Book 2: Academy of Monsters

Chapter 10.4: First Experience with Soul Tools

Huo Yuhao complexion had turned pale, and an overflowing amount of cold sweat had covered his forehead. He seemed to have an extremely weak expression.

Huo Yuhao waved towards Wang Dong to indicate that he was fine. “It was just that it became quite a large drain on my spiritual energy. Wang Dong, when you were looking straight ahead earlier, how far did my Spiritual Detection reach?”

After Wang Dong took a moment to recall what had happened, he said, “I wasn’t paying too much attention, but it seemed to be about fifty to sixty metres. However, I noticed that I wasn’t able to see anything with Spiritual Detection in the other directions. The distance nearly doubled in the front, but that was it.”

When he heard what Wang Dong had said, Huo Yuhao’s spirits immediately rose, so much so that even his exhaustion decreased by a large amount. “That’s great! It actually works if I do it like this. However, the drain on my spiritual energy is a bit too much.”

When he tried to focus the range of his Spiritual Detection in one direction and extend it, the drain on his spiritual energy was almost ten times the normal cost. This was why his spiritual energy had become overdrawn in such a short period of time. However, Huo Yuhao believed that the reason behind the large drain of spiritual energy was because this was the first time that he’d tried doing this. He believed that he’d get better at it if he practiced more in the future.

Teacher Fan Yu had said that he could become his disciple once the range of his Spiritual Detection was able to reach a hundred metres in any single direction.

After seeing the terrifying might of soul tools, as well as hearing Caitou’s introduction to them, he was filled with interest towards these mysterious existences.

First-year Class 1. All ninety-one students were already seated in-class ten minutes before the afternoon bell had rung. Furthermore, there was an unusual silence amongst the classroom. None of the students dared to cause any noise. This is probably why it was said: ‘It’s not a bad thing for a teacher to be strict sometimes, since making students study seriously has many advantages.’

Since they didn’t have assigned seats, Wang Dong and Huo Yuhao sat together. The two who were only eleven years old were unexpectedly deep in thought. Huo Yuhao was naturally pondering both his successes and failures when he’d changed the direction of his Spiritual Detection. No one knew what Wang Dong was thinking about.

As Zhou Yi slowly walked into the classroom, the atmosphere within Class 1 turned solemn. Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong also awakened from their pondering. Although not much time had passed, Huo Yuhao had already recovered a great deal of his spiritual energy and soulforce, mostly because he didn’t have that much soulforce to begin with. At the very least, he didn’t feel weak anymore.

“Everyone, stand up and gather in the plaza.” Unexpectedly, Zhou Yi said this immediately after entering the classroom, before instantly turning around to leave.

No one dared to waste any time. A crowd of students rapidly left the classroom and followed Zhou Yi in an orderly, quiet manner to Shrek Plaza.

They didn’t notice that Zhou Yi unexpectedly had a smile hidden within her eyes. This teacher, who was strict to the point of being somewhat perverted, was currently thinking that there were definitely some advantages to teaching new students. At least these new students were less unruly, which made them easier to control. They weren’t like those students from the third year or higher, who were more arrogant and rebellious since they already had certain accomplishments.

A pile of iron chains had been piled up on Shrek Plaza at some unknown time. Under Zhou Yi’s command, the students arranged them neatly.

“Wang Dong.” Zhou Yi called out.

“Present.” Wang Dong took a step forward.

Zhou Yi spoke to the students, “I’ve flipped through your entrance test results, and I’ve added them to the test that we performed this morning. Currently, out of all of you, Wang Dong has the highest level of cultivation. Because of this, I hereby declare that he’ll be the class monitor of Class 1 from now on. The class monitor position is a volatile one, and whoever has the strength to beat him may do so and replace him as the new class monitor. Do you all understand?”

“We understand.” The gazes from a few male students who had a high amount of self-confidence in their strength immediately turned sharp, while the gazes from the female students seemed to become much warmer as they looked at Wang Dong.

Zhou Yi pointed towards the iron chains in front of her. “These are suits of chainmail specialised in strengthening your physical fitness. Every single one of you will take one. After you’ve put them on, start running around around the plaza. You’ll keep running from now until the bell signalling the end of class rings. You can use your soulforce, but you can’t use any soul skills. Your rank will be based on the number of laps that you’ve completed at the end of class, and the person in last place will be expelled from Class 1.”

“There’s something I need to emphasise. In my class, eliminations won’t just happen during exam periods; they can happen at any time. Today, ninety-one people will become ninety people. Start running.”

After she finished speaking, she flicked her toe, and a full set of chainmail made out of thick iron chains flew towards Wang Dong. Wang Dong hurriedly caught it and put it on.

As soon as he got the chainmail on, he couldn’t help but slightly change his expression. This chainmail weighed at least 15 kilograms!

When the students heard that the person in last place would be eliminated, how could they dare to waste any time? They all ran up and grabbed a set of chainmail. The male students were slightly better off, while a majority of the female students turned pale after putting the heavy chainmail on.

Zhou Yi coldly said, “I know that a lot of you want to say that this is unfair because there’s an innate gap between the bodies of men and women. That the physical fitness levels of tool, beast, and battle soul masters are different. However, I want to tell you that I treat everyone equally in my class. Think about it! If you were on the battlefield, would your enemy spare you simply because you’re a girl or a tool master? Start now. Run.”

No matter how much they wanted to curse at Zhou Yi, none of the students dared to speak a word of protest. With Wang Dong leading, they collectively ran towards the edge of the field, and started running with heavy chainmail on their bodies.

Nobody wanted to be eliminated. Once they started running, the vigor with which they ran was completely different compared to that morning.

Wang Dong took the lead and ran in front. No matter whether it was his martial soul or his soulforce, he was figure that excelled within the group of students. Although he was wearing a suit of chainmail, his speed didn’t decrease in the slightest.

The few male students who wanted to compete with him also charged forward, closely following him.

Huo Yuhao didn’t speed up. He was very clear about his body’s situation. Zhou Yi had said that they had to run until the bell rung, yet the afternoon class was nearly four hours long. It had just started! The most reasonable target that he’d formulated for himself was to persevere and to simply run until the the bell rang; not to compete with the others.

Thus, his speed was clearly much slower than the others when he started. Huo Yuhao looked on as everyone overtook him one by one, but he didn’t become impatient. His steps were slightly slower, but they were stable and uniform as he ran forward.

After only two laps, Huo Yuhao was dead last. Even the female students had overtaken him. However, he didn’t take it to heart.

When he reached his fourth lap, the person in first place—Wang Dong—had already lapped him once. When Wang Dong passed him, he even gave him a flabbergasted look.

However, Huo Yuhao didn’t take it to heart, and smiled at him in reply.

Zhou Yi expressionlessly stood in the middle of the plaza as she watched the students run. No one knew what she was thinking.