Grilling Mu En

The moment these words were spoken, all the Sun Moon Empire powerhouses present turned their eyes toward Mu En.

Though none of them spoke, the meaning in their eyes was obvious:

Well, damn! The students taught by Shrek Academy actually resorted to kidnapping? And they had kidnapped ordinary people with no soul power?

Having lived for over two hundred years, Mu En had always believed that nothing in this world could stir his emotions too greatly anymore. Yet at this very moment, he truly found it hard to save face.

However, out of trust in his academy's students, Mu En still harbored a trace of hope.

"Xiaotao, tell the truth! With this old man here, no one can falsely accuse you of something you did not do! But if you truly made a mistake, it is not too late to repent now."

Faced with Mu En, Ma Xiaotao simply lacked the courage to lie. She immediately lowered her head in shame, her voice as faint as a mosquito's buzz.

"I was only impulsive for a moment... I merely locked those maids in a cave temporarily. I never intended to harm them..."

Before Ma Xiaotao could finish, Xu Tianming cut her off directly.

"It is enough that you admit it. What is done is done! What is the point of finding excuses to cover it up? Speak! Where did you lock up my maids?"

Xu Tianming's tone displeased Ma Xiaotao greatly, and she immediately glared back at him. But with Mu En suppressing her from the side, she could only obediently give him a location.

Upon hearing this, Xu Tianran immediately turned to look at one of the imperial consecrators. Receiving the signal, the consecrator promptly cupped his hands and then sped toward the place Ma Xiaotao had named.

"You had better pray that the maids in my estate have not come to harm!"

After throwing out those words, Xu Tianming saw that Ma Xiaotao still looked unconvinced and simply drove in the final nail.

"Come to think of it, old man, you still do not know why she suddenly attacked me, do you?"

That mocking tone once again provoked Ma Xiaotao's rebelliousness.

"Pah! You shameless scum ordered your servants to bully an innocent young girl. I stepped in to stop your beastly deeds out of a sense of justice. What did I do wrong?"

Kidnapping the maids from the prince's estate, who possessed no soul power, had indeed been Ma Xiaotao's own fault, and she could frankly admit it. But regarding her righteous intervention just now, she believed that not only had she done nothing wrong, she should instead have received Elder Mu's praise.

As a Shrek student, she ought to be fearless in the face of power like this!

When faced with injustice, draw her blade to help; support the weak and uphold justice. What had she done wrong?

After hearing Ma Xiaotao's defense, Mu En also felt for a moment that she had done nothing wrong. Yet seeing Xu Tianming's half-smiling expression, he cautiously chose not to believe her outright and instead waited for Xu Tianming's explanation.

Xu Tianming's response did not disappoint him.

"An innocent young girl? You say that person is an innocent young girl? Pfft! Hahahaha! That truly is the funniest joke I have ever heard in my life!"

After laughing exaggeratedly for several moments, Xu Tianming immediately gestured for Steward Zhao to bring over Nana, who had long since been suppressed by his soul power.

When Ma Xiaotao had suddenly jumped out to disrupt things earlier, Nana had thought herself fortunate. She had even thought she might be able to use the chaos to escape the prince's estate. But Steward Zhao's aura had remained fixed on her the entire time, leaving her no opportunity to flee.

Before Ma Xiaotao had even been defeated, Nana had already fallen into Steward Zhao's hands. It was only because the situation within the prince's estate had been too chaotic that no one present had the time to deal with her, allowing her to silently watch the entire affair unfold from a corner.

Now that she was suddenly brought up again, panic immediately filled her heart. But after thinking carefully, the reason she had been forcibly kept in the prince's estate seemed to be because she had shown disrespect toward the imperial family...

Her identity and purpose had not been exposed!

If so, she seemed to have nothing to fear. As long as she refused to admit anything and only said that she had acted foolishly on impulse, it probably would not become a major matter.

By the time she was brought before Xu Tianming, Nana had already prepared dozens of possible responses. She was confident that she would not reveal a single flaw during questioning.

But unfortunately, Xu Tianming refused to play by the rules. Too lazy to waste words with her, he directly commanded, "Immediately reveal your martial soul. Do not make me repeat myself!"

The moment these words were spoken, Nana was utterly dumbfounded.

Perhaps ordinary soul masters could not distinguish between righteous and evil martial souls, but with so many Titled Douluo present, there was no doubt that once she revealed her martial soul, there would be no possibility of concealing her identity as an evil soul master!

Where exactly had she exposed herself?

Revealing her martial soul would most likely lead to death, but if she did not reveal it... what right did she have to resist?

For Nana, this was undoubtedly a desperate situation.

Seeing her stiff expression, Mu En also sensed that something was wrong. He immediately snorted coldly and released a trace of soul power pressure toward Nana.

Faced with the pressure of an Ultimate Douluo, Nana did not even have the right to resist. Her Ghost martial soul immediately burst out of her body beyond her control, its evil soul power exposed without reservation beneath the sunlight.

At the sight, Ma Xiaotao was completely stunned.

As an inner court student, she had naturally fought evil soul masters with all her strength before. The aura Nana revealed at this moment was like a resounding slap, viciously striking Ma Xiaotao across the face.

The "innocent girl" for whom she had just exposed her identity and fought desperately was actually an evil soul master?

After realizing this, Ma Xiaotao's vision went black. Unable to accept reality, her anger and shock overwhelmed her heart, and she immediately spat out a mouthful of blood.

Her aura was now unsteady and weak. Even her foundation had likely suffered some damage.

"Old man, do you understand now? One of your Shrek students brought a group of powerful evil soul masters who wanted my life to me; another insulted our Sun Moon Empire on Mingdu's central street; and this last one is truly something else! She attacked to assassinate me within my own prince's estate, and her purpose was actually to save an evil soul master!"

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. I do not wish to misunderstand Shrek Academy, whose great reputation spans the continent, but with these incidents happening one after another, should you not give me, the Sun Moon Empire, and even the entire world a satisfactory explanation? Otherwise, how could I dare go to your Shrek Academy, which may be colluding with evil soul masters?"

If it had been anyone else who dared to say in front of Mu En that Shrek Academy was suspected of colluding with evil soul masters, he would not even have bothered to explain. He would have casually slapped them to death.

What evil soul master dared to slander their eternally righteous Shrek Academy?

But this situation was different.

What these three students had done... was simply too much of a coincidence.

Each of these three incidents could be called a misunderstanding if considered separately. But when three misunderstandings happened one after another, even Mu En himself had to wonder whether there was some hidden truth behind them.