Only Mingde Hall Can Do It

Only Mingde Hall Can Do This

On the other side, the atmosphere among the Shrek delegation staying at the Star Emperor Hotel was heavy.

Excluding the accompanying teachers, there were only ten people sitting in the conference room, and only three of them looked like starting members.

Wang Yan pretended to be relaxed as he pulled out a chair and sat down. He looked at Ma Xiaotao, Dai Yueheng, and Ling Luochen across from him, but ultimately did not speak to them first, turning instead to the pale-faced reserve team members sitting on the other side.

The reserve members still capable of fighting were Bei Bei, He Caitou, Xu Sanshi, Jiang Nannan, Dai Huabin, and Zhu Lu. Xie Huanyue had sustained very serious injuries and had already been sent back to Shrek for emergency treatment.

"There are a total of 133 participating teams. The first round will be a direct seven-on-seven elimination tournament; the losing side is out immediately," Wang Yan said, trying his best to make his voice sound confident. "Xiaotao and Yueheng's conditions require more time to recover, so Ling Luochen, you will have to lead the team for this match."

"Understood." Sitting on the side of the starters, the frost-like woman immediately accepted the order.

Her injuries were only slightly less severe than those of Ma Xiaotao and Dai Yueheng; if she wanted to take the field, she would still have to rely on a mobility aid.

Seven-on-seven team battles allowed for situations where a starting lineup could not field seven people. However, Wang Yan could only let Ling Luochen take the field, as he truly lacked confidence in this reserve team. Furthermore, Dai Huabin had a shoulder injury and could not engage in strenuous activity for the time being; as a melee soul master, he would be essentially useless for the first few rounds.

It would be a disgrace if Shrek lost in the elimination round.

He had already suffered a major setback after being part of the mission led by Elder Xuan, and the opportunity to work in the Inner Court had already slipped away from him; if the ten-thousand-year glory of Shrek were to be cut short in his hands this time, he would truly have no way to continue at Shrek.

"We have interrogated her and suspect she is a spy for the Body Sect. This student has now been detained by us, and we have announced to the outside world that she is following a teacher on a secret project."

At this moment, the woman appeared to have regained consciousness, but the small portion of her face that was visible remained completely bloodless. Hearing the sound of the door opening, her eyes struggled to turn toward the door, looking at the approaching Jing Hongchen.

If she still held her previous mindset, it would be impossible for her to speak to Jing Hongchen in such a tone after knowing she was in Mingde Hall; but now, she truly did not care about anything.

Xi Xi nodded.

This was not a question of whether the primary responsibility lay with him or not; it could only be said that his luck was bad. Since he was a teacher and a party involved, it was impossible to remove himself from this series of events. If he were to argue, he might even be asked: setting Elder Xuan aside, do you really have no responsibility at all?

"Listen well." He braced himself, first sitting up straight. "Our opponents won't be strong either. Some of their starting members' cultivation levels are not even as good as you reserve members. You are already the best among your peers, so fight without reservations."

"...Also, the matter you asked me to handle previously has made some progress." Lin Jiayi looked around the room, then gently closed the office door before speaking.

"Third, there are indeed informants for the Crown Prince within the academy, but we have not yet locked down the specific identities..."

"We will not receive a bye. As the defending champions, we will inevitably be the ones to fight in the first round of the elimination tournament. Shrek's first shot must be fired well."

Lin Jiayi handed a piece of correspondence to Jing Hongchen, who took it, scanned it briefly, and then nodded to indicate he understood. Lin Jiayi noticed that among Jing Hongchen's already sparse silver hair, many more strands of white had appeared.

"Are you talking about Shrek?" Jing Hongchen asked calmly.

"Treat that student with the ghost martial soul well. Do not frighten her. Use your methods to slowly extract information from her."

In the pure white hospital room lay a woman wrapped in bandages. A pale green orb hovered above her head; it was an auxiliary healing soul tool, currently releasing life force into her. It was powered by a level-six milk bottle, and it would emit an alarm when the internal soul power was low, prompting the attending physician to replace it with a fully charged one.

He knocked on the door symbolically, waited ten seconds, and then pushed the door open and walked in.

"Even if you look young, as long as you are wearing the Shrek team uniform, they will tremble at this title!"

Hearing this, Jing Hongchen's face turned ashen, and a fierce glint flashed in his narrow, slit-like eyes. "Coming to scheme against me again... If that Evil Soul Master hadn't been mentally damaged that day and insisted on provoking Yuhao and the others, I truly wouldn't have known that my academy had already been riddled with termites."

"The by-product of Number One has completed its modification. Xuan Ziwen just conducted an experiment yesterday, and it can be installed normally."

"No." She shook her head. "I was originally from the Heaven Spirit Empire. I used to live in a small city. My family didn't have much, but they discovered my talent was decent, so they spent a lot of money to send me to Shrek... After entering the Inner Court, I never returned home."

She had been awake for three days, and through her interactions with the physician, she had more or less understood her situation.

She looked at Jing Hongchen, who was within arm's reach, and slowly raised her left hand, which she could still move:

The members of the reserve team gradually began to look more spirited, but the expressions of the three starting members remained the same. They knew the true situation of the tournament better and understood in their hearts that this was merely Wang Yan's rhetoric to boost morale, but none of them could bear to interrupt.

"I see." Jing Hongchen nodded to show he understood. "However, you cannot move right now. Even if we had our soul masters fly you to Heaven Spirit, the distance is too great, and it would be very bad for your physical condition."

Jing Hongchen's attention finally shifted from the reflection shaking in his teacup: "Hm?"

"And the background check operation you asked me to conduct while taking Young Master Xiao for his internship... we did indeed catch a few suspicious individuals."

Jing Hongchen rubbed his brow. This girl's will to live was all but gone; clearly, to her, dying now was better than living as a cripple. Just like many terminally ill patients who request to go home in their final moments, this was a manifestation of giving up on life.

He slammed the table, causing the teacups on it to shake three times and spill a few drops of tea. Lin Jiayi was very familiar with the Hall Master's temper; Jing Hongchen was a somewhat self-opinionated man who also hated others acting recklessly over his head.

"Begin the investigation into the Body Sect spies immediately, and apply to the imperial family to have them charged with leaking state secrets!"

"First is a student with a ghost martial soul. After verification, she is indeed related to those people. At the same time, we discovered problems with her enrollment procedures; there may be an insider in the admissions office."

"Hello." Jing Hongchen walked to her bedside and pulled up a chair to sit down. "I am the current Mingde Hall Master, Jing Hongchen. Your name is Xi Xi, right?"

Jing Hongchen's brow was already furrowed.

"Hall Master, Elder Ma has sent word that the team members have arrived safely in Star Luo City and have checked into the hotel to rest. Everyone is in good condition."

Her final memory stopped at the moment the flesh exploded in front of her. At the time, she had had the chance to escape the cave directly, but to prevent the children from being hurt for her sake, she chose to turn back and attack the exploding fragments of the corpse. She only remembered turning around and extending her right arm, activating several soul skills; after that, she knew nothing.

"Hm, I will arrange to push this matter forward very soon."

But before losing consciousness, she had already seen the miserable state of Ma Xiaotao and the others, and Yao Haoxuan's severed body. She knew that this generation of Shrek's Seven Devils was finished.

"Ah... my physical condition, it doesn't matter anymore." Her eyes stared straight at the ceiling, looking despairingly hollow. "If I die on the way, just burn me into a handful of ashes and scatter them into the sea."

Lin Jiayi nodded: "Yes."

"Tell me about it." Jing Hongchen poured himself a cup of tea.

This news was also devastating to her. She had originally been the most ordinary-looking one among the Seven Devils, but at least through her outstanding talent and tireless effort, she had earned herself a seemingly bright future—and then it was all destroyed overnight.

Jing Hongchen stood up from his seat and strode toward the door. Before long, he arrived in front of that hospital room.

"The second one is a student who concealed his martial soul. When he enrolled, he filled out his forms and demonstrated his martial soul as a shovel, but in reality, after a second strict verification by our instruments, his martial soul is actually an ear, which is a type of body martial soul. The shovel he displayed earlier was the result of someone helping him disguise it."

"Finally, send that modified product to the Shrek student's hospital room door. I will be there shortly."

"Hall Master Jing Hongchen... could you let me go back to my hometown to see it one last time?"

The physician told her that her entire right arm could not be saved, and that her face and chest were also severely burned, which would likely leave permanent scars. Furthermore, if she underwent an amputation, her cultivation would plummet, and it was very likely she would fall straight back to the level of a level 30 Soul Elder.

"Don't be so pessimistic," Jing Hongchen said. "Perhaps there is still a turning point for your condition."

"Didn't the doctors already say it was impossible..."

"That is because they have not come into contact with the most cutting-edge fields of our soul tool technology." Jing Hongchen raised his voice slightly. "We at Mingde Hall have a way to restore you to your original state. The three Douluo nations cannot do this, and Shrek cannot do this. Right now, only Mingde Hall can."