Zhou Yi was fuming so hard she was practically smoking on the spot, yet she had no way to pin the blame on Lin Chen.
Argument-wise, she could not win.
Because she was the one who had brought up the erroneous viewpoint first, and Lin Chen had merely used those points to strike back at her.
She could not win the argument, and on top of that, she had been outclassed in speed by a first-year student.
As a dignified Soul Emperor, she had a student point a blade at her throat, and she had not even possessed half an opening to fight back.
This was simply an utter humiliation.
Her face was as good as thrown away today.
She had originally wanted to thoroughly assert her prestige in front of these dozens of students.
Yet she had taken a vicious slap across the face instead.
Still, Zhou Yi refused to accept it.
Lin Chen had only won because of his speed.
She believed that as a first-year, Lin Chen's actual strength could not possibly be that high.
That move just now must have consumed a massive amount of Soul Power to pull off.
She could definitely defeat him with ease.
However, for a teacher to make a move against a first-year student would be far too beneath her dignity.
Thus, Zhou Yi forcefully suppressed her anger and ignored him.
After putting away her Martial Soul, she swept her gaze over everyone present.
"Now, all of you who haven't been fighting, get out!"
"Go run a hundred laps around the school track, and don't any of you dare blame me for expelling you if you miss even a single lap!"
As soon as Zhou Yi dropped those words, everyone rebelled in discontent.
"On what grounds do we have to go run just because we didn't fight? That's not fair!"
"On the grounds that I am a teacher, on the grounds that I am a Soul Emperor, and on the grounds that I can expel you at any moment."
With a domineering triple strike, Zhou Yi scared the living daylights out of everyone present.
Merely to secure this opportunity for a three-month internship at Shrek Academy, their families had expended enormous costs.
Especially for the City Lord Recommendation Letter.
Those things all had to be bought with money.
Of course, top-tier aristocrats had City Lords deliver the letters in person.
However, those hovering in the middle bracket basically had to purchase them with coin.
They all suspected this was some kind of business transaction between Shrek Academy and these City Lords.
These City Lords helped Shrek Academy hawk recommendation letters.
A single letter cost an arm and a leg.
They certainly did not want to get expelled just like that.
Although it felt utterly unreasonable, Zhou Yi truly had the authority to expel them at whim.
Who were they supposed to argue with about this?
They had no choice but to bow before Zhou Yi's tyrannical might. In any case, it was only for three months; they could just grit their teeth and endure it.
They also wanted to act as unyielding as Lin Chen, but they lacked Lin Chen's strength.
A first-year forced a Soul Emperor-tier powerhouse into a corner with a single blade, and the others didn't even dare let out a single fart.
A literal god had descended into this year's cohort.
Were they really worthy of being first-years in the same batch as Lin Chen?
Quite a few people harbored deep doubts within their hearts.
Yet, perhaps this would also become capital for them to brag about in the future, because they were in the same cohort as a god.
After the classmates in the classroom poured out in a dark, dense mass, Zhou Yi turned her attention back to the four remaining individuals.
Huo Yuhao was absolute trash, not even worthy of her attention.
As for Huo Yuhao's roommate, he was hardly any better than Huo Yuhao; she cared nothing for either of them.
Her focus was primarily on Lin Chen and Wang Dong.
Lin Chen was a thorny rebel with bizarre strength.
Out of this bunch, the only one she could actually mold was Wang Dong; he was handsome, a genius, and possessed a much better temper than Lin Chen.
Thus, that class monitor position belonged to him beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Even so, while Lin Chen was a prickly thorn, his strength and talent were truly formidable.
As expected, her teaching philosophy was not wrong, and Shrek's teaching philosophy was not wrong either.
Only mediocrity shied away from trouble; those who dared to stir up trouble on the first day of school were bound to be geniuses.
Besides, this Huo Yuhao's Martial Soul might actually prove useful to her husband.
Looking at it this way, out of the four individuals, three were geniuses-not bad at all.
The teaching philosophy handed down by their ancestors had no flaws.
At that moment, Zhou Yi forcefully gathered up her dignity as a teacher and looked toward the few remaining youths.
"The few of you are quite good, at least you have some backbone."
"But now you're going to run too."
"Huh? We have to run too?"
Wang Dong immediately froze.
He had no desire to do something that looked this foolish.
Which family's school sent students running on the first day?
Didn't teachers everywhere else usually introduce the academy environment first? Or perhaps explain what they would be doing for the start of the term?
Running on day one was simply too much to bear.
"What do you mean, 'huh'?"
Zhou Yi glared at him.
"Do you think you lot get to be special?"
"If you don't complete my requirement, I'll expel you just the same!"
"Fine by me, fine by me. Come on, expel me, Teacher."
With the expression of a spectator looking forward to a good show, Lin Chen lazily leaned back into his chair.
"I'll wait for you to expel me."
"You think I don't dare expel you?"
Zhou Yi's face turned green with anger.
"Go on then, expel me!"
"Come on, I'm going to expel you!"
"Come on, expel me then!"
"Are you expelling him or not?"
Watching Lin Chen and Zhou Yi carry on like they were performing a crosstalk routine, Wang Dong muttered under his breath.
Hearing this, Zhou Yi immediately redirected her anger onto the three of them.
"The three of you, get running right now! Fail to finish and I'll expel you all the same!"
With that, Zhou Yi stormed off in a huff.
She was just eccentric, not stupid.
Lin Chen was this powerful and possessed a mysterious, tightly guarded background; she had picked the wrong person to target right from the start.
No, wait, she hadn't intended to use Lin Chen to establish dominance in the first place.
She had simply wanted to make them admit they had been fighting, and then ride that momentum to exert a bit of deterrence over the others.
It was just that Lin Chen refused to bow to pressure, completely derailing her plans and slapping her repeatedly across the face. He truly couldn't endure even the slightest grievance.
Since Lin Chen possessed such solid backing and wasn't afraid of her expelling him at all, what else was there to say?
She genuinely didn't dare.
After all, she knew her own weight.
Still, if she couldn't bully Lin Chen, couldn't she bully others?
She absolutely had to expel a few students today to vent her frustration.
New students of this age, eleven or twelve years old, had never received any sort of systematic discipline.
Furthermore, those able to enter Shrek Academy basically possessed a modicum of talent, making them exceedingly arrogant at home and naturally dismissive of routine tasks.
If she made them run a hundred laps, she estimated many of them would try to slack off and cut corners.
Moreover, they could never imagine that a teacher would expel someone simply because their running was substandard.
Her official justification for the outside world would be slacking off and cheating the system.
Learning to deceive at such a young age meant that even if such students were cultivated, they would only turn out to be a scourge-better to expel them outright.
And the hundred laps she had set were especially ingenious; given their level of cultivation, completing them was already pushing the absolute limit.
There would definitely be people trying to cut corners.
Ordinary teachers would merely issue a verbal reprimand, and the students would learn their lesson for next time and avoid repeating the offense.
But falling into her hands meant a direct expulsion; after all, she had right on her side.
No matter who came to make a fuss, it wouldn't work.
As long as you ran a single lap short, your character was deficient.
Wang Dong, Huo Yuhao, and Lin Pangpang bolted out of the teaching building.
They quickly caught up with the main group and began running around the athletic field.
Wang Dong possessed the highest strength, immediately pulling far ahead of the pack the moment he joined.
A mere hundred laps, and one where they were even permitted to use Soul Power, was a walk in the park for him.
As for Lin Chen, he crossed his arms over his chest, strolled leisurely onto the field, and leaned back against the railing.
He watched with a beaming smile as they sweat profusely on the track.
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