"Chen Xuan!"
A furious roar rang out. Dai Mubai struggled to his feet, wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth. His sinister eyes blazed with fury.
"What the hell are you trying to do? What kind of sparring is this? This is a slaughter!"
Chen Xuan finally turned his gaze away from Ah Yin and looked at Dai Mubai.
His expression was calm, without mockery or contempt, as if he were looking at a stone by the roadside.
"I thought the loser had no right to question the winner."
Chen Xuan's voice wasn't loud, but it carried clearly across the entire arena.
"You!"
Dai Mubai's blood surged. His throat turned sweet, and he nearly spat out another mouthful of blood.
"Mubai, enough!"
A steady voice rang out.
Flender came down from the stands with Liu Erlong and Grandmaster.
Flender's face was so gloomy it seemed ready to drip water. Soul Power surged around Liu Erlong; she was clearly on the verge of exploding with rage.
Only Grandmaster—Yu Xiaogang—looked utterly ashen.
He looked at his unconscious disciple in the arena, at the woman who looked exactly like the one in the legends, Ah Yin, and then at Chen Xuan, the man who seemed so unruffled.
The theories he had been so proud of, his entire system of knowledge, had been shattered by reality today.
Possession?
A concept he had never heard of.
He knew that the Blue Silver Emperor had absolute dominance over Blue Silver Grass.
But what was that lash that directly stripped away the source of life?
And Dugu Yan—why was she a Soul King? How was that possible in just one year?
"Sir, you must be Chen Xuan, the headmaster of Blue Silver Academy."
Flender forced down his anger, stepped into the arena, and addressed Chen Xuan in a low voice.
"That's right."
Chen Xuan nodded.
"We admit defeat in today's individual matches."
Flender spoke each word distinctly.
"But, as agreed, there's still a team match. We hope it can be... a fair contest."
He deliberately emphasized the word "fair."
At that, a faint smile touched Chen Xuan's lips. It was slight, yet it made Flender's heart skip.
"Fair?"
Chen Xuan echoed.
"When Dai Mubai had more Soul Power than Dugu Yan and bullied someone weaker, you thought that was fair."
"When Tang San ambushed someone with Hidden Weapons, you thought that was fair."
"Now that my disciples, my wife, are stronger than you, you start talking about fairness?"
Chen Xuan shook his head.
"Headmaster Flender, don't you think that's ridiculous?"
Flender's face flushed, then paled. He was so thoroughly rebuffed that he couldn't speak.
Chen Xuan paid him no further attention and swept his gaze across the Shrek students.
"Seven days were agreed upon. The team match is all that remains."
"Tomorrow, same time, same place."
"I'll be waiting."
With that, he turned and said calmly to his disciples, "Let's go."
"Yes, Teacher."
Dugu Yan, Ning Rongrong, and the others bowed in unison.
Ah Yin took one last look at Tang San, who was cradled in Xiao Wu's arms. Her gaze remained as cold and indifferent as ever.
Then she followed Chen Xuan. The group walked away at an unhurried pace, beneath the gaze of the entire crowd.
Only after they had disappeared at the far end of the Martial Arts Arena did the suffocating tension begin to ease.
"Thump."
Dai Mubai could hold himself up no longer. He dropped heavily to the ground and gasped for breath.
They had lost.
Lost completely, and in the most humiliating way.
"Headmaster..."
Oscar looked at Flender, his voice hoarse.
"Do we... still have to fight tomorrow's team match?"
He wasn't the only one. Ma Hongjun and even the usually composed Zhu Zhuqing showed traces of doubt in their eyes.
Blue Silver Academy's strength was unfathomable.
With only three of their people, they had nearly wiped out the entire team.
The healing Soul Master named Ye Lingling and the two defensive Soul Masters had barely even acted.
How could they possibly fight them?
Flender looked at the dejection on his students' faces, and pain gripped his heart.
When had Shrek ever suffered such a crushing defeat?
He drew a deep breath and looked at Grandmaster, who had remained silent beside him.
"Xiaogang, what do you think?"
Grandmaster's gaze remained fixed on the bluestone tiles stained red with Tang San's blood.
His lips moved several times before he finally managed to speak, his voice hoarse.
"Fight."
Just one word.
"But, Grandmaster..." Ma Hongjun couldn't help speaking up. "We don't stand a chance! Dugu Yan is a Soul King, and then there's that traitor Ning Rongrong..."
"Enough!"
Grandmaster whipped around, his gaze stern.
"Rongrong simply chose the place that suited her better. That's her freedom."
His gaze swept over everyone.
"What is Shrek's motto?"
Everyone froze.
"Only monsters, never ordinary people," Dai Mubai answered instinctively.
"Exactly."
Grandmaster nodded.
"Can monsters be knocked down so easily?"
"Would monsters shrink back after one defeat?"
"If you can't even withstand this small setback, then you don't deserve to be my disciples, or students of Shrek!"
Grandmaster didn't speak loudly, but every word rang out with unshakable force, jolting them awake.
A glimmer of light slowly returned to Dai Mubai and the others' eyes.
That was right.
They were monsters.
The best of their generation.
They had lost today, but they couldn't let their fighting spirit fall with them!
"Grandmaster, we understand!"
Dai Mubai was the first to stand, his gaze firm once more.
"Tomorrow, even if we have to die, we'll bite off a piece of them!"
"Damn right! Let's tear into them!" Ma Hongjun roared.
Flender watched his students pull themselves together and nodded with relief.
He went over to Grandmaster and patted him on the shoulder.
"Xiaogang, thanks for the effort."
Grandmaster shook his head and looked toward Tang San again.
"The most important thing now is Xiaosan."
"The blow he suffered was too great."
Everyone's hearts sank.
That was right.
Physical wounds could heal, but what about the wounds to his spirit?
His mother had become his enemy, and everything he believed about his own existence had been overturned.
Anyone could completely break down after something like that.
"Take him back first."
Grandmaster spoke in a low voice.
"No matter what, we can't go into tomorrow's battle without him."
Night lay heavy and still as water.
Silence filled the room in the courtyard where Shrek Academy was staying.
Tang San lay quietly in bed, eyes open and blankly fixed on the canopy above him.
He had been awake for a long time.
Thanks to Oscar's sausages and the lingering effects of Ye Lingling's healing Soul Skill, his body had nearly recovered.
But his heart felt hollow, as if someone had scooped it out.
The scenes from that day replayed in his mind over and over, like a nightmare.
The loathing in Ah Yin's eyes.
Those words that pierced straight through his heart.
"Thief."
"Get back everything you stole from my child."
Tang San's hand unconsciously clenched the bedsheet.
He desperately tried to recall everything from his past life and this one.
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