Foolish Little Brother!

Everyone turned their heads toward the source of the voice.

Behind Dai Huabin stood the wheelchair he had been pushing all along.

A young man sat in the wheelchair.

He looked to be around twenty. He wore plain white clothes and was wrapped in a thick blanket. His face was so pale that it held not a trace of color, his lips faintly purple, his eye sockets deeply sunken, and his eyes bloodshot.

Most striking of all, his right sleeve hung empty, and part of his left pant leg was empty as well.

It was Dai Yueheng.

Three months ago, in the Star Dou Great Forest, Di Tian had severed one of his arms and one of his legs. The eldest son of the Duke of White Tiger, once a genius of Shrek Academy's inner courtyard, had been utterly crippled.

Sitting in his wheelchair, Dai Yueheng lowered his head and looked at his hand. His voice was hoarse, devoid of any emotion.

"Why lower yourself by arguing with a bastard? Let's go. It's time to report to the inner courtyard."

Bastard.

That word again.

Huo Yuhao's body trembled slightly with extreme fury.

He raised his head and looked at Dai Yueheng—at his once spirited, now living-dead half-brother. There was no pity in his eyes, only bottomless, icy hatred.

Yes. Bastard.

In your eyes, my mother and I had always been filthy bastards who should never have existed.

So you could humiliate us at will, beat and curse us at will, and casually... erase us.

But you forgot something.

Bastards bite too.

And they bite harder than anyone else. Huo Yuhao stared fixedly at Dai Yueheng, at those lifeless eyes, and spoke word by word, his voice hoarse like sandpaper scraping together.

"Dai Yueheng. Dai Huabin..."

"One day, I'll make you two—make the entire White Tiger Duke Mansion—pay for what happened back then."

"I swear it."

With that, Huo Yuhao did not linger. He turned and strode away.

Wang Dong shot Dai Huabin a vicious glare and hurried after him.

Dai Huabin watched Huo Yuhao's departing figure, a cold killing intent flashing through his golden eyes.

"A bastard... thinks he deserves that?"

He muttered to himself, then pushed Dai Yueheng's wheelchair away as well.

The crowd outside the registration office gradually dispersed.

But that brief confrontation just now, that atmosphere thick with the smell of gunpowder—

The crowd outside the registration office gradually dispersed.

Yet no one noticed that beside a second-floor window of the registration office stood a blurry figure, nearly merged with the air itself, silently taking in everything that had just happened.

It was Dai Tu.

Through the state of Kamui: Intangibility, he watched Huo Yuhao's straight yet faintly trembling back as he left. He watched the faces of Dai Yueheng and Dai Huabin, faces he hated to the bone. The sinister Mangekyo pattern in his eyes slowly spun, scarlet light burning faintly in the depths of his pupils.

"Foolish little brother..."

Dai Tu murmured, his voice soft and cold.

"It seems Shrek Academy hasn't corrupted you too deeply yet."

"At least, your hatred remains."

"That is enough."

He withdrew his gaze. His figure blurred once more, then vanished from where he stood.

As though he had never existed.

After leaving the registration office, Huo Yuhao did not immediately head to the teaching building for class. He simply walked aimlessly through the academy with his head lowered, his steps growing faster and faster, as though he were fleeing something—or venting something.

Wang Dong followed at his side. She tried several times to speak, but seeing Huo Yuhao's expressionless face, taut as an iron plate, she ultimately swallowed her words and merely followed in silence, her pink-blue eyes full of concern.

The two walked silently for a quarter of an hour before finally stopping at a fork in the road.

The path to the left led to the teaching building, while the one to the right led to the dormitory district.

Huo Yuhao stopped and looked at the small path leading toward the dormitories. His gaze was vacant, as though he were looking at something far away.

"Wang Dong," he suddenly said, his voice hoarse like rusted iron, "you should go to class first. I... want to be alone for a while."

Wang Dong opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but when she saw the lightless look in Huo Yuhao's eyes, she ultimately nodded.

"Alright, I'll go first. You... don't overthink it. Someone like Dai Huabin isn't worth getting angry over."

Huo Yuhao tugged at the corners of his mouth, seemingly wanting to smile, but in the end, he merely nodded without saying anything.

Wang Dong looked at him once more before turning toward the teaching building.

After taking a few steps, she could not help looking back. Huo Yuhao was still standing there with his head lowered, staring at his toes. His thin silhouette stretched long beneath the morning sun, appearing... especially lonely.

Wang Dong's heart clenched. She wanted to go back, but ultimately gritted her teeth, quickened her pace, and disappeared at the end of the road.

Huo Yuhao stood where he was, completely motionless.

The surroundings were quiet, save for the rustling of leaves as the wind passed through the woods.

From far away came the faint sound of teachers lecturing in the teaching building, along with students reading aloud. Everything seemed so ordinary, so peaceful, a glaring contrast to the raging turmoil in his heart.

Bastard.

That word was like a poisoned blade, replaying in his mind over and over again.

Dai Huabin's arrogant face, Dai Yueheng's lifeless eyes, and... his mother's eyes before she died, fixed tightly on him, full of unwillingness and despair.

They all blended together in a tangled mess, tearing his heart apart until it bled.

"Mom..." Huo Yuhao whispered, his voice trembling. "I'm sorry... Your son is useless... I can't even avenge you..."

He clenched his fists, his nails digging deeply into his palms until they drew blood. Yet that pain was negligible compared to the agony in his heart.

Three months.

For those three months, he had risked his life training in the Far North, enduring pain and danger beyond ordinary imagination. At last, he had been reborn, gaining the foundations that would make anyone jealous.

He had thought he had grown stronger. He had thought he finally possessed a sliver of hope for revenge.

But just now, in the face of Dai Huabin's casually spoken "bastard," other than fury and swearing to himself, he had been able to do... nothing.

Because this was Shrek Academy.

Because Dai Yueheng was the legitimate son of the Duke of White Tiger, a core disciple of the inner courtyard with deep backing.

Because... he was still not strong enough to ignore every rule, not strong enough to trample his enemies beneath his feet.

"I can't accept it... I really can't accept it..." Huo Yuhao closed his eyes. Two streams of burning liquid slid down from the corners of his eyes, striking the ground and spreading into small wet patches.

Just then—

"Do you want revenge?"

A voice suddenly sounded in his mind without warning.

The voice was calm and gentle, as though stating the simplest of facts. Yet beneath that calm was a bone-deep chill, as though it could see through the essence of one's soul, along with an... indescribable temptation.

Huo Yuhao shuddered and abruptly opened his eyes, warily looking around.

There was no one there.

The area around him was empty. Only the wind passed through the woods, making the leaves rustle.

Was it an illusion?

No. It was not.

That voice had been too clear, as though it had spoken directly from the depths of his soul. Every word carried a strange resonance that made even his soul tremble.

"Who?" Huo Yuhao demanded in a low voice. Soul Power surged wildly through his body as his Spirit Eye martial soul silently appeared. A pale golden light lit up in the depths of his eyes, and his spiritual power spread outward like a spiderweb, instantly covering an area hundreds of meters wide.

Yet he could not "see" anything.

There were no Soul Power fluctuations, no signs of life, not even the slightest abnormal ripple of energy.

It was as though that voice had appeared out of thin air, coming from another dimension, or perhaps... from his own subconscious?

"For your mother, who died so tragically..."

The voice sounded again, unhurried, as though telling a story. Yet every word was like a heavy hammer smashing brutally into Huo Yuhao's heart.

"Every compromise, every act of endurance, every retreat... after all that, do you truly still have the resolve to take revenge?"

Huo Yuhao's face instantly turned deathly pale.

He opened his mouth, wanting to refute it, wanting to say that he had resolve, that he had never forgotten his hatred. But when the words reached his lips, he could not say a single one.

Because he had been asking himself the very same question.

Over these three months, at Shrek Academy, under the influence of "friends" like Beibei, Tang Ya, and Wang Dong, steeped in grand principles such as "unity," "friendship," and "protection," had he truly... wavered, even if only a little?

Had some hidden corner deep inside him, one he himself had never noticed, begun to want—just a little—to let go of his hatred, to join this "warm" collective, to live a "normal" life?

No. Impossible!

Huo Yuhao shook his head fiercely, a savage gleam flashing through his eyes.

"I haven't! I've never forgotten my hatred! I dream of revenge every day! I want those scum from the White Tiger Duke Mansion to pay for their blood debts with blood!"

"Is that so?" the voice asked softly, carrying a trace of almost imperceptible mockery. "Then if I captured Dai Huabin and Dai Yueheng and brought them before you, giving you the chance to kill them with your own hands and avenge your mother... would you dare?"

Huo Yuhao's heart lurched violently.

Bring them before him?

Kill them with his own hands?

He imagined the scene.

Dai Huabin and Dai Yueheng would be like two dead dogs beneath his feet. He would hold a blade in his hand, and with one casual swing, he could slit their throats. He could let their blood dye this land red. He could... comfort his mother's spirit in heaven.

Would he dare?

Huo Yuhao's breathing quickened.

He would.

Of course he would.

He dreamed of killing them—killing everyone who had harmed his mother, everyone who had harmed him.

"I dare." Huo Yuhao gritted his teeth and forced out two words from deep in his throat. His voice was hoarse, but filled with unquestionable resolve.

"Very good." The voice seemed satisfied, with an extra trace of... gratification? "Remember what you said today. I will contact you again. When that time comes, I hope you will not... disappoint me."

The voice gradually faded away, finally disappearing completely.

As though it had never appeared at all.