Douluo Dalu 2: Reincarnated as the Auspicious Beast

A cold hand landed on Wang Dong's head.

Jiang Lan gently tidied his slightly messy hair, the silky texture drawing her to run her fingers through it a couple more times.

A faint light flickered through her usually empty-looking purple eyes.

Wang Dong felt the coolness of her fingertips seep into his scalp, sending a tingling sensation through his hair roots. He instinctively shrank back, retreating until his back pressed against the sink's edge.

"Um… Senior Sister, why are you in the first-year teaching building?" Wang Dong asked softly.

Jiang Lan tilted her head slightly and studied Wang Dong intently.

"Aren't you… feeling down?" Her voice was as flat as ever, yet carried a subtle trace of concern. "Your heart's rhythm feels different from before…"

"I…" Wang Dong was startled.

Looking into those calm purple eyes, an unexpected urge to confide in her welled up inside him.

There were things he couldn't discuss with his two fathers back at the sect. They treated him very well, but their gazes always carried something strange—something indescribable.

But Jiang Lan… she exuded a deep tranquility, like an unshakable force of nature. She reminded him of a deep pool, a mountain rock, or an ancient tree. Even though they had only met twice, Wang Dong instinctively felt he could trust her with his troubles.

"My homeroom teacher clearly doesn't like me. She scolded me over something completely ridiculous, punished me by making me run two hundred laps around the field, yet still made me the class president," Wang Dong said in a low voice, his tone full of frustration. "Now, all my classmates are looking at me strangely, like I'm some sort of traitor or something. But that's not even the worst part…

"The real problem is that there's another voice in my head telling me I should be grateful to my teacher, that I should respect her.

"It's really weird—like someone else is inside my mind, constantly producing thoughts that aren't my own. And worse, I'm starting to feel emotions of respect and gratitude toward her, even though I don't like her and have no reason to thank or respect her. I don't even want to be class president… I…"

His voice trailed off. The more he spoke, the more absurd his words sounded.

After all, his brain was his own—how could it generate thoughts that didn't belong to him?

The blue-haired boy stole a glance at Jiang Lan, worried that she might laugh at him for having such a bizarre concern.

To his surprise, a subtle change flickered across her usually impassive face—her delicate brows knit together slightly, as if lost in thought.

"Thoughts appearing in my mind that don't belong to me… I think I have that too," she murmured.

Her tone was a little unfocused, uncertain.

"There are thoughts about honor, protection, and obedience—thoughts that come from nowhere. I don't like them."

As she spoke, a flicker of pain flashed through her eyes—so brief that no outsider could have caught it.

This time, Wang Dong was the one left stunned.

So… this kind of thing wasn't just happening to him?

Jiang Lan was experiencing it too?

At that moment, a male student—one of the cleaning crew—rushed into the restroom.

He didn't notice Wang Dong and Jiang Lan standing by the sink at all. Clearly in a hurry, he fumbled with his belt and immediately started relieving himself.

"AHHHHHHH!!!" Wang Dong screamed.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" The unfortunate student was so startled that he completely lost his aim.

o_o? This was Jiang Lan's reaction.

"What's wrong with you?! Why are you screaming?!" the student shouted angrily.

"You—how can you—"

Wang Dong froze.

He suddenly realized he had no idea why he had screamed. It was just an instinctive reaction, as if something deep in his mind told him he wasn't supposed to see another person taking off their pants.

But… they were both guys. What was there to be embarrassed about?

Something felt off.

He bit his lower lip hard—so hard it almost broke the skin.

But the other student was still cursing, and Wang Dong had no time to dwell on his thoughts. He quickly raised his voice to drown him out.

"Pull up your pants! There's a senior sister here!"

"AHHHH!!!" The unfortunate student finally noticed Jiang Lan standing quietly to the side. Letting out a wretched cry, he scrambled to yank his pants up before bolting from the restroom like a man fleeing for his life.

Judging by the sheer despair in his retreating figure, he probably wished he could flee the entire Douluo planet.

Jiang Lan, however, remained completely unbothered, as if nothing had happened.

After such an awkward incident, Wang Dong had no intention of staying in the restroom any longer. He quickly said goodbye to Jiang Lan and returned to his dormitory.

After all, he still had to send off his roommate. (Literally.)

Meanwhile…

An Wen's expulsion had been revoked.

Wang Dong was happy about it, of course, but he also felt like his emotions had been completely wasted.

The other nine students who had been expelled by Old Witch Zhou immediately latched onto Lang Wen, treating her like their new leader and scrambling to curry favor with her.

That, however, was a story for another time.

The Aftermath of Class One's Turmoil

Du Weilun called Zhou Yi in for a discussion.

Naturally, Zhou Yi was furious. She accused the academy of disrespecting her teaching methods and stubbornly refused to back down.

But Du Weilun was just as unyielding. He told her that she had two choices:

Follow the new rules—no more corporal punishment, no more expulsions—and finish teaching this first-year Class One properly.Get the hell out of Shrek Academy and never teach here again.

Zhou Yi obviously wasn't willing to leave. She still dreamed of getting promoted to Senior Teacher and eventually teaching in the Inner Court.

Fan Yu had tried multiple times to intervene on her behalf, but once Du Weilun mentioned Yan Shaozhe, even he backed off.

With no other options, Zhou Yi had to stay and continue teaching.

However, she had no idea how to communicate with students. All she knew was brute force, using relentless pressure to force compliance.

Now that she had lost her ability to threaten and punish, she resorted to her last weapon: words.

Using Shrek Academy's centuries-old CPU-level brainwashing techniques and moral coercion, she began guilt-tripping the students of Class One into submission.

An Wen: I don't have morals, so you can't manipulate me.

Zhou Yi was sharp-tongued, but An Wen was a thousand times sharper.

No matter what Zhou Yi said—whether reasonable or not—An Wen could counter with ten arguments.

An Wen might have lacked common sense when it came to human society, but she wasn't stupid. She also had an incredibly sharp beast-like intuition.

No matter how many tricks Old Witch Zhou had, with An Wen in the class, she couldn't use a single one.

Instead, the entire Class One united against her.

…But of course, this was just an internal matter of Class One. The other classes couldn't care less.

Three Months Later

The first three months of the semester passed without major disturbances.

In that time, Huo Yuqing steadily advanced from Rank 16 to nearly Rank 19. She also made significant progress in alchemy and soul tools.

As for Wang Rui… aside from his soul power growth, his contract magic research had made almost no progress.

Lacking inspiration, he started goofing off. He learned every Sub-Seventh Rank spell Electrolux could remember and even collaborated with him to develop a soul tool cannon that could mount onto Bone Dragons, directly converting undead soul power and death energy into attacks.

Preliminary estimates put its power at peak-Eighth Rank, but with some improvements, it might even reach Ninth Rank…

Wang Rui proudly named it "Zombie Tyrant Cannon."

Electrolux: Your naming sense is trash.

New Student Examination Begins

That afternoon, after school, Mu Jin called Wang Rui, Huo Yuqing, and Ning Tian to stay behind.