Wu Zhangkong!

When Lu Chuan left the Blacksmith's Association,

Mu Chen was still coaxing his daughter.

Before leaving,

Mu Chen had reminded Lu Chuan of one thing:

He mustn't tell anyone that he could perform Five-Alloy Metal Fusion Forging.

The tallest tree in the forest invites the wind.

The youngest Level Six Blacksmith in history was already dazzling enough.

If word got out that he could also forge Five-Alloy Metal, something unprecedented, there was no telling whether certain people might get ideas.

But Lu Chuan hadn't taken a word of it to heart.

He'd just had a blast forging,

and now all he wanted was to hurry back,

sit quietly, and absorb the insights he'd gained from forging!

The next morning,

the opening ceremony was held in the huge plaza of Eastsea Academy.

The autumn wind rustled,

but the Eastsea Academy principal was brimming with enthusiasm, spittle flying everywhere.

"Hello, students. At this time every year, I can't help feeling a little emotional. Because..."

His entire speech was nothing but the same old chicken soup.

The new students in the intermediate division might still feel a little starry-eyed,

but most of the upper division students were already nodding off.

Lu Chuan, however, listened to the principal's endless speech with great interest.

The principal was a gifted speaker,

and he reminded Lu Chuan of his junior high school principal back when he'd lived in another world.

Back then, everyone had affectionately called him "Two Fritters" behind his back.

No one knew why.

Anyway, that was what everyone called him.

Thinking about it now,

those days on Blue Star

had been so carefree!

"Lu Chuan, there you are! I've been looking for you forever!"

As he reminisced, Mu Xi's voice suddenly came from below him.

Lu Chuan instinctively looked down.

Mu Xi was crouching beside his feet,

looking up at him at a 45-degree angle.

The atmosphere turned intimate in an instant.

For some reason, a few racy images popped into Lu Chuan's mind.

Mu Xi seemed to realize that her face was pointed at something, too,

and hurriedly stood up,

slipping into the line beside Lu Chuan.

"Did you need something?"

Lu Chuan coughed lightly to cover his embarrassment and asked.

Mu Xi's pretty face flushed red.

She brushed back her hair.

"It's nothing much. It's just that my classmates heard I know you... and wanted me to ask you to take some pictures of Teacher Wu!"

"And I forgot to ask for your contact information yesterday."

As she spoke,

she handed Lu Chuan a camera and a pink Soul Guidance Communicator.

Lu Chuan took them, entered his contact information into the communicator, then hung the camera around his neck.

But at that moment,

he was utterly confused by what Mu Xi had said!

If he wasn't mistaken,

Mu Xi's friend was probably Liu Yuxin.

And if Eastsea Academy didn't have another teacher with the surname Wu,

then the teacher she wanted him to photograph had to be Wu Zhangkong!

But hadn't Wu Zhangkong been assigned to teach Class Five in the intermediate division?

What did that have to do with him?

Wu Zhangkong wasn't his teacher.

After hesitating for a moment,

Lu Chuan finally asked what was bothering him.

Mu Xi was extremely surprised.

"Lu Chuan, do you really not know you're in Class Zero?"

"Class Zero?"

Lu Chuan raised an eyebrow.

He wasn't unfamiliar with Class Zero.

But as far as he remembered,

it had only been established after the Class Promotion Tournament.

And the school year had only just begun.

Seeing that Lu Chuan, the person in question, really didn't know,

Mu Xi was just as confused,

but she quickly figured it out.

That was what she'd learned from asking her homeroom teacher yesterday.

It seemed the academy hadn't announced it yet!

"Class Zero is a special class. The benefits are really good."

"From what my homeroom teacher said, the school set up Class Zero especially because of you."

"You were originally supposed to go into Class One. But the school saw that you're a Soul Elder at nine, so it seems like... they started thinking about nurturing you for Shrek Academy!"

Mu Xi had practically pressed her lips to Lu Chuan's ear to say this, as though afraid anyone else might hear.

Only after she finished

did she realize she'd been much too intimate.

Her pretty face flushed red,

and she retreated to the line, her head practically steaming.

By then,

Lu Chuan had looked around,

and he was clearly the public enemy of countless male students.

But

now that he knew he had been assigned to Class Zero

and that Wu Zhangkong was his homeroom teacher,

he didn't care whether he became the public enemy or not.

On the contrary,

he was looking forward to meeting this legendary, top-tier teacher, the cold and aloof goddess so many people praised!

At last, the opening ceremony's long-winded speech came to an end.

The academy announced the establishment of Class Zero to everyone as the ceremony concluded.

It also promised that students who performed exceptionally well in the future would be admitted to Class Zero.

After that,

the classes dismissed in an orderly fashion according to the arrangements.

The upper division students went with the upper division,

while the intermediate division students waited where they were for their respective homeroom teachers to take them back to their classrooms.

The instructors from the other classes had arrived early to count their students.

Tang Wuyue had already left with her homeroom teacher,

but the Class Zero area was empty, with only Lu Chuan standing there.

"Did they forget about me?"

Lu Chuan felt a little frustrated.

Just as he was wondering when Wu Zhangkong would show up,

a figure of utter coolness slowly made her way through the crowd in the plaza,

walking toward him.

The newcomer was a woman,

tall and slender,

dressed in a fitted, ice-blue outfit, cleanly tailored with not a single unnecessary ornament.

Her sky-blue hair was tied neatly behind her head,

with only two wisps falling beside her cheeks.

Her features were delicately defined,

and her eyes were a pale icy blue,

as though covered by an unmelting frost, utterly devoid of warmth or softness.

Her brows were sharp as ice blades, her nose straight, and her thin lips so pale they were almost colorless.

Her beauty was so distant that she seemed like a snow lotus on a mountain where the snow had never melted.

Fit only to be admired from afar, never to be touched!

"Romance Continent really is terrifying! Even the teachers are this beautiful!"

Lu Chuan glanced at her, struck by how breathtaking she was.

But when the woman stopped in front of him,

he immediately looked away.

"Lu Chuan?"

The woman's icy blue eyes settled on Lu Chuan as she asked.

Lu Chuan looked up in surprise. "Yes, Teacher. You know me?"

The woman nodded slightly. "Mm. Allow me to introduce myself. I'm your homeroom teacher, Wu Zhangkong. From now on, I'll be in charge of overseeing all your cultivation and studies. Come with me to Class Zero."

With that, she turned and headed straight for the teaching building.

Lu Chuan nearly popped his eyes out at her words, and his voice even stumbled.

"Y-you're Teacher Wu?"

After Tang Wulin,

another one had changed!

Whose Demon Pill had gotten crushed this time?

Wu Zhangkong turned around, her voice clear and cool as water. "What? Was my introduction unclear, or do you think I'm an impostor?"

Lu Chuan hurriedly shook his head. "No, no!"

After that, he followed her at once when she gestured with her eyes.

But even after the two of them entered the classroom,

Lu Chuan didn't see any other students.

Wu Zhangkong seemed to see through his confusion and said,

"There aren't any other students. For now, you're the only one in Class Zero. You'll have classmates after the Class Promotion Tournament ends in three months.

"But that's just a formality the academy is going through, so the other students don't resent you. You don't need to pay it any mind.

"There is only one thing you need to do—

get into Shrek Academy!"