8  Monstrous Teacher

Shrek Academy occupied an extremely large area. Large areas of vacant land separated the buildings from one another. After Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong had exited the dormitory, Wang Dong continued until he stood firmly within one of the empty spaces outside the dormitory, then turned around and beckoned Huo Yuhao towards him by curling his finger.

Huo Yuhao’s heart was still burning with fury, but he didn’t immediately rush towards Wang Dong in anger. After undergoing a life-and-death experience in the Great Star Dou Forest, he’d learned one thing at the very least, which was to stay calm no matter what.

That old man who’d been leaning on the chair at the dormitory’s entrance raised his head slightly. A gleam of curiosity flashed through his faint yellow eyes as he gazed at Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong with interest.

A faint golden light flashed through Huo Yuhao’s eyes, and a white soul ring subsequently rose from his feet, activating his Spirit Eyes.

Seeing his “ten year soul ring” Wang Dong let out a soft laugh. “I’m very curious as to how you managed to enter this school. You dare to challenge me with just this bit of skill? I won’t even have to use my martial soul to deal with you.”

As he spoke, the tip of Wang Dong’s left foot tapped the ground. His body was like an arrow as he charged towards Huo Yuhao. Not only was he fast, but appeared as if there was also an abnormal agility hidden inside his movement. He arrived before Huo Yuhao in the blink of an eye, and raised his right leg to kick him in the chest.

With this raise of Wang Dong’s leg, only Huo Yuhao was able to make out that Wang Dong had a pair of legs that exceeded the proportion of a normal person’s. Before he realized it, the leg had already arrived in front of him.

In that instant, Huo Yuhao moved. He rapidly took one step to the right whilst simultaneously using his left hand to push Wang Dong’s foot away.

“Hmm?” Wang Dong clearly hadn’t expected Huo Yuhao to be able to dodge his swift kick. He drew back the right leg he’d used to step out with in a flash, and dodged Huo Yuhao’s left hand. At the same time, he shot out another kick lightning-like speed, this time aimed towards Huo Yuhao’s neck.

It was as if Huo Yuhao could foresee Wang Dong’s actions. When Wang Dong shot his leg out, Huo Yuhao simultaneously lowered his body and crouched down. In the next instant, his body bounced back up, and his right shoulder just happened to collide with the lower portion of Wang Dong’s thigh.

Both of their movements were very quick. From an outsider’s point of view, it looked like Wang Dong had purposely sent his leg upwards such that Huo Yuhao could use his shoulder to push it up further.

It had to be said that Wang Dong’s body was extremely strong. A normal person would’ve had their center of balance destabilized after having their thigh pushed up like that. However, Wang Dong’s right leg was instead actually raised up over him, as he did a split. His left leg was still firmly planted on the ground.

Huo Yuhao felt a burst of both softness and elasticity from the shoulder he’d used to bump into Wang Dong’s thigh with. He didn’t let Wang Dong regain the upper hand as he rapidly charged forwards, immediately ramming into Wang Dong in an attempt to take advantage of him while he was still standing on one leg.

Facing Huo Yuhao, who’d been dogging his heels till this point, Wang Dong made an astonishing movement. His right leg was still raised up in the air as he shockingly continued to move it upwards behind him, along with the upper half of his body. At the same time, his left leg shot out towards Huo Yuhao. In that moment, the width at which his legs were spread out had already completely exceeded the limits that normal people were capable of imagining.

Although Huo Yuhao had relied on his Spirit Eyes’ spiritual detection skill to accurately ascertain Wang Dong’s previous attacks, he’d already moved. Thus, he wasn’t able to withdraw even though he’d sensed Wang Dong’s movements.

One was bound to have a certain amount of advantage over their opponent when they could anticipate their opponent’s movements. When Huo Yuhao saw that Wang Dong’s left leg had sprung up towards his chin, both of Huo Yuhao’s hands simultaneously made a downwards pressing motion, colliding with his left leg.

“Bang——” Wang Dong’s strength was exceptional. His leg carried a powerful vibration that was difficult to describe. Huo Yuhao felt a burst of numbness from both of his palms, causing him to subconsciously activate the Mysterious Jade Hands technique. Despite him doing so, he still ended up staggering back in retreat.

Wang Dong’s right leg that had fallen backwards only touched the ground lightly before his left leg that had been lifted up landed on the ground again, causing his whole body to flip over once again. Wang Dong’s right leg resembled a whip as it went straight down towards Huo Yuhao’s shoulder with a whooshing sound. He was evidently infuriated that Huo Yuhao had previously pushed his thigh up.

Huo Yuhao, who was in the process of retreating, reacted the instant Wang Dong’s right leg touched the ground, bouncing backwards. Huo Yuhao’s footsteps suddenly became quick, and with a sway of his figure, he rapidly headed towards Wang Dong’s left side, getting out of the way of her strike.

“Bang——” Wang Dong’s right leg that had whipped downwards hit the ground ferociously. He actually left a shallow footprint on the hard stone ground. Following closely after that, his whole body became like a windmill as he charged towards Huo Yuhao. Both of his legs were like two maces as he unleashed an attack akin to like howling winds and torrential rains in Huo Yuhao’s direction.

Despite the surprise he’d received after going through their previous confrontation, Huo Yuhao had calmed down at this moment. He activated his Spiritual Detection ability in an area around him, and calmly determined every single one of Wang Dong’s attacks in advance. Under Wang Dong’s fierce attacks, the Ghost Shadow Perplexing Tracks that he knew very little about was like a small boat that was battered on the left and right, yet refused to capsize.

Wang Dong was also becoming more and more apprehensive as he fought with Huo Yuhao. He could clearly sense that Huo Yuhao’s strength was far worse than his own. Regardless of whether it was his speed or strength, all of them were completely inferior to his own. However, his attacks still weren’t able to land on Huo Yuhao. Huo Yuhao wasn’t quick, yet he was always able to clearly discern his movements beforehand, and was thereby able to effectively evade his attacks. Wang Dong had already attempted to make a feint, but had still been unable to deceive his opponent.

Not only was Wang Dong arrogant, he was extremely stubborn too. Since they’d agreed to not use their martial soul, he definitely wouldn’t use his. He could only continue to intensify his attacks, not believing that Huo Yuhao could continue to persevere.

Indeed, Huo Yuhao had already reached the point of being unable to persevere for much longer. Not only were the attacks from Wang Dong’s legs powerful to the point that he almost couldn’t withstand them, but the speed at which he attacked was also unusually fast. He could only barely contend against Wang Dong while relying on his Spiritual Detection, under the condition that he was fully concentrated on the fight. However, as time passed, the disparity between the basic structures of their bodies gradually appeared.

Huo Yuhao had lived an arduous life since his childhood, and was malnourished. As such, the nourishment that the Mysterious Heaven Technique had provided to his body with had also just begun. Compared to Wang Dong, who had deep-rooted fundamentals, he was far worse in terms of his body’s development. Even though he’d utilised his martial soul, and even though Wang Dong still hadn’t, the nourishment that his soulforce provided was solely in regards to his internals. After they’d fought for a long time, it was inevitable that minute mistakes would emerge on Huo Yuhao’s end. Both of Wang Dong’s legs had only accurately swept at his side a few times, but his body was already experiencing a scorching pain. The Ghost Shadow Perplexing Tracks that he knew very little about had also started to become messy, and he became more and more passive.

This won’t do. If things continue on in this manner, I’ll definitely lose. Huo Yuhao retreated as fast as he could, as soon, he wouldn’t be able to keep avoiding Wang Dong’s attacks.

Suddenly, he raised his head without notice. Since this movement was quite large, Wang Dong also subconsciously looked at his face. He clearly saw a hint of purple flashed through both of Huo Yuhao’s eyes. Immediately following this, Wang Dong felt like his brain had been pricked by a needle and, with a sharp pain, his mind momentarily became blank.

How could Huo Yuhao let this kind of opportunity slip by? He suddenly pounced forwards with a large stride forwards. He leapt up, and both of his arms wrapped tightly around both of Wang Dong’s arms. Both of his legs then wound themselves around Wang Dong’s waist, forcibly knocking him to the ground.

Wang Dong had always used his legs when commencing his attacks. At this moment, Huo Yuhao was quite anxious. With his legs wrapped around Wang Dong’s waist, how could he exert any force? As long as he continued to subdue Wang Dong, everything would be fine. Huo Yuhao could only subdue him and hope that everything would be fine.

The stabbing pain in his brain caused Wang Dong to tightly furrow his eyebrows. However, that only lasted for a couple seconds before he became clear-headed once again. Nevertheless, Huo Yuhao had already knocked his body to the ground. His waist was tightly locked between Huo Yuhao’s legs, and his arms were also bound by Huo Yuhao. The distance that separated their faces was no more than an inch, and they could hear each other’s breathing.

Huo Yuhao panted fiercely as he let out a low growl, “Are you going to surrender or not?”

“Surrender my ass! Let me go!” Wang Dong flew into a rage and forcefully struggled against Huo Yuhao’s grip. However, Huo Yuhao was using all of his strength to restrain him, and had even incorporated his soulforce. Under the circumstances, and considering that he couldn’t use his martial soul, escaping wasn’t easy for him at all.

“Are you still not admitting your loss? If I’d used a blade earlier, you’d already be dead.” Huo Yuhao didn’t show any weaknesses at all as he let out a low roar. At that moment, while his body was in close contact to Wang Dong’s, he found out that Wang Dong’s body wasn’t only extremely soft, but was also quite elastic. Furthermore, it even had a sort of gentle feeling to it. His body was also unexpectedly releasing a faintly fresh aroma that smelled extremely nice.

After hearing his words, Wang Dong was stunned. His resistance against Huo Yuhao’s grip instantly decreased. He was right! the stabbing pain in his head and his previous dizziness hadn’t lasted long earlier, but since the two of them had been so close, Huo Yuhao would have definitely had enough time to hurt him if he’d wanted to.

“I’ve lost. Quickly get off me.” Wang Dong said angrily. His eyes were filled with a look of hate and denial.

However, Huo Yuhao didn’t release him. Instead, he coldly replied, “The five conditions that you previously set aren’t something that I’m unwilling to do, however, I’m not doing it because of your threats, but because of the respect I have for a roommate. I know that you’re stronger than me, and that I definitely wouldn’t be your match if we were both to use our martial souls. However, remember this: If you dare to humiliate me again, then even if I’m beaten to death by you, I’ll definitely make sure you pay the price.”

When he saw Huo Yuhao’s increasing viciousness, which got to the point that felt like he was looking into the eyes of a blood-thirsty soul beast, the hate in Wang Dong’s eyes dissipated. What replaced it was a slightly dismayed look. In the field of strength, Huo Yuhao was clearly a lot weaker than him, but in the field of imposingness, he’d completely lost.

Huo Yuhao slowly released Wang Dong and stood up. While facing Wang Dong, he retreated a few steps. Then, he turned around, and headed back towards their dorm room.

Wang Dong sat dazedly on the ground for a while, before finally standing up again. Then, he slowly walked towards their dorm room as well. When he arrived at the dorm’s main entrance, the voice of an old man echoed out, “You have indeed lost. Not just in battle, but even your heart has lost.”

“Why?” Wang Dong suddenly turned around to gaze at the old man. With an unresigned look on his face, he replied, “I’m clearly stronger than him. If I were to really fight against him, he wouldn’t have even been able to touch me. In which way did he achieve victory over me?”

The old man pointed towards his own heart, “On the basis of this. He has a fearless heart, while you lack one. Not being afraid of death isn’t something that just anyone can do.”

Wang Dong was stunned. After a while, he bowed deeply towards the old man. “Grandpa, thank you for your advice.” After speaking, he walked towards the dorm room with large strides.

Upon his return to the dorm room, Wang Dong saw Huo Yuhao, who’d already begun to meditate on his wooden bed. He wanted to say something, but in the end, he held it in. After letting out a snort, he made his bed.

Compared to Huo Yuhao’s poverty-stricken conditions, Wang Dong’s bed was set up with a thick fur mattress that had been made from the fur of some unknown soul beast. It looked thick and soft. Furthermore, he even had a soft quilt. His luggage had already filled the wardrobe beside him, but there were still many things left out on his table. Wang Dong seemed to be too lazy to finish unpacking, instead pulling the quilt over his head to sleep with feeling of injustice.

Over the following two days, Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong minded their own business, and did their own things without bothering one another. The thing that astonished Wang Dong the most was that Huo Yuhao seemed to be in a cultivation state at all times, except for when he was eating. He could faintly sense the strength of Huo Yuhao’s soulforce, but the more he sensed it, the more incredulous he felt. Just by relying on his strength, how was able to beat me?

The admission period for new students finally ended, and the freshmen dormitory also became lively. Although the rooms weren’t big, they could still fit two people in them. It was very noisy outside, but the sound-proofing abilities of the dorm rooms were very good.

Huo Yuhao had been cultivating incessantly during these past few days. His previous fight with Wang Dong had inspired him quite a bit. The reason that he’d previously been able to overcome his opponent, and was able to achieve victory, was because he’d relied on the skill that the Skydream Iceworm had given him after awakening.

Iceworms truly weren’t very strong soul beasts; the four soul skills that the million-year Skydream Iceworm had bestowed on Huo Yuhao weren’t very strong either. They were, respectively: Spiritual Detection, Spiritual Sharing, Spiritual Interference, and Spirit Shock.

Huo Yuhao was relatively more skilled with the first two skills, and had already verified their impressiveness with Bei Bei. On the other hand, Spiritual Interference was a domain-type skill that could interfere with all living creatures inside a fifteen metre radius of Huo Yuhao, who would produce spiritual undulations. However, the strength of its interference wasn’t high. With his current level of cultivation, the most he could do was make people turn absent-minded for a moment. Furthermore, he wasn’t even able to maintain the skill for a full three seconds; the soulforce consumption was much higher than his previous two skills.

Spirit Shock was the only skill among the four that had even a tiny bit of attack power. Since it was a single-target skill, the strength of its attack was slightly stronger than the domain-type Spiritual Interference. However, it wasn’t much stronger than it either. The reason that Huo Yuhao had been able to overcome Wang Dong and achieve victory in that fight was because he’d combined Spirit Shock with his Purple Demon Eyes. The combined effect of the two was even better than he’d imagined. Naturally, this was also because Wang Dong hadn’t been able to put up any defenses due to the sudden nature of the attack. If he’d made any preparations, the strength of his Spirit Shock would’ve been heavily reduced.

However, no matter what way you put it, Huo Yuhao finally had the basic requirements to become a control-type soul master by relying with these four spiritual-type skills. However, his eldest senior brother had previously told him that new students wouldn’t be separated into departments during their first year. Everything could be done after he’d survived their first year.

“Oi, class starts today. Are you still going to sit there like a fool?” Wang Dong’s voice roused Huo Yuhao from his pondering state. He’d just returned from his breakfast, and was planning to cultivate for a while.

“Class is starting?” Huo Yuhao asked subconsciously. This was their first conversation after their fight.

Wang Dong didn’t even look at him as he indifferently replied, “There’s still an hour left.”

“Oh.” After Huo Yuhao responded, he shut his eyes and began to meditate. After his hard work during these few days, his familiarity with the Mysterious Heaven Technique had increased a bit. An hour was enough for him to circulate the Mysterious Heaven Technique through an entire cycle, which would allow his soulforce to improve by a small step.

Wang Dong didn’t even listen to his reply. When he turned back to look at Huo Yuhao, he discovered that he’d actually started to meditate again, causing him to involuntarily murmur to himself, “Truly a lunatic.” When he finished speaking, he left the dorm room without even looking back. During these past two days, he’d never seen Huo Yuhao lie down to sleep.

The large gates of the white teaching area were opened wide, and the new students who were now wearing white-coloured school uniforms walked inside in single file. Everyone’s clothing had the symbol of a small green monster on their left breast pocket, which was the symbol of Shrek Academy.

Students from different year groups had uniforms of different colours; they had uniforms that were the same colour as their teaching areas.

As Huo Yuhao rushed towards the new student’s teaching area, he was just in time to hear the ringing of the bell. He rapidly rushed inside and saw the sign for Class 1 on the first room to the left on the first floor, causing him to immediately dash inside without any hesitation.

At that moment, the spacious classroom had already been filled with people. Because Huo Yuhao arrived at the last moment, the number of seats left for him to choose from were very little. He barely managed to find a seat with great difficulty. His deskmate was a relatively pretty young lady. However, this young lady’s appearance was somewhat similar to Wang Dong’s when he’d first met him. She had a haughty look on her face when she raised her head, and didn’t even spare him a glance.

Huo Yuhao only managed to observe the surrounding situation after he’d sat down. The classroom was very large—there were a full hundred people who were in the same class as him. Following the idea that there were roughly a thousand freshman students, there should be roughly ten freshman classes or so.

He quickly found Wang Dong, simply because Wang Dong’s looks were too outstanding. The people sitting around him were actually all girls, and none of them were weaker than the female student that sat beside Huo Yuhao in terms of appearance.

At that moment, a person walked in the classroom’s door. It was an old lady with wrinkled skin and shriveled hair. Her grizzled hair had been rolled into a bun, and she wore set of white robes. Furthermore, her body’s figure was average in size. The most unusual thing about her were her extremely bright eyes, which seemed to radiate light from her black pupils.

Huo Yuhao’s martial soul was his Spirit Eyes. As a result of this, he was especially sensitive to the eyes of others. He could sense a strong level of spiritual suppression from this old woman’s eyes.

Even though the old woman was very old, her back was ramrod straight as she walked towards the speaking platform. There was no doubt about it; she was definitely the teacher of this freshman class.

When they saw the teacher enter, the previously disorderly class immediately quieted down, and their gazes all gathered on the speaking platform.

The old woman’s gaze calmly swept across the crowd from left to right, immediately causing everyone to feel her gaze raking over them, which in turn caused a formless pressure to appear in their hearts.

“I am Zhou Yi, and am the teacher in charge of your class. I’m not sure how many of you will be able to keep up with me for the following year, but I have to tell you something: in my class, trash can’t pass my assessments. I want to cultivate monsters, not idiots.”

Teacher Zhou’s voice had a kind of extremely unpleasant rasp to it; it resembled a broken gong.

When they heard her words, an extremely angry look appeared on the faces of many students. They had passed the entrance assessment that enabled them to become students of Shrek Academy, and had been carefully selected from various countries on the continent. Amongst their peers, the word ‘elite’ could absolutely be used to describe them. However, they had turned into ‘trash’ and ‘idiots’ under the words of this Teacher Zhou.

However, Huo Yuhao was extremely calm. When he saw this Teacher Zhou, he recalled the words of his eldest senior brother and Teacher Xiao Ya. This Teacher Zhou was very strict, and had a bad temper, but she truly had ability.

“Those who’ve gotten into a fight during these past few days of enrollment, stand up.” Zhou Yi’s following sentence stunned the entire class once again.

They’d just been enrolled, who would have the free time to start a fight in the academy? Even if they had fought, who’d admit to it?

As the entire class remained silent, only a single person stood up. It was Huo Yuhao. He didn’t stand up because he was honest, but because he faintly sensed that this Teacher Zhou wasn’t a person who’d play her cards according to common sense.

Seeing Huo Yuhao stand up, Wang Dong let out a ‘humph’. Not willing to be outdone, he also stood up.

Of the entire class of a hundred students, only two had stood up. They immediately became ‘cranes in a flock of chickens’ as they became the focus of the entire class’s attention.

“Only two?” Zhou Yi raised her eyebrows. “Truly a group of trash. Don’t tell me you didn’t know that not daring to provoke others is a sign of mediocrity? Other than these two, everyone else go outside and run a hundred laps around Shrek Plaza. Anyone who can’t finish these one hundred laps will be directly expelled.”

Once she spoke, the whole class flew into an uproar. This was only their first day of school, and class hadn’t even begun yet. Who could accept the fact that they were actually being punished for not fighting?

One of the students immediately stood up. “Teacher, I refuse to accept this. Why do we have to be punished for not fighting?”

Zhou Yi indifferently replied, “Because I said so. If you’re not willing to accept this, you can screw off. As a teacher, I have the authority to expel any student I want. I’ll give you one minute. If I don’t see all of you running around Shrek Plaza within that minute, all of you will be expelled.”

As she spoke, a terrifying aura was suddenly released from her body. The powerful soulforce undulations caused every single student to be choked by the pressure. Following that, soul rings started to rise from Zhou Yi’s feet.

Two yellow, two purple, and two black soul rings burst forth with a strong aura that was hard to describe. This Teacher Zhou was actually a Soul Emperor-level expert, and furthermore, she had two ten thousand year soul rings. If she wanted to take care of the hundred students in front of her, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that it would be as easy as turning her palm over.

These students were only freshmen, after all. Under the strong pressure, just who would dare to resist? All of them dejectedly walked out the door. Zhou Yi withdrew her soul rings after releasing them, and her eyes followed the students out of the classroom as she gazed at them expressionlessly.

“I’ll give you a reminder: you only have two hours. After two hours, the people who haven’t finished the hundred laps will be considered to be unqualified. This is your first test after entering the academy, and those unqualified will be expelled.”

When they heard her words, the students’ movements immediately sped up. They quickly ran to the field after leaving the classroom.

Wang Dong was slightly astonished as he glanced at Huo Yuhao. At that moment, only the two of them were left in the class. Zhou Yi’s expression seemed to have become much warmer as she beckoned towards them.

Wang Dong and Huo Yuhao walked towards her together.

Looking at the two of them, Zhou Yi nodded her head in a satisfied manner. Then, she said, “Not bad, at least two of you have some guts. Tell me, who did you fight with, and why did you fight with them?”

Wang Dong was just about to speak, but Huo Yuhao interjected, “Reporting to the teacher, we are roommates. We had a small conflict due to our opposing views.”

Zhou Yi seemed to be very interested as she said, “Oh? You’re even roommates. Fighting is good, but fighting between roommates is the best kind of fighting. You’ll have competition this way, and you’ll also be able to improve together.”

As they stood in front of Zhou Yi, both Huo Yuhao or Wang Dong felt their backs become cool as their backs become covered in cold sweat. Just now, this Teacher Zhou had simply been too domineering. Furthermore, she really didn’t play her cards according to common sense! Her way of thinking was entirely different from an ordinary person’s. She was truly deserving of the title that Bei Bei had called her by, the ‘Monstrous Teacher’.

A trace of a smile that was even uglier than one’s crying face appeared on Zhou Yi’s face. Her aged face even seemed to twitch. “Fighting is a good thing, but I don’t really like fighting amongst my own students. Remember, you should fight with students from other classes if you want to start a fight. Our Shrek Academy’s rules have always been relaxed, and this is for the sake of developing individuality within our students. Thus, we’ve always turned a blind eye towards the issue of fighting. However, there are certain limits to this, which I’ll tell you about. Students from higher year groups aren’t allowed to provoke or attack students from lower year groups. If we find out that someone has done this, the punishment is immediate expulsion. However, students from lower year groups can challenge older students, but this requires the presence of a teacher, to ensure the fact that older students aren’t simply bullying the younger students. As for students of the same year group, you can fight as you wish. As long as you don’t cause any fatal wounds, the school won’t interfere at all. Honestly, fighting is an exceptionally good way of increasing your strength.”

“If you can reach your second year, you can go to the Soul Duelling Arena to fight. If you win a lot, the school will even reward you. However for now, you two can go run outside with the others.”

Wang Dong was stunned. “Teacher, didn’t you say that we had guts?”

Zhou Yi still had a smile on her face. “But I never said that you wouldn’t need to run! School has only just started, yet you’ve already fought with your roommate. You two really have future prospects. Thus, since you two have so many future prospects, the difficulty of your test should be harder than that of the other’s. Moreover, you two of you should share both delight and hardship with your fellow students. The amount of time you two have to finish those one hundred laps will be the same as the others. Look, a moment has already passed while you two weren’t being careful!”

Wang Dong still wanted to say something, but he was pulled away by Huo Yuhao, who didn’t hesitate to turn around and run outside.

Although Wang Dong felt somewhat depressed, he still followed Huo Yuhao out to run. “What’d you pull me away for? This ‘Teacher Zhou’ is truly a lunatic.”

Huo Yuhao unhappily replied, “Can you beat her in a verbal battle? Can you beat her in a fight? If you can’t do either of these things, and you still want to stay in Shrek Academy, then you’ll have to follow her orders. Quickly run, I believe that her earlier words about expelling anyone who’s unable to finish a hundred laps aren’t false at all.”

Shrek Plaza was right outside the freshman school building. It wasn’t considered too big; a single lap was roughly three hundred metres or so. To normal people, running a hundred laps around the plaza was definitely not a simple task. However, to these young students who had the foundation of a soul master, it wasn’t actually that hard. As long as they ran seriously, they’d manage to finish running their hundred laps within two hours.

After Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong had joined the ‘great army’ of running, many sounds of schadenfreude immediately echoed out. However, the two people didn’t even bother to care about them. They were already behind by fifteen minutes, so they had to make the most of every minute that they had.

Whilst running, Wang Dong suddenly asked Huo Yuhao, “What skill did you use to beat me that day? I still haven’t been able to figure it out. Could it be that your martial soul is a spiritual-type martial soul?”

Huo Yuhao nodded.

Wang Dong was stunned, “It’s really a spiritual-type martial soul! No wonder I couldn’t see what your martial soul was after you’d used your soul ring. At least my loss can’t be considered too much of an injustice.”

Huo Yuhao felt slightly helpless as he replied, “You’re too arrogant. If you’d also used your martial soul, I would’ve definitely had no chance at all. I can sense that your soulforce is much stronger than mine.”

Wang Dong was slightly pleased as he said, “That’s obvious. Amongst this year’s freshmen, the number of students who can compare with me in terms of strength are as rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns. You merely have a single ten year soul ring, thus you’re naturally not my opponent.”

Huo Yuhao disliked Wang Dong’s arrogant appearance. “Don’t forget that you just lost to that ‘ten year soul ring’.”

“Ugh…” Wang Dong unhappily replied, “I get it, let’s not talk about this anymore. Seeing that you protected me in front of that perverted teacher, I’ll consider the previous matter settled. In the future, I’ll take care of you. If anyone wants to bully you, I’ll protect you.”

Huo Yuhao was left speechless. “I don’t need your protection.” After saying this, he sped up his pace and ran forward.

Wang Dong followed Huo Yuhao as he sped up. The physical fitness of his body was much better than Huo Yuhao’s, so keeping up with his increase in speed was effortless to him.

Wang Dong was slightly dissatisfied as he said, “You’re too unreasonable!”

Huo Yuhao glared at him and replied, “If you’d treat me as a student on equal terms, you wouldn’t have to have this kind of feeling.”

Wang Dong curled his lip. “Since I was young, there’s never been someone the same age as me who was able to make me treat them as an equal.”

Huo Yuhao humphed, and stopped looking at him. “When words get sour, adding extra words is meaningless.”

Wang Dong also stopped talking. He suddenly sped up, overtaking Huo Yuhao as he used an astonishing speed to run around Shrek Plaza.

It had to be said that even though Wang Dong was arrogant, his cultivation truly stood out from the masses. Furthermore, his physical fitness was extremely strong. Once he’d sped up, there was no one from Class 1 who could actually catch up to him.

At that moment, Zhou Yi had already arrived beside Shrek Plaza. She simply stood there as she calmly watched the students run. Her gaze was quickly attracted to Wang Dong, and her gaze changed slightly before returning to normal.

Time quickly passed. As the number of completed laps increased, the breathing of the running students gradually became rougher. The physical fitness and cultivation level of the students was revealed at this moment. Zhou Yi had never said that they were prohibited from using the assistance of soulforce, so everyone had started using soulforce to recover their physical strength in order to continue their long-distance running.

There were more than ten people running at the very front of the group; their speed wasn’t slow at all. Of the group, the leader was Wang Dong. Although he’d come out late, he’d managed to catch up to the people who had the most laps completed within an hour. He’d even overtaken them. Just looking at his appearance, he didn’t seem to have used up much energy; his speed hadn’t decreased at all the entire time.

After the people at the front of the class, there was a large group of students. There were at least seventy students within this group, and they all ran at a relatively even speed. Running didn’t seem to be too exhausting for them. Looking at their speed, it wouldn’t be a problem for them to complete a hundred laps within their two allotted hours.

Behind them were still more than ten students who’d been left behind in the back. Huo Yuhao was amongst this group. For the sake of catching up to the students in front, Huo Yuhao had used a very quick speed to start running as soon as he’d started. However, the drain on his physical strength had started increasing as soon as he finished running twenty or so laps. Not only was he the last person in the class, the number of laps that he’d run was even fewer than the others, due to him having started fifteen minutes later.

More than half of the total time had already passed when Zhou Yi’s voice suddenly echoed out in everyone’s ears, “Speed up and use my location as the finishing point.”

In the middle of her speaking, Wang Dong had swept past her with a “swoosh”, becoming the first person to complete the hundred laps.

After using an extremely fast speed to finish the hundred laps, Wang Dong’s handsome face had also turned rosy. He panted slightly as he slowed his pace, and he finally stopped after he’d walked another lap around the plaza.

Gradually, more and more students began to complete their hundred laps after Wang Dong. At this moment, there were still fifteen minutes left until the two hours were up.

After Wang Dong stopped, his gaze quickly landed on Huo Yuhao, who was running at the back. He couldn’t help but furrow his brow as he muttered to himself, “How did I lose to him…?”

Huo Yuhao’s speed had already become much slower than his starting speed. His school uniform was soaked with sweat, and since his martial soul was a spiritual-type martial soul, the help that his soulforce provided to his body was smaller than normal. If it weren’t for him cultivating the Mysterious Heaven Technique, he would’ve been in an even worse state.

If Huo Yuhao had had the full two hours to complete the hundred laps, he could’ve still persevered and completed them, albeit with much difficulty. However, after Zhou Yi delaying him earlier, it was just too difficult for him. Deliberately increasing his speed had substantially drained his physical strength. At this moment, he was three laps behind the students next to him, and was still twenty laps away from the hundred laps. Running twenty laps within fifteen minutes was something that was nearly impossible for him.