After announcing the class leader, Zhou Yi immediately continued, "These are iron vests, specifically used to improve physical fitness. Each of you gets one. After putting it on, run laps around the plaza. Start now and continue until the end-of-class bell rings. You may use soul power, but not soul skills. Rankings will be based on the number of laps. The last place will be expelled. Begin!" As she finished, she looked at Huo Yuhao, tilting her chin toward the iron vests nearby, signaling for him to go first.
Approaching the pile of iron vests, Huo Yuhao casually picked one that looked relatively clean and threw it on. The so-called "iron vest" was actually made of interlinked iron chains shaped like a vest. Other than being uncomfortably coarse against the skin, it didn't seem like much—just about thirty jin (15 kg). This kind of weight wasn't a big deal even for an ordinary person, let alone a soul master.
Once someone took the lead, the rest of the students followed suit, putting on their iron vests. Thirty jin was still manageable for most, though not everyone was unbothered. After all, they were just eleven or twelve-year-old kids. A few girls with lower soul power couldn't help but furrow their brows upon feeling the weight.
At this moment, Zhou Yi spoke again:"I know what you're thinking—boys and girls have natural physical differences, and it's unfair to judge them the same way, right? But I'm telling you now, there are no 'weaker groups' in my class. You either do what I say, or you can come argue with me about it!"
As her words dropped, six soul rings—yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black—appeared around her. The terrifying soul pressure surged without restraint, washing over the students. Everyone twitched at the corners of their mouths, silently marveling at just how shamelessly domineering their teacher was.
And so, under Zhou Yi's overbearing presence, the students ran under the scorching sun with weights on their backs. Since there was only a time limit and no required number of laps, they didn't go all-out from the start, instead maintaining a steady pace.
Huo Yuhao, despite being the class leader, didn't set any example. Just like in the morning, he blended quietly into the crowd. The other students rolled their eyes—this class leader really loved playing the pig to eat the tiger. As a result, the same situation from earlier repeated itself. At the front was Wang Dong, taking the lead, followed by a few strong students. Behind them was the main group, including Huo Yuhao. Wang Dong and his group ran slightly faster than the rest, but the gap wasn't extreme.
From a distance, Zhou Yi wore a blank expression. Based on his performance, Huo Yuhao seemed to have a calm and steady personality. If he were just a normal person, that would be great—but it wasn't what she wanted to see. She aimed to create a tense, highly competitive learning environment. As class leader, he should be setting the tone. But Huo Yuhao clearly wasn't doing that, and so Zhou Yi was already considering replacing him.
Half an hour passed. A female student collapsed from exhaustion, thudding to the ground. No matter how her classmates tried to pull her up, she refused to move.
An hour passed. More students fell. Around a dozen were down—including boys. Some, fearing elimination, forced themselves back up after resting briefly, continuing to run despite their aching bodies. The first to fall—that girl from earlier—had no choice. Since she was the first to go down, if she didn't keep running, she was definitely going to be expelled.
"So pathetic."Huo Yuhao thought—not about the students, but about the so-called best school on the continent: Shrek Academy.The difference between soul masters and ordinary people was the ability to use soul power and strengthen themselves through cultivation. Soul skills and rings were all based on having enough soul power. Soul power was the most valuable thing to a soul master.
And yet, what were they doing now? Engaging in physical training like regular people, just to build stamina. It was pure effort for minimal return.On Blue Star, spiritual energy swept across the world, and people quickly developed ways to harness it, even creating countless cultivation techniques. These techniques usually came with body-tempering effects as a natural side benefit.
Yet in the Douluo World, with even more abundant spiritual energy and a soul master profession that had existed for tens of thousands of years, they were still cultivating in such a rigid, traditional way. Compared side by side, Douluo's soul masters were laughably inefficient. People from the Sun-Moon Continent were at least better—they had the foresight to develop technology.
Another half hour passed. About ten minutes remained until the end of class. The students, drained by prolonged running, sweltering heat, and heavy vests, kept collapsing—only to force themselves back up again. No one had given up yet. For fear of being eliminated, they were all gritting their teeth and pushing forward, even if it meant exhausting every last bit of strength.Even Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong were drenched in sweat by now. No one could brush this off anymore.
Huo Yuhao felt bitter.Despite looking like they were dying, the results of all this effort were laughably small. This was just wasting time.Still, he had to play the part. If he wanted the God King to see his goodwill toward Shrek Academy and Tang Sect, he had to go through the motions.
Just then, a familiar silhouette appeared in his line of sight—a slim, petite girl with light brown hair tied into a simple ponytail.
It was Dong Xinyue, his deskmate. At that moment, Dong Xinyue was drenched in sweat, her face pale. Both her soul power and stamina were completely depleted, and even her consciousness was fading. Her steps faltered, and she was about to fall when someone grabbed her right arm, stopping her from face-planting.
Someone had helped her.
Dong Xinyue turned her head, caught her breath, and pulled out her little notebook. She wrote:"Thank you, class leader. Don't worry about me. You go on ahead!"Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong were already a few laps ahead of the others. If he dragged her along, it would slow him down even more. That would reflect terribly on his authority as class leader.
"It's fine. As long as I'm not last, I don't care. And anyway, you calling me 'class leader' feels weird—just call me by my name. Besides, I probably won't be class leader much longer,"Huo Yuhao replied. He clearly didn't care much about holding onto the title.
Dong Xinyue: "..."You were appointed by the teacher! Can you not be this unmotivated?! Just not coming in last is good enough for you?!She seriously wondered—if Zhou Yi hadn't announced that the last place would be expelled, would Huo Yuhao have been aiming for that spot on purpose?
With five minutes remaining, the intense, dramatic competition one might expect... didn't happen.The students kept glancing at one spot in the plaza. Sitting there collapsed was a girl—Ran Xi. She had pushed herself so far she was on the verge of passing out. Running was out of the question. Her face was ashen, and her eyes showed a mix of unwillingness, helplessness, and resentment.
Her unwillingness and helplessness came from the fact that she had finally made it into her dream academy—only to be expelled so soon.Her resentment was directed at Zhou Yi. If not for her, she wouldn't have been eliminated like this. Maybe if she had made it to the academy's exams, she could have shown enough improvement to stay.But now, her future was ruined—because of one offhanded command from that old witch.
(End of Chapter)