Years of Effort Came to Nothing, and Yu Xiaogang Swallowed His Pride to Survive
After a stick of incense had burned, the doors of the Rose Hotel opened, and five stunningly beautiful girls, each with a unique temperament, surrounded the young man as they boarded the most spacious and luxurious Red-Scaled Dragon Horse in the center.
"Drive--!"
With a crisp crack of the whip, the Red-Scaled Dragon Horse galloped through the air, and the three luxurious carriages, amidst the awe and envy of the Soul Master throughout the city, sped out of the north gate of Suotuo City and headed towards the Heaven Dou Imperial City in a grand procession.
The spacious carriage was covered with thick Snow Bear blankets, and the four corners were inlaid with warm, lustrous jade.
Dugu Yan leaned against the car window, watching the city walls rushing past outside. Her emerald eyes turned to Su Chen, who was resting with his eyes closed in the main seat. "Captain, Qin Ming and Yu Tianheng have already headed north. Judging from the pace of the Heaven Dou Royal Academy convoy, they should arrive in Heaven Dou City two days earlier than us. Should we speed up and intercept them halfway, so that Qin Ming doesn't go to my grandfather's place to cause trouble beforehand?"
Su Chen slowly opened his eyes, took the warm tea Ye Lingling handed him, and sipped it. "Why intercept them? I kept Qin Ming and Yu Tianheng alive so they could rush back to Heaven Dou City to deliver the message for me."
Dugu Yan was taken aback, but Ning Rongrong beside her chimed in with a smile, "Sister Yanzi, haven't you figured it out yet? The more Qin Ming exaggerates his complaints when he gets back, the more your grandfather and those old guys at the Heaven Dou Royal Academy will think the captain is arrogant. Once you get to Heaven Dou City, just show your grandfather the pulse indicating that the snake venom in your body has healed. On one side is the academy, which has lost face, and on the other is the captain who can save his life. Do you think the Poison Douluo will choose?"
Dugu Yan suddenly realized, and her gaze towards Su Chen became even more respectful. "Captain's plans are flawless; I was overthinking it."
"Don't worry, focus on consolidating your Soul Power." Su Chen set down his Teacup, his gaze sweeping over the women in the carriage. "Once we reach Heaven Dou City and settle things with Dugu Bo, I'll take you to Sunset Forest to retrieve a true treasure of heaven and earth. At that time, your strength will double again."
Upon hearing this, the women's eyes lit up with anticipation.
At the same time, on a remote, muddy country road thirty miles from the Suotuo City.
There was a heavy rain last night, and the uneven road surface is full of water and mud.
A dilapidated donkey cart with a leaky canopy was struggling to move forward through the mud, stumbling along the way.
The driver was Flender, a man with a stubble-covered face and sunken eyes. This once arrogant level 78 agility-based Battle Soul Saint was now covered in mud in his gray robe, and half of his black-rimmed glasses were broken, barely held together by a rope.
He clutched the rotten wooden whip used to drive the donkey, staring blankly at the gloomy sky ahead.
The interior of the carriage was even worse, filled with a strong smell of blood, cheap wound medicine, and sweat.
The largest of them, Zhao Wuji, lay diagonally on the cart floor, his chest wrapped in thick, blood-soaked burlap.
Previously, in the Star Dou Great Forest, his sternum was crushed by the Gravity Domain of the Titan Giant Ape, and then his internal organs were injured by the aftershocks of Chrysanthemum Douluo and Tang Hao's fight. This former vice dean, who was once known as the Immovable Wisdom King, now coughs up half a mouthful of black blood even when he moves a finger, and his aura is weak.
At Zhao Wuji's feet, Ma Hongjun huddled up, his chubby face sallow and swollen. Ever since he was severely injured by Xiao Wu's Waist Bow at the Soto Great Soul Arena, the Evil Fire suppressed within him had gone out of control. Unfortunately, he had been hiding here and there for the past few days, unable to find even a place to hide. The Evil Fire backfired, burning him to the core. His lips were cracked and blistered, and he kept groaning in pain like a pig being slaughtered.
At the very back of the carriage, Yu Xiaogang lay flat on a wooden plank covered with dry grass.
During the clash between Titled Douluo in the Star Dou Great Forest, if Yu Luomian hadn't intervened in time to save his life, he would have been reduced to a pulp long ago.
Even so, the bones in his two legs were completely shattered, his Meridians were severed, and he had no feeling in his lower body, becoming a complete paraplegic.
Yu Luomian, disgusted that he had disgraced the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, threw him back Suotuo City and left in a huff.
"Cough... cough cough..."
Yu Xiaogang coughed violently a few times, his sallow, stiff face contorted with resentment and ferocity. His withered fingers gripped the straw beneath him tightly. "Flender... how much longer... until we reach Heaven Dou City? My legs... my legs feel like they're being bitten by bugs!"
Upon hearing this, Flender, perched on the carriage shaft, stiffened slightly, his voice hoarse and dry. "Xiaogang, just bear with it a little longer. We've already spent all our Gold Soul Coin after getting Wuji the life-saving medicine. We can't afford a fast horse, let alone the Official Road... We can only take this back road and slowly make our way over. It'll probably take another ten days or so."
"Ten days or so?" Upon hearing this, Ma Hongjun immediately pulled a long face and wailed, "Teacher! If we leave for ten days or so, I'll be burned alive by the Evil Fire! Why don't we go back to the academy? Even if we sell the land in the village, we can get some money to find a doctor in the city!"
"Back to the academy? Which academy?"
Zhao Wuji had been silent until now, suddenly opened his bloodshot bull-like eyes and roared in a gruff voice, "You little fatso, are you still asleep?! Our Shrek has been permanently expelled from the Great Soul Arena! That Tang San ruined our reputation by using poisonous Hidden Weapon to injure someone! The day before yesterday, the creditors came knocking on our door in the middle of the night and smashed up all those dilapidated wooden houses in the village to pay off their debts!! Now the entire Balak Kingdom is laughing at us. Do we want people to go back and talk behind our backs?"
Ma Hongjun shrank back when he was yelled at, tears and snot streaming down his face, and dared not utter another sound.
A deathly silence fell over the carriage again...
Yu Xiaogang stared up at the drafty roof of the car. The thought of his proud disciple Tang San being taken by Tang Hao to that hellish Slaughter City, where his fate was unknown, and the thought of Su Chen, who at only twelve years old had Titled Douluo protecting him and had trampled his theories and dignity underfoot, made his chest feel like it was filled with a red-hot iron. He was so angry that his teeth were bleeding.
"Su Chen... Spirit Hall..." Yu Xiaogang spat out a hoarse curse through gritted teeth, "As long as I, Yu Xiaogang, am alive, one day I will make Little San tear you all to pieces!!"
"Alright, Xiaogang, stop with the useless threats."
Flender turned around, his eyes revealing an unprecedented weariness and dejection. "Yesterday at the Soto Great Soul Arena, Su Chen, along with Ning Rongrong and the other three, directly crippled Qin Ming's Imperial Fighting Team. I heard that Yu Tianheng's right arm was crushed by him with his bare hands. Dugu Bo's granddaughter and the successor of the Nine Heart Begonia even smashed their badges in the street this morning and switched sides to his command."
"What?!" Yu Xiaogang's pupils constricted sharply, and he screamed like a rooster being choked. "Yu Tianheng is a level 39 Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Soul Elder! How could he possibly be crushed by him with his bare hands?"
"Not only that, he also revealed his Fourth Soul Ring this morning, a ten-thousand-year-old one." Flender gave a bitter laugh, wiping the mud off his face. "Twenty years of hard work, Shrek is completely finished. Even that brat Qin Ming probably hates us to the core now. For the rest of us, the old, weak, sick, and disabled, if we want to survive in Heaven Dou City, there's only one path left."
Upon hearing "the last way," Yu Xiaogang's stiff face twitched violently, his eyes instinctively darting away, and his voice trembled. "Flender, you... you wouldn't be thinking of going to join that person in Heaven Dou City, would you? No! Absolutely not! I'd rather die than see her!"
"If we don't see her, the four of us will starve to death and rot in this desolate wilderness!"
Flender lashed out with his whip, cracking it in mid-air. For the first time, his eyes reddened as he roared at his old comrade, "Yu Xiaogang! Look at Wuji's chest wound, and then look at your own broken leg! Is your laughable pride more important than the lives of us old brothers? Erlong has established Blue Tyrant Academy in Heaven Dou City; she has the space, the resources, and the money! If you're willing to lower your head, even if it's just for show, she'll do everything in her power to take us in and hire the best healing-type Soul Master for us!"
Flender's yelling turned his face pale and then red. Yu Xiaogang gripped his clothes tightly with both hands, overwhelmed by a wave of shame.
He hid from Liu Erlong for a full twenty years, vowing to cultivate the most outstanding disciple and prove that his theory was invincible before appearing before the world in a dignified manner.
But what about now? His disciples are crippled and have run away, his theories have become a laughing stock across the continent, and he himself has become a cripple with a broken leg who needs help even to relieve himself!
Now, in order to survive and have a place to shelter from the wind and rain, he has to beg for his cousin's money like a stray dog wagging its tail, and beg the woman he abandoned twenty years ago to take him in!
However, when the excruciating pain returned to the severed ends of his legs, and when he saw the black blood continuously seeping from Zhao Wuji's mouth, Yu Xiaogang's last shred of pride ultimately succumbed to the fear of death and crippling...
After a long while, he closed his bloodshot eyes, two streams of cloudy tears sliding down his stiff cheeks, his voice as weak as a mosquito's hum:
"Go... go to the Blue Tyrant Academy... when you get to Heaven Dou City... don't let anyone recognize me..."
Flender sighed heavily, turned around, and lashed the skinny old donkey's rump with his whip.
The dilapidated donkey cart, with its green canopy, creaked and spewed muddy water, carrying the disheveled remnants of Shrek, and limped away at the end of the desolate dirt road leading north.