The Only Mixed-Gender Dorm, Huh?

Huo Yuhao carefully looked at his eldest senior brother, whose face was covered in gloom and had lost its usual gentleness, and said, "Um, Eldest Senior Brother, do you want me to make you a grilled fish that's green from the inside out..."

It would have been better if he had not said it. The moment he did, Beibei felt even worse, his face turning from white to blue, so miserable he nearly spat out a mouthful of old blood.

But when he looked at the ignorant, innocent little junior brother before him, Beibei sighed helplessly. "Little Junior Brother, is that grilled fish of yours even proper? What kind of grilled fish is green from the inside out..."

After a brief moment of thought, Huo Yuhao said, "Seasoning water made from green leaves should be able to do it."

"Uh..." Beibei was instantly left speechless. No matter how he thought about it, that was obviously impossible!

"All right, Little Junior Brother, go play nearby for a while." Beibei waved his hand and sent Huo Yuhao away.

He took a deep breath, then turned to look at Tang Ya, who was in intimate contact with Zhuang Minghui.

He coughed once. Tang Ya did not react at all. He coughed several more times in a row, but Tang Ya still did not react at all.

This felt wrong. This felt very wrong!

Out of politeness, Zhuang Minghui spoke up to remind her, "Tang Ya, your boyfriend seems to be getting a little impatient."

"Huh?" Zhuang Minghui's words pulled Tang Ya back to reality.

Only then did she realize she had made such an outrageous move. A blush tinged her pretty face, but she said stubbornly, "I was only thanking you for helping me hunt my soul ring."

"Right, exactly, that's all it was!"

Having found a reason, Tang Ya reluctantly moved away, then went sweetly to Beibei's side.

Looking at Tang Ya as she returned to his side, Beibei wanted to say something, but Tang Ya glared it back with a single look.

That look seemed to say, Don't meddle in a beautiful girl's business!

Zhuang Minghui smiled and shook his head, then spoke at just the right time to break the subtle, awkward atmosphere. "Let's head back to Shrek."

Beibei, Tang Ya, and Huo Yuhao responded, "Okay."

Just as Tang Ya was about to walk ahead to look for Zhuang Minghui, Beibei grabbed her arm. She looked at Beibei in confusion.

Beibei said in a solemn, low voice, "Xiao Ya, you should control yourself. Zhuang Minghui isn't a good person. Don't be fooled by the way he looks."

Hearing this, the smile on Tang Ya's face vanished instantly, replaced by utter irritation.

"Beibei, aren't you going a little too far?" Tang Ya flung his hand away, her delicate brows standing on end. "Ever since we met Zhuang Minghui, you've been saying bad things about him, intentionally or not. I was only thanking him just now. He's a healing-type soul master, yet in order to help me hunt my soul ring, he stood in front of a thousand-year soul beast. How much courage does that take?"

"You should be a little more magnanimous, Beibei. Don't think of everyone so badly, all right?"

The more Tang Ya spoke, the angrier she became. In the end, she simply crossed her arms over her chest and gave a light snort. "Besides, it's not all my fault. Who told you not to train yourself a set of eight-pack abs? If you had them, would I have gone and touched someone else's? And if you had hunted down the Datura Snake the first time, none of this would have happened, would it?"

After that round of scolding, Tang Ya directly dumped all the blame onto Beibei.

"I..." No matter how Beibei thought about it, he could not understand how he had become the bad guy in Tang Ya's eyes.

After lecturing Beibei, Tang Ya walked to Zhuang Minghui's side.

Zhuang Minghui heard every word of this, and all he could say was that it fit Tang Ya's frank, lively, and willful personality very well.

The two of them could be said to be birds of a feather.

If you said Beibei cared about Tang Ya, then he truly did care about her, and his feelings for Tang Ya were real.

But if you said he did not care enough about Tang Ya, that was also true. He clearly knew that Tang Ya had gone back to the Heaven Dou Empire to avenge the Tang Sect, and when Tang Ya refused to let anyone follow her, Beibei truly did not follow her.

He had not even hired a few powerful soul masters to track her and secretly protect her.

The two of them completely ignored Beibei and Huo Yuhao behind them, exchanging their own experiences with each other.

Along the way, Zhuang Minghui and Tang Ya walked at the very front, talking about the things they had experienced, while Beibei and Huo Yuhao followed behind, with Beibei teaching him the Tang Sect's techniques.

The eastern gate of Shrek City.

Zhuang Minghui, Tang Ya, Beibei, and Huo Yuhao walked side by side through the bustling, noisy streets of Shrek.

Tang Ya pursed her lips, undisguised disappointment in her eyes as she looked at Zhuang Minghui again. "Are you really not joining the Tang Sect?"

Zhuang Minghui shook his head and politely declined. "Mm, I won't join for now. My grandfather said that before I turn eighteen, he doesn't want me joining any sect."

"There's only one thing he wants me to do: cultivate, cultivate, and cultivate some more."

"This... All right." Since it was a request from the other party's elder, Tang Ya naturally could not say anything more.

The time they had spent together along the way had been an ease and joy she had never experienced before, even happier than when she was with Beibei.

The life aura on Zhuang Minghui not only made her Blue Silver Grass martial soul unprecedentedly active, even the speed at which her soul power improved had risen a little.

More importantly, in front of Zhuang Minghui, she did not need to put on the airs of a sect master, nor did she need to worry about the Tang Sect's future. That feeling was as if her whole body had sunk into a warm, pleasant Blue Silver Forest, carefree and without worry.

Glancing at the enormous Shrek Academy before him, Zhuang Minghui stopped and said, "Senior Sister Xiao Ya, Great Thunder Beibei, you guys take Huo Yuhao around and help him get familiar with the academy first. I'll head back to the dorm."

Beibei was so angry at Zhuang Minghui's strange form of address that he gritted his teeth and said, "You called Xiao Ya Senior Sister, so why won't you call me Senior Brother Beibei? And don't give me these weird nicknames!"

Zhuang Minghui chuckled and patted Beibei on the shoulder. "What's the relationship between us? You should be glad I didn't call you son."

Without waiting for Beibei to flare up, Zhuang Minghui waved his hand in carefree fashion, turned around, and strode toward the interior of the academy.

Back when he had headed to the Star Dou Great Forest to obtain his soul ring, his grandfather had already signed him up.

Things like the dormitory key were all in his storage soul tool.

Tang Ya waved at Zhuang Minghui, watching his departing back as she said, "Bye-bye."

"Hurry up and go, hurry up and go." Seeing that Zhuang Minghui was finally about to leave, Beibei was over the moon.

That kid had finally left.

Huo Yuhao watched the direction Zhuang Minghui had gone in, unable to figure it out. He still couldn't figure it out. Why didn't he need to complete registration before he could slip in?

Even if he was an eleven-year-old Soul Ancestor, there should at least be some kind of process, right?

After saying goodbye to Tang Ya and the others, Zhuang Minghui arrived in front of the white dormitory building.

At the entrance of the white dormitory building sat an extremely old-looking man. The old man wore gray cloth robes, and the wrinkles on his face were deep enough to trap more than ten flies at once. His eyes were dim, his lids drooping, giving him the appearance of someone on his last legs.

Zhuang Minghui strode up to the old man and said with a gentle, respectful expression, "Elder Mu, I'm back."

Elder Mu, who had been resting with his eyes closed, slowly lifted his eyelids. A faint, warm smile flashed through his cloudy gaze, and his voice was hoarse. "I've already heard from your grandfather. Very impressive. As expected of the monster I'm raising to become the master of Sea God Pavilion."

Hearing this, a confident smile with a hint of smugness immediately appeared on Zhuang Minghui's face. "Of course. Elder Mu's judgment has never been wrong."

"By the way, Elder Mu, could you maybe give me a little hint about my roommate?"

A meaningful smile suddenly appeared on Elder Mu's weathered face as he said, "The boys' dormitory is already full, so you've been assigned to the girls' dormitory. That makes your dorm the only mixed-gender room in all of Shrek."