The crowd parted with a whoosh, leaving Yu Xiaogang isolated.
Yu Xiaogang froze in place, unable to advance or retreat.
Li Hanqiu walked toward him, one step at a time.
"Gangzi, oh, Gangzi. First, you tried to steal my disciple. When you lacked the ability to pull it off, you invented this nonsense about 'evil arts' and spread it throughout the academy."
He stopped in front of Yu Xiaogang and looked down at him from above.
"If I remember correctly, your martial soul should be called Farting Pig now, shouldn't it?"
At those words, everyone burst into laughter.
Yu Xiaogang's face turned the color of pig liver, and his lips trembled. "Y-you're slandering me!"
"I'm slandering you?" Li Hanqiu raised his hand.
At his feet, Luo Sanpao let out a low rumble. Golden fur bristled, and a ball of golden lightning churned in the little dog's throat.
"Luo Sanpao, send this rumor-mongering bastard on his way."
"Rrr! Rrr!"
Golden light crackled all over Luo Sanpao, so dazzling it hurt to look at. The power of lightning actually gathered in the little dog's mouth.
Seeing this, Yu Xiaogang let out a howl and scrambled backward on his hands and knees.
He knocked over several students along the way, then accidentally stepped on the hem of his gray robe and landed on his backside with a thud.
"Murder! Li Hanqiu's going to kill me!"
He clutched his head, shaking like chaff in a sieve.
Rather than intervene, the students laughed and stepped back, giving him room to roll around.
Several teachers had already noticed something was wrong and immediately ordered students to fetch the dean.
Before long, the dean pushed through the crowd.
"Stop! Everyone, stop!"
Sweat covered the old dean's forehead. He looked at Li Hanqiu, then at Yu Xiaogang rolling on the ground, and stamped his foot.
"Oh, Teacher Li! Oh, Grandmaster! Could you both calm down, please?"
Li Hanqiu folded his arms without a word, while the lightning flickering in Luo Sanpao's throat made his position unmistakable.
He would not let this go!
What a joke. Yu Xiaogang had picked on his disciple Tang San time and again. If he, as the teacher, did not stand up for his disciple, would they really take him for a soft persimmon anyone could squeeze?
"Dean, until I get a satisfactory answer, I will not let this go."
Li Hanqiu kept his arms folded, his brows lowering slightly. His expression held a sternness that brooked no argument.
"I, Li Hanqiu, have taught my disciple with a clear conscience, while Yu Xiaogang has been splashing filthy water over us throughout the academy. Today, either I leave this academy, or he kneels before my disciple and kowtows in apology!"
The dean groaned, the wrinkles around his brows bunching together like deep ravines, his face clouded with worry.
He looked at the unyielding Li Hanqiu, then at the terrified Yu Xiaogang, who was now clinging to his leg, and rubbed his hands anxiously.
Of the two, Li Hanqiu was the academy's public face and finest teacher, while Yu Xiaogang was his friend of many years. Though the latter was something of a bastard, he could not simply watch him get beaten to death.
"How about this-" The old dean gritted his teeth and came up with a compromise. "Have Yu Xiaogang bow and apologize to Tang San, but spare him the kneeling. He'll also compensate Teacher Li and young Tang San for their losses! Would that work?"
Li Hanqiu snorted coldly. "Bow and apologize? Fine. If this old bastard knelt before my disciple, I'd worry word getting out would damage little San's reputation!"
A smile had barely appeared on the old dean's face when Li Hanqiu changed tack, making it freeze instantly.
Li Hanqiu snapped, "But compensation? Yu Xiaogang's a penniless wretch! What does he have to offer? We might as well let Sanpao strike him dead with lightning!"
"No, no! Teacher Li, please don't act rashly. Impulsiveness is the devil, the devil!"
After placating Li Hanqiu, the old dean quickly looked down and kicked Yu Xiaogang. "Get your money out!"
Trembling, Yu Xiaogang pulled a dingy cloth pouch from inside his robe, untied its drawstring, and shakily poured out a few hundred gold soul coins.
"I... my entire fortune... two hundred and twenty gold soul coins... it's all here..."
Li Hanqiu glanced at them and sneered, not even bothering to lift his eyelids.
"That's it? The mighty 'Grandblunder' has this little money? Are you trying to fob off a beggar?"
The muscles in Yu Xiaogang's face twitched. He was actually worth a fair amount; as a theoretical grandmaster, he had accumulated considerable assets.
But lately, he had spent plenty of gold soul coins hiring people to spread rumors about Tang San. Now he had lost the wife and the troops into the bargain.
Li Hanqiu circled him, looking him up and down.
The collar of Yu Xiaogang's gray robe gleamed with grease. One glance made it clear that years without washing had given it a patina.
Li Hanqiu's gaze moved downward and stopped at Yu Xiaogang's waist, where a leather belt with a deep black base was wrapped around him.
The dark belt itself was unremarkable, but the twenty-four lustrous white jade beads arranged neatly along it were striking.
Faint halos of soul power flowed around the jade beads. Its overall design was simple and antique, yet its quality as a treasure was impossible to hide.
"Oh? A soul tool?" Li Hanqiu exclaimed.
He remembered now. Wasn't this the soul tool Yu Xiaogang had given Tang San in the original story? It seemed to be called Twenty-Four Moonlit Bridges.
Li Hanqiu's gaze settled on Twenty-Four Moonlit Bridges, and the corners of his mouth rose slightly.
He pointed at Yu Xiaogang's belt. "Take off that accessory around your waist. I'm taking it."
Yu Xiaogang's expression changed abruptly, and he clamped a hand over his waist. "N-no! Not this! It's a soul tool! A storage soul tool I've treasured for years! I..."
"Luo Sanpao," Li Hanqiu said mildly.
The little golden dog opened its mouth and blasted out lightning with a boom, striking beside Yu Xiaogang's feet.
A floor tile split with a sharp crack.
Scared out of his wits, Yu Xiaogang fumbled to undo the belt and offered it to Li Hanqiu with both hands.
"H-here! Take it! Take it all!"
Li Hanqiu accepted the soul tool and weighed it in his hand.
"If you'd done this sooner, everything would've been fine."
He turned and beckoned Tang San and Xiao Wu over from where they still stood dumbfounded.
"Split those two hundred and twenty gold soul coins between you."
Tang San's eyes widened. "Teacher, this..."
"Take it. This is Uncle Gangzi's 'gift' to you."
Tang San felt embarrassed, but Xiao Wu had a thicker skin. Grinning, she took the money pouch and hugged it to her chest, her eyes curving into crescents. "Thank you, Teacher! I told you, stick with Teacher and there'll be carrots to eat!"
Li Hanqiu held out the belt as well. "This is a storage-type soul tool. It's very valuable. Which of you wants it?"
Xiao Wu leaned closer and sniffed, then abruptly pinched her nose, her little face scrunching up. "Eww-it stinks! It reeks of Yu Xiaogang's sweat! I don't want it!"
Tang San also shrank back slightly, blushing as he gently shook his head. "Teacher, I don't want it..."
Neither of them wanted it?
Now Li Hanqiu was in a bind. He raised the soul tool and inspected it from both sides.
The leather did indeed have an oily sheen, and a few unidentified short hairs clung to it.
Li Hanqiu sighed.
It really was a treasure, but after spending so long with Yu Xiaogang, its value had dropped a notch.
More importantly, he had his own system space, with storage capacity hundreds of times greater than this lousy belt. He genuinely had no interest in the wretched thing.
"Neither of you wants it? Then I'll have to put it on Zhuanzhuan someday... no, I mean sell it on."
He casually put the soul tool away and glanced at Yu Xiaogang. "It's bad enough that you're useless, but how come nobody even wants the things you offer as compensation?"
The surrounding students laughed so hard they could not straighten up.
Yu Xiaogang sat slumped on the ground, his face ashen.
He watched Li Hanqiu divide the gold soul coins between the two little girls and casually toss aside his soul tool, his heart bleeding.
And it was not over yet.
Li Hanqiu walked over, crouched before him, and lowered his voice so only the two of them could hear.
"Gangzi, if I ever hear you making up stories about my disciple behind his back again..."
He paused, his voice suddenly turning icy.
"One of these days, I'll roast that Farting Pig of yours and feed it to soul beasts."
Yu Xiaogang shuddered and forced a smile uglier than tears. "I-I won't dare... never again..."
Li Hanqiu brushed his knees, stood up, and turned to leave the crowd.
Tang San and Xiao Wu followed on either side.
Behind them, applause and cheers erupted, loud enough to lift the academy's walls.
The rumors had collapsed without a blow, and Li Hanqiu's prestige had instead risen another level.
That night.
Li Hanqiu stood alone at his office window, gazing at the stars in the northern sky.
The night breeze blew through the half-open window, and Li Hanqiu exhaled a plume of white breath.
He extended a hand to feel the direction of the wind, an unreadable emotion on his face.
After a long while, he murmured so softly that only he could hear:
"Nuoding Academy is still too small."
He spoke in a low voice.
"It isn't enough for Tang San. For me, it's even more like sitting at the bottom of a well, looking up at the sky."
Outside the window, a night owl cried and swept northward.
Li Hanqiu closed the window and took an old map from his drawer. His finger traced slowly across it before stopping at a place name circled in red at the very bottom.
Suotuo City.
Li Hanqiu stared at the symbol marking Suotuo City, his thoughts in turmoil.
Since Tang San had been feminized and his personality had changed, had the other male members of the original Shrek Seven Devils changed as well?
There was also his [Manga Grandmaster System], which awarded him rewards whenever he accepted disciples. Yet his research over the past few days suggested that taking ordinary people as disciples had no effect.
Only characters with considerable influence in the original story met the system's criteria for disciples.
As Li Hanqiu reached that thought, the system suddenly chimed:
[Quest quest triggered:] [Take the Shrek Seven Devils as disciples and carefully guide their hearts toward goodness. Temper their character and discard the original story's flaws of narrow-minded obstinacy, sleazy behavior, and self-serving conduct.] [Nurturing soul masters on a positive, upright path is precisely the conduct of a true "Grandmaster"!] [Reward: ???]
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