"I will send a letter to the White Tiger Duke and have him take Dai Huabin home for strict discipline."
"We at Shrek have no place for a student who is already so vicious at such a young age, treating human lives like weeds!"
Yan Shaozhe spoke with righteous indignation.
His meaning was clear: Dai Huabin would be expelled.
And Shrek would cut ties with the White Tiger Dai Family over this affair:
This was entirely their family's doing. It had absolutely nothing to do with us at Shrek!
After all, to outsiders, the original Shrek Seven Devils included the ancestors of the White Tiger lineage, so Shrek must have deep ties to them.
Well, wouldn't you know it-they really did!
The Dai Family's eldest son was one of the current Shrek Seven Devils, and Dai Hao himself was also a graduate of Shrek Academy.
Even in the original story, Dai Huabin had hired assassins in Shrek City to kill Huo Yuhao after he had already revealed his Ultimate Ice. Hadn't he gotten off without so much as a slap on the wrist, and even represented Shrek in the Continental Advanced Soul Master Soul Fighting Tournament a few years later?
Shrek really did have ties to the Dai Family, and those ties were far from insignificant!
So, to avoid having a Limit Douluo come knocking, Yan Shaozhe decisively chose to cut them off.
Once the match ended, everything that had happened in the arena spread throughout the outer court as though it had sprouted wings.
Then, at a rate like a virus multiplying, the news began spreading elsewhere.
As for who had leaked it...
Ning Tian's team knew nothing about that.
Of course, anyone who saw Dai Huabin in that wretched state would have been curious, especially with Zhu Lu looking as though someone in her family had died.
Curious students would naturally ask around. Ning Tian herself might not say anything, but Wu Feng and Nanmen Yun'er were nowhere near as tight-lipped as she was.
The academy, meanwhile, made no attempt to stop the news from spreading.
First, there was no hiding the fact that Dai Huabin had been crippled and expelled.
Second,
If nobody spread the news, how would they prove that Shrek had cut ties with the White Tiger lineage?
As for any comments along the lines of "Huo Yutong went too far, and the referee did nothing"...
Those would be easy enough to handle!
Her mother's murder gave Huo Yutong the high ground in public opinion from the outset. Even if someone accused Shrek of failing in its supervisory duties and allowing Dai Huabin to be crippled, they had plenty to work with in their defense.
Besides, Dai Huabin hadn't died, had he?
His arms and legs were all still there, and he barely seemed to have any external injuries.
They could only say that student Huo Yutong's control over the ice element was so precise that even the teacher had been fooled.
Their referee had merely made an error in judgment.
In short, Shrek Academy wasn't worried about this wave of public opinion at all.
After Zhu Lu took Dai Huabin, who could do nothing but slump in a wheelchair, straight to Star Luo City overnight,
Dai Yueheng, who was cultivating in the inner court, noticed the next day that everyone around him was looking at him strangely.
Pity, regret...
And a little delight in his misfortune.
Dai Yueheng: ?
What's going on? Why is everyone looking at me like that?
Unable to make heads or tails of it, he soon put that minor oddity out of his mind.
He was busy exchanging contribution points for cultivation resources.
Once this batch of resources arrived, he would be able to break through another level right away!
A faint gleam flashed in Dai Yueheng's eyes.
Even if Dai Huabin was more talented than he was, he was confident he could compete for the White Tiger Duke's Mansion's title thanks to the advantage of having been born several years earlier!
"Just you wait! I'll be the next White Tiger Duke!"
After exchanging his points for resources under all those strange gazes, Dai Yueheng hurried into a quiet cultivation chamber.
He wouldn't come out until he broke through to the next level!
He knew nothing about what had happened in the outer court, the disaster Dai Huabin had provoked, or even the possibility that the White Tiger Duke's Mansion might soon be consigned to history.
If El had known someone was working so hard for something that couldn't possibly exist, he probably would have laughed out loud, then eagerly awaited the wonderful expression that person would make upon learning his ambitions had been shattered.
Unfortunately, he knew nothing about it.
El was warming up, preparing for a friendly instructional match with little Miss Huo.
The final: Huo Yutong's team against El.
Both sides had taken their positions on the platform and were ready.
Although the match hadn't started yet, the fighting spirit on the platform was already beginning to boil!
-If only Xiao Xiao's and Wang Dong'er's legs hadn't been shaking.
Huo Yutong was the only one who truly wanted to fight.
She, too, wanted to know just how vast the gap between her and El was.
"The match."
"Begin!"
At the referee's command, this long-awaited final finally began.
"Great vessel of the nation, Cauldron's Tremor!"
Facing the unhurried, perfectly composed El, Xiao Xiao unleashed her strongest attack right from the start!
The Soul-Suppressing Cauldron split apart and reunited, and an enormous cauldron emerged with a thunderous boom.
The pitch-black cauldron crashed down toward the head of the boy strolling toward her. Rings of black light streamed continuously from it, assailing El below.
"The power is decent, but the trajectory and your intent to attack are far too obvious."
El tilted his head up slightly and stopped this great vessel of the nation with one hand.
His fair hand gripped one of the cauldron's legs. Rings of light kept washing over him, but El remained completely unaffected.
He even gave Xiao Xiao's enormous cauldron a light bounce in his hand.
"...Perhaps when you consider future Soul Rings, you could look into Soul Beasts associated with fortune."
"Something like a Golden Hawksbill Turtle."
Facing the petite girl, whose face had turned deathly pale from excessive expenditure, El thought for a moment before offering Xiao Xiao some advice.
"Your cauldron isn't simply about control, offense, and defense."
Golden Hawksbill Turtle...
Xiao Xiao silently repeated the name to herself.
"All right, off you go."
With a casual wave from El, the pitch-black cauldron flew backward and collided with Xiao Xiao, carrying her off the platform.
The very next instant after Xiao Xiao was eliminated, a pair of dazzling, beautiful butterfly wings unfurled before his eyes.
Golden spheres of light emerged from the patterns on the Light Goddess Butterfly's wings, each like a miniature sun.
Butterfly God's Light!!
Using the great vessel of the nation as cover, Wang Dong'er had likewise opened with her most powerful skill.
At the same time, the butterfly wings behind her weren't idle either.
As the spheres of light left her wings, those wings were also cloaked in a layer of radiance.
Butterfly Wing Guillotine!
The timing of the two Power Attack System Soul Skills linked together almost perfectly.
An ordinary opponent would have had absolutely no chance of dodging this assault.
Unfortunately, her opponent was El.
"Your timing and your proficiency in unleashing Soul Skills are both quite good."
El nodded in approval.
"But you're too lazy. Your cultivation hasn't kept up."
Clang, clang!!
The sound of metal striking metal rang out.
Reverse-facing dragon scales emerged on El's arm, easily blocking both attacks.
"You lazy bum, get off the platform too."
When her attack failed, Wang Dong'er flapped her wings and shot upward and backward.
Facing this little butterfly, El gently curled his dragon claw in the air. The free-floating elements between heaven and earth surged toward Wang Dong'er overhead, as though they had heard their sovereign's decree.
"Condense!"
El softly uttered a single word.
A massive hand formed from gathered lightning elements appeared and, under Wang Dong'er's terrified gaze, caught her in its palm.
"Aaaaaaaah!"
Electricity crackled. Before the lightning hand vanished, it tossed Wang Dong'er beside Xiao Xiao, her hair blown into a wild frizz and her eyes rolled back.
"Wang Dong, are you all right?!"
Xiao Xiao jumped in fright, but after a quick examination, she relaxed.
Wang Dong only looked bedraggled. In truth, El had merely numbed her, and she hadn't suffered any actual injuries.
"Pfft!"
Seeing Wang Dong's wildly frizzed hair, the black smudges on her face, and the wisp of smoke drifting from her mouth, Xiao Xiao couldn't hold it in.
What a shame she hadn't brought an image-recording Soul Tool. Otherwise, she would have made sure to capture Wang Dong's sorry state.
On the platform, after the two super minions had been casually finished off, only Huo Yutong and El remained.
"All right, now it's just the two of us."
El smiled.
Then dragon scales emerged one after another, and a pair of broad wings unfurled behind him.
Terrifying elemental turbulence swept outward from where he stood.
Ice Dragon King vs. Radiant Dragon King!
The battle began in earnest!
Facing Huo Yutong, El underwent full Martial Soul Possession for the first time in a long while.
And Huo Yutong's response was-
Before you continue