Who Exactly Was Flender's Beloved?

For a moment, Ning Fengzhi even wondered how things might have turned out if Qian Renxue had recruited the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect earlier, and the Spirit Hall Empire had ultimately emerged victorious.

Surely things couldn't be worse than they were now!

As his thoughts churned, Ning Fengzhi made up his mind.

He would recruit the remnants of Spirit Hall, no matter what.

He could easily live another hundred years. In that time, he was confident he could win the loyalty of these remaining Spirit Hall forces and bring them into the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.

If he could see the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect gain another guardian Douluo before he died, he could close his eyes in peace and face the sect's ancestors.

He was truly heartbroken by his daughter's coldness toward him.

After putting away the letter and the identity token, Ning Fengzhi began considering how to draw the remaining forces of the Worship Hall into the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect. Besides that, he also wanted to gather some descendants of the Angel Legion.

As for whether he might botch the whole thing, Ning Fengzhi was fairly confident he could handle it.

The confidential letter hadn't been written by Qian Renxue, of course. It was Qian Yu's handiwork.

After obtaining her third Soul Ring, Qian Renxue had briefly awakened. For some reason, she suddenly felt she had let down all the grandfathers of the Worship Hall, and asked Qian Yu to think of a way to look after their descendants.

And so this letter came to be.

After reading its contents and settling on a course of action, Ning Fengzhi looked back toward the Shrek Academy admissions event below. He immediately found it dull.

But he was already here. It wouldn't be very proper to leave early.

So Ning Fengzhi decided to stay and watch the commotion.

And, as it turned out, he really did get to see quite a scene.

Before the opening ceremony, Shrek Academy had announced that the God Teacher would attend in person and even remain at the academy to teach its students.

Shrek Academy had advertised itself far and wide, using the God Teacher's name and drawing power to attract attention.

But Ning Fengzhi noticed that they hadn't made any arrangements to receive the God Teacher at all, as if Shrek Academy had forgotten about the whole thing.

Was that really the case?

While the opening ceremony was in full swing here, God Teacher Yu Xiaogang held an impromptu Martial Soul Theory symposium in Heaven Dou City, inviting the various forces to attend.

With the God Teacher's reputation as it was, even without prior preparation or invitations, news of the event quickly reached the various forces.

"Dean Flender, my duke asked me to prepare this gift for you. He has something urgent to attend to, so unfortunately, he can't make it."

"Our sect master sent the most talented disciple in the sect to your academy. That should be enough to show his sincerity. If he didn't have to go into seclusion to break through, he would certainly have come in person to offer his congratulations."

"Hello, Dean. Something unexpected has happened at home, and I need to go deal with it right away..."

The opening ceremony at Shrek Academy was barely halfway through when people began finding all sorts of excuses to leave.

Some left their subordinates behind and hurried away themselves, offering one excuse or another.

The ceremony had been bustling just moments ago, but in the blink of an eye, it had grown much quieter.

Seeing this, Flender's expression turned extremely grim.

There weren't many people on the Douluo Continent who could summon such a crowd—and he happened to know one of them.

His old friend, Yu Xiaogang.

This was clearly a deliberate attempt to humiliate him and make him bow his head.

It all began with the story that had spread back then.

It should have been a trivial matter. They only had to find the source of the rumors and set the record straight.

If that didn't work, given Yu Xiaogang's current prestige, a few words from him could have settled everything.

Unexpectedly, matters grew worse and worse. The rumors spread at a terrifying speed, completely beyond their control, and as they passed from person to person, they were inevitably changed along the way.

So Yu Xiaogang grew dissatisfied and insisted that Flender deal with it.

Though Flender was a Soul Douluo and had a Titled Douluo among his disciples, he really had no idea how to handle this sort of thing.

A rift formed between the two.

As luck would have it, another rumor soon began circulating in private.

God Teacher Yu Xiaogang was impotent.

It sounded utterly absurd, and no one dared say it openly, but somehow the matter still reached Yu Xiaogang's ears.

He blamed everything on Flender, convinced that Flender had slandered him.

Of course, Yu Xiaogang wasn't foolish enough to believe that Flender had actually started the rumor. He only said so because he wanted Flender to keep his distance from his wife, Liu Erlong.

As a man, having a brother who was constantly eyeing your wife—and who was also stronger than you—was bound to leave Yu Xiaogang feeling insecure.

After that, he asked Xue Beng to suppress the matter and stop the rumors from spreading.

Suppressing them only made things worse. The rumors spread even farther.

If that were all, their many years of friendship wouldn't have fallen apart.

The real problem was that Yu Xiaogang had seen Flender pestering Liu Erlong with his own eyes.

No matter how much Flender and Liu Erlong explained, Yu Xiaogang refused to believe them.

And so, a rift opened between the brothers.

"Boss Fu, how many misunderstandings can there really be? I think Yu Xiaogang's just gotten full of himself. He thinks he's above the rest of us now, and wants to lord it over you."

Seeing the two of them at loggerheads over this, Zhao Wuji offered his opinion from the side.

"I think Yu Xiaogang's doing this to compete. He's fighting to claim the greater share of the credit for teaching a god."

Li Yusong, another teacher at Shrek Academy, pondered for a moment before offering his own conclusion.

"Let's leave it at that for now. Once Oscar and Rongrong become gods too, my old friend won't have anything to worry about."

"By then, things can go back to the way they were."

Flender didn't entirely agree with Li Yusong, but it was very likely the truth.

He could understand.

Xiaogang had suffered too many grievances in the first half of his life. At a time like this, it was only natural for him to feel a sense of urgency and insecurity as he tried to prove himself.

Even after everything that had happened, Flender still didn't think Xiaogang had done anything wrong.

Zhao Wuji looked at Flender with a strange expression.

He couldn't help feeling that Flender was far too forgiving of Yu Xiaogang—like he was indulging someone he loved.

If Yu Xiaogang weren't a man, and if Zhao Wuji didn't know that Flender was deeply in love with Liu Erlong, he would have suspected that Yu Xiaogang was Flender's beloved.

One way or another, Shrek Academy's opening ceremony had at least been a success.

Meanwhile, Qian Yu led Hu Liena and the others back to their secret base in the Star Dou Great Forest.

They had come away with quite a haul, and it was time to divide the spoils.