What did it mean for a single class to have three Spirit Ancestors simultaneously in their second year?
In the history of Shrek Academy, this was practically unheard of.
Never mind the second year—even in the higher third or fourth years, Spirit Ancestor-level students were as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns; every one of them was a Core Disciple being groomed with priority.
And now, their single class accounted for half of all Spirit Ancestors in the entire Outer Court's lower grades.
"Gu Yue."
After enjoying the sensation of being the center of attention for a moment, Ye Guyi suddenly seemed to remember something and immediately turned her spearhead toward the silver-haired girl beside her, who had remained cool and indifferent throughout.
With her hands on her hips, she puffed out her cheeks in a show of feigned anger, looking like a provocative kitten.
"Give me an honest account. Why did you leave without saying goodbye before the holidays? Do you not see me as a friend? Speak, how are you going to compensate me?"
Hearing this, a trace of helplessness flickered in Gu Yuena's purple eyes.
She had indeed left alone before the break.
She hadn't expected Ye Guyi to be so persistent.
"What do you want?"
Gu Yuena's voice was cool, yet it lacked the bone-chilling frost that kept people miles away.
"Heh heh."
This was the exact sentence Ye Guyi had been waiting for. She immediately broke into a triumphant smile and pointed a finger out the window toward Shrek City.
"Your punishment is to treat us to a meal. We're going to the most expensive place in the city, 'Tingchao Pavilion,' and I'm going to order the most expensive dishes."
"Fine."
Gu Yuena agreed crisply, as if that restaurant, famous for its astronomical prices, was no more than a roadside stall in her eyes.
"That simple?"
Ye Guyi was actually stunned for a moment; the whole set of soft-soaping and pestering arguments she had prepared hadn't even had a chance to leave her mouth.
"Whoa, Big Sister is generous!"
Zhou Sichen had been listening with perked ears for a while. Upon hearing such a good thing, his eyes instantly lit up like two lightbulbs. He leaned in without hesitation, a fawning smile on his face.
"Um... can I come too?"
"Me too, me too!"
Cao Jinxuan also cheekily followed suit, terrified of missing out on this feast.
Caelus looked at these jokers and couldn't help but shake his head with a laugh.
Gu Yuena treating everyone to a meal—this was the kind of miracle where the sun rose from the west; naturally, he wouldn't miss it.
He stepped forward and smiled. "Count me in. If you're treating, I certainly can't miss out."
The situation quickly escalated beyond Ye Guyi's original expectations.
Someone shouted that the Assistant Class Monitor was treating the whole class to dinner, and the entire classroom erupted into a frenzy.
In the end, this private extortion initiated by Ye Guyi evolved into a grand back-to-school feast for the entirety of Class 1, Grade 2.
Facing a sea of expectant, heckling, or reserved faces, Gu Yuena simply nodded faintly, turning no one away.
Her composure and indifference suggested there was no difference between treating one person or dozens.
In this moment, she perfectly demonstrated to everyone what it meant to have the undisputed 'Big Sister' style of Class 1, Grade 2.
The fact that Gu Yuena was treating was a massive draw in itself.
Even the habitually proud Dai Huabin, who viewed Caelus and the others as his greatest rivals, hesitated for a moment before bringing Zhu Lu along to follow them.
On the other side, Wang Dong, who had been somewhat distracted, had a flicker in his eyes upon hearing Gu Yuena was treating and silently joined the group.
Even the largest private room at Shrek City's top restaurant, 'Tingchao Pavilion,' still felt a bit crowded.
They had to open several more rooms to split up the crowd.
Delicacies were served like flowing water. Every dish was as exquisite as a work of art and rich in Spiritual Qi, allowing everyone to feast heartily.
The atmosphere soon became heated amidst the fine food and the laughter of the young boys and girls.
However, within this clamor, one topic would occasionally surface like a faint shadow.
"Sigh, where exactly did Yuhao go? There's been no news for the entire holiday."
Xiao Xiao picked up a piece of translucent spirit meat and spoke with some worry.
As soon as she finished speaking, Wang Dong at the neighboring table put down his chopsticks.
The food in front of him was almost untouched, and his handsome face carried a trace of hard-to-conceal anxiety.
"I don't know where he went either. I haven't been able to reach him through the Soul Communication Device."
Several classmates who usually had good relations with Huo Yuhao also chimed in, stating they couldn't contact him at all.
A sense of worry spread through the small circle.
Caelus listened quietly. He knew that Huo Yuhao had most likely gone to the Extreme North Land.
The Heavenly Dream Ice Worm's god-making plan would inevitably lead him there.
He just didn't know what Huo Yuhao had encountered in that frozen wasteland to make him late for the start of the term.
For any ordinary student, an unexcused absence would almost certainly result in expulsion.
But Huo Yuhao was different; he was already the apple of Fan Yu's eye and the future hope of the Soul Tool Department.
With an eighth-class Soul Engineer like Fan Yu vouching for him, the Academy clearly wouldn't hand down a punishment lightly.
This grand opening feast set a new tone for Class 1, Grade 2.
As for Huo Yuhao's whereabouts, they remained an unresolved mystery within the class.
A few days after school started, everything returned to its normal track.
Wang Yan, the Class Teacher, and Han Ruoruo, the Assistant Class Teacher, soon noticed Huo Yuhao's absence as well.
They specifically sought out Wang Dong and Xiao Xiao to ask about the situation, but the result was always a loss of contact.
Because of this, Wang Yan even made a special trip to the Soul Tool Department to find Fan Yu.
He held extremely high expectations for Huo Yuhao, an outlier student with a mental attribute, expectations perhaps no lower than those for the already famous geniuses like Caelus.
It wasn't until an afternoon a week after school started.
While Wang Yan was on the podium explaining the habits of different Soul Beasts, the classroom door was gently pushed open.
A travel-worn figure appeared at the doorway.
He wore an old school uniform that had long since faded to white, still stained with a bit of dust that hadn't been brushed off.
His frame looked a bit thinner than before the holidays, and his face was somewhat pale, but his eyes were startlingly bright—as if he had undergone some kind of transformation, washing away all confusion and leaving only a clarity and determination like ice and snow.
It was Huo Yuhao.
The eyes of the entire class focused on him instantly.
Wang Dong and Xiao Xiao stood up in excitement.
Inside Caelus's Sea of Consciousness, the Ice Empress, who was playing a two-player co-op platformer game with Istaroth, suddenly jolted.
In the game, the ice-blue character she controlled fell into a lava trap because of this Divided Soul, letting out a scream.
"What are you doing? Don't throw the game!"
Istaroth's lazy complaint echoed through the Sea of Consciousness.
But the Ice Empress ignored her completely.
Her emerald-green twin-tails swayed slightly, and her exquisite face was filled with confusion.
In that moment just now, she had sensed an aura.
A very familiar aura.
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