The first lesson of the term? Expelled! Expelled!

Two days later.

The teaching building of the Shrek Outer Court.

With the first lesson of the term about to begin, an especially large number of students had arrived. It might not have been all that noticeable across the Outer Court as a whole, but the teaching building was truly packed.

"Master/Big Brother Chu, we're off."

Having arrived, Huo Yudie and Tang Wutong waved to Chu Ge, who had escorted them there, and smiled sweetly.

Both girls had changed into their white school uniforms. Although the uniforms were hardly beautiful, the two of them still radiated youthful vitality.

Knowing full well what sort of person their teacher was, they no longer held any expectations for her. Yet whenever they looked at the man before them, they still couldn't help smiling.

"Go on."

Chu Ge answered and waved goodbye.

Deep down, however, he knew perfectly well that the two girls would probably be back out before long.

After all, the first lesson Zhou Yi had planned for them was running laps around Shrek Academy's square.

Probably...

In five minutes?

Chu Ge waited in the square, focusing his powerful perception on the teaching building as he made his guess.

The first-year classrooms were all on the ground floor. Huo Yudie and Tang Wutong soon reached the classroom at the far left and walked straight inside.

It was a spacious classroom, large enough to accommodate at least two hundred people. Since the girls hadn't arrived particularly early, most of the other students had already found seats.

Not long after they sat down, a woman slowly walked through the doorway.

She was an old woman, with wrinkled skin and crane-white hair piled atop her head. Her cold, piercing eyes swept over the entire classroom, giving her quite the air of an eminent teacher.

Yet in stark contrast to her aged face, her figure looked far too young.

"This is..."

"The nasty teacher who picked on Big Brother Chu."

Tang Wutong's attention immediately shifted to her. She studied the woman with a cold expression as she spoke.

"She's the one."

Beside her, Huo Yudie's adorable smile had also vanished. Like Tang Wutong, she silently watched the woman before them.

"So this is our homeroom teacher? She looks really fierce."

"She looks pretty imposing. Mm, pretty old, too."

"She really is old. I heard the teacher next door is gorgeous. How come ours..."

The other students looked curiously at their homeroom teacher, quietly sizing her up and murmuring among themselves.

There was no denying, however, that the impression Zhou Yi gave them made her seem genuinely dependable.

"My name is Zhou Yi. I'm your homeroom teacher."

Zhou Yi gazed calmly at the students before her, but her next words landed like an unbeatable trump card.

"I don't know how many of you will make it through the coming year with me. But let me tell you this: in my class, no piece of trash will ever pass the assessments."

"What I intend to cultivate are monsters, not idiots."

Her gaze was cold. Perhaps she was still angry over what had happened some time ago; after all, she was often in a foul mood.

"Huh?"

The students were bewildered by her words, then began to look indignant one after another.

What an arrogant attitude!

Having passed the entrance assessment for Shrek Academy, they were all students carefully selected from nations across the continent. Among their peers, they absolutely deserved to be called elites.

Even at worst, they were destined to possess the strength of a Soul Emperor, a Soul Saint, or higher in the future. Yet this Teacher Zhou called them trash and fools?

We passed Shrek Academy's entrance assessment.

And our teacher calls us trash?

How does that make any sense?

Indignation churned in the students' hearts.

Still, not one of them dared to speak up. Whatever else she might be, the woman before them was their homeroom teacher and represented Shrek Academy.

Defying Shrek Academy...

That was an accusation they couldn't afford to bear.

"Anyone who has been in a fight since registration began, stand up."

The next moment, Zhou Yi made another startling statement, leaving everyone even more confused. Even Tang Wutong couldn't help putting a question mark in her mind.

Fighting?

Could something like that have anything to do with our lessons?

Even if it did, they were all new students, unfamiliar with Shrek Academy and everyone in it. It was one thing not to huddle together for warmth, but fighting? Who would do that?

At any rate, Tang Wutong certainly wouldn't.

Fortunately, the two girls already had a clear understanding of Zhou Yi, so the situation didn't shock them too much.

In response to her question, not one of the hundred students present stood up. The room remained silent.

"No one?"

"All these days since the start of term, and not a single one of you has fought?"

Zhou Yi raised her eyebrows, her expression dissatisfied.

"Go ahead and stand up. What is there to be embarrassed about?"

Thinking some students might be shy, she spoke again.

But all she received in reply were the students' silent stares. Fighting? Not a chance.

"Not even one?"

At the sight before her, Zhou Yi's face turned livid. She had imagined there might not be many, but she hadn't expected there to be none at all!

"Come outside with me."

"Everyone, follow me to the square."

Zhou Yi walked out of the classroom first. The other students followed without understanding why, returning with her to Shrek Square, which they had passed through on their way to class.

"Back in two minutes?"

Basking in the sun off to one side, Chu Ge watched the scene with a strange expression.

She's already making them run punishment laps?

But they've barely been in class for two minutes!

"I'll ask again. Who has been in a fight these past two days? I like children with fighting spirit."

Zhou Yi stared straight at the gathered students, enunciating every word. Even so, no one stepped forward.

"Teacher, you brought us out to the square..."

"Are we having class here?"

Just as her frustration was turning into anger, a chubby boy wearing glasses spoke up at precisely the wrong moment.

"You don't even dare to fight. What do you dare to do? Have class? I don't think there's any need."

"Are you all trash? Don't you know the old saying, 'Those who dare not stir up trouble are mediocrities'? Trash, every last one of you!"

"Everyone, run one hundred laps around this entire square. Anyone who fails to finish will be expelled."

Anger covered Zhou Yi's aged face as she snapped the order.

These students have no fighting spirit at all. They're the worst batch I've ever taught!

Her words sent the entire crowd into an uproar.

Almost every student looked at Zhou Yi with the same thought written across their face: Fuck.

The first lesson of the term, and the whole class gets punished for not fighting?

Not only that, she's threatening expulsion as punishment...

What kind of fucking moronic mindset is this?

"We'll be expelled because we didn't fight?"

Huo Yudie and Tang Wutong exchanged a glance, each seeing speechless exasperation in the other's lovely eyes.

They had known Zhou Yi liked expelling students... but wasn't this far too careless?

Besides, what decent person started expelling students before even learning all their names?

"Teacher, why?"

"Why should we be punished for not fighting?"

Another student stepped forward and protested.

He had come to Shrek Academy to improve himself.

Yet now, before he had even seen a path forward, he was being punished at a whim-and all because he hadn't fought?

He wanted to ask: Why?

"Why?"

"Because I said so."

Zhou Yi seemed very experienced at handling this sort of thing. She merely looked coldly at the student and answered bluntly.

"As your homeroom teacher, I have the authority to expel any of you. If you don't accept it, get out. I have no need for disobedient students."

"I'll give you one more minute. If I still don't see you starting to run around Shrek Square..."

"You're all expelled."

As Zhou Yi spoke, she seemed to decide that words alone were useless and prepared to get serious.

A surge of imposing pressure rose from her, and six Soul Rings-yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black-instantly appeared, placing considerable pressure on the students.

Of course, that certainly did not include Huo Yudie, who had the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm, or Tang Wutong, who was the daughter of a god.

"A Soul Emperor."

The student who had spoken earlier immediately frowned. He hadn't expected this old woman, who looked ready for the grave, to be a Six-Ring Soul Emperor with the optimal Soul Ring configuration!

"Will you run or not?"

Zhou Yi's expression remained unchanged as she asked coldly.

"You have only two hours. Anyone who hasn't completed one hundred laps by then will be deemed unqualified and expelled."

Under the pressure of her powerful aura, that student immediately began running. The others followed one after another, afraid they really would be expelled just like that.

"You two."

"Do you want to be expelled?"

At that moment, Zhou Yi's icy gaze fell on the last two people who hadn't begun running: Huo Yudie and Tang Wutong.

Her powerful aura suddenly pressed down on the two girls. To her surprise, however, neither budged an inch.

The slightly more valiant-looking girl at least showed some reaction, but why did the adorably dazed one beside her look as though nothing was happening?

"You two are quite bold."

Zhou Yi's expression shifted. These two probably came from extraordinary backgrounds. With this ability to resist her pressure as well, they were likely this year's troublemakers.

"Very well."

"I like putting troublemakers in their place."

Zhou Yi snorted coldly and walked toward the two girls.

"Teacher Zhou."

"You certainly have quite a temper."

Tang Wutong watched her coldly. Although she felt a little of the pressure from the woman's Soul Power, she wasn't afraid in the slightest.

"If we really don't run..."

"Are you sure you intend to expel us just like that?"

Her voice was calm, as though she didn't take the woman before her seriously at all.

Her backing reached the heavens. She didn't believe this woman would dare expel her.

You nasty teacher who only knows how to bully students-today, I'll show you what it means to kick an iron plate!

"Expel you, of course. What else? What use do I have for disobedient students like you?"

Zhou Yi nodded without hesitation, barely sparing her a glance as she answered coldly.

What's the point of teaching students who won't behave or listen?

Talented students who obeyed her instructions, preferably geniuses from poor families, were the ones she liked. They simply weren't very common.

If these two intended to interfere with her, there was no need to keep them around.

"What are your names?"

"Never mind, it doesn't matter. I'll sort out the records later. All you need to know is that you've been expelled."

Zhou Yi waved a hand dismissively, not taking it seriously at all.

She had expelled plenty of students. How many of their names had she ever known? She could just remove their records later.

This time, Tang Wutong was rather at a loss. Expelling us without even knowing our names? Are you serious?

"Sure enough."

"You're a thoroughly worthless teacher."

Tang Wutong's expression was disdainful, her words brief and blunt.

"What nonsense are you spouting?"

"Who are you calling a worthless teacher?"

Hearing that, Zhou Yi froze for an instant. Then towering fury swept across her face, and her Soul Power erupted.

She hated that sort of judgment more than anything. Slander-this was blatant slander!

How could an excellent teacher like me suffer such humiliation?

"Expelled! You're damn well getting expelled!"

Zhou Yi's face flushed red as she spat the words through gritted teeth.

So strong...

With the distance between them shrinking, Tang Wutong began to struggle against cultivation far beyond her own. Unlike Huo Yudie, she didn't have Tian Meng's protection.

Just then, however, a current of Soul Power as warm as a spring breeze enveloped her.

At the same time, a calm voice suddenly rang out:

"Teacher Zhou, it's been a few days..."

"You certainly have quite a temper."

(End of chapter)