What About Flender?

The middle-aged man had stepped in like this right before their eyes, making it plain that he meant to bully the weak with his strength.

The crowd was about to erupt into an uproar, but the moment they saw the seven soul rings rising around him, they fell silent.

Only Tang San and his younger sister were muttering that they had seen this man before.

Seeing the middle-aged man intervene, Zhu Zhuqing couldn't sit still. She tore the talisman, used Shadow Flow Profound Truth to switch places, and stepped in front of Luo Xiaoshi. Then she channeled Soul Power into the attack talisman and flung it at the man with a shuriken technique.

For a moment, the middle-aged man didn't dare approach carelessly. As he watched Zhu Zhuqing warily, she angrily cursed him.

"I've seen it now. Shrek Academy only knows how to bully the weak!"

With Zhu Zhuqing standing in front of him, Luo Xiaoshi stopped forcing himself to stay upright and fainted.

The middle-aged man narrowed his eyes and stared at Zhu Zhuqing, still on his guard.

"What a sharp-tongued little girl."

Dai Mubai had come to his senses by now and wanted to say something.

"Principal."

Flender glanced at Dai Mubai, then said seriously,

"Step back first."

"Yes."

Flender was rarely this serious, and Dai Mubai, who knew him well, could tell he was angry.

So Dai Mubai returned to the elderly man at the gate, Li Yusong, looking rather dejected.

"You came to provoke trouble right in front of my gate. Call your elders here, or I'll teach you a lesson on their behalf."

Flender spoke with a dark expression.

Usually, he was the one who took advantage of others. Now that he'd been played, he was clearly fuming.

And with so many people watching, if he didn't handle this properly, Shrek's reputation would stink even worse.

It wasn't as if Shrek had much of a name outside to begin with, but he had founded the academy himself. It was practically his child.

Who would want their child to turn out badly? That was a hard one to guess.

"I..."

Zhu Zhuqing was about to stubbornly argue back when a large hand landed on her shoulder. She was nearly scared out of her wits.

She hadn't sensed anyone approach, and she called herself an agility-type Soul Master.

When she turned around, the stone in her heart dropped, and a smile appeared on her face.

"Master~"

It was Chen An. He'd originally wanted to watch and let Little Zhu handle things with her talismans.

She had indeed used them, but clumsily, without drawing out their full power. That was his fault, too; he hadn't taught her how to use them.

"Mm. Take Little Stone to that teacher first. I'll handle things here."

Zhu Zhuqing followed his gesture with her eyes and wondered why the teacher was a woman.

But her hands didn't stop moving. She scooped up Luo Xiaoshi and hurried over.

"You're the teacher of these two?"

Flender's expression was decidedly unfriendly.

"Your student tried to kill mine. How do you intend to settle this?"

He didn't dare act recklessly now. He couldn't sense the other man's Soul Power Level, which forced him to be cautious.

On the continent, there were only three possibilities in such a situation: the other man had no Soul Power at all, he was using some means to conceal it, or—

The possibility that made Flender wary was that the other man's Soul Power was stronger than his.

"Friction is normal in a fight. If I remember correctly, your disciple was the one who tried to kill first."

Flender had no reply to that. Chen An was only trying to bluff him.

So Flender changed the subject.

"Then how do you explain snatching my student away right here?"

Chen An had no intention of explaining or dragging things out. He raised an eyebrow slightly, then gave a cold snort, and Flender nearly lost his composure.

"No explanation."

Flender flew into a rage. He was timid, not a turtle. He wasn't going to put up with being looked down on like this.

"I was going to give you a choice, but it seems you've made up your mind to fight."

Exactly. That was what Chen An wanted.

What was the point of explaining so much? After a fight, the other man would understand.

"I've heard of the Golden Iron Trio of Trash. Today I'll get to see them for myself."

Chen An spoke up.

He had little regard for either profiteers or cowards, and he'd said it deliberately.

"You're asking for death."

One of Flender's bottom lines was the Golden Iron Triangle. Hearing someone insult it like this made him cast aside the last of his restraint.

He launched straight into his opening move and shouted,

"Martial Soul Avatar!"

After activating his Seventh Soul Skill, Flender transformed into a gigantic Cat-Eagle and charged straight at Chen An.

Chen An, by contrast, took his time. He released Myriad Silk but didn't use any Soul Skills.

After trading a few moves with Flender, he assessed him.

"Your counterattacks lack force, your frontal offense is sloppy, your footing is loose, your reactions are slow. Not one move is any good."

This really wasn't interesting. The difference was too overwhelming.

The greatest value Flender had offered him was a chance to reflect—to consider whether he'd been far too cautious.

"???"

Flender was astonished.

Every one of his moves had been neutralized, and he hadn't even managed to hurt his opponent.

Then Chen An shoved him with a palm strike, sending him stumbling backward several steps before he regained his footing.

"One move. If you can take one move from me, I'll not only apologize, I'll give you a hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins."

Chen An said this as if to himself. Flender didn't answer; he stared fixedly at Chen An, utterly overwhelmed by the pressure.

"Hum."

Chen An revealed all his soul rings without hiding a thing.

Aside from his two disciples, no one had ever seen a Soul Ring Configuration like this. Their expressions varied.

The reason he dared show it to the world now was that he'd just felt his bottleneck break.

His body felt full of power. It must have happened after the trio finished recruiting students.

"Wait..."

Before Flender could surrender, Chen An's iron fist had already come crashing down.

In an instant, Chen An moved above Flender, brought his hands together, bent slightly at the waist, and hammered down with a simple, unadorned blow.

"How can anyone move this fast?"

That was Flender's last thought before he lost consciousness.

As the wielder of a Cat-Eagle Martial Soul and a Soul Sage, his eyesight was naturally sharper than that of others at the same level.

He'd seen Chen An's movements clearly, but his body couldn't keep up with his eyes or his thoughts. So he took the full force of the downward blow.

"Xiao Wu, what's wrong?"

Tang San, who was watching, noticed Xiao Wu trembling and asked her quietly. The scene was frightening, of course, but what truly terrified her were the soul rings on Chen An.

"I-I'm fine."

Compared to that, Li Yusong spoke up to challenge him.

"You're bullying the weak with your strength!"

Now the wheel of fortune had turned, and this was more interesting than the fight.

"Yes. So what?"

"You—you—you..."

Li Yusong couldn't get his words out. He hadn't expected this man to be so shameless. But he didn't dare say more. He couldn't beat Chen An—in fact, the whole of Shrek couldn't beat him.

Chen An paid no further attention to the feelings of Shrek's teachers and students. To him, this was just a matter of cleaning up trouble for his disciples. So he called out loudly,

"Phantom Star Academy is recruiting! Anyone interested can sign up at the academy."

Aside from those Zhu Zhuqing had already recruited, most people were tempted. Some had already decided not to waste any more time at Shrek.

After all, having a Soul Douluo handle recruitment was incredibly persuasive.

Only some still thought, Since I'm already here, I might as well take Shrek's test first.

Chen An would still accept people like them, as long as they passed his assessment.

A small number thought, So what if he's strong? Results are what matter out in the world. Shrek has plenty of outstanding graduates. Joining Shrek is a sure bet.

If those people failed, Chen An wouldn't accept them, because their intentions weren't sincere.

At that moment,

Chen An came over to Zhu Zhuqing. Seeing her head bowed, he was just about to say something when she spoke first.

"Master, I was wrong..."

He hadn't meant to blame her in the first place. Letting Zhu Zhuqing come here meant he'd already expected something like this to happen.

"Why are you hanging your head? It's no big deal. It's not as if your master couldn't handle it."

At Chen An's words, Zhu Zhuqing immediately looked up, her dejected expression turning into a smile.

She changed faces faster than a Peking opera performer.

"Hehe, I knew you were the best master in the world."

Who knew who had turned Zhu Zhuqing into such a mischievous girl? Probably him. In that case, never mind.