Wang Dong also knew they were in big trouble, so he didn't bother arguing with Huo Yuhao anymore. The two ran out like the wind. They didn't eat breakfast, nor did they brush their teeth or wash their faces; instead, they ran at top speed towards the Teaching Building. They knew Chu Yi's temperament all too well; being late for class was no different from committing suicide...
Both of them looked extremely disheveled. Wang Dong was a little better off; at least when he pushed Huo Yuhao to the ground earlier, he managed to straighten his clothes. As for Huo Yuhao... from top to bottom, he was utterly messy and untidy. Half of his shirt was tucked in, the other half flapped freely, his hair was a tangled mess, and two buttons were still undone...
However, neither of them had the presence of mind to care about this. They just tried to run as fast as possible to class. Even though they were late, at least Chu Yi's anger would be less fierce...
One minute later, they arrived at the door of Class One for New Students.
"Report!"
Huo Yuhao spoke first.
"Report!"
Following that was Wang Dong's voice, but his words weren't as loud as Huo Yuhao's, even somewhat weak. He hid behind Huo Yuhao, secretly peeking forward, his eyes clearly filled with anxiety. He fiercely pinched Huo Yuhao's waist. Huo Yuhao's face turned pale from the pain, but seeing Chu Yi walking towards them from the podium, he quickly returned to normal.
All the other students had already arrived. Chu Yi saw Huo Yuhao's messy appearance and a faint smile flickered in her eyes, but Huo Yuhao, being tortured from behind, couldn't notice it.
"You two little rascals, how did you end up like this? Come in."
Chu Yi waved her hand, telling them to enter. Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong hurried in. Wang Dong, still clear-headed, turned around and closed the door.
Xiao Xiao saw their pathetic state and couldn't help but widen her eyes, her mouth twitching, but she tried not to make any sound. It seemed she was wondering: "Oh my! What were these two doing last night?"
At this moment, the entire class's attention was focused on the two of them, especially the class monitor with the disheveled clothes.
Chu Yi asked coldly:
"My class monitor, tell me, what happened to you two?"
"Uh, I'm sorry, Teacher Chu. We... just woke up..."
Huo Yuhao replied awkwardly. Now, he had no choice but to confess his guilt, and as for the punishment, he would just have to grit his teeth and bear it.
"Woke up from what? Woke up with whom? And you're only just waking up now?"
Chu Yi joked with a smile.
Huo Yuhao was stunned, while Wang Dong's face turned red. Unexpectedly, the joke hit home perfectly.
The entire class remained silent, but in less than three seconds, they burst into laughter.
Wang Dong lowered his head. He only wished there was a hole to crawl into and hide. Embarrassed, too embarrassed. It was then that he noticed the damned guy's disheveled clothes. He was so angry he wanted to turn around and beat him up. This idiot, he made me lose face again.
At this moment, even Chu Yi smiled. Although her smile was very unattractive, Huo Yuhao could confirm that she was genuinely smiling.
Chu Yi waved her hand, and the class immediately fell silent. She spoke.
"Alright, you two, go back to your seats."
"Ah?"
Both Wang Dong and Huo Yuhao were startled. They looked up at her, thinking they had misheard something.
Chu Yi glared and scolded:
"What? Did you sleep so much that you're hard of hearing now?"
Huo Yuhao quickly pulled Wang Dong, who had a ashen face, back to their seats.
However, it was fortunate for them that the class was only full of eleven and twelve-year-olds. If it had been an upper-level class, with some fujoshi "big sisters," a little elaboration would have made the problem far from simple, perhaps even more chaotic.
Zhou Yi returned to the podium and calmly said, "The assessment period has been three days. The results were available last night."
Hearing her words, all the students immediately focused their attention. It wasn't just Huo Yuhao's group in the class that was confident about passing the assessment.
A smile appeared on Zhou Yi's aged face for the second time. "I have to say, your efforts have made me proud. All twenty groups in our class have passed this assessment. I am truly delighted."
"Aaaaaaaaaaa…."
Immediately, the classroom echoed with joyful cheers. Zhou Yi did not stop them; she simply smiled, watching the children jump with glee.
They absolutely had the right to cheer and celebrate!
Last night, when the assessment results were compiled, almost all the supervising teachers commented that the students of the First Grade New Student Class showed exceptional resilience. Throughout the assessment, all of them displayed tenacious willpower and strong combat ability. It was the class with the highest number of teams that turned defeat into victory, and furthermore, the achievements of all the groups were roughly equal.
This was the first time since Zhou Yi became a teacher at Shrek Academy that her class had received public praise from the academy. Originally, her class had the fewest students, but after the assessment, it became the most populous class among the ten new student classes.
No matter how irritable Zhou Yi usually was, she was truly happy today. So, when Wang Dong and Huo Yuhao arrived late, she did not punish them, but merely joked a few words and let it go.
"Alright, settle down."
She let them cheer for a bit before speaking to quiet them. "Passing this assessment only guarantees that you can stay at the academy for this year, but it's only the first year. If you don't continue to work hard in the future, perhaps I won't be able to see you again. There's nothing to be happy about yet. Out of these twenty groups, fourteen still have to continue with the assessment, because you have made it into the top sixty-four teams. You all still have a long way to go. The upcoming elimination round is your real goal."
Hearing these words, Wang Dong and Huo Yuhao looked up, their eyes filled with surprise. Their class had a total of twenty groups, and fourteen of them had made it into the top sixty-four. This meant that in the upcoming elimination round, their class accounted for one-fifth of the participating teams, double the number of other classes. This achievement was truly something to be proud of!
Zhou Yi continued, "In this round-robin assessment, there were a total of six groups with perfect scores, and one of them is from our class. Originally, I intended to reward them a little, but they arrived late today. Therefore, it balances out—no reward, no punishment."
Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong once again became the focus of the entire class. The two couldn't help but feel uncomfortable. They exchanged a glance, but then immediately froze.
Because they discovered that the soul power within them unexpectedly moved, creating a strange sense of intimacy, even an urge to embrace each other. At this moment, they recalled what happened last night, why they had slept in each other's arms on the bed.
Wang Dong whispered, "We didn't succeed, did we?"
The answer was even clearer in Huo Yuhao's heart than in his, after all, he had just talked with the Heavenly Dream Ice Silkworm for a while! But he couldn't show it, only, his eyes constantly revealed a look of impatience.
"It's possible, let's try again after class."
"Mm."
The two nodded almost simultaneously, saying, thanks to this kind of tacit understanding, perhaps in the future they wouldn't even need spiritual probing to know what the other wanted to do. It was like twin fetuses sensing each other.
"Bang."
A loud noise startled Wang Dong and Huo Yuhao. The two looked up together, and in front of them was Zhou Yi's angry face.
Uh, they were caught...
"You two, go run laps for me. Put on your Iron Armor. You're not allowed to rest until class is over. You've only done a little bit and you're already getting cocky."
How unfair!
Although they secretly cried out in injustice, neither Huo Yuhao nor Wang Dong dared to argue. Once this Teacher Zhou made a decision, there was no hope of changing her mind. They could only embrace their pain and leave the classroom, running back to the dormitory to get their Iron Armor.
Zhou Yi watched them both leave the classroom dejectedly, snorted, and said:
"Remember this, no matter how much you achieve, always be a little humble. Arrogance will not only make you fall behind but can also cost you your life. Tomorrow, the official qualifiers begin. Now I will briefly explain a few points to pay attention to during combat."
Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong couldn't hear this lecture, but fortunately, there was still Xiao Xiao. Although Zhou Yi didn't say it directly, her intention was for Xiao Xiao to relay it to them.
"It's all your fault."
As soon as they left the Teaching Building, Wang Dong exploded, saying angrily.
Huo Yuhao said with an aggrieved expression.
"How can you blame me for this? Didn't you tell me to hug you yesterday?"
"What-did-you-say?"
Wang Dong gritted his teeth and glared at Huo Yuhao.
"Uh... we're a team, united, we must be united."
"United my foot, you got me punished, what are you going to do about it?"
Wang Dong said angrily.
"And also, about you sleeping in my bed yesterday, what about that?"
Huo Yuhao patted Wang Dong's shoulder and said.
"Come on, you and I have been brothers for so long, why bother with such a small matter? Let's quickly finish Teacher Zhou's punishment, otherwise, she'll get angry again later."
Huo Yuhao spoke as he ran, leaving Wang Dong stunned behind him. His voice grew further and further away, but as soon as he finished speaking, both of them stopped at the same time. Huo Yuhao instinctively looked down at his hand, and so did Wang Dong.
"Why is this happening?"
The two said in unison.
A strange thing had just happened to both of them at the same time. For some unknown reason, when they held hands, the soul power in their bodies suddenly transferred to the other person. It was as if the two had become a unified entity.
"Try again."
Huo Yuhao let go of Wang Dong's shoulder, then tightly grasped his hand.
The instant their hands touched, the Mysterious Heaven Skill soul power in Huo Yuhao's body immediately moved from his right hand to Wang Dong's left hand, and vice versa. The soul power of both moved back and forth rapidly, forming a cycle. The speed of the soul power's movement could be said to have doubled compared to normal.
Wang Dong was a genius among geniuses and immediately understood what was happening.
"Control it, slowly guide it into your body."
As he spoke, he offered his other hand for Huo Yuhao to grasp, his soul power continuously pouring into the other person's body.
Immediately, Huo Yuhao felt his soul power increase at an astonishing speed, rapidly filling his entire body.
His meridians had been reformed by the Profound Water Pill, and then continuously repaired by the Mysterious Heaven Art throughout three months of body tempering. Now, they had long since expanded much more than before, so even with a large influx of soul power, he didn't feel overwhelmed.
Between the two of them, a telepathic connection had appeared at some unknown point. Huo Yuhao immediately used Spirit Detection Sharing to cover Wang Dong.
Wang Dong closed his eyes, carefully sensing this strange change. Immediately, he discovered that the range of Huo Yuhao's detection had increased dramatically.
Initially, his spirit detection could only operate within a range of about sixty meters; if he focused on one direction, it could barely reach one hundred meters. But now, thanks to Wang Dong's soul power pouring in, it could instantly increase to over one hundred meters without needing to narrow the range.
The two stared at each other, wide-eyed and dumbfounded. Huo Yuhao said, trembling:
"Wang Dong, have you ever heard of soul masters being able to use each other's soul power when performing a Martial Soul Fusion Skill?"
Wang Dong shook his head in a daze, muttering:
"How could that be? Could it be that we succeeded yesterday?"
Huo Yuhao said anxiously:
"Let's find a place to try again."
Just then, an angry voice rang out.
"You two damn brats, why aren't you quickly getting the Iron Clothes? What are you doing holding hands and chatting there???"
---
Due to some misunderstandings, I previously wrote Huo Yuhao's class name incorrectly. From now on, "Xin Sheng Yi Ban" will be changed to "Xin Sheng Class One." Other classes will be changed similarly. I am currently editing the old chapters. Readers, please take note.