How Much Have You Had to Drink to Get This Drunk?

There had been cases where senior teachers went straight to the first year to teach students.

There was nothing stopping Zhang Lexuan from going to the Outer Courtyard to pick students now.

Who said teaching assistants weren't teachers?

The work she handled in the Inner Courtyard was exactly this kind of thing. Now she was simply putting her strengths to good use.

And Xuanyuan Sheng naturally had no intention of finding someone else to be his teacher.

For one thing, if he found someone else, what could they teach him?

Soul Power cultivation? Or rare treasures of heaven and earth?

Cultivating the Xuanyuan Sword wasn't something that could increase his Soul Power through those things. He had to bear Humanity's Luck and draw upon humanity to gain Soul Power.

In other words, the more concentrated Humanity's Luck was in a place, the more Xuanyuan Sheng's Soul Power would surge.

That was how he had cultivated his current Soul Power Level of 57. But it was also why his Soul Power hadn't budged in nearly half a year.

He had come to Shrek for that bit of Humanity's Luck, to make himself stronger. Yet the further he went, the less useful it became.

Thinking about luck gave Xuanyuan Sheng a headache.

The Emperor Auspicious Beast among the Soul Beasts seemed unable to cultivate on its own either. It could only increase its Soul Power by living longer.

And Shrek's Humanity's Luck was especially concentrated only when new students enrolled each year. Afterward, it grew faint, not even enough to let him cultivate Soul Power automatically.

"Lexuan, what's your Soul Power Level now?" Xuanyuan Sheng asked the girl beside him curiously.

The Humanity's Luck around Zhang Lexuan was also quite strong, but when he stayed by her side, Xuanyuan Sheng had to cultivate and draw upon it himself. It was nowhere near enough to make his cultivation run automatically.

Zhang Lexuan modestly replied, "I just reached Soul Douluo rank 88. I'm still a long way from becoming a Titled Douluo."

She still felt a little ashamed. After all, she had promised her younger brother that she would become the strongest Titled Douluo and protect him. Yet now she was only a lowly Soul Douluo.

Rank 88.

Xuanyuan Sheng couldn't help being deeply shaken. This was the real deal!! He was absolutely sure of it.

No wonder Zhang Lexuan had the strongest Humanity's Luck in the academy after him.

And then there were the others, especially the higher-ups at Shrek Academy.

Take the successor to the Sea God Pavilion, for instance.

Zhang Lexuan was leagues ahead of her peers and could beat the previous generation, with strength approaching that of a Titled Douluo.

With achievements like hers, anywhere else she would have become the successor outright and been groomed as a pillar of the next generation.

But that wasn't how things worked at Shrek Academy. Zhang Lexuan had no chance of becoming the successor to the Sea God Pavilion. The most important reason was that she wasn't an orphan.

Why raise her to greatness, only to let someone else reap the benefits?

Shrek understood that calculation all too well. So Zhang Lexuan, who had brought Xuanyuan Sheng with her to Shrek City, had always been left to her own devices.

It had become another Spirit Hall a millennium later—a true Spirit Hall that kept geniuses under its control.

It stood apart from the great empires and had the Sea God Pavilion, filled with powerful experts, and worshipped a deity... In every way, it was just like a millennium ago.

The closer Shrek's people came to the center of power, the more they revered the authority of the God King, treating it as absolute truth.

They stayed silent, gave their assent... and waited...

Xuanyuan Sheng hadn't seen much Humanity's Luck around them.

In every respect, the people of Shrek Academy were an extremely complicated lot.

Humanity's Luck—that is, humanity—would never grant the gods supreme authority.

From another angle, humanity had always been the Heavenly Dao's adversary. Any true human powerhouse would have the urge to bring down the heavens and defy them.

Humanity's flame passed from one generation to the next, never dying out.

They had lost that spirit, so they no longer belonged to humanity.

"You'll have to bear the burden of humanity, Lexuan."

"Huh?"

Zhang Lexuan drew out the sound, replying to Xuanyuan Sheng with a blank, sweet expression.

Hadn't they been talking about academy teachers choosing students as disciples? Why had Xiao Sheng suddenly entrusted her with something so important?

But Zhang Lexuan was too embarrassed to say it... The only person she cared about was him.

"Lexuan, are you reluctant to leave Shrek?"

Xuanyuan Sheng asked the question again. He really wanted to know what Shrek meant to Zhang Lexuan.

When Shrek's Humanity's Luck became too faint to help him, he probably wouldn't choose to stay here.

Zhang Lexuan leaned back, meeting Xuanyuan Sheng's gaze.

She closed her eyes and spoke slowly. "Shrek... It's actually quite simple. This place is just a stop along life's journey. There isn't much to be reluctant about."

To her, an academy was just somewhere to spend a part of one's life, much like the junior academy she had attended before. What she felt attached to was simply the youth she had spent there.

The place one would devote oneself to completely was a sect, not some academy.

Dusk fell.

Zhang Lexuan produced a bottle of wine from somewhere.

She had heard from her junior sister that people who had never drunk before usually couldn't withstand the dizziness alcohol brought.

The cutest part was when they got drunk and babbled nonsense, then wanted to crawl into a hole after waking up.

She was looking forward to seeing Xuanyuan Sheng like that. She had never seen his face flush after getting drunk.

With her little scheme in mind, Zhang Lexuan carried two glasses and gently pushed open the balcony door with her elbow.

Xuanyuan Sheng took the glass from Zhang Lexuan. Its coolness seeped from his palm into his heart.

The sweet fruit fragrance mingled with the taste of alcohol.

He paused when he got the glass in his hand.

Wine?

And on the rocks, too.

A night filled with cicadas, stars scattered across the sky, and a cool breeze blowing through the summer night.

Everything fit together perfectly.

"Cheers."

Xuanyuan Sheng lifted his glass in a toast.

Zhang Lexuan watched him drain it in one go, feeling a little surprised.

She had never seen Xiao Sheng like this before.

She pressed the glass to her pink lips and took small sips, waiting for the wine to go to his head and turn his cheeks rosy.

After finishing his drink, Xuanyuan Sheng thought of an embarrassing incident from Zhang Lexuan's childhood.

"Lexuan, do you remember when you were little, you saw another mother nursing her child and insisted on dragging me over to watch?"

His hearty laughter rang out.

Zhang Lexuan immediately blushed. Weren't people who drank supposed to embarrass themselves? Why was he bringing up her embarrassing story?

Afraid Xuanyuan Sheng would keep revealing her secrets, she tipped her head back and drained the fine wine as if it were water.

"Xiao Sheng, I'm not talking to you anymore..."

She wrapped both arms around Xuanyuan Sheng's head and pressed it to her chest, stopping him from saying another word.

The playful mood stayed with them.

Until...

"Xiao Sheng, why are there two suns in the sky?"

Suns?

Xuanyuan Sheng looked at the bright, clear moon overhead, then at Zhang Lexuan, pressed close beside him, her head swaying from side to side.

How much have you had to drink to get this drunk?

All the while, the commotion in the little attic was watched by a figure on a nearby balcony.