The New School Year Begins! A Mysterious Blonde Girl?

Time flew by. The new year's enrollment ceremony ended, and before long, the first day of classes arrived.

Early morning.

Tang Qi lay sprawled across his bed, fast asleep, when a burst of urgent knocking at the door woke him.

"Hey! Tang Qi! Wake up! It's the first day for us freshmen!"

That clear, airy voice was unmistakable. It could only be little Xiao Xiao.

Tang Qi rolled over, still bleary-eyed, and a strand of Blue Silver Wood wound its way toward the door with practiced ease.

Outside the dormitory, in the corridor.

Huo Yutong stood behind Xiao Xiao with a piping-hot breakfast in her hands. Her pink lips parted, but she hesitated to speak.

Her gaze fell on the little girl pounding on the door. "Xiao Xiao, Brother Tang Qi might have cultivated too late last night. Should we... wait a little longer?"

Xiao Xiao turned to Huo Yutong, her little face full of indecision.

"But—"

Before she could finish, the door creaked open.

The two went in, one after the other.

Neither gave the Blue Silver Wood that had opened the door for them a second glance.

They had dropped by his room plenty of times out of curiosity over the past two days and had long since grown used to this trick of his.

Meanwhile, in the bathroom.

Tang Qi was already dressed and washing up.

Xiao Xiao hopped onto Tang Qi's bed like she owned it, her snow-white legs dangling over the edge and swinging idly.

Huo Yutong took out the breakfast items one by one and arranged them on the table, setting the bowls and chopsticks neatly in place. Then she brought over two chairs and sat obediently at the side, elbows on the table and cheeks cupped in her hands, quietly waiting for Tang Qi to come out.

Before long, Tang Qi emerged.

He sat down at the table, eyed the steaming breakfast with interest, and dug in without ceremony.

Huo Yutong watched him without blinking, a smile unconsciously curling her lips.

"Is it good?" A trace of anticipation slipped into her voice.

"It's all right," Tang Qi said, giving it a measured verdict.

Then he raised an eyebrow and added, "But... it doesn't come close to Yutong's grilled fish."

"Really?" Huo Yutong's eyes visibly brightened.

"Seriously? Yutong's grilled fish is that good?" Xiao Xiao's curiosity flared at once.

It had only been a few days, yet Tang Qi had brought up Huo Yutong's grilled fish more than once, wearing a look of endless nostalgia every time. The little girl was dying to try it.

"In a couple of days, once I've got the tools ready, I'll grill some for you both." Huo Yutong smiled sweetly. As she spoke, she unconsciously began counting the money she had earned from Tang Qi these past few days.

That should be enough, right?

"If you like it, Brother Tang Qi, I'll grill it for you every day."

"Hmph, Yutong, go on and wait on Tang Qi hand and foot~" Xiao Xiao pouted.

"What do you mean, 'wait on me'?" Tang Qi wiped his mouth and shot the little girl on his bed a sidelong glance. "It's an equal exchange."

In the days before classes started, Tang Qi had taken both girls to register their Soul Master information.

Huo Yutong had also successfully received the Soul Master stipend distributed by the three empires through the academies: one Gold Soul Coin a month.

That sum might have been enough at another academy, but at Shrek, it left her purse stretched thin.

Watching Huo Yutong scrimp on food every day, eating nothing but meager fare meal after meal, was more than Tang Qi could bear.

Never mind going hungry—if she ruined her health, how could she devote herself heart and soul to his Tang Sect in the future?

So Tang Qi immediately offered to support Huo Yutong.

The girl refused, however, and in the end, each gave a little ground.

They struck a deal. Huo Yutong would fetch Tang Qi's meals each day, and Tang Qi would pay her for the errand.

At first, she had objected to how much Tang Qi was looking after her. But after a round of his "stern" persuasion, she obediently gave in.

The great master of the Tang Sect was simply that kindhearted.

"Equal exchange? More like a PY exchange."

Xiao Xiao stared at him with her big, round eyes, suspicion glinting in them.

"Xiao Xiao!" Huo Yutong's face grew hot, the tips of her ears turning bright red.

When they had first met, she would never have understood such outrageous talk. But after several days of exposure to Xiao Xiao's cutting-edge vocabulary, she was no longer the same innocent girl.

Flustered and indignant, Huo Yutong pounced, pinned the little girl to the bed, and gave her a thorough tickling.

The two girls dissolved into laughter and rolled around on Tang Qi's bed. They only settled down when the bed's rightful owner finished breakfast.

After tidying up, the three left the dormitory.

Tang Qi led the charge down the middle, with Huo Yutong and Xiao Xiao flanking him like guardians on either side.

Under the envious gazes of freshmen in white uniforms, they soon reached the freshman teaching building and stopped outside the Freshman Class Nine classroom.

Quite a few students were already seated inside.

Tang Qi swept his gaze around the room. His attention quickly settled on a seat by the window in the back row.

As the saying went: the back row by the window was a king's homeland.

Without another word, Tang Qi walked straight over. Huo Yutong and Xiao Xiao exchanged a glance, then naturally took seats in the row ahead of him.

They had wanted three seats together, with Tang Qi sandwiched between them. But since he had chosen that incomprehensible spot, they could only follow his lead.

As for the desk and chair beside Tang Qi?

He simply controlled his Blue Silver Wood and shoved them into a corner of the classroom.

Did a king need a deskmate?!

It was still early, and class had yet to begin.

With nothing else to do, Tang Qi let the two girls pull him into cultivating the Mysterious Heaven Skill.

Yes, Tang Qi had already brought Xiao Xiao into the Tang Sect.

Twin Martial Souls—the Three-Life Soul-Suppressing Cauldron and the Nine Phoenix Worshipping Flute. How could he leave a talent like that outside the Tang Sect? So the little girl could do something foolish and put a Hundred-Year Soul Ring on her Second Martial Soul?

While Tang Qi cultivated with his eyes closed.

Just as in the original story, almost every girl who passed by stole a glance at him, intentionally or otherwise.

Some pretended to turn back casually. Others took a needless detour past him. A few bolder ones even stopped beside his seat, struck up conversations about nothing, then ran off blushing as though that could hide their intentions.

It drew more than a few sidelong looks from Huo Yutong and Xiao Xiao in the row ahead.

"They're so shallow," Xiao Xiao muttered with a pout.

"Xiao Xiao, weren't you the same..." Huo Yutong teased with a soft laugh. Before she could finish, Xiao Xiao clapped a hand over her mouth. "That's different!"

Just then, two figures stopped in the corridor outside the classroom's back door, one behind the other.

The girl in front was tall and slender, with a dignified, noble bearing and a face of breathtaking beauty. Her neat, short blond hair was soft and fluffy, and her blue eyes were clear and bright.

Though she was a girl, her brows carried a rare dash of bold, gallant spirit.

She was Ning Tian, the young sect master of the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect.

In her hand was a palm-sized notebook. She glanced down to flip through it from time to time, its pages densely packed with information on the freshmen.

Then her gaze stopped on one page, where a single line had been circled conspicuously in red.

"Tang Sect master. Martial Soul: Blue Silver Emperor. Age eleven. Soul Power rank thirty-seven."

The corner of Ning Tian's mouth curved into an inscrutable smile.

She closed the notebook, furtively gripped the back doorframe, and poked half her head around it to peer into the classroom.

A touch of playful charm softened the girl's usual gallant air.

With just one glance, her gaze locked unerringly onto the boy with short pink-and-blue hair.