The Clown and Goodbye Two

"Wait there, I'm going to get the boss!"

Having been beaten up twice and left bruised and swollen, Dong Lintian shouted indignantly before fleeing the scene.

Weng Daimin looked at Long Chen, who had also been beaten, and said with a pained expression, "It's all your fault, Liushuang!"

"What does that have to do with me?" Xue Liushuang felt baffled.

"Who told you to have a jinxed mouth!"

Xue Liushuang: "..."

Although the process had been a bit twisty, they ultimately passed the assessment smoothly. Even though Dong Yi'an had lost miserably in two consecutive matches, Zhang Hanlin still let him pass.

"Liushuang, as it happens, go take these juniors on a tour of the academy."

Xue Liushuang hadn't expected to be given a task after coming to watch the matches, but she didn't say anything and nodded gently.

"Follow me."

She gathered the long hair on her shoulders and turned to walk away. Her ice-blue eyes lingered on Shen Nanxun for a moment before shifting back to the path ahead. She didn't say much, simply leading them through the academy's tree-lined paths.

The Sun Moon Imperial Soul Master Academy campus was quieter than she had imagined. On both sides of the path, shaded by towering ancient trees, the statues of outstanding past staff and graduates loomed in the shadows, their stone contours smoothed by the passage of time.

Xue Liushuang walked at the front, occasionally looking back to ensure no one had fallen behind. As they passed through the central square, an exceptionally tall statue stood directly in front of the fountain.

Na'er tilted her head to look at the statue. Sunlight filtered from behind it, making it difficult to see the person's specific features, but she felt the silhouette was inexplicably familiar. She tugged on Shen Nanxun's sleeve, her ahoge swaying with the movement: "That statue, why does it feel a bit familiar?"

"That is the founder of the Spirit Pagoda from ten thousand years ago, Spirit Ice Douluo Huo Yuhao." Xue Liushuang had stopped at some point, standing before the statue's base and looking up at the stone face, which had been eroded by the winds and frosts of time.

"Spirit Ice Douluo Huo Yuhao once served as an exchange student at the academy for a period. Every year, new students come to see this statue upon enrollment. It is not to make you remember his achievements, but to make you remember..."

She paused. "Spirit Ice Douluo also stood here once, starting as a new student just like you, fighting his way up match by match. He did it, and so can you."

Xue Liushuang turned around, preparing to lead them forward, but her footsteps suddenly faltered. She heard the conversation between the two behind her. To be precise, she heard the name that had popped out of the silver-haired girl's mouth.

"Shen Nanxun, who do you think is stronger, Spirit Ice Douluo or Na'er?"

"You are."

Xue Liushuang looked back, her gaze landing on the expressionless black-haired boy who was being tugged by the silver-haired girl.

She hadn't paid attention to his name before, calling them "you" and "you all" along the way without asking. Hearing those three words now, her pupils contracted ever so slightly.

Shen Nanxun—the same Shen Nanxun who had single-handedly crushed the seven members of Shrek at the Tianhai Alliance Grand Competition. Regaining her composure, she turned her gaze back to him, her tone calm but hiding a trace of curiosity: "Your name is Shen Nanxun?"

"Yes." Shen Nanxun nodded faintly.

Xue Liushuang understood; it was clear now why even Long Chen had been defeated so easily.

Shen Nanxun was the top of the young genius rankings, the eldest young master of the Shen Family, a favored child of heaven. Even if one had never met him, his deeds were legendary, especially in Ming Capital and within the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Master Academy.

After all, defeating Shrek Academy was the ultimate goal of every generation of Sun Moon students.

And now, this ultimate goal had been easily accomplished by a boy who hadn't even enrolled yet—and he had done it by overcoming both age and numerical disadvantages.

Thinking of this, Xue Liushuang suddenly felt that the beating Long Chen and Dong Lintian had received wasn't just deserved; they had actually gotten off easy.

At the Tianhai Alliance Grand Competition, Shen Nanxun and Gu Yue had fought two against seven, with the opposing team consisting of elite outer court students from Shrek, all at least three-ringed, and their captain, Yu Chen, being a soul sect over level forty. Shen Nanxun had only been level thirty-two at the time. Now, he stood on the campus of the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Master Academy, wearing a freshman uniform, being tugged by a silver-haired girl who was expressionlessly claiming the other girl was stronger than the Spirit Ice Douluo.

The more one understood the gap, the more suffocating it felt.

She withdrew her gaze, keeping those thoughts to herself. As a senior student in the advanced division, she felt it necessary to maintain a basic image in front of these freshmen.

She resumed walking, her tone returning to its usual cold and concise manner: "Let's go. Ahead is the Mimicry Cultivation Ground. You will spend a lot of time there in the future."

Na'er tugged on Shen Nanxun's sleeve, lowering her voice without any self-awareness regarding the volume: "Shen Nanxun, does this senior know you? The way she looked at you just now was exactly the same as Xu Xiaoyan the first time she saw you."

"I don't know her." Shen Nanxun kept his eyes forward.

Xue Liushuang, walking in front, coughed lightly: "I just wanted to ask you for a duel."

"Huh?"

Shen Nanxun was slightly stunned, his eyes widening. He hadn't been back to Ming Capital in four years; had the social climate become this open?

You can just ask for that?

Xue Liushuang realized her mistake the moment the words left her lips, and the tips of her ears turned bright red. She took a deep breath, turned around, and maintained her usual cold composure, though her speech was twice as fast as usual: "I meant a sword duel. A duel with swords. I have a sword martial soul, and I would like to experience your Angel Sword."

Behind her came the sound of Ye Xi trying and failing to suppress a laugh. Na'er, meanwhile, unceremoniously shook Shen Nanxun's sleeve, her face full of schadenfreude: "Where did your mind go?"

"Nowhere." Shen Nanxun remained expressionless. "I accept."

Xue Liushuang paused for a moment, then cupped her hands in a standard sparring salute, her movements crisp: "Then tomorrow. At the Mimicry Cultivation Ground. Xue Liushuang, please enlighten me."

Just as they were continuing their tour, several footsteps approached from a distance.

"Boss, it's this freshman! He beat me up on purpose during the assessment!" Dong Lintian clutched his still-bruised face, leading people over aggressively. Behind him followed a tall girl with light blue hair and exquisite, striking features. She wore the uniform of the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Master Academy's advanced division, her hands in her pockets, walking at a leisurely pace as Dong Lintian dragged her along.

"Dong Lintian, the freshman you mentioned had better be worth it." The girl lazily rolled her neck, the cuffs of her advanced division uniform swaying with the movement.

"It's him!" Dong Lintian stood beside Xue Liushuang, pointing past Shen Nanxun's shoulder at the black-haired boy who was talking to Long Chen. "That one in the black clothes! He used excessive force during the assessment; both Long Chen and I were beaten by him!"

Shen Nanxun tilted his head slightly, a faint curve appearing at the corner of his mouth, his tone casual: "Second Sister, are you here to avenge him?"

The person Dong Lintian called "boss" was none other than his Second Sister, Shen Xing.

Dong Lintian's smug expression froze, and he stared blankly at the two of them.

"Am I the clown?"

A cool breeze blew past.

Shen Xing pulled her hand from her pocket and patted Dong Lintian on the shoulder. Though the force was light, Dong Lintian's legs grew weaker with every tap. She ignored him after that, stepping past Xue Liushuang to stand directly before Shen Nanxun. She reached out, pinched his left cheek, and gave it a tug.

"You brat, you've been in Ming Capital for so many days, and you've just been staying at the old estate? You didn't even come to see your Second Sister? Hmm?"

"I'm here now, aren't I? Besides, there are so many people around—give me some face." With his cheek still being pulled, Shen Nanxun's voice was muffled, yet he remained defiant.

"You still want face?" Shen Xing added a bit more strength to her grip, causing Shen Nanxun to hiss. Only then did she release him with satisfaction, ruffling his hair into a chaotic mess for good measure.

She then turned to Na'er, bent down to gently press down the cowlick standing tall on the girl's head, and smiled with her eyes curved into crescents. "Na'er has grown so tall! Did you miss your Second Sister?"

"I did!" Na'er's cowlick sprang back up as she dove into Shen Xing's arms. Shen Xing caught her, ruffled her hair, and straightened up to look at the group before her.

The eldest brother's younger brother... that would mean!?

Dong Lintian's pupils shrank. The person before him was that Shen Nanxun—the eldest young master of the Shen Family and the top-ranked genius on the youth prodigy list.

"Damn it!"

He had truly kicked an iron plate this time!

He wanted to slip away, but Shen Xing's voice drifted over from not far away.

"Dong Lintian, come eat with us."

The place Shen Xing chose to treat them was a famous hotpot restaurant in Ming Capital. The red oil broth steamed and bubbled, the aroma of chili and Sichuan peppercorns aggressively occupying the entire private room. Yet, the atmosphere inside the room was even more subtle than the broth.

Dong Lintian huddled in a corner seat, his chopsticks hovering in mid-air, unsure whether to pick up food or set them down. His younger brother, Dong Yi'an, sat diagonally across from him, the entire length of the table separating the two brothers.

Shen Xing sat at the head of the table, with Shen Nanxun on her left and Na'er on her right, busy swishing a piece of tripe in the pot.

Xue Liushuang sat quietly by the window, occasionally picking up a piece of vegetable or glancing at Shen Nanxun, who was peeling shrimp across from her. Ye Xi rolled a piece of throat cartilage in her sesame oil dipping sauce three times before eating it in silence.

"Brother."

The silence was broken.

Dong Yi'an looked up at Dong Lintian, who had stood up holding a drink cup. The bruises on his face had yet to fade, but he used a great deal of effort to spit out three words.

"I'm sorry."

"What happened in the past... I went too far. From now on at the academy, I won't cause you any more trouble. This drink... is my toast to you." He tilted his head back and downed it in one gulp, slamming the cup onto the table with his face flushed bright red.

Dong Yi'an looked at his brother's colorful face, remained silent for two seconds, then picked up his own cup and finished it, setting it down with a slight nod. The two brothers exchanged a glance across the steaming red oil pot before simultaneously looking away.

"Alright, alright, let's eat!" Shen Xing waved a hand and dropped two more plates of fatty beef into the pot.

By the end of the meal, what surprised Xue Liushuang and the others most was Na'er's incredible appetite. She had nearly finished all the ingredients in the hotpot restaurant by herself.

Under Shen Xing's pressure, Dong Lintian and Dong Yi'an had temporarily restored their brotherly relationship.

When the meal ended, Shen Xing was called away by a message from a teacher in the advanced department. Before leaving, she ruffled Shen Nanxun's hair and pinched Na'er's cheeks, then vanished into the street corner in a flurry of activity.

Shen Nanxun and his group walked along the pedestrian street outside the restaurant toward the academy. As night deepened, the lights of Ming Capital flickered to life one by one in the twilight.

Passing the central square, Xue Liushuang suddenly stopped. She gazed at the massive holographic billboard on the edge of the square, her ice-blue eyes narrowing slightly. Rows of bold red text scrolled across the screen.

"The 132nd Freshman Ranking Competition of the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Master Academy. Registration deadline countdown: four days."

"The Freshman Ranking Competition." She turned to look at the freshmen who had just passed their assessments. "You've come at the right time. It's the first official competition for freshmen after enrollment. Every freshman can sign up, and the final ranking determines the priority for using the Mimicry Cultivation Ground and library borrowing privileges. More importantly, the top three earn the right to enter the academy's 'Sun Moon Pavilion' to select an item. It could be a cultivation technique, a soul guidance device, medicinal pills, or rare materials you might need for forging Battle Armor in the future."

Rare materials. Shen Nanxun and Na'er exchanged a look. Divine Craftsman Zhen Hua had said that at least half of the Dazzling Iron Gold was still missing, and the rest was either at an auction or in the academy's Sun Moon Pavilion.

Having developed for over ten thousand years, the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Master Academy still held quite a few treasures.

"However, the ranking competition uses a point system. Every freshman is matched randomly, one-on-one. A win earns one point, a loss deducts one point, and a draw results in no deduction. The final ranking takes the top one hundred. The competition lasts for three days, during which no freshman is allowed to enter the Mimicry Cultivation Ground for individual training. It is intended to test your adaptability under continuous, high-intensity confrontation."

As she said this, Xue Liushuang suddenly took half a step forward, her ice-blue eyes locking directly onto Shen Nanxun's. "Before the ranking competition begins, tomorrow, at the Mimicry Cultivation Ground. Don't forget the battle you and I agreed upon."

The girl's obsession with swordsmanship was almost like Ye Xinglan's. It seemed that all sword-wielding soul masters in the world were exceptionally serious about this path. Twenty thousand years ago, there was the Sword Douluo Chen Xin; ten thousand years ago, during the era of the Spirit Ice Douluo, there was the sword fanatic Ji Juechen; and in this current era, the sword-type martial souls he encountered were Xue Liushuang and Ye Xinglan.

Was the path of the sword truly so captivating?

Xue Liushuang's silhouette vanished at the end of the tree-lined path, and Dong Lintian took the opportunity to slip away as well.

On the way back, Ye Xi and Dong Yi'an walked in front, discussing something animatedly—likely about which time slots were the least crowded at the Mimicry Cultivation Ground.

Na'er followed behind Shen Nanxun, her cowlick nearly poking his back several times because she was walking with her head down, earnestly using her fingers to measure his shoulder width and waist circumference.

"What are you doing?" Shen Nanxun asked without looking back.

"Taking measurements," Na'er replied righteously. "For the Battle Armor design."

"Are you sure you aren't thinking about how to make me taste good?"

"I am not!" The girl sounded indignant at being exposed.

Just as the four of them reached the main gate of the academy, Shen Nanxun suddenly stopped. Na'er couldn't stop in time, and her cowlick poked him firmly in the back. She peeked out from behind him, and then her cowlick stiffened as well.

There, standing by the stone pillar of the academy gate, were two people. The one on the left wore a pink hoodie, clutching a backpack weighed down by a Star Wheel Ice Staff, and was waving at them with bright, ice-blue eyes:

"Na'er! Shen Nanxun!"