When Hu Liena woke up, she found herself lying in Ning Rongrong's arms.
Her mind was still a little foggy.
"Where's my junior brother?"
Ning Rongrong looked at her and hesitated.
"He went after Xiao Wu."
"After Xiao Wu? She's a soul beast, and he went alone..."
"Hu Liena, Xiao Wu has never hurt anyone."
Zhu Zhuqing suddenly spoke up.
Hu Liena froze.
Ning Rongrong sighed and explained everything she knew.
Xiao Wu was a hundred-thousand-year soft bone rabbit who had taken human form, and she had always stayed by Shi Meng's side.
Chrysanthemum Douluo and Ghost Douluo had seen through her long ago, but they thought she was a soul beast their junior brother was raising, so they had left her alone.
She Long had known for a long time too, but Qian Renxue had told him not to interfere.
Sword Douluo knew Xiao Wu was a soul beast who had taken human form, but although she wasn't human, she hadn't harmed anyone, so he hadn't done anything either.
After hearing all this, Hu Liena was silent for a long time.
"So... I was the only one who didn't know?"
Ning Rongrong and Zhu Zhuqing nodded.
Qian Renxue nodded too.
Zhu Zhuyun put on a wounded expression. "I only just found out too. Aren't you forgetting someone?"
Hu Liena bit her lip.
"Then... aren't you afraid she'll hurt my junior brother?"
"She won't."
Ning Rongrong sounded completely certain.
"She cares about Shi Meng just as much as we do."
Hu Liena fell silent.
She suddenly remembered the way Xiao Wu looked at Shi Meng.
She knew that look all too well.
Because she looked at him the same way.
"Then what do we do now?"
Hu Liena asked.
"Wait. Shi Meng will handle it."
Deep in the woods.
Er Ming wasn't moving quickly, but his strides were enormous, and the ground shook with every step.
Xiao Wu stood in his palm, her mind filled with the expression Shi Meng had worn earlier.
Anxiety, panic...
He really was just like he had been in his previous life, caring so deeply about the people around him...
"Er Ming, stop for a moment."
Er Ming stopped and lowered his head to look at her, his adorably vacant eyes full of confusion.
"Just for a moment."
Xiao Wu jumped down from Er Ming's palm and landed on the grass.
She turned to look back the way they had come.
A figure was running swiftly through the trees.
It was Shi Meng!
Xiao Wu's eyes instantly reddened.
Shi Meng spotted her too and picked up his pace.
"Xiao Wu!"
But the moment he approached, the Titan Giant Ape swung his enormous fist.
"Er Ming! Stop!"
Xiao Wu turned and stretched out her arms in front of Shi Meng.
Er Ming's fist stopped in midair. He looked down at Xiao Wu, even more confused.
"He's my... he's someone very important to me. Don't hurt him."
Er Ming glanced at Shi Meng and could only slowly lower his fist.
But he didn't move away. He stood there, watching Shi Meng warily.
Xiao Wu turned back to Shi Meng.
"Shi Meng, do you know everything now?"
"Know what?"
Shi Meng played dumb.
Xiao Wu looked at him, then suddenly smiled. She stepped forward, drawing very close to him.
"I'm a soul beast, a hundred-thousand-year soft bone rabbit who took human form. I've been lying to you all along. I've been lying to everyone."
Shi Meng looked straight at her face, mere inches from his own.
"And?"
"And..."
Xiao Wu took a deep breath and lifted her head.
"I like you. I've liked you for a very long time."
Shi Meng looked at her.
Xiao Wu's eyes were bright, filled with so many things.
There was nervousness, hope, and the frank resolve of someone who had decided to risk it all.
"You don't have to answer me now. I know you don't like me yet, but I'll keep trying."
Despite her words, she rose onto her toes and leaned right in.
It was light and brief, like a leaf falling onto the surface of the water.
Shi Meng didn't push her away. He stood where he was, watching Xiao Wu with a complicated look in his eyes.
Xiao Wu took a step back, her face as red as a freshly cooked crab.
"I... I'm going to break through the rank-thirty bottleneck. Wait for me to come back."
With that, she immediately turned and ran toward Er Ming.
Shi Meng watched her retreating figure for a long while before looking in another direction.
There, farther into Star Lake, lay a tranquil stretch of water.
A purple eye with a vertical pupil slowly opened.
The ruins of Shrek Academy.
Strictly speaking, even calling the place "ruins" was flattering now. At best, it was a pile of rubble with a little backbone.
Yu Xiaogang arrived on the third day.
He wore a long robe washed pale and carried a bulging bundle on his back. Inside were the soul beast records he had collected during his travels around the continent over the past few months, along with three handwritten notebooks whose covers bore a crookedly written title: "On Trash Martial Souls."
He stood before the gatepost that had once borne the bold inscription "Shrek Academy" and fell silent.
The gatepost was still there, but only half of it remained. The inscription had been split in two as well, leaving only "Shre" behind.
"..."
Yu Xiaogang rubbed his eyes.
This was the right place, wasn't it? This was Shrek Academy?
"Flender!"
His voice wasn't especially loud, but the shout was full of force, like Luo Sanpao's thunderclap.
Flender crawled out of a makeshift "tent" built from door planks, his face covered in stubble and his eyes sunken. He looked every inch a Sanhe God.
"Xiaogang? You're back?"
"What happened here?" Yu Xiaogang pointed at the broken gatepost, his finger trembling.
Flender sighed, pulled him into the "tent," and recounted everything that had happened over the past few days.
The more Yu Xiaogang heard, the darker his expression became.
"You're saying four Titled Douluos fought right over our Shrek Academy, demolished it, and then... left?"
"They left."
"No compensation?"
"None."
"Not even an apology?"
"They did say, 'Thanks for going easy on us.'"
Yu Xiaogang took a deep breath.
His face slowly turned from its normal color to red, then purple. His eyes were bloodshot, and he panted like an ox.
"Dream. A. Cad. Emy." He ground out each syllable, his teeth creaking. "What a fine Dream Academy!"
Flender's mouth twitched. "But they have the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect backing them..."
"So what if it's the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect?" Yu Xiaogang whipped his head around, a cold gleam flashing across his glasses. "I've devoted my entire life to martial soul theory. I've never feared any power!"
Flender opened his mouth to say something, then swallowed it back down.
You broke through the age-fifty barrier without even reaching rank thirty. Where does all that confidence come from?
Yu Xiaogang paced in three circles, then suddenly stopped and slammed his fist into a door plank.
"When Little San gets back, I'm giving them extra training!"
Flender blinked. "Extra training?"
"Yes! Double! No, ten times as much!" Yu Xiaogang's eyes were bloodshot, and he panted like an ox, his chest heaving. "Starting today, everyone at Shrek will train twice as long every day, at twice the intensity. Their meals... their meals will stay the same."
"All we have to eat is greens..."
"Then we'll keep eating greens! Even if we're left with nothing but wild vegetables and tree bark, we must persevere!" Yu Xiaogang swept out his hand. "Only those who endure the bitterest hardships can rise above the rest! I'll show them that if they destroy one Shrek, thousands upon thousands more Shreks will stand up!"
A thought flashed through Flender's mind: He's lost it.
But after so many years of friendship, he didn't dare say it.
After all, this was the first time he had ever seen Yu Xiaogang with bloodshot eyes, panting like an ox.
"And another thing!" Yu Xiaogang suddenly lowered his voice, his tone sinister. "Investigate that Shi Meng. Find out exactly where he comes from. Rank forty-nine at twelve years old... no, he might be rank fifty by now."
He paused, a sharp glint flashing in his eyes behind his glasses.
"I don't care where he comes from. If he dares touch my Shrek, he'll pay the price."
"Xiaogang, what are you planning?" Flender asked warily.
Yu Xiaogang didn't answer. He merely gazed toward Suotuo City, the corners of his mouth slowly curling upward.
Flender knew that curve all too well.
Every time Yu Xiaogang wore that expression, it meant trouble was coming his own way.
The last time he had worn it was when he developed the "Sanpao Evolution Theory," which had nearly blown Luo Sanpao up.
The time before that was when he proposed the "Ten Core Competencies of Martial Soul," only for the Spirit Hall to hound him for peddling falsehoods.
And this time...
It's over. Shrek is probably headed for Doomed 2.0.
Before you continue