Hearing Xiao Xiao's words, Li Mu looked at her in surprise. He hadn't expected to run into Xiao Xiao when he came here.
Looking at her sweet face, Li Mu gave her a faint smile too. "You know, maybe the two of us really are brought together by fate."
Li Mu's expression turned somewhat peculiar as he spoke.
But Xiao Xiao merely blinked at him, her face full of confusion.
As the bell rang, the door opened, and Zhou Yi strode in. Looking at this old woman putting on a stern act, a trace of mockery flickered at the corner of Li Mu's mouth.
He had already made an enemy of this old woman, and that enmity would be difficult to resolve.
So naturally, he had no intention of settling the issue with her.
Instead, he was considering how to make this old woman leave the class, or even leave Shrek Academy.
Actually, as long as a teacher made no mistakes, it was very difficult for a student to get them removed. Even Li Mu was no exception.
Forcing a teacher out as a student was very difficult.
But once that teacher took the initiative to make a mistake, or did certain things of their own accord, forcing them out would become much easier.
Looking at Zhou Yi standing at the front with a stern face, the chattering students quieted down a little. Zhou Yi swept her exceptionally cold gaze over them.
"Let me introduce myself. My name is Zhou Yi."
"From now on, I'll be your homeroom teacher. Remember, no trash can pass the exams in my class. I want to cultivate monsters, not fools."
"Anyone who has been in a fight during these past few days of registration, stand up."
As Zhou Yi spoke, she looked down at the students.
Hearing Zhou Yi's unbelievably arrogant words, quite a few students wore strange expressions.
Although she was a teacher at Shrek Academy, to put it bluntly, almost everyone who could enter Shrek Academy belonged to the most influential circles in their hometowns.
In this era, a so-called recommendation letter was itself something only people with status and talent could obtain.
Among those who received recommendation letters, almost none came from ordinary backgrounds. The vast majority came from established families.
Regardless of their families' size, almost all were family members, local snakes who held sway over their own territories.
So, being called trash by a teacher as soon as they arrived at Shrek Academy left quite a few of them with strange expressions.
Even some support-type Soul Masters, or those without talent who had gotten in solely through recommendation letters, looked displeased.
But facing these students' gazes, Zhou Yi's expression did not change.
Zhou Yi's eyes remained cold. She knew these students wouldn't dare talk back.
No matter how harshly she spoke, these students were still just students.
Unless someone dared take the lead and stand up to cause trouble, she figured the others wouldn't dare.
But just as Zhou Yi was preparing to keep putting these students down, Li Mu calmly rose to his feet.
At the sound of his chair being pushed back, quite a few students with ugly expressions turned their heads slightly toward the back row.
Li Mu was now standing, meeting Zhou Yi's eyes calmly without the slightest fear in his gaze.
"Teacher Zhou, you called us useless. I wonder what level you had reached when you were our age?"
"Teacher Zhou, you must be in your thirties or forties by now, right? Among people your age, some should already have reached Soul Douluo, or even higher, shouldn't they?"
"Could it be that your talent isn't very good, Teacher Zhou?"
"You keep saying you don't cultivate trash, but if you're trash yourself..."
"Even if our talent is exceptional, how far could we get under your instruction?"
Li Mu spoke without the slightest courtesy. He wasn't about to give this old woman Zhou Yi any face.
He had already been very displeased when she stopped him from killing Dai Huabin earlier.
Now that she was openly mocking everyone, it would have been one thing if no student dared step forward.
But once Li Mu took the lead, some hot-tempered students stood up one after another.
Some had kept quiet out of apprehension over her position as a teacher, but others had no such reservations.
"That's right. As a teacher at Shrek Academy, Teacher Zhou must be very talented."
"But talent doesn't determine everything, does it? Besides, Teacher Zhou doesn't even know us."
"Why does she think our talent won't amount to anything in the future?"
"Exactly. Even if Martial Souls and talent could determine everything, we haven't truly grown yet at this stage. Who knows what we'll be like in the future?"
"Saying something like that is pretty heaven-defying. Does anyone who can come to Shrek Academy have poor talent?"
Hearing these students join the team fight, quite a few others exchanged glances, and some began silently rising to their feet.
As more and more students stood up, turning her very first day of teaching into this, Zhou Yi fixed her gaze on Li Mu.
Li Mu simply acted as though he hadn't seen the killing intent in her eyes, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly.
If Zhou Yi hadn't provoked them first or said those things of her own accord, there really wouldn't have been much he could do about her.
If Zhou Yi secretly made things difficult for him, he could only endure it.
After all, no matter how strong he was, he couldn't possibly kill a teacher in public at Shrek Academy.
But with Zhou Yi provoking them first and stirring up public anger, once he led the team fight, even students who had been hesitant and afraid would stand up alongside him.
They were young to begin with, and with their considerable family backgrounds, their tempers were already explosive.
Now that they had been provoked, with someone up front bearing the pressure, these people were bound to stand up.
And once this matter blew up, or dozens of students went after Zhou Yi together to cause trouble for her, she absolutely wouldn't be able to withstand it.
It was true that her husband, Fan Yu, was the director of the Soul Tool Department, but the Soul Tool Department had no authority over affairs in the Martial Soul Department.
And even if he could intervene, his authority would still be limited.
So when Zhou Yi entered and still intended to do things her usual way...
Li Mu had already put her on the spot, with absolutely no way down.
Looking at these students, watching more and more of them stand up, Zhou Yi clenched her fists slightly.
Eventually, three-quarters of the class was standing, with only a few students sitting there timidly.
Her eyes remained fixed on Li Mu, and her formerly arrogant, overbearing, icy tone began to falter into silence.
"Surely you didn't stand up just to tell me all this? Do you think I don't know whether you're trash?"
"Only a handful of you have even reached three rings. At your age, how is that not trash?" Zhou Yi snorted coldly.
Seeing Zhou Yi still stubbornly refusing to yield, Li Mu smiled. "Then, Teacher Zhou, would you dare make a bet?"
"Since you think the strongest among us only have Soul Elder cultivation..."
"You can set me a requirement within the scope of Soul Ancestor cultivation, and I'll fulfill it."
"If I lose, I'll voluntarily leave Shrek Academy and apologize to you, Teacher Zhou."
"But if I win, then please leave Shrek Academy, Teacher Zhou Yi, and resign from your teaching position."
"I wonder, Teacher, do you dare take the bet?"