"Aaagh!"
Dai Mubai screamed as a single sweep of the sword sent him flying.
He rolled several times by the entrance before clutching his pig-swollen face and scrambling away on all fours.
With the incident over, the crowd gradually dispersed.
Ning Rongrong looked at Shi Meng again, her eyes full of anticipation.
"Shi Meng, I'd like to invite you to join Dream Academy. Would you?"
Xiao Wu looked at the Seven Treasure Academy students behind Ning Rongrong, feeling as sour as if she'd bitten into a lemon.
Other people came back to life and bought hotels, even opened academies. They really did things on a grand scale.
But her own second life was...
Xiao Wu lowered her head to look at her scorpion-tail braid, then looked at Ning Rongrong.
Mm, I really can't compete with her.
But that's all right. Shi Meng chose me in our previous life. This life shouldn't be any different.
Xiao Wu comforted herself with that thought, but her rabbit ears still drooped.
Shi Meng looked at Ning Rongrong's earnest face and fell silent for a few seconds.
Joining certainly wouldn't be a loss.
The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect was the continent's foremost support sect, with Sword Douluo guarding it and plentiful resources.
"All right, I'll join."
Ning Rongrong's eyes lit up.
"Then let's go right now!"
"Can I join too?"
Just then, Xiao Wu walked over.
Ning Rongrong stared at Xiao Wu's sudden appearance for several seconds.
Why is she here too?
Xiao Wu stepped closer, leaned toward Ning Rongrong's ear, and lowered her voice.
"You're also... one of those, aren't you?"
Those words shocked Ning Rongrong.
Xiao Wu was reborn too?!
The two exchanged a glance. Everything passed between them without a word.
Hu Liena watched from the side, utterly bewildered.
How had these two suddenly matched their secret signals?
"Xiao Wu, didn't you say you were going to Shrek Academy with me?"
Tang San finally couldn't hold back and stepped forward.
He was confused. Hadn't she agreed to go to Shrek Academy with him? What was going on?
But Xiao Wu didn't even spare him a glance.
"Shrek? I'm not going anywhere that has trash like Dai Mubai. Go by yourself if you want."
Tang San's expression darkened at once.
"Xiao Wu, I hope you won't regret today's decision."
Tang San flicked his sleeve and strode out of the hotel.
Xiao Wu stuck her tongue out at his retreating back.
Did he really think his so-called Grandmaster and that Shrek were anything special?
Without Shi Meng in our previous life, they'd have been jack shit!
Now that she had another life, and Shi Meng had chosen Dream Academy, she naturally had no reason to go back to a dump like Shrek.
Shi Meng narrowed his eyes slightly as he watched Tang San leave.
Because of his intervention, Tang San and Xiao Wu's relationship was naturally nothing like it had been in the original story.
The current Tang San had merely been Xiao Wu's classmate for a few years. There were no feelings between them at all.
No feelings... That makes things rather boring.
"I've got it!"
Making a reborn Tang San might be very interesting. Heh heh heh!
"Let's go, Shi Meng."
Ning Rongrong reached out to take Shi Meng's hand.
But Hu Liena reacted swiftly and grabbed his hand first.
"I'll do it myself."
Ning Rongrong pursed her lips.
Tch! That sultry fox really is irritating.
Still, she couldn't afford to offend Hu Liena too much right now. After all, she was Shi Meng's junior sister and had spent years with him.
The group left the Rose Hotel.
Only then did the hotel manager collapse onto the floor and wipe the cold sweat from his forehead.
Thank goodness, thank goodness. My job's gone, but at least I'm still alive.
Suotuo City really is a dangerous place.
As for yours truly, I'd better...
Run for it!
After fleeing the hotel, Dai Mubai ducked into a nearby alley and panted heavily.
The thought of the humiliation he'd just suffered filled him with rage.
"Fuck... Shi Meng, was it? Just you wait! I'm going to get Headmaster Flender right now!"
But he had barely taken a step when a black sack fell from above and landed squarely over his head.
A moment later, clubs rained down on him.
Dai Mubai rolled all over the ground under the beating, howling nonstop.
The group beat him for a full cup of tea's worth of time before finally stopping and scattering.
Dai Mubai finally wriggled free of the sack. With a face so swollen that even his own mother wouldn't recognize him, he roared into the empty alley.
"Shi Meng! It must have been you! I, Dai Mubai, will never coexist with you..."
Splash!
He was still roaring when a basin of cold water mixed with vegetable leaves suddenly drenched his face.
"Goddammit, what's all that yelling in the middle of the day? Are you gonna let people sleep or not? If you wanna yell, piss off somewhere else! Goddammit!"
At the other end of the alley, a group of street thugs knelt before a masked woman dressed in black.
The woman had a slender, graceful figure. She casually tossed them a bag of gold coins.
"Your reward. Now get lost."
The thugs thanked her profusely, then scrambled away on all fours.
The woman removed her mask, revealing a delicate, cool face.
"Shi Meng, this life, it's my turn to protect you."
East Street, Suotuo City.
Shi Meng stood at the entrance, staring at the absurdly magnificent complex before him in silence for several seconds.
Artificial hills, fountains, training grounds, three main buildings, and a connected stretch of student dormitories.
Its scale almost rivaled that of a Spirit Hall Branch.
Hu Liena was dumbstruck too.
"This... this is Dream Academy?"
Ning Rongrong proudly thrust out her flat expanse of a chest.
"Of course! Our Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect built it. How could it be anything less?"
As she spoke, she turned and smiled at Shi Meng.
"Shi Meng, welcome to Dream Academy!"
The headmaster's office at Shrek Academy.
Flender sat behind his battered desk, holding a letter, his brows twisted like braided dough. With a little more effort, they could have twisted into a QR code, and scanning it would probably have produced just two words: insufficient funds.
The letter had been sent by an old friend in Suotuo City. It said the Rose Hotel had changed owners: the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect had bought the entire building, along with three surrounding plots of land.
Flender slapped the letter down on his desk.
"The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect is reaching far too long an arm."
He cursed aloud, but he knew perfectly well that old fox Ning Fengzhi always handled things without letting a single drop leak. There was nothing to fault and no way to stop him.
But the more faultless it was, the more stifled he felt.
It was the sort of thing you couldn't even leave a bad review for, because they genuinely hadn't broken any rules.
Zhao Wuji sat on the windowsill, his thick arms folded across his chest, and spoke in a muffled rumble.
"Headmaster, this is already the third one this month. First the herb shop on West Street, then the Soul Bone Workshop in Southside, and now even the hotel..."
Flender waved a hand, stopping him from continuing.
"I know."
If he heard any more, his blood pressure felt liable to soar right along with his Soul Power.
Just then, someone kicked the office door open from outside.
With a thunderous bang, the door slammed against the wall, bounced twice, and nearly fell off.
Anyone hearing that racket without knowing better might have thought Suotuo City's demolition crew had arrived.
Flender and Zhao Wuji looked up at the same time.
Someone stumbled through the doorway.
The two looked him up and down, but still couldn't recognize him.
"Who are you?"
The man raised a face swollen like a pig's head. His eyes were reduced to two slits and his lips were turned outward, making his words whistle through the gaps.
"Headmashter, ish me, Mubai!" [Headmaster, it's me, Mubai.]
Flender adjusted the glasses on his nose, leaned closer for another look, and sucked in a breath.
"Mubai?!"
Before you continue