Feng Piaoling sighed inwardly and pretended not to notice Jiang Nannan's thoughts. "All right, let's part ways here. Once you're back, refine the Mysterious Water Pill as soon as possible so no one else sets their sights on it. Shrek Academy isn't as safe as you think."
"Mm." Perhaps what had just happened had drained all of Jiang Nannan's courage. She only murmured a reply, not daring to look up at Feng Piaoling again. Her cheeks were so red they seemed ready to bleed.
On the other side, things unfolded just as Feng Piaoling had expected. In the end, the higher-ups at Shrek Academy didn't expel Xu Sanshi. They didn't even give him so much as a token punishment.
They merely made Xu Sanshi pay the remaining Mysterious Water Pill and the eighty thousand Gold Soul Coins he'd wagered. Then they expelled him from his class, and before long, another class accepted him.
That very night, Bei Bei found his great-grandfather, Mu En.
In the end, Shrek Academy took into account its "old ties with the Tang Sect," and Zhou Yi, the Class One homeroom teacher, vouched for him.
Huo Yuhao received only a meaningless demerit. The academy's higher-ups had made much of the matter, then let it go with barely a slap on the wrist.
Feng Piaoling didn't bother pursuing the matter either.
There was no point. Even if he really got the academy to expel them, it would mean nothing.
He devoted all his time to cultivation.
Every evening, he returned to the dormitory to cultivate his Soul Power. Early each morning, after breakfast, he went to the rented Mimicry Training Ground.
He cultivated there all day. When he got tired, he sat cross-legged on his Soul Tool and practiced the Green Lotus Sword Art to recover. Once he had recovered, he activated his Heaven-Reaching Demon Eye, used Clone Shadow footwork, and released the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear External Soul Bone. As he attacked the specially made iron stakes, he familiarized himself with the Soul Power circulation route for releasing the Dark Gold Terrorclaw.
When he got hungry, he took out the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear meat and roasted it over a Fire Bomb Talisman.
He kept cultivating like this until dusk, then finally left.
Two days later, Feng Piaoling finally completed the fusion of the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear's left and right palm bones.
By then, it was finally time for classes to begin.
The doors of the white teaching building stood open, and the new students filed inside in their white uniforms.
By the time Feng Piaoling unhurriedly reached the Class Nine classroom in the new students' teaching building, quite a few students had already arrived in the spacious room.
When Feng Piaoling arrived, the girls' eyes lit up one by one. Quite a few of them became lovestruck, while the boys, though jealous that Feng Piaoling had captured the attention of every girl in the class, said nothing.
After all, Feng Piaoling had just beaten Xu Sanshi, a fifth-year student—and even while Xu Sanshi was cheating.
Feng Piaoling paid them no mind. He casually took a seat by the window and began working out the Soul Power circulation route for activating the Dark Gold Terrorclaw, hoping to create a new sword technique from it.
His time was precious. He couldn't afford to waste even the tiniest bit.
Just as Feng Piaoling was deep in thought, someone beside him suddenly gave his arm a gentle nudge.
Feng Piaoling glanced over and realized that a rather tall young girl had taken the seat beside him at some point.
She looked to be a full meter and seventy centimeters tall, only a little shorter than Feng Piaoling. Her short blond hair gave her a neat, brisk appearance, and her large, watery blue eyes were framed by long lashes. A few freckles dotted her cheeks.
Under ordinary circumstances, freckles would have detracted from another girl's looks, but on this girl, they suited her perfectly.
They lent her a touch of playful charm.
Beside her sat a girl as fiery as a flame. She was exceptionally beautiful, with fiery red hair tied into a high ponytail and rare red eyes. At first glance, there was something almost frightening about her.
Yet nothing could hide her striking beauty. Her features were exquisite, and her skin was as fair as jade. Her gaze, however, was cold, and the way she looked at Feng Piaoling was completely different from the way everyone else did.
It was as if Feng Piaoling had stolen the person she loved.
"Feng Piaoling, Teacher Mu Jin is here." When the freckled girl saw him look over, she smiled at him like a gentle spring breeze.
So fake... Feng Piaoling had grown up around the Crown Prince's Mansion and had seen plenty of Xu Tianran's hypocritical smiles. When the freckled girl smiled at him like that, he instinctively furrowed his brows. He gave a soft "Mm," then looked toward Mu Jin, who had already stepped onto the podium, and said nothing more.
"Young Mistress, that person is so rude. You kindly reminded him. How could he have such terrible manners?"
The red-haired girl whispered indignantly in the freckled girl's ear.
A helpless look flashed through the freckled girl's eyes. "Feng, don't let anger cloud your judgment."
"This is Shrek Academy. Anyone who can enter, especially a genius of Feng Piaoling's caliber, is bound to be proud."
"We should make friends with him, not turn him into an enemy. And haven't I told you? Don't call me Young Mistress at the academy. We're sisters."
"Mm." The red-haired girl had no resistance to the freckled girl's words. She obediently agreed and gave a small nod.
Feng Piaoling had been observing the two without letting it show. He'd figured it out: the red-haired girl was a lesbian. From the way they addressed each other, it wasn't hard to guess who they were.
Ning Tian, the young mistress of the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, and Wu Feng, who likewise came from the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.
Still, there was something odd about it.
Although the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect was called "Nine Treasure," it didn't actually have a single Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda Soul Master among its ranks.
Ten thousand years ago, the sect had staked its entire fortune—and even lost its two guardian Douluo, Sword Douluo Chen Xin and Bone Douluo Gu Rong—to gain Ning Rongrong, a Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda Soul Master.
In the end, she had left the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect with nothing but its name and the honor of being a god's sect.
By then, the spacious classroom was full. Feng Piaoling took a quick look around and found that, besides Ning Tian and Wu Feng, three other students had Soul Power above level twenty.
One of them, with black hair and black eyes and an extremely curvaceous figure, was someone Feng Piaoling had seen before. Who else could she be but Dai Huabin's fiancée, Zhu Lu?
Another girl looked delicate and gentle, with long, pale green hair falling down her back and soft, dark green eyes that made people instinctively want to protect her.
As expected, she was Nanmen Yun'er, who in the original story had teamed up with Wu Feng and Ning Tian and lost to Huo Yuhao, Wang Dong'er, and Xiao Xiao.
"Xu Zhongyi really is a complete amateur. To get Dai Huabin and Huo Yuhao into the same dormitory, he transferred Dai Huabin to Class One as well. Zhu Lu, who should have been assigned to Class Five with Dai Huabin, ended up randomly assigned to Class Nine. By sheer coincidence, he separated the two who had the Hell White Tiger Martial Soul Fusion Skill. Doesn't he worry that people will get suspicious?"
Feng Piaoling couldn't help wondering whether this undercover agent had any brains at all.
Fine, he could transfer Huo Yuhao to Class One. But what was the point of separating the pair with a Martial Soul Fusion Skill?
Fortunately, out of caution, Xu Zhongyi hadn't revealed his identity to Feng Piaoling. Otherwise, he might have exposed himself.
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