"Terrifyingly strict? How strict? And how terrifying?"
Huo Yuhao asked calmly.
The old woman was a little surprised by how unruffled Huo Yuhao looked. But when she remembered that he was only a newly enrolled freshman, she no longer found it strange.
She answered with a smile, "Hehe, who in the academy hasn't heard of Zhou Yi, the monster teacher? Her standards are exacting, her manner is stern, and the classes she teaches have one of the highest expulsion rates in their year. Last year, she taught a third-year class, and only one-tenth of them made it into the fourth year."
Huo Yuhao couldn't help frowning at that.
The old woman continued, "But her teaching results are also among the very best. Of the students she teaches who successfully advance to the higher years, nearly a quarter eventually enter the Inner Court. With Teacher Zhou as your teacher, you'll have to work hard."
A sharp gleam flashed through the old woman's black eyes as she recited those figures.
In truth, she was the very person she was describing: Zhou Yi, the homeroom teacher of Freshman Class One.
Meeting one of her future students today had stirred a mischievous urge to tease him.
Besides, this was an excellent opportunity to hear what an outsider thought of her reputation as the monster teacher.
"Heh. Statistics that lie. Nothing but survivorship bias."
After hearing Zhou Yi's introduction, Huo Yuhao commented calmly, "Eliminate every student whose aptitude is even slightly lacking, and of course the ones left will be geniuses with a high advancement rate."
"Even if every student who advanced under her guidance entered the Inner Court, an expulsion rate that high would be enough to call her teaching a disaster."
"She might be an excellent selection officer, but she is absolutely not a competent teacher!"
Huo Yuhao's criticism was merciless, reducing the teaching achievements Zhou Yi took such pride in to something utterly worthless.
The smile froze on Zhou Yi's face.
She hadn't expected this freshman to be so bold!
She told herself not to stoop to arguing with a freshman and forced out a smile. "Then tell me, why isn't Teacher Zhou a good teacher?"
She narrowed her eyes slightly and examined Huo Yuhao's strength.
Only rank eleven! How did he pass the admissions assessment?
Through the back door?
At that thought, disgust rose in Zhou Yi's heart.
So he's a noble brat who got in through connections. No wonder he dislikes strict teachers. He's afraid of being expelled, isn't he?
"What is a teacher? Someone who imparts principles, teaches skills, and resolves doubts." Huo Yuhao's expression began to turn serious.
Inside his mind, Tian Meng began listening closely with keen interest. He knew that whenever Huo Yuhao wore that expression, he was about to launch into lofty reasoning that Tian Meng couldn't understand but still found impressive.
"If she only knows how to select the most outstanding geniuses to nurture, what does that make the other students? Cannon fodder?"
"What's so difficult about turning geniuses into geniuses? Turning ordinary people into geniuses is what takes real ability."
Huo Yuhao spoke slowly. Though he was refuting her, he remained exceptionally calm.
"What do you know?" Zhou Yi felt she was losing face and said coldly, "Teacher Zhou may be strict, but she holds every student to the same standard. She treats them all equally and never shows favoritism."
"Even if the most gifted student makes a mistake, she'll expel them without mercy!"
"That makes it even more laughable." Huo Yuhao gave a cold laugh. "I'm very curious what sort of mistake lets her expel students at will."
Zhou Yi steadied her emotions and, feeling she had regained her composure, said, "Last year, when Teacher Zhou first took over as homeroom teacher of Third-Year Class One, she made every student run two hundred laps around the field during their very first lesson."
"Those students already had two or three rings. Two hundred laps were nothing to them."
"However, one boy with very good talent deliberately ran five laps fewer. Teacher Zhou immediately expelled him from the academy."
Zhou Yi looked at Huo Yuhao through narrowed eyes. "Do you think Teacher Zhou was wrong?"
"Certainly, her iron-fisted methods left a deep impression on the students. But did they actually learn anything from it?"
Under Zhou Yi's startled gaze, Huo Yuhao continued, "You were twelve or thirteen once too, ma'am. You ought to understand the rebelliousness that comes with that age, especially in boys."
"Why did that boy skip five laps? Perhaps he was merely feeling mischievous for a moment and wanted to slack off, yet he was expelled outright for it."
"Do you think that was appropriate?"
Without the slightest fear, Huo Yuhao met Zhou Yi's eyes head-on.
Zhou Yi said quietly, "He tried to cheat and cut corners, and brought it on himself. What was inappropriate about it?"
"After that, no student ever dared slack off in her class again."
Huo Yuhao said calmly, "They certainly didn't dare slack off anymore. But did they truly understand that slacking off was wrong?"
"No, they didn't. None of them understood, including the student who was expelled."
Zhou Yi froze.
"He wouldn't recognize that slacking off was his mistake. He would only resent getting caught by the teacher and redirect his bitterness over being expelled toward the teacher and the academy."
"The other students wouldn't recognize what was wrong with slacking off either. They wouldn't dare do it again merely because they feared the teacher and feared being expelled."
"A teaching method that treats the symptoms rather than the root cause cannot be called strict. It should be called harsh."
Deep down, Zhou Yi was beginning to feel persuaded by Huo Yuhao's words, but she refused to admit that her teaching philosophy was flawed. "Hmph. So many students are expelled from Shrek Academy every year. Killing a chicken to warn the monkeys is worth it!"
Huo Yuhao's expression was earnest. "Don't underestimate that little bit of negativity."
"To Shrek Academy, it is indeed nothing more than the expulsion of one dispensable student. But it plants a seed in every student's heart."
"Whenever they think back on Shrek Academy, won't they remember that strict Teacher Zhou rather than the academy that once stood first on the continent?"
"The expelled student might originally have had an extraordinary life ahead of him and realized his own worth, only to have it rewritten by this insignificant mistake."
"What do teenage brats know about right and wrong? Isn't helping them develop the right values precisely your responsibility as teachers?"
"What if he can't withstand the blow, sinks into despair, and never gets back on his feet? Or, to take it one step further..."
A terrifying calm settled over Huo Yuhao's face. His tone was somewhat chilling, yet filled with a frightening rationality.
"If he falls so far because of this incident that he becomes an Evil Soul Master, what share of the responsibility do you think Teacher Zhou should bear?"
"Then it wouldn't merely be a matter of a few lives."
Zhou Yi's heart trembled. Despite being a Soul Emperor, she was frightened into retreating half a step.
Evil Soul Masters...
They were synonymous with evil.
Their appearance was always accompanied by bloodshed and death.
Zhou Yi dared not imagine that outcome. She could only repeat to herself over and over.
Impossible. Impossible...
She soon recovered and asked with an icy gaze, "Alarmist nonsense. If a teacher isn't this strict, how can she keep these arrogant students in line?"
Huo Yuhao said calmly, "Strictness is never the goal. It is a means."
"Being strict for the sake of strictness puts the cart before the horse."
"Isn't it possible to achieve adequate results without being so harsh?"
"Hmm?" Zhou Yi froze, then looked at Huo Yuhao with genuine anticipation.
Without realizing it, her impression of Huo Yuhao had already changed.
She had a feeling that the boy before her would give her a different answer.