Yan Shaozhe = Useless **

"Then that's settled!"

A sorrow he could scarcely conceal flashed through Yan Shaozhe's eyes.

He took a deep breath, forced down the bitterness in his chest, and turned toward the ice bed radiating a bone-piercing chill. He reached to pick up the unconscious Ma Xiaotao and carry her away.

But before his hand could touch the hem of Ma Xiaotao's clothes, a cold voice burst out inside the room, stopping him short.

"Yan Shaozhe! The person you're taking away is an Evil Soul Master through and through!

You're just going to take her away? Is that in keeping with Shrek's rules? Are you trying to shield an Evil Soul Master?!"

With that sharp rebuke, Xuan Zi slowly rose from the Rocking Chair where he had sat silently behind a stone pillar.

He casually tossed a rib bone, gnawed clean and gleaming with grease, onto the floor. It landed with a crisp clatter.

Xuan Zi narrowed his eyes. This time, he was certain Mu En would not stop what he was about to do.

Hadn't he kept his silence precisely to wait for his senior brother to declare his position?

"Xuan Zi! What are you saying?" Yan Shaozhe spun around, his eyes Red Seal. "Xiaotao isn't like those Evil Soul Masters! She's never hurt anyone,

and you watched her grow up! She's my disciple. I have the right to take her away!"

"Hmph. Never hurt anyone?" Xuan Zi sneered and pointed at Jiang Hao on the bed. "Have you forgotten this boy's already half-dead?!

You were the one who brought Ma Xiaotao back. When you discovered the Evil Fire inside her, you didn't deal with it right away. You let her grow stronger instead!

And now look! You, Yan Shaozhe, Dean of Shrek Academy, personally raised an Evil Soul Master with