Zhu Lu, Ning Tian, Wu Feng, Nanmen Yun'er

Feng Piaoling sighed inwardly, feigning ignorance of Jiang Nannan's state of mind. "Alright, let us part ways here. Once you return, refine the Mysterious Water Pill as soon as possible to avoid attracting unwanted attention. This Shrek Academy is not as safe as you might imagine."

"Mm." It seemed the earlier encounter had exhausted all of Jiang Nannan's courage; she offered only a soft acknowledgment, not daring to look up at Feng Piaoling again, her cheeks flushed so deeply they looked ready to bleed.

On the other side, just as Feng Piaoling had anticipated, the upper echelons of Shrek Academy ultimately chose not to expel Xu Sanshi; they did not even impose a single symbolic punishment.

They merely required Xu Sanshi to pay the remaining Mysterious Water Pill and the eighty thousand Gold Soul Coin wager. He was expelled from his original class, only to be accepted into another shortly thereafter.

That very evening, Bei Bei sought out his great-grandmaster, Mu En.

In the end, out of respect for the "lingering ties to the Tang Sect" and with the guarantee of Class One's homeroom teacher, Zhou Yi, the academy administration handled the matter with a light touch.

They gave Huo Yuhao a mere slap-on-the-wrist disciplinary record, and the high-ranking officials of the academy effectively swept the entire incident under the rug.

Feng Piaoling did not bother to dwell on this.

Calculating the loss was meaningless; even if the academy had actually expelled those individuals, it would have changed nothing.

He poured all of his time into cultivation.

Every night, he would return to his dormitory to cultivate his soul power. Each morning, after a quick breakfast, he would head to the rented Mimicry Training Ground.

He would cultivate inside for the entire day. When exhausted, he would sit cross-legged on his Soul Tool to cultivate the Green Lotus Sword Art for recovery. Once restored, he would activate the Heaven-Reaching Demon Eye, utilize Clone Shadow, and manifest his External Soul Bone, the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear, to strike the specially reinforced iron stakes while familiarizing himself with the soul power circulation routes required to unleash the Dark Gold Terrorclaw.

When hungry, he would take out the meat of the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear and roast it using a Fire Bomb Talisman.

He would continue this routine until dusk before finally departing.

Two days later, Feng Piaoling finally completed the fusion of the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear's left and right palm bones.

By then, the day for formal classes had finally arrived.

The doors of the white teaching building swung open, and the freshmen filed in, clad in their white uniforms.

When Feng Piaoling arrived at the Class Nine classroom in the freshman building at a leisurely pace, the spacious room was already filled with many students.

Seeing Feng Piaoling arrive, the eyes of the girls lit up, many of them becoming visibly infatuated. Although the boys were jealous of the attention Feng Piaoling drew from all the girls in the class, none of them dared to say a word.

After all, Feng Piaoling had just defeated the fifth-year student Xu Sanshi—and that was even with the opponent cheating.

Feng Piaoling ignored them, casually finding a seat by the window to begin conceptualizing the soul power circulation routes for the Dark Gold Terrorclaw, hoping to use this to create new sword techniques.

His time was precious; he could not afford to squander even a fraction of it.

Just as Feng Piaoling was deep in thought, someone suddenly nudged his arm.

Feng Piaoling glanced to the side, only then noticing that a tall young girl had sat down at the adjacent desk at some point.

The girl appeared to be at least one meter seventy in height, only slightly shorter than Feng Piaoling. She had short, golden hair that looked very neat, large water-blue eyes with long lashes, and a few small freckles on her cheeks.

Under normal circumstances, if these freckles were on another girl's face, they would certainly detract from her beauty, but on this girl, they were just right.

They added an air of charm for no reason at all.

Beside her sat a girl who looked like fire. The girl was exceptionally beautiful, her fiery red hair tied into a high ponytail, and her eyes were a rare shade of red; at first glance, there was a hint of something intimidating about her.

Yet, this could not hide her outstanding beauty. Her features were exquisite, her skin as fair as jade, but her gaze was cold, and the way she looked at Feng Piaoling was vastly different from the others.

It was as if Feng Piaoling had stolen her beloved.

"Classmate Feng Piaoling, Teacher Mu Jin has arrived." Seeing Feng Piaoling look over, the freckled girl revealed a smile as refreshing as a spring breeze.

So fake... Having grown up in the Crown Prince's Mansion and grown accustomed to the hypocritical face of Xu Tianran, Feng Piaoling instinctively frowned upon seeing the freckled girl smile at him like that. He gave a soft grunt and turned his gaze toward Mu Jin, who had already stepped onto the podium, saying nothing more.

"Young Mistress, this person is truly too rude. You kindly reminded him, how could he be so impolite?"

The red-haired girl with the high ponytail whispered resentfully in the freckled girl's ear.

A flash of helplessness crossed the freckled girl's eyes: "Wu Feng, do not let anger cloud your wisdom."

"This is Shrek Academy. Anyone capable of entering here, especially a genius of Feng Piaoling's caliber, is bound to be proud and arrogant."

"What we must do is befriend him, not make an enemy of him. Also, have I not told you? Do not call me Young Mistress within the academy; we are sisters."

"Mm." The red-haired girl had no resistance to the freckled girl's words; she obediently agreed and gave a light nod.

Feng Piaoling had been observing the two of them calmly. He had figured it out: this red-haired girl was a lesbian, and based on how they addressed each other, it was not hard to guess their identities.

Ning Tian, the young mistress of the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, and Wu Feng, who also hailed from the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda.

It was a curious matter, however.

Although the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect was named "Nine Treasure," in reality, there was not a single Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda soul master in the entire sect.

Ten thousand years ago, Ning Rongrong, who had gambled the sect's entire existence and even sacrificed the two guardian Douluos of the sect—Sword Douluo Chen Xin and Bone Douluo Gu Rong—to obtain the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, had left nothing behind for the sect except for the name "Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect" and the honor of being a "Godly Sect."

By now, the spacious classroom was full. Feng Piaoling briefly observed the surroundings and discovered that, besides Ning Tian and Wu Feng, there were three others with soul power exceeding level twenty.

One of them Feng Piaoling had seen before: black hair, black eyes, and an extremely hot figure. Who else could it be but Dai Huabin's fiancée, Zhu Lu?

Another looked frail and delicate, with light green hair draped behind her and ink-green eyes that exuded gentleness, naturally evoking a sense of pity.

If nothing went wrong, this should be Nanmen Yun'er, who in the original story teamed up with Wu Feng and Ning Tian only to be defeated by the squad of Huo Yuhao, Wang Dong'er, and Xiao Xiao.

This Xu Zhongyi is truly clumsy. To move Dai Huabin and Huo Yuhao into the same dormitory, he transferred Dai Huabin to Class One, and Zhu Lu, who should have been assigned to Class Five with Dai Huabin, was randomly assigned to Class Nine. By mistake, he separated the two who possess the Martial Soul Fusion Skill, Hell White Tiger. Is he not afraid of arousing suspicion?

Feng Piaoling could not help but worry about the intelligence of this mole.

If you want to move Huo Yuhao to Class One, fine, but what was the point of separating the two who possess a Martial Soul Fusion Skill?

Fortunately, out of caution, he had not revealed his true identity to him; otherwise, there would have been a risk of exposure.