Chapter 183: Forced Buying and Selling? I'll See Who Dares to Snatch Him
Along the shaded path, the gentle evening breeze abruptly sharpened, cutting through the air like invisible blades.
Three figures descended onto the blue-brick pavement with heavy, silent thuds. They positioned themselves in a flawless triangular formation, completely sealing off Fan Yu's avenues of escape.
Yan Shaozhe stood directly in front. His pristine white dean's robes billowed against the unnatural wind. A thick layer of frost seemed to settle over his aged features, his jaw locked in a rigid line. The fury burning within his deep-set eyes radiated outward, heavy enough to suffocate the surrounding space.
To his left stood Elder Song. Though her hunched frame appeared frail and weathered, the terrifying spirit power fluctuations rolling off her body warped the very air, folding the surrounding space into subtle, rippling creases.
On the right, Xian Lin'er's dark green martial attire clung to her vigorous, battle-ready physique. She glared fixedly at Fan Yu, her sharp phoenix eyes swimming with a volatile mix of bitter disappointment and deep-seated resentment. She had not yet summoned her Azure Fire Spear, but the sheer, piercing weight of her Spear Intent had already locked dead onto the center of Fan Yu's brow.
Fan Yu pressed his hand against his storage spirit tool, his knuckles turning a stark, bloodless white. He drew in a slow, measured breath, forcing down the violent tremors threatening to seize his chest. "Dean Yan, Dean Xian, Elder Song," he greeted, his voice kept deliberately low. "I did not expect the three of you to personally grace the Heavenly Soul Imperial City with your presence."
"Fan Yu!" Xian Lin'er snapped first, her voice betraying an irrepressible tremble. "I am asking you directly. Was that 'permanent departure from Shrek' written in your secret report truly your own intention? Did the Heavenly Soul Imperial Family use some despicable means to threaten you? Just give us a single nod. Today, even if we have to risk absolutely everything, we will carve a bloody path out of this Imperial City with you!"
Yan Shaozhe took a heavy step forward. His tone carried the crushing, unquestionable authority of a superior. "Fan Yu, you are well aware of Shrek's rules. As the Vice Dean of the Soul Tool Department, you hold countless core secrets of our academy. If you wished to leave, we could have talked. But leaving so quietly, slipping away in the dead of night—that is a direct trample upon Shrek's ten-thousand-year glory! What exactly is going on? Give me a proper explanation, now!"
Under the suffocating scrutiny of his former elders and colleagues, Fan Yu maintained a stony silence.
He refused to breathe a word about the Class 9 data from Mingde Hall. That knowledge was now the absolute foundation of the Heavenly Soul Empire, and his singular hope of breaking through to become a Class 9 Soul Engineer. Exposing it too early would only invite an even more frenzied, destructive retaliation from Shrek Academy.
Slowly, deliberately, he straightened his spine. His gaze drifted past Yan Shaozhe, staring straight ahead into the night. "To the three of you... I am a citizen of the Heavenly Soul Empire. Now that my empire needs me, my return to my motherland is perfectly logical."
"As for the procedures, I left a formal written resignation before my departure. I clearly detailed all of my handover work in those notes. I have completely fulfilled the resignation process required of a Shrek teacher. From that exact moment, I became a free man. Therefore, I no longer possess any obligation to report my personal whereabouts to you."
"A free man?" Yan Shaozhe barked a harsh, grating laugh, driven by sheer, blinding anger. Staring at Fan Yu's maddeningly calm demeanor, the fury simmering in his chest finally detonated.
"Fan Yu, have you forgotten who provided your food and clothing? Have you forgotten who granted you the absolute best experimental environment on the entire continent? Who focused on protecting your Soul Tool Department when resources were scarce and the martial soul faction was starving for funds?"
"Shrek nurtured you for twenty years! And now, you want to wipe away all those decades of sentiment with a single, flippant phrase like 'returning to my motherland'? In the soul master world, this kind of behavior is called blatant treachery!"
Elder Song let out a long, weary sigh, though a chilling pressure began to bleed from her eyes. "Fan Yu, a man cannot live without a conscience. If you persist in this foolishness, then Shrek has no choice but to take back what originally belonged to the academy."
Meanwhile, deep within the Heavenly Soul Imperial Palace.
The commander of the Imperial Guards nearly tripped over the threshold as he sprinted into the Warm Pavilion where the Emperor of Heavenly Soul was resting.
"Your Majesty! Terrible news!" the commander gasped, dropping to one knee. "Yan Shaozhe, Elder Song, and Xian Lin'er—three Shrek elders—have suddenly breached the Side Court! They have already cornered Count Fan Yu!"
The Emperor of Heavenly Soul violently overturned the heavy imperial desk in front of him. His normally refined, regal expression twisted into something utterly savage. He shot to his feet, his bright yellow casual robes snapping wildly in the sudden gale of his erupting spirit power.
"This is going too far! Those old fossils from Shrek—do they really think My Heavenly Soul Imperial City is their own private back garden?" The Emperor's eyes widened, practically splitting at the seams with pure rage. He had never imagined that Yan Shaozhe would dare to act with such blatant, arrogant disregard for imperial authority.
"Pass down My imperial decree!" he roared, his voice echoing through the pavilion. "Assemble all the Imperial Guards and Shadow Guards! Surround the Side Court immediately! Tell the soldiers that Count Fan Yu is the absolute backbone of this Empire. Anyone who dares to lay a finger on him is declaring full-scale war against the Heavenly Soul Empire! Today, I shall see if Yan Shaozhe truly dares to kill someone right under My nose!"
At the other end of the Imperial City, within the tranquil Qingfeng Court, Du Busi sat in the middle of a quiet game of chess. Suddenly, he snapped his head up. A heart-palpitating, ferocious light erupted from his emerald-green eyes.
"What absolute audacity!" Du Busi snarled. "This aura... it is that old scoundrel Yan Shaozhe and that old hag Song." He tightened his grip, instantly crushing the solid jade chess piece in his palm into fine dust. His massive body flickered, instantly suspending himself in mid-air above the courtyard.
Liu Yuan stood up from the table, a faint, majestic purple-gold light swirling around his form. His Double Pupils narrowed, piercing through the distance toward the Side Court. His tone carried a cold, calculated edge of expectation. "Master, it seems I was right. In the end, Shrek chose the most shameless and extreme path available to them. They want to forcibly snatch him right out of the Imperial City."
"Let's go!" Du Busi let out a deafening, low roar. "Today, this old man will teach them the bloody price of 'forced buying and selling'!"
Leading Liu Yuan, the two of them transformed into terrifying, meteoric beams of light, violently tearing through the Imperial City's night sky as they raced toward the epicenter of the conflict.
Back on the shaded path, the explosive tension had reached its absolute breaking point.
"Resources?" Facing Yan Shaozhe's blatant moral kidnapping, Fan Yu refused to take a single step back. Though his voice lacked the booming volume of a Super Douluo, it rang out resonant, firm, and unyielding.
"Dean Yan, over these past years, the soul tools I have personally refined for Shrek number at least eight hundred to a thousand. I single-handedly perfected the academy's defense system. I nurtured countless outstanding disciples. The sheer profit and value I have created for the academy have long since eclipsed the resources Shrek initially invested in me, several times over."
"Between us, the debts have long been settled. also, your so-called 'best environment' seems like nothing more than a gilded cage to me now."
Yan Shaozhe's face flushed a dark, volatile purplish-red. The veins in his neck bulged against his collar. He had never, in his wildest dreams, imagined that the usually steady, compliant Fan Yu would dare to utter something so utterly rebellious to his face.
"What a 'settled'! What a 'nothing more than a cage'!" Yan Shaozhe took a sudden, explosive step forward. The terrifying, suffocating pressure of a Rank 97 Super Douluo instantly crashed down upon the street. The sheer kinetic force of his aura pulverized every tree within a hundred-meter radius, reducing solid wood to a cloud of fine, drifting powder.
"Fan Yu, since you insist on being so obstinate, then today, acting on behalf of Shrek's Sea God Pavilion, this old man will forcibly drag you back for trial! When you are forced to kneel before Elder Mu's spirit tablet in the Sea God Pavilion, let us see if you still possess this pathetic backbone!"
Yan Shaozhe reached out, his right hand violently grabbing at the empty void. A searing, blinding white light erupted from his palm, rapidly expanding and transforming into a massive, glowing palm print that descended directly toward Fan Yu's head.
He had completely lost his patience for talking; he would simply abduct the man first. As for the political fallout, Shrek Academy was more than confident they could crush any consequences.
"I will see who dares to touch my Empire's Count within the borders of the Heavenly Soul Imperial City!"
Just as that crushing white light was about to make contact with Fan Yu's skull, a crisp, furious shout tore through the pressure-heavy air.
Immediately following the shout, the heavy, rhythmic thud of dense, orderly footsteps echoed from all directions, shaking the pavement. Princess Weina strode forward, her beautiful face locked in a cold, stern mask of absolute authority. Holding high a pure gold medallion bestowed directly by the Emperor, she led a massive, suffocating tide of heavily armed elite imperial troops, instantly blockading every exit to the street.
Behind her, dozens of Imperial Enshriners simultaneously released their martial souls. Rings of dazzling light illuminated the night as their combined auras merged into a towering defensive wall, forcefully intercepting and blocking a significant portion of Yan Shaozhe's tyrannical pressure.
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