"Xiao Se, I'm heading back first. If I find any more treasures, I'll call you again!"
The moment they returned to the Inner Academy, Zi Yan waved at Xiao Se and ran off without hesitation. She had held back the entire way without eating a single drop—if she didn't hurry back and properly savor that pure Earth Core Tempering Milk, she was going to lose her mind.
"She really is a little glutton." Xiao Se chuckled and shook his head. Tapping lightly against the ground with his toes, his body turned into a wisp of smoke and vanished from the spot.
"I'm back!"
When Xiao Se returned to their residence, Little Medical Fairy and Zhu Zhuqing were already waiting in the living room.
"Let's set off." Xiao Se removed two treasure pouches from his waist—artifacts capable of storing living beings.
Hearing this, Little Medical Fairy and Zhu Zhuqing exchanged smiles. Without the slightest resistance, they allowed Xiao Se to store them inside the pouches.
"System, use the permanent Douluo travel voucher."
[Ding. Usage successful. System teleportation in progress.]
As the system's prompt echoed in his mind, the space around Xiao Se suddenly twisted. In the blink of an eye, he vanished from where he stood.
—
Douluo Continent.
Inside a private room by the window of a teahouse in Heaven Dou City, space suddenly warped, and Xiao Se appeared out of thin air.
"Looks like after the first random jump, this travel voucher sends me back to wherever I left from," Xiao Se muttered as he looked around the familiar room layout. Then, with a sideways leap, he jumped out the window and landed steadily on the street below.
"Ah—!"
The instant he landed, cries of alarm rang out from the crowd in front of him.
Hearing this, Xiao Se raised his handsome face—and froze.
Standing before him were ten men, two women, and one person who looked half-man, half-woman—thirteen people in total.
At the front was a middle-aged man with a hooked nose and black-rimmed glasses. Xiao Se had seen him before: Flander, the dean of Shrek Academy. Behind him stood a short but powerfully built middle-aged man, as well as an androgynous figure with wrinkled yet strangely rosy skin.
Behind them were two elderly men, one middle-aged man, one young man, four teenage boys, and two girls.
Aside from one of the elders and the young man, Xiao Se recognized everyone else: Shao Xin, Li Yusong, Tang San, Dai Mubai, Oscar, Ma Hongjun, Xiao Wu, and Ning Rongrong.
At this moment, the Shrek group stared at Xiao Se as if they had seen a ghost. None of them had expected that, after four months apart, they would run into Xiao Se again—right here in the imperial capital of Heaven Dou. Tang San, Ma Hongjun, and Dai Mubai even instinctively assumed defensive stances.
After a brief moment of shock, a trace of amusement flashed through Xiao Se's eyes as he spoke first.
"Dean Flander, we meet again."
As he spoke, Xiao Se's gaze casually swept toward Tang San. Under the combined perception of his X-ray vision and soul power, he noticed that the flesh on Tang San's back looked extremely tender, as if it had recently regenerated. The rib bone, meanwhile, was clearly gone.
"So he survived thanks to a powerful healing-type spirit master," Xiao Se thought quietly. "Lucky bastard. Even that didn't manage to kill him."
"Ah… yes. It has indeed been a long time, Xiao Se." Flander quickly recovered, then bent deeply at the waist, bowing nearly ninety degrees. "On behalf of Shrek Academy, I apologize again for what happened last time."
Xiao Se waved his hand and smiled. "What's past is past. There's no need to bring it up again."
Hearing this, Flander let out a breath of relief. Just as he was about to introduce the others, Ning Rongrong suddenly slipped past the group's so-called "protective formation" and happily walked up to Xiao Se. With her hands clasped behind her waist and her slender fingers interlaced, she tilted her delicate face upward and smiled brightly.
"Hehe, Xiao Se~ What a coincidence. We meet again."
Due to Xiao Se exposing Tang San as a reincarnator, Xiao Wu—while not one herself—harboring an even more ancient soul within her body, and after learning about the unsavory pasts of Dai Mubai, Ma Hongjun, and Oscar, Ning Rongrong hadn't truly grown close to the Shrek group despite spending four months with them.
Compared to them, she found this mysterious, powerful, and handsome Xiao Se far more interesting.
"It really is quite a coincidence," Xiao Se replied with a faint smile. He had literally just jumped out of a teahouse window and run straight into Shrek. Judging by the situation, they had likely just been kicked out of Heaven Dou Royal Academy and were preparing to head toward Blue Tyrant Academy.
"How did you suddenly fall from the sky like that?" Ning Rongrong blinked her bright eyes, curiosity written all over her face.
"I just arrived in Heaven Dou City and picked a random place to land," Xiao Se replied casually.
"Then… will you be staying in Heaven Dou City for a while?" Ning Rongrong continued. "My father wants to meet you."
The moment those words left her mouth, a sound of heartbreak echoed from the crowd behind her.
The rest of the Shrek group were equally stunned, all staring at Ning Rongrong with complex and bizarre expressions.
"Xiao Ao… my condolences," Ma Hongjun said, patting Oscar on the shoulder while barely holding back his laughter.
It wasn't surprising they reacted this way. Ning Rongrong's words were simply too easy to misunderstand—it sounded exactly like a girlfriend wanting to take her boyfriend home to meet the parents.
"Uh…" Even Xiao Se couldn't help the twitch at the corner of his mouth. He let out a dry laugh. "I won't be staying here for long. Let's talk about it another time if there's a chance."
Xiao Se's shifting expression made Ning Rongrong instantly realize the misunderstanding. Her fair, delicate face flushed bright red, and she hurriedly waved her hands.
"You misunderstood! My father is the sect master of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect. He just really likes getting to know talented young people, that's all!"
At this point, her cheeks were red enough to drip blood. Saying something so easily misinterpreted in front of so many people was just too embarrassing.
"Then we'll meet again another time," Xiao Se said with a small nod. His gaze flicked toward Tang San, whose eyes were practically splitting with rage, and then to Xiao Wu, who was trembling behind him. With a grin, Xiao Se turned to leave.
But just then, Dai Mubai's slightly trembling voice sounded from behind him.
"Xiao Se… wait."
Hearing that familiar voice, Xiao Se raised an eyebrow and turned around, his expression cold.
"What do you want?"
He could speak calmly with Ning Rongrong because they had no personal conflict—and because she was a beautiful girl.
But Dai Mubai? This mutated "ape-tiger"? Not beating him to death already counted as mercy.
"Boss Dai, don't—!" Seeing his buddy about to court death, Ma Hongjun hurriedly tried to stop him.
"Fatty, get out of my way!" Dai Mubai shoved Ma Hongjun aside. He was all in now. Ever since getting beaten senseless last time, he had learned Zhu Zhuqing's name from Ning Rongrong and, from Tang San and the others, learned about her martial soul. Putting the pieces together, he instantly realized that Zhu Zhuqing was his fiancée.
Now, the man who had "taken away" his fiancée was standing right in front of him. How could he possibly stay calm?
"Xiao Se," Dai Mubai growled, eyes bloodshot,
"where did you take Zhu Zhuqing?"
(End of Chapter)
[Get +30 Extra Chapters on - P@tr3on "RinBlaze"]
[Every 15 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter Drop]
[Thanks for Reading!]