"Who beat you up like this?"
Zhao Wuji was shocked too. He strode over and clamped a hand onto Dai Mubai's shoulder.
"Yooow!" (Thanks to Tom for the brilliant voice acting.)
That squeeze made Dai Mubai howl in pain, and he nearly dropped to his knees.
Flender hurriedly shot Zhao Wuji a look.
Zhao Wuji let go and helped Dai Mubai onto a chair.
Dai Mubai spent a long while catching his breath before recounting everything that had happened at the Rose Hotel that day, from beginning to end.
His account came in fits and starts, punctuated by sharp gasps of pain, but he told them everything he needed to.
How Shi Meng had snatched the room, how Ning Rongrong had suddenly appeared, how Sword Douluo had sent him flying with a single sweep of his sword-he told them all of it.
Of course, he glossed over the wager about shitting while standing on his head.
It was too fucking humiliating. He couldn't bring himself to say it.
By the time Flender finished listening, his expression was so dark it looked ready to drip water.
"Ning Rongrong, the young lady of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, really has no respect for us at Shrek."
Flender rose and paced back and forth in the cramped office.
How many prospective students had Shrek lost this past month? How much tuition? If those promising seedlings had stayed at Shrek, how much prestige and sponsorship could they have brought the academy after graduating?
He tallied every last sum, working the abacus beads so hard they nearly threw sparks, yet the more he counted, the poorer they became.
"For nearly a month, Dream Academy has been aggressively recruiting students in Suotuo City, leaving us with practically no income lately. I haven't even settled that score with them, and now they're riding roughshod over us."
Zhao Wuji clenched his fists, his knuckles cracking.
"If you ask me, who cares about the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect? I'll go straight to Dream Academy myself. Let's see if that Sword Douluo really dares lay a hand on me."
Flender glared at him.
"You? A level seventy-six Soul Saint, going to reason with a level ninety-five Sword Douluo?"
Zhao Wuji's mouth twitched, and he immediately shut up.
"Never mind you. Even if I went myself, he wouldn't spare me a proper glance."
Flender sighed, an indescribable frustration weighing down his voice.
"The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect is one of the continent's Upper Three Sects. They have Sword Douluo standing guard and that old fox Ning Fengzhi behind them. What does Shrek have to fight them with?"
The office fell silent.
Zhao Wuji plopped back onto the windowsill, hanging his head without a word.
He knew Flender was telling the truth.
Frankly, Shrek Academy was an academy with nothing to its name. Flender had to pinch every penny just to improve the students' meals, and every expense in the ledger had to be calculated three times.
After calculating it three times, he still found they could only afford greens.
"Forget the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect for a moment. What's the background of that kid called Shi Meng?" After holding it in for so long, Zhao Wuji finally asked the question he most wanted answered.
Flender shook his head.
"I've never heard of him. But Ning Rongrong calls him Brother Shi Meng, and she bought an entire hotel for him. If the young lady of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect cares that much about him, his background probably isn't simple."
Dai Mubai lay slumped over the chair. Hearing this, he gritted his teeth and cut in:
"Dean, that Shi Meng is twelve or thirteen at most. What background could he possibly have? He's just a pretty boy who lives off women!"
Flender glanced at him but didn't respond.
He knew perfectly well what Dai Mubai was like.
Dai Mubai had visited places like the Rose Hotel more times than anyone could count.
But there was no point saying that aloud. After all, the one who had been beaten was his own student.
Even if the boy was a pigheaded fool, he had to swallow his tears and claim him.
Just then, the door opened again.
Ma Hongjun waddled in, half a sesame flatbread still clutched in his hand and sesame seeds stuck to the corner of his mouth.
The moment he saw Dai Mubai's face, he nearly dropped the flatbread.
"Holy shit! Boss Dai, what happened to your face? Did you crash into a pig?"
Dai Mubai wished he could find a crack in the floor to crawl into.
"Don't ask."
Ma Hongjun leaned closer for a careful look and clicked his tongue twice.
"Someone really went to town on you. Who did it?"
"Dream Academy," Zhao Wuji said sullenly.
At that, the playful grin vanished from Ma Hongjun's face. He put away his flatbread, his eyes darting as he muttered:
"Dream Academy again? How many people have they snatched from us this past month? I heard people outside saying that kid called Shi Meng has level forty-nine soul power at just twelve years old. Is that true?"
Flender frowned.
"Level forty-nine at twelve? Where did you hear that?"
"It's all over Suotuo City. They say that kid Shi Meng from Dream Academy is only twelve, but his soul power level is already forty-nine. He's about to break through to level fifty."
Ma Hongjun scratched his head, then added:
"Level forty-nine at twelve... Dean, even if everyone at Shrek teamed up, we wouldn't be enough to take him on, would we? What level was I at twelve? Twenty-something?"
Flender said nothing, but his expression grew even uglier. Zhao Wuji snorted.
"Someone from Spirit Hall, and the brother of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's young lady. No wonder he's so arrogant."
Slumped over the chair, Dai Mubai suddenly raised his head and spoke viciously:
"Dean, are we really just going to let this go?"
Flender turned around and looked at Dai Mubai's swollen face, remaining silent for a while.
"What else can we do? We can't afford to offend the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect. What do you expect me to fight them with?"
The silence was like Mount Tai, pressing down on everyone until they could barely breathe.
Flender sat back in his chair, looking as though he had aged several years.
"Let's leave it at that for now. Mubai, go recover from your injuries. Let me think this over."
Dai Mubai opened his mouth to say something, then swallowed it back.
He knew that, put plainly, Flender's words meant there was nothing he could do.
But he also knew that when Flender said he would "think it over," he was probably considering more than how to deal with Dream Academy. He was also thinking about how to squeeze some benefit out of this incident.
Just then, a figure walked in from outside.
Oscar had appeared at the doorway at some point, his scruffy face unreadable.
He leaned against the doorframe, clearly having listened for a while already.
"Um... Dean, some new students are here."
"New students?!"
At that moment, a voice came from outside:
"Dean Flender, I heard what you were discussing while I was outside."
Everyone in the office looked up at once.
A black-haired boy walked slowly through the doorway, his expression composed.
"I think I have a plan that might work."
"Out with it!"
An inscrutable smile curved the boy's lips.
"Ahh, that feels good!"
At Dream Academy, Shi Meng lay on a soft sofa, his features gradually relaxing.
Lying on this sofa felt like getting a spa treatment. It was blissfully comfortable.
This was top-tier lounging gear in the Soul Master World, exclusive to pay-to-win players.
"That girl Ning Rongrong really thinks of everything."
A rich woman was already a road to invincibility. Rebirth made it doubly invincible!
This time, Ning Rongrong had been so satisfying that he couldn't find a single fault.
But with these three girls gathered at the same academy, he would probably be living amid a romantic battlefield every day from now on.
Still, he, Shi Meng, had transmigrated to Douluo and was destined to become the king of living off women. How could a mere romantic battlefield frighten him?
With that thought, Shi Meng opened the system.
[Ding-dong. Host's stored authority power has only forty percent remaining. Host can perform Causal Restructuring one more time.]
"Oh? After changing Tang San's causality, I still have forty percent left?"
That's quite a large reserve.
Shi Meng considered for a moment, then snapped his fingers.
"Got it. You're the next one I choose."
Before you continue