Secretly Gleeful Mu Jin! Frustrated Zhou Yi

Lu Yi's words felt like a pebble tossed into a calm pond, stirring discussion among those around.

Not only Ning Tian, but a flash of brief astonishment crossed Wu Feng's face as well.

Turning back to see a look of inquiry flash in Ning Tian's gaze toward Lu Yi, Wu Feng's face turned cold the very next second.

"Hmph, it's merely twenty-first rank. I could easily resolve that too!"

Yet she only muttered it softly.

Facing a twenty-first-rank opponent with her twenty-fourth-rank cultivation counted as bullying, and winning would carry no glory either.

Yet achieving victory fighting a twenty-first-rank opponent at seventeenth rank was not simply a difference of four ranks of Soul Power; it was a cross-rank battle.

In the early stages where offensive means were lacking, missing a soul skill was a massive disadvantage, and the gold content of a victory under such conditions was definitely not low.

Zhou Sichen looked at Lu Yi beside him with absolute disbelief, then his doubt transformed into joy as he poked Lu Yi's thigh with his hand.

Last night he had still been pondering how to lead this roommate through the evaluations, but since he could defeat an opponent in the low twenties, this far exceeded his expectations—he now had a chance to charge toward a higher ranking.

Yet matters were far from over; the students in the class harbored shock and disdain, all of which Mu Jin took in.

"You might feel that the twenty-first-rank student's strength was inflated, that their combat prowess had water in it, or that they deliberately held back, leaving Lu Yi to barely scrape out a narrow victory."

"Isn't that the case?"

A student immediately raised their own doubt: "I've also just obtained my second soul ring. Compared to when I was at the twentieth rank without a second ring, I feel my strength has improved by more than one grade. If I were to face the me from back then again, I can't think of how I'd lose."

"Right, you don't even have to think about that guy—he must be a fraud. Put me up there and I could do it too!"

Voices buzzed off the stage, yet Mu Jin on the stage curved the corners of her lips upward, and next she dropped a heavy bombshell.

"Yet the true reality of the matter is that the student's second soul ring was a millennium-tier one, and during the duel he was even forced to unleash his Second Martial Soul, yet in the end he still suffered defeat, and Lu Yi only shook hands and made peace with him."

As the words fell, those chattering students looked as if they had been grabbed by the throat, their faces flushing red, yet not a single word came out.

"Now, whoever among you has the confidence to win this battle can well stand up. I will arrange the match for you, and I believe that student will not refuse the opportunity to wash away his humiliation!"

This time, the classroom grew as quiet as the Library, and those unconvinced students looked at each other in dismay, ultimately sighing and saying nothing more.

The shifting reactions of this group of students fell into Mu Jin's eyes, inevitably causing her to feel a trace of disappointment.

Everyone thought highly of themselves, readily pointing the country's destiny when matters didn't concern them, yet losing their backbone when it was truly time to step onto the battlefield.

Regarding the performance of freshmen before the start of school—such as who openly violated school rules, or engaged in fighting and brawls, and so on—every head teacher actually learned of it through specialists dispatched by the academy, and Mu Jin was naturally no exception.

The academy's school rules did not prevent students from fighting, they merely imposed restrictions; for instance, upperclassmen could not bully lower-classmen, and the consequences of violating that were extremely severe.

Lu Yi's opponent was not a student from Class Nine, but instead hailed from the class of her archenemy, Zhou Yi.

Though she held no particular opinion regarding the students in Zhou Yi's class, learning that a student from her own class had defeated a student from Zhou Yi's class—and with high probability the student with the strongest innate talent in Zhou Yi's current cohort—this unexpected joy made her whole body feel as pleasantly tingly as if struck by electricity right then and there.

Recalling this matter every single day over the past two days left a wave of comfort deep within her heart.

Not only that, her class seemed brimming with talent this year, and students with championship potential could form at least two teams.

"Hmph, Zhou Yi, let's see how you compete with me this year!"

Thinking of this, Mu Jin couldn't suppress a soft hum.

Yet out of professional ethics, Mu Jin only mentioned the defeated student's Soul Ring Configuration and the fact that they possessed a Second Martial Soul during her words, without revealing any other personal information.

"Alright, Lu Yi, take your seat!" Mu Jin pressed her left hand slightly downward, signaling Lu Yi with a smile before turning to write the blackboard notes and officially starting the lesson.

Lu Yi sat back down, yet Zhou Sichen's face leaned over as his elbow nudged Lu Yi's arm: "Awesome, buddy! I didn't expect you to be so capable of fighting, and to think I was planning to carry you earlier!"

Lu Yi merely returned a polite smile, his gaze passing through the window at the side to spot the students running laps outside the teaching building.

Huo Yuhao was huffing and puffing heavily, trying his best to keep pace behind the other students so as not to fall too far behind.

Every once in a while, that powder-blue-haired figure flashed past beside him, disappearing back into the edge of his vision within the span of a few breaths.

He and Wang Dong had been kept behind by the head teacher because of a fight.

He had originally thought the head teacher was rewarding them and thus exempting them from running, but he hadn't expected that not only could running not be avoided, the time left to them was even less than that of the other classmates.

Yet he felt he was still the relatively lucky one, because he only needed to finish running a hundred laps in less than an hour.

For reasons unknown, however, Zhou Yi's attitude toward Wang Dong was extremely stern, using the excuse that she had lost the fight to hand her an additional fifty laps.

A full one hundred and fifty laps.

At a length of over three hundred meters per lap, that worked out to a distance of ninety li. To complete it in less than an hour, Huo Yuhao judged himself incapable of doing it.

Yet under Zhou Yi's tyrannical might, Huo Yuhao had still pulled Wang Dong along, doing his best to prevent the two of them from getting into a conflict.

Wang Dong was truly formidable, though, taking only half a minute or so per lap and having already run fifty laps by now.

Thank goodness Wang Dong didn't use her Martial Soul to fight me that day! Huo Yuhao gasped for breath, wiping the sweat from his forehead as a wave of fortune rose in his heart. Otherwise, the one being punished today definitely would have been me, and if I got expelled I wouldn't even know how to face Sister Xiao Ya and Senior Brother Bei!

Zhou Yi had long since arrived outside the square by this time, and the previous performance of the students was already completely within her grasp.

Did they really think she didn't know who was taking shortcuts or who deliberately ran two laps fewer before blending into the main group to slack off?

"When this is over, all of these people can get lost!"

And upon seeing that figure in the square who was distinctly faster than the other students, a cold smile flickered across the corners of Zhou Yi's lips.

"Hmph, with such high innate talent, yet their cultivation is so lazy."

A millennium-tier second ring, Twin Martial Souls, and furthermore the configuration of a top-tier Beast Martial Soul plus Tool Martial Soul—they could both enjoy the enhancements bestowed upon the physical body by the Beast Martial Soul and possess the Tool Martial Soul that strengthened offensive lethality.

Over the past ten thousand years, Shrek had also produced over a hundred geniuses with Twin Martial Souls, but not a single one possessed such a heaven-defying configuration. This was simply the heavens' own biological daughter!

She valued Wang Dong immensely!

"It's a pity you didn't fall into my hands sooner; otherwise, you'd be at least thirtieth rank by now, and you certainly wouldn't have lost to that bitch's student. Let me properly drill you during this period of time—you'll thank me later!"

As time reached the final five minutes, even with a physique as strong as a little soul beast, Wang Dong's speed inevitably slowed down.

The dual approach of Soul Power and physical stamina toward their limits caused Wang Dong's speed to become only slightly faster than Huo Yuhao's.

Both of them were biting their teeth down hard, desperately driving their physical bodies with their Soul Power while mechanically moving their strides.

Because of the prior nourishment of the soul beast meat, coupled with the continuous cultivation of the Mysterious Heaven Skill over these past few days, Huo Yuhao's physical constitution had obtained a clear enhancement.

Relying further upon astonishing willpower, even though his vision went dark, his legs felt like they were poured with lead, and he heaved like a broken bellows when breathing, he still persisted.

He ultimately crossed the finish line alongside Wang Dong with only ten seconds remaining, completing the running task, followed immediately by collapsing onto the ground and gasping heavily for breath.

"Now, each of you has a quarter of an hour to return to the dormitory to change clothes, then return to the classroom for class!" Zhou Yi's tone was as ice-cold as ever, yet the even colder part was yet to come.

"The names I call, step out: Tai Long, Tang Dao..."

She called out nine names in succession, and when those students had all stepped out, Zhou Yi spoke with utter ruthlessness: "You lot return to the dormitory as well, but you don't need to come back for class. Instead, pack your luggage and get the hell out of Shrek."