Restaurant Conflict

Seeing Xu Lizhi in such a sorry state, Tang Wulin, perhaps reminded of his own past, took the initiative to peel a large shrimp and hand it to him.

Watching Xu Lizhi gratefully devour the shrimp, Lan Kai shook his head.

Tang Wulin had not yet reached the level of being insufferable as he would later in the original story; his current behavior could at most be described as an overflow of saintly compassion.

Although Xu Lizhi looked distressed, he was nowhere near the point of starving to death, and he had plenty of personal funds at his disposal. Even if he didn't have enough money to pay for a feast here, he could simply use his status as a student of Shrek Academy to run a tab or wait for others from the academy to bail him out.

It was only because Xu Lizhi hadn't yet displayed many repulsive traits or been thoroughly pickled in the arrogance of Shrek Academy that he was tolerable. If this were some golden-haired loser, wouldn't she...

The next moment, a girl wearing the same green uniform with her golden hair tied into a ponytail stormed into the restaurant, frowning with an air of haughty superiority.

Immediately, a voice filled with anger and disdain reached everyone's ears:

"Xu Lizhi, I didn't expect you to come here to slack off! Didn't Elder Cai say that you aren't allowed to eat until you finish today's training?"

As she spoke, Ye Xinglan strode over to Xu Lizhi and slapped the shrimp Tang Wulin had just handed him onto the floor.

"Sister Xinglan, but I'm really hungry, and I've been beaten by you guys every day for the past few days, and I haven't been able to eat my fill..."

Xu Lizhi seemed starved to the point of desperation; ignoring the fact that the shrimp had fallen to the floor, he hurriedly leaned down to pick it up and eat it, nearly tripping in the process and looking quite pathetic.

Only then did he stand back up, hanging his head in grievance.

"Isn't that for the glory of our Shrek Academy? I didn't expect that in this backwater Tianhai City, there would actually be someone daring enough to insult my Shrek Academy, and even spout such nonsense as..."

Seeing Xu Lizhi's spineless appearance, Ye Xinglan felt a surge of anger so intense that she even forgot what she had intended to say.

"One-tenth of your Soul Power, within half a stick of incense, if you cannot defeat Shrek, leave your head behind."

Lan Kai calmly opened a bottle of locally branded marble soda from Tianhai City, took a large gulp, and spoke between burps.

"Right, exactly! How dare you say such treasonous...?!"

Ye Xinglan quickly picked up the thread of the conversation and turned her gaze toward Lan Kai.

By now, Lan Kai had hung his hat and trench coat on a nearby rack, and with no further disguise on his face, Ye Xinglan recognized him instantly as the person who had spouted that nonsense about trampling the glory of Shrek Academy underfoot.

Immediately, Ye Xinglan's face turned visibly red, and her expression grew increasingly twisted.

"So it was you saying those outrageous things?! Die!"

The next moment, Ye Xinglan immediately summoned her Martial Soul, the Star God Sword, and thrust it toward Lan Kai with lightning speed.

"Resorting to violence without a word—is this what it means to be a Shrek student?

"Waiter, please open the door, thank you!"

Lan Kai raised his right hand, coating it with the power of light to block the sword strike, while calmly calling out to the waiter nearby.

Seeing Lan Kai's composure, the others, who had been startled by Ye Xinglan's sudden attack, felt relieved and returned to their meals.

Even Tang Wulin merely cast an apologetic look at Xu Lizhi before continuing to feast on his own.

"You scoundrel, relying on some external force to cheat your way to this cultivation level, how dare you insult my Shrek Academy?!"

Ye Xinglan had not expected this Soul Elder with three purple soul rings to be so powerful; her fierce strike had been parried with such nonchalance. She pushed harder, attempting to suppress Lan Kai, while lashing out at him without restraint.

"This person from Shrek Academy, you may choose not to eat, but you have no right to insult others.

"Does the world really believe that only those from Shrek Academy cultivate diligently without relying on any external power?

"Besides, to ignore your own partner who is starving to the point of collapse and drag him back to be used as a punching bag—if this is the method Shrek Academy uses to train Soul Masters, it truly is an eye-opener..."

Lan Kai's right hand remained steady as he used his left hand to pick up some fish with his chopsticks. Seeing that the waiters had opened the main entrance of the restaurant, he nodded.

"You guys keep eating; I'm going out to help this golden-haired loser wake up."

The next moment, Lan Kai suddenly stood up, grabbed Ye Xinglan by the neck, and charged straight out of the restaurant, pinning her against a large tree in the adjacent park.

The entire process was so brief that the onlookers only felt a blur before the sound of a pig hitting a tree—or rather, Ye Xinglan being slammed into the tree by Lan Kai—echoed back.

Ye Xinglan gasped, her eyes squeezed shut, her body struggling violently as a look of intense pain crossed her face. The Star God Sword slipped from her hand and fell to the ground.

Lan Kai released her and stepped back, watching as Ye Xinglan sat on the ground in a painful "duck sit" position, one hand clutching her throat and gasping for air, while the other reached out to retrieve her fallen Star God Sword.

Inside the restaurant, Xu Lizhi wanted to go out and see if his beloved Sister Xinglan was alright, but Tang Wulin called him back.

"Don't worry, Brother Kai knows how to pull his punches, unlike you people from Shrek Academy.

"Besides, if you don't eat your fill, how will you have the strength to stop them?"

"That's true... Sister Xinglan, I'm sorry, I'll come to save you once I've eaten."

Xu Lizhi thought about it and decided that made sense. Plus, the waiter had just brought over the food he ordered, and having not eaten properly for days, he ultimately chose to eat first.

"You bastard, how dare you ambush me?! If I don't kill you today, I, Ye Xinglan..."

"Sigh, you were the one who attacked me with your sword without reason, and now you're turning around to accuse me of an ambush. I really don't know if this is a relapse of an old illness or if you're beyond saving."

Seeing Ye Xinglan use her Star God Sword to prop herself up again, clearly intending to spout more threats, Lan Kai found it all the more absurd.

If it weren't for the fact that Juggler wouldn't teach students anything other than "The 108 Things About Kurenai Gai and Ultraman Orb," and that there was a high probability of a Dark Ring possessor within Shrek Academy, Lan Kai would never have bothered applying to Shrek Academy just to invite so much trouble.

Right now, Ye Xinglan's performance was merely a microcosm of the pathological mentality within Shrek Academy.

Lan Kai was already struggling to suppress the urge to fire a beam of light.