The hotel owner was searching frantically under the counter.
Suddenly, his eyes lit up.
He abruptly stood up.
"I'll show you some color!"
Zhu Zhuqing and Xiao Wu were ready to activate their Spirits at any moment.
Even Ye Fan was prepared to shield Xiao Wu in front of him.
The hotel owner, holding something unknown, strode up to Ye Fan.
He suddenly spread his hand open, revealing a red card.
"What color do you think this is?"
The three of them looked at it, puzzled.
In the end, Xiao Wu couldn't help but ask,
"Red?"
"Exactly, it's red."
"Alright, you've seen the color."
"I won't delay the three of you from checking in."
Immediately after, the hotel owner quickly retreated to the counter without hesitation.
"He really did show me some color,"
Ye Fan chuckled inwardly.
As expected of the system, it couldn't be wrong.
Zhu Zhuqing hesitated for a moment, but ultimately chose to go upstairs and stay there.
Since the issue here was resolved, there was no need to change places.
A new place might bring new troubles.
Ye Fan and Xiao Wu slowly followed Zhu Zhuqing upstairs.
Zhu Zhuqing reached her room door.
She suddenly turned back, her gaze fixed coldly on Ye Fan.
"Why are you following me?"
Her first reaction was that Ye Fan and the hotel owner were in cahoots, both having ulterior motives towards her.
"Who's following you?"
"Go away,"
Ye Fan rolled his eyes.
He took a step forward, casually pushed Zhu Zhuqing aside, and entered the adjacent room.
Xiao Wu also snorted and followed him inside.
"Bang!"
The sound of the room door closing echoed.
Zhu Zhuqing stared blankly at the door of the adjacent room, and after a long while, finally entered her own room.
Back in the room,
Ye Fan immediately began to cultivate in silence.
Xiao Wu, on the other hand, slept, cuddling with Ye Fan.
Late at night,
Just as Ye Fan was cultivating,
There was a sudden knock on the room door.
Ye Fan frowned, pushed Xiao Wu aside.
"Who is it?"
No one responded.
Ye Fan casually summoned a few protective plants as a precaution before opening the room door.
And the one knocking on his door was none other than Zhu Zhuqing.
A faint smile was forced onto her face.
"Something wrong?"
"I want to thank you properly for what happened today…"
"No need,"
Immediately after, the room door was shut with a bang.
Zhu Zhuqing had been internally conflicted for half the night.
She finally mustered the courage to knock and express her gratitude, and also to apologize for her earlier suspicion.
But before she could finish her organized words, the room door was closed.
She was stunned.
This was the first time in her life she had encountered such a person.
She ultimately didn't dare to knock on the door again, turned around, and returned to her room.
Lying on the bed, she tossed and turned, unable to sleep.
Internal conflict, quite a lot of internal conflict.
And this night was destined to be a sleepless one.
The next morning,
Ye Fan and Xiao Wu left the hotel where they had stayed for two days.
They exited Soto City from the South Gate and headed towards their destination.
"Fan Ge, do you know where Shrek Academy is?"
After leaving Soto City, following the road straight south, both sides of the official road were vast farmlands. Soto City's reputation as the Balak Kingdom's grain capital was not for nothing.
However, apart from the large farmlands, as far as the eye could see, there were no buildings that resembled an academy.
"Let's just walk, we'll see it,"
Ye Fan smiled and said no more.
Following the road through the fields, a small village quickly appeared before them.
On the wooden archway at the village entrance hung a dilapidated plaque.
It bore the tattered characters for Shrek Academy.
In front of these five characters, there was also a green head portrait, which looked like the head of a humanoid monster.
At the village entrance, an antique table with a strong sense of age was set up.
Behind the table sat an old man over sixty years old.
The old man was sitting behind the table, processing registrations for a long queue.
Ye Fan thought to himself, this person must be Li Yusong, the Spirit Emperor level expert.
Xiao Wu frowned and said, "Fan Ge, is this the Shrek Academy you wanted to come to? This is a bit too dilapidated."
"It's not even a third the size of Noting Academy."
But seeing that Ye Fan had no intention of leaving, Xiao Wu immediately changed her tone.
"If it's too dilapidated, then I wouldn't go, but since it's this dilapidated, I absolutely must see what's going on."
The queue of over a hundred people seemed long, but the registration speed was very fast.
Ye Fan scanned the queue and found Tang San in the middle of the line.
A young boy came to the table to register.
Li Yusong said lazily,
"The registration fee is ten gold coins. Just put it in that box."
The boy's accompanying father quickly pulled out ten gold coins and placed them in a box made of a few wooden planks nearby.
"Stretch out one hand."
The boy did as he was told, extending his hand to Li Yusong.
Li Yusong pinched his hand twice, then shook his head at him.
"Your age doesn't meet the requirements. You can leave."
His father quickly said with a forced smile,
"Teacher, my son just turned thirteen. Can you make an exception?"
Li Yusong said somewhat impatiently,
"Don't hold up the people behind you. Don't you know the academy's rules? We only accept children under thirteen years old here."
"Anyone over thirteen will not be accepted. You can leave."
The boy's father hesitated for a moment.
"Then our registration fee…"
Li Yusong said unceremoniously, "Once registered, no refunds."
The boy's father couldn't help but say angrily,
"What kind of broken academy is this? You're clearly just scamming money!"
"Give us back our registration fee!"
Li Yusong lazily called out, "Mubai, handle this."
On the ground nearby, a figure suddenly shot up.
"If you want your registration fee back, fine. Beat me, and you'll get a full refund."
This person was Dai Mubai. Earlier, because he was sitting to the side, he was blocked by the crowd, so Ye Fan hadn't seen him.
Slightly different from when Ye Fan had seen him that day, his expression now held a hint of helplessness.
Beneath his feet, two yellow and one purple spirit ring pulsed up and down, and a pressure fell upon the person who wanted to reclaim the registration fee.
"If you can beat me, the registration fee will be fully refunded!"
"Unlucky!"
The father and son left a remark and quickly ran off.
With this incident, the originally long queue suddenly shrunk by more than half, and it was directly Tang San's turn.
Dai Mubai also finally saw Tang San at this point.
A faint smile appeared on his cold face.
He nodded at them, then pointed to the old man.
He spread his hands, making a helpless expression.
After the big battle, Dai Mubai naturally knew Tang San's purpose.
Dai Mubai still very much hoped that Tang San could enter the academy; it would be much easier to spar in the future.