Yan Shaozhe's Embarrassing Predicament

Xuan Zi, standing nearby, had already breathed a full sigh of relief. His tense body slowly relaxed.

It seemed the crisis had temporarily passed. The Evil Soul Master's Remnant Soul had been forced back into Yue Ling's body.

At the center of the arena, his mind and Soul Power had long since been pushed to their limits.

Fortunately, during the perilous struggle just now, his Soul Power had risen from level thirty-six to level thirty-seven, bringing him one step closer to becoming a Soul Ancestor.

It was worth knowing that among the students in Shrek Outer Court, most eleven- and twelve-year-olds had only one or two rings.

A three-ringed Spirit Master was as rare as a phoenix feather or a qilin horn among hundreds of students.

And Yue Ling was only twelve, yet already possessed level-thirty-seven Soul Power.

That was despite the delay caused when he first arrived at Xuan Zi's place at age eight: he had to tend the flowers while also practicing Mu En's Self-Created Soul Skill.

But this was inevitable for someone with a plant-type, attack-focused Martial Soul.

Physical strength was still very important. It could make up for the weaknesses of the early stages of combat.

Forging his muscles and bones and attaining Indestructible Diamond was what he needed to focus on now.

The deadly battle to seize his spirit had drained nearly every last bit of strength from his body. At that moment, he could barely stay upright, supported only by the last vestiges of instinct.

The next second, his vision suddenly went black. The boy's slender body could hold out no longer, and he crumpled forward, unconscious.

Xuan Zi reacted at once, stepping forward and catching him securely.

Meanwhile, Yan Shaozhe, not far away, had long since lost his usual composure and elegance.

Cold sweat beaded across his temples. His teeth were clenched tight, his shoulders and back rigid. His eyes were filled with the panic and obsession of someone trapped deep in an illusion as he murmured, "Lin'er, wait a little longer. It'll be over soon..."

Faint, scattered sounds came from below. Those were the sounds of his greatest pleasure!

And this was the illusion woven by the Heartbroken Red Domain, shifting and changing wildly before his eyes.

The gentle, faint smile of Xian Lin'er, Cai Mei'er, who had shared so many years with him, and the ravishing Feng Ling—all three familiar figures vanished in an instant, dissolving into nothingness.

Everything in the vast illusion faded away. He was left standing alone, frozen in place, his heart hollow and heavy with loss.

"This..."

The next moment, the scene abruptly reversed.

The phantom of Feng Ling, who had just been gazing at him with tender eyes and a heart full of affection, began to twist and change rapidly.

Her gentleness vanished, replaced by a surge of malice, until she became an Evil Soul Master clad in sinister energy, standing high above him.

The tender dream of the past shattered completely. Old feelings crashed violently against the sinister figure before him.

Yan Shaozhe's mind reeled. The lingering traces of desire in his heart, every last vestige of his old affection, scattered on the wind and vanished without a trace.

His throat went dry as he murmured, bewildered and bitter, "Why... why?"

At that moment, he finally saw the obsession that had trapped him for half his life—and hated the softhearted, cowardly man he had been back then.

He had been the one to kindle the Evil Fire within Feng Ling. He had been the one to let her go after her defeat, pushing her step by step into an endless abyss of darkness.

For decades, every time Feng Ling emerged to commit evil, every time she stirred up chaos, every time she made an enemy of Shrek, she tore open his old wounds anew, silently reminding him that the Evil Phoenix now wreaking havoc across the world had been created by Yan Shaozhe himself.

Love and hate intertwined, eating into his bones and corroding his heart.

If he killed her, his old affection still lingered, and he couldn't bring himself to strike. If he let her go, she would continue to wreak havoc and pile sin upon sin.

This impossible choice had bound him for half his life, and even now, he remained unable to break free.

In his youth, he had been reckless and flirtatious, betraying the woman who had stood by him. One moment of misplaced mercy had brought forth a lifetime of ruin.

Every regret, every pang of guilt, every torment of his life had its roots in himself.

Afterward, he had devoted himself desperately to his duties at the academy, obsessively protecting every Shrek student and doing everything in his power to protect Ma Xiaotao, the bearer of the Evil Fire Phoenix bloodline.

He had only wanted to make up for the mistakes of his youth and atone for the regret carved into his bones.

To outsiders, he was the Shrek headmaster, a mighty figure whose authority cowed all sides, with phoenix flames soaring to the heavens.

But no one knew that beneath this hard armor lay a lifetime of regret that would not fade, year after year, leaving him no peace.

That was the true meaning of the Heartbroken Red Domain.

It made people face their most bone-deep, overwhelming hatred and regret within old dreams of ultimate tenderness and joy.

Fortunately, Yue Ling's Soul Power cultivation was still shallow, so the Domain's mental assault was greatly limited. But what if its wielder had been a seven-, eight-, or even nine-ringed high-level Spirit Master?

That battle of love and hate in the illusion could have crushed everyone's sanity on the spot, driving them completely mad until they became living husks, trapped forever within the mental Domain.

Back on the arena.

Xuan Zi carried the unconscious Yue Ling securely, his brow furrowed and his eyes filled with gravity and puzzlement.

From beginning to end, he had been completely helpless against the Evil Soul Master's Remnant Soul lurking within Yue Ling.

He couldn't for the life of him figure out when this seed of an Evil Soul had been planted deep inside Yue Ling.

And why had even Mu En, who had guarded the Sea God Pavilion for years and seen through countless evil spirits, failed to notice the slightest trace of evil energy over the past four years?

The matter was too strange and dangerous for him to decide on his own.

Xuan Zi resolved that he had to take Yue Ling to see Mu En immediately and have the Sea God Pavilion Master examine him personally.

He needed to find out whether there was still any hope of saving the boy completely.

Having settled on what to do next, Xuan Zi carried Yue Ling and rose into the air.

Before leaving, he glanced at Yan Shaozhe, who was still standing rooted to the spot, his mind unsettled.

He stroked his grizzled beard. A look of amused sympathy crept into his eyes as he murmured, "Well... the old fellow's really made a fool of himself in front of everyone this time."

With that, Xuan Zi didn't linger. He swept away into the sky, carrying the unconscious Yue Ling.

The vast arena was left with only Yan Shaozhe, standing alone in the wind, dazed and disheveled. He kept murmuring, "Why..."

After a long while, once he was sure Xuan Zi had gone, Yan Shaozhe's stiff body finally began to loosen.

He quickly straightened his disheveled robes and wiped the cold sweat from his temples. He suppressed all traces of confusion and embarrassment, swiftly regaining the steady, dignified, stern bearing of the Shrek headmaster he usually presented.

But tumultuous waves still churned in his heart.

He was shaken to the core, inwardly stunned.

A mere Soul Elder boy had activated his own Domain and trapped a Titled Douluo like him so completely that he had sunk helplessly into an illusion!

And the illusion had been so real that he couldn't distinguish it from reality in the slightest. The Heartbroken Red Domain clearly peered straight into people's hearts, reflecting each person's deepest obsession and inner demons. It was far too terrifying and uncanny...

After the shock came a surge of anger and an embarrassment far too intense for a man his age.

He had lived for nearly a hundred years and held the lofty position of headmaster, yet today he had lost control and sunk into an illusion in front of a crowd of younger teachers and students, losing every shred of dignity.

This shouldn't have happened. It absolutely shouldn't... He hadn't expected his resistance to mental attacks to be so weak.

Fortunately, hardly anyone had clearly seen him losing himself in the illusion just now.

If that sharp-tongued old Qian Duoduo had witnessed it, he'd probably tease him about it for the rest of his life...

As Yan Shaozhe's thoughts churned, the crimson Domain covering the entire arena finally began to weaken, then disappeared completely.

Indeed, even Yue Ling's Domain was entirely unlike those of its previous wielders.

Ordinary Domains vanished as soon as their release was canceled, but his weakened gradually as the flow of Soul Power and mental power ceased, fading away little by little until it was gone.

Everyone inside the arena whose minds had been restrained regained consciousness as the Domain weakened.