Restaurant Clash

Seeing Xu Lizhi in such a sorry state, Tang Wulin seemed to remember what he himself had once been like. He peeled a large shrimp and offered it to Xu Lizhi.

Watching Xu Lizhi gratefully eat it, Lan Kai shook his head.

Tang Wulin hadn't yet sunk to the point of being as loathsome as he was later in the original story. This behavior of his now could, at worst, be called an excess of saintly compassion.

Xu Lizhi looked rather miserable, but he wasn't so desperate that he'd die without one more bite to eat. Besides, he had plenty of money at his disposal. Even if he ate his fill here and didn't have enough cash on him, he could put it on credit temporarily using his status as a Shrek Academy student, or wait for someone from the academy to come bail him out.

At least Xu Lizhi hadn't yet revealed many of the qualities that made people sick, nor had he been pickled through and through in the glory of Shrek Academy. If this had been some golden-haired loser instead, wouldn't she...

The next moment, a girl in the same green outfit, her golden hair tied into a ponytail, barged into the restaurant with an air of superiority and a frown.

Then an angry voice, thick with disdain, reached everyone's ears:

"Xu Lizhi, I can't believe you ran off here to slack off! Didn't Elder Cai say you weren't allowed to eat until you finished today's training?"

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

"Xinglan, but I'm really hungry. And you've all been beating me up every day for the past few days, and I haven't been getting enough to eat..."

Xu Lizhi seemed to be starving. He didn't care that the shrimp had fallen on the floor and hurriedly bent down to pick it up and eat it. He even nearly fell over in the process, looking rather pathetic.

Only then did he stand up again, head bowed in grievance.

"Wasn't it all for the glory of Shrek Academy? I never thought that in this second-rate city of Skysea, someone would dare insult our academy like that, and even spout such outrageous nonsense as..."

Seeing Xu Lizhi's spineless behavior, Ye Xinglan grew so furious that she even forgot what she'd meant to say.

"With one-tenth of my Soul Power, I'll defeat Shrek in fifteen minutes—and leave no heads behind."

Lan Kai calmly opened a bottle of Skysea City's local brand of marble soda and took a long drink. Burping as he spoke, he said,

"Exactly! They even dared to say something so outrageous and treasonous...?!"

Ye Xinglan quickly picked up the thread, then turned her gaze toward Lan Kai.

By now, Lan Kai had hung his hat and trench coat on a nearby coat rack, and he wasn't wearing any further disguise. Ye Xinglan recognized him at once as the person who'd made that outrageous declaration—that he would trample Shrek Academy's glory underfoot and grind it into the dirt.

Ye Xinglan's face visibly reddened, and her expression grew more and more twisted.

"So you're the ones who said those outrageous things?! Die!"

The next moment, Ye Xinglan instantly summoned her Martial Soul, the Stargod Sword, and thrust it at Lan Kai with blinding speed.

"You start swinging the moment someone disagrees with you. Is this what they call a Shrek student?

"Waiter, could you open the door for me? Thanks!"

Lan Kai raised his right hand, coating it in the power of light to block Ye Xinglan's sword. At the same time, he calmly called out to a waiter not far away.

Seeing how calm Lan Kai was, the others who'd been startled by Ye Xinglan drawing her sword without warning relaxed and went back to their food and drinks.

Even Tang Wulin merely gave Xu Lizhi an apologetic look before returning to his own feast.

"You bastard! You got your cultivation through a little outside help and a lucky shortcut. What gives you the right to insult Shrek Academy?!"

Ye Xinglan hadn't expected the Soul Elder before her, with three purple Soul Rings, to be so powerful. He'd brushed aside her fierce strike with ease. She tried even harder to overpower Lan Kai while berating him without restraint.

"You from Shrek Academy, you can choose not to eat, but you can't go around insulting people.

"Are Shrek Academy students the only ones in the world who work hard to cultivate without relying on any outside help?

"And you don't even care that your own teammate is so hungry he's wasting away. You're still dragging him back to use as a punching bag. If this is how the number one Shrek Academy in the world trains Soul Masters, then you've certainly opened my eyes..."

Lan Kai's right hand didn't budge. With his left, he picked up a few pieces of fish with his chopsticks and ate them. Seeing the waiters had opened the restaurant's front door, he nodded.

"Go ahead and eat. I'll take this golden-haired loser outside and knock some sense into her."

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

It was all over in an instant. The crowd only saw a blur, then heard a tremendous crash from outside—the sound of Ye Xinglan hitting the tree as Lan Kai pinned her against it.

Ye Xinglan's mouth fell open and her eyes squeezed shut as her body thrashed violently, her face contorted in pain. The Stargod Sword slipped from her hand and fell to the ground.

Lan Kai released her and jumped back a step. Ye Xinglan sat on the ground in a painfully awkward, legs-splayed position, one hand clutching her neck as she gasped for breath. With the other, she picked up the Stargod Sword he'd just let go of.

Inside the restaurant, Xu Lizhi wanted to go see if his beloved Xinglan was all right, but Tang Wulin called him back.

"Don't worry. Brother Kai knows how to hold back, unlike the people from your Shrek Academy.

"Besides, if you don't eat your fill, how are you supposed to stop them?"

"Yeah... Sorry, Xinglan. I'll come rescue you once I've eaten my fill."

Xu Lizhi thought it did seem to make sense. And with the waiter bringing out the dishes he'd ordered, Xu Lizhi, who hadn't eaten his fill in days, ultimately chose to eat first.

"You bastard! You actually dared to ambush me?! I, Ye Xinglan, will kill you today—"

"Honestly, you attacked me with a sword first, without a shred of reason. Now you're turning around and accusing me of ambushing you. I can't tell if your old illness is acting up again or if you're already terminally ill."

Seeing Ye Xinglan use the Stargod Sword to support herself as she stood again, preparing to hurl some more outrageous threats, Lan Kai could only feel that the whole thing was even more absurd.

If Juggler didn't teach anyone anything as an instructor besides "One Hundred and Eight Things About Kurenai Gai and Ultraman Orb," and if there might also be someone in Shrek Academy who possessed the Dark Ring, Lan Kai wouldn't have planned to apply to Shrek Academy and invite all this bad luck for no reason.

Ye Xinglan's behavior right now was a microcosm of Shrek Academy's twisted mindset.

Lan Kai was already having trouble holding back his urge to fire a beam.