Promises drawn in thin air? Not buying it! (Three more updates tonight)

Yan Shaozhe said to Chen An, "Chen An, Bei Bei and the others were at fault first, but that doesn't mean you did nothing wrong.

"If you had stopped after defeating Bei Bei, I could have considered it an act of self-defense.

"But you deliberately provoked the entire class, inflamed the conflict, and started a free-for-all, injuring every student in the class!

"That is no small offense. Since this is your first time, I'll give you a light punishment as a stern warning.

"The fifty-thousand-year soul bone that you were supposed to receive this month will be postponed for now. Once you perform well or win honors for the academy, I'll award it to you."

With that, Yan Shaozhe took an exceptionally high-quality, perfectly intact fifty-thousand-year torso soul bone from his Storage Soul Tool.

The soul bone was crystalline and translucent, shimmering with a hazy jade glow in the sunlight.

The soul power fluctuations it emitted were strong enough to distort the air.

As soon as the soul bone appeared, every student in the class involuntarily swallowed.

A high-quality soul bone was worth a fortune. Not only could it permanently enhance a Soul Master's attributes, but it could also improve their potential and deepen their reserves.

Torso soul bones and head soul bones, in particular, could transform a Soul Master from the inside out and raise the ceiling of their abilities.

On the Douluo Continent, there was no shortage of stories about Soul Masters of mediocre talent who, by a stroke of fortune, obtained a high-quality soul bone while hunting soul beasts, then soared into the heavens and became Titled Douluos.

After taking out the soul bone and showing it off to the students, Yan Shaozhe put it back into his Storage Soul Tool.

As the soul bone disappeared, the students reluctantly tore their eyes away, then looked at Chen An with schadenfreude.

Their looks seemed to say, That's what you get for being so smug and arrogant. Lost your soul bone now, haven't you?

Chen An glared at them, frightening the students he had just beaten into hurriedly lowering their heads again.

Chen An acted as though he cared deeply about the soul bone, but inwardly, he sneered.

Yan Shaozhe was drawing him a grand feast out of something that didn't even exist. He had eaten his fill of such imaginary feasts in his previous life and was thoroughly sick of them.

If Yan Shaozhe had showered him with resources outright, giving him soul bones and treasures of heaven and earth, he might have thought more highly of him. Staying at Shrek Academy wouldn't have been out of the question.

But dangling a carrot before him with these petty tricks only left him bored and disgusted.

Yan Shaozhe had no idea what Chen An was thinking. He merely assumed that the lure of this fifty-thousand-year torso soul bone had Chen An itching with desire.

As dean, he knew all too well how to motivate students. He also understood that never obtaining something was nothing compared to the agony of gaining it and then losing it.

He planned to double Chen An's reward once he performed well or brought honors to Shrek Academy.

He would give Chen An two high-quality soul bones at once, then tell him that he had only been tempering his character before and had always valued him highly.

That would surely move Chen An beyond measure and bring him completely into line.

Yan Shaozhe had honed the art of delivering a slap and then offering a sweet date to perfection.

The reason Yan Shaozhe used such methods on Chen An was that he felt Chen An was far too much like the people of the Body Sect.

They were all so proud, so willful, and so utterly unrestrained.

Chen An was still so young, yet a few heated words had been enough for him to beat every student in his class to the ground.

If they didn't properly temper a disposition like that while he was young and stamp Shrek Academy's mark upon his heart, there would be trouble.

Once he grew up, he might leave Shrek Academy and join the Body Sect.

If that happened, wouldn't the enormous price Shrek Academy had paid—the vitality his teacher had expended, along with the deaths and injuries among two Titled Douluos and numerous students and teachers—all have been poured down the drain?

That absolutely could not happen!

Even if only to keep their past investment from going down the drain, he had to discipline Chen An properly! He had to make him loyal to Shrek Academy and ensure that he served it for the rest of his life!

While Yan Shaozhe was devising his plan to discipline Chen An, something else was happening.

The Titled Douluo elder behind Yan Shaozhe looked at Chen An with a complicated expression.

One of his friends had died in yesterday's battle. He had initially resented Chen An quite a bit because of it.

He had felt that a Soul Master with a body martial soul, who was doomed never to undergo a second awakening at Shrek Academy, simply wasn't worth the academy going to war with the Body Sect over.

Now, however, he felt that the academy's leadership might have had some justification for their decision.

With only the cultivation of a Soul Master, Chen An had defeated an entire class of over forty Soul Masters and Soul Grandmasters whose martial souls were all at least high-grade. Such combat prowess was overwhelmingly powerful.

Even a legendary ultimate martial soul probably couldn't do much better. And this was his strength before a second awakening. If he underwent one, wouldn't he surpass an ultimate martial soul?

Just then, a tall man of around fifty with a dark face and no beard rushed into the classroom in a panic.

"Dean, something terrible has happened!"

His thoughts interrupted, Yan Shaozhe turned toward the newcomer and said unhappily, "Du Weilun, you're the Martial Soul Department's director of studies. What sort of example are you setting for the students, rushing around in such a panic?

"Tell me what happened."

Du Weilun wiped the cold sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. "Dean, Tyrant Spear Douluo Yun Chen, whose spear splits the sky with a single thrust, and Sky Wolf Douluo Li Mingxiao, the master of the Sky Wolf Gate, have arrived.

"After learning that their children had died, they flew into a rage. They're going berserk in Shrek Square right now.

"Deans Xian Lin'er and Qian Duoduo, along with several elders, tried to stop them, but they can't handle it. Please hurry over."

At those words, Yan Shaozhe's heart instantly sank to rock bottom.

During the battle between Shrek Academy and the Body Sect on academy grounds, quite a few students had been injured or killed by the shock waves of the fighting.

Most of the parents of those casualties would be easy enough to appease. These two, however, were a very different matter.

Tyrant Spear Douluo Yun Chen was particularly troublesome. His mastery of the spear was so profound that even Super Douluos found him a headache.

Yan Shaozhe could no longer spare any attention for the Youth Class. He gave Chen An a long look, then turned to the Titled Douluo elder behind him. "Elder Zhang, I'll leave the Youth Class students and Chen An to you."

With that, Yan Shaozhe transformed into a streak of golden light, speeding away from Sea God Island toward Shrek Academy's outer court.

Elder Zhang cupped his hands as he watched Yan Shaozhe leave, then addressed Chen An and the other students.

"Since this is your first day of class, I should have had you all introduce yourselves.

"But I don't think that's necessary anymore. I believe your battle has already given you a deep understanding of one another.

"Next, we'll get straight to the point. For our first lesson, I'll explain the threefold connection between spiritual power, soul power, and martial souls."

With his powerful spiritual power, Chen An could divide his attention between two tasks, listening to the lesson while considering his future.

He could sense that, after the Body Sect's invasion, many people at Shrek Academy had considerable grievances against him. There were even some idiots who ostracized and loathed him, transferring their hatred of the Body Sect onto him.

And then there was that miser Yan Shaozhe, so stingy that all he offered were grand feasts drawn in thin air.

Staying in this environment was truly stifling.

For a moment, the thought of leaving Shrek Academy arose in Chen An's mind.

But thanks to the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's warning, Chen An knew that the moment he left the Inner Court on Sea God Island, a Titled Douluo would undoubtedly follow him in secret.

Even during the earlier battle between the Body Sect and Shrek Academy, a powerful expert had remained by his side, following and protecting him.

Under these circumstances, leaving Shrek Academy with his mere Soul Master cultivation would be harder than climbing to heaven, unless he used the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's long-distance teleportation.

But the loss would be far too great if he did that.

Chen An thought to himself, I need to find the right opportunity.

Meanwhile, in the outer court, at Shrek Square.

A handsome middle-aged man stood suspended in the air, holding an imposing spear as a scarlet soul ring shone.

A domain resembling the azure sky pressed down across the entire heavens.

Xian Lin'er, Qian Duoduo, and the other Titled Douluos all plummeted from the sky, crushed down onto the ground, turning all of Shrek Square into ruins.

Yun Chen's voice was hoarse, and his eyes held a terrifying obsession and madness. Even heaven and earth merged with him under the force of his will.

"My son is dead. He died at Shrek Academy. As his father, there is only one thing I can still do for him: avenge him.

"Everyone connected to my son's death will pay the price!"