After returning from the Soul Fighting Area.
Furina's steps were light, and she even hummed a tuneless melody; although the temporary teacher trial card was brief, she had enjoyed herself quite thoroughly.
She was even starting to calculate what kind of "new toys" she should show those little guys if she had another chance next time.
This lightheartedness didn't last long. Just as she reached the plaza in front of the Freshman Teaching Building, a voice suppressed with anger came from behind her, like a piece of cold iron smashing the pleasant air around her.
"Furina!" Zhou Yi's figure blocked the middle of the path. The expression on her face was even stiffer than usual, and her eyes behind the lenses were as sharp as if they wanted to prick someone. "Come to my office. Now."
Furina stopped, turned around, and a perfectly timed hint of weary apology appeared on her face.
She raised her hand, gently rubbing her temples, her tone carrying a soft note of weakness: "I'm sorry, Teacher Zhou. You see, after hosting a match, speaking, and boosting the atmosphere, while the spirit power consumption wasn't high, my energy really can't keep up. I just want to go back and have a good rest now. If there's anything, we can talk about it tomorrow, okay?"
She said this nonchalantly, even with a bit of coquettish innocence, but to Zhou Yi's ears, it was undoubtedly adding fuel to the fire.
Zhou Yi felt the veins on her temples throb violently as the anger accumulated over the past few days finally broke through the dam of reason.
Give her an inch and she takes a mile! This girl was simply challenging the limits of her patience!
Letting her be a temporary teacher, and she goes and uses it as a pretext to criticize Zhou Yi's entire teaching philosophy as worthless.
Starting from contradicting the school motto "Those who dare not cause trouble are mediocre," to the citations of Grandmaster Yu Xiaogang's theories when she acted as a teacher, everything was poked through by her from a seemingly innocent but actually tricky angle.
This was no longer a simple questioning; it was rubbing her authority as the legitimate teacher into the ground repeatedly in front of the whole class.
What was even more infuriating was her manner. Using her "temporary teacher" status to act with borrowed authority in front of other teachers, setting rules and double standards, one after another, as skillfully as if she had practiced it a thousand times.
After an entire soul fighting match, Zhou Yi could almost foresee that in the future, the students in her class would probably only recognize Furina—who could pull out a pistol, speak strange theories, and call herself the "Water God Pope"—as for herself, the legitimate homeroom teacher? Her prestige was likely already swept away.
At some point, a group of students had quietly gathered around.
They didn't get too close, just standing in twos and threes under the pillars and in the shadows of the trees, but their gazes were all fixed on them, curious, excited, and even carrying a hint of faint expectation.
Huo Yuhao stood at the very front with his arms crossed, looking calm. Wang Dong and Xiao Xiao beside him also had no intention of leaving. Their posture silently sent a signal: We are watching.
These gazes pricked Zhou Yi's back like needles.
She whipped her head around, her gaze sweeping across those young faces like a cold blade, her voice sounding somewhat shrill due to extreme suppression: "What are you looking at? Don't you all have anything to do? If you keep crowding around here, believe it or not, I'll expel you all!"
She practically roared the word "Expel." This was her usual and most effective deterrent. In the past, as long as these words were spoken, even the most stubborn student would turn pale and hurry away with their head down.
But this time, the effect seemed greatly diminished.
A few timid students shrunk their necks and took a few steps back, hiding in deeper shadows, but they didn't actually leave.
And even more people, including Huo Yuhao and the others, still stood their ground. In fact, because of Zhou Yi's near-hysterical roar, their eyes held even more scrutiny and resentment. Low, suppressed whispers rose from the crowd.
"Expulsion again..."
"Besides using expulsion to scare people, what else can she do?"
"Exactly, same with the morning laps, always using Spirit Emperor pressure at the drop of a hat..."
The voices were small but clearly audible. Zhou Yi's face turned from green to red, her chest heaving violently. She hadn't expected that her most powerful weapon would have its edge broken in a single day by that smiling girl and this group of freshmen.
Just then, Furina's voice rang out again, devoid of the previous fatigue, replaced instead by a clear, disapproving seriousness.
"Teacher Zhou Yi," she took half a step forward, her brow slightly furrowed as she looked directly at Zhou Yi, "Can we talk properly and stop always having 'expelling students' on your lips as a bargaining chip for threats?"
Her tone was steady, but every word was clear, spreading across the quiet plaza.
"Shrek Academy gathers geniuses from all over. Your light word 'expel' might ruin a youth's potentially brilliant future. And if the academy loses potential students, will they really not hold you accountable? You are a powerful Spirit Emperor and a teacher, but that doesn't mean you can use this status to exert pressure on students without restraint."
She paused, her gaze sweeping over the students watching her from the light and shadows, her voice rising slightly:
"If you truly possess matching teaching abilities, then please speak with results. For example, let the entire class have no one fall behind, have everyone pass the New Student Assessment, and cultivate them into true 'monsters'."
"Rather than on the first day of school, without understanding anyone's Spirit characteristics, physical fitness, or spirit power levels, arbitrarily ordering everyone to complete nearly impossible a hundred laps in two hours. This kind of method that lacks planning and relies purely on high-pressure coercion..."
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