Beneath the Mask

On the tree-lined avenue, the air seemed to freeze.

Everyone stared, dumbstruck, at Zhou Yi in her white robe, teetering on the brink of fury. Yet after the black-clad youth's offhand words, the murderous aura of the Outer Academy's notoriously fierce teacher had stopped as abruptly as if someone had cut it off.

Zhou Yi's wrinkled face twitched violently. Horror and disbelief mingled in her eyes.

Quite a few people at Shrek Academy knew Fan Yu's name. But her deeply hidden marriage to him was known to only a handful, even among the academy's higher-ups.

And how did this strange youth, whom she had never met, know the true face concealed beneath her ugly, aged mask?

Questions surged through Zhou Yi's mind like a storm-tossed sea. Her eye twitched. Forgetting even to maintain the fearsome bearing of a Soul Emperor, she stepped forward, ready to demand an answer.

Before she could speak, Xiao Dong stood ahead of her with his hands in his pockets. He lazily raised his eyes, a cool, mocking smile tugging at his lips.

"Teacher Zhou Yi, with all these people around, this isn't exactly the place for a heart-to-heart, is it?"

Xiao Dong glanced at the growing crowd of new and older students craning their necks to watch, then spoke in an indifferent tone.

At that light reminder, the furious shout on Zhou Yi's lips lodged in her throat. Her face turned green, then white.

She drew a deep breath and suppressed the rage and confusion threatening to run wild within her. The six dazzling Soul Rings rising beneath her feet quietly withdrew.

"You've got nerve. Come with me!"

Zhou Yi fixed Xiao Dong with a fierce stare and ground the words out in a low, hoarse voice. Then she swept her sleeve and became a white blur, racing into Shrek City.

Xiao Dong merely shrugged and followed at an easy, unhurried pace.

"Whoa!"

As the two departed one after the other, an uproar erupted along the edge of the square.

"That... that's it?!"

Not far away, Wu Feng had been waiting comfortably to see Xiao Dong's bones broken before he was thrown out of the academy. Now her narrow, beautiful eyes widened like bronze bells, and her jaw nearly hit the ground.

That was the Outer Academy's infamous old hag! On any ordinary day, students who committed the slightest offense would lose a layer of skin. Yet someone had called her an old hag to her face, and she had swallowed her anger after all that thunder and barely a drop of rain. She had even obediently taken him away?!

"How is that possible..."

Beside her, Ning Tian, the young sect leader of the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect, looked equally incredulous. Shock covered her delicate, elegant face.

She had thoroughly researched Shrek Academy's teachers. Zhou Yi was reclusive and extreme. Even the pampered prodigies sent by the empire's foremost noble families would be cursed bloody and expelled if they angered her.

But the black-clad youth had never even released his Martial Soul. With just two vague, offhand remarks, he had turned Zhou Yi's attitude completely upside down!

"That guy... is definitely hiding something."

A strange light flickered in Ning Tian's beautiful eyes. Her chest rose and fell gently as she murmured to herself.

As Xiao Dong left, he seemed to sense something. He turned his head slightly, his deep gaze sweeping over Ning Tian and Wu Feng from afar.

Two exquisite young flowers, each lovely in her own way. No need to rush. Once I'm settled at Shrek, sooner or later I'll bring you both to my room and train you properly.

Xiao Dong laughed inwardly, a wicked curve at his lips. Then he looked away and sauntered after Zhou Yi.

Under that unrestrained gaze, Wu Feng felt an inexplicable chill, as though she had been stripped bare and seen through. She shivered, then stamped her foot through gritted teeth.

"Damn it. We both have Red Dragon Martial Souls, yet even a Soul Emperor couldn't keep him in check..."

A crushing sense of defeat rose in Wu Feng's heart. Her proud, untamed spirit had been battered black and blue.

"Come on, Wu Feng. It's almost time to report for the new-student assessment. Let's finish enrolling first. As for that mysterious fellow... we're bound to run into him again at Shrek Academy."

Ning Tian gathered her wandering thoughts and gently took Wu Feng's hand. After one long look in the direction the youth had gone, the two hurried toward the new-student registration area.

In Shrek City stood a secluded, quiet courtyard with a house of its own.

Bang!

A violent surge of Soul Power slammed the courtyard gate shut with a heavy boom.

Inside the hall, Zhou Yi spun around. Her triangular eyes, cold and venomous, locked onto Xiao Dong. She unleashed the full, crushing aura of a Soul Emperor above level sixty.

"You little beast. It's just the two of us now. Who are you? How did you learn about me and Fan Yu, and where did you hear that shameful nonsense?"

Zhou Yi drew a deep breath. Her gaze clung to Xiao Dong like a venomous snake's bite. "If you don't give me a proper explanation, this courtyard will be your grave!"

That terrifying Soul Emperor pressure would have forced an ordinary Soul Grandmaster to his knees, trembling. Xiao Dong seemed to feel nothing more than a spring breeze. He strolled over to a soft leather chair, sat down comfortably without a care, and even crossed his legs.

"Peel off that disgusting human-skin mask. You spend every day wrapped in rotten old bark, pretending to be some kind of monster. Maybe it doesn't bother you, but the sight turns my stomach."

Xiao Dong rested his hands behind his head and lifted his eyes. His tone was mocking and left no room for argument.

"You!"

Zhou Yi trembled. Her last shred of hope vanished.

The wretched boy really had seen through her disguise from the start!

Zhou Yi's expression shifted. She stared into Xiao Dong's unfaltering, deep eyes. After a long standoff, she finally gritted her teeth and slipped her slender fingers behind her ear.

Rrip...

With a faint tearing sound, she pulled off the dried, ugly mask, revealing the peerless beauty it had concealed.

What a dazzling, alluring face it was.

Her pale skin was as smooth and tender as a freshly peeled egg. Beneath long, arched brows were phoenix eyes bright as autumn waters, though edged with menace. Her nose was straight, her red lips luscious. She looked like a woman of twenty-seven or twenty-eight, with all the charm and alluring fullness of a mature beauty.

Coming from such a stunning, ripe beauty, her vicious rebuke lost nearly all its menace. Instead, it took on the enticing edge of a woman's petulant anger.