Chapter 60 Class Dismissed

"What... me...?"

Huo Yuhao was momentarily speechless, having no idea whatsoever what he had said wrong.

From his perspective, simply enabling lower-tier Spirit Masters to receive subsidies and mediating wars between empires was already a remarkably great achievement.

However...

What on earth did free Spirit awakening mean?

In his memory, the Duke's Mansion gathered children of appropriate age every single year to awaken their Spirits, without a single interruption. It was entirely free of charge with no other requirements, and even the servants' children were allowed to participate.

"Sigh~ You child!"

The old man exasperatedly tapped Huo Yuhao on the head, checked their surroundings to get his bearings, and then led him into a tavern, heading straight for a private room on the second floor.

"Wh... What is it?"

Seeing the old man's solemn expression, a wave of panic washed over Huo Yuhao.

"This is Heaven Dou City... The legendary tales of that hero are still being passed down to this day. The Spirit Hall, as a band of demons that launched a war trying to trample the entire world, has been nailed to the pillar of shame for ten thousand years!"

"Had it not been for the intervention of the Sea God, I'm afraid both the Heaven Dou and Star Luo Empires would have long ceased to exist, and countless prosperous sects would have vanished into dust, let alone those ancient families passed down since antiquity..."

The old man quietly looked straight into his eyes. "Do you understand what you were just saying?"

Huo Yuhao's face instantly turned pale.

Though young, he was far from ignorant of certain principles.

That remark didn't even need to be spread around; if he were simply to stand in the middle of a main street in Heaven Dou City and shout it out loud, he might not even live to see tomorrow's sunrise.

"Weren't those things you said yourself?"

Recovering slightly, Huo Yuhao suddenly realized something was amiss and glared back with a bellyful of resentment. "Every single thing you mentioned sounded like a good deed, but when I follow your logic, it's somehow entirely my fault?"

"—Are they really good deeds?"

The old man interrupted him with a half-smile, then sighed self-deprecatingly. "As expected, some things are still far too early for you."

If Huo Yuhao hadn't blurted out that out-of-context statement back in the far northern wilderness, he wouldn't have been struck by a whim to discuss these matters with a mere eleven or twelve-year-old kid.

Right now... the boy could only distinguish between distant and close relatives, steadfast friends and bitter enemies.

Talk of nobles and Spirit Master social strata would just go completely over his head.

"You'll understand when you grow up."

The old man chuckled as he fiddled with the teacup. "What do you plan to eat? Put it on my tab."

"What on earth are you trying to say?"

Huo Yuhao's expression was quite unsightly.

Acting all mysterious, leaving his sentences half-finished, and contradicting himself—everything he said just left him guessing in the dark.

Nobody talked like this!

"I'd love to tell you~ But I can't just spell it out directly. Just like how you want to hear it, but purely listening to it brings only harm and no benefit, and might even invite disaster upon you!"

The old man looked at him with profound pity. "I can only give you one piece of advice: What you need to do right now is cultivate! Treat Shrek as your soil, absorb its nutrients, learn what you want to learn, and pay no mind to the opinions or instigations of others."

"—Of course, if you happen to encounter a better, more suitable place, then don't hesitate. Any place that cannot nurture your healthy growth is not worth lingering over."

With that, he pushed the tea back in front of Huo Yuhao, his gaze deep and distant. "As a side note... I can tell... you are desperately starved for affection and terrified of loneliness."

"..."

Huo Yuhao shivered slightly.

"Looks like I guessed right."

The old man nodded knowingly. "Whenever those messy emotions try to interfere with your judgment, just think about what your original intention was when you first set out on this journey~"

"That's all for today, class dismissed!"

...

"Class dismissed!"

Wang Yan closed his textbook, looking with a peculiar gaze at the spirited students seated before him.

It was strange—why was it that whenever he lectured on knowledge related to mental attribute powers, a large crowd of people listened with utmost attentiveness? It had been like this for several days running.

Surely it couldn't be because of Huo Yuhao, could it?

Hadn't that boy already transferred to the Spirit Engineering Department and stopped competing with these martial soul students?

Unable to figure it out for a moment, Wang Yan simply gave up pondering. "Forget it, time to go see the Seven Monsters in the inner courtyard and prepare for the tournament."

To him, that was the most crucial matter at hand.

Securing the qualification to lead the Seven Monsters, then claiming the championship title of the tournament, would earn him the right to enter the inner courtyard once more.

Wang Yan's eyes gleamed.

Let's hope everything goes smoothly.

"Hey! Stop daydreaming, it's time to eat."

Xiao Xiao poked Wang Dong's arm, then watched as Wang Dong stood up absentmindedly and began to walk away, a flicker of deep suspicion flashing through her eyes.

The more she looked, the more wrong something felt.

Following her inner intuition, Xiao Xiao deliberately slowed her pace, strolling leisurely for a few minutes until everyone else had hurried off to the cafeteria and the corridor was completely empty.

Then, she suddenly reached out and tapped Wang Dong on the shoulder.

"Wang Dong! What color dress do you like to wear?"

"Powder blue. Just like my hair—uh?"

Wang Dong instinctively gave the reply, only to instantly snap back to reality. She turned around with a horrified expression, meeting Xiao Xiao's scrutinizing gaze, unable to string a single complete sentence together. "I... I... I..."

"You what?"

Xiao Xiao narrowed her eyes, revealing a dangerous smile. "Could it be that you're someone who secretly likes to wear women's clothing...?"

"No!"

After instinctively shouting a denial, Wang Dong looked even more distressed. Within mere seconds, cold sweat drenched her back as she stammered out a frantic excuse. "Wait... it's not what you think..."

"Oh~"

Having probed out the truth, Xiao Xiao instantly put on an expression of utter understanding. "So that's how it is."

"Well then, classmate Wang Dong~"

Xiao Xiao flashed a chilling smile at her. "—May I ask if you happen to be living in the wrong dormitory?"

"!"

Wang Dong instantly staggered back several steps, pressing herself tightly against the wall, unable to suppress the panic in her eyes.

Why did it come to this?

To hide her true gender, she had deliberately trained for a period of time, and to conceal her voice and appearance, she had even used disguise items given to her by her two fathers.

How could she have been discovered so easily?

At what exact moment had she slipped up?

"Hah!"

Xiao Xiao crossed her arms, letting out a series of cold laughs. "Are you going to confess everything to me now or not? If I hadn't figured it out, how much longer were you going to lie to us? And here the two of us treated you like a friend~"

"I..."

Wang Dong bitterly managed a wry smile as she brushed her fingers across her cheek and neck. In an instant flash of transition, her voice and features softened, even taking on a somewhat delicate and tender quality. "I didn't want to... It's just that my family insisted on this arrangement, and I had no choice!"

"Your family arranged this?"

Xiao Xiao's expression cracked as she stared at Wang Dong in disbelief. "Impossible! How could any family make their own daughter dress in men's clothes and live in a boys' dormitory? Weren't they afraid something would happen to you? Weren't they worried about—uh..."

No matter how wildly she guessed, she never imagined that this whole affair was the handiwork of the so-called 'family'.

Such an operation...

Was this really something a normal person could dream up?