Where There Is Light, There Are Shadows; Where There Is No Light, There Is Only Darkness

In the end, Yu Xiaogang refused Chen Hong's offer. It was surprising, yet somehow perfectly natural.

"When we were young, we had many disagreements. Of course, time ultimately proved that I was almost entirely wrong." A faint smile appeared on the white-haired old man's lips as traces of reminiscence surfaced in his clouded eyes.

"There were many things I did not know. For example, the former Pope of Spirit Hall—someone occupied Spirit Hall and emptied it of everything, including many of its books." Chen Hong had previously sorted through Spirit Hall's collection, storing all the data within the Technology Federation's Mental Network. During the great evacuation, no one had wasted time transporting those paper books.

"Those books eventually made their way into Shrek Academy through various channels." Although Shrek had now become Shrek Academy, Yu Xiaogang still seemed to prefer calling it Shrek Academy.

"Some of them contained secret accounts. Combined with what I saw later and the growth of my mentality, they gradually helped me understand what I had once failed to understand."

A faint sigh appeared on Yu Xiaogang's aged face. He did not regret it, because Chen Hong himself had once said that the world was constantly developing and changing. Those who came later were not necessarily inferior to those who came before. Although Chen Hong had written those words to give the then-struggling Soul Tool industry more confidence, they remained applicable in other respects.

When Yu Xiaogang reminisced about those youthful years, he was not longing for Bibi Dong. He was longing for his own young, ignorant self.

"Ever since I followed Shrek Academy away from Suotuo City to seek development elsewhere, I seemed to have always harbored a youthful impulse—to escape your shadow and prove to the entire world that, even without you, I could