Playing the Victim

"恩公, won't this be too expensive?" Jiang Nannan looked at the feast spread across the tray. No matter how she looked at it, she just couldn't bring herself to eat.

These things were simply too expensive. One meal alone had cost more than forty Gold Soul Coins.

"They're just some Soul Beast meat. Compared to how much they'll improve your cultivation speed, it's nothing. Go ahead and eat your fill. Once that Xu Sanshi young master from the Mysterious Underworld Sect pays up, we'll have enough for half a year's meals."

Feng Piaoling wasn't used to eating while standing. It was one thing that the Shrek Academy cafeteria had no tables, but they didn't even provide chairs, and they wouldn't let anyone take food outside.

They claimed it was a form of training for the students.

Who knew whether they were just stingy or genuinely meant it.

Looks like I'll have to bring my own table and chairs next time... Feng Piaoling muttered to himself.

"If Xu Sanshi knew you were treating him like an ATM, 恩公, he'd probably be furious."

Jiang Nannan smiled sweetly and finally relaxed, enjoying the rare delicacies to her heart's content. Her heart felt warm and sweet.

She hadn't expected that merely using the excuse of asking Feng Piaoling for cultivation advice to get closer to him, step by step, and build a closer relationship would lead to him inviting her along when he was heading to the cafeteria for a meal.

If Xu Sanshi had invited her, she wouldn't have given him a second glance.

But when it was her 恩公, her unattainable love... the man in her heart, inviting her, that was different.

They finished their meal quickly.

During it, Jiang Nannan had indeed asked Feng Piaoling for advice on several cultivation-related matters.

Since he had a good impression of the girl, Feng Piaoling offered his guidance without holding back.

Before this expert in controlling Soul Power, the things Jiang Nannan had once found obscure—such as how to release Soul Skills faster,

how to improve the efficiency of Soul Power absorption during meditation,

and which of her martial arts movements she wasn't executing properly—

were all corrected one by one, with Feng Piaoling taking her fighting style and Soul Power meditation method into account.

Jiang Nannan had gained a great deal from it.

Naturally, Feng Piaoling wasn't helping her for nothing.

He needed Jiang Nannan to be his sparring partner and help him refine 'Clone Shadow'.

In particular, he was interested in her third Soul Skill, Teleport.

If he could use the Heaven-Reaching Demon Eye to observe and analyze the basic principles of Teleport, then incorporate them into Clone Shadow, it would surely greatly improve the speed and evasive ability of this movement technique.

Just as they put their trays in the designated spot and were about to leave the cafeteria, a familiar, crisp voice caught their attention.

"What happened, little Yuhao? How did you get beaten up like this? Who did it? Who dared bully someone from our Tang Sect? Tell me, and Bei Bei and I will get justice for you."

"Teacher Xiao Ya, I'm fine. I'll handle this myself."

Feng Piaoling and Jiang Nannan both looked over. Huo Yuhao stood before Tang Ya and Bei Bei, looking pitiful, his eyes red and tears welling up.

A night had passed. Soul Power had healed most of the swelling, but his beaten eye was still hard to open. His face was mottled with purple and blue—there was no word for it but miserable.

Looks like Dai Huabin really beat the stuffing out of that Huo Dog... Seeing Huo Yuhao's sorry state, Feng Piaoling couldn't help letting a somewhat unkind smile play at the corner of his mouth.

"Isn't that the special-admission student Xiao Ya brought in yesterday? How did he get beaten up like this? Did he get into a fight with his roommate?"

At Shrek Academy, fighting was forbidden everywhere except the Soul Fighting Arena.

But there was one exception: the dormitories.

Normally, as long as no one was killed, the academy would turn a blind eye when two roommates fought. Some teachers would even encourage students to fight among themselves.

"That must be it. But that kid's playing-the-victim act is getting more and more polished," Feng Piaoling said.

"Playing the victim?" Jiang Nannan was taken aback.

Feng Piaoling nodded and didn't hide anything. He immediately told her, from start to finish, how he had passed the White Tiger Duke Mansion while traveling to the Star Dou Great Forest to hunt for a Spirit Ring, overheard some cruel servants discussing Huo Yuhao's past, and taken pity on him. When he later met Huo Yuhao on the road, he had offered to help him.

Then, after Huo Yuhao joined the Tang Sect, he had turned around and cut all ties with him.

Hearing Feng Piaoling's account, Jiang Nannan immediately spoke up on his behalf, indignant:

"Hmph, as expected, not a single person from the White Tiger Duke Mansion is any good. Dai Huabin is like that, and so is Huo Yuhao."

"He was the one who wanted to absorb a ten-year Wind Baboon Spirit Ring. 恩公 even kindly tried to stop him, but he insisted on going through with it."

"And then, once he joined the Tang Sect, he thought he'd found someone to back him up and repaid kindness with betrayal. He's nothing but a despicable villain. He'd deserve it even if someone beat him to death."

As someone else Feng Piaoling had helped,

Jiang Nannan felt deeply grateful to him. She would even be willing to die for him if he asked.

But Huo Yuhao had acted like an ungrateful wretch.

At that moment, Jiang Nannan's displeasure and disgust toward Huo Yuhao, whom she had briefly pitied when she saw him beaten, reached a point from which there was no turning back.

"It doesn't matter. When I helped him, I never expected anything in return. Since he chose this path, he can keep walking it on his own. Besides, I haven't lost anything." If anything, he'd made a huge gain by getting Electrolux as a powerful ally.

People said that women in love had zero IQ. Seeing Feng Piaoling speak like that, Jiang Nannan felt even more disgusted with Huo Yuhao, while her admiration and affection for Feng Piaoling grew stronger.

Only her 恩公 could have such a magnanimous heart.

"Come on, let's go. There's nothing worth watching." Feng Piaoling couldn't be bothered to look at Huo Yuhao's nauseatingly pitiful expression.

He led Jiang Nannan out of the cafeteria. As they passed Tang Ya, she tried to greet Jiang Nannan, but Jiang Nannan seemed to deliberately pretend not to see her and ignored her, apparently because Tang Ya had invited someone like Huo Yuhao to join the Tang Sect.

"Strange. What's gotten into Nannan today? Did she wake up on the wrong side of the bed? I don't remember doing anything to offend her."

Tang Ya had no idea what was going on.

Bei Bei said from beside her, "Maybe it's because of Feng Piaoling. Xiao Ya, you should've noticed by now that Jiang Nannan's feelings for him aren't just gratitude."

Tang Ya let out a soft sigh at that and watched Jiang Nannan and Feng Piaoling's retreating figures, lost in thought.

Then, as if a thought had suddenly struck her, she widened her eyes and turned to Huo Yuhao with a strange look. "You weren't beaten up by Feng Piaoling, were you?"

Huo Yuhao shook his head. "It wasn't him..."

Just as he was about to finish playing the victim and reveal who had done it, Tang Ya immediately breathed a sigh of relief and said:

"That's good. He may be an unpleasant person, but you have to admit he's really strong. Yesterday, that second-generation heir from the White Tiger Duke Mansion—the half-brother you share the same father with, Dai Huabin—fought him in the Soul Fighting Arena and lost after just one round. If the referee hadn't stepped in, he would already be dead."