Ten minutes before afternoon classes began, the enormous classroom was already packed.
What Zhou Yi had done that morning had scared these students out of their wits. None of them dared drag their feet.
What left Lin Xi rather irritated was that, shortly after he and Huo Yutong sat down in the classroom, a ring of girls had gathered in the seats around them.
It was not that he could not understand their thinking. They had simply seen his outstanding performance that morning and heard Zhou Yi say he was level 37, so they figured sitting closer might give them a chance to build a connection with him.
They were cut from the same cloth as the people who crowded around Wang Dong because she was handsome.
But understanding only made it harder for him to keep a straight face.
Sometimes, he genuinely wondered whether the people of the Douluo Continent had normal brains. These first-year students were generally only eleven or twelve! In the world of his previous life, they would not even have graduated from elementary school. Yet every last one of them had romance on the brain. Even early bloomers could not possibly mature this early, could they?
For instance, he felt no desire whatsoever toward Huo Yutong. He was raising her entirely as a little sister.
If he were the kind of pervert who got turned on by eleven-year-old girls, he would have long since been secretly rejoicing over three years behind bars in his previous life, or smiling all the way to his execution.
Fortunately, Zhou Yi soon entered the classroom. Their wandering gazes instantly converged on the old woman at the front, so they did not bother Lin Xi for long.
"Everyone, stand up. Assemble in the square."
That was all Zhou Yi said after entering the classroom before turning around and leaving.
No one dared delay. The students hurried out of the classroom and followed Zhou Yi to Shrek Square in an orderly, silent procession.
They did not see the trace of a smile that appeared in Zhou Yi's eyes.
For this teacher, whose desire for control bordered on the pathological, students were better off behaving themselves like this. Given a choice between an outstanding student and an obedient one, she would undoubtedly choose the obedient one without hesitation.
At some point, a pile of iron chains had been stacked in Shrek Square. At Zhou Yi's command, the students lined up neatly.
She swept a dispassionate glance over the neatly lined-up students and announced:
"I already told you this morning that Lin Xi has the highest cultivation among you. From today onward, he will be your class monitor. Any objections?"
"..."
Not a single person spoke.
They had all seen Lin Xi fight that morning. That truly was a realm beyond their reach.
"Very good." Zhou Yi nodded in satisfaction, then called, "Wang Dong!"
"Here." Wang Dong stepped forward.
Zhou Yi pointed at the iron chains before her.
"These are iron vests, specially designed to improve your physical fitness. Take one each. Once you have them on, start running laps around the square. You will run from now until the bell rings to end class. You may use Soul Power, but you may not use Soul Skills. Your ranking will be determined by the number of laps you run. Whoever comes last will be expelled from Freshman Class One."
"There is one point I must emphasize again. In my class, elimination does not happen only during assessments. It can happen at any time. Today, ninety-one people will become ninety. Begin."
As she spoke, Zhou Yi flicked her toe, sending an iron vest made entirely of thick iron chains toward Wang Dong. Wang Dong hurriedly caught it and put it on.
When he put on the iron vest, his expression could not help changing slightly. It weighed at least thirty jin!
Hearing that the last-place student would be eliminated, none of the students dared delay. They rushed forward to put on the iron vests. The male students fared somewhat better, but most of the girls' pretty faces paled once they donned the heavy vests.
Zhou Yi said coldly, "I know many of you want to tell me this is unfair, because boys and girls naturally differ in physique, and Tool Soul Masters, Beast Soul Masters, and Battle Soul Masters also have different levels of physical fitness. But let me tell you this: in my class, everyone is treated equally. Think about it. On a battlefield, would the enemy spare you because you were female or a Tool Soul Master? Start running. Now."
Lin Xi watched coldly as the students began running, furious but afraid to speak, and inwardly curled his lip.
Like her nonsense lesson that morning, this speech from Zhou Yi was also bullshit.
She had conflated two concepts.
First, Shrek Academy was an academy, not an army. Its members were students and teachers, not soldiers and drill instructors. They had no need to train on the premise that they would be going to war.
Second, even on a battlefield, support-type Soul Masters usually stood at the very back. If Auxiliary System Soul Masters really had to face the enemy themselves, defeat was essentially already assured. After all, no matter how much they trained, Auxiliary System Soul Masters could never be as strong as combat types.
People only needed to do their own jobs properly. Rather than making Auxiliary System Soul Masters exercise, it would be better to have them learn more support techniques.
Even Yu Xiaogang, a much-disputed figure in the Douluo series, knew to adjust training plans according to his students' physical fitness. Ten thousand years later, with Zhou Yi, not only had educational standards failed to improve, they had actually regressed.
Lin Xi genuinely had no idea what Shrek had been doing for the past ten thousand years.
Still, he merely grumbled inwardly. He would not attempt to change Zhou Yi's teaching policies.
It was better for Shrek to keep rotting like this. He had no obligation to help them improve their teaching standards.
They wanted to gain benefits from him without paying a price? Not a chance.
With that thought, Lin Xi summoned Artoria and began the afternoon's training alongside Huo Yutong.
Time slowly passed, and the sun inched westward. At last, a lesson that had felt unbearably long to the students of Freshman Class One came to an end.
To get straight to the result, a full twenty students from Freshman Class One were expelled this time.
After all, unlike in the original story, Huo Yuhao was not there to lead everyone in running this time. When the bell rang, the only two people in the class still moving were Lin Xi and Huo Yutong, who had applied Reinforcement Magecraft to themselves.
And Zhou Yi's rule-counting laps only from the moment the dismissal bell rang-had already doomed them all to fail.
Zhou Yi gave them a vicious scolding, then used force to make the twenty people who had lasted the shortest amount of time complete their withdrawal paperwork.
When the students were officially dismissed from the field, the atmosphere among them was terribly somber.
Their fear of Zhou Yi, doubts about themselves, and dread of an unknown future weighed on them until they could barely breathe.
Yet when Wang Dong returned to the dormitory in that mood, she found Lin Xi in surprisingly good spirits.
No, it was not surprising at all. After all, he and Huo Yutong were the only two people in class who could disregard Zhou Yi's orders.
Wang Dong's face involuntarily darkened.
"You look pretty happy."
"Of course."
Lin Xi made no attempt to hide it and readily admitted it.
Wang Dong suddenly grew rather agitated.
"Don't you feel anything at all about what those expelled students went through?!"
She had nearly had enough.
At the Clear Sky Sect, she had been the little princess everyone gave a wide berth, yet ever since coming to Shrek, she had run into one wall after another.
She could actually be expelled. Before enrolling, she could never have imagined such a thing.
Lin Xi chuckled softly.
"You really don't understand. I'm happy precisely because I feel something about what they went through."
"Huh?"
Wang Dong frowned.
What bullshit was this guy spouting?
Lin Xi shook his head helplessly.
"Idiot. What's worth staying for when Shrek is like this? They can use this expulsion as an opportunity to join my Unlimited Blade Works. That's a tremendous opportunity for them. I believe that someday, they'll thank their present selves."
"What are you talk-"
Wang Dong was just about to demand what kind of nonsense Lin Xi was spouting when her gaze fell on the sheet of paper in his hand.
"...What's that?"
"A first draft of the recruitment notice for Unlimited Blade Works." Lin Xi handed it to her. "Read it if you want."
"..."
Wang Dong silently took the paper and began reading it carefully.
Half a minute later, Wang Dong's cry of surprise rang throughout the dormitory building.
"Mystic Water Pills?!"
She had to admit that everything about Lin Xi always exceeded her expectations.
As a result, Wang Dong spent the rest of the day repeatedly asking Lin Xi whether he was joking.