Who Did I Think It Was? Gangzi, It Hasn't Been Long—Why Are You Useless Again?

Dignity? The pride of a Soul Sage?

Before Lin Wu's overwhelming, unreasonable, brutally violent onslaught, it had long been smashed into nothing but dust!

Zhao Wuji was the "Fudo Myoo," but he wasn't a masochist!

That brat called "Lin Douhuan" simply wasn't fucking human! He was an ancient ferocious beast wearing human skin!

Looking at Zhao Wuji sprawled on the ground, loudly begging for mercy without a shred of dignity left.

Lin Wu stood imperiously at the edge of the pit, hands in his pockets, and casually dusted off his shoes from above.

"Wouldn't it have been better if you'd listened from the start?"

A cruel yet relaxed smirk curled across Lin Wu's lips. His tone was as calm as if he were discussing the weather.

"Old bastard, do you know why flowers are so red now?"

The entire clearing was so deathly silent that one could hear a needle hit the ground.

In the distance, Ning Rongrong's body turned cold. She stared blankly at Zhao Wuji, who was howling and begging for mercy in the deep pit, and her entire worldview collapsed.

A level seventy-six Soul Sage... even if he was a watered-down one, wasn't he still someone a mere Soul King could never resist?

The Shrek Academy she had come to apply to was, no matter what, an academy with a Soul Sage.

Yet he had been beaten until he was crawling around with his teeth knocked out, kneeling on the ground and calling a teenager "Grandpa" while begging for mercy?!

Tiandou Lin Douhuan... this name was destined to become a nightmare she could never shake for the rest of her life!

Zhu Zhuqing drew in a deep breath, her ample chest rising and falling violently.

As she looked at Lin Wu's proud, handsome back standing beneath the sunset, her cold heart began pounding wildly at that moment.

Overbearing! Peerless! Unrivaled!

This was a true powerhouse! This was the towering tree a woman should rely upon!

"Master is amazing! Master is invincible!"

Tang San danced with joy and ran forward gracefully.

Holding a scented handkerchief, she lovingly wiped Lin Wu's forehead, where not even a drop of sweat had appeared. Her eyes were filled with boundless affection.

"That old stupid bear deserves it! How dare he yell at Master? Even beating him to death would be going easy on him!"

Atop a tree.

Tang Hao, hidden in the shadows, watched the utterly miserable Zhao Wuji below. His mouth twitched violently, yet he could not say a word for a long while.

Beaten until he cried out...

He had really been beaten until he cried out!

Inside the deep pit, Zhao Wuji was still twitching and groaning, spitting out broken teeth mixed with cold dirt.

Across the Shrek clearing, the wind blew through shattered tiles and ruins, making a low, mournful sound.

Just as Ning Rongrong and Zhu Zhuqing were still deeply shocked and dazed.

A hurried yet somewhat stiff set of footsteps suddenly came from the path behind Shrek Academy.

"Stop! This is outrageous!"

A hoarse, self-important, and highly "authoritative" rebuke suddenly shattered the dead silence.

A middle-aged man in his thirties, dressed in a black robe, with short hair and a face as stiff as a corpse's.

Walked over from the rear courtyard with his hands clasped behind his back and steady, deliberate strides.

His face bore an aloof, profound air, as though he had seen through everything in the world.

His slightly sinister eyes were filled with the lofty superiority of someone who considered himself a "wise man."

It was none other than the renowned "invincible theoretical master"—Yu Xiaogang!

Back at Nuoding Academy, Yu Xiaogang had intended to rely on his so-called "Ten Core Competencies."

He had planned to put on the airs of a reclusive master and trick Tang San into becoming his disciple, proving to the entire continent that he was not a worthless failure.

However, before he could even put on that performance, Lin Wu had appeared out of nowhere and exposed him on the spot.

After giving him a vicious tongue-lashing while pointing at his nose, Lin Wu had finally driven him out of Notting City like he was shooing away a fly.

Having completely lost face in Notting City, Yu Xiaogang knew he could no longer remain there and could only pack up and leave.

Later, after asking around across the continent, he learned that his old friend, the "Four-Eyed Cat Owl" Flanders, had founded Shrek Academy outside Soto City, so he came here to seek refuge.

When Flanders saw this old friend and brother whom he had not seen for many years, he was naturally overjoyed.

He immediately made the decision to appoint Yu Xiaogang as Shrek Academy's "Director of Studies," granting him full responsibility for the students' theoretical education and training!

Yu Xiaogang was delighted by this arrangement.

The long-lost respect and the exhilarating sense of authority made his heart, twisted by insecurity over his crippled level twenty-nine soul power, swell once more.

Today, he had been in the rear courtyard preparing to formulate his "devil training plan."

Then, he suddenly heard an earth-shaking explosion from the front courtyard. Even Zhao Wuji's furious roars and pleas for mercy carried over.

Yu Xiaogang immediately felt that his opportunity had come!

This was the perfect chance for him, the newly appointed "Director of Studies," to display his authority, drive away a powerful enemy with wisdom and theory, and establish himself before Flanders!

Thus, Yu Xiaogang deliberately adjusted his black robe, assumed the confident bearing of a farsighted "theoretical master," and swaggered over.

Before he even arrived, his arrogant rebuke had already reached them.

"What madman dares to run wild at my Shrek Academy? Do you not know the rules of this continent..."

Yu Xiaogang continued his grand speech as he rounded the collapsed wall with his hands behind his back.

However, when he lifted his chin slightly and caught sight of the youth standing at the edge of the deep pit from the corner of his eye—

Yu Xiaogang's voice abruptly cut off!

His entire body stiffened in place as though struck by lightning!

His sinister eyes instantly widened to their fullest, while endless terror and disbelief filled his stiff, dark face!

"Lin... Lin Wu?! Why is it you?!"

Yu Xiaogang screamed in shock. His voice had even changed pitch from sheer astonishment, turning shrill and hoarse!

Wasn't this the demon youth who had cursed him so thoroughly at Nuoding Academy and completely ruined his reputation as a theoretical master?!

Why had this brat come to Soto City?!

Was humiliating him last time not enough, so he had come all this way to keep hunting him down? Was that really necessary?

And... not only had he followed him here, he had even beaten Zhao Wuji, a level seventy-six Soul Sage, into a dead dog lying in a pit and crying for Grandpa to spare him?!

In an instant, the fear and humiliation Lin Wu had once inflicted upon Yu Xiaogang in Notting City.

Surged up his spine and straight to his head like an icy current!

Looking at Yu Xiaogang's stiff, pitch-black face, as though he had seen a ghost.

Lin Wu, standing at the edge of the pit, was first stunned. Then, as if he had just seen the funniest joke in the world, he burst out laughing on the spot!

"Hahaha! Who did I think it was?!"

With his hands in his pockets, Lin Wu laughed without restraint. His crisp, mocking laughter echoed over the entire dilapidated village.

"Gangzi, Gangzi! It hasn't been long since we last met—why are you useless again?!"

Gangzi?!

Hearing that deeply insulting form of address, Yu Xiaogang's face shifted from black to purple, then from purple to white. It was as colorful as a palette!

"Lin Wu! You... you are out of line!"

Yu Xiaogang forcibly suppressed the terror in his heart, puffed out his chest, and tried his best to maintain his so-called "master" dignity as he sternly accused him.

"This is Shrek Academy! I am the Director of Studies here!

"You use violence before this master and injure fellow students and teachers. This is a trampling of the rules of the Soul Master world! According to my theory..."