Chapter 168: Bei Bei's Disappointment, The Stolen Dragon Pill
Inside the spacious office on the second floor of the Sea God Pavilion, Elder Xuan lowered himself back into his wide wooden chair. The ancient wood groaned softly beneath his weight. He reached up with a slightly trembling hand, slowly adjusting his high collar to conceal the erratic pulse at his throat. He needed a moment to bury the lingering traces of ugly jealousy and raw anger that Liu Yuan's very existence always managed to drag out of him.
Though Elder Xuan felt a flicker of confusion regarding Bei Bei's sudden request for an audience, he brushed the thought aside. In his mind, Elder Mu's deathbed instructions regarding the Radiant Dragon Pill were an absolute, impenetrable secret. Aside from himself—the chosen successor entrusted with the academy's future at the very end—absolutely no one else could possibly know of its existence.
"Let him in," Elder Xuan commanded, his voice deliberately flattened into an indifferent drawl toward the attendant waiting outside.
A moment later, the heavy wooden doors creaked open.
Bei Bei stepped into the office, his footfalls steady and measured against the polished floorboards. Shadows clung to the hollows beneath his eyes, painting a picture of deep exhaustion and haggard grief, yet his gaze burned with the cold, piercing intensity of winter stars. He looked directly at Elder Xuan, who sat elevated in the seat of power.
A practiced, grandfatherly smile bloomed across Elder Xuan's weathered face. Adopting the gentle, nurturing tone of a benevolent elder addressing a cherished junior, he asked, "Bei Bei, what brings you here in such a hurry? Have you encountered a bottleneck in your cultivation? Or perhaps the Tang Sect has run into some trouble that you cannot handle alone?"
Bei Bei did not bow. He offered none of the customary greetings, nor did he return the pleasantries. He simply came to a halt before the massive desk, his hands hanging naturally at his sides, his spine rigid. His starlit gaze did not waver for a fraction of a second.
Taking a slow, deep breath, Bei Bei let the silence stretch just long enough to turn the air brittle. When he finally spoke, his voice was a cold, unyielding blade.
"Elder Xuan, I have not come today for personal matters."
He held the old man's gaze. "I would like to ask, where is the Radiant Dragon Pill that my Great-Grandfather entrusted to you before he passed? Why, even as of today, has that pill still not been delivered to Liu Yuan?"
The words struck like a physical blow, detonating like a thunderclap within the suffocating quiet of the office.
Elder Xuan's hand, which had just reached out to lift his porcelain teacup, froze dead in mid-air.
His emerald eyes snapped shut. The sickeningly sweet, feigned smile instantly calcified on his face, rapidly dissolving into a mask of absolute shock and heavy, suffocating gloom.
He had not accounted for this. He had completely failed to anticipate that Bei Bei knew of the Radiant Dragon Pill's existence, let alone the damning fact that its rightful owner was supposed to be Liu Yuan. The sheer, naked embarrassment of having his darkest, most greedy secret dragged into the light stripped Elder Xuan of his voice. For a long, agonizing moment, he simply sat there, paralyzed by exposure.
"You... how do you know about the Dragon Pill?" Elder Xuan finally managed to force the words out. He set the teacup down—a little too hard, the porcelain clattering against the saucer. His voice had dropped an octave, thick with an unmaskable undercurrent of panic.
But the old man's survival instincts quickly kicked in. His mind raced. If Bei Bei could name the pill and specifically tie it to Liu Yuan, it meant the boy's information was flawlessly accurate. Denial was no longer an option. The immediate priority was damage control—he needed to lock down the blast radius of this leak.
Elder Xuan's brows crashed together in a deep, menacing scowl. He leaned forward over the desk. Without a single gesture, the terrifying, atmospheric pressure of a Level 98 Super Douluo bled into the room, turning the very air to lead as it crashed down upon Bei Bei's shoulders.
Staring intensely at the young man, Elder Xuan pressed, his tone urgent and threatening, "Bei Bei, where did you hear about such a top-secret matter? Tell me the truth. Who exactly told you?"
Facing a gravitational force that could crush boulders to dust, Bei Bei's figure remained perfectly straight. He did not flinch. He did not bow. He replied with chilling calm.
"In the final days before my Great-Grandfather passed away, I never left his side."
Bei Bei's eyes narrowed slightly, filled with a quiet, mourning sorrow. "Great-Grandfather personally told me in private that the person he felt the most deep debt to in his entire life... was Liu Yuan."
"To make up for Shrek Academy's unforgivable treatment of Liu Yuan, and to leave behind a single seed of good karma for Shrek's future, he chose to condense the absolute essence of his life's spirit power into the Radiant Dragon Pill. He instructed you to hand it over to Liu Yuan. That is the truth I know."
Hearing the full context, Elder Xuan felt the icy grip of panic loosen just a fraction, though his paranoia remained at a fever pitch. He lowered his voice, his eyes darting toward the closed door before snapping back to Bei Bei. "Then, besides you, does anyone else in the Sea God Pavilion know of this? Do Yan Shaozhe or Xian Lin'er know?"
Bei Bei slowly shook his head. A bitter, self-mocking light flickered in his eyes. "No. Great-Grandfather said at the time that the fewer people who knew of this transaction, the better. So, he only confided in me. He genuinely believed that as the steadfast backbone of Shrek Academy, you would honor his dying wish without question."
The moment those words left Bei Bei's lips, Elder Xuan exhaled a long, heavy breath. The rigid tension in his shoulders melted away. The crushing weight of anxiety that had been strangling his heart evaporated, and he leaned back into the plush cushions of his chair, his expression twisting into something deeply complex and guarded.
However, Bei Bei's sharp eyes caught that distinct flash of 'relief' washing over the old man's face.
It was a sickening sight. An intensely ominous dread coiled in the pit of Bei Bei's stomach. Refusing to back down, he took a deliberate step forward, raising his voice to cut through the old man's comfort.
"Elder Xuan, you have not answered my question. Where is the Dragon Pill? Have you carried out Great-Grandfather's last wish?"
Elder Xuan fell into a dead silence.
He stared into Bei Bei's clear, demanding eyes. He knew the boy was too smart. Trying to weave a web of lies now would only insult them both.
After a long, suffocating stretch of time, Elder Xuan finally opened his mouth. When he spoke, his voice carried a slow, utterly shameless composure.
"The Dragon Pill has already been consumed by me."
"What?"
Even though Bei Bei had already deduced the horrifying truth, hearing the words fall so casually from Elder Xuan's own mouth made the room spin. The sheer audacity of it made Bei Bei's blood run cold. "That was left for Liu Yuan by Great-Grandfather! How could you possibly dare..."
"Bei Bei, calm yourself and listen to me!" Elder Xuan suddenly snapped, slamming both hands onto the desk as he stood up. He immediately pivoted, wrapping himself in the impenetrable armor of higher values, his tone swelling with impassioned, righteous indignation.
"Do you honestly think I coveted a single Dragon Pill for my own greed? You are entirely wrong! Look at the current state of Shrek! Since Elder Mu passed away, we are at our weakest, most vulnerable point in ten thousand years. The Sun Moon Empire watches our borders like a starving tiger, and the Body Sect grows more aggressive by the day. If we do not have a Limit Douluo overseeing the Sea God Pavilion, the entire foundation of Shrek Academy could be wiped from the earth at any moment!"
Elder Xuan stepped out from behind the desk, pacing slowly across the office floor. He arranged his features into a mask of deep, burdened sorrow, acting as though he were a martyr forced to bear a terrible sin for the sake of the world.
"I did not want to consume the Dragon Pill either! But for the survival of Shrek, for the safety of tens of thousands of innocent disciples, my hands were tied! I had to do it!"
He paused, looking back at Bei Bei with a heavy sigh. "This was the result of repeated, agonizing discussions between Elder Mu and myself before his passing. Elder Mu eventually saw reason. He agreed that maintaining Shrek's current status was the absolute priority. Liu Yuan's individual compensation simply had to take a back seat when weighed against the greater good of the Academy. Do you understand, child? This is the tragic helplessness of being a leader."
"The result of discussions?" Bei Bei stared at Elder Xuan, his voice dropping to a freezing whisper. A sharp, cutting sneer pulled at the corner of his mouth. "My Great-Grandfather valued honor and integrity above all else in his life. He would never, ever go back on his word like some fickle hypocrite."
"If you choose not to believe me, there is nothing I can do," Elder Xuan replied, waving a hand dismissively as he regained his cold, untouchable posture. "But that is the reality of the situation., Bei Bei, I strongly advise you not to spread a single word of this."
Elder Xuan's eyes hardened, a veiled threat lingering in his gaze. "After all, Shrek's public image must remain absolutely stable right now. If the outside world catches wind of an internal dispute over the whereabouts of the Dragon Pill, it will bring zero benefit to the Academy. It will only pain our allies and bring joy to our enemies. You are a smart child, Bei Bei. You should understand the vital importance of the big picture."
Looking at the old man standing before him, Bei Bei felt a physical wave of nausea. The face of the senior he had once respected, the man who was supposed to be the pillar of their home, had twisted into something entirely alien. Something deeply despicable.
Bei Bei did not bother to argue further. He knew exactly what was happening. Elder Xuan was holding up 'Shrek's greater good' as a convenient, blood-soaked shield to cover his own thievery.
"I understand," Bei Bei replied softly, his face completely devoid of emotion. He turned on his heel and walked out of the office, his back straight, leaving the suffocating hypocrisy behind him.
The moment he pushed open the heavy main doors of the Sea God Pavilion, the afternoon sunlight washed over him. Yet, standing in the light, Bei Bei could not feel the slightest trace of warmth. The chill in his bones was absolute.
He stopped at the bottom of the steps and slowly turned his head, looking back up at the towering, majestic structure of the Sea God Pavilion.
Up there, at the very top of that grand building, he could almost see Elder Xuan's eyes—eyes rotting with a bottomless desire for power.
An unmatched, hollow disappointment carved out Bei Bei's chest.
He knew with absolute certainty that Elder Xuan was abusing his authority for personal gain. But beneath the disgust, Bei Bei felt an even deeper, more suffocating sense of powerlessness.
Elder Mu had fallen. The only man who could prove the truth was dead. There were no witnesses left.
And now, as a Level 98 Super Douluo and the Acting Pavilion Master, Elder Xuan sat at the absolute apex of the hierarchy. There was no longer a single person, nor a single rule within the entirety of Shrek Academy, that possessed the power to restrain him.
"Using power to feed your own greed, yet wrapping yourself in the banner of the greater good," Bei Bei whispered to the wind, shaking his head slowly.
"Elder Xuan... for the sake of your own breakthrough to Limit Douluo, you have personally buried the very last chance for peace that Great-Grandfather tried to leave for Shrek."
Bei Bei turned away, his eyes dark and resolute. "I only hope that when the time comes, you will not regret what you have done today."
Without looking back a second time, Bei Bei stepped forward, walking out from beneath the massive, sprawling shadow of the Golden Tree.
As he walked away, a grim certainty settled in his heart. From the exact moment Elder Xuan swallowed that stolen pill, the fate of Shrek Academy had been locked onto a path leading straight into an irreversible abyss.
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