"I'm Shen Yue, a member of the Sacred Family."
As he declared his identity, Shen Yue exploded with rage and unleashed his soul force throughout the classroom.
The students standing closest to him immediately felt terrified. None of them had expected to be caught in the midst of Shen Yue's spiritual pressure.
Those with weaker soul forces hurriedly circulated their own energy to protect themselves, afraid that Shen Yue's spiritual pressure might cause lasting damage to their soul realm.
Seeing the fear on everyone's faces, Shen Yue's confidence skyrocketed. He released even more spiritual pressure, his oppressive aura spreading reaching everyone.
With a green soul realm and more than thirty-four points of soul force, Shen Yue indeed had enough strength to be arrogant. He firmly believed that he was the strongest student in the Fighter Apprentice Class.
'So what if you have a handsome face? Since you dare to steal my woman, I, Shen Yue, will teach you to know your place.'
A sinister smile crept across his face as his spiritual pressure bombarded Xue Hui.
WOOSH!
Blinded by jealousy and anger, Shen Yue failed to notice the looks he was receiving from the others.
Especially from Ye Ziyun, Xiao Ning'er, and Chen Linlin.
All three girls stared at him with undisguised hatred.
To them, Shen Yue's actions were despicable. 'He had actually dared to use his soul force to suppress others inside the Holy Orchid Institute. Shen Yue is nothing more than a bully.' Xiao Ning'er's eyes narrowed in disgust.
Ye Ziyun, in particular, felt her previous impression of Shen Yue shattered completely, now seeing him as nothing more than an arrogant and overbearing person.
And to make matters worse, the target of his aggression was Xue Hui.
Her dissatisfaction toward Shen Yue quickly turned into outright hatred.
Before Ye Ziyun could step in, however, a dense spiritual aura suddenly flooded the entire classroom, soothing everyone's tense emotions.
Unlike Shen Yue's overbearing pressure, this aura was gentle and calming. It washed over everyone's soul like a tranquil breeze, easing the fear and tension in their minds.
Everyone except Shen Yue.
While the others felt as though they were submerged in a serene lake, Shen Yue felt as though an enormous mountain had descended upon him, ready to crush him the moment he moved.
Terror filled his heart.
Although Xue Hui's cultivation was currently only at Three-Star Bronze Rank, the sheer quantity and density of his soul force was something even a Gold Rank Demon Spiritualist would struggle to match, let alone Shen Yue, who had yet to reach Bronze Rank.
Chen Linlin raised an eyebrow as she watched from the side. Shen Yue's attempt to suppress Xue Hui was simply laughable.
'This loser really overestimates himself if he thinks that minuscule amount of soul force is enough to subdue someone like Hui-hui.'
Xue Hui's gaze, which had been resting on Ye Ziyun, slowly shifted toward Shen Yue.
Shen Yue's face had already turned deathly pale.
The Sacred Family really has mastered the art of bullying the weak.
Xue Hui narrowed his eyes.
'If my soul force were weaker than this clown, I'd probably be coughing blood by now.'
Unbeknownst to Xue Hui, Shen Yue was normally very careful with his behavior. He often suppressed his domineering nature whenever he was around Ye Ziyun, all in an effort to make her like him.
But all of that restraint had been thrown out the window the moment he saw Xue Hui sitting beside her.
Xue Hui's good looks and seemingly close relationship with Ye Ziyun had made Shen Yue feel threatened and jealous, causing him to lose his composure.
"Oh, you didn't hear me?" Xue Hui asked flatly.
"I said… I'm pretty sure the Holy Orchid Institute doesn't sell chairs, so you can't claim this one as yours."
Every word Xue Hui spoke caused Shen Yue's soul to tremble. With each passing moment, the mountain-like pressure weighing down on him grew heavier.
"Just find a vacant seat and buzz off…"
Xue Hui's eyes suddenly sharpened, frightening Shen Yue even further.
"Shen Yue, of the Sacred Family."
The moment he finished speaking, the spiritual pressure enveloping the entire classroom vanished.
The students who had been immersed in Xue Hui's calming aura suddenly snapped back to reality.
At the same time, the mountain-like pressure crushing Shen Yue disappeared, allowing his body to move freely once again.
His knees immediately buckled.
Thud!
He fell heavily onto the floor.
Shen Yue gasped for breath, his clothes drenched in sweat. His face was ashen, and his hair had become completely disheveled, stripping away whatever dignity remained of his noble appearance.
His soul realm had fared no better. The overwhelming pressure had caused his soul force to rebound, leaving it in a chaotic and unstable state.
Silence enveloped the classroom.
The entire confrontation had lasted only a few breaths.
The students who had been immersed in Xue Hui's soothing aura were dumbfounded when they saw Shen Yue in such a miserable state.
"Wasn't Young Master Shen trying to suppress that pretty boy with his soul force just now? So why is he the one who lost?"
No one understood what had just happened.
"Eeeek!"
The silence was suddenly shattered by a female student's shriek, her voice filled with surprise and embarrassment.
At first, the other students looked at her in confusion.
Then, one by one, they realized what had happened.
Their expressions became awkward, and many quickly turned their heads away.
Even looking in Shen Yue's direction had become uncomfortable.
Ye Ziyun glanced around, puzzled by everyone's strange reactions. She tried to figure out what had caused her classmates to suddenly avert their gazes.
Then her eyes landed on Shen Yue.
It took only a moment for her to understand.
Her eyes widened before she immediately looked away, her face becoming uncomfortable.
Xiao Ning'er noticed the same thing and quickly turned her head aside, disgust written across her face.
'You acted so arrogantly while using your status to suppress others, yet when you lost, you couldn't even fall without embarrassing yourself this badly.'
Her disgust toward the Sacred Family ran even deeper because of their attempts to force her into marrying into the Sacred family.
Still shaken by the backlash, Shen Yue tried to speak.
"Y-"
Only for him to freeze.
A confused look appeared on his face as a strange warmth spread around his lower body, making him realize what had happened.
Shen Yue slowly looked down.
His eyes widened in panic.
His face, which had finally regained some color, turned pale once again.
He looked around the room.
The girls looked flushed red and were pretending that he didn't exist.
The boys, meanwhile, were struggling desperately to suppress their laughter.
"Y-you!"
Humiliated, Shen Yue stood up and angrily pointed a trembling finger at Xue Hui, seemingly trying to salvage what little dignity he had left by shifting the blame onto him.
"Boy, are you really going to blame that on me?"
Xue Hui gave him a deadpan look. He pointed at Shen Yue's accident, then at himself, as though genuinely offended that Shen Yue had the audacity to blame him for something that had nothing to do with him.
Shen Yue met Xue Hui's sharp gaze.
The memory of that overwhelming aura immediately resurfaced in his mind.
Fear seized him.
He stumbled backward before turning around and bolting out of the classroom.
"You'll pay for this!"
His furious shout echoed through the hallway as he fled, leaving his mess behind.
Everyone remained bewildered.
Silence filled the room after Shen Yue disappeared, with no one quite knowing what to say about what they had just witnessed.
Xue Hui sighed in dejection before forming a hand seal.
A faint spiritual energy swept across the floor, causing the wet trail to disappear.
As much as he didn't want to clean up Shen Yue's mess, Xue Hui's overly sensitive nose couldn't tolerate the rancid smell permeating the classroom.
Still, he made a mental note to add this incident to the list of Sacred Family crimes.
"BWAHAHAHA!"
A moment later, a loud, unrestrained laugh shattered the silence.
Nie Li could no longer hold himself back. He threw his head back and cackled uncontrollably.
His laughter quickly spread throughout the classroom as several students joined in, filling the room with loud, incoherent laughter.
Many of them had long been unable to stand Shen Yue's domineering attitude but were too afraid to confront him.
A single word from Shen Yue could cause trouble for their families, especially those from aristocratic or commoner backgrounds.
Watching him get humiliated and flee in such a pitiful state was deeply satisfying for them.
The only ones who remained composed were Xue Hui, Chen Linlin, Xiao Ning'er, and Ye Ziyun.
The four simply remained seated, ignoring the chaos around them.
The commotion came to an abrupt stop when the classroom door slid open once again.
The moment the students saw who had entered, they hurriedly returned to their seats and suppressed their laughter.
The newcomer was the rumored new teacher.
The boys immediately turned their attention toward her. Her striking appearance captivated them, and several couldn't help letting their imaginations run wild.
She had a slender, mature figure and long, fiery crimson hair. Every movement exuded confidence and pride, while her sharp eyes swept across the classroom with an unmistakable air of superiority.
The woman, who appeared to be in her twenties, was none other than Shen Xiu, the younger sister of the Sacred Family's Patriarch.
Shen Xiu glanced around the classroom, her eyebrows furrowing.
"Where's Yue'er?"
Her nephew was supposed to be in this class, yet she couldn't find him anywhere.
Shen Xiu cursed Shen Yue inwardly.
'That useless brat. He can't even do something as simple as this properly. How is he supposed to get close to the City Lord's daughter if he isn't even here?'
Her irritation only grew when she noticed someone sitting beside Ye Ziyun.
Worse, Ye Ziyun showed no discomfort around him whatsoever, which made Shen Xiu curse Shen Yue even more.
Her eyes narrowed.
She was certain she had seen Xue Hui somewhere before, but she couldn't remember where or when.
'It didn't matter.'
'He was clearly a nuisance to our plans.'
As the teacher of the Fighter Apprentice Class, Shen Xiu had plenty of ways to make things difficult for Xue Hui.
Although her hostility lasted only for a brief moment, Xue Hui sensed it immediately.
He chuckled inwardly.
'The classes haven't even started, and I'm already making enemies.'
For some reason, Shen Xiu's perfume also evoked a strange sense of nostalgia in him.
He pondered over it for a moment before setting the thought aside.
Standing tall at the front of the classroom, Shen Xiu introduced herself.
She proudly explained that she was a member of one of the three major families and that her soul realm had already reached the Silver Rank.
The students were astonished that someone of Shen Xiu's strength would be teaching their class.
Their surprise only grew when Shen Xiu transformed into her demon spirit to demonstrate her strength.
Her appearance changed as crimson flames enveloped her body, revealing characteristics of a Scarlet Flaming Fox.
Shen Xiu stood proudly as she explained that her demon spirit could raise her combat prowess to the Gold Rank.
Many students were awestruck as they listened to her lecture. Reaching such heights in cultivation was the dream of nearly every student in the classroom.
The commoner students, in particular, listened with especially intense longing.
Their families had spent nearly all their savings, enduring hardship just to send them to school. They hoped that one day, some of them would become powerful Demon Spiritualists.
Once they succeeded, they would become official guardians of Glory City, earning a substantial income and potentially changing the fate of their entire families.
Shen Xiu continued speaking in her proud, unwavering voice.
She swept her gaze across the students and saw the longing in their eyes.
Contempt flashed within her.
'These wishful dreams won't last long once reality crushes this low birth.'
To Shen Xiu, commoners were nothing more than slaves to the nobility.
born to serve people like her.
'The idea of defying their fate and rising like a phoenix was nothing more than a laughable fantasy.'
'I couldn't wait to hammer that reality into these commoners' children.'
Xue Hui had clearly overestimated the quality of the Holy Orchid Institute's classes.
He had originally expected the lecture to be shallow at best.
But this was even worse.
Shen Xiu had spent nearly ten minutes praising herself and her family while discussing a collection of meaningless topics with the class.
To make matters worse, she continually looked at the students with condescension.
Her behavior didn't surprise Xue Hui in the slightest.
'She was a member of the Sacred Family. That alone explained enough.'
Leaning slightly back in his chair, Xue Hui stole a glance at Chen Linlin.
She was smiling, seemingly enjoying herself.
'Good. At least she's having fun.'
Xue Hui shifted his gaze toward Ye Ziyun.
She appeared to be paying close attention to the lecture.
'What a diligent girl.'
His attention soon drifted toward the clock.
Ignoring Shen Xiu's endless rants about how her family was better than everyone else, Xue Hui let out a sigh and quietly watched the hands move.
Like Xue Hui, another student wasn't paying attention either.
In fact, Nie Li's mind had already drifted far away, wandering through memories of the distant past, or the future, depending on how one looked at it.
The fall of Glory City.
The demon beast hordes.
The deaths of everyone.
Their escape into the Endless Desert.
Ye Ziyun…
Her death.
And the promise they had made to each other.
A tear slowly slipped from Nie Li's blank gaze.
His mind returned to the day he had fallen into the hands of the Sage Emperor, and how the Temporal Demon Book, covered in his own blood, had suddenly shone with blinding light as he took his final breath.
BOOM!
"KYAA!"
The students erupted into commotion as a sudden disturbance shook the classroom.
Xue Hui sprang into action without hesitation.
In an instant, he disappeared from his seat and reappeared directly in front of Chen Linlin, startling her and everyone else in the room.
His left arm wrapped around her shoulders, pulling her closer as his glowing eyes swept across the classroom.
'Something was wrong.'
'There was no way I had sensed it incorrectly.'
'Just now, the entire room has been affected by a temporal distortion.'
The first thing that came to Xue Hui's mind was that a time-space demon beast had somehow appeared in the middle of the class.
Worried that whatever was causing the distortion might drag Chen Linlin into some unknown point in time and space, he had immediately moved to protect her.
But now, it seemed he had guessed wrong.
Nie Li's blue pupils met Xue Hui's lilac eyes.
The two stared at each other in confusion.
At that moment, the same question surfaced in both their minds.
"Who the heck are you?!"
End of Chapter 38