While Huo Yuhao spent his days cultivating in peace and his evenings selling grilled fish, the days quickly passed until it was time for classes to officially begin at Shrek Academy.
His first class in this world was just about to start, and Huo Yuhao arrived early at the white first-year teaching building.
After spotting the classroom with a sign that read "First-Year Class One," Huo Yuhao walked inside.
Just as in the original timeline, Huo Yuhao had been assigned to First-Year Class One alongside Wang Dong. He wondered if this had been God King Tang's doing.
After entering the classroom, Huo Yuhao casually picked a seat by the window and sat down, then resumed meditating. After all, "time was like water in a sponge; there was always some to be squeezed out."
This was the perfect chance to spend a little longer cultivating his Soul Power and become Shrek's ultimate grind king.
Gradually, as more and more students entered the classroom, the room grew somewhat noisy. But it remained quiet around Huo Yuhao.
After all, birds of a feather flocked together. The students sitting around Huo Yuhao were all grind kings who wanted to use this time to cultivate, and everyone was meditating quietly.
Meanwhile, a group of girls surrounded Wang Dong, all drawn in by her looks.
She herself kept sneaking glances in Huo Yuhao's direction, gaining a new appreciation for his diligence.
Just then, an old woman dressed in white, with grizzled hair and a sharp glint in her eyes, walked in.
The old woman rapped on the blackboard and said, "My name is Zhou Yi, and I'm your homeroom teacher. I don't know how many of you will make it to the end with me, but remember this: I'm here to cultivate monsters, not trash."
At the sound of Zhou Yi's hoarse voice, Huo Yuhao opened his eyes from meditation, meeting his future teacher for the first time.
"You few aren't bad. You know to cultivate diligently now, so you don't get cut. But you're still a long way from meeting my standards."
Zhou Yi glanced at Huo Yuhao and the few nearby students who had been cultivating their Soul Power. Her attitude softened slightly.
Huo Yuhao neither agreed nor disagreed. As a teacher, Zhou Yi definitely had some serious problems, but she had certainly treated him well.
In the original timeline, she turned a blind eye when Huo Yuhao half-cheated his way through the hundred laps, gave him a Soul Bone, and introduced him to Fan Yu. She had done her duty.
But if she'd used her teaching methods in his previous life, she would have been attacked by countless people.
Imagine a student who'd struggled to get into Peking University or Tsinghua, only to be expelled for slacking off and failing to complete a teacher's assignment on the first day of class.
That would have been a real joke. In his previous life, a teacher like that would have been fired on the spot—though, of course, teachers there didn't have that kind of authority.
While Huo Yuhao was thinking, Zhou Yi's first lesson officially began.
"Anyone who's gotten into a fight since registration, stand up."
Hearing Zhou Yi's question, Huo Yuhao rose to his feet alongside Wang Dong, feeling rather helpless.
The students around Huo Yuhao looked at him in surprise. They hadn't expected the grind king to have a short fuse too; he'd gotten into a fight less than two days after arriving.
"You bunch of good-for-nothings! Haven't you heard that those who don't dare cause trouble are mediocre? Everyone except those two, go run a hundred laps around Shrek Square. Anyone who doesn't finish will be expelled."
Zhou Yi's shout rang out, and a few timid students jumped in fright.
Just then, one of the students in class challenged her. "It's against the rules for you to expel us, isn't it?"
At those words, Zhou Yi's aura surged, and six Soul Rings—two yellow, two purple, and two black—appeared around her.
"Remember this: in this class, I am the rules. As your homeroom teacher, I can expel any student."
Huo Yuhao felt not the slightest bit of awe at her words. If anything, he was a little speechless.
What exactly was she trying to do? Stir up the students' rebellious streak? Were people in this world all this unhinged?
Don't think Shrek Academy was the only place like this. The Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineer Academy was no better.
The Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineer Academy had suffered heavy losses at the Soul Master Tournament, and some of its students had died.
Yet afterward, Jing Hongchen had said to the teacher who led the team, "The reason I'm not punishing you is that you let Xiao see the gap." What a mind-boggling thing to say.
So his grandson's future was the only one that mattered? The other students' lives didn't count?
Was there no law in the Douluo World? Why did everyone do whatever they wanted, without even bothering to hide it?
Thinking about it again, Huo Yuhao realized there really wasn't. Why would Titled Douluos obey the law?
After all the students had gone out to run their laps, Zhou Yi came over to Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong. She had just opened her mouth when Huo Yuhao spoke first.
"I know what you want to say, Teacher. You don't like infighting, so you're going to make us run with the others, right? I could tell from the way you were staring at us."
"You're quite clever. So what are you waiting for? Get out there and run," Zhou Yi replied curtly.
Seeing Wang Dong standing nearby, ready to argue with Zhou Yi, Huo Yuhao didn't bother getting involved. He went out to run first.
Come on. He was a commoner, worrying about whether the young master of the Clear Sky Sect would get expelled.
Put it this way: even if Mu En were expelled, Wang Dong couldn't be. Her two god-level fathers were watching over her from the Clear Sky Sect.
Huo Yuhao joined the army of runners on Shrek Square. He didn't know whether running to the point of exhaustion would help the others, but he knew it would definitely help him.
The Mysterious Heaven Skill's Soul Power nourished his body. Each time he pushed himself to his limit, his physical strength improved a little.
So, on the days he wasn't cultivating Soul Power, Huo Yuhao had also been running at full speed to push his body to its limits.
The running test was actually working in his favor. Huo Yuhao quickly adjusted his condition to one best suited for running and charged ahead at full speed.
He was fast. Before he'd even completed twenty laps, he'd caught up with the students in the class's lead group.
After consuming Ten-Thousand-Year Whale Glue, his physical strength alone was no worse than that of an average two-ring Soul Master. He could even hold his own against a three-ring Soul Elder.
Wang Dong joined the runners when Huo Yuhao reached his fifth lap. For a while, she even tried to overtake him to prove herself.
But how could she outrun Huo Yuhao, who wasn't afraid to push his body past its limits and had grown accustomed to the pain of that state?
Soon, Huo Yuhao left her far behind. The rest of the class watched in shock as he raced around the track at full speed, lap after lap, as if he never tired.
Huo Yuhao didn't know whether his willpower and perseverance were greater than those of the Huo Yuhao in the original story. But he knew he wanted more than that version of himself, so naturally, he had to work harder.
Even after he'd long since finished a hundred laps, Huo Yuhao didn't stop. Here, he finally understood the words from his previous life that he'd grown so tired of hearing.
"Now I really am cultivating for myself." Huo Yuhao sighed inwardly.
After all, his hardships and joys were now truly bound up with cultivation, and he could feel that clearly at every moment.
When the last student finished a hundred laps, Zhou Yi came to the square to address the class.
Huo Yuhao stopped running then too. He'd lost track of how many laps he'd done, but there was something pretty satisfying about giving it everything he had.
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