Part 1
“No, I need to carry on. I cannot get eliminated.” Huo Yuhao clenched his teeth and increased his pace once again. In order to clear exhaustion from his mind, he activated his Spirit Power and released a shock toward his Spirit Eyes. The intense pain in his mind stimulated the rest of his body as well. He started running a little faster and pa.s.sed the group of students at the very end.
Zhou Yi quietly stood watching. She ignored those who had already finished and focused on those who were struggling.
Among these students, the one who looked the most exhausted was Huo Yuhao. It could not have been fake since his entire uniform was already soaked through! But, he still tightened his teeth and bitterly continued running.
Time pa.s.sed in a flash. Huo Yuhao had held up and ran another eight circles. At this time, there was only five minutes left of the time limit. Along with Huo Yuhao, seven others had also not finished. However, they only had three to five laps left and had started increasing their pace with all their might. They still had the chance to finish. But Huo Yuhao was in a much worse situation with twelve laps left.
Just then, a figure suddenly ran out into the plaza and settled behind Huo Yuhao. He caught up in a few steps and a shocking scene appeared.
From the back of that figure, a pair of blue b.u.t.terfly wings instantly opened. The two forewing ends contained an ever-changing blend of deep blue, blue and light blue. The surface had a light blue mosaic with a string of beautiful bright nimbus forming a V-shape as if bringing light to the world. Its colors and shape showed an incomparable, impeccable beauty.
“Ah…” With sudden appearance of such beautiful wings, everyone, no matter the gender, were greatly shocked and almost every student let out a cry of surprise.
The pair of wings really was too beautiful. Its surface was like an exuberantly blue ocean blossoming with white sprays. Its royal purple patterns were spectacular. The surface was like a blue sky mosaic with strings of beautiful nimbi, sometimes deep blue, sometimes clear blue, sometimes light blue. The white patterns gleamed like jewels, captivating everyone around.
Even though those wings were just illusory shadows, they still gave everyone a dazzling feeling under the sunshine. Even the teacher was captivated.
After releasing the b.u.t.terfly wings, the figure stuck to Huo Yuhao’s back and extended his hands under Huo Yuhao’s arms. With a sudden flap, he was actually from up from the ground.
Huo Yuhao was also shocked. He looked back and saw w.a.n.g Dong’s handsome face.
“You….”
“You what? Why don’t you circulate your Spirit Power and make your body lighter,” said w.a.n.g Dong as his pair of dazzling wings suddenly increased in speed, bringing Huo Yuhao with him around Shrek Plaza.
Huo Yuhao was overawed by w.a.n.g Dong’s wings. Too beautiful. Really just too beautiful! Is this his Battle Spirit? Huo Yuhao could feel that the V-shaped light on w.a.n.g Dong’s wings was absorbing the warmth from the sun. Not only this, the simple fact that it was a Battle Spirit capable of flying was already a powerful existence. Also, there had always been a beautiful and powerful legend in the natural world!
Zhou Yi’s eyes showed a hint of satisfaction and said to herself, “Bright G.o.ddess b.u.t.terfly? The continent’s most beautiful b.u.t.terfly type Battle Spirit. Good, very good. At least it didn’t let me down.”
w.a.n.g Dong’s flying speed was very fast. Finishing twelve laps within five minutes was no longer an impossible task. When they landed after the last lap, the two staggered on the ground. Huo Yuhao quickly turned and supported w.a.n.g Dong’s shoulder even though he fell backwards himself. w.a.n.g Dong ended up falling on top of him.
Even though w.a.n.g Dong’s cultivation was not weak amongst people his age, he was still only a child! To carry Huo Yuhao and fly more than three thousand meters was too much for his Spirit Power. His wings retracted the moment they landed on the ground and his face was pale.
Huo Yuhao was pressed under him but still revealed a hint of a smile, “Thank you. Last time I pressed you down, this time you are crushing me back.”
w.a.n.g Dong crawled up with a face full of disgust, “You stink. You think I want to be on you?”
Huo Yuhao wasn’t bothered and crawled up himself. He gave w.a.n.g Dong a thumbs up as he panted heavily.
w.a.n.g Dong paused for a moment before nodding and giving him a thumbs up, too. Afterwards, the two couldn’t help but smile at each other. The conflict in the past had also suddenly disappeared.
In the end, every student had finished running a hundred laps and stood scattered on Shrek Plaza.
Zhou Yi turned toward the students with an expressionless face and faintly said, “Those whose name I call will now come forward: Chen Cheng, Qiu Jianrao, Tang Dao, Shangguan Chentian, Lin Zeyu, Zhuge Yun, Tai Long, Tang Ling, Yun Xiaopiao.”
A total nine people had been called by her. The students didn’t realize that even though they hadn’t introduced themselves, Zhou Yi could easily call out the names of these nine students.
Those who were mentioned hurriedly stepped forward.
Zhou Yi said faintly, “The nine of you can pack your bags and leave the academy now. From this point on, you are no longer students of Shrek Academy.”
“What?” The nine of them had just finished running and were already exhausted before receiving this shock. The rest of the students also erupted in an uproar.
“Teacher, why?” Tai Long, who had a big build, stepped out with anger. In the run before, he was one of the first to finish.
Zhou Yu responded coldly, “Shrek Academy doesn’t need opportunistic students. Someone who has power but not a proper mentality will only bring disasters after being groomed into a talent. Tai Long, say for yourself, did you really finish a hundred laps?”
Tai Long responded defiantly, “Of course I ran enough.”
Zhou Yi smiled, “Ran enough? If I’m not mistaken, when everyone first started running, you were walking slowly around Shrek Plaza because I didn’t arrive yet. It was only when the frontrunner had finished his fifth lap before you started keeping up. Because of this, what you finished wasn’t one hundred laps, only ninety-seven. I believe that there is more than one person who saw your laziness in the beginning.”
“I…” Tai Long’s face suddenly turned bright red. He couldn’t have imagined that Zhou Yi, who wasn’t even on the field at the time, could have called him out like she saw everything herself, “But, even if I ran a few laps less, you can’t expel me like this!”
Zhou Yi gave a contemptuous snort, “I had already told you the reason. You are unworthy to be called a student of Shrek Academy. Pack your stuff and get out.”
Part 2
“You….” Tai Long was completely dumbfounded. With his power, running a hundred laps was no problem. Even compared to the entire cla.s.s, his cultivation was still among the highest. He didn’t think that he would be eliminated like this.
Zhou Yi turned towards the other students and faintly said, “Even though I don’t have a good temper, I will follow through with what I say. The nine people I pointed out had all cheated within the time allotted. Not a single one finished a hundred laps. If you are not satisfied, you can go report me. But right now, you can leave.”
“Teacher Yi, I’m not satisfied. He also didn’t finish a hundred laps either and needed help from someone else. Why isn’t he eliminated?” Another student who was just expelled, named Lin Zeyu, called out with indignation, pointing at Huo Yuhao.
Zhou Yi smiled, “Not satisfied? His name is Huo Yuhao. If he didn’t finish running one hundred laps then he would be amongst you right now. I will never change what I said. But, he did finish a hundred laps. I never said before that you are not allowed to help each other. w.a.n.g Dong helped him. He did it voluntarily. It would have been okay if someone helped you too. But did anyone help you? I don’t look at the process, only the results. The result is, Huo Yuhao finished one hundred laps while you didn’t. So get out. If you anger me more, I will cripple your Battle Spirit.”
Uner Zhou Yi’s immense pressure, the nine students dejectedly walked away. They didn’t go pack their bags but went directly to the office of academic affairs to report her. This was only the first day! How can they be satisfied?
Huo Yuhao had sweat even more. It was impossible for him not to be stressed after watching Zhou Yi expel nine students with a steely expression and without any bias.
The expressions on the rest of the students had also changed. They looked at Zhou Yi and were too afraid to even breathe. Within an hour, Zhou Yi had already established herself as the ultimate authority within this first year cla.s.s one.
“Everyone go back and change your clothes. Then come back to the cla.s.sroom for your lesson. I will give you a quarter of an hour.” Finished, Zhou Yi turned and went directly back to the academic building.
This time, no one dared to argue. They immediately scattered and almost everyone was rushing back to their dorms.
“This old hag is too ruthless.” w.a.n.g Dong said to Huo Yuhao as they were rushing back to their room.
Huo Yuhao said, “Thank you. If it wasn’t for you, I’m afraid I…”
w.a.n.g Dong snorted, “Don’t thank me. If it wasn’t for the fight with me, you would have been able to finish. Go change first. I didn’t sweat that much.”
Huo Yuhao was surprised, “Why don’t we change together to save time?”
w.a.n.g Dong responded, “Did you forget the five rules I set before? I don’t like seeing other people’s bodies. You just hurry up.”
Huo Yuhao didn’t have time to say more and hurriedly entered the room. He took off his soaked through uniform and used a dry towel to wipe off his sweat before changing into his other uniform set. He will have to wait till after cla.s.s to wash the dirty set.
After he left the room, w.a.n.g Dong went in to change. Huo Yuhao was still panting a little. He suddenly remembered the pair of wings on w.a.n.g Dong’s back again.
Too beautiful. Really just too beautiful! What kind of Battle Spirit was it? Other people had not noticed but Huo Yuhao did. When he first released his Battle Spirit, w.a.n.g Dong’s spirit rings had also appeared. It was actually two. More shockingly, his two rings were one yellow, one purple. This means that his second spirit ring was a thousand-year ring. It was beyond the limits of a regular Spirit Master.
No wonder w.a.n.g Dong was so arrogant. He really did have the basis to back it up. Comparing potentials, Huo Yuhao was far from w.a.n.g Dong.
As he was deep in thought, w.a.n.g Dong came out after changing clothes. The two couldn’t afford to waste time and rushed back to the cla.s.sroom.
Zhou Yi had given a quarter of an hour to finish changing clothes. But in reality, even the slowest person finished within ten minutes. Everyone was already seated orderly in the cla.s.sroom. Seeing the nine empty seats, their eyes were still filled with fear.
Everyone had heard the saying that it was easy to enter Shrek Academy but hard to leave. With this falling on themselves, no one dared to have the thought of cheating.
After the time limit of a quarter of an hour was up, Zhou Yi came into the cla.s.sroom right on time. Seeing the ninety-one students had all arrived, she nodded, “We will now begin our lesson. Most of you have satisfied my expectations in the last examination. Almost everyone pa.s.sed this simple test. Huo Yuhao. Stand up.”
“Teacher Zhou.” Huo Yuhao hurriedly stood up straight.
Zhou Yi coldly said, “Report your Spirit Power level.’
“Yes. My Spirit Power is eleven.” Huo Yuhao said respectfully. From the way she called out his name, he had already determined that even though she didn’t appear to care, she was actually very knowledgeable about all of them. It would be hard to hide his cultivation.
Hearing the word eleven, almost every student revealed a suspicious look. w.a.n.g Dong even covered his eyes with his hands.
Shame, such a shame. He actually lost to someone with only a Spirit Power of eleven. Wait, how can he have only eleven? Isn’t Shrek Academy’s basic requirement to have a Spirit Power of fifteen? Thinking about this, w.a.n.g Dong couldn’t help but lifted his head to give Huo Yuhao a questioning look.
“That is right. Huo Yuhao only has a Spirit Power of eleven. I know that you are all wondering how he could have pa.s.sed the examination to become a student here. I had asked the same question. From now on, before he is eliminated, no one will allowed to ask him about it. He is the school’s specially invited student. When entering the academy, he did not need to pa.s.s the examination. However, this will be the only exception. If he cannot complete the tasks set out by the academy, he will be eliminated as well. Okay, sit down Huo Yuhao.”
“Thank you, Teacher.” Huo Yuhao returned to his seat with surprise. Teacher Zhou was obviously protecting him! To clarify the reason he was accepted would prevent anyone from asking about it in the future.
Zhou Yi didn’t care about the students’ reactions at all. She turned and wrote two large characters on the blackboard. Offense. Defense.
After writing, she turned to face the students again, “I know that many of you are dissatisfied with me punishing you guys by making you run laps and expelling those nine students. But, you are too afraid to show it. I don’t need to explain the reason to any of you. Those with good perceptions will be able to understand it in the future. Those who are idiots can just keep misunderstanding. We will now start the lesson.”
“You all know the two characters I wrote on the blackboard: offense, defense. In this first lesson, I will tell you about Spirit Masters’ methods for offense and defense. Since the olden times, Spirit Masters have been divided into many categories due to our innate differences. There are power attack types, agility types, support types, food types, control types, defense types and so on. Some Spirit Masters develop toward one extreme while others develop their abilities equally. Every cultivation technique is different. w.a.n.g Dong, you can answer. In these different types of Spirit Masters, who should focus on offense and who should focus on defense and support?”
Part 3
This question couldn’t be easier. w.a.n.g Dong stood up without hesitation and answered, “Of course power, agility, and control types should focus on offense. Support, food and defense types should focus on defense.”
Zhou Yi said with contempt, “This is a stupid answer.”
w.a.n.g Dong blanked, “Teacher Zhou, my answer…”
“Sit down.” Zhou Yi interrupted him by waving her hand and releasing a wave of Spirit Power to force his words back, making him sit back down.
“If it were four thousand years ago, before the Sun-Moon continent collided with us, then w.a.n.g Dong’s answer would be correct. But in the present, his answer is ridiculously wrong. Huo Yuhao, you tell me why.”
Huo Yuhao had been thinking, this Teacher Zhou must have something against w.a.n.g Dong and himself. At least it’s not to expel him. Thinking fast, he came up with an answer and stood up, “Because of spirit guidance devices.”
Zhou Yi’s serious face finally relaxed a little, “You are not too stupid. No wonder you can become a special student. He is right, it is because of the appearance of spirit guidance weapons. The lines between offense and defense became blurred. This is also the topic we will address in cla.s.s today. Sit down.
“I believe you are all aware that in the last few thousand years, spirit guidance devices have developed rapidly. The most valuable things that the Sun-Moon continent brought us were precious materials and the manufacturing techniques for making spirit guidance devices. After these thousands of years of development, spirit guidance devices have become more intricate and also more powerful. Even a food type Spirit Master with a powerful offensive weapon can create an attack that is no less than power type Spirit Masters. They may perhaps be even stronger. Similarly, an agility type Spirit Master with a powerful defensive spirit guidance device can temporarily take the place of a defense type Spirit Master.
“It can be said that the appearance of spirit guidance weapons greatly changed the directions Spirit Masters choose to cultivate. In reality, they reduced the strength of spirit ability. As long as one has enough Spirit Power to activate a spirit guidance weapon, he can replace his ability. This also made many ignore the importance of spirit rings. These factors created the current situation in the four great empires where everyone strives to increase their Spirit Power.
“No doubt, this type of cultivation method is effective in a short time. Especially obvious for Spirit Masters below the rank of fifty. But, what I want to tell you all is that Shrek Academy will not groom this type of Spirit Master. Because after rank fifty, they are all trash.
“You don’t understand, right? Let me give you an example. You are a Tool Spirit Master and have cultivated to rank fifty while I am an agility type Battle Spirit Master who also cultivated to rank fifty. You also have a spirit guidance device that can threaten my life while I don’t have one. In this fight, who will win?
“The answer is simple. I will win for sure. Why? Because of my speed, you will never have the chance to hit my vitals with your spirit guidance device. Even if you had the best, I can use my innate speed to make you expend your Spirit Power until it is exhausted. The more powerful the spirit weapon, the more Spirit Power it will consume. So even though defense, support and food type Spirit Masters can borrow the force of spirit guidance devices to allow themselves to have an offensive force, they will never have the same offensive strength as a power type Spirit Master. All of you must remember this point clearly. Because of this, spirit guidance devices may give a great bonus to defense, support, and food type Spirit Masters. But if your body is not strong enough, then you will always be the first ones to die on the battlefield. Your enemies wouldn’t let you off because you are not battle type Spirit Masters. Directly opposite, they would destroy the supports first. If your battle strength with spirit guidance weapons is strong but you are weak, what will the enemy choose?
“Following that concept, if my body quality is extremely strong and I have a powerful battle strength, then a spirit guidance device would allow me to release an even greater power. This is the real powerhouse.
“With the mixing of offense and defense, everyone in a Spirit Master party can become an attack. But you can only survive if you increase your body’s quality as much as possible. Unless someone invents a spirit guidance device which can replace your body, cultivating your body condition and choosing good spirit rings will become the most important points in your future cultivation.”
Zhou Yi didn’t know that after ten thousand years, spirit guidance devices will actually be able to replace one’s body condition.
“In the next three months, I will focus most of the training on your bodies’ quality. No matter who you are, where you came from or how good your potential is. If you cannot pa.s.s my examination after three months, then you can be like the nine people before, and leave.”
“Today’s lesson will end here. I suggest you all have a good lunch. Starting from this afternoon, you will train your body. Huo Yuhao, come with me to my office after cla.s.s.”
Finishing this sentence, Zhou Yi turned without leaving anything behind. However, the bell had not rang at this point.
Until Zhou Yi left the door of the cla.s.sroom, the room was still filled with silence as most were immersed in their thoughts about Zhou Yi’s explanation. Even though this Teacher Zhou did not do things as expected, everyone had to admit that everything she said was very reasonable.
Huo Yuhao stood to follow Zhou YI out. Other than the teacher building area behind the purple and black academic buildings, every academic building had simple offices.
Huo Yuhao followed Zhou Yi into a nearby office. Zhou Yi carefully closed the door and sat down behind a desk. Even though she looked old, her movement did not seem aged at all.
“Huo Yuhao, I don’t like to talk about nonsense. w.a.n.g Dong’s Battle Spirit surprised me, but your Battle Spirit makes me curious. I can’t determine what it is even with my experience. Now, I want the answer.” Zhou Yi said forcefully without doubt.
Huo Yuhao didn’t have any reason to hide his Battle Spirit from his teacher and answered, “My Battle Spirit is Spirit Eyes of the mental attribute.”
Hearing Huo Yuhao’s words, Zhou Yi was visibly shocked. Her bright eyes, inconsistent with her wrinkled skin, showed a hint of pleasant surprise, “Body Battle Spirit, mental attribute? Eyes?”
Huo Yuhao noded.
Zhou Yi slightly closed both of her eyes, almost as if in deep thought. A brief moment later, she asked, “If it’s possible, will you tell me what your first spirit ability is?”
It’s perfectly normal for a teacher to ask a student about their Battle Spirit. However, a battle skill is every Spirit Master’s most important ability and secret. Even a dominant teacher like Zhou Yi had to ask instead of demand.
Anyone else would have been hesitant. However, Huo Yuhao did not have this problem. His first spirit ring includes four abilities and that makes it more acceptable to show two.
Part 4
Huo Yuhao didn’t answer Zhou Yi’s question directly but his white spirit ring rose up from his feet and his eyes showed a layer of pale gold. Right after, Zhou Yi felt a mental wave appear in front of her eyes.
Zhou Yi was different from Beibei and Tang Ya. She was a Spirit Emperor with greater than rank sixty cultivation. Even though she was not of the mental attribute, her mental power was not weak because of her cultivation. To reject Huo Yuhao’s rank eleven spirit ability would have been easy. But this time, she received it.
Receiving it, Zhou Yi’s pupils instantly expanded. Everything around her changed. The new sense of clarity is almost like walking out of a fog. Everything became so much clearer and more detailed that it almost seemed like a database appearing in her mind. The meticulous calculation done by this second brain would update as her eyes scanned the surrounding.
About a minute later, Huo Yuhao stopped his ability, and stood in front of Zhou Yi.
Zhou Yi blanked for a second and then murmured: “Magical skill, no wonder the Tang Clan selected you as a special student. Tang Ya chose the right person, even if it was based on just this one skill. I was wondering why that smart, although not very talented, girl would choose someone who is only rank eleven. Your const.i.tution is very average, too. But, I never thought you would have this secret.
“Huo Yuhao, follow me.” Zhou Yi quickly stood up and took Huo Yuhao out of the office.
At this point, Huo Yuhao was completely clueless of what was happening. He could feel that there was a great change in Zhou Yi after experiencing his skill. However, he did not know whether this was good or bad, and was even more clueless about where Zhou Yi was taking him.
As they walked out of the new student building, Zhou Yi took Huo Yuhao and walked straight toward the back of the campus, westward. After a short distance, Zhou Yi tightened her brows and said, “This is way too slow, let me take you for a bit.” Just as she said this, she came next to Huo Yuhao and grabbed his shoulder. The next moment, Huo Yuhao felt like he was riding on clouds.
The scenes next to him flashed by quickly, but his body was protected with an invisible cover.
Undoubtedly, Zhou Yi was the greatest Spirit Master that Huo Yuhao had ever seen. The speed was amazing! Only with Mental Detection could he detect the direction they were going.
After going toward the west for a while, Zhou Yi turned north. Huo Yuhao felt that they were leaving the outer school’s Battle Spirit department and entering the outer school’s spirit guidance department.
Even with such fast speed, it took a couple of minutes before Zhou Yi stopped and they stood in front of an enormous building.
The previous academic buildings were already fairly huge. However, they are insignificant compared with the rectangular structure in front of them . This building was probably the size of the dormitory.
The gray building looked very st.u.r.dy possessing quality masonry work with metallic l.u.s.ters scattered on the surface. There were also m.u.f.fled noises of explosions coming from the inside. Huo Yuhao could even feel slight vibrations outside.
There was a sign next to him: Spirit Guidance Test Area.
Huo Yuhao was now filled with confusion. Why would Teacher Zhou bring him to the Spirit Guidance Test Area? What does she want?
Zhou Yi naturally didn’t explain anything to him. She let go of his shoulder and walked directly towards the test area.
As they entered, Huo Yuhao noticed that the whole area was constructed out of metal. The metal had a dull grayish brown appearance, something that he had never seen before.
A long corridor followed, similar to the hallway of the dormitory. However, there were only doors on one side of the walkway and each door had about thirty meters between them. The signs on the doors read: Testing Area One, Testing Area Two, and so on.
Zhou Yi seemed to come here often. She knew exactly where everything is and took Huo Yuhao straight down the hallway, stopping at Testing Area Twelve.
Zhou Yi turned her wrist and a hexagonal pa.s.s appeared within her palm. She then pressed the pa.s.s onto the door of Testing Area Twelve.
A magical scene appeared and the door opened just a crack to allow her pa.s.s to be taken in. Huo Yuhao felt a brief Spirit Power disturbance before the pa.s.s was released from the crack once again. Following a cracking noise, the door of Testing Area Twelve opened.
As the door opened, Huo Yuhao was shocked to find that the whole door was made of metal, sixty centimeters thick. There were rails on the bottom of the door that made it possible for the heavy doors to slowly open.
When the door was completely open, Zhou Yi waved at Huo Yuhao and led him inside.
“Boom!” Huo Yuhao was startled by the loud noise as he walked inside. The air current caused by this explosion blew against his uniform with a fluttering sound.
All of this seemed like it was common place to Zhou Yi as she walked in.
Entering Testing Area Twelve, one could see that it was highly organized. Lines of thick metal plates separated the room into different regions like metal boxes. With Zhou Yi’s lead, they quickly arrived at the biggest area. It was an empty field around six hundred square meters and ten meters high. At the side, some people were playing with weird and mysterious objects.
“Fan Yu.” Zhou Yi yelled out, suddenly drawing the attention of that group of people.
Within the group, a tall, middle aged man scowled and walked toward them with long strides.
This middle aged man was around one hundred eighty centimeters tall with wide shoulders and wearing a simple grey shirt. His powerful arms looked as if they were granite. His face was lined and he showed a deep gaze. He gave off the sense of being a mountain.
“Zhou Yi, why are you here?” Obviously, this was the middle aged man named Fan Yu that Zhou Yi had called for.
“Remember what you told me last time? “Zhou Yi asked excitedly.
Fan Yu’s face showed a hint of helplessness and said: “I have told you many things before. How am I supposed to know which? If it’s nothing urgent then just go back. I still have a couple of experiments to do.”