Several burly male instructors emerged from the women's bathhouse, which had been left in utter disarray.
They clutched a thick rope tightly in their hands. At the other end, bound fast, was the pervert who had been running wild in the bathhouse just moments ago.
Yu Xiaogang was dumped, bound hand and foot, onto the wide patch of open ground outside the bathhouse.
He looked utterly wretched.
The black robe he had worn to look like a master had long since been torn to rags by the furious matrons, barely covering his private parts.
He was soaked from head to toe, smeared with murky mud and white soap suds.
His face was bruised black and blue, with hardly a patch of uninjured skin.
His left eye was swollen shut beneath a massive black eye, barely open at all.
His mouth hung slightly open. Several teeth had been knocked loose, and with every ragged breath, white soap bubbles uncontrollably spilled from his mouth.
"Pfft—"
A murky soap bubble floated out of Yu Xiaogang's mouth, catching the sunlight in a ridiculous gleam before popping against the tip of his nose.
The commotion in the women's bathhouse had been so loud that it had alarmed the entire Nuoding Primary Soul Master Academy.
By now, the open ground outside the bathhouse was packed with teachers and students who had rushed over at the news.
The crowd pressed in layer upon layer, surrounding Yu Xiaogang on all sides.
When everyone realized that the pervert on the ground, beaten beyond recognition and still spitting soap bubbles, was none other than Grandmaster Yu Xiaogang, whom the dean had just welcomed as an honored guest, a deafening roar erupted from the crowd.
"Shame on you! You actually sneaked into the women's bathhouse to spy? You old beast!" A senior girl planted her hands on her hips, her face full of disgust as she spat at Yu Xiaogang.
"I was just envying the girl he picked out on the tree-lined avenue. Thinking about it now gives me the creeps. That old bastard wasn't looking for an apprentice at all. He's just a lecherous pervert!"
"Just yesterday, I stayed up late copying his published Ten Core Competencies of Martial Soul. I thought he was a wise man with hidden depths. I must've been blind to idolize scum like him!" A bespectacled boy trembled with rage. He tore his notebook to shreds on the spot and hurled it viciously at Yu Xiaogang.
Insults, accusations, and jeers too vile to repeat rained down on Yu Xiaogang like a violent storm.
Even the instructors who had once treated him with the utmost respect now wore looks of contempt.
Several hot-tempered male instructors had even rolled up their sleeves. If they hadn't been waiting for the dean's word, they would have rushed over to kick him a few more times.
As the torrent of abuse crashed around him, Yu Xiaogang struggled to move and raised his head.
He managed to open his one functioning eye and scanned the ring of contemptuous, disgusted faces.
Those gazes pierced through every last shred of his disguise and self-respect.
He felt as if an invisible pair of hands had ripped his heart apart. The pain left him unable to breathe.
He was a transmigrator, the chosen one who had come with a system to dominate Douluo Continent. He was supposed to stand above everyone, receiving their reverent worship. How had he ended up being pointed at and cursed by a bunch of ants?
The crowd parted, and the Old Dean emerged, flanked by several senior instructors, his face livid.
His uniform quivered with rage as he strode up to Yu Xiaogang and looked down at the bastard who had made him lose face.
"Yu Xiaogang!" The Old Dean jabbed a trembling finger at Yu Xiaogang's nose and let loose a furious tirade, his voice so loud it nearly burst everyone's eardrums. "You shameless scoundrel! In all the years since Nuoding Academy was founded, we've never had a scandal this appalling! I thought you were a learned scholar who devoted himself to researching Martial Soul. I treated you with every courtesy and even went to greet you at the gate in person! Is this how you repay my trust?"
The Old Dean grew angrier with every word, his chest heaving. "Why would you do something so depraved? What do you think Nuoding Academy is? You're at your age, yet you still dared to barge into the women's bathhouse! Has a dog eaten your conscience?"
Faced with the Old Dean's questions, Yu Xiaogang was filled with boundless grievance and despair.
He opened his mouth, wanting to defend himself in a loud voice.
He wanted to tell the dean that he hadn't wanted to go anywhere near the women's bathhouse. That damn system had forcibly taken control of his body. He was the victim here!
But the moment his swollen lips parted, a long string of "gurgle, gurgle" soap bubbles poured from his mouth, smearing his face.
He had no way to defend himself.
He couldn't exactly shout in front of the entire school that he was a transmigrator and that a system in his head had forced him to do this.
If he said that, everyone would only think he was a complete lunatic, and things would end even worse for him.
All he could do was swallow every bitter mouthful of humiliation, along with the soap suds.
At that moment, Yu Xiaogang's mental defenses crumbled completely.
The theoretical knowledge he had been so proud of, the aloof persona he had spent years cultivating, the Grandmaster's mantle he had used to swindle his way through life—all of it was torn to shreds.
He knew he was finished.
There was no way this could be kept quiet. It would soon spread through Nuoding City like a plague, and then across all of Douluo Continent.
From this day on, there would be no respected Grandmaster Yu Xiaogang—only a shameless perverted lecher who had spied on the women in a bathhouse.
He would be nailed to the pillar of shame forever, a laughingstock for everyone's idle conversation.
Forget taking a child of destiny as his apprentice. From now on, even if he walked down the street, people would probably point at his back and curse him.
The Old Dean took several deep breaths before managing to suppress his urge to slap the pervert dead.
To quell the public outrage and salvage the academy's reputation, the Old Dean turned to the furious teachers and students and announced the verdict on the spot.
"Teachers, students! Nuoding Academy will never tolerate a scoundrel with such a rotten character!" The Old Dean's voice rang out across the open ground. "In my capacity as dean, I hereby strip Yu Xiaogang of every privilege he has at Nuoding Academy. From this moment on, he is no longer a guest of our academy. I am expelling him permanently, and I will notify the City Lord's Mansion to ban him from setting foot in Nuoding City ever again!"
The harsh verdict was met with a thunderous cheer.
"The dean is right!"
"Drive the old lecher out! Don't let him pollute the air at our academy!"
The teachers and students clapped and cheered, savoring the sweet justice.
The Old Dean glanced at Yu Xiaogang on the ground as if he were a pile of stinking rubbish, then coldly ordered the two guards beside him, "Throw him out!"
"Yes, Dean!"
The two burly guards immediately stepped forward.
They didn't even want to touch Yu Xiaogang any more than necessary. Grabbing the rope tied around him, one on each side, they hauled him up roughly.
Every bone in Yu Xiaogang's body felt scattered. He lay limp as mud, utterly unable to muster any strength.
The guards dragged him by the rope like a dead dog, scraping him over the rough ground.
His body rasped against the flagstones, making a sound that set the teeth on edge as they hauled him toward the academy gate.
As he was dragged away without mercy, Yu Xiaogang's head lolled to one side.
Just then, through a gap in the crowd, the corner of his eye caught sight of Su Yu standing at the edge.
Su Yu stood there with his back straight, dressed in neat, clean clothes.
He didn't curse loudly like everyone else or show the slightest excitement.
He simply watched Yu Xiaogang being dragged along the ground like a dead dog.
Su Yu's gaze was calm and cold, the look one might give a piece of trash, a lifeless thing of no value.
The corner of his mouth curled up slightly in an unmistakably mocking sneer.
The moment Yu Xiaogang's gaze met Su Yu's, his heart clenched. A bone-deep chill inexplicably rose within him.
A wildly absurd instinct suddenly told him that everything that had happened today—the system's sudden release of a perverted quest, his disgraceful ruin—somehow had something to do with this boy who looked only six years old.
But before he could think it through, the two guards had already dragged him away.
Before you continue