What Are You Afraid Of?

Late at night.

Someone knocked on Flender's office door.

Yu Xiaogang pushed the door open and walked in. He carried no thick files, nor any papers covered in theories. He simply walked to the desk, pulled out the chair with half its backrest missing, and sat down.

Flender was calculating the day's expenses. Hearing the sound, he looked up.

"Xiaogang, why aren't you asleep in the middle of the night? What is it?"

Yu Xiaogang placed both hands on his knees and gave his judgment with great seriousness.

"Chen Xuan's source of power remains unknown. He can use lightning today; who knows what else he might pull out tomorrow? His unpredictability isn't an advantage in team battles. It's a hidden danger."

Flender set down his pen and adjusted his black-framed glasses.

"Isn't that a good thing? The more variables there are, the harder it is for opponents to defend against them."

Yu Xiaogang stressed his words. "The opponents won't be able to guard against it, but neither will his teammates! If he pulls out some new weapon at a crucial moment, one whose effects none of us understand, and changes the course of the battle, Tang San's Blue Silver Grass control chain could expose his teammates to attack because of a misjudgment."

Flender said nothing. He leaned back in his chair and watched him.

"I'm not asking for him to be expelled," Yu Xiaogang continued. "But he can't be allowed into official team battles. At least not until we understand the patterns behind his power."

The office fell silent.

Flender reached up and rubbed the stubble on his chin. After thinking for a long while, he finally spoke slowly.

"You have a point."

Yu Xiaogang's tense shoulders were just about to relax.

"But Shrek has one rule: strength speaks for itself." Flender shut the ledger on the desk. "Since he can knock over a level-thirty-five Iron-armored Rhino with one strike, I have no reason to keep him on the bench."

Yu Xiaogang's expression darkened. "You're gambling with the students' lives."

"I'm gambling with my academy." Flender waved a hand. "If I win, Shrek produces a monster among monsters. If I lose, I'll own it."

Flender rose to his feet, walked over to Yu Xiaogang, and patted him on the shoulder.

"Xiaogang, your theories are fine for studying ordinary soul masters. But Shrek wants monsters. If monsters could be completely contained by your theories, what would make them monsters? If you're afraid Tang San can't control him, then tell Tang San not to bother controlling him. Didn't he say last night that he'd be a free agent?"

Yu Xiaogang stood up, the chair legs scraping harshly against the floor.

Without saying a word, he flicked his sleeve and left.

The door slammed shut.

The next afternoon.

Shrek Academy cafeteria.

Chen Xuan entered through the doorway carrying a tray.

During the morning assembly, Yu Xiaogang's face had already been so gloomy it looked ready to drip water. Flender had stood beside him, and his brows had twitched twice when he looked at Chen Xuan.

Combined with the sound of Yu Xiaogang slamming Flender's office door when he left last night.

Chen Xuan understood.

He didn't need to find some know-it-all, nor did he need to spend money buying intelligence at a tavern. Yu Xiaogang's little thoughts were written all over that stiff face of his.

Chen Xuan walked up to the serving window and ordered a serving of potato stew, along with two steamed buns.

There were not many people in the cafeteria at noon. Yu Xiaogang sat at the table in the farthest corner. Before him were a bowl of clear soup and a plate of greens. His chopsticks rested neatly on the rim of the bowl, untouched.

Carrying his tray, Chen Xuan walked straight over.

He pulled out the chair opposite Yu Xiaogang and dropped into it.

Yu Xiaogang looked up, his brows instantly knotting together. "Why are you sitting here?"

Chen Xuan set down his tray, picked up a piece of stew with his chopsticks, and stuffed it into his mouth. Chewing, he asked, "Master, you went to see the dean last night. Didn't work out?"

Yu Xiaogang's fingers suddenly froze.

He stared at Chen Xuan for several seconds.

"...Who told you?"

"Did I need anyone to tell me?" Chen Xuan leaned back and pointed at Yu Xiaogang's face. "You've had that expression since this morning. Flender's expression when he looked at me today was off too, like he was mulling something over. You two definitely talked last night."

Yu Xiaogang clenched his fist but said nothing.

Chen Xuan bit into a steamed bun and continued leisurely.

"Let me guess. You told the dean that my lightning-attribute staff is too strange, that it could cause trouble in a team, and suggested that I not be allowed to fight for now."

Smack!

Yu Xiaogang slammed his chopsticks heavily onto the table.

"You had someone follow me?"

"Why would I need to?" Chen Xuan put down the bun in his hand. "You followed Tang San from Nuoding to Soto, from the academy to the Soul Fighting Arena. Wasn't it always the same routine? If you can't explain something, you restrain it first and don't let it move."

Yu Xiaogang's knuckles turned white. His voice was low and urgent.

"Chen Xuan! Don't be so full of yourself! I'm taking responsibility for the entire team! Tang San's control chain requires absolute stability. Your existence is an uncontrollable bomb!"

"Responsibility?" Chen Xuan picked up his bowl of soup again and took a sip. "Back in Nuoding, you sent Tang San alone to hunt soul beasts. Why didn't you talk about the team then? Now that we're here, suddenly teamwork matters."

Chen Xuan set down the bowl.

"Put plainly, as long as Tang San is the core, any way of fighting is right. But once someone goes beyond his control, beyond the framework of your theories, they're destroying the team."

Yu Xiaogang gritted his teeth and retorted, "I'm afraid you'll ruin the team's coordination and cause everything to collapse!"

"That's the second layer." Chen Xuan looked at him. "What's the first?"

Yu Xiaogang pressed his lips together.

Chen Xuan answered for him.

"The first layer is this—an opponent Tang San needed ten minutes of desperate fighting to defeat, I killed with one strike."

Yu Xiaogang's breathing stopped for half a beat.

"You're talking nonsense!" Yu Xiaogang growled.

Chen Xuan ignored his anger, his tone still calm.

"You taught him for four years. You taught him how to control, how to plan, how to fight wars of attrition with his brain. Then I stepped up, and it was three strikes."

Chen Xuan leaned forward slightly, his voice very soft.

"What you're afraid of isn't me destroying the team. You're afraid the students will discover that what you taught is useless in front of me."

The cafeteria went quiet for several seconds.

From time to time, the crisp clinking of bowls and chopsticks came from distant tables.

Yu Xiaogang's lips moved, but no sound came out. That face which always carried a sense of superiority had turned the color of liver.

The theories he took pride in, the authority he had painstakingly built, were peeled apart layer by layer by the level-eleven student across from him, then torn to pieces.

Chen Xuan stood up and picked up his tray.

"Master, you can't drive me away. And I'm not leaving. You want Tang San to be the core? Fine, I'll work around him. But there is one thing you were right about."

Chen Xuan paused.

"My power really is unstable. Even I don't know what I'll be able to pull out tomorrow. You'd better get used to that."

Chen Xuan turned and took two steps.

The cafeteria's back door was pushed open.

Tang San walked in.

He had won with great difficulty last night, and today he had originally come to find his teacher to review the tactics. But as soon as he reached the doorway, he heard those final words.

"What you're afraid of isn't me destroying the team. You're afraid the students will discover that what you taught is useless in front of me."

Tang San stopped at the doorway.

He watched Chen Xuan carry his tray past him. They brushed shoulders, but neither looked at the other.

Tang San walked to the corner table and sat down opposite Yu Xiaogang.

"Teacher, what did he say?"

Yu Xiaogang shook his head and said nothing. But his fists, clenched so tightly they had turned white, never loosened.

Tang San looked at the untouched bowl of clear soup on the table.

In the past four years, he had never seen his teacher wear such an expression. Furious and flustered, with even a trace of guilt.

A thought suddenly surfaced in Tang San's mind.

Was Teacher right, or wrong?

The moment that thought appeared, he forcibly suppressed it. Everything his teacher had taught him had long become the principles by which he acted. He would not allow anyone to trample on those principles.

"Teacher, ignore him." Tang San clenched his fists, his voice low. "In tomorrow's team training, I'll show him whether the Blue Silver Grass control chain works or not."

Tang San stood, turned, and walked out of the cafeteria, his footsteps heavy.

In the distance, Chen Xuan's back had already vanished beyond the edge of the training field.