"C-clothing?"
Cai Mei'er froze briefly, bewilderment surfacing in her beautiful eyes. She instinctively glanced down at her dignified, old-fashioned dark green robe and stammered, "What is wrong with the clothes I usually wear?"
"Heehee, my dear dean, you're wrapped up like an iron barrel in that outfit. Where's the slightest hint of allure?"
Ma Xiaotao covered her lips and giggled. Her slender fingers lightly tapped Cai Mei'er's lapel before she leaned close and whispered in a sultry voice:
"That little bastard said you absolutely mustn't wear such a stuffy old robe when the time comes..."
"You have to change into a translucent gauze nightgown as thin as a cicada's wing, with nothing underneath but a black dudou no bigger than your palm..."
"And on your lower half, you have to wear a pair of exquisite black stockings so sheer that the pink of your skin shows through, pulled tight all the way up to your thighs..."
Boom!
At the string of crude, explicit words reaching her ears, Cai Mei'er's mature, dignified face turned the color of pig's liver almost instantly!
Translucent gauze?!
A black dudou?!
And she even had to wear those sheer stockings?!!
"Insolent! Absurd! Utterly shameless and obscene!"
Cai Mei'er was so mortified that she nearly fainted on the spot. Her mature, voluptuous body shook violently, and even the finger she pointed at Ma Xiaotao trembled uncontrollably:
"I am a Titled Douluo renowned across the continent, and the Vice Dean of the Martial Soul Department at Shrek Academy!!"
"If you expect me to wear such shameless things, I would rather dash my head against the ground in front of the Sea God Pavilion!"
"Such a depraved demand is absolutely out of the question! I would die before agreeing!"
Overwhelming shame made this beautiful woman, who had guarded her chastity like jade for decades, shriek aloud. Her breathtakingly full bosom heaved violently; she was clearly so furious that even her reason had begun to blur.
Yet faced with Cai Mei'er's fierce resistance, Ma Xiaotao seemed to have anticipated it. She showed no trace of panic and instead let out a long, regretful sigh.
Stepping back twice, Ma Xiaotao shrugged her delicate shoulders and said with regret and helplessness, "Alas, since you're so opposed to it, Dean Cai, I can only give up..."
"But what a shame. That little bastard possesses an ultimate ice martial soul, something vanishingly rare in this world. If we can't keep him at Shrek, and the Sun Moon Empire or the Body Sect snatches him away someday, I'm afraid Shrek's ten-thousand-year foundation will sooner or later be destroyed in a single stroke..."
At this point, Ma Xiaotao glanced sidelong at Cai Mei'er's stiffened body. A provocative curve lifted the corner of her mouth as she continued with a leisurely sneer, "Besides, if Dean Xian Lin'er of the Soul Tool Department learns about this, who knows how she'll mock you behind your back..."
"She'll probably spread the word everywhere, saying that all you have is that ripe body of yours, Cai Mei'er, and when it comes down to it, you can't even bring a teenage boy to heel. She'll say you lack even the boldness she had back then, that you don't have the courage to offer yourself for the academy, and that you deserved to be neglected by Dean Yan for decades..."
"Xian Lin'er?!"
At that name, Cai Mei'er's rapid breathing abruptly stopped!
The shame and anger on her mature face slowly froze, replaced by a competitive spirit rooted deep in her marrow and a piercing refusal to accept defeat.
In this life, Cai Mei'er could concede defeat to anyone-but never to Xian Lin'er. She would never bow her head to that woman!
And besides...
Unbidden, the boy's handsome, strikingly heroic face surfaced in her mind, along with his broad, burning-hot chest and domineering gaze...
An indescribable, unfamiliar heat quietly spread along her spine.
Biting her red lip, Cai Mei'er looked down at her voluptuous figure, tightly enclosed in her robe. Deep beneath the boundless shame and humiliation, her heart, which had lain dormant for decades, at that moment...
Absurdly enough, a quiet eagerness to try began to stir, one that frightened even her...
Boom!
The bone-chilling cold slowly dispersed beneath the boy's feet.
By the time the last ice lotus shattered beside the shore, Dongfang Hao had already landed steadily in the Shrek Outer Court.
Across Shrek Square, which covered tens of thousands of square meters, heavy, hurried panting and pounding footsteps echoed in overlapping waves.
Beneath the spilling sunlight, dozens of boys and girls who had only recently entered the academy were running desperately around the square's track in iron vests, their faces deathly pale and their bodies drenched in sweat.
At the outermost edge of the track stood an old woman in white robes, her ugly, aged face wrinkled like chicken skin beneath crane-white hair. With her hands clasped behind her back, she stared coldly at the freshmen running for their lives.
Tsk. That old hag Zhou Yi and her same old trick for establishing authority, unchanged for ten thousand years. Brutal and utterly unimaginative...
With both hands in his pockets, Dongfang Hao curled his lips into a mocking sneer and inwardly shook his head in distaste.
This so-called "monster teaching method" did nothing but squeeze the physical body to its limits. If Huo Yuhao hadn't possessed a million-year source like the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm to secretly repair and nourish his meridians, any commoner student with poor innate soul power who ran for an entire day like this would almost certainly suffer severe hidden injuries that left them disabled for life!
His deep eyes shifted slightly, and Dongfang Hao's gaze soon settled on a thin, sweat-soaked figure at the rear of the running line, whose members looked like dogs driven from their homes.
Huo Yuhao.
The Child of Destiny had clearly run himself to the point where his oil was exhausted and his lamp was dying. His unsteady steps were like feet sinking into piles of cotton, and he could pitch headfirst to the ground at any moment.
Tap, tap.
Dongfang Hao made no attempt to conceal himself. He strolled calmly to a large tree at the edge of the square, leaned casually against its trunk, and watched with his arms folded.
Yet his sharp bearing, straight as a spear, and his short black hair dancing lightly in the breeze made him extraordinarily conspicuous, even standing motionless in the shade.
Within moments, the already exhausted freshmen on the track found their gazes drawn involuntarily toward him.
"Hmm? Who's that? Why's he dressed so casually? Is he a student in our Outer Court too?"
Near the front of the line, Wang Dong, a pink-and-blue-haired girl whose beauty was almost otherworldly, wiped the hot sweat from her forehead with some effort and raised her delicate brows in surprise.
Beside her, Xiao Xiao, a cute, petite girl with short dark green hair, couldn't help stealing a few more looks at the black-clad boy beneath the tree. A faint blush rose on her pretty face, and she murmured admiringly, "What a handsome boy our age..."
Meanwhile, at the very end of the line, deep within Huo Yuhao's mind, the previously sleeping Sky Dream Ice Silkworm suddenly jolted awake and cried out:
"Yuhao! Be careful! That kid in black under the tree... he's extremely dangerous! I can't see through the depths of his power at all!"
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's warning sent a shudder through Huo Yuhao. He instinctively looked up at Dongfang Hao, an equally indescribable tremor stirring in his heart.
"What are you looking at?! Have you all got a death wish?!"
The instant the freshmen slowed slightly, a piercing, shrill roar, like the wailing of an evil ghost, suddenly exploded across the center of the square!
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