Absolute Loyalty and Independent Consciousness

As Li Qingxun felt the Ring in his hand, his expression grew complicated.

His Clones were Clones only in name. At their core, their consciousness was his own.

But they had consciousnesses of their own, too.

So they retained only two traits: absolute loyalty to him, and the fact that he could destroy them at will.

His true Clone was different. Li Qingxun's own consciousness controlled him.

Calling him a Clone was less accurate than calling him Li Qingxun himself.

But when the Divine Realm disappeared, the link between their consciousnesses had broken.

He had lost contact with his Clone.

Thinking of Wang Dong'er, Li Qingxun sighed softly, though his expression remained fairly calm.

His Clone had made an enormous sacrifice to leave him certain things while keeping them hidden from Tang San.

But he could vaguely sense that his Clone had probably reached the God King level.

Even if his Clone had lost what mattered most, once he possessed the power of a God King,

Tang San could do little to him. At worst, they would both suffer grievous losses.

Once Li Qingxun grew strong enough, he could use his Clone's location to find Tang San and kill him for good.

Thinking of everything his Clone had endured over the years, all the suppression he had suffered, a flicker of murderous intent crossed Li Qingxun's eyes.

But thinking about it now would do him no good. The young man remained seated cross-legged, quietly raising a hand.

He opened the Pill Bottle. Several Pills emerged, and he slowly swallowed them.

Morning sunlight spilled into Class Zero's first-year classroom, where Gu Yue sat in silence.

Her gaze swept over Li Qingxun, and hostility flashed across her face.

Beneath that hostility, however, lay a strange, tangled emotion.

Unusually, she had not sat with Tang Wulin. She sat alone in the back row, subdued.

Tang Wulin and Xie Xie paid little attention to the change in her.

They assumed she was in a bad mood because Li Qingxun had beaten her up. Neither realized what she was thinking.

Time passed. The class bell rang, and Wu Changkong pushed open the door as it sounded.

Calm-faced in his blue-and-white trench coat, he swept his gaze over the students.

Then he picked up his textbook, walked to the lectern, and began the day's lesson.

What Wu Changkong taught was quite different from the material taught at ordinary academies.

Much of it came from his own insights, while some came from Shrek Academy.

Its depth far surpassed anything the academies in Eastsea City could offer, including his explanations of Martial Souls and how to understand and wield them, as well as his descriptions of the various kinds.

His teaching was precise and powerful. Wu Changkong had one drawback, though: he also liked making people run.

Running had not always been such a widespread part of training.

After all, at Shrek Academy ten thousand years earlier, Zhou Yi had been the only teacher who liked making students run. The others had not been particularly keen on it.

But as Huo Yuhao, whom Zhou Yi had trained, grew stronger, her standing within Shrek Academy rose ever higher.

The teaching methods she had passed down grew popular along with her.

As a result, ten thousand years later, Shrek Academy still gave running a central place in training, even though it knew running did little good.

Now, while everyone else ran on the Athletic Field, Li Qingxun sat by himself.

He ate a Popsicle, watching the students with interest.

Xie Xie and Tang Wulin were both unhappy that Li Qingxun did not have to run.

But once Wu Changkong brought up the difference in their strength, neither had an argument left.

Li Qingxun watched the runners at his leisure, though his respite did not last long.

Wu Changkong, who had gone to the office only a short while earlier, came over. He looked at Li Qingxun and told him to stand.

"Wei Xiaofeng's, Wang Jinxi's, and Zhang Yang's parents are here."

"They arrived in Eastsea City last night. You need to come with me now to discuss how this will be resolved."

Wu Changkong frowned as he spoke.

Anyone with a working brain could see that Li Qingxun bore little responsibility for what had happened.

He had not struck first.

But matters had reached this point, and they still had to be dealt with.

The laws that governed ordinary schools meant little in schools for Soul Masters.

Soul Masters neither followed nor cared about the law. It could only restrain ordinary people.

Even if a Soul Master killed someone, they had plenty of ways to destroy the body completely and keep anyone from discovering it.

For an ordinary person, murder was a capital crime.

For a Soul Master, the punishment might be no more than imprisonment or a fine.

A powerful Soul Master could kill someone and face no consequences at all. Such people stood above the law.

That was why, after Tang Wulin and the others had severely wounded Light Dragon, Guang Biao had dared to come straight to Eastsea Academy.

Even if he had entered Eastsea Academy, no one there could have stopped him.

If Wu Changkong had not intervened then, Guang Biao might well have killed Tang Wulin and the other two outright—or done something even worse.

As for Uncle Li, the owner of the Beef Clay Pot Shop who had appeared only once, there was no need to ask what had become of him. His entire family was surely dead. There was no other possibility.

If Guang Biao could not take revenge on Tang Wulin and the others, he could still take it on someone else.

Of course, Wu Changkong was not to blame. Both he and Guang Biao were Soul Emperors.

Even though Guang Biao could not compare to Wu Changkong in the slightest, Wu Changkong could not simply "accidentally" kill a Soul Emperor without cause.

Stopping a Soul Emperor from seeking revenge was even less possible.

So that outcome had been unavoidable.

The original timeline had never shown what happened, and Tang Wulin and the others had never returned to that shop afterward.

From every angle, the conclusion was clear: in this world, or at least in this era,

there was a complete legal system and procedures for punishment.

There was even a federal institution, the War God Temple, to judge and punish Soul Masters. Yet many things still fell through the cracks.

Soul Masters still enjoyed considerable privileges. They still stood firmly above ordinary people.

Li Qingxun felt little about it, though. He was no ordinary person; he was a Soul Master too.

So he remained composed as he quietly followed Wu Changkong.

They went upstairs and stopped by the stairwell outside Long Hengxu's third-floor office.

Wu Changkong turned his head slightly toward the young man. "Don't say anything reckless once we go in. The three of them aren't dead."

"Their injuries are serious, and they'll need a month or two to recover, but this isn't a matter of life and death."

"So they won't be able to do anything to you." Wu Changkong patted Li Qingxun on the shoulder.

He had not said it outright, but his stance was clear.

He would protect Li Qingxun and would not let anything happen to him.

Li Qingxun watched Wu Changkong turn and walk away. For once, his gaze held a tangle of emotions.