Ten minutes before the afternoon bell rang, the classroom was already full and completely silent. No student dared to make any noise. Because of this, sometimes having a strict teacher wasn't such a bad thing. It could be very effective in encouraging students to study harder.
Wang Feng, Wang Dong, and Huo Yuhao were still sitting together. Although the classroom didn't have fixed seating arrangements, the three of them had grown fairly close by now, so they naturally chose to sit together.
When Zhou Yi slowly walked into the classroom, the atmosphere suddenly became tense. Wang Feng, Huo Yuhao, and Wang Dong also stopped their conversation. Even though not much time had passed, Huo Yuhao's mental and soul power had already recovered more than halfway, thanks to his low soul power base, so at the very least, he no longer felt weak.
"Everyone stand up and gather in the square."Unexpectedly, this was the first sentence Zhou Yi said upon entering the room before turning around and leaving.
No one dared to disobey, and all the students immediately left the classroom, silently and neatly following Zhou Yi to Shrek Square.
They didn't notice the faint smile in Zhou Yi's eyes. This strict and somewhat twisted teacher was now thinking that teaching freshmen also had its benefits. At the very least, these freshmen weren't rebellious and were easier to control—unlike the upper-grade students who had already achieved something and were more arrogant and defiant.
Piles of iron chains had already been arranged at several points in Shrek Square. Under Zhou Yi's command, the students stood in formation.
"Wang Feng," Zhou Yi called out.
"Here." Wang Feng stepped forward.
Zhou Yi addressed all the students, "I've reviewed your entrance exam results, along with this morning's test. So far, Wang Feng has the highest cultivation level among all of you. Therefore, I hereby declare that starting now, he will be the class monitor of the freshmen. This position is temporary—anyone who can defeat him can take the role. Do you all understand?"
"Yes, we understand," all the students responded in unison.
Wang Feng raised an eyebrow and said with a smile on his face, "Teacher Zhou, I refuse to be the class monitor."
The class fell silent. The students stared at him in shock, while a few of them looked confused.
Zhou Yi narrowed her eyes, then asked in a cold tone, "Why?" She was a little irritated by the rejection.
Wang Feng shrugged. "Being a monitor doesn't suit my personality. Maybe someone else would be a better fit."
The classroom grew even quieter. Some of the boys who had looked at Wang Feng with challenging eyes earlier now seemed slightly stunned by his indifference. Meanwhile, the girls became even more intrigued by him.
Zhou Yi, known as a strict teacher who didn't tolerate defiance, narrowed her eyes even more. A terrifying aura immediately spread throughout the class.
Boom!
A powerful soul pressure instantly filled the area, causing some of the weaker students to nearly lose their balance. Six soul rings appeared around Zhou Yi—two yellow, two purple, and two black.
Zhou Yi's gaze locked sharply onto Wang Feng. "Still want to refuse?"
However, to everyone's surprise, Wang Feng's expression remained calm. He stood in place without showing even a hint of fear or pressure. In fact, he still had a faint smile on his face.
"Yes, I still refuse," he said plainly.
The whole class was shocked. They couldn't believe someone would dare to go against Zhou Yi so casually—especially after she had revealed such overwhelming power.
Zhou Yi stared at Wang Feng in silence for a few seconds. Although she was annoyed inside, in the end, she could only sigh. She knew she couldn't force him.
Even though Zhou Yi wanted to expel Wang Feng, she couldn't. News about Wang Feng's soul ring configuration, which was completely absurd, had already spread among the senior members of Shrek Academy.
Coincidentally, Zhou Yi found out about it because her husband, Fan Yu, had told her.
"Alright," Zhou Yi finally said. "In that case, the position of class monitor will be given to the student with the second highest cultivation level in this class."
Zhou Yi's gaze shifted toward Wang Dong.
"Wang Dong, from now on, you will be the class monitor."
Wang Dong, who had only been watching, was immediately surprised. "Me?"
"Yes, you," Zhou Yi confirmed.
Wang Dong was silent for a moment, but in the end, he nodded. "Alright, I'll accept it."
Zhou Yi nodded in satisfaction, then withdrew her oppressive aura. "Okay, let's continue with the lesson."
With that, although there had been tension, the position of class monitor finally fell into Wang Dong's hands. However, most of the students were now even more curious about Wang Feng—who exactly was this young man who wasn't even intimidated by a Soul Emperor?
Zhou Yi pointed at the iron chains in front of her. "These are armor suits, specially made to improve physical fitness. Each of you will receive one."
"After putting it on, start running around the plaza. From now on, run until the bell rings. You may use soul power, but not soul skills."
"You will be ranked based on how many laps you complete. The one who comes in last will be expelled from the new student class."
"There's one more thing I want to emphasize. In my class, people don't only get eliminated during evaluations, but at any time. Today, a hundred students will become ninety-nine, starting now."
As she spoke, Zhou Yi tiptoed, and a suit of armor made entirely from thick iron chains appeared in front of Wang Dong. Wang Dong quickly took it and put it on himself.
As he wore the armor, his expression changed slightly. This armor weighed at least thirty kilograms!
When the students heard that the last person would be eliminated, they dared not slack off and rushed to put on their armor. The male students fared a little better, but most of the female students looked terrified after putting on the heavy armor.
Zhou Yi said coldly, "I know many of you want to say this is unfair, since males and females naturally differ in physique, and weapon soul masters, beast soul masters, and battle soul masters also have different levels of physical fitness."
"But what I want to say is, in my class, everyone is treated equally. Think about it—if you're on a battlefield, would your enemy spare you just because you're a woman or a weapon soul master? Start running."
No matter how much the students cursed Zhou Yi in their hearts, none of them dared to resist. Led by Wang Dong, they collectively rushed to the track at the edge of the plaza and began running with the heavy armor on their backs.
No one wanted to be eliminated, so from the beginning, the students' enthusiasm for running was far greater than it had been in the morning.
Wang Dong took the lead and ran in front. In terms of both martial soul and soul power, he was the best among this group of students—excluding Wang Feng, of course. Even wearing the armor, his speed did not decrease at all.
Some of the male students who wanted to compete with him rushed out and followed closely behind.
Wang Feng ran alongside Huo Yuhao. He turned slightly and said calmly, "Use what I taught you during our morning training."
Huo Yuhao did as Wang Feng said. After a while, he re-entered a meditative state while running.
"Wang Feng, you can go ahead and train at your own pace. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine." Huo Yuhao could tell that Wang Feng's actual training load was far more than this. However, since Wang Feng was concerned about him, he had reduced his own training intensity.
Wang Feng replied with a faint smile, "It's fine. I just need to add a little more weight to what I'm already carrying." He took something out of the system's storage space.
Wang Feng was already wearing his own weights. He almost never took them off except when bathing. He wasn't worried about damaging his body, because he had the Meteor Tear inside him.
Before the lesson started, he was already wearing weights totaling about 700 kilograms. With the armor Zhou Yi provided, the total weight on his body was around 730 kilograms.
Since Wang Feng wanted to match Huo Yuhao's pace, he added another 100 kilograms to his body. The total weight he was carrying was now 830 kilograms.
Zhou Yi stood in the plaza with an expressionless face, watching the students run. No one knew what she was thinking.