Hearing Huo Yuhao's provocation, Zhou Yi flew into a rage and instinctively swung a hand at him.
As soul power surged, Wang Dong and Xiao Xiao hastily dodged to either side.
Huo Yuhao remained utterly calm in the face of Zhou Yi's attack. Planting both hands on his desk, he vaulted high into the air and leaped clear of the desks and chairs.
Glancing around the classroom, Huo Yuhao raised a hand and said, "If we fight here, anything we break will mean endless nagging."
As he spoke, mist rose around him.
The mist seemed to have eyes of its own. Rather than closing around the Class One students watching the spectacle, it wrapped directly around Zhou Yi and Huo Yuhao.
By the time Zhou Yi recovered her senses, their surroundings had changed completely. They were no longer in the freshman classroom, but in a stone forest.
For the first time, panic appeared on Zhou Yi's formerly disdainful face. She looked at Huo Yuhao and spoke with a fierce facade that concealed her fear.
"Huo Yuhao, do you know what you're doing?!"
Huo Yuhao merely sneered, then said to Zhou Yi,
"All I know is that even a clay figurine has a spark of temper. I've only been at Shrek Academy for a few days, and you slapped the label of trash on me less than two minutes into our first class together. Naturally, I have to show you whether I really am trash."
Zhou Yi stared at Huo Yuhao with an ugly expression, then stopped concealing her Soul Emperor aura.
She unleashed the savage pressure of a Soul Emperor upon Huo Yuhao as she said,
"In that case, let me show you the enormous difference a single soul ring makes in the soul master world!"
Huo Yuhao merely snorted. Scarlet flames rose from both his hands.
The flames condensed in his palms, then turned into a streak of fire that shot straight at Zhou Yi as he swung his fist.
Although Zhou Yi turned sideways to dodge, the flames seemed alive. As they drew close to her, they suddenly flared outward, instantly throwing off her judgment.
After that miscalculation, fierce flames were already burning across Zhou Yi's body. At first, she paid them little mind, merely gathering her soul power and swatting at the fire on her arm.
But a moment later, her expression turned grave. The flames burning on her arm had not gone out beneath her soul power. Instead, they burned more fiercely.
"Is this your soul skill? It certainly has a sinister streak. No wonder ordinary beast martial soul marks carry the majesty of a fierce beast descending, while yours alone gives off an evil aura that makes people tremble."
Seeing that she could not extinguish the flames, Zhou Yi simply endured the burning pain, raised her head, and challenged Huo Yuhao, her bluster masking her fear.
Faced with her questioning, Huo Yuhao only gave a disdainful laugh. Then he raised a hand toward her and said,
"Ignorance coupled with confidence is your greatest failing. You still haven't realized that the flames burning you aren't some trick of my soul skill. They're karmic flames, fueled by the karma you accumulated by ruining students' futures to satisfy your own likes and dislikes."
As one of the Four Fiends, Qiongqi was known for rewarding evil and punishing good. At its heart, however, this was because Qiongqi liked evil people, and one reason for that fondness was that their karma could increase his own strength.
Zhou Yi was someone who did not even dare venture outside Shrek City during her holidays. She had held back countless students and could already be considered one of the rare malignant tumors among Shrek Academy's rank-and-file teachers.
If an ordinary Soul Emperor faced an ordinary Soul Ancestor, even Huo Yuhao, with his Million-Year Soul Ring, might not have won effortlessly. But now, inside his third soul skill, the Mist Arena, Zhou Yi had already lost the advantage of terrain. On top of that, she had encountered Qiongqi, a ferocious beast that specialized in absorbing evil power to nourish his own abilities.
It could be said that this perfect matchmaking mechanism had paired Zhou Yi with an opponent she had absolutely no chance of defeating.
Hearing Huo Yuhao's words, Zhou Yi could not help looking down at her still-burning body as she struggled to hold on.
Enduring the burning pain, she straightened and said to Huo Yuhao,
"Stop spouting your demonic nonsense to mislead people! I've devoted my entire life to Shrek Academy. Every talent I've sent to Shrek has been among the very best!"
Huo Yuhao sneered, then said to Zhou Yi,
"Then are you still in touch with those students who passed through your hands and earned admission to the Inner Court?"
Zhou Yi's expression froze. Then, as though Huo Yuhao had struck a sore spot, her shame turned to rage, and she lunged at him. Red scales surged over her hand, transforming it into a dragon's claw.
"I'll kill you!"
Zhou Yi no longer concealed the malice in her heart. She roared viciously at Huo Yuhao while swinging her claw, trying to tear open his skull.
A golden gleam flashed through Huo Yuhao's eyes. Beneath his feet, his black fourth soul ring flickered, disguised as a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring by the Tian Meng Ice Silkworm's second soul skill, Simulation.
Spiritual Detection immediately spread outward. In Huo Yuhao's eyes, Zhou Yi's movements suddenly slowed, unfolding frame by frame like a PowerPoint presentation played in slow motion. His Spiritual Detection did more than raise the upper limit of his perception.
It also granted Huo Yuhao absolute control over every muscle in his body, enhancing his reactions across the board.
After sidestepping Zhou Yi's first fierce lunge, Huo Yuhao's hand darted out like a venomous snake. His five fingers curled into claws and seized her neck.
Huo Yuhao was no longer the greenhorn he had been when he first transmigrated. His military service had brought his close-quarters fighting skills up to the level of an average veteran. As he caught Zhou Yi's neck, he hooked her foot, instantly destroying her balance.
As Zhou Yi lost her footing, Huo Yuhao followed through with a vicious downward shove, pinning her to the ground.
"The fight's over. I don't think much of you, but you're still a teacher. Let's leave it here."
As he spoke, Huo Yuhao snapped his fingers. Like little sprites, the flames on Zhou Yi's body returned to his fingertips, then gradually vanished without a trace.
From the moment Huo Yuhao declared the fight over, the surrounding mist began to thin. They were both on the teaching platform. The seats in the front row were slightly disarranged, left that way by the students dodging their attacks.
When Zhou Yi came back to her senses, she found herself pinned to the platform by Huo Yuhao like a naughty child held down by an adult. Humiliated, she swung her arm, trying to shove him away.
Huo Yuhao caught her wrist instead and slammed it back against the platform.
Then he jumped down from the platform. Casually clapping his hands twice as though dusting them off, he said calmly to Zhou Yi,
"The fight's over, Teacher Zhou. It looks like you don't have much of an advantage even when you face me one-on-one."
Zhou Yi stood up, panting as she stared at Huo Yuhao. Rage surged through her, yet there was nothing she could do.
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