Chapter 109: Zhou Yi Is an Evil Soul Master
"Zhou Yi, you wretched hag! I've always known your tyrannical, domineering way of teaching—treating students like they're less than human—would come back to bite you someday! I never imagined, I never imagined, that you'd actually go even further, attacking a student in broad daylight, right here on academy grounds in front of everyone?! Do you even care about the academy rules anymore? Do you even care about the law?!"
Mugin spoke at a blistering pace, her words erupting like firecrackers, giving Zhou Yi absolutely no chance to interject or explain. Her figure shifted again, and she had already planted herself firmly between Furina and the Class One students on one side, and Zhou Yi on the other. The green jade staff martial soul in her hand radiated a faint, luminous glow. She eyed Zhou Yi with razor-sharp vigilance. Her stance was exactly that of a mother hen protecting her chicks against a vicious hawk.
"I—!" Zhou Yi felt a choked surge of suffocating rage block her chest. Her vision kept going dark in waves. The finger she had extended toward Mugin trembled violently. Her lips quivered and writhed for what felt like an eternity, yet under the crushing weight of absolute fury and utter indignation, she couldn't force out a single complete word.
And this was only the beginning.
Mugin's booming shout and Furina's earlier "shriek of terror" were like two massive boulders hurled into a placid pond. From every floor of the new student teaching building, countless heads poked out from behind windows and railings. Eyes filled with curiosity, shock, and excitement converged on this single point.
Immediately after, the sound of tearing air rang out in quick succession. Four or five figures shot in from different directions at high speed—all homeroom teachers of other classes or academy deacons who had sensed the abnormal soul power fluctuations and cries for help. They landed at the periphery of the scene, taking in the confrontation at the center: Zhou Yi and Mugin locked in standoff; the soul rings and crushing pressure still visibly erupting from Zhou Yi's body; then looking at the group of Class One students behind Mugin, their faces filled with fear—though a significant portion of it was feigned; and finally, at Furina, supported by Huo Yuhao, looking as if she might collapse at any moment, her eyes brimming with unshed tears...
Almost no words were needed. An image had already formed in most minds: a violent teacher bullying a frail, helpless student, only to be heroically intercepted by another righteous instructor.
Huo Yuhao's "assist" came at the perfect moment. He had somehow already squeezed to Furina's side. One hand supported her lightly. The other was clenched into a fist against his chest. His face was etched with worry and lingering fear. Even his eyes had reddened slightly. His gaze shifted back and forth between Furina and Zhou Yi, as if he wanted to speak but couldn't find the words. His entire demeanor was that of a younger brother who had just witnessed his elder sister being bullied—terrified, furious, yet too afraid to step forward.
Xiao Xiao and Wang Dong, standing behind them, watched this unfold with stunned bewilderment. The same strange thought surfaced in both their minds at nearly the same instant: That guy Yuhao... could he actually be Furina's long-lost brother from a different father and mother? This reaction is way too real—way too natural!
Mugin had naturally taken note of Huo Yuhao's performance as well. It undoubtedly made the image of victimization in her mind all the more vivid and convincing. She sneered inwardly, but outwardly her face grew ever more radiant with righteous indignation. She slowed her voice and, facing the Class One students—especially in the direction of Furina and Huo Yuhao—asked with gentle yet unwavering firmness, "Children, there's no need to be afraid anymore. I am Mugin, homeroom teacher of New Student Class Nine. Tell me—what exactly was Teacher Zhou Yi about to do to you just now?"
"Bullshit! You filthy bitch Mugin, stop slinging mud and spewing lies here!!" Zhou Yi had finally caught her breath after that spell of dizziness and suffocating constriction. Hearing Mugin's highly leading question, she felt as though her internal organs were about to explode from sheer fury. The long-suppressed volcano erupted in full. All decorum, all dignity—cast aside. The shrill curse tore from her lips before she could stop it.
She had lived so many years—a dignified and respected Soul Emperor, a duly appointed teacher of Shrek Academy—and now she was being framed by a student in such a despicable, underhanded manner, and caught "red-handed" by her mortal enemy, publicly humiliated before all! This script was wrong! Completely, utterly wrong!! Where was the dignity of a Soul Emperor? Where was the honor of a teacher? How could she be toyed with and manipulated like this by a low-ranked soul master?!
The combination of extreme fury, humiliation, and sheer absurdity crashed through her, making her blood and qi churn violently. On that face of hers—which she had always presented to the world as that of a stern old woman—an unnatural flush began to show through.
The flush grew more and more pronounced. It was even beginning to seep through that layer of meticulously painted, human-skin mask she wore to maintain the image of an "austere, venerable instructor"!
Furina stole a quick upward glance, and the corner of her mouth curved almost imperceptibly. That flush seeping through the "shell" on Zhou Yi's face was, in her eyes, practically like some kind of system alarm flashing frantically.
"Which child called for help just now?" Mugin kept her eyes locked on Zhou Yi, whose condition was clearly deteriorating, while using her gaze to signal the other teachers who had just arrived. They subtly fanned out, forming a loose encirclement to prevent Zhou Yi from truly losing control and lashing out.
"It was me, Teacher Mugin." Furina raised her hand timidly, her voice still carrying the slight raspiness of recent sobs. She shuffled half a step forward, as if seeking more protection. "Teacher Zhou... Teacher Zhou just said she was going to expel our entire class... We were so scared. We begged her not to do it. Then she... then she suddenly released her martial soul and used her oppressive pressure to suppress us..."
"I—I was so terrified, I thought she was an evil soul master disguised as a teacher. I thought she said she was expelling us, but really it was just an excuse—that once we were outside the academy's protection, she'd secretly capture us and use us for some evil cultivation method..." As she spoke, her body gave a few more shudders, as if recalling some horrifying memory.
"Uh..." Even Mugin—who had every intention of making trouble for Zhou Yi—found herself momentarily speechless at this line of reasoning, her expression turning somewhat odd. What kind of place was Shrek Academy? The foremost soul master academy on the continent, watched over by the Sea God's Pavilion, with the strictest internal and external scrutiny imaginable. To claim that an evil soul master had infiltrated the academy... this imagination was, perhaps, a touch too vivid.
"Bullshit!!! If I were really an evil soul master, I'd cripple you right here and now! Then I'd sever your four limbs and toss you into the sewers!"
Zhou Yi had completely lost her mind. Furina had dared pin the label of "evil soul master" on her—a label a hundred times more vicious than that of murderer. And she'd even said Zhou Yi wanted to capture students for evil cultivation?! This was no longer mere slander. This was an attempt to utterly ruin her name and destroy her beyond any hope of redemption! The extreme, unhinged fury shattered the last shred of reason—and with it, the tight, strained disguise on her face.
Riiip. A soft tearing sound. The human-skin mask, which had long been stretched beyond endurance by the extreme tension of her facial muscles and the violent upward surge of blood and qi, split open along a clear, visible seam from the corner of her mouth to her cheekbone!
"Zhou Yi! Mind your standing and your words!" A middle-aged male teacher standing nearby couldn't bear to watch any longer and barked out a sharp reprimand.
At this moment, Zhou Yi's hair was disheveled and wild. Her face was contorted into a bestial mask of rage, the human-skin mask split open upon it. Coupled with that murderous, venomous curse—so utterly unbefitting a teacher—she looked every bit like someone who had succumbed to demonic deviation, as if she might tear Furina to shreds in the very next second.
He and two other teachers stepped forward simultaneously, their soul powers faintly interlinking to form a gentle but resolute suppressing force, forcibly pushing back a measure of the out-of-control, overflowing Soul Emperor aura.
Furina laughed inwardly, but on her face, she only appeared even more frightened and helpless, tears swirling perfectly on the verge of spilling from her eyes. "Isn't that exactly what it looks like? Teacher Mugin, esteemed teachers, you've all seen it with your own eyes... Teacher Zhou clearly said just now that she was going to 'teach me a proper lesson.' She even brought out her soul rings and martial soul and released such terrifying pressure. Isn't that plainly bullying someone with force? She relies on her high soul power rank—we're just students. We don't dare fight back, and we couldn't even if we tried..."