Chapter 17: Gaining a Backer?

All of the students had completed a hundred laps within the stipulated time. They were now standing in the middle of Shrek Plaza, resting.

Huo Yuhao had good control of his emotions, so aside from sweat soaked clothes and heavy breathing, his gaze remained calm and focused. Thankfully he managed to finish the laps, just the 69th student to be exact, so he was inwardly happy about it.

He looked around at his fellow classmates, and was surprised to find Wang Dong standing to his right, his current condition is notably better than him.

"....Why are you standing beside me?" Huo Yuhao asked.

Wang Dong snorted and said, "And is it wrong for me to stand beside you? There's just no one in this class that can qualify as my equal. Besides, it's not like you have some kind of spreadable illness or something....right?" he turned towards Huo Yuhao, visibly fearful.

Huo Yuhao rolled his eyes and lightly smacked his shoulder, "Just shut up and stand there, no one would mistake you for a statue if you just shut your trap."

Wang Dong softly chuckled, and quietly obeyed as Zhou Yi stepped up in front of them all with her serious expression.

"Not bad." Zhou Yi nodded as she saw the numerous exhausted students, panting heavily and sweating to the point they looked as if they had thrown themselves in a body of water. She hummed, raised her right hand, pointing, and indifferently said, "Alright, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you and..... you. You nine can go pack your luggage and leave the academy. From this moment forth, you're no longer students of Shrek Academy."

They were all of course dissatisfied with her decision, one student in particular voiced out his unhappiness but Zhou Yi responded coldly and revealed the student's trick and laziness; turning his face red from shame and he turned quiet.

Under Zhou Yi's powerful might, the nine students who'd been called out could do nothing but dejectedly walk away. They obviously weren't going to pack their luggage, but were instead going straight towards the educational administration to lodge a complaint. This was only the first day of school! How could they accept this?

The sweat on Huo Yuhao's body increased as he personally watched Zhou Yi impartially expel the nine students. He expected her to be fierce, but damn did she go through her threat.

That was nine students! And in a class of 100 students, plus this being the first day of school, this wasn't something that can be easily accepted. Even Shrek Academy wouldn't have easily dismissed them.

'This Zhou Yi, who in the hell is she?'

The remaining students' expressions had completely changed; they didn't even dare to breathe heavily whilst looking at Zhou Yi. It had only been two hours, yet Zhou Yi had already established her absolute authority over Class 1.

"Go back to the dorms and change your clothes. After that, come back to the classroom for class. I'll give you fifteen minutes." As she said that, Zhou Yi turned around and headed back towards the classroom.

No one dared to question her or protest. They quickly dispersed and headed towards the dorms, their faces filled with a mixture of fear and relief.

"Huo Yuhao, you go in first." Wang Dong spoke as he hurriedly ran back towards the dorms with Huo Yuhao.

"Huh? Can't we just change together to save time?"

Wang Dong flinched, his eyes started darting around. "I uh, I just really don't like seeing other people's bodies. It makes me uncomfortable. Please?" his lips began trembling, his eyes seemed to widen and become watery.

Huo Yuhao stared in disbelief. "W-What the? What are you doing?"

"Can't you tell? It's my puppy dog eyes."

"Well, stop it! It's weird. It's making me....Eugh, fine. Fine! I'll go in first."

In fear of upsetting Zhou Yi, both Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong quickly changed into new fresh sets of school uniforms and sprinted back towards the classroom in less than 10 minutes. Their classmates also returned around the same time, no one wanted to be caught late.

Zhou Yi walked into the classroom just on time. When she saw that the ninety-one students were all present, she nodded. "We'll start class now. On the whole, your test earlier has made me satisfied. A majority of you were able to complete the simple running test. Huo Yuhao, stand up."

"Teacher Zhou." Huo Yuhao rapidly stood up.

Zhou Yi coldly said, "Announce your soul rank."

"Yes. My soul power is at the 14th rank."

Hearing his words, every student in Class 1 frowned. Everyone knew that one of the basic requirements for a student to be enrolled in Shrek Academy was that they had to be at least 15th rank soul power.

So how is Huo Yuhao here?

"Correct, his soul power is only at the fourteenth rank. I know, you all are very curious as to why he could pass the school's assessment and become a freshman. I'll only answer this question once. He's a student who was specially invited by the academy. You understand what that means? It means that he doesn't need to pass any tests. You've already seen his physical capabilities a while ago so you all might have an inkling of the reason."

"However, this is the only exception we make for specially invited students. If he's unable to complete any assignments that the academy sets, he'll also be eliminated. Okay Huo Yuhao, sit down."

"Thank you, teacher." As Huo Yuhao sat back down, he couldn't help but feel astonished. He understood that teacher Zhou Yi had done that in order to protect him!

'But why?' He narrowed his eyes. He didn't believe in free lunches, and teacher Zhou Yi wasn't that kind of person, so he had to be cautious of any deals she'll make with him.

For the entire lesson of their day, Zhou Yi taught them about the two main categories of a soul master; "Attack" and "Defense", as well as soul tools. How unlike thousands of years ago, when soul masters could be easily categorized due to their path systems, the existence of soul tools changed the dynamics of soul masters.

With the right soul tool, an auxiliary type and food type soul master could become either an attack or defense category soul master. And those with defective type martial souls could challenge soul masters with high quality martial souls of similar or even higher cultivation rank with soul tools! The line separating attack and defense has been blurred, anybody within a team of soul masters can fill the role of an attacker.

Huo Yuhao was fascinated with soul tools. Although he would rather use his martial soul and jutsus, especially jutsus the Ancestor had shown him devastating jutsus that can remake the land and cause disasters, but that was a bit too far into the future when he has more soul power.

Zhou Yi looked around the students, her gaze sharp and terrifying. "During the next three months, most of my training for you will be focused on training your physical fitness. No matter who you are, what origins you have or how talented you are, if you can't pass my test three months from now, you'll end up just like those nine people. You can screw off."

"Today's morning class will end here. I recommend that you eat a proper lunch, Sea God knows you'll need all the carbs. Your training will start this afternoon. Huo Yuhao, follow me to the office for a bit." Zhou Yi turned around and walked away without any hesitation. The lunch bell hadn't even rung yet.

Although a bit confused, Huo Yuhao stood up and followed Zhou Yi out. Besides the office buildings that were located behind the purple and black teaching buildings, there was also a simplistic office located within every school building.

Zhou Yi's office was quite close to the classroom so Huo Yuhao didn't worry about missing out on lunch. 

Zhou Yi crossed her hands behind her back, she stared at him with curiosity. "Huo Yuhao, I don't like to beat around the bush. I want to know what your martial soul is. Even with my experience, I was unable to put a name to what it is. Though I did notice your eyes' pupils changing, is it some kind of beast soul with subtle changes to your body?"

'....I completely forgot to put on a Genjutsu!' Huo Yuhao sweatdropped. He had been too lax! He had continuously practiced using basic genjutsus for the last two days, for the sole reason of hiding it from other people as an act of surprise, yet, not even the end of the first day of school and someone saw his Sharingan.

Truthfully however, it was the thought of influencing a Soul Emperor's mind that made Huo Yuhao unconsciously not use any sort of genjutsu around her. The consequences of it backfiring or worse, getting caught by her, was terrifying enough.

'Alright, calm down me. She doesn't know that my martial soul is my eyes. Body souls are rare after all. Also, is it really a bad idea for a teacher to know? Especially my class teacher?'

'I've read enough the rules of the academy to know that she would only teach us, Class 1, for the entire school year. Since this school promotes competition to help us grow, that might include the teachers as well, for their pay checks most likely. If she knows most, not all, of my martial soul's capabilities then she might get interested in it and would likely become my backer.'

As Huo Yuhao pondered on this, only a blink of an eye had passed. Unknowingly, his thought processing was faster compared to before. This was likely due as a side effect of training a week in his spiritual sea.

With his mind made up, Huo Yuhao then replied, "My martial soul is the Sharingan, a spiritual-type martial soul."

"Sharingan....?" Zhou Yi was naturally confused at the name. She never heard of a martial soul like that before.

"Ah, it's an ancient word my.... people used. In modern translation, it's called the "Copy Wheel Eye". But Sharingan sounded better so I–" Zhou Yi's surprised voice interjected, smacking her hands on her table as she leaned forward with wide eyes.

"Wait, a body soul that has a spiritual attribute? Eyes?" She asked.

"Yes....I believe that's what I had said." Huo Yuhao nodded.

Zhou Yi's brows furrowed slightly, as if she were deep in thought. After a short period of time, she asked Huo Yuhao, "Can you please tell me what your first soul skill is?"

Teachers inquiring about their student's martial souls was very common, but a soul skill was the most important ability of a soul master, their most important secret. Even with Zhou Yi's authority, she had to be slightly courteous towards her students about it.

Someone else might've hesitated for a moment, but Huo Yuhao didn't have this problem. Aside for his first soul ring having four skills, he had numerous available techniques that can qualify for a skill.

"Alright. Though it's better if I show you, teacher Zhou."

Shrugging his shoulders, he snapped his eyes wide; both turning red as mystical, golden, two comma-patterned pupils in each eye, spurned in his eyes and a white soul ring rose up underneath him.

Zhou Yi's pupils instantly expanded.

Spiritual Detection Sharing immediately appeared within Zhou Yi's sense of vision, causing everything around her to become much clearer. And from what she could tell, the range went around as far as 45 meters in diameter! It was something beyond what a ten year soul ring should be able to grant a soul master.

But the enhanced vision and perception wasn't the only impressive part she noticed, it was something that she, an expert with a long experience, had taken a moment to realize.

She had no defense against Huo Yuhao's soul skill! It was like he had ignored any of the spiritual power defense she had, though she wasn't well-trained in spiritual power but as a Soul Emperor her spiritual power wasn't something Huo Yuhao could just easily bypass like it wasn't there.

Zhou Yi could feel that Huo Yuhao's spiritual power was just at the level of someone around three-four rings, an impressive feat for someone with his cultivation, so how could he just ignore her spiritual power? If he somehow gets a spiritual attack-type soul skill in the future....

He could become the most powerful assassin.

'Is it his eyes? Martial souls, especially the body soul, isn't my forte so is the reason for this strange phenomenon his eyes?' Zhou Yi pondered, rubbing her chin in deep thought.

[Teacher Zhou?] Huo Yuhao's voice sounding in her mind immediately snapped her out of her thoughts, her eyes wide in disbelief as she stared at Huo Yuhao.

"You...what was that?"

"Ah, it's part of my soul skill. Its name is Spiritual Sharing Detection, not only can I share my vision with four people, for now, but also my thoughts so I can communicate with them."

"For now? What do you mean by that?" Zhou Yi asked, her curiosity piqued.

Huo Yuhao scratched his cheek and replied, "Well, when I got this soul ring I had only about 30 meters of range and I can only share my thoughts with 3 people. But after I advanced more in cultivation, it seems like my soul skill also advanced."

'.....Dear Sea God, what kind of ten year soul ring skill is this? Isn't this too overpowered?!' She was so dumbstruck that as she took a step back, inevitably colliding with the bookshelf behind her, rattling the books and making some fall down.

Zhou Yi stood still in a daze for a while, before murmuring to herself, "What a miraculous skill. No wonder the Tang Sect chose you as their specially invited student. With this skill alone, that girl Tang Ya has definitely chosen the right person. I was wondering why that girl would choose a person who only had a cultivation level of the fourteenth rank with an average physique. To think that he actually had this secret..."

'I haven't even told you about my copying capabilities yet...and my jutsus. My soul skills just barely qualify as my secret.' Huo Yuhao thought but didn't dare speak it out loud. He was just getting a bit bored of standing around and watching his teacher getting shocked by his soul skill.

'I wanted to train...'

"Huo Yuhao, follow me."

.....

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