Ball Hog? Break Up!

Before the Lake of Life, Zi Ji knelt on one knee.

She held several neatly folded garments in her hands, her head lowered as she raised them above her head with both hands.

"My lord, these are the things you requested."

A flash of silver light streaked past, and a silver figure emerged from the lake. Water droplets slid down her silver-white hair, flowed along her collarbones, and trickled back into the lake, making her look exceptionally alluring.

She took the garments and examined them one by one.

Black stockings, white stockings, flesh-colored stockings.

Fishnet stockings.

There was also a small white shirt, cut very short at the waist. Wearing it would probably reveal just a sliver of midriff.

The silver figure lifted the black stockings and studied them in the lake's reflection for two seconds, one brow rising slightly.

Zi Ji still had her head lowered, but her lips moved as if she wanted to speak yet hesitated.

"Speak."

"This subordinate does not understand." Zi Ji raised her head, the confusion on her face entirely genuine. "These things were specially bought from a human city. But this subordinate does not understand—why does my lord want them?"

The silver figure did not answer. She merely unfolded the cropped shirt, held it against herself for comparison, then folded it back up and placed it on a bluestone by the lake.

"You may leave."

Zi Ji naturally did not dare ask further. After bowing, her figure vanished into the forest.

She was the only one left by the lake.

Moonlight filtered through the gaps in the leaves, falling upon the garments and making the white stockings appear almost transparent.

The silver figure looked down at those clothes, and the corners of her lips slowly curled upward.

"You said I had no sense of romance?"

She twirled the black stockings around her fingertip and gave a soft snort.

"Today, I'll make sure you can't get out of bed for three days and three nights."

The moment her words fell, the moonlight vanished.

The colors of the entire world darkened. The green of the leaves, the blue of the lake, the black of the stockings on her fingertip—all faded into nothingness.

The atmosphere suddenly turned heavy, as though some invisible force had descended.

Then, a man's voice rang out.

An utterly heartless voice surged in from all directions.

"Why did you come at me with a baby?"

"We're breaking up!"

Gu Yue abruptly opened her eyes.

Above her was the ceiling of the Donghai Academy dormitory. The curtains billowed slightly in the morning breeze, letting in a faint grayish light.

From the distant training grounds came the vague sound of morning drill whistles and Donghai Academy's distinctive chime.

Gu Yue lay on the bed, her silver eyes staring blankly at the ceiling without moving.

Her back was drenched in cold sweat.

Her heart pounded wildly.

She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, then opened them again.

"Just a dream."

But it was more than just a dream, because all of it had happened before.

Gu Yue's pupils suddenly contracted. Her originally normal eyes transformed into two narrow, icy dragon pupils.

Fine patterns filled her purple irises.

The temperature around her suddenly plummeted, and a faint pressure spread through the room.

She gritted her teeth tightly.

"Bastard. Scumbag!"

Her low, hoarse voice had completely lost its usual coolness.

"Despicable humans! Not a single one of them is any good!"

She had been fooled back then.

As the Silver Dragon King, ruler of the entire Star Dou Forest, she had been coaxed by that man under the pretense of using dual cultivation to heal her injuries.

He had deceived her feelings, then deceived her body!

A wave of frustration rose in Gu Yue's heart. As the proud Silver Dragon King, being willing to set aside the barriers between herself and another race to agree to dual cultivation had already been an enormous concession, yet that man had actually been unsatisfied.

Uncontrollably, a white cropped shirt and a pair of black stockings surfaced in her mind—images from last night's dream.

A sense of shame instantly swept through her entire body.

The intense killing intent almost took physical form.

If that person had been standing before her at that moment, she would have unleashed an elemental storm to tear him to pieces, then used icicles one by one to nail his shattered body throughout the forest, so that every soul beast would understand the consequences of provoking the Silver Dragon King.

But after a moment, she forcibly suppressed her anger.

It was not that she did not want to vent her fury. It was simply that person had already vanished ten thousand years ago. Pouring her emotions out on someone dead was like throwing punches at the air—no matter how furious she became, it was meaningless.

Her vertical pupils slowly faded, returning to ordinary black eyes.

"So he died long ago."

Gu Yue murmured softly.

When Di Tian had bluntly told her this before, she had been angry. In truth, she had vaguely guessed the truth long ago, but she had deliberately avoided it, unwilling to accept it from the bottom of her heart.

Logically speaking, with that scumbag dead, she should have felt satisfied.

Yet she felt no pleasure at all. All that remained was a hollow sense of melancholy, as if her chest had been emptied out and cold wind kept blowing into it.

She actually did not want him to be dead.

Even she found it absurd.

He had deceived her, abandoned her, and trampled wantonly on her pride. She should have been glad for it.

But compared to a dead old acquaintance, she would rather he were still alive. Even if he still wandered everywhere, provoking other people, at least she would be able to find him, question him face-to-face, and take brutal revenge.

Wasn't he unwilling to do it eight times a night?

Then she would double it.

She would drain him dry!

Gu Yue closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

A figure emerged in her mind. Though the face was clearly different, the two figures overlapped in an eerily similar way. Golden hair, purple eyes, always wearing a carefree smile, with an especially eye-catching pink longsword in his hand. His name was Lin Xun.

Exactly the same as the person who had deceived her ten thousand years ago.

At first, she had treated it as nothing more than a coincidence. There were countless people on the continent with the same name. Besides, as Di Tian had said, no human could possess a lifespan of ten thousand years.

Perhaps he had long since dissipated into the river of time...

Gu Yue raised her eyes to look at her fingertips. A faint layer of silver dragon scales glimmered softly.

"Lin Xun."

When she spoke the name, her emotions were tangled and complicated.

But she always felt that this Lin Xun was not so simple.

After finishing Wu Changkong's special training that morning, there would still be a credit match in the afternoon.

Lin Xun had just returned to the dormitory and was preparing to cultivate in peace.

Mainly because nothing particularly special had happened lately. Progress with Gu Yue was slow, and it was much the same with the other female characters.

However, Haihai Xiaoxiaoyan's recent development had been rather promising. He was only one step away from obtaining the breakup points; then he could break up beautifully and leave with a million.

Yesterday's Mu Xi, however, had left him puzzled. Whether it was her suddenly changed attitude or the way she had instinctively pulled him aside to hide when they ran into Ouyang Zixin.

Everyone knew that people only made those sorts of moves when they felt guilty.

But what was Mu Xi feeling guilty about?

Could it be... that she liked him?

Only that reason could reasonably explain why she had been so guilty upon seeing the best friend of Lin Xun's ex-girlfriend.

But upon further thought, it did not seem very realistic.

Given what had happened between him and Ouyang Zixin, it was impossible for Mu Xi to have any favorable feelings toward him.

Something must have happened in between.

Just as he was thinking about it, the dormitory door was shoved open, slamming into the wall with a dull bang. Xie Xie rushed in, panting heavily, holding up a soul communicator with its screen still lit.

"Brother Xun! Something happened!" He thrust the communicator in front of Lin Xun. "Yun Xiao just called—Zhou Changxi has been blocked by someone!"

Lin Xun took the communicator. Yun Xiao's messages were still flashing across the screen. He skimmed through them and was somewhat surprised.

"Talk while we walk."

The two left the dormitory building. As they hurried along, Xie Xie explained everything from beginning to end.

It started with Zhou Changxi's side hustle. His family circumstances were ordinary, and his cultivation was always somewhat lacking. It seemed that something had happened at home recently as well. But he was glib and hardworking, so he had started an errand-running business at the academy.

Picking up meals, waiting in lines, ghostwriting homework, going outside the academy to buy things—he took any job, with clearly listed prices.

His business was not limited to the intermediate division. Senior students from the advanced division were also regular customers.

Last week, a senior from the advanced division—when Xie Xie mentioned this, his expression twisted slightly—named Zheng Tao.

He had asked Zhou Changxi to deliver something outside the academy. The address was a small hotel behind the school's rear gate. Zhou Changxi had not known what he was delivering at first, but upon arriving, he discovered it was a box of protection.

There had been nothing wrong with that in itself. An errand was an errand—what difference did it make what he delivered?

But while Zhou Changxi was waiting for the recipient at the entrance of the hotel, he saw Zheng Tao half-hugging, half-dragging a younger female student inside.

The girl's face was pale and her steps unsteady. She was clearly not in a normal state. She did not look drunk; it was more like she had been drugged.

Zhou Changxi usually looked simple and honest, but he had a stubborn streak in his bones. He immediately sensed that something was wrong. Without making a fuss, he pretended to leave after making his delivery, then circled around to the hotel's back entrance and stopped them before the girl was taken into a room.

Xie Xie did not know the exact details. He only knew that Zhou Changxi had ultimately escorted the girl back to her dormitory, completely ruining Zheng Tao's plans.

"After Zhou Changxi escorted that girl back, he didn't say a word about it to anyone because he was afraid of damaging her reputation."

At this point, Xie Xie could not help slapping the corridor wall. "But that bastard Zheng Tao turned around and twisted the story. He told everyone Zhou Changxi had stolen his money and that was why he scolded him, never mentioning the girl at all. These past few days, he's been ordering Zhou Changxi's errand service every other day, deliberately making difficult demands to boss him around.

"Today was even worse. He told him to buy thirty cups of milk tea from that place west of the city, specifically demanding a different flavor for every cup with no repeats. Zhou Changxi rode back and forth for over an hour to buy them, and Zheng Tao dumped all thirty cups onto the field right in front of him. He said the flavors were wrong and told him to go buy them again."

The two had already reached the edge of the sports field. From afar, they saw a crowd gathered beside the track, packed three layers deep.

Zhou Changxi's chubby figure was trapped in the middle. At his feet was a puddle of still-flowing milk tea, with colorful cups strewn all over the ground, tipped every which way. Straws and lids had rolled everywhere.

He lowered his head, seemingly at a loss.

Standing opposite him was a tall male student. He wore his senior division uniform open, exposing a gaudy T-shirt underneath, with a half-smile hanging on his lips.

Two or three lackeys stood behind him in relaxed postures, yet they had subtly blocked off all of Zhou Changxi's escape routes.

"You can't even buy milk tea properly, so what kind of errand business are you running?" Zheng Tao's voice was particularly cutting. "I ordered one flavor per cup. What the hell did you buy? What's the difference between red bean flavor and red bean milk tea? I wanted red bean flavor, not red bean milk tea. Don't you know the difference between braised beef noodles and braised beef flavor?

"You can't even tell that apart? Is your brain full of fat?"

A few people nearby joined in the laughter, but more simply watched, their faces carrying varying degrees of complicated expressions.

Zhou Changxi's face flushed scarlet. His lips trembled twice, and though he seemed to want to say something, he swallowed it back down. After all, if a serious conflict broke out, his errand-running business would be finished from then on.

He could not speak. He could only endure it.

"Why aren't you saying anything?" Zheng Tao stepped forward and looked down at Zhou Changxi. He pointed at the puddle of milk tea on the ground. "Get on your knees and lick all that clean, and I'll forgive you."

On Douluo Continent, no academy was as clean as people imagined it to be—unless one possessed exceptional talent and drew the attention of every side.

The world as a whole revered the law of the strong devouring the weak. Soul masters were taught from childhood that the strong controlled everything. After living in such an environment for so long, some people with more extreme dispositions naturally came to see strength as capital for oppressing others. Ordinary schools relied on morality and regulations for restraint, but the underlying logic of soul master academies leaned toward the law of the jungle. As such, some things were difficult to eradicate.

Lin Xun had little interest in such matters. With his experience and standing, he had already seen the very pinnacle of this continent.

To him, this was more like children playing house.

But no matter what, Zhou Changxi was his roommate. More importantly, whether in his previous life on Blue Star or now, he hated and despised this kind of bullying more than anything.

A scumbag was a scumbag, and a player was a player.

But he had, after all, received nine years of compulsory education. His values were perfectly normal.

He was not Buddha Tang, obsessed with purity and innocence. He was simply Lin Xun. Aside from breakup missions, which could be limited to himself, he did whatever he pleased in all other matters and followed his heart.

"Zhou Changxi, come here."

Zhou Changxi raised his head. After hesitating for a moment, he shuffled over to Lin Xun's side and said softly, "Brother Lin Xun..."

Zheng Tao looked Lin Xun over, taking in his golden hair, purple eyes, and intermediate division uniform.

"You're Lin Xun?"

As though recalling something, he sneered. "That scumbag from Class Five, Year One, right? The one who got together with Ouyang Zixin soon after school started, then broke up with her right away."

Lin Xun's expression remained cold. He did not even spare Zheng Tao an extra glance.

With both hands in his pockets, Zheng Tao stepped forward several paces, looking exceptionally arrogant.

"What, dumping Goddess Ouyang wasn't enough for you? Now you have to meddle in other people's business? I hired this guy to run errands, and he screwed up the job. It's only natural for me to teach him a lesson. Your reputation is bad enough already. It's not your place to interfere."

He rolled his wrist, his bones cracking audibly.

"If you really want to stand up for him, then perfect. I've wanted to teach you a lesson for Brother Xu for a long time. Today, I'll give you a proper beating."

Just then, a cold voice came from the second floor.

"Who exactly are you planning to teach a lesson for me?"

Xu Xiaoyu leaned against the corridor railing, looking down with a calm expression.

Zheng Tao immediately put away his swagger and replaced it with a flattering smile.

"Brother Xu, you came at just the right time. I was about to deal with this guy for you."

Xu Xiaoyu's father was the Minister of Finance and held considerable influence in Donghai City. As a result, many students in the senior division wanted to curry favor with Xu Xiaoyu.

"For me?" Xu Xiaoyu cut him off directly. "When did I ever tell you to do that?"

The smile on Zheng Tao's face froze. In his view, Xu Xiaoyu might not have liked Ouyang Zixin, but he was at least somewhat interested in her.

Lin Xun was his love rival. Since Zheng Tao had taken the initiative to step in, Xu Xiaoyu should have appreciated it.

Lowering his voice, he said toward the upper floor, "I know it's inconvenient for you to act personally. Leave this little matter to me. Dealing with a Lin Xun isn't difficult."

"Zheng Tao." Xu Xiaoyu's expression turned cold. "What happens between him and me is none of your business. You don't have the right to interfere."

Zheng Tao froze where he stood, and the watching students were all stunned as well.

The reason for Xu Xiaoyu's anger was simple. Zheng Tao's words made it sound as though he cared deeply about Ouyang Zixin, undermining his cold and aloof young-master persona at the academy. He could privately warn Lin Xun, but he would never allow it to be put on display.

What was more, during his last confrontation with Lin Xun, he had come out on the losing end.

Lin Xun frowned slightly. Just seeing Xu Xiaoyu irritated him; this man had left a terrible impression on him last time.

He always gave off the air of someone pretending to be noble while being hypocritical to the core.

Looks like he needed to use a little trick.

Xu Xiaoyu...

Then don't blame me for punishing your little sister...

The clamor rose again as a middle-aged teacher hurried through the crowd.

This man was Zhou Tie, a teacher from the advanced division and the homeroom teacher directly in charge of Zheng Tao and Xu Xiaoyu.

"What are you all crowding around here for? Disperse!"

The moment Zheng Tao saw the teacher arrive, his heart settled. He quickly stepped forward, putting on an aggrieved expression.

"Teacher Zhou! Students from the intermediate division deliberately came looking for trouble with me. You have to stand up for me."

He pointed at Zhou Changxi and twisted the facts. "This guy ran errands for me and bought milk tea, but he made a complete mess of it. I said a few words to him, and he called his roommate over to threaten me. They even deliberately spread rumors to slander me."

Zhou Tie frowned. He first shot Lin Xun and Zhou Changxi a stern look, then his tone unconsciously leaned toward Zheng Tao.

"Explain everything clearly from beginning to end. If anyone relied on their own strength to bully fellow students, the academy would naturally deal with it. We won't let any student suffer an unjust grievance."

His partiality was painfully obvious.

Seeing this, Zheng Tao's confidence surged again, and he was about to continue spouting nonsense. After all, his family gave Teacher Zhou gifts every year.

A cold voice suddenly rang out.

"There's no need to say anything more."

The surrounding students instinctively moved aside. Dressed in white, Wu Changkong slowly walked into the crowd. His expression was indifferent, and an icy chill seemed to emanate from him.

"It's you, Wu Changkong!"

Zhou Tie gritted his teeth in resentment. Back when Wu Changkong had been in the advanced division, the two of them had clashed. He had even had one of his legs broken by the other man.

It had taken half a year of recuperation before he recovered.

Now that he saw him again, his eyes naturally reddened with hatred.