I Am Not Ye Qiong, I Am Aha.

Seeing someone move against Tang San, Dugu Bo let out an angry roar.

Distracted, he was struck by a dragon's tail and sent flying backward.

At the same time, Xiao Gang and the other two also spotted Ye Qiong.

"It's you! Ye Qiong, the Dean of Omphalos!"

Ye Qiong curled his lip. "Nonsense, my name is Aha, not Ye Qiong."

Flender was furious.

"Bullshit!"

"Do you think we're blind? We haven't seen you before?"

Seeing this, Ye Qiong knew how ridiculous his excuse was.

However, as a Pathfinder.

He had long since mastered the quality of keeping a straight face without a racing heart.

Thus, he said no more, took a step forward, and his seventh soul ring lit up.

Then, a massive baseball bat smashed down toward both sides.

Dugu Bo, Xiao Gang, and the others immediately exerted all their strength, trying to resist.

But the baseball bat was incomparably hard, directly shattering Dugu Bo's true form and Xiao Gang's Golden Sacred Dragon.

Then, Ye Qiong heard a loud boom.

The ground was instantly smashed into a massive crater.

"Hiss, I don't think I held back enough strength."

He wondered if Xiao Gang had been crushed to death by him.

He should go down and take a look.

Ye Qiong immediately retracted the baseball bat and leaned over the edge of the pit to peek. Seeing that Xiao Gang and the others had only fainted, he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Quite durable."

No sooner had he spoken than Ye Qiong heard a system notification sound.

[Mission complete, reward of 3000 Star Jade has been issued.]

[Current Star Jade balance: 4440]

Seeing the balance, Ye Qiong couldn't help but smile.

He was almost at another fifty pulls.

He would pull for cards in two days!

Long after Ye Qiong left, time passed in that place.

Dugu Bo woke up, propped himself up, and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.

He felt as if every bone in his body was rattling.

His poison was rampaging through his body, and he had little soul power left.

He glanced at the unconscious Tang San on the ground, knowing clearly that in his current state, even if Tang San woke up, a single finger could take his life.

Thinking of this, Dugu Bo took a deep breath and secretly made a decision in his heart.

Just then, Tang San slowly regained consciousness.

At this moment, he felt his head buzzing.

But he vaguely remembered that he had been detoxifying when the back of his head was struck by something; he hadn't seen what it was.

He raised his head and saw the crushed medicinal herbs all over the ground, his pupils shrinking sharply.

"Who was it!"

Dugu Bo sat on a nearby rock, his expression equally grim.

"That person, Ye Qiong."

Ye Qiong?

The Dean of Omphalos?

Was it him who knocked him unconscious?

Tang San's expression immediately turned grave.

He had no grievances with this Ye Qiong; why would he target him?

Tang San suddenly spoke up.

"Senior Dugu."

Tang San looked directly at Dugu Bo, who was looking back at him.

"He destroyed one of your precious sites and ruined my opportunity; we share the same enemy."

Dugu Bo remained silent for a moment, his voice raspy: "What are you trying to say?"

"Instead of fighting separately, we should stand together."

Tang San's tone was calm, yet carried a heavy, ruthless edge:

"He has the entire Omphalos Academy, and we have nothing, but as long as we unite, there will always be a way."

Dugu Bo looked into Tang San's eyes.

After a long while, he sighed helplessly:

"...Very well."

Following this, Dugu Bo became a nominal consultant for Shrek Academy.

As for Ye Qiong, from that day on, he was placed on Shrek Academy's blacklist, and his Omphalos Academy was officially designated by Flender as a formidable rival on the path to his own academy's success.

Ye Qiong was completely unaware of this, but even if he had known, he wouldn't have cared.

Little Shrek? How laughable.

Ye Qiong's goal was naturally to develop his academy, strengthen his own power, and make the most thorough preparations for the impending Iron Curtain crisis.

Thus, as soon as he returned to the academy, Ye Qiong dove into the Simulation Realm.

The Simulation Realm could customize environments based on the individual, and once Ye Qiong entered, the realm automatically generated a ferocious beast of over two hundred thousand years for him.

Seeing this beast, a look of excitement appeared on Ye Qiong's face.

"Impressive, to think it could even simulate such an existence. Now I can have a real fight."

With that, Ye Qiong clashed with the beast.

Heaven Dou City, at the gates of Shrek Academy.

Ning Fengzhi, Chen Xin, and Gu Rong stood beside their carriage, while Ning Rongrong hung her head as she saw them off.

Ning Fengzhi was silent for a moment before speaking:

"Rongrong, the marriage with Ye Qiong has been called off."

Ning Rongrong jerked her head up. She had thought she would be happy to hear this news, but the moment she actually heard it, an indescribable sense of stuffiness welled up in her heart.

She opened her mouth, and it took her a long time to squeeze out a sentence:

"Did he propose it?"

Ning Fengzhi nodded:

"He was the one who proposed it."

Ning Rongrong gripped her sleeves tightly:

"...When did this happen?"

"Just these past few days. He told me himself."

Ning Rongrong didn't respond. She had thought she would jump for joy, but at this moment, her feet felt as if they were nailed to the ground, unable to move.

Her gaze involuntarily swept across her father's face, then across the faces of Chen Xin and Gu Rong.

The three of them looked at her with calm, silent eyes, even carrying a hint of distance she had never seen before; there was none of the usual doting.

In that instant, it felt as if something had slammed hard into Ning Rongrong's chest.

She suddenly wondered if she had truly done something wrong.

But this thought lasted only for a moment.

She shook her head fiercely in her heart.

She wasn't wrong!

She just didn't want a life that was arranged for her; she just wanted to live like a free bird. What was wrong with that?

Just then, the sound of hurried footsteps came from the distance.

Ning Rongrong looked up and saw Flender stumbling in from outside the gate, supporting Tang San.

Tang San's robes were mostly shredded, there were several charred burn marks on his chest, and a streak of dried blood hung from the corner of his mouth.

Seeing this, Xiao Wu was the first to rush over:

"Brother! What happened to you!"

Tang San waved his hand, his voice raspy:

"It's nothing..."

Flender helped him sit against the wall, his face full of fury:

"It was Ye Qiong! That Omphalos dean, Ye Qiong!"

Ning Rongrong's fingers tightened abruptly.

Ye Qiong again?

Tang San looked up at her, and seeing the look on her face, asked in a low voice:

"Rongrong, what's wrong?"

Ning Rongrong was silent for a moment before saying in an extremely soft voice:

"Ye Qiong has called off our engagement."

The courtyard fell silent all at once.

Xiao Wu was stunned, and Tang San's brows knitted together.

Ning Rongrong took a deep breath and briefly explained the matter of the engagement and its annulment.

"It's better that he called it off,"

Ning Rongrong bit her lip, "I didn't want to marry him anyway."

The courtyard remained silent for a while longer until Tang San braced himself against the wall and stood up:

"Then we must become even stronger. If you aren't strong enough, you won't even have the right to speak in front of him."

He looked at Flender, then at Xiao Wu and Ning Rongrong:

"However, he came to steal my opportunities, injured our people, and humiliated Rongrong. This grudge cannot go unavenged."

Flender nodded with a dark expression:

"Indeed, I don't like the look of him either. Let us join forces with Dugu Bo, the Dragon Duke, and the others to prepare for the tournament."

Xiao Wu gripped Tang San's hand tightly:

"Brother is right, we must not lose to them."

Seeing the determined expressions on everyone's faces, the stifling feeling in Ning Rongrong's heart finally began to dissipate.

She nodded, a hint of ruthlessness appearing in her eyes:

"Then let's give it our all."

Ye Qiong... just you wait.