"Not bad. If you understood all that, then you do have some talent, Wang Dong."
Inside the lab, Huo Yuhao praised with satisfaction as he wiped the chalkboard clean of densely written principles on basic electric-type soul tool components.
Wang Dong, who had just packed up his notebook and pencils like a high school student, grinned proudly.
"Hmph, who do you think I am? None of this is hard at all."
He really felt like he had found the soul tool direction most suited for his development. Over the past few days, he had asked He Caitou about what the normal soul engineer curriculum looked like—only to realize he couldn't understand a single thing. In fact, he felt like what he was learning about electric-type soul tools was entirely different from soul power-based soul tools.
After finishing cleaning the blackboard, Huo Yuhao let out a mischievous laugh. Then he took out a huge stack of books from his storage-type soul tool and walked over to Wang Dong, who was staring at him blankly. With a loud thud, the books landed on Wang Dong's desk.
"Since you said it wasn't hard, then do these assignments for me."
Wang Dong stared at the stack of workbooks—easily over twenty centimeters high—for three seconds. Then he let out a wail and collapsed on the desk.
"Nooooooo—!"
The reason Wang Dong had made such fast progress wasn't because he was particularly smart—quite the opposite. In some aspects of learning and applying knowledge, he was actually rather clumsy. His intelligence was just at the threshold needed to keep up with the course.
Smart students like those in Mingde Hall required clever methods to teach, but for someone like Wang Dong? The dumb approach worked better—massive amounts of grueling homework, just to hammer in the fundamentals.
That's why, even in the middle of the night around one or two in the morning, people passing by could still see the flickering silhouette of Wang Dong staying up and writing under the window. He might not have been bright, but he wasn't lazy either. After days of hard work, his basics had become fairly solid.
The problem was—this new mountain of homework was at least three times the total amount he'd written over the past few days. How long would he have to work to finish this?
"Stop whining. Electric-type soul tools aren't like regular ones—you can't just jump into crafting without a solid foundation in theory. Only once you've mastered the theory can you move to practice, understand?"
Huo Yuhao criticized him without mercy, watching Wang Dong's defeated expression. To him, that workload was nothing, considering his intellect and the efficiency his powerful spiritual energy provided. But all Wang Dong could do in response to the "encouragement" was mutter incoherently.
Huo Yuhao sighed.
'Useless.'
"Don't be so discouraged. You've got half a month to finish this. I'll keep teaching you during that time, and once we're done, we'll start actual hands-on practice. Deal?"
"Mm..."
Wang Dong slowly sat upright, still groggy, and stuffed the homework into his storage-type soul tool. He really didn't want to write any of it.
Still, even when he felt utterly exhausted doing all that work, he had never once thought of protesting or rebelling against Huo Yuhao's assignments. It was like—if Huo Yuhao told him to do something, he'd just do it.
That realization made his face instantly flush red. Head lowered, he hastily packed up the rest of his things and said a hasty goodbye to Huo Yuhao before dashing out of the lab.
Huo Yuhao stared in confusion as Wang Dong bolted away.
'This guy... always doing weird stuff.'
Still, he didn't think too deeply about it. Maybe she—no, he—just had to pee?
"Still gotta get back early and make dinner for Senior Meng."
Outside the lab, Wang Dong ran until he found an empty spot. His hand pressed to his burning face.
'Ugh, what was I even thinking just now...?'
He lightly slapped his own cheeks. What exactly were his feelings toward Huo Yuhao?
"Hmph, that jerk... heartless and cruel! He can kill someone in a match, and then torture me with this mountain of homework!"
Muttering complaints under his breath, Wang Dong finally calmed down a little and began walking back toward the dorms.
But what he didn't notice was—somewhere deep down, in his heart, he'd already started to equate Huo Yuhao killing Dai Huabin with Huo Yuhao assigning him tons of homework on the same scale of evil.
In these past few days, Huo Yuhao hadn't just been busy teaching Wang Dong. He'd also been hard at work on... not brainwashing—on purifying Ma Xiaotao's evil fire.
Right now, Ma Xiaotao was curled up on the floor, trembling violently. The stimulation from Huo Yuhao's Ultimate Ice had caused her inner evil fire to surge uncontrollably. Her mind was now filled with twisted desires born of that fire. Yet even though a man was right there with her, all she could do was lie there, shaking helplessly, unable to act on any of those urges.
She used what little reason she had left to glare hatefully at Huo Yuhao, who stood before her, face expressionless under the dim lighting of the underground room.
Outside, Jing Hongchen was monitoring the situation with his spiritual power. If Ma Xiaotao showed even the slightest sign of attacking Huo Yuhao, he would step in immediately.
Still, even with that threat present, Ma Xiaotao might have lost control anyway. But she hadn't. Because the influence Huo Yuhao was having on her — his "deprogramming" — was starting to take effect. Slowly but surely, she was developing a bizarre sense of obedience toward him. Even more disturbingly, she had begun to feel a warped kind of enjoyment in her current lustful, degraded state.
"That's enough for today."
Huo Yuhao's tone was calm as he withdrew his Ultimate Ice soul power.
Each session of evil fire purification was strictly regulated by Huo Yuhao's precise control. According to his calculations, it would take over a thousand sessions to completely purge the evil fire. But as his cultivation grew, that number would steadily decrease.
Finally, Ma Xiaotao felt her body slowly returning to normal. With difficulty, she sat up and used a handkerchief to wipe the sweat from her forehead.
Having suffered from wearing too little during the first purification session, today she came prepared—wrapped from neck to toe in a fire-red skintight suit. At least this time, her sweat hadn't soaked through to her outer layer. Beneath that tight outfit, her scorching-hot body wasn't wearing anything else at all.
(End of Chapter)
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