Refugee Camp? Or a Scam Ring?

Outside Suotuo City, in a remote village in the Balak Kingdom.

The morning sun filtered through the leaves, but it couldn't brighten the squalor of this run-down village.

The air was thick with the smell of dirt and money.

"This is it?"

Xiao Wu lifted the carriage curtain and looked at the crude wooden archway before them, along with the plaque above it that looked ready to fall and crush someone to death:

Shrek Academy. Her whole face scrunched up like a steamed bun.

"Brother Su Yun, are you sure this is an academy? It's not even as good as the latrine at Notting Junior Spirit Master Academy!"

Zhu Zhuqing sat in the corner. She didn't say anything, but the disdain in her eyes was plain as day.

Was this the "academy that only accepted monsters" Dai Mubai had bragged about?

Was this the place he'd stayed, even at the cost of abandoning his fiancée?

If it weren't for Su Yun, she might really have forced herself to join this place, only to waste her youth wallowing in this cesspool.

At the thought, her gaze softened a little as she looked at Su Yun.

Thank goodness she'd met him.

Su Yun leisurely closed the Diary in his hand, the corner of his mouth curling into a mocking smile.

[Month X, day X, sunny.]

[Checked in at Shrek Academy.]

[I have to say, seeing it for yourself beats hearing about it a hundred times. What kind of academy is this? It's a refugee camp!]

[That old miser Flender is so stingy he could wring a flower out of a penny. He even charges ten Gold Soul Coins just to register, and doesn't refund them?]

[This isn't recruiting students. It's outright robbery! Confirmed: a scam ring!]

[If I hadn't come, Tang San and Yu Xiaogang would've been singing its praises to the heavens. But now...]

[That Little Demoness Ning Rongrong from the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect should be here by now, right?]

[Tsk, tsk. Making a little rich girl worth a fortune live in a pigsty like this. She really has it rough.]

[Come on, let's take these country bumpkins out to see the world!]

"Get down."

Su Yun twirled his folding fan and leaped out of the carriage first.

Dressed in fine silks, with a jade pendant at his waist, he radiated wealth and nobility from head to toe—a stark contrast to this impoverished backwater.

Charm Aura: MAX—activated!

At once, the hundred or so commoners and parents waiting in line at the village entrance all turned to look.

The noisy scene fell silent for a brief moment.

"My goodness! Who's that young master? He's so handsome!"

"Is he the son of some great noble?"

"And the two girls with him are so pretty!"

Ignoring the murmurs around him, Su Yun walked straight to the front of the line. He looked at the old man named Li Yusong, seated behind a battered table and counting Gold Soul Coins, and laughed aloud.

"Ten Gold Soul Coins to register, and no refunds if you're rejected?"

"Sir, you've got quite a racket going here."

"Faster money than robbery."

Li Yusong, who was in charge of admissions, furrowed his brow. The aura of a sixty-third-level Soul Emperor stirred around him.

"Young man, this is Shrek Academy. We only accept monsters, not nonsense. If you're here to cause trouble, you'd better know your place."

"Besides, we're like Jiang Taigong fishing—those who are willing take the bait."

"Monsters?"

Su Yun snapped his folding fan shut and pointed at the row of ramshackle thatched huts, raising his voice.

"You live in dangerous shacks, eat husks and weeds, have no Mimicry Cultivation Environment, and can't even boast a proper training ground."

"You lure in geniuses just to make them learn how to save money from a bunch of old bachelors in this broken village?"

"That's not cultivating monsters. That's ruining people without ever tiring of it!"

"You!" Li Yusong shot to his feet, fury burning in his eyes.

That brat's every word had hit home, tearing away their last scrap of cover!

Just as the two sides were poised to clash and the crowd erupted in an uproar,

a girl halfway down the line, dressed as exquisitely as a porcelain doll, spun around.

She had neat, short hair, skin as white as snow, and a costly sky-blue dress.

She was Ning Rongrong, the little princess of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.

She'd already been in a foul mood.

She'd run away from home in such a hurry that, although she'd brought plenty of money, there was nowhere to spend it in this dump.

And this academy looked a hundred times worse than the Diary had described!

Just as she was wondering whether to turn back, the voice she hated enough to make her teeth itch rang out!

"Su Yun?!"

Ning Rongrong's eyes flew wide. She recognized at once the bastard from the Diary's descriptions: "self-obsessed, sharp-tongued, and planning to build a fish pond"!

And when she saw Xiao Wu (Rabbit) and Zhu Zhuqing (the curvy cat) indeed trailing along beside him, old and new grudges surged through her all at once.

"Well, well! You really dared to show your face!"

"Scumbag! Womanizer! Pervert!"

Ning Rongrong charged out of the line like a kitten with its fur standing on end, claws bared as she pounced at Su Yun.

"Su Yun! You finally showed up!"

"How dare you write in the Diary... No, how dare you call me a Witch?!"

"And say I barely made it into your fish pond?!"

"I'm going to bite you to death today!"

Everyone around them stared, dumbfounded.

What was going on?

A romantic dispute?

Had this noble young master toyed with a girl and tossed her aside, and now she'd come looking for him?

Su Yun didn't dodge as Ning Rongrong charged at him.

He simply smiled and, just as she was about to crash into him, calmly raised one finger and pressed it against her smooth forehead.

"Ow!"

Ning Rongrong windmilled both arms in the air, but her arms were too short—and her forehead was being held back—so she couldn't reach Su Yun at all.

The scene was downright comical.

"Let go of me! Let go!"

Ning Rongrong's face flushed red with anger, and her big eyes brimmed with tears.

"You've got the nerve to write... You've got the nerve to say it, but you don't have the nerve to keep your hands to yourself!"

Looking at the tiny girl before him, all claws and fury, Su Yun was thoroughly pleased with his mischievous little joke.

Sure enough, she was the Little Demoness of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect. What a temper.

But now, he was the "Diary's author," and she was the "peeping viewer." He had the upper hand.

"Miss."

Su Yun looked at her with an innocent expression, a hint of amusement in his voice.

"Do we know each other?"

"You're trying to bite me to death the moment you see me. Are girls these days all so... wild?"

"I may be handsome, but I'm a respectable man. I don't accept this sort of throwing-yourself-at-me."

"You!"

Ning Rongrong nearly choked.

Keep pretending! Go on, keep pretending!

He'd analyzed her down to her underwear in the Diary, and now he was acting like a stranger?

"Who's throwing herself at you? I came to settle a score!"

"Who did you call a Witch? Who did you call a flower growing out of cow dung?!"

"Oh—"

Su Yun put on a show of sudden realization, withdrew his finger, then casually pinched Ning Rongrong's smooth, delicate cheek.

"So you're Eldest Miss Ning from the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect."

"What, was I wrong?"

"Look at you, all ready to eat someone alive. If you're not a Little Demoness, what are you?"

"But..."

Su Yun leaned close to her ear and murmured in a voice only the two of them could hear.

"Your skin really is so fair, and it feels nice to the touch. The Diary wasn't wrong—you're a rare beauty."

Boom!

Ning Rongrong felt a rush of heat shoot from her ears straight to the crown of her head.

He admitted it!

He was teasing her to her face!

And... under the influence of the Charm Aura, she actually thought the bastard smelled kind of nice when he leaned in just now?

"Ahhh! I can't live anymore! I'm going to fight you to the death!"

Just as Ning Rongrong was about to summon her Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda and smash him with it, Su Yun suddenly wiped the smile from his face and grabbed her wrist.

"Enough. Stop making a scene."

"Since you're here, come along."

"You want to see for yourself what this so-called Monster Academy is really like, don't you?"

Ning Rongrong struggled, but couldn't break free.

She looked into Su Yun's eyes, suddenly deep and unreadable, and for some reason half her anger faded.

"Hmph! Who said I wanted to come with you?"

She said that, but her body was honest: she stopped struggling.

Mostly, she wanted to see what Su Yun was capable of, since he'd been so brazen in the Diary!

Su Yun let go and turned toward Li Yusong, who was still staring in stunned silence, and several figures approaching from nearby after hearing the commotion.

One was Flender, wearing glasses and looking like a shrewd merchant.

One was Yu Xiaogang, his face full of bitterness and grief, looking like a grandmaster but sounding more like a damp master.

And then there was Tang San, carrying a tattered bundle and wearing a gloomy expression.

They were all here.

Su Yun twirled his folding fan, Xiao Wu's hand in his left, Zhu Zhuqing following behind him, and Ning Rongrong standing at his side, cheeks puffed in anger.

He looked at the people of Shrek Academy, the corner of his mouth curling into a kindly smile.

"Good morning, everyone."

"My name is Su Yun, and I'm here to challenge your academy."

"Oh, no. I'm here to teach you how to behave!"