Ye Xinglan's Fury

After leaving the Spirit Pagoda, Xia Yi and Gu Yue had originally planned to return directly to the hotel.

But as they passed the seafood restaurant from earlier, they were astonished to find that Xu Lizhi and Ye Xinglan had changed into waiter uniforms. Ye Xinglan was crouched at the entrance washing dishes, while Xu Lizhi was cleaning inside.

"Damn Tang Wulin, he actually skipped out on the bill! Just wait until I run into you at the Heaven Sea Alliance Grand Competition—I'll make you pay! And that damn Xia Yi and Gu Yue too, I definitely won't let you off!" Ye Xinglan was so furious her lungs felt ready to burst. Tang Wulin had just told her Xia Yi's name.

Tang Wulin had clearly promised to pay the bill, yet he had only paid for his own share before sneaking away.

As for Xia Yi and Gu Yue, they had indeed paid nothing at all and simply left.

All of it had been pinned on them.

Now, the owner was forcing them to wash dishes.

Ye Xinglan could only pray that Shen Yi would find them quickly.

Otherwise, she owed the seafood restaurant nearly twenty thousand Federal Coins. Even washing dishes for a month would not be enough to repay it.

Xia Yi took out his Soul Guidance Communicator and searched online. Before long, he found the number of a nearby media outlet.

Xia Yi did not use his own Soul Guidance Communicator. Instead, he went to a public Soul Guidance Communicator nearby.

"Hello, Skysea Daily!"

"Are you interested in a story about Shrek Academy students dining and dashing, then being forced by the owner to wash dishes?"

The moment Xia Yi finished speaking, an excited voice came from the other end of the Soul Guidance Communicator. "Sir, could you tell us the location? We're willing to offer five thousand Federal Coins."

"Forget the Federal Coins. I only ask that you use the media to seek justice for the Shrek Academy students," Xia Yi said solemnly.

"Justice? Isn't it only natural for people who dine and dash to wash dishes? What justice?" the person on the other end asked curiously.

"Hmph, what kind of talk is that? Shrek Academy students honored their restaurant by eating there. They already advertised for them for free, so why should they pay?" Xia Yi snorted, then hung up the Soul Guidance Communicator and sent over the restaurant's address.

Immediately afterward, Xia Yi called more than a dozen media outlets and repeated the same conversation more than a dozen times.

Gu Yue was left dumbfounded.

Only after finishing all that did he return to the hotel with Gu Yue.

Xia Yi ignored everything else and began meditating the moment he returned to the hotel.

He had no idea that all of Skysea City had exploded into an uproar.

No, it should have been said that media outlets across the entire Douluo Continent were frantically hyping it up.

In less than an hour, the video of Shrek Academy students dining and dashing before being forced by the owner to wash dishes had spread wildly across the internet.

Many brainless Shrek Academy fans strongly agreed with Xia Yi's "viewpoint," believing that Shrek Academy students did not need to pay because they had already given the restaurant free publicity. Not charging them advertising fees was generous enough—why should they pay?

The owner's act of forcing Shrek Academy students to wash dishes was even more outrageously unacceptable.

That very night, just after the restaurant closed, someone secretly smashed four or five large holes in its glass door.

Of course, there were also people online condemning Shrek Academy.

They believed Shrek Academy was using its power to bully others.

Especially after seeing that the restaurant had been vandalized, such voices grew louder and louder.

Ye Xinglan was completely stunned. It was true that she had eaten without paying, but she had washed dishes to settle the debt. Furthermore, after Shen Yi saw the video online, she had immediately come to help Ye Xinglan pay the bill in full.

How had it become bullying others with power?

Not only Ye Xinglan, even Shen Yi was dumbfounded.

The matter only intensified online. Even after the major platforms banned a large number of accounts deliberately stirring up conflict, they still could not calm things down.

With no other choice, Shen Yi immediately brought Ye Xinglan and Xu Lizhi to find the seafood restaurant owner, apologizing and offering compensation again and again.

But once the video had been posted online, no one accepted it.

"If this matter hadn't been exposed, would you have apologized?" a huge number of people commented beneath Shen Yi's apology video.

"Exactly. Those high-and-mighty Soul Masters clearly don't even see ordinary people like us as people. They deliberately oppress us."

"That's right. If every Soul Master ate without paying, wouldn't ordinary people like us starve to death?"

The situation escalated further and further, even rising to the level of relations between Soul Masters and ordinary people.

Before long, even the Sea God Pavilion of Shrek Academy had learned of the matter.

Shen Yi's Soul Guidance Communicator was flooded with calls from the Sea God Pavilion's higher-ups.

They all wanted to know why a single meal had escalated into an issue involving the relationship between Soul Masters and ordinary people.

Ye Xinglan and Xu Lizhi had grievances they could not voice.

If they had known the price of that meal would be so great, they would never have eaten it even if beaten to death.

Meanwhile, Xia Yi, the culprit behind it all, had absolutely no idea how far things had developed.

After meditating for an entire night, he headed to the competition the next day feeling refreshed.

The blacksmith competition began first. Today's event only required them to perform Hundred Refinement purification on Blue Pregnancy Copper to advance, so it posed no pressure at all for Xia Yi.

"Begin!"

As the announcement came from the podium, the young Blacksmiths in the Youth Group competition took out their Forging Hammers and began forging.

If he had not been pressed for time, Xia Yi could have completed Hundred Refinement purification even with the competition's standard Forging Hammers. But not now. After finishing here, he still had to hurry over to the Soul Master individual competition. Therefore, the hammer he raised was the Thousand Refinement Qingshi Copper Hammer.

His left hammer lightly tapped the Blue Pregnancy Copper, producing three crisp rings of "ding, ding, ding." The next instant, his right hammer had already swung up and smashed down.

Boom! The thunderous sound echoed through the stadium.

At the exact moment his hammer fell, Tang Wulin's Thousand Refinement Sinking Silver Hammer also struck his Blue Pregnancy Copper.

Without question, he and Tang Wulin were the first to begin.

Mu Xi, beside them, did not think much of it. She had long since become numb to the forging talent of these two freaks.

However, the veteran figures of the forging world seated on the podium could not help frowning.

"Children are still children. They do not even understand that forging Blue Pregnancy Copper requires sufficient observation. Who knows which family taught them?" an energetic silver-haired elder said with a frown.

"Indeed! Judging by the sound, they have plenty of strength, but they are too reckless. Still, considering their age, it is understandable," another elder beside him echoed.

Yet the moment he finished speaking, Xia Yi and Tang Wulin had already withdrawn their hammers and raised their hands.

The staff member supervising the arena hurried over.

"You've finished?" The staff member took the number tags from Xia Yi and Tang Wulin, then looked at the Blue Pregnancy Copper on the Forging Table, which had shrunk by a large amount. His face was filled with disbelief.

He looked as though he had seen a ghost.

"Can I leave now?" Xia Yi asked.

"You can leave if you've finished. But are you sure you completed the Hundred Refinement purification? If the purification failed, you'll be eliminated immediately," the staff member kindly reminded him.

"I'm sure I completed it," Xia Yi said without hesitation. With his current skill and the Thousand Refinement Qingshi Copper Hammer, Hundred Refinement was nothing to him.

The staff member was about to say more when he realized Xia Yi had already strode away with ease.

On the podium, the silver-haired elder who had spoken first said in a deep voice, "Have someone bring over the forging results of those two children. If they were not merely grandstanding, then they may be two geniuses."

Before long, two pieces of Hundred Refinement-purified Blue Pregnancy Copper were delivered to the podium.

The instant he saw the two pieces of Blue Pregnancy Copper, the elder could no longer remain calm. "High-grade Hundred Refinement! Quickly investigate which associations recommended these two children!"

High-grade Hundred Refinement was not difficult to encounter. What was rare was that it had been forged by two ten-year-old children.

Even rarer was that both of them had completed their Hundred Refinement purification at a terrifying speed.

By then, Xia Yi and Tang Wulin had already arrived at Skysea Stadium, the venue for the Soul Master individual competition.

However, the moment they entered the stadium, they were stopped by Ye Xinglan, whose face was filled with murderous fury.

"I finally caught you! What else do you have to say for yourselves?" Ye Xinglan's willow brows stood on end, and flames seemed to dance in her beautiful eyes.

The moment she thought of what had happened last night, she wanted nothing more than to skin Xia Yi and Tang Wulin alive.

Now, she did not even dare turn on her Soul Guidance Communicator.

The moment she did, it would ring without end, all of it people cursing at her.