Was this Ning Rongrong?

Registration had been underway for some time, and the familiar scene played out once again. Shrek Academy was as brazen as ever about swindling people.

They never explained the requirements beforehand, then used their power to intimidate people once they had paid. Lu Shiyuan really couldn't stand that.

After enrolling, he wanted to find an opportunity to discuss the issue with Flender.

A dignified Soul Saint was too proud to earn money, but not too proud to cheat people?

As soon as Li Yusong revealed his soul rings, the parents who had been bristling with indignation immediately fell silent.

The couple who had already paid could only resign themselves to their bad luck and slink away from the Registration Desk.

Lu Shiyuan wasn't overflowing with compassion, either. To put it bluntly, the fundamental rule of this world was that the strong preyed on the weak.

He could offer suggestions in private, but he would never undermine Shrek Academy in front of a crowd. Those were two entirely different things.

Besides, in a world where the winner took all, anyone who encountered something like this could only chalk it up to bad luck.

Dai Mubai basked in the limelight. Seeing the admiring looks from the surrounding parents, he shook off the gloom left by his defeat at Zhu Zhuqing's hands a few days earlier.

Among the applicants, Lu Shiyuan also spotted Tang San.

"Have you trained your hands with a soul skill?" A flicker of interest crossed Li Yusong's eyes.

"Yes," Tang San admitted openly.

"Hold out your leg." Li Yusong pointed at Tang San's leg, and a charcoal-black limb was soon presented to him.

It really was thoroughly and uniformly black. Even the parts covered by his clothes were just as dark.

Li Yusong squeezed Tang San's leg bones, making him grimace in pain.

Only after a moment did Li Yusong say, "Good. Your age meets the requirements. Release your martial soul."

Tang San summoned his Blue Silver Grass martial soul, with two yellow soul rings encircling it.

Li Yusong couldn't help laughing. "Interesting. To think a trash martial soul like Blue Silver Grass could be cultivated to the Soul Grandmaster level. You really are a good fit for our academy."

According to the original story, a Shrek was a kind of monster.

Any student who gained admission had to deserve the title of monster.

Someone who could cultivate a Blue Silver Grass martial soul to the Soul Grandmaster level certainly qualified.

Provided it really was a Blue Silver Grass martial soul.

In truth, any transmigrator knew that Tang San's Blue Silver Grass wasn't the worthless stuff found everywhere. It was a genuine Blue Silver Emperor.

Tang San soon passed the first test. Only after watching him head inside did Lu Shiyuan say to the two girls beside him, "Let's go over, too."

Both girls nodded. Just as they were about to step forward, a clear voice rang out beside them.

"Hello. Are you here to register, too?"

The three turned to look and saw a graceful, elegant girl radiating nobility, watching them politely.

She wore a long turquoise dress. Her milky-white skin was as translucent and delicate as peeled lychee flesh, and her slender waist looked as though a gust of wind could snap it.

A perfectly measured smile rested on her exquisite face.

Zhu Zhuqing frowned slightly. She felt she had glimpsed something else just now.

Something like nostalgia, yet also anticipation.

It was just like how she had felt when she first reunited with Lu Shiyuan in Suotuo City.

But those emotions had vanished in an instant, and Zhu Zhuqing couldn't be certain she hadn't been mistaken.

Lu Shiyuan wasn't fooled by appearances. Ning Rongrong had been the same in the original story, presenting a harmless facade at first before gradually revealing her little-devil personality after enrolling.

Indeed, the girl speaking to them was Ning Rongrong.

Xiao Wu nodded, smiling as well. "Yes. Are you here to register, too?"

Ning Rongrong's bearing was poised and proper, and her smile was perfectly calibrated. "Yes, I am. I heard Shrek Academy only accepts monsters, and anyone who graduates can become a viscount of the empire."

Lu Shiyuan suddenly chuckled.

Ning Rongrong's eyes lit up, and she immediately seized the opening. "Lu... ahem, young sir, what are you laughing at?"

Lu Shiyuan hurriedly apologized. "Sorry, sorry. I just thought this academy's recruitment pitch had quite a distinctive style."

"Hmm?" The girl tilted her head, waiting for him to continue.

"Shrek Academy requires applicants to be level-twenty Soul Grandmasters, and you have to reach level forty to graduate. But under Heaven Dou Empire regulations, any level-forty Soul Scholar who joins the empire automatically receives the title of viscount. Don't you think that makes their pitch rather interesting?"

Ning Rongrong was stunned. All her attention had been focused on this meeting, and she had made quite a few preparations beforehand. As a result, she had overlooked a lot of things.

"Besides, anyone who reaches level twenty by the age of twelve would be considered a genius anywhere. Would reaching level forty really be difficult for a genius like that? They wouldn't even need any lucky encounters. As long as they trained by the book, reaching level forty would practically be a certainty." Lu Shiyuan spread his hands. "So take this academy's sales pitch with a grain of salt. If you really want to get somewhere with your cultivation, you still have to rely on yourself."

Ning Rongrong was dumbfounded. Though she hadn't thought much of Shrek Academy to begin with, she still refused to give up. "But doesn't Shrek Academy say that one of Spirit Hall's elders used to be their student?"

Lu Shiyuan's smile grew wider. "Let me ask you something. What cultivation level do you need to become an elder of Spirit Hall?"

"Titled Douluo, of course," Ning Rongrong answered.

"Exactly. Then who's the youngest known Titled Douluo on the continent?"

"I believe it's Tang Hao of the Clear Sky Sect. They say he became a Titled Douluo at forty-four, making him the youngest on the continent."

"Then here's the problem. Shrek Academy has only been around for a little over a decade. Assuming its students graduate at twenty, even the oldest member of its first graduating class wouldn't be over forty. So why hasn't this graduate claimed the title of youngest Titled Douluo?"

Ning Rongrong: "..."

Right. Why had no one ever questioned such a simple math problem?

Seeing Ning Rongrong looking as though her entire worldview had been shaken, Lu Shiyuan couldn't help snickering.

This girl had run away from home hoping to find a good place to go. Now she was stumped.

After a moment, Ning Rongrong shook her head. "Wait. If Shrek Academy is that bad, why are you still signing up?"

Lu Shiyuan let out a long sigh. Did she think he wanted to enroll?

If he had a choice, he would much rather take Xiao Wu to Heaven Dou Royal Academy.

Once Zhu Zhuqing settled her grievances with Dai Mubai, she would surely come join him as well.

One was a thriving imperial capital, the other a remote village. Anyone who wasn't an idiot would know which to choose.

"I have my reasons. I don't have a choice." Lu Shiyuan gazed up at the sky at a forty-five-degree angle.

Ning Rongrong burst out laughing. "Haha, Lu Shiyuan, you're even more interesting than I imagined."

Lu Shiyuan: "???"

What did you just say?

"You know me?"

Ning Rongrong shook her head. "I've never met you, but I know of you."

Ever since she had awakened her martial soul, Lu Shiyuan had appeared repeatedly in her dreams over the past six years.

With Ning Rongrong's former spoiled, willful personality, she was bound to become deeply fixated on this.

Especially since, after Sword Douluo investigated, many events from her dreams turned out to have actually happened. That made her care all the more.

After she told her father about it, the course of Ning Rongrong's upbringing changed dramatically.

Now, the air of aristocratic elegance around Ning Rongrong vanished, replaced by the gentle warmth of a younger girl from next door.

The change left Lu Shiyuan utterly dumbfounded.

Was this Ning Rongrong?