At noon two days later, the sunlight was a little blinding.
Zhao Wuji returned to Shrek Academy with Dai Mubai and the others, all looking dispirited and dejected.
Flender had been waiting for a long time. Seeing the four of them in such a sorry state—and Tang San missing—his heart sank.
He pushed up his glasses and motioned for Zhao Wuji to stay behind alone.
Zhao Wuji closed the door. His face was still etched with lingering fear as he recounted everything that had happened in the Star Dou Great Forest, from their encounter with the Phoenix-tail Crested Serpent to the Snake Matriarch's arrival... He told the story from beginning to end.
Flender tapped his fingers against the tabletop, his brows drawing tighter and tighter.
When he heard that eight purple spider legs had grown from Tang San's back, his fingers abruptly stopped tapping. "What did you say? After absorbing the Man Faced Demon Spider Soul Ring, Xiao San grew something like spider legs on his back?"
He felt a little suspicious. As a Soul Saint with no small amount of experience, he had a vague sense that this was no ordinary phenomenon.
"That should be an External Soul Bone." A somewhat stiff voice suddenly came from outside the dean's office.
Zhao Wuji was startled, but Flender's eyes lit up. He laughed loudly, "Ha ha! The real expert is here! Xiaogang, come in. Don't stand out there."
The door opened, and a middle-aged man in simple clothes, with a stiff, severe face, walked in.
Flender stood and briefly introduced the two. "Xiaogang, this is our academy's vice-dean, the Immovable Wisdom King, Zhao Wuji."
"Wuji, this is the Grandmaster I've often told you about—the unrivaled master of theory, Yu Xiaogang."
Zhao Wuji hurriedly cupped his hands. "So you're the Grandmaster. Pleased to meet you. I'm Zhao Wuji."
"Immovable Wisdom King, there's no need to be so polite." Yu Xiaogang returned the greeting with a hint of stiffness, but his thoughts were clearly elsewhere.
"You're back. Tang San should have returned with you, too. Is he safe?"
"This..." Zhao Wuji looked awkward and troubled. He rubbed his large hands together and glanced at Flender, unsure how to begin.
Flender also instinctively avoided Yu Xiaogang's gaze. He pushed up his glasses, gave a dry cough, and let his eyes wander.
Seeing the two of them hesitate and avert their eyes, Yu Xiaogang felt a sudden, ominous foreboding.
"What happened? What's wrong with Xiao San?! Don't hide it from me!"
Zhao Wuji opened his mouth, but still couldn't bring himself to speak.
Flender sighed. Knowing he couldn't keep it from him, he gestured for Yu Xiaogang to sit down. Then he drew a deep breath,
and retold Zhao Wuji's account to Yu Xiaogang in as even a tone as he could manage.
As Flender spoke, Yu Xiaogang's expression grew darker and darker. When he heard the name "Zhao Linchuan," in particular, his hands, resting on his knees, clenched into fists, his knuckles turning white.
When he heard that Zhao Linchuan had used "treatment" as an excuse to forcibly remove the strange bone from Tang San's back—which might have been an External Soul Bone—and had "exchanged" it for only a thousand-year torso bone,
and that Tang San had agreed while weakened and tempted, Yu Xiaogang sprang to his feet!
"Zhao Linchuan?! That Zhao Linchuan again!!!" Yu Xiaogang's voice turned shrill with fury. The veins on his forehead throbbed, and his stiff features twisted. He could no longer maintain his usual stern composure.
"He's like a ghost that won't leave us alone! He just won't leave us alone!"
"From Nuoding City to Suotuo City, from Notting Academy to the Star Dou Great Forest!"
"What does he want with Xiao San?!"
He turned to Flender, his eyes blazing with anger and disappointment, and pointed at him. "And you! Flender! Didn't you receive the letter I sent you before?!"
"I emphasized again and again in that letter that Xiao San's identity was special, and that he was my disciple!"
"And you just let him go Soul Hunting with Zhao Wuji? You even... even let the Dragon Duke and Snake Granny intimidate him, and that bastard Zhao Linchuan take advantage of the situation?!"
"Xiaogang, calm down. Let me explain..." Flender tried to soothe him.
"Calm down? How can you expect me to calm down?!"
Yu Xiaogang cut him off roughly. His chest heaved violently, and fury edged his voice. "Do you know who Xiao San's father is?! Huh?!"
"I'm telling you, if anything happens to him, it won't just be your little Shrek Academy—every last one of us will be buried with him!"
"Do you understand?!"
The air in the dean's office seemed to freeze.
Yu Xiaogang's rare, nearly desperate fury left Flender stunned into silence.
Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, in a secluded courtyard belonging to the Dragon-Snake Family,
Tang San had just finished a round of circulating his Soul Power and was meditating when a powerful wave of dizziness suddenly swept over him.
He grunted and raised a hand to his forehead. The world before his eyes seemed to sway, and countless fragmented, chaotic images burst into his mind like floodwaters breaking through a dam—
A majestic, magnificent divine palace, drifting clouds and rosy mists, immense divine power, the faces of deities both familiar and strange...
And a blurry figure holding the Seagod Trident, with eight wings growing from its back. The figure radiated such majesty, as if it held dominion over all things...
Didn't I just ascend to the Divine Realm? Where is this...? he murmured unconsciously, his gaze unfocused.
But in the next instant, more fragments surged in—...a graceful pink figure fading farther and farther into the distance in his memories...
Wasn't I reincarnated after killing myself, so I could go find Xiao Wu? Two immense streams of memory, different yet somehow connected, clashed violently inside his mind, mingling and tearing at each other.
A pain like needles stabbing and axes chopping tore through his temples. He couldn't help groaning aloud, both hands clutching his head.
"Aahhh—! My head! It hurts!"
He curled into a ball, cold sweat instantly soaking through his clothes.
Damn it... My memories... So much is missing... So much has been added... That Zhao Linchuan... He shouldn't exist... He shouldn't!
At that moment, the door opened with a soft creak.
Chao Tianxiang walked in with a seemingly kind smile, carrying a bowl of steaming medicinal soup.
She had come to check on this amazingly talented young man who had just joined the family, and to deepen their "bond," ensuring he would truly serve the family.
But what she saw upon entering was Tang San curled on the floor, clutching his head in pain, his eyes unfocused one moment and bloodshot the next.
Chao Tianxiang was startled, but quickly replaced her expression with one of concern and hurried forward. "Young Tang San? What's wrong? Did something go wrong in your cultivation? Or have your old injuries not healed?"
She set down the bowl of soup and reached to help him...
Outside the door, a towering, burly figure had appeared without a sound.
The man leaned against the wall with his arms crossed, his face hidden in shadow and his expression impossible to make out.
In his right hand, he held a small white porcelain bottle. Written on it in somewhat hasty vermilion characters were the words: "Please keep reading!!!!"
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