After that clash, Wang Dong was full of grievance, feeling utterly humiliated and stripped of all face. A long silence fell between them, neither willing to speak first and break the deadlock.
After turning it over in her mind, Wang Dong finally decided to take the hint. She quietly found a teacher at the academy and applied to move into a single room.
As he left, his steps were heavy, and the same question kept circling in his mind: Was I really wrong? Should I go apologize? He was deeply conflicted, pride and guilt tugging back and forth at his heart, making it hard to decide.
Huo Yuhao, meanwhile, breathed a private sigh of relief when he learned that Wang Dong had moved out. Room 108 had originally been furnished for two, but he cleverly stacked the two beds together, instantly turning it into a private room of his own.
That made his cultivation environment quieter and more accommodating, while also greatly safeguarding his privacy. After all, he knew full well that a fragment of Tang San's divine sense was hidden inside Wang Dong, like a bomb that could go off at any moment.
He did not dare imagine what would happen if the "bomb" exploded one day and brought about a sudden Sea God's Descent. The scene was simply too dreadful to contemplate. With Wang Dong gone, the conflict seemed to have come to a temporary pause.
Over the next two days, Huo Yuhao immersed himself in cultivation and progressed at astonishing speed. The Eight-Nine Arcane Art he cultivated held endless mysteries and contained a vast variety of spells, each of which left him amazed.
These ingenious spells seemed to open a brand-new door for him, helping his level shoot upward like a rocket.
In just a few days, he broke through from level ten to level fourteen in one go, advancing four whole levels and filling his heart with joy.
Huo Yuhao, however, knew full well that one could not chew more than one could swallow. As he pushed toward level fifteen, he resolutely chose to stop and focus on stabilizing his Soul Power. He understood that the path of cultivation was like rowing against the current: without a firm foundation, he would ultimately struggle to go far.
But in all things under heaven, benefits and drawbacks arose together. Though the Eight-Nine Arcane Art was a wondrous method for attaining immortality, it also concealed dangers. Its yin and yang aspects coexisted, each with its own nature; a moment's carelessness could lead one astray onto the Devil Dao. During his cultivation, subtle changes had already quietly taken root and sprouted in Huo Yuhao's heart. Was this an extraordinary opportunity on his path of cultivation, or an inescapable seed of disaster? He did not yet know; perhaps the answer would come in time.
Elsewhere, after much deliberation, Wang Dong finally made up her mind. He realized that perhaps he really had been too proud in his daily life and had developed a young master's temper. The clash had also made him reflect deeply on his behavior.
Spurred on by her feelings, she decided to take the initiative and apologize to Huo Yuhao, resolving their conflict.
Before anyone knew it, the first day of classes for the new students arrived. The classroom was bustling, with students gathered in groups of three or five. Some were eagerly discussing new things, while others were busy getting to know one another.
New to their surroundings, everyone was trying to adapt, make new friends, or create a new image for themselves. Such scenes were the same in every world.
The moment Wang Dong entered the classroom, she became the center of attention. His striking looks drew the girls' gazes like a magnet, holding them fast.
Before long, she had become the class's much-sought-after "male god." Not only did the girls affectionately address her as "Lord Wang Dong," but the boys also cast envious looks her way.
Huo Yuhao, meanwhile, arrived late amid the clamor of the crowd. He kept a low profile as he crossed the classroom and quietly made his way to his seat, hardly anyone noticing him along the way.
Shortly after he sat down, Huo Yuhao heard someone murmuring to his right. He turned and recognized the speaker at a glance. So it's Xiao Xiao. He made no reply and silently turned his head back.
After being reborn, he had become increasingly steady by nature and wanted only to live in a low-key, stable manner. If a person experienced seven layers of loneliness, then he would embark on the path of a powerhouse...
At that moment, Wang Dong also found herself looking in Huo Yuhao's direction. The instant their eyes met, he looked away in a fluster.
That fierce battle had left far too deep an impression on him. Even now, facing Huo Yuhao, he still felt a faint apprehension-one might even call it "fear."
As the noise in the classroom rose and fell, a fierce-looking woman with a face full of wrinkles suddenly strode in. She swept a sharp gaze over the class, and seeing that the room was still noisy, anger flared in her heart. She slammed a hand down on the desk.
A resounding smack instantly silenced the entire classroom. Everyone's eyes turned to the imposing woman...
The old woman's brows were knotted tightly, the wrinkles around her eyes as deep as knife cuts. Her whole face seemed covered in frost, making her the very image of an enraged tigress. She swept a cold gaze over the noisy classroom, then suddenly brought her hand down hard on the lectern with a smack, sending chalk dust fluttering into the air.
"What's all this noise?! Your class is the loudest in the whole corridor!" Zhou Yi roared at the top of her lungs, her lioness's roar making even the windows tremble slightly. The classroom, so lively just moments ago, fell utterly silent. Everyone was as mute as cicadas in winter, not daring to breathe too loudly.
The old woman pushed up the glasses that had slipped to the tip of her nose and swept her gaze over the trembling students one by one. "I am Zhou Yi, your homeroom teacher," she said, enunciating every word.
"In my class, no matter who you are, what sect you come from, or whether you're the children of nobles, you'll follow my rules. I don't know whether you can endure my teaching."
"But let me tell you, the only ones I can train are monsters, not trash or idiots." Her voice echoed through the deathly silent classroom, startling the students in the back row into instinctively shrinking their necks.
Just as everyone held their breath and listened, Huo Yuhao's consciousness suddenly sank into the Sea of Consciousness.
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm wriggled his chubby body and cried, "Good grief! This old woman is a hundred times fiercer than the Ice Empress! Anyone who ends up with a teacher like that must have had eight lifetimes of rotten luck!" It laughed until it was out of breath, but received no response whatsoever from Huo Yuhao.
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm wriggled his plump body indignantly, his fleshy feelers waving nonstop as he shouted, "Hey, Yuhao! What are you staring off into space and thinking about? This Sea of Consciousness is empty. What treasure could there possibly be?"
"If there's any real treasure here, isn't it me, your one and only Hundred-Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast? Ignoring me again? You're just like that old man. Sigh, I feel like such a failure. I might as well hang a sign saying 'air' around my neck!"
As it prattled on, it angrily bumped its head against Huo Yuhao's consciousness form, looking just like a child seeking attention.
Huo Yuhao was full of confusion. He could clearly sense an additional presence deep within the Sea of Consciousness. He had never noticed it since his rebirth and had only just become aware of its existence.
He had intended to investigate more carefully after class, but just then, the presence darted into his perception like a venomous snake. It felt extremely familiar, and he seemed to have an answer in mind. Could it be... His pupils contracted sharply, and a look of surprise and disbelief appeared on his face.
When he opened his eyes again, he saw a blackboard eraser hurtling viciously toward him, cutting sharply through the air as it headed straight for his face!