"I-I... I surrender, Brother Yao. Let go of me." After spinning around dozens of times, Huo Yuhao clutched Lin Yao's clothes and spoke to him weakly.
Only then did Lin Yao toss Huo Yuhao back onto the ground, landing in front of Xiao Xiao at the same time.
"You seem to be all alone now. So, are you going to keep fighting?" Lin Yao looked at Xiao Xiao and asked calmly.
Xiao Xiao glanced at Zhou Yi on the viewing platform, then stepped back and produced a long, emerald-green flute in her hand.
"Let's fight to our hearts' content!" Xiao Xiao stopped holding back. She played the flute with one hand and controlled all three Three-Life Soul-Suppressing Cauldrons with the other, sending them crashing toward Lin Yao.
Ye Guyi had already subdued Wang Dong and was about to get up and help Lin Yao when she saw him swing both hands backward again, directly blocking two of the cauldrons. He knocked the last one away with his wings.
"I understand what you mean," Lin Yao said. In an instant, he was in front of Xiao Xiao, gripping her throat with one hand and chopping the back of her neck with the other.
Xiao Xiao's legs went limp, and she collapsed to the ground. The referee in charge of the match immediately stepped in and pulled Lin Yao away, announcing, "The match is over! The Lin Yao Team wins!"
It had all happened so fast, in the space of just a few minutes.
The smile on Zhou Yi's face had not even completely faded when the Shrek team, in which she had placed all her hopes, was wiped out.
"Hahahaha!" Mu Jin burst into laughter, her voice filled with the reckless relief of someone who had finally avenged a great wrong. She sneered at Zhou Yi, enunciating each word: "Teacher Zhou, I'll be waiting for you to bring me that Soul Bone. And while you're at it, bring your face over so I can slap it."
Mu Jin made the word "you" drip with sarcasm.
At Mu Jin's words, Zhou Yi's vision blurred with a rush of blood. She gave a faint hiccup, spat out a mouthful of blood, and then her vision went white. She tipped backward and began to fall.
Just as Zhou Yi was about to hit the floor of the stands, a sturdy figure caught her. A stern rebuke rang out as the figure appeared: "Mu Jin, you've gone too far!"
The figure was none other than Fan Yu, an important member of the Soul Guidance Department and a Level 8 Soul Engineer. He was also seen by the department as a candidate to become its next dean.
Scolded by Fan Yu, Mu Jin's face immediately took on a wounded expression. She bit her lip and looked at him. "You're just going to take her side?"
Curious, Lin Yao and the others had walked over to the teachers' viewing platform.
After asking a teacher from a neighboring class, whom he knew fairly well, what had happened, Lin Yao ignored Ye Guyi and the others' attempts to stop him and walked onto the viewing platform, joining the crowd of onlookers.
Fan Yu's expression hardened as he turned to Mu Jin and said seriously, "Teacher Mu, I'm telling you again: Zhou Yi is my girlfriend. Of course I'm going to help her. And I expect you to remember the boundaries between colleagues."
When Mu Jin was at a loss for words, Lin Yao spoke up calmly. "Teacher, we understand that you want to protect your girlfriend. But Shrek isn't some den of Evil Soul Masters, is it? This is supposed to be a place where people reason things out, isn't it?"
Fan Yu turned his gaze to Lin Yao, his voice low and simmering with anger. "What are you trying to say?!"
Seeing Fan Yu and Lin Yao squaring off, Du Weilun couldn't help covering his face. You little troublemaker, you really are a handful. He quietly moved closer to Lin Yao, in case Fan Yu lost his temper and took a swing at the kid.
Who was Lin Yao, anyway? He was someone the Martial Soul Department's dean, Yan Shaozhe, had personally invited to come here. Even for this little freshman assessment, Yan Shaozhe had personally stepped in to change the rules.
If Fan Yu so much as laid a finger on him, Du Weilun's future as the Martial Soul Department's grade director would be finished. His career would melt away like butter.
Fortunately, Fan Yu's anger didn't seem to have reached its peak. He had only challenged Lin Yao once. I got here in time, Du Weilun thought. He was just about to step in when Lin Yao spoke.
"Your girlfriend was the one who challenged our class teacher to a bet about which of our two teams would win. Both teams competed fairly and relied on their own abilities. Everything was proper and within the rules. My teacher merely repeated the terms of the bet they'd already made. How exactly was she being overbearing?"
"Is Shrek Academy really a place where people ignore the spirit of a contract just to spare a colleague's feelings? Would any faction want to take in students who graduated from a place like that?"
"Teacher, the reputation you're tarnishing isn't just our teacher's. You're besmirching the banner that has drawn every major faction to seek out Shrek Academy's graduates for tens of thousands of years!"
Du Weilun's eyes twitched in alarm. Lin Yao really does live up to his schooling in the Dou Ling Empire's education system. He's never even followed his father around in officialdom, and he's already got a silver tongue.
That accusation was practically a death sentence for Fan Yu.
Fan Yu was completely dumbfounded. Lin Yao's old-school tactic of slapping a label on his opponent was perfect for dealing with someone who leaned toward the sciences. He had left Fan Yu's mind blank for a moment.
Fan Yu's face turned blue, then white. Only after a long pause did he manage to say, "I never said that."
Lin Yao continued, "But your words made it sound as though repeating the terms of a contract was a form of bullying a colleague."
Just as Fan Yu was about to keep defending himself, a huge fist suddenly smacked him on the back of the head.
A dark-skinned man then appeared in Lin Yao's field of vision.
The man wore a warm smile as he said to Lin Yao, "This year's freshmen are quite something. So young, yet already sharp and resourceful, and standing up for their teacher. Very good. This sort of respect for one's teachers is one of the key reasons Shrek Academy graduates are so well received."
"Fan Yu is a student of our Soul Guidance Department. Perhaps we haven't kept a close enough eye on him, and he doesn't always think before he speaks. We won't let him embarrass the Martial Soul Department any further. I'll take him back and deal with the little rascal myself."
Du Weilun stepped forward and smiled at Qian Duoduo. "Dean Qian, one of our Martial Soul Department students was the first to talk back to a teacher. It was indeed disrespectful."
Lin Yao understood who the man was, so he naturally wasn't going to pick a fight with a department dean. Qian Duoduo waved a hand and continued in his warm tone...
Before you continue