Yue Zhengyu slapped Arthur's hand away, his face flushed red. "I don't believe it. There's a faint, murky dark aura on her. My angel martial soul is extremely sensitive to evil spirits!"
Looking at the anxious young man in front of him, Arthur understood where he was coming from.
If he hadn't known Yuanen Yehui personally, he might well have mistaken her for a wild Evil Soul Master and cut her down himself.
When it came to killing Evil Soul Masters, Arthur moved fast, fast enough that he often had trouble pulling his sword back in time.
"Be good and listen to your uncle. If I say it's not, then it's not."
When a man's under someone else's roof, he has no choice but to keep his head down.
Standing before Arthur, whose seniority outranked his own, Yue Zhengyu chose to hold back for now. "Fine..."
He'd wait until Arthur was gone, then look into it slowly on his own.
The gathering ended, and the next day arrived.
The opening ceremony.
The venue chosen was Spirit Ice Plaza.
Students gathered in a steady stream, and the age gap among them was striking.
On one side stood a crowd of teenagers. On the other, a crowd of grown men.
That was because Shrek Academy's Outer Court only enrolled new students once every three years.
The Outer Court had six grade levels in total, and while the number of students in each grade varied, it generally hovered around a hundred, adding up to just over seven hundred students across all six years.
As a result, the sixth-year students in the Outer Court tended to skew older, most of them past thirty, each carrying themselves with a steady, seasoned bearing... though their cultivation was, well, average at best.
The truly formidable ones had already moved on to the Inner Court, or graduated outright.
The first-year students were the youngest group in the entire academy, every single one of them under fifteen, with most falling in the twelve to thirteen range.
Each grade in the Outer Court consisted of only a single class, with no further division into sections.
Once all the students had assembled, more than twenty figures descended from the sky, a sight so striking it left every new student holding their breath.
At the center of the descending group was Zhuo Shi.
Beside him stood a group of middle-aged instructors, though, well, some of them looked younger than the sixth-years.
Wu Changkong and Shen Yi were among them.
In truth, Wu Changkong had only two reasons for coming to Shrek. First, her own teacher.
Second, she wanted to keep teaching her students.
A moment later, a middle-aged man stepped forward from the crowd, striding out as if walking on empty air.
What followed was a long, rambling speech, first the instructors, then the higher-ups.
This was Zhuo Shi's first opening ceremony as headmaster, and he went on and on up there without ever quite getting to the point.
Privately, Arthur thought... not exactly a masterclass in brevity.
Did the man not understand the value of wrapping up an opening ceremony in fifteen minutes flat?
"Lastly, each class's instructor will lead their students back to the classroom. This concludes the opening ceremony."
The moment the words left his mouth, the figures in the sky scattered, each heading toward a different class.
Shen Yi and Wu Changkong flew toward the first-year students.
As always, Wu Changkong let her cold aura flare to full strength, sending a shiver through the new students.
She said coolly, "This year's first-year class will have me as homeroom teacher. This is Instructor Shen Yi, who will be assisting me. Back to class."
No one among the other instructors raised any objection to Wu Changkong parachuting straight into the role of grade head the moment she arrived.
Anyone who did have objections had already been called in for a chat with Zhuo Shi.
And of course, if any instructor somehow managed to withstand the pressure from Zhuo Shi, there was still Arthur waiting as the second line of defense.
They entered the main teaching building.
The first-year classroom was on the ground floor. Past the entrance, a left turn and about a hundred meters brought you there.
It was a tiered lecture hall, able to seat roughly three hundred people.
Once inside, Shen Yi announced, "Everyone, take your seats in the order I call out."
"Arthur, row one, seat one."
"Gu Yue, row one, seat two."
"Na'er, row one, seat three."
Seat one sat dead center. The best seat in the room.
But what happened next made the corner of Shen Yi's eye twitch.
Without a word, Arthur walked straight to the back row, to a seat by the window.
Seeing this, Gu Yue simply took the seat in front of him instead.
Na'er walked directly to the seat behind Arthur.
Xu Xiaoyan didn't dare pull anything like that, and obediently sat where Shen Yi had assigned her.
Shen Yi took a deep breath and looked to Wu Changkong for help, only to watch her turn her head away without the slightest hesitation.
Tch. Forget it. Let it be, then.
Once every student had taken their seat.
Wu Changkong walked to the center of the podium and tapped a finger lightly on the desk. A chill flooded the entire classroom, instantly smothering the whispers that had been running through it.
"There's no such thing as coasting through Shrek's Outer Court. From today onward, every point of your score is tied directly to whether you get to stay."
Her gaze swept across the room, passing over Xu Xiaoyan sitting ramrod straight in the front row, passing over Arthur slouched by the window in the back, and finally settling on the tense faces of the new students.
"There's a comprehensive assessment once a month, covering soul power, combat, and theory. At year's end, the final assessment eliminates whoever ranks last."
"Be late to a theory class once, and you'll run a hundred laps around the field as punishment. Slack off in combat class, and your training doubles until dawn.
Get into a private fight, and regardless of who's at fault, you're confined for a week and your assessment score for that period drops to zero."
The cold rules kept coming, one after another, Wu Changkong's voice never once rising or falling. "I don't care what talent or background you had before. Here, you have exactly one identity: student. If you want special treatment, earn it with your strength."
The intimidating display left the students' faces pale with fright.
Well, with a few exceptions.
Tang Wulin, Xie Xie, and a few others wore expressions of wistful nostalgia.
Yep, that was the flavor, all right. That familiar feeling.
That was just how Wu Changkong was.
A theory class followed.
After class let out, Arthur brushed past the crowd of classmates trying to strike up conversation and hurried straight outside.
He had important business to attend to.
He made his way to the shore of Sea God Lake with the ease of long habit, circled around once, and found Cai Yue'er fishing there.
Arthur strode over across the grass by the lake and sat down beside her, his lazy, needling tone shattering the quiet of the lakeside. "Hey there, Little Cai, still fishing here, huh? Did you even make it to the opening ceremony today?"
Anyone could tell at a glance he'd come looking for trouble.
Cai Yue'er's grip on her fishing rod tightened. She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye but said nothing.
"Ah, Headmaster Zhuo Shi's opening speech was really something, wasn't it. Got everyone's spirits all fired up."
Arthur said this with a completely straight face, conscience be damned.
Hearing that, Cai Yue'er had to admit, grudgingly, that she had been moved by it too.
In years past, that spotlight had always belonged to her. Her proudest title had always been headmaster of the Outer Court.
Argh, damn it!
It was all that little devil Arthur's fault, born wicked to the bone!
Cai Yue'er forced down her anger. She knew perfectly well that if she so much as raised a hand against him.
Ya Li's righteous fist would arrive the very next instant.
Seeing that she wasn't taking the bait, Arthur simply picked up a wooden stick, wound a length of thread around it without much care, and said, "Now listen, Little Cai, your fishing skills leave something to be desired. I've been sitting here three whole minutes and that rod of yours hasn't so much as twitched."
"Here, let me show you how it's done."
Cai Yue'er watched him with open disdain.
If he actually caught anything with that, she'd eat it on the spot.
Too bad, she was about to get her wish.
No sooner had Arthur's stick sunk beneath the surface than the thread snapped taut. He gave his wrist a flick, and a silver-scaled fish the size of a palm landed with a smack on the grass, still flopping.
(Note from the previous chapter, corrected: Arthur ranks second on the Genius Ranking. Gu Yue is actually first.)