The serene atmosphere under the moonlight was shattered by a dense, murderous intent. The air in front of Shrek Academy's gate grew cold as Dai Mubai released his bloodthirsty tiger aura.
"Mubai, stop!" Tang San shouted, trying to intervene, but Dai Mubai's fury had already reached its boiling point.
Ning Rongrong, who had been pushed back from the large rock, landed ungracefully. A disdainful smirk still played on her lips, but her eyes betrayed a hint of shock. She hadn't expected anyone to actually dare strike her physically.
"You... you actually dare?" Ning Rongrong's voice trembled not with fear, but with overflowing rage.
"I warned you," Dai Mubai growled. The white light of his spirit power began to condense in his palm. "Here, talent and strength are the law. Your noble status is nothing more than useless trash."
Oscar immediately scrambled to stand in front of Ning Rongrong, spreading his arms wide with a deathly pale face. "Boss Dai! Please, calm down! She's just emotional; don't do something you'll regret!"
"Move, Oscar! Or you'll go down with her!" Dai Mubai roared, his voice hoarse like a waking beast.
Kyle stepped forward, gripping Dai Mubai's shoulder firmly to restrain the surging energy. "Mubai, enough. Don't stain with the blood of a teammate."
Tang San stood beside Kyle, his Blue Silver Grass beginning to slither across the ground, ready to separate them if the situation worsened. "Rongrong, if you want to stay here, you must learn to respect others. And Mubai, killing her won't solve anything."
Ning Rongrong stood up slowly, brushing the dust from her clothes. Her beautiful eyes now radiated deep resentment. She looked at each of them in turn with her haughty gaze. "Fine... very well. I will remember this. Shrek Academy... turns out it's just a place for savages."
Oscar let out a heavy sigh, looking at Ning Rongrong with pleading eyes, but she simply turned her back and walked toward the dormitories without another word.
The tension slowly ebbed away, but the rift between them felt more real than ever. The beautiful night under the moonlight now left a bitter taste in everyone's heart.
Leaving those words behind, Dai Mubai marched off with large strides, heading directly into the Academy.
"Tang San! Kyle!"
Ning Rongrong wiped the tears from her eyes, suddenly calling Tang San's name out loud. Tang San suppressed the physical discomfort in his body and turned to look at her. Ning Rongrong said fiercely:
"Kill him. As long as you do it, you will be an honored guest of the Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Clan. I will give you money ten thousand gold coins—how about that?"
Tang San walked unhurriedly until he was in front of Ning Rongrong, looking at her deeply.
"Ning Rongrong, in this world, there are some things that money and influence cannot buy. If you continue to maintain this attitude, I advise you to leave this place."
"Human who don't value of human life, is a seed of heartless Criminal. If you dont respect human life, one day Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect under your command will meet destruction cause by your own hand."
"You... don't you know how powerful our Seven Treasures Glazed Tile School is?"
Ning Rongrong stared at him, unwilling to accept his words. With a somewhat regretful shake of his head, Tang San, Kyle, and Xiao Wu also walked into the Academy. Watching their retreating silhouettes, Ning Rongrong's entire body went stiff. If Dai Mubai's strength had made her angry, then the look of pity in Tang San and Kyle's eyes as they left provoked her even more.
"Oscar!"
Ning Rongrong was far from ready to accept that the fault was hers. She whipped around to face Oscar, who was slowly pushing himself up from the ground.
"Are you not going to help me either?" she demanded, her voice trembling with a desperate, indignant hope.
Oscar's usually playful peach-blossom eyes were clouded with a faint, deep-seated disappointment. He looked at her, not with the adoration he had shown since the first day, but with a sobering clarity.
"The girl I liked was the one I saw at the registration desk," he said softly, his voice heavy with regret. "What Tang San and Kyle said just now is the truth. If you cling to this attitude, you should leave. Rather than be someone servant, i would rather be myself. To someone like you, the word 'friend' will forever be an impossible dream."
With those final words, Oscar turned and walked away into the shadows of the Academy, leaving her behind.
Solitude, helplessness, frustration, and a sharp, stinging pain every kind of crushing emotion surged through Ning Rongrong's twelve-year-old heart. Tears began to fall silently, tracing paths down her pale cheeks. Suddenly, a terrifying realization dawned on her: perhaps she truly was wrong.
Did she actually have friends? She thought of the children her age back at the Clan; when they saw her, they would either bow and scrape in fear or hide in the distance to avoid her. Behind her back, she knew what they called her: The Little Demon. Standing alone under the cold moonlight, the "Jewel" of the Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Clan finally felt the crushing weight of her own isolation. For the first time in her life, she wasn't being worshipped she was being left behind.
Dawn
As the sharp chime of the first bell cut through the crisp air, everyone hurriedly finished their breakfast and gathered at the grand assembly field. Neither the Dean nor any of the teachers had arrived yet, but one lone figure already stood waiting in the center of the grounds: Ning Rongrong. There was still no sign of Oscar.
Her normally radiant, porcelain cheeks were pale and slightly gaunt. Her eyes were rimmed with red, her entire presence radiating a quiet, profound sorrow.
For today's lesson, they were once again under the instruction of Dean Flender. The group stood waiting for a full quarter of an hour before the Dean finally strolled onto the field, his pace unhurried.
"Today is your second class," Flender said, his sharp eyes sweeping over the students before his brow furrowed. "Where is Oscar? Did he oversleep again?"
Tang San quickly spoke up. "When I left our room this morning, Dean, he was still in deep cultivation."
Flender's frown deepened. "We cannot begin today's lesson without him. Tang San, go fetch him."
Tang San had just turned toward the dormitories when he spotted a figure sprinting frantically toward them. It was Oscar. Yet, surprisingly, his face held no trace of panic or guilt over being late; instead, it was flushed with wild, unadulterated ecstasy.
"Oscar," Flender said, his voice dropping to a dangerous warning. "Do you have a sudden urge to run laps again?"
Oscar skidded to a halt, shaking his head furiously while trying to catch his breath. "No! Dean, please, hear me out! I broke through... I've reached Rank 30!"
"What?!"
It wasn't just Flender. Every single person on the field snapped their heads to stare at him in sheer astonishment including the heartbroken Ning Rongrong. A brilliant, piercing light suddenly erupted in Flender's eyes.
Flender's eyes erupted with a brilliant, piercing light as he took a step toward the panting teenager.
"You've truly reached Rank 30?" Flender's voice, usually laced with sarcasm or strictness, was now thick with an intensity that demanded confirmation.
"Yes, Dean!" Oscar beamed, his face flushed not from the sprint, but from the sheer adrenaline of his breakthrough. "I just broke through during my morning meditation. I am officially a Spirit Grandmaster at the peak of the thirtieth rank!"
A heavy silence fell over the clearing. The students looked at one another, the weight of the news sinking in. To reach Rank 30 at such a young age was impressive for any Spirit Master, but for a Food-System Spirit Master the hardest and slowest branch of cultivation it was practically a miracle.
"Excellent, Oscar. You have not disappointed me in the slightest," Flender said, his voice ringing with undeniable pride. "You are the second student among your peers to break through to the thirtieth rank. On behalf of Shrek Academy, I congratulate you."
Hearing this, even the gloomy storm clouds that had haunted Dai Mubai's face since the previous night completely melted away. He walked over to Oscar's side and clapped him firmly on the shoulder, offering the genuine warmth of a senior brother.
"Little Ao, congratulations," Dai Mubai smiled. "Although you reached Rank 30 a little later than I did, you must remember—you are a Food-System Spirit Master. Reaching this milestone at your age proves that your genius is even more terrifying than my own."
Oscar smiled a bit awkwardly at Dai Mubai's high praise, his gaze involuntarily drifting over to the red-eyed Ning Rongrong. Tang San, Xiao Wu, Kyle, and Ma Hongjun stepped forward one after another, surrounding him with warm congratulations.
Ning Rongrong remained rooted to her spot. She stared at Oscar with a profoundly complicated expression in her beautiful eyes—a turbulent mix of regret, awe, and the crushing realization of just how terribly she had misjudged him. Meanwhile, Zhu Zhuqing simply lowered her head in silence, lost in an inscrutable whirlwind of her own thoughts.
"Very well, that's enough celebration. Today's class officially begins now."
Flender's resonant voice cut through the chatter, pulling everyone's attention away from Little Ao. The Dean adjusted his crystal-framed glasses, a profound, almost wicked smile playing on his lips.
"The curriculum for today's class is extremely simple. To pass, each and every one of you must eat at least one sausage produced by Oscar."
"WHAT?!"
Xiao Wu's horrified scream tore through the crisp morning air. All the color drained from her delicate face in an instant, looking as though she had just been handed a death sentence.
"Dean, what kind of class is this?!" Xiao Wu cried out, her face draining of color.
Flender replied with an uncompromising, grandiose tone. "This is called adaptability training. The sausages Oscar creates are top-tier food-system spirits. When you are pushed into a life-or-death situation, will you swallow rats, cockroaches, and earthworms if it means surviving! Now, who goes first?"
Hearing the words 'cockroaches' and 'earthworms', the three girls turned deathly pale simultaneously, looking as though they might be physically sick. Flender stood there with a face of stone, completely impartial and unyielding. His expression sent a clear, chilling message to the students: Do not even think about defying me.
"I'll go first."
Accompanied by a crisp, sharp voice, Ning Rongrong marched over to Oscar with large, decisive strides. Stretching out both hands, she snatched the large healing sausage and the small detoxifying sausage directly from his grasp. No one expected the pampered princess to take the lead. Dai Mubai and Ma Hongjun, who had been on the verge of stepping forward, stopped dead in their tracks. Both wanted to see if Ning Rongrong would actually eat Oscar's notoriously 'vulgar' spirit food.
Ning Rongrong's expression was eerily calm, though the reluctance swimming in her eyes betrayed the intense turmoil in her heart. After all, she was still a sheltered young miss from an elite clan; how could she perfectly mask her true feelings of disgust?
Gripping the large sausage, Ning Rongrong took a vicious, forceful bite. She looked so ferocious that Oscar felt a sudden, terrifying chill run down his spine, instinctively taking a step back as if to protect himself. Choking down her pride, Ning Rongrong utterly devoured both the large and small sausages.
When she first took a bite, she squeezed her eyes shut, treating it as if she were calmly facing her own execution. However, after swallowing the healing and recovery sausages, her eyes snapped open. To her absolute shock, she discovered that the taste of Oscar's manifested food spirits was actually incredibly delicious.
Early the next morning.
After finishing their breakfast, the entire group gathered at the main assembly field. Zhao Wuji was already there, waiting for them.
However, upon seeing the Vice Dean, the students were all momentarily stunned. They desperately fought the urge to laugh, not daring to let even the ghost of a smile touch their lips. Zhao Wuji looked absolutely pathetic and comical.
At least three massive, black-and-blue bruises were still heavily swollen on his face. The absolute worst of it was his left eye, which was bruised into a perfect, dark panda ring. It was a sight that made it nearly impossible for anyone to keep a straight face while looking at the fearsome Motionless Bright King.
"What are you all staring at, you little rabbits?! Are your skins itching for a beating?!" Zhao Wuji barked, his face flushing as he noticed their barely contained amusement.
Hearing the term "little rabbits," Xiao Wu was clearly displeased. She muttered under her breath, her voice low but sharp, "Why not say 'little bears' instead?"
Zhao Wuji's eyes bulged as his sharp ears caught the remark. "What did you just say?!"
Tang San smoothly stepped sideways, seamlessly shielding Xiao Wu behind his body. He waved a hand behind his back, signaling the girl to hold her tongue, while maintaining a calm gaze toward the Vice Dean.
The moment Zhao Wuji saw Tang San's face, his fierce expression instantly melted into extreme awkwardness. The terrifying memory of the massive hammer and the black-clad man from the other night was still painfully fresh in his mind. Immediately dropping any intent to interrogate Xiao Wu further, Zhao Wuji let out a heavy, awkward snort.
"Everyone, move out! Mubai, you lead the way!"
Dai Mubai gave a firm nod, his expression instantly turning deadly serious, exuding the aura of a true leader as he addressed the group.
"The Star Dou Great Forest is not a playground. It is crawling with countless wild spirit beasts, and the danger there is absolute," Dai Mubai commanded. "We will move in a combat formation. Tang San, Kyle, you two will act as our vanguard at the very front. Oscar, Ning Rongrong, you stay right behind them in the center of the formation. Fatty, Xiao Wu, you two will guard the left and right flanks. Zhu Zhuqing and I will bring up the rear. Once we step foot into that forest, you are to maintain this formation at all times and keep your vigilance at its absolute peak!"
The Star Dou Great Forest was located to the southeast of the Balak Kingdom, sharing a relatively short border with the nation. Fortunately, Suotuo City was also situated in the kingdom's southeast, making the distance to the massive forest manageable—less than five hundred kilometers away.
Supported by the endless stamina recovery provided by Oscar's sausages, the grueling journey became remarkably smooth. In less than a single day, just as night began to fall, the Shrek Academy party had already covered a distance of over four hundred kilometers.
They eventually arrived at a small border town. However, the atmosphere was far more bustling and vibrant than they had anticipated. The town was roughly three times the size of the quiet village where Shrek Academy was located. Though it lacked defensive perimeter walls, it had organically thrived into a bustling commercial hub. The streets were alive with the clamor of adventurers, and rows of shops lined the avenues, offering absolutely everything a traveler could possibly imagine.
At that moment, Zhao Wuji's footsteps came to a halt. He pointed toward an incredibly ordinary-looking inn further down the street.
"We'll be staying there for the night," Zhao Wuji announced casually. "Get some proper rest, because we head out into the forest first thing tomorrow morning. Oh, and one more thing you are entirely responsible for your own lodging and food expenses."
The inn was a modest two-story wooden building. The first floor served as a simple dining hall, currently bustling with rugged adventurers, while the second floor housed the guest rooms. After paying for his own room, Zhao Wuji headed straight upstairs without another word. Dai Mubai gathered the group, and after a brief discussion, they arranged and paid for enough rooms to accommodate the five boys and the three girls.
"After chewing on nothing but sausages all day long, I feel like I'm going to throw up," Ma Hongjun groaned, clutching his round stomach with a pitiful expression.
Fatty had just flawlessly voiced the collective suffering of the entire group. Even the usually icy and stoic Zhu Zhuqing couldn't help but nod in profound agreement. Oscar's sausages were excellent for recovering stamina, but eating them non-stop for an entire journey was its own kind of torture.
They found a large, vacant round table nestled in a corner of the dining hall and sat down. Tang San glanced toward the stairs where their teacher had disappeared and asked Dai Mubai, "Shouldn't we invite Teacher Zhao to come down and eat with us?"
Dai Mubai shook his head. "There's no need. At Shrek Academy, teachers and students don't eat together unless someone is treating. We all pay our own bills. That is an rule set by our stingy Dean Flender."
Ma Hongjun let out a chuckle. "Honestly, that's the part I like most about Shrek Academy. No unnecessary, troublesome pleasantries."
"Fatty, shut up and just order the food," Dai Mubai snapped, his patience rapidly wearing thin from the biting hunger.
Even though all eight Shrek students sat around the same round table, the atmosphere was far from harmonious. Zhu Zhuqing's face was as cold as a block of ice, while Ning Rongrong kept her head bowed, lost in a whirlpool of her own anxious thoughts. Fortunately, they had Fatty there to keep the conversation going, ensuring the mood didn't become completely stiff and suffocating.
The dining hall was already occupied by six or seven tables of rugged adventurers. Suddenly, the attention of the room shifted as a party of eight walked in through the main doors, a group composition coincidentally very similar to Tang San's.
Leading the group was a middle-aged man in his forties. He possessed a rather handsome face, and his hair was combed back with a bright, meticulous sheen. He wore a stunning, moon-white Spirit Master robe intricately embroidered with silver threads that gleamed elegantly with every step he took.
Following closely behind the middle-aged man were six young men and one young woman, all appearing to be around twenty years old. They wore matching moon-white Spirit Master robes, albeit without the luxurious silver embroidery of their leader. However, the most eye-catching detail was the blue-green circular emblem stitched onto their left shoulders. Inside the circle, embroidered in the same color, were the words: Chang Hui Academy.
The moment the innkeeper spotted the uniformed group walking in, he scrambled over to greet them, bowing and nodding with an almost excessive amount of subservient politeness. As Oscar had mentioned earlier, this small border town made its living off the Star Dou Great Forest or, to put it more bluntly, it survived solely off the pockets of visiting Spirit Masters.
"That girl's figure isn't bad at all. Boss Dai, those guys must be from Blue Sunshine Academy," Fatty muttered.
Fatty's beady eyes were fixed unblinkingly on the lone girl among the eight newcomers. It couldn't be denied that she was quite attractive, easily well above average. Even though Xiao Wu, Zhu Zhuqing, and Ning Rongrong were beautiful, they were only about twelve years old; compared to a fully developed young woman, they naturally looked young and immature. But to a hormone-driven teenager like Fatty, a slightly more mature girl definitely held a much deadlier appeal. His eyes gleamed with a sleazy light as he unabashedly stared her up and down.
Dai Mubai curled his lip into a disdainful sneer. "It's just the Blue Sunshine Academy. Look at how arrogantly they strut around."
Neither Fatty nor Dai Mubai made any intentional effort to lower their voices. A Spirit Master's hearing is naturally sharper than that of an ordinary person. Even over the ambient noise of the bustling dining hall, the middle-aged man leading the group heard them perfectly. He snapped his head toward their table, his brow furrowing sharply. However, when he saw that the Shrek Academy table was occupied by nothing but a bunch of kids, his expression instantly turned incredibly ugly and contemptuous.
Oscar, sitting next to Tang San, let out a low chuckle. "Looks like there's going to be a good show to watch."
Kyle gave him a rather confused look. "What good show?"
Oscar lowered his voice and grinned maliciously. "This is also part of our training. Dean Flender always says, 'A Spirit Master who is afraid of causing trouble is not a good Spirit Master!'"
Tang San couldn't help but smile. "If we compiled all of our Dean's quotes, it would make one hell of a monster's guidebook. Judging by their age, this Blue Sunshine Academy must be an advanced Spirit Master academy."
The eight members of the Blue Sunshine Academy were now seated, separated from the Shrek group by just two tables. From the corner of his eye, Tang San clearly saw the middle-aged Spirit Master whisper something into the ear of one of his male students. Shortly after, the young man rose from his seat and walked purposefully toward Tang San's table. Judging by his trajectory, his target was unmistakably Dai Mubai.
Just at that moment, a waiter happened to be delivering the first dish to Shrek's table. The Blue Sunshine youth suddenly sped up his pace. Amidst the startled yelp of the waiter, the youth forcefully slammed into the poor man's body, sending the plate of hot food flying into the air, hurtling directly toward Dai Mubai's head.
"Don't waste food," Tang San said indifferently.
His left hand shot out like lightning, catching the waiter to prevent him from falling, while his right hand reached up toward the sky. Using the Controlling Crane Catching Dragon technique, he caught the airborne plate with a cushion of gentle energy, setting it down as lightly as a feather on the table without spilling a single drop of broth. At the same time, his left hand had safely pulled the waiter to his side.
The Blue Sunshine youth stared blankly for a moment. Because his line of sight had been blocked by the waiter, he hadn't clearly seen Tang San's movements. However, a sly, mocking smile quickly crept onto his face.
"Oh, I'm truly sorry," he said, his tone dripping with fake apology.
Saying that, he continued walking forward, making it look as though he simply needed to squeeze past Dai Mubai's side. But underneath the table, one of his legs swept out silently, viciously kicking the leg of Dai Mubai's chair.
It was just an ordinary wooden chair; a spirit-powered kick would shatter it instantly. The youth's footwork was incredibly covert—his upper body didn't shift in the slightest. If one wasn't paying close attention, the dirty trick would have gone completely unnoticed.
However, the exact moment the youth's kick landed, Dai Mubai reacted.
THUD!
A heavy, muffled sound echoed. Instead of shattering wood, the Blue Sunshine youth felt as though his foot had just kicked a solid steel plate. His entire calf trembled violently, going completely numb in an instant.
Before the youth could even process what had happened to his leg, Dai Mubai retaliated. With a brutal swing of his palm, he struck the young man.
Even though the youth had a rather large and sturdy build, Dai Mubai's slap bent his entire body backward. He was sent flying through the air like a completely weightless scarecrow, crashing through and completely demolishing two tables in succession before hurtling directly toward the Blue Sunshine Academy's party.
The middle-aged man from Blue Sunshine Academy hurriedly shot up from his seat. Reaching out with both hands, he caught the airborne youth by the shoulders just before he could crash into their table. However, the residual kinetic force from Dai Mubai's strike was simply too much. The young man's face was as pale as a sheet of paper. With a sickening lurch, he spat out a mouthful of crimson blood, his entire body instantly going completely limp.
Dai Mubai slowly stood up straight. He casually stretched his shoulders and waist, completely unbothered by the destruction he had just caused.
"Ah, I am truly sorry," he drawled, his voice dripping with unmistakable sarcasm. "That was a complete accident."
The sudden chaos in the dining hall caused the patrons seated near the two tables to quickly scatter, clearing a wide space in the center of the room. Yet, surprisingly, the majority of the crowd didn't flee the inn. Instead, they pressed themselves against the walls and watched with gleaming, excited eyes.
Normally, to witness a confrontation between Spirit Masters, one would have to pay exorbitant ticket prices at the Great Spirit Arena. Now, they were getting a free, front-row show! In a border town like this, where powerful Spirit Masters constantly gathered, such brawls were prime entertainment.