By now, Ma Hongjun's Soul Power had run out, and he could no longer fight back, so Xiao Wu stopped attacking him.
She looked at the country girl in confusion, unable to make sense of it.
The country girl explained her relationship with Ma Hongjun to Xiao Wu. After hearing her out, Xiao Wu realized she had meddled where she shouldn't have. Embarrassed, she returned to Li Luo's side and hid behind him.
Xiao Wu hadn't hit him too hard, and Ma Hongjun managed to push himself up from the ground with difficulty.
He wasn't injured, but his whole body still hurt.
That was only natural. He was so fat, and he'd fallen from several meters up—of course it hurt.
Ma Hongjun glared at Xiao Wu, the busybody.
Xiao Wu realized she was in the wrong and didn't dare argue. She hid behind Li Luo and glared fiercely at Ma Hongjun.
Truthfully, Ma Hongjun hadn't taken that beating for nothing. He'd run his mouth, saying nothing worth hearing, and had indeed provoked Xiao Wu.
Just then, a voice rang out—ill-timed, yet perfectly timed.
"Stop! We're on the same side. Don't fight."
Dai Mubai came running over from not far away, panting.
Dai Mubai had originally wanted to strike up a conversation with Zhu Zhuqing, but she'd shut him out.
So, dejected, he'd been wandering aimlessly around Shrek Academy.
Then he'd suddenly noticed the fight and hurried over.
Only when he arrived did he realize Li Luo and the others had clashed with Ma Hongjun.
He'd meant to stop them right away, but Xiao Wu had moved so fast that the fight was over in just a few exchanges.
Dai Mubai looked at Ma Hongjun, who was unsteady on his feet and struggling to stand, and said helplessly,
"He's a student at Shrek Academy, too."
Dai Mubai introduced Ma Hongjun to Xiao Wu and the others, explaining his Martial Soul and Evil Fire, as well as his relationship with the country girl.
But when Xiao Wu and Ning Rongrong heard about Ma Hongjun, they looked at him with disdain.
"What? How can someone like that exist?"
They found the fact that Ma Hongjun needed to vent his Evil Fire deeply repulsive.
But it was Ma Hongjun's own business, after all, so they didn't say anything more.
And so, the dispute between Ma Hongjun and Xiao Wu came to an abrupt end.
The girls' dormitory was a dilapidated wooden shack.
Zhu Zhuqing sat on her bed with her knees drawn up, her mind full of scenes from the final assessment.
"Why are they all so strong?"
She recalled the Soul Rings of Li Luo, Tang San, Xiao Wu, and Ning Rongrong, as well as their seamless teamwork against Zhao Wuji.
Zhu Zhuqing considered herself talented and diligent in her cultivation. She had already reached Soul Grandmaster level twenty-seven at the age of eleven.
Yet Li Luo and the others had shattered her worldview time and again that day.
Li Luo's three Thousand-Year Soul Rings, Tang San's second Thousand-Year Soul Ring for his Blue Silver Grass, Ning Rongrong's Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda—even Xiao Wu, who looked the most ordinary, had handled herself with ease against a level-seventy-six Soul Saint whose power had been suppressed to the Soul Ancestor level.
Meanwhile, Zhu Zhuqing had only been able to stand there and watch, unable to help at all.
She felt depressed, as if she were stupid and completely useless.
She wanted to become stronger, to survive the brutal competition in the Star Luo Empire.
But she couldn't find a way to grow stronger.
Just then, inspiration struck Zhu Zhuqing, and she replayed the details of the battle against Zhao Wuji in her mind.
She suddenly remembered that before the fight, Li Luo had used some kind of special Soul Skill on Tang San and the others, granting each of them a strange, colorful Thousand-Year Soul Ring.
Li Luo had fought Zhao Wuji to a standstill with nothing but a Blue Silver Bamboo Pole, and had even forced Zhao Wuji to use his Martial Soul Avatar.
He was incredibly powerful.
Thinking of Li Luo's heaven-defying Soul Ring Configuration, Zhu Zhuqing felt she had found a clue to becoming stronger.
If she wanted to grow stronger, she could seek out Li Luo.
Zhu Zhuqing had found the key.
Li Luo had no idea that Zhu Zhuqing had already set her sights on him.
After settling things with Ma Hongjun, Li Luo returned to the boys' dormitory with Tang San.
Xiao Wu and Ning Rongrong went to the girls' dormitory.
Before they parted, Xiao Wu and Ning Rongrong clung to Li Luo, reluctant to leave him.
But the conditions at Shrek Academy were simply too rudimentary. For now, they had no choice but to sleep in separate beds.
Back in the dormitory, Li Luo pondered how he should capture Zhu Zhuqing.
He didn't want to stay at Shrek Academy any longer.
For one thing, lying alone in bed without Xiao Wu and Ning Rongrong beside him felt deeply unfamiliar.
For another, Shrek Academy couldn't offer him much help. Li Luo had come here in the first place for Zhu Zhuqing.
And once he captured Zhu Zhuqing and advanced to Soul Ancestor, he could leave Shrek Academy as a graduate, with no one having any grounds to stop him.
Of course, even if he slipped away in secret, nobody would know.
In fact, Li Luo could capture Zhu Zhuqing by force. Her Soul Power Level was far below his, and his Prism Ball could raise her loyalty to him to one hundred percent.
But Li Luo had never been one to force others.
So he planned to stay at Shrek for a while and look for a chance to build a relationship with Zhu Zhuqing.
Night deepened. Li Luo fell asleep, and his first day at Shrek Academy was nearly over.
But someone was going to be up all night.
Zhao Wuji still hadn't gone to bed. Sitting at his desk, he was figuring out how to "train" this group of new students.
A wicked smile crossed his face, as if he'd thought of a brilliant idea.
Just then, a voice rang out, entirely out of place.
"Come out!"
At the sound, Zhao Wuji couldn't help shuddering.
He cautiously peered outside, trying to find where the voice had come from.
"Come out!"
But the voice rang out again.
This time, it sent an even greater chill through Zhao Wuji. He could clearly hear the impatience in it.
So Zhao Wuji stepped outside and followed the voice to a small grove.
"Show yourself! What's the point of skulking around?"
Zhao Wuji thought an enemy had come looking for him and called him out from the shadows.
As soon as he finished speaking, a tall figure appeared in front of him. The person wore a black robe, their face obscured.
Soul Rings slowly rose from the figure: yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black, black, red.
At first, Zhao Wuji looked down on the black-robed figure's Soul Rings.
But when the figure raised the seventh Soul Ring, Zhao Wuji's expression turned serious.
When the eighth Soul Ring rose, his face changed dramatically, fear impossible to conceal.
And when the ninth Soul Ring appeared—a red, hundred-thousand-year Soul Ring—Zhao Wuji was trembling all over, his legs shaking so badly that he could barely stand.
"May I ask, Your Excellency, when did Zhao Wuji offend you?"
Just then, a figure suddenly appeared in the sky and descended beside Zhao Wuji.