy of this body's original owner.

It was this man who had just picked up on Huo Yuhao's words. Huo Yuhao sneered and said to Dai Huabin, "Logically speaking, a child whose mother just died shouldn't look as pleased with himself as you do."

Huo Yuhao felt no burden saying this. After all, Huo Yun'er was not a mother he acknowledged, merely the mother of this body's original owner.

But the Duchess was Dai Huabin's biological mother. In the end, to cover up the scandal within his estate and conceal the charge of leaking intelligence and failing in his duties, the White Tiger Duke had declared that the Duchess died of illness.

Dai Huabin clenched his fists and gritted his teeth. "A sharp tongue is useless. Shrek Academy doesn't judge people by how well they talk, but by strength."

Huo Yuhao smiled faintly. "Then you're in real danger. After all, the most valuable thing on your entire body is that mouth of yours."

Dai Huabin's fists tightened further. Though he did not recognize Huo Yuhao, some inexplicable feeling made him angry whenever he saw Huo Yuhao's face.

Although Huo Yuhao's expression remained calm, his Soul Power was already secretly competing with Dai Huabin's.

At that moment, a cleaver flew between them and embedded itself directly into the wall on the other side.

A burly man in a white chef's apron, his face covered in flesh and his eyes brimming with ferocity, had appeared between them without anyone noticing.

"Soul Power is forbidden in Shrek Academy's dining hall. If there's a next time, the knife won't be going into the wall!" the chef growled, waves of pressure unconsciously pouring from his mouth.

Dai Huabin's expression changed. The girl beside him, who also had dual-colored pupils, immediately supported Dai Huabin by the waist and looked resentfully at the chef.

That redirected the trouble onto Huo Yuhao. Taking advantage of the situation, Huo Yuhao put on a friendly smile, raised both hands, and backed away several steps with his two teammates behind him.

"You still dare glare at me? The dining hall isn't welcoming you lot today!" With Huo Yuhao as a contrast, the chef's temper flared even more. He grabbed Zhu Lu by the back of her neck and, as though kicking a ball, drove a foot into her lower abdomen, sending her flying.

Dai Huabin was about to lash out when he saw the chef's fist, as large as a drumstick, flying toward him. He immediately stepped back and hurried out of the dining hall with his other teammate.

"Huo Yuhao, right? We'll settle this in the arena tomorrow!" Dai Huabin did not forget to throw out a threat as he left.

Huo Yuhao picked at his ear, treating it like birdsong, and said disdainfully to Dai Huabin, "Going out without even bringing your brain? You don't know who you can offend and who you can't. Only Shrek Academy is merciful enough to let you stay alive. But if you keep fooling around like this, I doubt you'll be able to keep your head on your shoulders for many more days."

Dai Huabin ultimately did not dare remain in the dining hall to retort. After shooting Huo Yuhao a hateful glare, he turned and left.

Watching Dai Huabin's bedraggled figure, Huo Yuhao silently calculated, Looks like I can't squeeze any more eyes out of him. What a waste of such a beautiful pair of eyes.

The next morning, the Assessment Area was reduced further, leaving only the two major sections of Area One and Area Two.

All twelve new students who had entered the semifinals stood together. Today, the one in charge of the drawing was no longer Du Weilun, the Outer Court Martial Soul Department's director of instruction, but Yan Shaozhe, the dean of the Outer Court.

Like certain vain officials from his previous life, he put on airs and personally held the box for the students to draw lots from, even though there were only four slips inside...