It was about a quarter of an hour before the hour of the Monkey when the eight of them arrived at Shrek Academy.
Aside from Ning Rongrong and Xuan Qing, who had been mentally prepared, everyone else was stunned.
A wooden sign hung at the entrance to the dilapidated village. The words "Shrek Academy" were written on it in crooked, uneven characters.
The ground was riddled with potholes. The place looked utterly shabby.
Gu Rong's mouth twitched. Pointing at the broken-down village, he asked,
"Rongrong, tell Bone Grandpa honestly. Is this abandoned, ramshackle village really Shrek Academy?"
"It is."
Ning Rongrong lowered her head, her voice so quiet it was almost inaudible.
Gu Rong's expression turned completely dark. He looked at Ning Fengzhi, his voice icy. "Fengzhi."
He was already furious.
His precious little princess was supposed to suffer in a dump like this? What a joke!
Xue Qinghe was dumbfounded too.
He had imagined Shrek's conditions would be poor, but he hadn't expected them to be this bad. This place could be called an academy? It was worse than the slums of Heaven Dou City.
Although Dugu Bo and Zi JI had heard Xuan Qing say that the academy was founded by hooligans, seeing it with their own eyes still shocked them.
It was way too shabby!
Xuan Qing, on the other hand, was perfectly calm. He had known it would be like this.
He glanced around and saw several figures coming out of the village.
They were Flender, Yu Xiaogang, Zhao Wuji, and the other members of the Shrek Seven Devils. Tang San was there too. The bandage on his head had shrunk, but it was still swollen.
Qin Ming was with them as well. When he spotted Dugu Yan, he froze. "Yanzi? What are you doing here?"
Dugu Yan was surprised too.
"Teacher Qin Ming? What are you doing here?"
Xuan Qing interjected,
"Because your teacher Qin Ming is one of the fourteen survivors."
"Survivors?"
Everyone turned to Xuan Qing, confused.
Xuan Qing explained,
"From what I know, the academy has been around for twenty years. It admits a little over two students each year, and the graduation requirement is to reach level forty before turning twenty."
"Only fourteen people have actually graduated. The rest either failed to reach level forty before they turned twenty or died while hunting Soul Beasts."
Gu Rong drew in a sharp breath.
"Fourteen people? Only fourteen graduates in twenty years? That death rate..."
Ning Fengzhi suppressed his anger and walked up to Flender. In a low voice, he said,
"Dean Flender, thank you for looking after Rongrong during this time. I've come to take her home today."
Flender's expression changed instantly.
Ning Rongrong was a Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda Soul Master with powerful support abilities. She was the team's second core member. If she left, the Shrek Seven Devils would inevitably take a serious hit.
Yu Xiaogang immediately panicked. He rushed forward and said urgently,
"Sect Master Ning, Rongrong can't leave! She's one of the Shrek Seven Devils and an important member of our team!"
"In a few years, Rongrong will be a key player in the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Soul Fighting Tournament."
What Yu Xiaogang didn't say was that without Ning Rongrong, how would Tang San make a name for himself across the continent? How could Yu Xiaogang prove he wasn't a worthless nobody?
Gu Rong snorted.
"When did the little princess of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect become your academy's property? She can come and go as she pleases. Since when does she need your permission?"
Yu Xiaogang was left speechless, but he still wasn't willing to give up.
Tang San stepped forward and said gravely,
"Sect Master Ning, Senior Bone Douluo. Rongrong is one of the Shrek Seven Devils. We're a team, and leaving at a time like this would be irresponsible."
Gu Rong's gaze turned cold.
"Kid, who said you could butt in?"
He released a fraction of the pressure from his Titled Douluo aura. Tang San's face paled, and he staggered back several steps.
Yu Xiaogang hurriedly stepped in front of Tang San and cried out,
"Your Majesty, please show mercy! Xiao San is the son of the Clear Sky Douluo, and he possesses the rare Twin Martial Souls! He's the Soul Master World's hope in its struggle against Spirit Hall!"
"Twin Martial Souls!"
Those four words struck right at Ning Fengzhi's weak spot: his desire to oppose Spirit Hall.
Everyone turned to Xuan Qing in unison, their eyes asking: You knew about this?
Xuan Qing spread his hands.
"Isn't that common knowledge? How could ordinary Blue Silver Grass grant Innate Full Soul Power? And even if he didn't have Innate Full Soul Power, how could ordinary Blue Silver Grass let him reach this level at his age?"
Dugu Bo spoke with a frown.
"I remember that the conditions for Twin Martial Souls to appear are that both parents' Martial Souls must be very similar in quality. But in his case..."
His meaning was clear. Blue Silver Grass and the Clear Sky Hammer were worlds apart in quality.
"Didn't I just say? His isn't ordinary Blue Silver Grass. Among some Soul Beast clans, there's a saying: those who live ten thousand years become kings, and those who live a hundred thousand years become emperors. You've heard that, right?"
Everyone nodded. They had indeed heard the saying.
"Tang San's mother was the emperor of the Blue Silver Grass Clan, transformed into human form. She was also the origin of the battle between Tang Hao and Qian Xunji back then."
Those words exploded like a bomb, leaving everyone reeling. The Blue Silver Emperor? A Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast transformed into a human? And she'd even had a child?
A flash of killing intent passed through Dugu Bo's eyes.
"Since we've already made an enemy of him, should we just kill him and be done with it?"
Xuan Qing shook his head.
"Why waste your time killing someone who's been raised into a cripple?"
"Raised into a cripple?"
Everyone was puzzled.
Zi JI explained,
"What makes Blue Silver Grass so remarkable is its astonishing vitality. But this kid's following the path of poison. It's like adding a water-attribute Soul Ring to a fire-type Martial Soul."
Xuan Qing nodded in agreement, then added,
"In other words, if his Blue Silver Grass can't awaken, he'll top out at five rings at most. He's been cultivating so quickly because of the foundation his mother left him. Once that runs out, if he doesn't switch to that hammer, getting even five rings will take a miracle."
Tang San roared hoarsely,
"You're talking nonsense! My Blue Silver Grass is the most ordinary kind. My teacher said..."
Xuan Qing couldn't be bothered to listen to him ramble.
"Shut up! Don't you know the saying that one mountain can't hold two tigers? If that hammer is worth a hundred points, then your Blue Silver Grass can't be worth less than ninety-eight. Otherwise, how could the two coexist?"
"And when it comes to power, the Blue Silver Emperor's essence is immortality."
"Your biological father's Soul Rings came from your biological mother's sacrifice. You didn't know that?"
Tang San stood rooted to the spot, as if struck by lightning.
He remembered the grief that sometimes slipped through his father's expression, and the vague shadow of his mother... Could it really be true?
Yu Xiaogang panicked too. He shouted,
"Stop spouting nonsense! Xiao San has Twin Martial Souls. He's destined to become a Titled Douluo! You're just jealous!"
Xuan Qing laughed, his amusement dripping with scorn.
"Oh? And then what? I'm two years younger than him and five levels higher. The seven of them couldn't last two minutes against me, and you still dare call him a genius with Twin Martial Souls?"
"Even if he becomes a Titled Douluo, he'll still be a counterfeit. I could swat him to death with one flick of my tail. Why would I be jealous of a good-for-nothing like that?"
Ning Fengzhi coughed.
"Little friend Xuan Qing, don't hit the wrong person!"
That included Ning Rongrong among the seven.
Xuan Qing curled his lip.
"Fine, I'll do it for Sect Master Ning's sake. But I still have something to say to you."
He pointed at Zhu Zhuqing.
Zhu Zhuqing froze and pointed at herself.
"Me?"
Xuan Qing nodded. "I admire that you ran away to escape your family. You had courage and resolve. But now you've come looking for this lecherous tiger..."
"Then how are you any different from someone who never escaped? You're still mixed up with him. Where'd that courage you had when you left your family go? Did the dog eat it?"
Zhu Zhuqing's face paled, and she bit down on her lip.
Xuan Qing continued,
"You carried rocks for three months. Aside from suffering, what did you gain? You went from level twenty-seven to level twenty-eight? Wouldn't cultivating on your own have raised your level too?"
Gu Rong frowned.
"Wait, she carried rocks for three months? What does that mean?"
Xuan Qing explained,
"That's Yu Xiaogang's training method: run while carrying rocks. Do you think he'd let Zhao Wuji help with a gravity Soul Skill? That'd be a slap in the face of his big corpse!"
He even patted his own face, tauntingly.
Xuan Qing summed it up.
"For four months, they carried rocks for three and fought in the Soul Arena for one. That's the whole curriculum."
"I just don't get it. Do you need a teacher to do that? They could've gone to a quarry and earned some money instead."
His tongue was truly vicious.
He made a point of slapping people in the face and digging up their sore spots, but everything he said was true. No one could refute him.
Yu Xiaogang trembled with rage, pointing a finger at Xuan Qing.
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