Killing Zhao Wuji

"Four-Eyed Cat Eagle Flender, Immovable Bright King Zhao Wuji."

"You two are trying to pin the loss from today's match against the Royal Dou Team on me and avenge your students?"

Ning Yao was rather speechless. There seemed to be quite a few shameless people today.

He had just sent Tang Hao away, and now two even weaker ones had come.

Seeing that their identities had already been exposed, the two simply stopped pretending.

"Kid, it seems you've heard of our reputations. What, scared?"

Zhao Wuji chuckled sinisterly and rubbed his clasped hands together.

Anyone who dared bully someone from Shrek Academy would not get off easy!

According to Dai Mubai, Ning Yao was only a Soul Sage. With the two of them against one today, they were not afraid Ning Yao would escape.

Flender, standing beside him, gently pushed up his glasses and nodded at Ning Yao.

"Since you know our names, we won't say we're bullying you. We'll give you a chance. Compensate us out of your own pocket for the gold soul coins we lost today, and I'll give you a chance to fight us one-on-one."

As he spoke, Flender even loftily tilted up his head, as though they were the ones giving Ning Yao an opportunity.

Ning Yao did not even feel like speaking anymore.

Was this Shrek Academy? Had they not even bothered to find out why he had stepped in to teach Dai Mubai a lesson?

"Do you know what your precious student did?"

Zhao Wuji snorted coldly.

"What he did isn't important. What matters is that you bullied the weak with your strength and severely injured our student. You even abducted one and caused us to lose both the match and our funds."

"We'll beat you up and take a little money. You're not losing out."

Ning Yao: "..."

Sure enough, everyone in Shrek Academy was the same.

No wonder they dared put up admissions signs saying "only monsters accepted" in that barren backwater.

"Enough. I gave you a chance."

Ning Yao sighed helplessly. He was a little tired today and did not want to play around anymore.

The instant his words fell, Ning Yao vanished from where he stood.

Flender and Zhao Wuji had not even reacted.

When they finally noticed, they hurriedly activated their martial spirit possession states to prevent Ning Yao from launching a sneak attack.

Yet they waited in place for a full minute, and Ning Yao never reappeared.

"Flender, did that brat fool us and run away already?!"

Zhao Wuji gritted his teeth, glanced at Flender behind him, whose back was pressed against his, and spoke viciously.

Flender snorted disdainfully.

"Run? Where could he run to? Stay here and keep watch. I'll fly up and take a look. The night is my domain."

He was already preparing to take off, but Zhao Wuji, standing back-to-back with him, did not respond for a long while.

Flender frowned and turned his head.

"Are you..."

He froze halfway through his sentence, or rather, he was terrified by the sight before him.

Behind him, what back-to-back Zhao Wuji? This was clearly a monster!

A monster covered from head to toe in branches and leaves, its entire body rooted into the ground!

Even as Flender looked at Zhao Wuji, emerald-green branches continued growing from Zhao Wuji's mouth.

The branches and leaves kept growing out through Zhao Wuji's seven orifices. Before blood could even flow out, it was absorbed by the foliage.

What terrified Flender the most was that Zhao Wuji was still alive!

His chest, already covered in branches and leaves, was still faintly rising and falling. He was clearly still breathing.

The branches and leaves were about to spread from Zhao Wuji's seven orifices throughout his entire body. The longest branch, the one growing from his mouth, had even reached the ground.

"F-Flender, save... save me..."

Zhao Wuji's weak voice instantly jolted Flender out of his terrified stupor.

"W-Wuji!"

Seeing that Zhao Wuji could still call for help, Flender's entire body began to tremble.

His voice shook as the Four-Eyed Cat Eagle behind him spread its wings.

"I'll go find the others to save you right now!"

However, just as Flender prepared to soar into the sky, he looked down and discovered that a green flower had bloomed on the back of his hand...

"!!!"

Flender was nearly scared out of his wits. Though there were no branches growing from his body, strange flowers had somehow bloomed all over him.

Even his Four-Eyed Cat Eagle martial spirit was covered in them.

Fortunately, he could still move, at least.

After giving Zhao Wuji, who was nearly a monster now, one final terrified glance, Flender stumbled away.

His Four-Eyed Cat Eagle martial spirit was completely beyond his control.

Meanwhile, Ning Yao, the culprit behind it all, had already returned to his upstairs home and fallen asleep.

It was not until noon the next day that Ning Yao groggily woke up from bed.

After tidying himself up, he left his home and went downstairs.

By then, Zhao Wuji and Flender had long since disappeared.

"They should still be alive, right?"

After pondering for a moment, Ning Yao gently shook his head.

Even if they really had died, they had only brought it upon themselves. There had to be limits to being shameless.

When he arrived at the familiar stall, it was already lunchtime, and many customers had gathered there.

Ning Yao had just sat down with his food and was about to eat when he noticed everyone seemed to be discussing the same matter.

"Have you heard? A soul master died here last night."

"Yeah, yeah, I heard too. People from Spirit Hall and the city lord both came. I heard the dead man was a Soul Sage."

"Ah, none of you know anything. My intelligence is more accurate. As far as I know, more than one Soul Sage suffered here last night. It's just that the other one escaped, though I heard he's on the verge of death too."

Everyone chimed in, discussing who could have caused two renowned Soul Sage masters—figures as divine as gods in their eyes—to end up with one dead and the other gravely injured.

It had to have been a Titled Douluo, right?

A Titled Douluo had appeared in their tiny Soto City?!

The more they talked, the more animated they became. Quite a few people even said Spirit Hall intended to suppress the news.

All kinds of rumors entered Ning Yao's ears.

One dead, one alive?

He raised his brows in surprise. He had thought they had both died.

Still, he did not really care either way.

As for Spirit Hall already suppressing the news, he felt it was most likely true.

That manager already knew he lived here. Anyone with half a mind should have been able to guess it was his doing.

Suppressing the news was probably to curry favor with him.

Ning Yao gently shook his head and stopped paying attention to their voices.

After finishing a simple meal, he paid the bill and left the stall.

The sun hung high in the sky. He did not want to waste such a fine day listening to this sort of thing.

Yet after taking only a few steps, he ran into someone he had never expected to see.

"Zhu Zhuqing?"