Huo Yuhao's words were hardly empty talk. An environment really could corrupt a person. After spending the past few years eating sand on the border with Codename, his conduct over the last year or two had been little different from that of a bona fide damned warlord.
If one insisted on drawing a distinction, it was that Huo Yuhao knew in his heart that acting this way was wrong.
But he had no choice. In that environment, if you weren't ruthless, nobody would listen to certain things you said.
Wang Dong looked at Huo Yuhao, still somewhat unconvinced, but the moment he met those eyes, he fell silent.
Huo Yuhao's nearly six years of military life had been no joke, even if the intensity of the fighting couldn't compare with what true battlefield veterans had experienced.
He had fought the Sun Moon Empire's night-raiding squads in earnest. Intimidating a sect disciple like Wang Dong was no trouble at all.
Wang Dong finally muttered resentfully,
"I already apologized..."
Huo Yuhao didn't continue arguing with Wang Dong. Instead, he waved a hand and said,
"We've seen what we came to see, and we don't know anyone else here. I'm leaving."
With that, Huo Yuhao headed toward the outer court cafeteria.
Wang Dong came to his senses and hurried after him, though Huo Yuhao's earlier glare made him keep a little distance in the end.
After breakfast, once they had returned to their dorm room, Wang Dong stretched and said to Huo Yuhao,
"Classes officially start tomorrow. I'm going back to bed for a good nap today."
With that, he burrowed under the covers. Huo Yuhao froze for a moment, unable to figure out why Wang Dong had felt the need to tell him. Was he worried Huo Yuhao would wake him up?
If that really was all he meant, it would at least be relatively normal. Huo Yuhao murmured to himself, then turned his gaze toward the window.
Although their room was on the ground floor, it received excellent light and offered a view of quite a few of Shrek Academy's sights.
The day passed quickly. The next morning, Wang Dong and Huo Yuhao got up at almost the same time. After exchanging a glance, they each pulled on their uniform jackets and headed to Freshman Class One.
They were fairly early risers. When they reached the classroom for Freshman Class One, there weren't many students there yet, and empty seats remained at the front, middle, and back.
Just as Huo Yuhao found an empty seat and sat down, Xiao Xiao entered the classroom.
Seeing an empty seat beside Huo Yuhao, Xiao Xiao walked toward him with a smile.
"Looks like fate really keeps bringing us together. We've met again already."
After sitting beside Huo Yuhao, Xiao Xiao immediately gave him a gentle smile.
"We're at the same academy. It would be nonsense to say we'd never run into each other."
Huo Yuhao looked at Xiao Xiao, a polite smile appearing on his face as he spoke to her.
Sitting on Huo Yuhao's other side, Wang Dong clicked his tongue softly and said,
"You treat her way too differently from how you treat me."
Huo Yuhao replied to Wang Dong with perfect confidence,
"When did you castrate yourself? Aren't you embarrassed to compete with a girl over how you're treated?"
Wang Dong's face instantly flushed red, while Huo Yuhao laughed inwardly. Sometimes, knowing someone was a girl disguised as a boy and teasing them on purpose was rather entertaining.
Xiao Xiao smiled at Wang Dong and took the initiative to speak to him.
"Hello, my name is Xiao Xiao."
Wang Dong gave a soft huff, but still tried to remain reasonable as he said,
"My name is Wang Dong."
While the three of them were chatting and joking, someone entered through the classroom door. It was an elderly woman with wrinkled skin and crane-white hair, her graying locks coiled atop her head. She wore a long white robe and had an average build.
What was particularly striking was her pair of exceptionally bright eyes, their black depths flashing with keen light.
Despite her advanced age, the old woman held her back perfectly straight. She reached the lectern in just a few steps. Without a doubt, she was the teacher of Freshman Class One.
Seeing a teacher enter, the somewhat disorderly class immediately fell silent, and all eyes turned toward the lectern.
The old woman calmly swept her gaze from left to right. Everyone immediately felt as though she were looking straight at them, and an invisible pressure settled over their hearts.
"My name is Zhou Yi, and I'm your homeroom teacher. I don't know how many of you will make it through the coming year with me.
"But I will tell you this: in my class, no trash will ever pass the assessments. What I intend to cultivate are monsters, not idiots."
Huo Yuhao gave a cold laugh at her words and said to Zhou Yi,
"You haven't even gotten to know us, yet you're already talking about who's an idiot. Just how good are you yourself?"
Zhou Yi's gaze immediately stabbed toward Huo Yuhao.
"Who said that?! Stand up!"
Huo Yuhao stood without a care. Beside him, Wang Dong and Xiao Xiao watched him nervously.
Zhou Yi slammed a hand on the lectern. Yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black—six soul rings floated around her, and her Soul Emperor aura was laid bare.
The moment Zhou Yi revealed her cultivation as a Six-Ring Soul Emperor, gasps rose throughout the classroom. The students around her looked at her with greater awe.
Zhou Yi snorted coldly. Seemingly relishing the feeling of being both respected and feared, she looked at Huo Yuhao with an icy expression.
"Do you still have any questions about what I said? Don't think being called a genius at home makes you a true genius."
Huo Yuhao sneered. Red patterns of light immediately surfaced across his body, visible through his Shrek Academy uniform, forming the image of a savage ferocious beast.
A savage black phantom of Qiongqi unfurled behind Huo Yuhao, and four soul rings—one yellow, two purple, and one black—appeared around him.
Once Zhou Yi unleashed her oppressive aura on him, Huo Yuhao no longer felt the slightest awe toward her.
Her soul power pressure couldn't affect him in the slightest. As for the power and number of his soul skills, Huo Yuhao could even afford to give her a one-ring handicap.
After Huo Yuhao's four soul rings appeared, the disdain in Zhou Yi's eyes vanished, replaced by the delight of someone who had discovered a treasure.
Huo Yuhao said coldly to Zhou Yi,
"Although your soul power level is indeed a little higher than mine right now, let me ask you this: if I'm trash, what did that make you when you were my age?"
Zhou Yi's face alternated between livid and pale. She clearly hadn't expected Shrek Academy to admit a monster like Huo Yuhao this year.
Even the original Shrek Seven Devils hadn't had a twelve-year-old Soul Ancestor among them, had they?
Were this year's freshmen really this freakish?
But Zhou Yi now found herself unable to back down gracefully. After a light cough, she said to Huo Yuhao,
"A Soul Master's cultivation has always been judged solely by results. For example, if I kill you right now, then your lifetime's cultivation will amount to nothing more than a Soul Ancestor."
Huo Yuhao stretched out his arm provocatively and curled his fingers, beckoning Zhou Yi as he said,
"Come on, then. Come kill me. If that's how you want to talk, it makes things simpler. The victor is king, the loser a bandit. My head is right here..."
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