"Mu Jin!"
Zhou Yi abruptly turned toward the woman who had appeared at Class Nine's doorway at some point and said through gritted teeth:
"Your Class Nine students are being so disrespectful to a teacher, and you're just standing there watching?"
"What else should I do?"
The woman who spoke wore a bright smile. She looked to be in her thirties, with fair skin and exquisite, well-defined features.
In particular, her fitted purple teacher's uniform brought out every bit of her ripe, mature beauty.
The woman glanced at Zhou Yi before walking over to Xue Chen.
"You must be the Xue Chen Director Du mentioned?"
The woman brushed back the short hair beside her ear and spoke gently, nothing like the aggressive Zhou Yi beside her:
"I'm your homeroom teacher, Mu Jin."
"Hello, Teacher Mu Jin. I'm Xue Chen."
With a delicate fragrance filling his nose, Xue Chen bowed slightly to Mu Jin.
"Director Du specifically came to see me a few days ago and said a student with an ultimate attribute would be joining our class."
Seeing Xue Chen bow to him, Mu Jin's smile deepened. He cast a rather smug glance at Zhou Yi before hurriedly helping Xue Chen straighten up with his own hands.
After taking a close look at Xue Chen's features, even a teacher like Mu Jin had a flicker of amazement in his eyes.
"To think that besides your astonishing talent, you're also this handsome."
"You're too kind, Teacher Mu Jin."
Xue Chen also glanced at Zhou Yi, whose face was as black as the bottom of a pot, before smiling at Mu Jin.
"You're also the best-looking teacher I've met since entering Shrek Academy, Teacher Mu Jin!"
When had Mu Jin ever received such a direct compliment from a student?
His cheeks immediately flushed red, and a hint of reproach entered his gaze as he looked at Xue Chen.
The surrounding students had long since been unable to keep their mouths from falling open as they listened to the conversation.
The ultimate ice attribute?
With something like that to rely on, no wonder this kid dared clash with a teacher on the very first day of school!
"The ultimate ice attribute?"
Toward the back of the watching crowd stood a thin, ordinary-looking boy. Upon hearing about the ultimate ice attribute, his eyes, already brighter than most people's, lit up even more.
"Brother Sky Dream, what's the ultimate ice attribute?"
"That shouldn't be possible!"
This thin boy was Huo Yuhao. The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm in his Sea of Consciousness did not answer his question, instead speaking to himself:
"An attribute like ultimate ice isn't something a human Soul Master's body can withstand. Even in the Far North, only the Ice Empress and Snow Empress possess the so-called ultimate ice attribute."
"Also, I seem to sense a familiar presence coming from this kid..."
A humanlike look of confusion appeared on the plump face of the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm hidden in Huo Yuhao's Sea of Consciousness.
"Let me take a closer feel!"
Under the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's control, invisible spiritual power surged out from between Huo Yuhao's brows and slowly reached toward Xue Chen without alerting anyone.
"Hm?"
Just as the spiritual power released by the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm was about to touch Xue Chen, a flash of white light suddenly flickered through Xue Chen's eyes.
Overwhelming spiritual fluctuations erupted from his Sea of Consciousness, instantly shredding the spiritual power the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm had released!
Huo Yuhao, who was pretending to watch the show while actually cooperating with the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm, abruptly stiffened.
The faint light in his eyes dimmed in an instant.
Spiritual power far stronger than he had imagined poured back through the space between his brows into his Sea of Consciousness.
"Urgh!"
Huo Yuhao heard a thunderous boom in his ears, and his face instantly turned pale.
Two trails of blood flowed from his eyes. With a muffled groan, he toppled stiffly to the ground.
This Huo Yuhao really does have a bad habit of recklessly probing others with his spiritual power!
As the two spiritual powers collided, Xue Chen swayed as well, a trace of pallor flashing across his face.
Forcing down the dizziness in his head, Xue Chen also felt a little anger rise within him.
If I don't teach him a lesson, this kid might dare do it again!
Whether it was because he had the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm or not, this fellow Huo Yuhao followed no rules whatsoever when using his spiritual power.
Never mind cheating in competitions-this fellow frequently used his spiritual power to pry into other people's private affairs too.
He had absolutely no idea that this was a major taboo in the Soul Master World!
Today was merely their first encounter, and they did not even know each other yet, but this fellow had actually used his spiritual power to probe Xue Chen's secrets.
Although the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm was a million-year spiritual-type Soul Beast, the Ferocious Beasts in the Star Dou Great Forest had long since drained him until only a little spiritual origin remained.
Restricted by Huo Yuhao's frail body, this remaining spiritual origin had yet to be fully absorbed by Huo Yuhao.
Thus, although Huo Yuhao's spiritual power was strong at this point, its strength was still very limited.
By comparison, the Snow Empress had been in far better condition than the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm when she sacrificed herself to Xue Chen.
As a seven-hundred-thousand-year Heavenly Snow Woman, her spiritual power was not much weaker than that of the million-year Sky Dream Ice Silkworm.
Ultimately, the Ice Silkworm Clan simply did not count as top-tier Soul Beasts. They were innately far inferior to a spirit of the Far North born and nurtured by nature like the Snow Empress.
With a better foundation than Huo Yuhao to begin with, coupled with the Snow Empress's sacrifice, Xue Chen's spiritual power was currently above Huo Yuhao's.
That was how he had made Huo Yuhao suffer such a heavy loss.
"Just now... did something happen just now?"
Mu Jin and Zhou Yi, somewhat slow to react, showed surprise almost simultaneously.
Just now, they seemed to have sensed some invisible forces colliding.
"T-Teacher!"
Just then, a startled cry suddenly rang out from the crowd.
"I don't know what happened to this student, but he suddenly collapsed with blood flowing from his eyes!"
"What?"
Zhou Yi hurriedly turned to look. A student lay unconscious at the doorway of her class, bloody tears still streaming from his eyes.
"Tsk, it looks like something has happened in Teacher Zhou's class."
Mu Jin naturally saw this too and could not help smiling with a little schadenfreude:
"I think rather than continuing to make trouble for our class's students, Teacher Zhou ought to deal with the trouble involving her own student right now."
"You!"
Zhou Yi glared at Mu Jin, then walked over to Huo Yuhao without another word and checked his condition.
Seeing Zhou Yi suffer one setback after another, Mu Jin could not suppress the smile on his face.
He and Zhou Yi had competed in everything since they were young, but whether in romantic experiences or teaching students, Zhou Yi had always held the upper hand.
Today, however, this student named Xue Chen had helped him thoroughly vent his pent-up resentment.
"Xue Chen, you did very well today. I'm very pleased!"
After whispering this in Xue Chen's ear, Mu Jin walked into Class Nine's classroom with a smile.