At Zhu Lu's words, Dai Huabin looked as if he'd been struck by lightning. He staggered back three steps, his face deathly pale.
"Huabin, Huabin's... lost his ability to have children?" Zhu Lu murmured, dazed.
"What are we supposed to do now?" Despair slowly crept into Zhu Lu's expression.
The White Tiger Duke Mansion and the noble Zhu Family of the Star Luo Empire had been bound together for generations. Once assigned as partners, they were bound for life. Unless one of them died, neither would ever have another partner.
In a sense, it seemed Zhu Lu would have no choice but to live as a widow while her husband was still alive.
Could I really have to call Huabin my sister from now on? An utterly absurd thought suddenly arose in Zhu Lu's mind.
The story of how my husband became my sister.
A moment later, Zhu Lu came to her senses and glared furiously at Du Weilun. "Dean Du, the culprit who attacked Huabin must be caught. We were assaulted in Shrek City. The academy has to give us an explanation."
At her words, Du Weilun's expression grew exceptionally grim.
He knew Zhu Lu was right. Shrek Academy really was responsible for the two of them, since they had been attacked in Shrek City. If the culprit wasn't found and they spread the story, Shrek Academy would lose all its prestige across the entire continent.
The number one academy in the world couldn't even protect two students?
Who would dare attend Shrek Academy after that?
Yet the more Du Weilun understood how important it was to find the culprit, the more agitated he became.
There wasn't a trace of Soul Power left at the scene, so he had no way to investigate.
If even the slightest trace of Soul Power had remained, the academy's powerful experts would have had a way to retrace what had happened. The culprit's identity would have been obvious.
But bizarrely, all they'd found at the scene was Dai Huabin lying in a pool of blood. No traces of Soul Power had been left behind.
There were only two possible explanations. The first was that someone familiar with Dai Huabin had attacked him when he was caught off guard.
But only Dai Huabin and Zhu Lu had been there at the time, so that possibility had already been ruled out.
The second possibility was that the culprit had been so much stronger than Dai Huabin that he hadn't had the slightest chance to fight back.
Strangely, if the second possibility were true, Dai Huabin should have been well and truly dead. How could he still be alive?
Du Weilun couldn't make heads or tails of it. The more he analyzed the matter, the stranger it seemed, and finding the culprit appeared utterly hopeless.
"Ah!" Just then, Dai Huabin let out a heart-rending scream from inside the treatment room.
Du Weilun and Zhu Lu's expressions changed. They rushed inside at once.
"Mm..." Dai Huabin slowly opened his eyes, still dazed. He realized he was lying on a bed and let out a weak groan.
"I'm not dead?" It took a long while for Dai Huabin to come to his senses. When he realized he was truly still alive, joy at having narrowly escaped death filled his heart.
But the joy vanished without a trace the next second, when Dai Huabin realized his Storage Soul Tool ring was missing.
He stared wide-eyed, frantically feeling around all ten of his fingers. Three seconds later, after confirming that the ring really was gone, he lay on the bed, utterly distraught.
That was the left arm bone of a ten-thousand-year Dark Demon Tiger, worth several million!
The Spirit Bone that had been passed down through the White Tiger Duke Mansion for thousands upon thousands of years had been stolen right out of his hands?
Dai Huabin's heart twisted in anguish. Just thinking about the consequences if his family found out made his scalp prickle.
Then Dai Huabin tried to sit up, slowly controlling each muscle in his body.
But he gradually noticed something was wrong. It was as though an organ in one part of his body had lost all connection with him. He couldn't even feel it anymore.
Cold sweat slowly beaded on Dai Huabin's forehead.
No way. Could it be... could I have...?
A thought that filled him with sheer terror began to take shape in his mind.
"Ah!" Unable to bear it any longer, Dai Huabin let out another heart-rending scream.
Du Weilun and Zhu Lu rushed in almost immediately.
Seeing Dai Huabin unharmed, they both breathed a sigh of relief.
Zhu Lu hurried to his bedside, tears glimmering in her beautiful eyes. She sobbed, "Huabin, are you all right? Tell us, who attacked you?"
But Dai Huabin, lying in bed, said nothing. When Zhu Lu looked up, she saw him glaring at her with utter hatred.
Dai Huabin stared at Zhu Lu, eyes practically bulging from their sockets. He was so worked up that even his weakened body trembled uncontrollably.
The next second, he swung his right hand and slapped Zhu Lu hard across the face.
"Smack!" The sharp sound rang out.
Dai Huabin's voice was like that of a demon from the depths of the underworld. "You bitch! Why did you hurt me? I'll kill you!"
Driven by hatred, his body suddenly surged with powerful Soul Power. He lunged straight at Zhu Lu.
Du Weilun was startled. He hurriedly flashed between them and pulled them apart.
Zhu Lu was stunned by the slap. She stood frozen, her hand pressed to her cheek, at a complete loss.
Meanwhile, Dai Huabin's eyes were bloodshot. Blinded by hatred, he struggled with all his might to kill Zhu Lu.
Caught between them, Du Weilun's mind raced so fast it was about to smoke, yet he still couldn't understand how things had ended up like this.
He threw his head back and howled, "What in the world is going on?!"
Outside Shrek City, in the hotel room where Huo Yuhao was staying.
After a night had passed, Huo Yuhao woke from Deep Meditation. His bones and muscles felt supple, and his mind was clear and refreshed.
But he soon realized something was wrong: a foul stench was wafting up to his nose.
Not only that, his entire body felt horribly sticky.
"Damn, what is this stuff? It's disgusting," Huo Yuhao cursed.
He looked down and saw that his clothes had turned pitch-black.
The stench was coming from his body.
He raised an arm and saw a layer of black grime covering his skin, as if he'd fallen into a mud pit and been dragged back out.
"Cleansing the marrow?" Huo Yuhao immediately understood.
This must have been the Black Water Pill's special marrow-cleansing effect, expelling all the impurities from his meridians and body.
He sensed his condition briefly and, sure enough, his Soul Power had risen from level 15 to level 17.
Joy had just begun to stir in Huo Yuhao's heart when the stench from his own body made him retch again and again.
He didn't bother with anything else. He stripped off all his clothes and rushed to the bathroom to take a shower.
He rinsed himself for a full quarter of an hour before the indescribable smell finally disappeared.
The bad news was that the bed, the bathroom, and all of Huo Yuhao's clothes had been contaminated.
Huo Yuhao had no choice but to go downstairs, explain the situation to the hotel staff, and change to another room.
When the hotel employee went into Huo Yuhao's former room and came back out, the shock on their face—and the distaste and wariness in their eyes as they looked at him—made him scratch his head awkwardly.
In the end, Huo Yuhao handed over a Gold Soul Coin as compensation. Only then did the employee's face brighten with a smile again.
After all that, the sky had unknowingly grown bright, and it was already noon.
"School starts in two days. It's time to get my Ninja Tool Spirit Guidance Device plan underway," Huo Yuhao thought.
Then he took a sheet of straw paper from his Storage Ring and carefully began drawing something on it.
Before you continue