In the hotel's private dining room, Qin Ming held a teacup as he listened to Flender list Ye Lin and the others' ages.
The cup slipped from his hand and clattered onto the table.
"What? They're only twelve or thirteen?"
"That's five years younger than my Imperial Fighting Team's average. Yu Tianheng reached level thirty-nine at eighteen, and I thought he was the finest prospect Heaven Dou Royal Academy had recruited in years. But Shrek..."
He paused and shook his head.
"I always thought my students were gifted. After all, I came from Shrek Academy myself, and my goal for them was to reach level forty before turning twenty."
"I never expected them to be so far behind my old academy."
Flender leaned back in his chair and pushed up his glasses, unable to keep the smug grin off his face.
Beside him, Zhao Wuji folded his arms and chuckled.
Qin Ming sighed again.
"What a shame. If they weren't Shrek students, I'd recruit every one of them for Heaven Dou Royal Academy."
He paused. "A noble academy has its advantages, but everyone there has a powerful background. They're hard to manage, which makes developing talent even harder."
"That's why the academy is desperate for good students. If they went there, the education committee would try every trick it could to keep them."
Flender's face darkened at once. He shoved his glasses up and snorted. "Don't even think about it. They're my students."
Ma Hongjun loudly chimed in.
"Exactly! We're Shrek students. We're not going to Heaven Dou Royal Academy!"
Qin Ming looked at the pair and couldn't help smiling. He had been the same way when he attended Shrek Academy, and Flender had been just as fiercely protective of his students.
He was about to say more when someone