Chapter 90: The Fury of Elder Mu! Elder Xuan, You Are Trash!
Before the agonizing wails echoing amidst the rubble had even begun to fade, Elder Xuan forcibly wrenched his mind out of its paralyzing shock.
He stared blankly at the thick, pooling blood that painted the shattered ground. His normally ruddy, wine-flushed complexion had drained entirely, leaving his face as pale and brittle as parchment. The metallic stench of death filled his nose, snapping him back to reality. He knew this was no time to stand dazed. If he hesitated for even another breath, the few remaining disciples clinging to their shattered lives would slip away forever.
"Quick! Take everyone! Fall back to the military camp!"
Elder Xuan let out a shrill, desperate roar, the tremor in his voice entirely unconcealed.
His spirit power erupted wildly from his body, forming a massive, translucent hand of energy that carefully scooped up the unconscious forms of Gongyang Mo and Xixi. At the same time, he personally rushed forward to gather Chen Zifeng into his arms. The young man had lost both of his legs from the thighs down and had already gone into deep shock from the excruciating agony.
Nearby, Ma Xiaotao and Dai Yueheng forced themselves to endure the tearing pain of their broken bodies. Supported by the trembling shoulders of Teacher Wang Yan, Huo Yuhao, and the others, they stumbled their way out of the collapsing cave.
Along the retreat path, Elder Xuan pushed his movement technique to its absolute limit, tearing through the wind. Yet, the frantic pounding of his own heart outpaced his speed entirely. He kept his eyes locked straight ahead. He did not even dare to cast a single glance backward at the corpse of Yao Haoxuan, which was currently being carried between Huo Yuhao and Bei Bei, the young man's body completely soaked in a horrifying layer of crimson.
In less than half an hour, this battered, incomplete, and bloodied team rushed into the perimeter of Duke White Tiger's military camp in an incredibly sorry state.
"Physicians! Quickly, call all the healing-type Spirit Masters over!"
The moment Dai Yueheng's heavy boots stepped into the clearing before the central military tent, he roared with the very last ounce of strength in his lungs, his voice cracking with desperation.
The disciplined military camp instantly descended into absolute chaos.
Duke White Tiger Dai Hao arrived within moments, his heavy armor clanking as he brought several high-ranking officers and over a dozen veteran military physicians in tow. However, when these hardened doctors—men and women who were intimately accustomed to the brutal realities of life and death on the battlefield—laid eyes on the scene before them, a collective gasp of horror rippled through their ranks.
Inside the spacious central military tent, the smell of blood was so thick it was suffocating.
Yao Haoxuan's corpse was laid flat on the cold, hard ground. Due to the sheer, point-blank impact of the corpse explosion, his remains were mangled beyond recognition, his flesh and armor fused into a gruesome ruin.
Several senior physicians knelt beside him, their hands glowing with diagnostic spirit power. After only a single glance, they extinguished their light and shook their heads helplessly. One of them stood up, leaning in to whisper to Dai Hao. "Your Grace, this young brother... is completely dead. His internal organs are shattered. Even an immortal descending from the heavens could not save him."
"What about Chen Zifeng? Can his legs be reattached?!"
Elder Xuan lunged forward, grabbing the lead physician by the collar. His eyes were completely bloodshot, bulging with extreme urgency as he lifted the man off his feet.
The physician choked, nearly suffocating under the crushing, involuntary pressure of Elder Xuan's level 98 cultivation base. He gasped for air, forcing his eyes toward the operating table where Chen Zifeng lay. The young man's legs had been severed at the roots. The jagged edges of the stumps were charred black, the flesh actively bubbling and corroding from the lingering evil poison.
The doctor sighed, his face pale and troubled. "Senior, please... this student's legs were instantly shattered by a highly toxic, corrosive evil force. The severed limbs are completely destroyed and cannot be recovered. Worse, the poison has already seeped deep into the bone marrow."
He swallowed hard, forcing himself to deliver the final verdict. "We can only save his life. But I am afraid he will never be able to stand again in this lifetime. He is permanently crippled."
Boom—!
Elder Xuan felt a deafening explosion ring inside his own brain. All the strength vanished from his limbs. His hands went completely limp, releasing the physician's collar as he stumbled backward, his vision swimming.
Subsequently, the bad news arrived in a relentless, crushing wave.
Although Xixi and Gongyang Mo had their lives pulled back from the brink, their internal organs had sustained severe, structural damage. The evil poison had rooted itself too deeply to be fully purged by the camp's healers. They had fallen into a deep, unresponsive coma, requiring at least several months of absolute quiet recuperation just to wake up.
As for Ma Xiaotao and Dai Yueheng, their external injuries were slightly lighter, but the insidious evil poison had invaded their meridians. It was actively obstructing the natural flow of their spirit power. If they attempted to use high-intensity spirit power to fight, the poison would attack their hearts. They were effectively sidelined for the foreseeable future.
The reality of the situation crashed down upon the tent. This meant that the main team—the absolute pride of Shrek Academy, the group Elder Xuan had placed his highest hopes upon and proudly declared the 'strongest in ten thousand years'—had been completely wiped out. And it had happened during a simple warm-up mission against a band of rogue bandits.
At this moment, Duke White Tiger Dai Hao turned around slowly.
The battle-hardened commander's sharp eyes locked onto Elder Xuan, revealing an undisguisable, heavy skepticism. He stood tall, his voice deep and echoing with military authority. "Elder Xuan, my military scouts clearly reported that there was only a single Spirit King residing in that cave. With your supreme cultivation, if you had been present at the front, how could these children have been injured to such a disastrous extent?"
Elder Xuan's complexion instantly turned the dark, mottled color of bruised liver. He lowered his head, his hands clenching so tightly his knuckles turned white, but his throat was completely locked. He could not force a single word out in his defense.
Huo Yuhao raised his head from the corner of the tent. His Spirit Eyes still bore the faint, glowing traces of undried tears.
He looked directly at Elder Xuan. Although the young boy's tone was eerily calm, every single syllable he spoke pierced straight through Elder Xuan's chest like a serrated blade. "Elder Xuan, you said earlier that you felt unusual spirit power in the surroundings. You said you needed to go handle it, and you ordered us to enter the cave first."
Huo Yuhao paused, his fists trembling at his sides. "But... when an explosion of that magnitude occurred, where exactly were you? If you could have stood at the cave entrance and blocked the blast for even a single instant, Senior Haoxuan might not have died."
Elder Xuan felt his face burning with a painful, agonizing heat. That sensation of burning shame was infinitely more unbearable than the physical pain of being whipped by Elder Mu.
He could feel the heavy gazes of everyone in the tent pressing down on him—the surrounding officers, the armored soldiers, Teacher Wang Yan, and the surviving students. Those gazes no longer held the deep, unquestioning reverence of the past. That respect had been entirely replaced by deep disappointment, simmering anger, and an beyond understanding, raw disgust.
The sheer humiliation crashing over him made Elder Xuan feel that this moment was no less degrading than the day he was forced to kneel before the Body Sect.
That time, his downfall was born of his own blind arrogance. This time, it was born of his incorrigible gluttony. He had slipped away to drink and eat, abandoning his post.
However, the true terror that made Elder Xuan's blood run cold was yet to come.
"Teacher Wang Yan," Elder Xuan finally rasped, his voice hoarse and broken, revealing a deep, hollow sense of frustration and mounting dread.
"Make the arrangements. Request a few military escorts to take... to take Haoxuan's remains back to Shrek. Also, prepare carriages for the severely injured. Xixi, Gongyang Mo, and Chen Zifeng... if they stay here in this condition, there is only a dead end waiting for them. They must be sent back immediately, placed beneath the Golden Tree, and we must beg Elder Mu to use his own life force to extend theirs."
Just speaking the words "Elder Mu" caused Elder Xuan's hunched body to tremble violently.
He was terrified. He was too afraid to even picture it. He truly could not imagine how apocalyptic the fury of that Dragon God Douluo would be when Yao Haoxuan's cold, mangled corpse was carried into the sacred grounds of the Sea God Pavilion. He could not fathom the reaction when the news of Chen Zifeng's severed, rotting legs reached Elder Mu's ears.
He dared not think about how Elder Mu would deal with him when he eventually returned to Shrek Academy alone, after the Continental Advanced Spirit Master Academy Tournament ended.
Would Elder Mu personally cripple his cultivation? Or would he be stripped of his title and expelled from the academy entirely?
Regardless of which punishment awaited him, for a man like Elder Xuan—who valued his pride and reputation above his own life—it would be a torture far worse than death.
"Elder Xuan..." Teacher Wang Yan stepped forward, looking at the remaining seven members of the young reserve team, his voice choking with heavy emotion. "Then what about us?"
Elder Xuan waved his hand in a dazed, erratic motion. He turned his back, entirely lacking the courage to meet the eyes of the wounded, traumatized students. He spoke in a numb, hollow tone. "Continue the journey... I will continue to be responsible for the remaining matters, guarding you until we reach Star Luo Imperial City."
After speaking, he dragged his feet out of the tent. He looked exactly like a walking corpse that had its very soul extracted, stumbling blindly as he disappeared into the cold shadows of the night.
Three days later. Shrek Academy, Sea God Pavilion.
Inside the grand hall beneath the originally quiet and serene canopy of the Golden Tree, a suffocating, heavy grief now permeated the air, thick enough to choke on.
When Yao Haoxuan's sealed coffin was slowly carried into the great hall, followed closely by the stretchers bearing the severely injured and dying disciples, the atmosphere froze. Elder Mu, who had been resting quietly with his eyes closed on his wooden reclining chair, suddenly snapped his eyes open.
His ancient gaze fell upon Chen Zifeng, who lay strapped to a stretcher, missing his legs and trapped in a feverish, semi-demented state of agony. He then looked at Xixi and Gongyang Mo, whose chests barely rose and fell, their breathing as fragile and weak as a flickering candle flame in the wind.
In that fraction of a second, Elder Mu's spirit power—which was normally as calm and deep as a placid lake—erupted with terrifying, world-ending fluctuations.
"Elder Xuan—!"
Elder Mu stood up abruptly from his chair.
In that single instant, the entire structure of the Sea God Pavilion trembled violently. The massive, sprawling branches of the Golden Tree shook, its golden leaves rustling wildly as if emitting bursts of sorrowful, piercing wailing.
He stood in silence as he finished listening to the grim report from the leading Star Luo soldier. When he heard the exact details—that Elder Xuan had abandoned his protective post because he supposedly detected 'unusual fluctuations,' ultimately leaving the young disciples to rush blindly into the dead center of a corpse explosion without a shred of protection—Elder Mu began to shake. His entire frail body trembled with such apocalyptic anger that his originally stabilized, decades-old injuries flared up, nearly causing him to relapse on the spot.
"Trash! He is simply incorrigible trash!"
Elder Mu slammed his hand down, instantly shattering the solid wooden armrest beside him into fine dust. His angry, booming curses echoed like thunderclaps throughout the great hall. "I originally thought that after the harsh lesson he received from the Body Sect last time, he would finally learn a bit of restraint! I thought he would learn what is meant by focusing on the big picture! He actually... he actually buried the absolute elite of this generation that I had so carefully cultivated!"
Nearby, Yan Shaozhe, Xian Lin'er, and the other high-ranking Deans stood frozen to the side. Their faces were deathly pale, the oppressive aura in the room making it impossible for them to even open their mouths to utter a single word of dissuasion.
They all knew the grim reality very well. With the main team members dead, permanently crippled, and severely injured, this meant that Shrek Academy's ten-thousand-year undefeated myth would very likely come to a complete, humiliating end in the upcoming tournament.
"Wait until he returns!"
Thunderous, crackling rage—an intensity of fury that none of the Deans had ever seen before—flickered violently in Elder Mu's ancient eyes. His tone dropped, becoming icy to the extreme, freezing the very air in the pavilion.
"I must settle this blood debt with him personally! This time, his failures absolutely cannot be let go so easily!"
Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away on the dusty road leading to Star Luo City, Elder Xuan suddenly shuddered violently.
A sudden, bone-deep chill swept through his body. He stopped and looked back in the distant direction of Shrek Academy, the raw fear in his eyes reaching an impossible, suffocating level. With no other choice, he could only turn back around, leading the remaining battered troops in a daze. Under the bleeding afterglow of the setting sun, he continued to walk toward the grand arena—the very place that was about to judge his ultimate failure.
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