Rebuking Zhou Yi

Yan Jingzhe left the valley and flew into the sky. Looking back at Sunset Forest, he sighed.

"Such a fine primeval forest, turned into this gloomy, deathly place. Tang San, you really are..."

Shaking his head, Yan Jingzhe turned and headed straight for Shrek Academy.

A Rank-98 Super Douluo traveling at full speed needed less than half a day to return.

He was in no hurry to go back to Sea God Lake. Instead, he first detoured to the Soul Guidance Department's teaching building. Xian Lin'er was not in her office. An unfinished file lay on the desk, and the ink was still wet.

After leaving the Soul Guidance Department, Yan Jingzhe suddenly decided to check on Huo Yuhao.

The child had only been enrolled for a few days. He did not know how well he had adapted. Although Xian Lin'er had agreed to look after him, she was busy after all. As the vice dean of the Soul Guidance Department, she had a mountain of work and could not keep an eye on her young disciple every moment.

So he would take a look, and while he was at it, give him the essence of the Eight-Petal Orchid Immortal Herb to make up for the damage to his foundation from his early years. That would let him grow faster and become a sharp blade against Tang San.

As for Wang Dong'er, that dog chain... Heh, there was no need to worry. At the right time, he would tell him all about his dear father's schemes—tell him that he possessed only one-third of a soul, that Tang San had controlled his entire life. By then, even if Wang Dong'er did not turn against him, she would at least stand by and watch.

And Heaven-Earth Emotion Valley, that dog-training ground? Whoever wanted to go could go. By then, he would probably already be a Rank-99 Limit Douluo, with Yin-Yang Complementary Twin Soul Cores, the abilities of a Rank-9 Soul Engineer, and Divine Origin Realm spiritual sense.

With a setup like that, if he still could not come and go freely within the Sun Moon Empire, he might as well bash his head into a block of tofu and die.

Yan Jingzhe thought helplessly.

The teaching district of Shrek Outer Court differed from that of the Inner Court. It was more open and livelier. Several teaching buildings surrounded a large training ground, where students sat or stood in small groups. Some were chatting, some were sparring, and a few were sprawled on the ground, scribbling away as though completing an assignment.

A sweep of Yan Jingzhe's spiritual power found Huo Yuhao on the training ground, and he immediately headed in that direction.

Then he heard a voice.

"You're expelled."

The voice was not loud, but its tone was as cold as a blade, cutting painfully at the ears. Yan Jingzhe halted and looked toward the sound.

At the southeastern corner of the training ground, beneath a large locust tree, stood a female teacher in her forties.

She wore a gray-black teacher's uniform. Her hair was meticulously coiled behind her head, and her face held little expression. But when those eyes looked at people, they were like two brooms, sweeping them from head to toe and finding fault everywhere.

Three students stood before her, two boys and a girl, all around ten years old. Their faces were deathly pale and their lips trembled. One of the boys already had reddened eyes, biting his lip hard to keep himself from crying.

"Teacher Zhou, please give me another chance..." the girl pleaded in a trembling voice, tears welling in her eyes.

Zhou Yi did not even look at her. She lowered her head, wrote several words on a wooden plaque, and casually tossed it over.

"Take your expulsion certificate to the Academic Affairs Office and complete the procedures. Move out of the dormitory before tomorrow."

The girl reached for the wooden plaque, but her fingers shook so badly that it fell to the ground with a clatter. She crouched to pick it up, but failed to hold it steady even after two attempts. At last, her tears fell, pattering onto the plaque.

The two boys beside her exchanged looks. One clenched his fists, while the other lowered his head and did not dare speak.

Students around them watched from a distance, but no one dared approach. A few wanted to say something, only to be pulled back by their classmates, who lightly shook their heads.

Yan Jingzhe stood not far away and saw the entire scene clearly.

He did not go over immediately. Instead, he first glanced at the wooden plaque Zhou Yi had thrown out. The reason for expulsion was written on it—failure to meet cultivation progress standards, improper attitude, and repeated refusal to correct mistakes.

Three sentences had sentenced a child's future to death.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

Memories from his previous life surged forth. They were not pleasant memories, but memories of certain teachers—people who treated students as burdens, punching bags, or trash to be discarded at will. He had seen such people. He had even experienced them himself.

The feeling of being abandoned by a teacher was like a basin of icy water poured from head to toe, enough to extinguish every shred of hope and self-respect in a child.

He had thought that such things would not exist after transmigrating into another world.

Apparently, he had been thinking too much.

Yan Jingzhe opened his eyes and walked over.

"Teacher Zhou."

His voice was not loud, yet everyone on the training ground heard it. Not because he had raised his voice, but because of that faint, almost imperceptible pressure. He was not doing it deliberately; whenever he was in a bad mood, his aura naturally leaked out.

Zhou Yi turned her head. When she saw Yan Jingzhe, she froze for a moment.

She did not know him.

Although Shrek Academy did not have many teachers, the two departments had little interaction. A figure at the level of dean of the Soul Guidance Department was not someone an Outer Court first-year teacher from the Martial Soul Department would get to meet.

Zhou Yi was not stupid. Though she did not recognize Yan Jingzhe, the aura that made her entire body tremble was enough to tell her that he was no ordinary person.

That presence, that feeling of the surrounding air becoming stagnant as he approached—she had only felt it from a few of the academy's highest-ranking figures.

"Who are you?" Zhou Yi's tone softened slightly, though it still carried a natural arrogance.

"Yan Jingzhe," he said. "Dean of the Soul Guidance Department."

Zhou Yi's pupils contracted slightly. Of course she had heard that name—the dean of the Soul Guidance Department, a Rank-98 Titled Douluo, and Mu En's personal disciple. There were not many people in all of Shrek Academy whom one could not afford to offend, and he was absolutely among them.

But she did not immediately lower her head. Instead, she nodded neither humbly nor arrogantly. "Dean Yan, I am carrying out academic affairs. These students violated school regulations and are being expelled according to academy rules."

"What school regulations did they violate?" Yan Jingzhe asked.

Zhou Yi handed him the wooden plaque.

Yan Jingzhe took it, glanced at it, and read aloud, "Failure to meet cultivation progress standards, improper attitude, and repeated refusal to correct mistakes."

He turned the plaque over, examined it, then turned it back.

"That's all?"

Zhou Yi frowned. "Dean Yan, the first year is the stage for laying one's foundation. If they cannot keep up at this stage, later courses will only become increasingly difficult. Rather than let them waste their time here, it would be better for them to find another path early."

"Find another path?" Yan Jingzhe looked at her. "How old are they?"

Zhou Yi was momentarily stunned by the question.

"Children of eleven or twelve," Yan Jingzhe said, neither loudly nor softly, but enunciating every word clearly. "You're expelling them just because they 'failed to meet cultivation progress standards.' Have you considered where they can go after leaving Shrek?

Let me tell you: after being expelled by Shrek Academy, no school in their hometowns will take them in either. After all, being expelled by Shrek, the publicly recognized number one academy on the continent, will certainly brand them as bad students. Their futures as Soul Masters will be ruined. Think carefully, Teacher Zhou, about how terrifying someone with a ruined future can become."

Yan Jingzhe spoke with fury in his expression.

Zhou Yi's expression changed.

"Dean Yan, Shrek is the number one academy on the continent, not a charity." Her tone hardened. "This is a place for nurturing elites. Those who are unsuitable should be eliminated. That has been the academy's rule for centuries."

"Rules are made by people," Yan Jingzhe said.

He glanced at the three expelled students, then at the children standing far away, too afraid even to breathe loudly.

"And even if we follow the rules, it is not for you alone to decide."

Zhou Yi's face darkened completely.

"Dean Yan, I am this class's homeroom teacher. I have the authority to decide who stays and who leaves. The Martial Soul Department granted me that authority."

"The authority granted to you by the Martial Soul Department?" Yan Jingzhe nodded. "Fine. Then I'll ask the dean of the Martial Soul Department."

He raised his hand. A streak of golden light shot from his fingertips and exploded in the air, transforming into the phantom of a golden Phoenix that released a clear, ringing cry.

That was a communication signal reserved for the dean of the Soul Guidance Department.

Zhou Yi's expression finally changed.