After Tang Hao disappeared, the little grove fell silent once more.
Zhao Wuji struggled to roll over. Looking at Flender beside him, he cursed indistinctly.
"Flender, you bastard! This is all your fault. You got me beaten half to death for no reason!"
Flender's face was swollen like a pig's, and he looked ready to cry.
"How was I supposed to know he was the Clear Sky Douluo? What Titled Douluo goes around dressed like a bandit in a ragged cloak in the middle of the night? Damn it, how am I supposed to show my face tomorrow?"
That bastard Yu Xiaogang had actually kept it from them that Tang San's father was Tang Hao!
Flender fired back without hesitation.
"What do you mean, it's my fault? If you hadn't come along to watch the show, would you have gotten beaten like this?"
They stared each other down, silently cursing Tang Hao's ancestors for eighteen generations.
They even dragged Tang San into it.
"That kid's definitely a walking jinx!"
Zhao Wuji lamented bitterly, "His master's been turned into a eunuch because of him, and his dad beat the two of us until we looked like pigs' heads."
"Shut it, Old Zhao." Flender hurriedly cut off Zhao Wuji's grumbling.
That big mouth of his—he'd just been beaten and still hadn't learned his lesson.
What if Tang Hao was still nearby? Wouldn't they be in for it then?
Flender sighed, clutching his lower back as he struggled to get up. "Stop howling and save your strength. Help me back."
Zhao Wuji rolled his eyes. "Why do I have to help you? Why don't you help me?"
"Obviously, because I'm the dean! Want me to dock your pay?"
"What else can you do besides dock people's pay?"
Supporting each other, they staggered to their feet.
Zhao Wuji suggested, "Should we go ask Shao Xin for some Sugar Beans to treat ourselves? I'm afraid we'll scare the students to death if we look like this tomorrow."
"Like hell we will!" Flender glared at him, then sucked in a sharp breath as the movement tugged at his wounds. "If we go, where will that leave my dignity as the dean?"
Zhao Wuji wasn't having it. He held out his hand. "Fine, we can tough it out, but this'll cost you at least a hundred Gold Soul Coins."
"Emotional distress, lost wages, medical expenses. If you're short by even one coin, you'll have me to answer to."
Flender panicked at the mention of money. "Are you robbing me? A hundred Gold Soul Coins? Why not sell me while you're at it? One coin at most. Take it or leave it!"
"One coin? You think I'm a beggar? Two!"
"Deal!"
The moonlight stretched their shadows long across the ground.
The two lifelong bachelors, over a hundred years old between them, limped back to the dorms with their tails between their legs.
The next day.
The sun rose as usual, but the training grounds at Shrek Academy were eerily quiet.
Yu Xiaogang was laid up, while Flender and Zhao Wuji had both called in sick. They hid in their rooms and refused to show their faces.
Oscar and Ma Hongjun could only train by themselves.
Tang San jolted awake in his dormitory.
The High-Level Bad Luck Talisman had worn off.
He felt the lump on the back of his head, then pulled out a few remaining poison needles from his butt. His head was still buzzing.
Then the memories of yesterday came rushing back like a tide.
First, he'd accidentally triggered a hidden weapon. Then he'd stepped on a banana peel. After that, Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track had turned into a Thomas Flair with one foot stepping on the other.
Finally, in an extraordinarily textbook-perfect slide, he'd rammed the Hidden Weapon Box straight into Yu Xiaogang's lower regions.
The whole combo had gone so smoothly it made his scalp crawl.
Every moment was like a resounding slap, smacking "Pure and Spotless Tang the Third" hard across the face!
No, I have to explain everything to Master!
Tang San scrambled out of bed and made a beeline for Yu Xiaogang's dormitory.
He pushed the door open, and a pungent medicinal smell hit him in the face.
Yu Xiaogang lay flat on a wooden bed, his lower half wrapped in thick white bandages. He looked like an unearthed pharaoh.
At the sound of the door opening, Yu Xiaogang opened his eyes.
The instant he saw Tang San, he could barely contain the hatred in his eyes.
He hated this!
He'd only had half left to begin with, but at least it had given him something to hold on to.
Then this ungrateful disciple had pulled off an absurd slide and crushed what remained!
In his mind, he'd hacked Tang San to pieces ten thousand times over.
But he couldn't turn against him.
If the kid's father weren't Tang Hao, if he weren't the wielder of Twin Martial Souls and had Innate Full Soul Power, if he weren't Yu Xiaogang's only lifeline and proof that he wasn't a useless failure—
If not for all those reasons, Yu Xiaogang would've nearly summoned Luo Sanpao to fart Tang San to death.
Deep breath.
Another deep breath.
Yu Xiaogang forcibly suppressed the urge to kill Tang San and struggled to squeeze out a kindly expression.
But against his deathly pale face, the smile looked worse than a grimace.
In his hoarse, ducklike voice, he weakly said, "You're here, Xiao San."
Overcome with shame, Tang San kept his head down and didn't dare look at Yu Xiaogang.
He opened his mouth, but didn't know how to explain himself.
Say his hand had slipped? Say he'd stepped on a banana peel? Even he found it completely absurd, let alone his master.
"Thump!"
Tang San's knees buckled, and he dropped heavily to his knees beside the bed.
"Master, I—I'm so sorry!" Tang San's eyes reddened, and his voice choked with emotion.
At the sound of him hitting the floor, Yu Xiaogang shuddered from head to toe. A jolt of pain shot from his lower half straight to his brain.
You ungrateful disciple, you're kneeling again?
Yesterday, you nearly sent me to my grave with a kneel just like that!
Yu Xiaogang clenched his back teeth and forced himself to put on the air of an unflappable sage. "Get up, Xiao San. I... don't blame you."
Tang San jerked his head up, his face full of shock.
"Master."
Yu Xiaogang closed his eyes and gazed up at the ceiling at a forty-five-degree angle. His voice held three parts sorrow and seven parts carefree resignation. "That half of me was already gone anyway. It would've just been dead weight."
Tang San's heart twisted in anguish. Guilt threatened to drown him.
Twice now, he'd been the one responsible for his master's lower regions.
"Besides, Xiao San, I believe you didn't do it on purpose," Yu Xiaogang continued. "Xiao San, the flesh is nothing but shackles that hold back the truth. What you did has actually severed my last worldly attachment."
"From now on, I'll become a pure Master of Theory!"
Tang San stared at him, dumbfounded.
What a magnanimous heart! What a lofty realm!
He'd committed such a terrible blunder, yet his master hadn't blamed him. Instead, he'd gained a new understanding of the truth!
Tang San was utterly brainwashed by that shameless, magnificent light.
"Master, I swear that I'll care for you in your old age and see you to your grave! If I break this oath, may heaven strike me down, and may I never know peace in this life or the next!"
Tang San raised three fingers and spoke each word with ringing conviction.
As he spoke, a few tears welled in the corners of his eyes.
Yu Xiaogang had wanted to raise his hand and show a little affection between master and disciple.
But as soon as he lifted it, the movement tugged at his injuries, sending a piercing, bone-deep pain through his crotch. Cold sweat sprang out all over him.
All he could do was let out a long sigh, his voice heavy with the weariness and resignation of a man who'd weathered countless trials.
"Xiao San, don't cry."
"This pain in my broken body is nothing but a little frost and wind."
At those words, the atmosphere in the room instantly turned solemn.
Tang San could no longer hold back. He threw himself against the side of the bed and burst into loud sobs.
Yu Xiaogang reached out with a bony hand and gently patted Tang San on the back.
Master and disciple: one bawled his eyes out while the other grimaced in pain.