Chapter 20: The Eye of the Hammer
The first rays of the morning sun pierced the canopy of the massive oak tree, casting dappled, golden light across Mame's face.
He opened his pitch-black eyes, taking a deep breath of the crisp, rural air. Below him, the sleepy farming village that served as the front for the infamous Shrek Academy was beginning to stir. Parents and hopeful students were already starting to gather in the dirt plaza near the village entrance, forming a chaotic, nervous line.
Sitting high on his sturdy branch, Mame let his tail lazily flick away a passing leaf as he mentally opened his Multiversal Ledger. It was time to choose his face for the entrance exams.
Mo was too invisible; he needed to exert influence over the plot, not just watch it. Lord Shenyuan and the Crimson Demon were out of the question; dropping a terrifying underworld boss or a corporate titan into a school setting would immediately trigger a hostile response from the academy's teachers.
That left only one option. A slow, arrogant smirk spread across Mame's face.
Young Master Bai.
It was the perfect persona for Shrek Academy. The school prided itself on only accepting "monsters," but it was also chronically, desperately underfunded. A breathtakingly wealthy, incredibly powerful, and insufferably arrogant aristocrat walking through their broken gates would create beautiful chaos. Plus, Mame knew exactly how much Tang San despised the wealthy elite. The "righteous" Tang Sect genius already hated him for the Rose Hotel incident.
Just wait until I start dismantling the 'Grandmaster,' Mame thought, a dark chuckle vibrating in his chest. Tang San's hypocritical rage is entirely tied to his blind worship of Yu Xiaogang. If I poke at his precious master's theories right to his face, Tang San might actually pop a blood vessel.
Mame was still chuckling when the air around the oak tree suddenly grew completely, unnervingly still.
The birds stopped chirping. The wind died.
Mame's Void Instinct flared, but it wasn't a warning of an immediate attack. It was a suffocating, atmospheric pressure—a massive, incredibly dense wave of spiritual perception washing over the entire village like a tidal wave. It felt like standing at the base of a crumbling mountain, heavy with the scent of rusted iron and stale liquor.
A Titled Douluo, Mame realized instantly. Tang Hao. The Clear Sky Hammer is watching his son.
The perception swept through the branches of the oak tree, scanning Mame's physical form.
Mame didn't flinch. He didn't tense his Saiyan muscles, nor did he reach for the spatial energy of his rings. He simply sat there, leaning against the bark, and let his Cosmic Origin Core do exactly what it was designed to do. The Singularity in his Dantian swallowed his multiversal power, perfectly compressing his monstrous, ten-thousand-year beast aura down into the harmless, unremarkable signature of a Rank 31 Spirit Elder.
To the legendary Clear Sky Douluo hiding in the shadows, Mame felt like nothing more than a wealthy, slightly talented kid sleeping in a tree.
The heavy, iron-scented perception lingered on him for less than a second before dismissing him entirely, sweeping away toward the front of the village where Tang San and Xiao Wu were likely approaching.
"Overprotective," Mame whispered, his smirk returning. "But blind."
With the coast clear, Mame stood up on the thick branch. He tapped his ring, wrapping his brown tail tightly around his waist and tying his wild hair back with the black silk ribbon. He smoothed out the wrinkles in his immaculate silver-white silk robes, the terrifying King Beast entirely vanishing beneath the veneer of the Untouchable Aristocrat.
Dimensional Blink.
He bypassed the tree completely, appearing smoothly at the back of the growing line in the dirt plaza.
The Real Monsters
The line was exactly as pathetic as the original novel described. Hundreds of hopeful parents were handing over their hard-earned gold coins to an old, tired-looking teacher sitting behind a rickety wooden desk, only to be ruthlessly rejected a moment later.
Mame stood near the back, his hands clasped loosely behind his back, looking completely out of place in his pristine silver silk amidst the rural dirt. But he wasn't paying attention to the rejections. His eyes were scanning the crowd for the few characters he actually respected from the original timeline.
He spotted a teenager with a peach-blossom face and a soft, slightly scruffy beard pushing a small wooden cart near the front of the line.
Oscar, Mame noted, a genuine hint of approval in his eyes. The food-system genius. Despite his ridiculous incantations, Oscar was one of the few Shrek members Mame actually liked. He worked hard, he didn't rely on a hypocritical sense of superiority, and he was genuinely loyal to his friends.
Then, there was Flender, the Headmaster. Mame had already met the Four-Eyed Owl when he sabotaged the Plate Crystal. Flender was greedy and stubborn, but he fiercely protected his students. Mame respected that. He also felt a pang of pity for Liu Erlong, wherever she was currently hiding. The fiery Dragon woman was trapped in a tragic, pathetic love triangle, blinded by her affection for Yu Xiaogang—a man who was too much of a coward to face her, let alone take responsibility for his own failed theories.
I'll do her a favor when I finally ruin him, Mame decided coldly.
But his thoughts were interrupted by a sudden, sharp drop in the ambient temperature near the middle of the line.
Mame turned his head. Standing completely alone, seemingly isolated by a bubble of her own freezing aura, was a girl around his age. She was dressed entirely in tight, black leather that accentuated an incredibly developed figure for her age. Her long black hair fell perfectly straight down her back, and her pale, flawless face was an absolute mask of icy detachment.
Zhu Zhuqing. The Hell Civet.
Mame studied her with profound interest. In the original story, she was the quietest, most focused, and arguably the most tragic member of the Shrek Seven Devils. She had crossed an entire empire, surviving assassination attempts from her own family, all to find the fiancé who had abandoned her to die.
She was here looking for Dai Mubai.
Mame couldn't help but let out a soft, amused breath. She is looking for a prince who is currently nursing a shattered ribcage in the dirt outside a ruined hotel, entirely because he couldn't keep his mouth shut.
Zhu Zhuqing's sharp, cat-like instincts seemed to catch his gaze. She turned her head, her cold, black eyes locking onto Mame's pitch-black stare.
For a long moment, the two apex predators—the Hell Civet and the Saiyan King Beast disguised as a noble—simply analyzed each other across the dusty plaza. Mame didn't offer a polite smile or a dismissive sneer. He just gave her a slow, respectful nod of acknowledgement.
Zhu Zhuqing's eyes narrowed slightly in confusion. She didn't sense any of the lecherous, arrogant intent she usually received from wealthy nobles in silk. She only sensed a strange, quiet weight. She gave a microscopic nod in return before turning her icy gaze back to the front of the line.
She's sharp, Mame thought, stepping forward as the line moved. It's a shame she's tied to that blonde stray.
"Next!" the tired teacher at the front desk barked, slamming his hand on the table.
Mame casually stepped around a weeping parent and walked up to the rickety wooden desk, pulling a handful of solid gold spirit coins from his sleeve and dropping them onto the wood with a heavy, musical clatter.
The Shrek entrance exam was about to get a very wealthy, very dangerous new variable.
The chaotic noise of the plaza—parents crying over rejected children and merchants hawking cheap goods—was deafening. But when Mame stepped up to the rickety wooden desk, the sheer, blindingly expensive presence of his silver-white silk robes created a small, sudden bubble of stunned silence around him.
The tired, gray-haired teacher sitting behind the desk, Li Yu Sheng (a Rank 63 Spirit Emperor), blinked. He had spent the morning rejecting pampered nobles who tried to bribe their way into the academy. He recognized the arrogant posture and the immaculate clothing instantly.
"Ten gold coins for the registration fee," Teacher Li sighed, his voice flat with annoyance. He didn't even bother looking up from his ledger. "And put your hand out so I can check your bone age. We only accept monsters here, rich boy. If you're over thirteen or under Rank 21, don't waste my time."
Mame didn't reach for a pouch. He casually reached into his wide sleeve and dropped a heavy, solid gold ingot directly onto the ledger.
THUD.
The table groaned dangerously under the sudden weight. Teacher Li's eyes widened, his gaze snapping from the ingot to the pitch-black, abyssal eyes of the boy standing before him.
"I am aware of your requirements," Mame said smoothly, his voice carrying the perfect, untouchable arrogance of Young Master Bai. "I am twelve years old. My name is Bai. I am a Rank 31 Power Attack System Spirit Master. And my Martial Soul... is a monkey."
For a split second, the plaza remained silent.
Then, the crowd of rejected parents and disappointed students erupted into harsh, derisive laughter.
"A monkey?!" a burly farmer guffawed from the back of the line, slapping his knee. "Did you hear that? The rich kid's soul is a dancing pet!"
"Hey, Silver Pants!" a rejected, arrogant young noble sneered, pointing a finger at Mame. "Why don't you take your gold and go buy a circus? A Rank 31 monkey? Don't lie to us, man! Even top-tier beast souls barely reach Rank 30 by twelve. Just go home before you embarrass yourself!"
Mame didn't turn around. He didn't raise his voice. He simply closed his eyes and let out a long, quiet, aristocratic sigh.
He slowly turned his head, looking over his shoulder at the laughing crowd. His expression wasn't angry; it was a mask of absolute, chilling disdain. He looked at them as if he were studying a colony of particularly stupid ants.
"It never ceases to amaze me," Mame whispered, the icy resonance of his voice cutting effortlessly through the laughter, "how the weakest insects are always the loudest."
He didn't summon the full, crushing gravity of his King Beast aura. He didn't need to. He simply let his Cosmic Origin Core release the suppression on his physical strength and spirit rings.
The temperature in the plaza plummeted. The air pressure suddenly grew so heavy that the dust on the ground was violently pushed outward in a perfect circle. The laughter died instantly in the throats of the crowd, replaced by sudden, suffocating terror.
From the earth beneath Mame's pristine silver boots, three blindingly bright rings rose in a slow, rhythmic pulse.
Purple. Dark Purple. Pitch Black.
The entire plaza froze. The burly farmer who had been laughing a second ago fell flat on his back, scrambling backward in sheer panic. The arrogant young noble choked on his own breath, his knees buckling under the sheer weight of the aura.
Behind the desk, Teacher Li shot out of his chair, nearly knocking it over. The Rank 63 Spirit Emperor's eyes were practically bulging out of his skull. His gaze tracked from the thousand-year first ring to the ten-thousand-year third ring, his mind completely short-circuiting against everything he knew about cultivation theory.
"I-impossible," Teacher Li stammered, his hand instinctively reaching for his own Martial Soul. "The physical limit... your body should have exploded! A ten-thousand-year ring for the third rank?!"
Mame ignored the terrified teacher. He kept his disdainful gaze locked entirely on the crowd, the pitch-black ring hovering slowly around his waist, radiating the heavy, crushing presence of the Starfall Asura Ape.
"A monkey," Mame repeated quietly, the metallic undertone of his King Beast true nature briefly bleeding into his aristocratic voice. "Does anyone else have a comment regarding my circus?"
The silence was absolute. Not a single person in the plaza dared to breathe, let alone speak.
Satisfied with the absolute submission of the crowd, Mame slowly turned back around to face the desk. The three impossible rings sank seamlessly back into his feet, the terrifying pressure vanishing as quickly as it had appeared. He casually brushed a microscopic speck of dust from his sleeve.
He held out his right hand, resting it lightly on the desk.
"My bone age, if you please, teacher," Mame said politely, offering a charming, flawless aristocratic smile. "I believe I pass the requirement."
Teacher Li swallowed hard, his hands trembling violently. He hesitantly reached out and placed his fingers around Mame's wrist to check the bone age.
The moment his fingers touched Mame's skin, the teacher gasped, snatching his hand back as if he had been burned.
He hadn't felt the soft, pampered bones of a wealthy noble. Beneath the pristine silk sleeve, Mame's physical density—forged by months of Saiyan Zenkai Overdrive and thousands of tons of Heavy Silver gravity training—felt like solid, impenetrable titanium. It was a density that shouldn't belong to a human child; it belonged to an ancient, hibernating dragon.
"T-twelve years old," Teacher Li croaked, wiping a bead of sweat from his forehead. He looked at the boy not as a student, but as an absolute, incomprehensible monster. "You... you pass. Please proceed to the final testing ground."
"Thank you," Mame nodded smoothly.
He didn't wait for directions. He turned and walked through the wooden gates of Shrek Academy, his hands clasped casually behind his back, leaving the utterly traumatized registration line in his wake.
Further back in the crowd, Tang San and Xiao Wu, who had just arrived at the plaza, watched the silver-robed aristocrat stroll through the gates.
Tang San's hands clenched into tight fists, his nails biting into his palms. The hypocritical rage in his chest flared hotter than ever. The boy who had humiliated Dai Mubai and nearly killed him at the Rose Hotel was here.
He's a student? Tang San thought, his Purple Demon Eye tracking Mame's retreating back. With rings that break my Master's theories entirely. I will expose his secrets. I will prove that true strength comes from the Tang Sect, not from brute force and bizarre, stolen rings.
Beside him, Xiao Wu just shivered, her rabbit instincts screaming at her to run in the opposite direction.