"So. Do you understand what you did wrong?" Directing his sharp glare at the five youths kneeling before him, Yun Ming's scowl grew deeper. It had taken an hour or two for Wulin to return from who knows where but the Atlas Douluo quickly caught him and threw him in the disciplinary room with the rest.
"…I tried to stab you?" Hesitantly offering an answer, Xie Xie was only somewhat sure that was the answer. It was the most offensive thing he had done but it was like getting angry at an ant for trying to bite you. A waste of time and energy.
"Wrong! Your only flaw was not telling me something so interesting sooner!" Suddenly whining like a child, Yun Ming could only grunt in pain when his wife pulled on his ear. Cradling his reddened ear, the Atlas Douluo looked at Ya Li like a kicked puppy.
"Focus on the matter at hand first. Then you can complain all you want." Shaking her head with a sigh, Ya Li turned her sight onto the five students. "The only mistake you made isn't your fault, it's ours." Frowning deeply, a melancholic aura surrounded the Holy Spirit Douluo.
Recognizing the looks of confusion on the student's faces, Yun Ming parted his lips. "You all are too experienced. You've seen atrocities people your age should never have and it's made its mark on you. Xie Xie, do you know what you did wrong now?"
"…I won too quickly." Frowning deeply, Xie Xie finally realized his mistake. No, they all did. They had grown so accustomed to fighting with their lives on the line that they had gotten used to that kind of fighting. You win quickly to move on to the next enemy or you die trying.
"Mhm. You all treated this arena as a battlefield, not a stage. I'm not saying it's bad to fight like that, it'll save your life more times than you can count, but sometimes you have to know when to play a part." Gently chiding the youths, Yun Ming smiled softly at the looks of recognition that crossed their faces.
The 'battlefield' they believed they stood on was nothing more than a stage for them to reveal their brilliance to the world. Winning would be great but losing was fine as well. But they didn't take it that way. They treated defeat like some conceptual evil, an enemy that they had to always be one step ahead of when, in reality, defeat was the greatest teacher of them all.
Xie Xie achieved victory in an instant without giving himself a chance to shine. Mu Xi used her prior knowledge to achieve a swift victory without showing off her strengths. Wulin revealed too much of his hand to achieve victory and Yuena couldn't even stomach the thought of defeat.
"This wasn't a trial, it was an opportunity to prove you deserve the right to lead the next generation. Through this tournament, you would show that you would be a role model for generations to come, a paragon of hope. Instead, you became a symbol of fear to every student at Shrek, and by extension, the world." Yun Ming continued, the cruel truth leaving his lips.
"Victory isn't everything. Sometimes… it's okay to lose." Smiling softly there was a hint of sorrow in Ya Li's warm eyes. It wasn't her fault that they had to experience so much in such a short time but the nagging feeling of there being more to have done will never leave. That was the curse of an educator.
Taking a moment to look over each student's expressions, Yun Ming was happy to see that they were taking their words to heart. While the role of an educator came with plenty of sleepless nights and sudden goodbyes, this sight was always worth it. Seeing the next generation grow day by day was always worth it.
"Right now, you stand at the top of the food chain. You're all monsters that cannot be surpassed by your age group, and for two of you, even the old generation. Now, you don't need to prove your strength, you need to prove you are human. Show the students that you aren't to be feared, that they can come to you for help and stand behind you should the time come. Be there for them." Slapping Wulin on the back, Yun Ming was all smiles at their growth.
"Mull that over for now. You all need your rest." Giving Wulin and Yuena a pointed glare at that, Ya Li made it abundantly clear that she wasn't tricked by their facade of normalcy. Both suffered from universal punishment though on a lesser scale than Wulin previously experienced.
Wulin's usage of the Dragon God's blood and a large part of his own blood essence had proved enough of a weakness for the universal order to begin affecting him. It was tame and would go away quickly but it certainly was affecting him.
Yuena's case wasn't much different than her partner's either. By utilizing her meager divinity to its limits, she had surpassed the level her body could endure. Her punishment was light but even sitting still there were times when she would twitch faintly. She wore a calm face but she was in pain at a level she wasn't accustomed to. And, horrifyingly, she was acclimatizing quickly.
Nodding their heads the five youths made their way out of their rooms and into their dorms. Now that they were officially students they were moved into the student dormitories and since they had made quite the mess today, Yun Ming decided that the Working Student Dormitories would be the best fit for troublemakers like them.
"Haa. At least they're learning. I remember a certain somebody making the entire world his enemy when he was far older than them." Shooting her spouse a glare Ya Li's intensity withered away as he whisked her off her feet and pulled her into his embrace.
"Need I remind you how precious what he got in return was? It is nightfall, you know." Wearing a suggestive smile, Yun Ming carried her off to their quarters while she giggled away. Wulin was the closest thing to a son for the Atlas Douluo and he made the concept quite enticing.
Now came the fun part~.
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Hey there, hope you liked the chapter.
The invasion of evil soul masters changed the mentality of class 0 and that was the reason for the travesty that was this tournament. They can't lose. They won't accept anything other than victory because, to them, their lives were on the line every battle. Unconsciously, they treated every battle like it would be their last.
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