First Lesson, Zhou Yi's Downfall!

Du Weilun stood at the center of the podium, his sharp gaze sweeping one by one across the faces of the hundred-odd freshmen below.

The pressure of a high-level soul master that he deliberately released drifted through the classroom air, making several students in the front row, whose composure was lacking, break out in cold sweat and breathe in short gasps.

After a full ten seconds of prolonged silence, Du Weilun suddenly withdrew all his sharpness.

The overwhelming pressure vanished without a trace.

"Cough."

A brief, forceful throat-clearing broke the silence.

Du Weilun braced both hands against the sides of the wooden podium and leaned forward slightly. Rare warmth befitting a teacher showed between his perpetually furrowed brows.

"I am Du Weilun, Director of Academic Affairs. Starting today, I will also serve as the homeroom teacher of Freshman Class One."

His voice was rich and low, carrying an innate steadiness that inspired trust.

"Put your minds at ease. I know full well how many terrifying rumors about Shrek Academy you heard before entering this classroom. Some say freshmen are dragged to the field on their first lesson and made to run until they vomit blood. Some even believe that showing the slightest bit of laziness will get them thrown out immediately."

Du Weilun's gaze passed over several boys in the front row whose legs had been trembling with nerves just moments ago, and the corner of his mouth lifted in a faint arc.

"Put away those absurd fantasies. Shrek only cultivates monsters, but monsters need time to grow as well. Before we have thoroughly understood each of your Martial Soul traits, meridian resilience, and physical limits, any blind and harsh physical overexertion is personally strangling your future. For this first lesson, we will not discuss rules or train your bodies. We will discuss only understanding."

The moment he said this, the tension in the tiered classroom visibly eased.

Quite a few students let out long breaths, their rigid backs relaxing slightly against their chairs.

Xiao Xiao even patted her chest quietly, her suspended heart finally settling firmly back into place.

Du Weilun turned around, picked up a piece of chalk, and wrote four powerful characters on the blackboard: "Current State of the Continent."

The sound of chalk striking the board was crisp and clear.

Tossing aside the chalk, he braced his hands against the podium again and began this exceptionally valuable theoretical introduction.

Before being transferred to take charge of Academic Affairs, Du Weilun had already been one of Shrek Academy's foremost veteran teachers.

His teaching style was organized and clear, every word precise and valuable, without a single sentence of nonsense.

He began with the distribution of soul beasts in Star Dou Forest, carefully breaking down the behavioral differences and vulnerable attack points of ten-year, hundred-year, and thousand-year soul beasts.

He then moved on to the core points of soul master breakthroughs, analyzing the dangers of absorbing soul rings in painstaking detail.

"Do not blindly chase soaring Soul Power levels." Du Weilun curled his fingers and rapped his knuckles against the desk, emphasizing his tone.

"If your foundation is unstable, the farther you go, the harder the road becomes. What you need to do now is thoroughly solidify every drop of Soul Power."

Immediately afterward, his topic shifted abruptly as he threw out a weighty subject that made every freshman in the room take notice—the Sun Moon Empire and Soul Tools.

"The times have changed." Du Weilun's face turned stern once more.

"The swords in your hands, the claws of your beast Martial Souls that you take such pride in—how many seconds can they hold against the fixed-installation soul cannons of the Sun Moon Empire, capable of locking onto targets from afar? An ordinary Level Twenty Soul Grandmaster, so long as they wield a Class Three soul ray, can easily blast a careless Level Thirty battle Soul Elder to death from a hundred paces away. That is the change brought by Soul Tools."

The room fell utterly silent.

Wang Dong's proud expression froze, her brows knitting tightly together.

Born into the Clear Sky Sect, she had always believed in the absolute invincibility of Martial Souls and personal strength.

In her eyes, Soul Tools were nothing more than clever but frivolous tricks.

Yet Du Weilun's bloody analysis of reality was like a heavy hammer, ruthlessly shattering her ingrained arrogance.

Xiao Xiao, meanwhile, gripped her charcoal pencil tightly and rapidly recorded every word Du Weilun said in her notebook. Her delicate face was full of gravity and yearning.

Yun Yi rested his cheek on one hand and quietly watched Du Weilun speak eloquently from the podium, admiration showing in his eyes.

This was what it truly meant to impart knowledge and resolve doubts.

The reason Shrek Academy had stood firm on the continent for ten thousand years was precisely because of teachers like these, who kept pace with the times and looked far ahead.

Looking at Du Weilun's upright figure, Yun Yi's thoughts gradually drifted away. The woman who should originally have been standing at this podium, throwing her weight around according to the original storyline—Zhou Yi—appeared in his mind.

Remembering that woman's many outrageous actions, Yun Yi could not help pulling his lips into a mocking smile.

Zhou Yi was merely a Soul Emperor of average cultivation, yet she loved wearing an ugly old human-skin mask and playing mysterious tricks.

Her teaching philosophy was laughable to the extreme.

She claimed that her ugly appearance created a sense of oppression, making students obedient.

In Yun Yi's eyes, such cheap authority built on disguise and intimidation was nothing more than a fig leaf for her own poor teaching ability.

What was even more infuriating was her crude and barbaric method of physical training.

On the first day of school, she did not bother to understand each student's physical condition, nor did she understand the vast innate gap in physical strength between auxiliary-type and assault-type students. She simply forced the entire class onto the field for an extreme long-distance run. Those who could not finish had to pack up and get out.

In Yun Yi's estimation, this insane overexertion training was undoubtedly a devastating disaster for promising auxiliary-type and control-type students whose constitutions were already weak.

The crushing burden would gradually tear apart their fragile meridians, leaving hidden injuries that would be difficult to heal for life and forcibly cutting off their chances of reaching higher realms in the future.

Under the banner of "strict teachers produce outstanding students," she had been doing something idiotic that undermined Shrek Academy's very foundations.

For that very reason, several years earlier, Yun Yi had casually mentioned it to Yan Shaozhe within Sea God Pavilion.

It had been a sunny afternoon. Yun Yi sat in a wicker chair at Sea God Pavilion, idly turning two smooth jade stones in his hand as he casually said to Yan Shaozhe, the dean of the Martial Soul Department standing beside him:

"Shaozhe, that teacher named Zhou Yi from the outer academy—make her disappear from Shrek's faculty roster tomorrow."

Yan Shaozhe had been utterly stunned and asked why this junior granduncle of his wanted that done.

Yun Yi had not even raised his eyelids, his tone utterly casual. "This morning, she stepped through the classroom door with her left foot first. I don't like the sight of her."

Naturally, such an absurd reason for dismissal had merely been Yun Yi's joke.

Yan Shaozhe had managed the Martial Soul Department for many years and was keen-minded. He immediately realized that this young granduncle of exceedingly high seniority was definitely not making trouble without cause. Zhou Yi must have had serious issues that touched upon the academy's bottom line.

Yan Shaozhe immediately ordered a thorough investigation.

They had not known until they investigated. Once they did, the results left them drenched in cold sweat.

Academic Affairs pulled Zhou Yi's teaching files and expulsion records from the past several years.

The information was horrifying.

The elimination rate in the classes she taught had reached a terrifying ninety percent!

Further investigation revealed that among the students she had thrown out under labels like "trash" and "garbage," a considerable number were auxiliary-type geniuses with extremely rare Martial Souls.

They had merely been unable to complete Zhou Yi's perverse physical training, which was suited only for assault-type soul masters, and had been ruthlessly expelled.

Worse still, several highly promising students had their meridians utterly destroyed under Zhou Yi's extreme exploitation, becoming cripples for good.

This was no longer strictness. It was pure abuse and criminality.

She had used the ruined lives of countless students to satisfy her twisted desire for control, using it to flaunt her title as a "monster teacher."

Looking at that mountain of victim files, Yan Shaozhe had been so furious that he smashed his office desk with a single slap.

The reputation Shrek Academy had accumulated over ten thousand years would never be allowed to be tainted by such a tumor wearing a teacher's skin!

Swift, thunderous measures followed.

That very afternoon, the judgment order was slapped into Zhou Yi's face.

Charge: maliciously crippling academy students and seriously violating Shrek's educational principles.

The punishment was exceptionally harsh, yet deeply satisfying.

Yan Shaozhe personally acted. His vast Bright Phoenix Soul Power directly destroyed all of Zhou Yi's meridians, crippling the Soul Emperor cultivation she had been so proud of. He then publicly drove her out of Shrek City like a homeless dog.

And in the end, good and evil always received their due.

On the night Zhou Yi was expelled from Shrek City, a torrential rain fell from the heavens.

On a muddy post road ten li outside Shrek City, an incomparably brutal revenge unfolded.

Those students whom Zhou Yi had once expelled for no reason, even leaving some with hidden injuries that destroyed their futures, had somehow learned that her cultivation had been crippled.

Several dozen red-eyed youths used the cover of the downpour to block Zhou Yi, who had lost her Martial Soul and become an ordinary person, out in the wilderness.

The torrential rain washed over the mud beneath them.

Zhou Yi, once lofty and untouchable, who so readily cursed her students as garbage, crawled and wailed in despair within a mud pit.

Cold blades and violent soul skills rained down upon her body one after another.

The mask she had been so proud of was torn to pieces, revealing the true face beneath, twisted with terror.

These youths poured all the resentment they had buried in their hearts for years, all the despair of their ruined lives, onto that old hag.

When dawn broke and the storm finally ceased, only a cold corpse riddled with wounds and stained red with blood remained on the post road, along with a mess of scattered footprints left after their release.

She died amid the hatred she had personally nurtured, unable even to preserve an intact corpse.

The upper ranks of Shrek Academy knew full well about the matter, yet collectively chose to remain silent, allowing wild dogs to feast on the remains.

Du Weilun took a sip of throat-soothing tea from the podium, and his voice pulled Yun Yi back from his long memories to reality.

"That concludes your first lesson after enrollment." Du Weilun set down his teacup, his gaze turning stern.

"Theoretical knowledge is only the foundation. What truly determines how far you can go is the practical combat and sweat to come. That is all for today. Everyone, go back and write a Martial Soul development plan of no fewer than two thousand words, then hand it to me tomorrow morning. Class dismissed!"

At Du Weilun's command, the tense air in the classroom began to flow again.

The freshmen rose one after another and respectfully watched their Director of Academic Affairs and homeroom teacher stride out of the classroom.

Xiao Xiao closed her notebook, which was filled with notes, and quietly let out a long breath.

She tilted her head, her large eyes sparkling as she looked toward Yun Yi beside her. She had accumulated many questions about Soul Tools while taking notes and was just about to ask him.

On the other side, Wang Dong suddenly stood up.

Blazing fighting spirit burned in her pink-blue eyes.

Du Weilun's account of the Sun Moon Empire and Soul Tools had deeply wounded her pride as a traditional battle soul master.

She grabbed Yun Yi's arm, her grip so strong that it pulled several obvious wrinkles into his sleeve.

"Yun Yi, let's go back and cultivate! I don't want to waste even a second now!" Wang Dong clenched her teeth, her tone filled with unquestionable resolve.

"I'll break through to Soul Elder as fast as possible and prove to him that the ultimate power of a Martial Soul can absolutely crush every piece of scrap metal!"