"Dean." Dai Mubai stepped forward.
"Later, tell the five new students the academy's rules. Then go back and rest, and get yourselves into the best possible condition. Today's first class will begin tonight."
"Yes!" Dai Mubai replied, then returned to the group.
"As for Oscar, Ning Rongrong, and Tang Liu, you three are exceptions. Come with me." Flender glanced at the three people he had named and spoke.
Oscar reluctantly walked up to Flender and bowed. Only after Ning Rongrong came to stand beside him did his expression improve somewhat.
But Tang Liu did not go over. Instead, he looked at Flender and said, "Dean, I want to go there tonight too."
Flender looked at him in surprise. "You know?"
Tang Liu nodded. "I want to fight."
"But you're a support-type Soul Master." Flender said with interest.
"Then I'll compete in two-on-twos." Tang Liu said matter-of-factly.
"Fine. Then you don't need to come with me. Follow them to class tonight." Flender smiled and nodded, then gestured for them to go back and rest.
Zhu Zhuqing was the first to leave, followed by Dai Mubai and Ma Hongjun.
After watching Flender leave with Oscar and Ning Rongrong, Tang Liu let out a sigh of relief.
"Great, no running..."
Then he grabbed Tang San, who grabbed Xiao Wu, and the three of them left together.
"Xiao Liu, do you know what we'll be studying tonight?" Tang San asked curiously. Xiao Wu also focused on listening.
Tang Liu nodded. "If I'm not mistaken, the dean should take us to Suotuo City's Great Soul Arena tonight for Soul Master matches."
Hearing those two unfamiliar terms, Tang San and Xiao Wu became even more curious.
"Simply put, it's a place specifically for Soul Masters to fight for others to watch, and it allows gambling." Tang Liu explained.
"Huh? Isn't that treating people like monkeys?" Xiao Wu exclaimed after understanding what he meant.
Tang Liu shrugged. "Being human is hard. This is just one legal darkness of the world, out in the open. Besides, just treat it as an ordinary fighting competition. Just be careful to protect yourselves, because people can be killed there."
Tang San nodded in deep agreement.
Xiao Wu felt that Tang Liu's first sentence carried some hidden meaning, but she did not pursue it.
Then Tang Liu briefly introduced the rules of the Great Soul Arena to them.
However, he did not remember the details very clearly, so he did not dare say too much. They would have to wait until that evening to learn more.
After that, the three of them returned to their respective dormitories to rest.
Naturally, once Tang San had free time, he began asking Tang Liu to tell him about the past few years.
Tang Liu was also happy to talk with him, choosing matters Tang San could know now and telling him about them.
He concealed things well, and Tang San still believed Tang Hao was merely an ordinary blacksmith.
Tang Liu told Tang San that his Soul Rings had been obtained when a master he had coincidentally taken as his teacher during his years away helped him hunt them.
As a modern man steeped in countless webnovels, Tang Liu was practically an expert at making up such stories.
In his story, when he secretly went to obtain his second Soul Ring behind Tang Hao's back, he had unexpectedly fallen off a cliff. At the bottom of that cliff, a crooked-necked tree had happened to catch him.
Afterward, while climbing up along that tree, he had unexpectedly discovered a cave.
After entering, he found an old man inside the cave. Moreover, that old man had actually been a Titled Douluo.
The old man said that he was intelligent and gifted with extraordinary bones, so he wanted to take him as a disciple.
After accepting him as a disciple, the old man took him flying up the cliff, helped him obtain his second Soul Ring, and sent him home. He told him that when he reached three Soul Rings, he would appear again to help him obtain another Soul Ring.
And so on, blah blah blah...
Tang Liu successfully fooled Tang San.
After taking a drink of water to moisten his somewhat dry throat, Tang Liu looked at Tang San's still-unsatisfied expression and silently apologized in his heart. Sorry, brother. To keep the plot from changing too much and affecting your cultivation, I can only deceive you like this for now.
But once the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Elite Tournament began, he could tell him everything.
As for then, he would dump all the blame on Tang Hao.
Mm, perfect~
By the way, after telling Tang San about the past few years, Tang Liu and Tang San went to pay their tuition.
With great ceremony, Tang Liu used the money Tang Hao had given him to pay tuition for himself and Tang San. Tang San, meanwhile, paid for Xiao Wu, since most of Xiao Wu's money was with him.
Later, Flender specifically came to see Tang San once. Knowing the plot, Tang Liu naturally knew that Flender had come because of the Grandmaster.
Night arrived quickly.
The group gathered on the field once more, preparing for that night's class.
Flender kept his gaze fixed on Oscar and Ning Rongrong. His eyes were like swords, incomparably sharp, making people afraid to meet his gaze.
"Oscar, have you finished running twenty laps?" he asked.
Oscar coughed and nodded. "Dean, I finished."
Flender snorted. "I asked whether you both finished, not whether you did."
Oscar glanced at Ning Rongrong. Seeing that she was also looking at him, he gritted his teeth and said, "Yes, we finished."
Flender smiled sinisterly. "Very good, Oscar. I didn't expect you to have such a spirit of friendship. Since that's the case, go run another twenty laps. Let me see just how deep that friendship goes. If you don't finish, you don't eat."
After patting Oscar on the shoulder, he continued, "I've sealed your Soul Power. Don't even think about undoing it. Go."
Oscar silently nodded and turned to run outside.
Then Flender looked at Ning Rongrong, whose innocent expression made her appear pitiful and vulnerable. "Tell me, did you complete the lesson I assigned this morning?"
Ning Rongrong shook her head. "No. The distance was too long, and I was hungry. I couldn't keep going."
Flender smiled. "So you went to Suotuo City by yourself, had a big meal, wandered around the commercial district there, and only just came back to find Oscar. Is that right?"
Ning Rongrong's beautiful eyes widened. "You had me watched?"
"As the dean, I must be responsible for every student in the academy. If Oscar made a mistake because he could not bear to see you punished, that would still be understandable. But the mistakes you made are unforgivable." Flender's expression and tone both turned cold. "Leaving the academy without permission, refusing to follow the academy's arrangements, and making an upperclassman lie for you—none of these are mistakes an outstanding Soul Master should make. If this were a battlefield, there would be only one outcome for you: punishment under military law. Death, nothing more."
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