A stiff smile appeared on Zhou Yi's face, and the muscles at the corner of her mouth twitched. "Whether you were fighting or sparring has nothing to do with me. You two are pretty good. At least you have some fire in your blood. Shangguan Chentian, Li Dan, Zhou Fu... the eleven of you can leave. You don't need to run. You're expelled outright. Go back wherever you came from!"
The eleven people Zhou Yi named were precisely the eleven who had reported Chen Yong.
All eleven of their expressions changed at once. Shangguan Chentian stood up and demanded angrily, "On what grounds? We went through so much trouble to get into Shrek Academy. It was bad enough that we were bullied as soon as we arrived, but they were clearly the ones at fault! Why are you expelling us?"
"On what grounds?" Zhou Yi gave the eleven of them a cold look. An immensely powerful aura suddenly erupted from her, and six Soul Rings appeared around her body. She said evenly, "Do you think I wasn't there when he sparred with you? After the sparring ended, how did you respond to Chen Yong's explanation and apology? And what are you saying now? Shrek Academy isn't afraid of students who can stir up trouble. We're afraid of students who can't. You lost and felt wronged, and there's nothing wrong with that. But you should have been thinking about training hard and winning it back with your own strength, not relying on your teachers' or parents' influence to get revenge. Students like that don't deserve to be members of Shrek Academy."
Zhou Yi paused, then continued evenly, "Aside from the eleven of you, everyone else should go outside and run. You have the same amount of time as they do: just two hours. Anyone who fails to finish will meet the same fate as these eleven-immediate expulsion. As for you eleven, get out!"
With that warning right before their eyes, the others no longer dared hope they might get lucky. They immediately ran outside.
Jiang Hai ducked his head and was about to run out too, feeling that something was off about the way Zhou Yi was looking at him. Sure enough, she said evenly, "Jiang Hai, stay a moment. You enjoy sparring, don't you? Then here's what we'll do. I have a gift for you. This Iron Garment weighs a hundred kilograms. Wear it while you run. If you fail to finish, you'll be expelled too!"
Zhou Yi tossed out a heavy black Iron Garment.
Jiang Hai caught the Iron Garment, put it on, and ran outside as though nothing had happened. Chen Yong was about to speak, but Jiang Hai shook his head. "Don't worry, I'm fine. But this Iron Garment is really ugly. I wonder who designed it. Who could be in the mood to run while wearing something this ugly? If you ask me, they should design a majestic suit of Golden Armor, the kind you'd never want to take off once you put it on..."
They all ran outside. Zhou Yi heard Jiang Hai's parting words too and couldn't help shaking her head, scolding him with a laugh. "That brat certainly knows how to offer suggestions. Still, he has a point. Should I have someone improve it when I get back? But his strength looks far more frightening than I imagined. He's wearing a hundred-kilogram Iron Garment as though it's nothing."
She had deliberately added extra weight to this Iron Garment. Anyone else wearing a hundred-kilogram Iron Garment would struggle to walk even a few steps, let alone run.
Shrek Square wasn't large. One lap was only three hundred meters, and a hundred laps came to just thirty kilometers, which wasn't much for people like them.
However, they had wasted quite a bit of time at the start, so the last few to rush outside all ran flat out, moving at tremendous speed.
Already behind, Huo Yuhao began to feel a sense of urgency and ran quickly too. Suddenly, a large hand caught his shoulder, and a calm voice reached him. "Why are you running so fast?"
"Brother Jiang Hai!" Huo Yuhao looked at the person holding him back. Seeing the thick Iron Garment on Jiang Hai's body, he said worriedly, "Brother Jiang Hai, you..."
Jiang Hai smiled. "You silly kid, you still have the leisure to worry about me? Worry about yourself first. The others can run that fast because they've been training since childhood, and their Soul Power is higher than yours. That little roommate of yours took the entrance assessment in the same batch as me. Her Soul Power surpassed Level 20 long ago, and her physical fitness is among the best of all the new students. You're trying to compete with her?"
Then he added, "Don't worry. If I really started running, these hundred kilograms would feel like I wasn't wearing anything at all. Don't rush. Regulate your breathing and follow my pace!"
Huo Yuhao nodded and began running at Jiang Hai's pace.
After a while, Jiang Hai looked at the big lug, Chen Yong, beside him and couldn't help saying, "I told Yuhao to run with me. What are you following me for? Hurry up and catch them! If you finish behind everyone else and make me lose face, don't blame me if I refuse to call you my brother anymore. Go on, catch up, you embarrassment."
Chen Yong chuckled, picked up speed, and shot ahead. His Soul Power was indeed lower than Wang Dong's, but his physique was a little stronger than hers.
Chen Yong gave chase, soon catching the few people at the rear before steadily overtaking them.
Watching Chen Yong pass quite a few people with swift, vigorous strides, Huo Yuhao asked with envy in his eyes, "Brother Jiang Hai, who was that just now?"
"Oh, he's my brother. We met during the assessment. He's a good guy. I'm not much older than you either, so stop calling me 'Brother Jiang Hai' all the time. Just call me Brother Jiang, or even Jiang Hai," Jiang Hai said.
Huo Yuhao nodded and called, "Brother Jiang!"
Jiang Hai nodded. Personally, he rather admired Huo Yuhao's character. He always repaid kindness and worked very hard. Although all his cheats were admittedly a little outrageous, Jiang Hai believed that even without them, Huo Yuhao would still achieve great things.
About an hour later, Huo Yuhao finally understood the advantage of running alongside Jiang Hai. They weren't fast, but their pace was steady. By now, some of those who had run quickly at the front could no longer keep it up, and they were growing slower and slower.
Although Huo Yuhao and Jiang Hai were still behind, their breathing remained steady, and they were no longer at the very back.
Moreover, with Jiang Hai leading the way, Huo Yuhao had a target to chase and wouldn't fall behind.
Still, Huo Yuhao's physique was simply too weak. With most of the time gone, his breathing grew increasingly labored. The Mysterious Heaven Skill circulated constantly within him, supplying him with a thread of strength.
Just then, Zhou Yi suddenly called out, "Pick up the pace! Sprint!"
Wang Dong and Chen Yong had already crossed the finish line and looked completely fine. These hundred laps hadn't put much pressure on them. They even walked another lap slowly before stopping. After finishing, Chen Yong tried to come over to Jiang Hai, only for Jiang Hai to drive him away with a glare.
With people finishing their hundred laps, Huo Yuhao's breathing was clearly affected and began to grow erratic.
Jiang Hai kept saying, "Don't rush. Regulate your breathing. The faster you go, the easier it is to make mistakes!"
"If you don't want to be eliminated, you have to keep close behind me. I calculated my running speed based on the time and distance remaining. It'll let us finish a hundred laps right at the last moment. If you can't keep up with me, you definitely won't pass. You heard what Zhou Yi said, didn't you? If you don't pass, you'll definitely be eliminated. If you get eliminated on your very first day, how could you face Tang Ya and Bei Bei after they gave you that admission spot?"
That's right. I can't be eliminated. I still have to seek justice for Mom, and I can't disappoint Teacher Tang Ya or my eldest senior brother! Huo Yuhao shouted inwardly. Threads of coolness seemed to spread from his eyes, and his gaze cleared again. He regulated his breathing and followed Jiang Hai, step by step.
Looking at Huo Yuhao, Jiang Hai couldn't help nodding slightly. Huo Yuhao's perseverance and strength of will far surpassed those of ordinary people, and that was one of the things Jiang Hai admired most about him.
In truth, with Huo Yuhao's normal stamina, finishing a hundred laps in two hours would have been no problem at all. But they had wasted too much time earlier, especially thanks to Jiang Hai and Chen Yong's antics. By the time they came outside, the faster runners had already completed almost ten laps. With stamina like Chen Yong's and Wang Dong's, catching and even overtaking those ahead was naturally easy, but Huo Yuhao clearly couldn't manage that yet.
His unexpected arrival might genuinely have caused Huo Yuhao to fail to finish a hundred laps, so Jiang Hai took the initiative to lead him along. As for waiting to see whether Wang Dong would help, if Huo Yuhao couldn't rely on himself, he would still have regrets even if he finished the hundred laps.
In fact, Jiang Hai's pace left Huo Yuhao quite a bit of leeway. If they maintained their current speed, they wouldn't finish right at the deadline, but rather two or three minutes early.
As the two ran on, Jiang Hai saw that Sun Yunhai and the others were struggling too, their pace growing slower and slower. Those three unlucky fellows had also been dragged into this by him, so he simply gathered them up as well and had all three run behind him.
Just as time ran out, Jiang Hai finally led the three of them through their last lap.
Jiang Hai said, "You guys were really amazing. I almost couldn't keep going myself. If you hadn't kept chasing me from behind, I might have been eliminated!"
Wang Dong looked at Jiang Hai's perfectly composed expression. He had even forgotten to take off the Iron Garment. How did he look exhausted at all? She couldn't help curling her lip. Shameless guy.
The people Jiang Hai led were the last few to finish. After all, they had had considerably less time, and Sun Yunhai and the others had exhausted quite a bit of their stamina earlier in their haste to catch up.
Zhou Yi turned toward them expressionlessly and said evenly, "Those whose names I call, step forward. Cheng Cheng, Qiu Jianrao, Tang Dao, Tai Long, Zhuge Yun, Yun Xiaopiao."
The students froze for a moment. They hadn't expected Zhou Yi to call out their names so readily. That meant she had memorized all of them on their very first day.
The six walked out at an unhurried pace, their expressions somewhat uneasy.
"The six of you can leave!" Zhou Yi said evenly.
"Huh?" The six panting students she had called out froze. Among them, Tai Long looked furious. "Leave? Why are you making us leave?"
He had been among the first to start running and was also one of the first to finish.
Jiang Hai shook his head. He had thought that after his outrageous stunt got Shangguan Chentian and the other ten expelled, everyone else would learn their lesson. He hadn't expected there to be people bold enough to try their luck anyway.
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