Huo Yuhao withdrew his Soul Ring and walked over to the old man, asking politely, "Hello, sir. Is this the Freshman Dormitory Building? Where is Room 108?"
The old man gave Huo Yuhao a cursory glance and raised his withered right hand. "Let me see your badge and dormitory key."
Huo Yuhao handed them over.
The old man quickly waved the key before his eyes, then returned it to Huo Yuhao. His eyes were narrowed to slits, making Huo Yuhao suspect he had not looked at all and was merely going through the motions.
"Dormitory 108 is the third room on the left after you turn in on the first floor. The girls' dormitories start on the fourth floor. Boys are forbidden from entering. Anyone who breaks that rule will be expelled."
"Understood. Thank you, sir."
Huo Yuhao nodded his thanks and headed toward his dormitory.
After watching him leave, the old man reclined in his chair and murmured, "Spiritual fluctuations... did that child notice something?"
"Still, he's one of the few polite children."
He closed his eyes to slits again, looking ready to doze off.
Huo Yuhao entered the dormitory building and found Room 108. Once inside, he immediately slammed the door shut.
His Soul Ring appeared again. Only after Spiritual Detection confirmed that he had put some distance between himself and the old man did Huo Yuhao relax. He muttered, "Who the hell is that old geezer? At his age, why doesn't he go enjoy his retirement instead of sitting outside the Freshman Dormitory Building scaring your Brother Hao?"
Talking about someone behind their back, Huo Yuhao clearly showed not a trace of politeness now...
"T-too terrifying..." Tian Meng finally spoke again. "I felt like the slightest rash movement would expose me. That man is definitely at least a Titled Douluo! Even among Titled Douluos, he must be incredibly powerful."
Remembering the terrifying aura surrounding the old man, Tian Meng could not stop shivering.
He had been hiding in Huo Yuhao's Sea of Consciousness, where no one should have been able to discover him, but that old man definitely had the ability.
"A Titled Douluo!"
Huo Yuhao froze, then found it rather funny.
Shrek Academy really was something. Even the old dormitory attendant guarding the entrance was a Titled Douluo.
He, too, had assumed the old man was an ordinary person, but when he focused his detection on him, he had sensed an unfathomable power.
He touched his back. At some point, it had become soaked with sweat.
He relaxed his body. "All right. Be careful from now on. Don't let anyone discover you."
"Hmph. Lord Tian Meng fears death far more than you do."
Tian Meng stuck his tongue out at Huo Yuhao, then playfully hopped onto the bed and flopped onto his stomach.
The dormitory room was small, only a little over ten square meters. There was not much furniture, either: two beds, one table, two cupboards, and a Soul Tool lamp on the ceiling.
It was just like the two-person prison cell in Usavich...
Huo Yuhao shook his head helplessly. "That's just a bare bed board. Doesn't lying on it dig into you?"
But he felt a little sleepy himself, so he walked over, picked Tian Meng up, and gently set him on the floor. Then he took out a comfortable pillow, placed it on the bed, and lay down.
Tian Meng: "..."
"...Isn't there another bed? Yuhao, why do you have to steal mine?"
"That one belongs to someone else. I don't steal from other people."
"Hmph."
Tian Meng snorted and squeezed onto the bed, refusing to back down.
Two people on one bed made things rather cramped. Tian Meng leaned against Huo Yuhao, his two slender, pale calves kicking mischievously beneath his white coat adorned with golden patterns. He looked every bit the little brat.
Huo Yuhao could not be bothered to argue with him and simply let him fool around.
After lying there for two minutes, Huo Yuhao suddenly realized something was wrong. He jolted upright in bed and stared at Tian Meng with a strange expression.
"Hm? What's wrong, Yuhao... ah, ow, ow, ow!"
Tian Meng asked in confusion, only to feel a sudden sting in both cheeks.
"What do you mean, what's wrong?"
Without the slightest inclination to cherish a delicate beauty, Huo Yuhao pinched Tian Meng's cute cheeks hard and snarled.
"So you can fucking come out!"
When he had seen Tian Meng earlier, nothing had struck him as odd. After all, he could see him anytime in his Sea of Consciousness. Only now did the realization catch up with him.
Tian Meng had actually crawled out of his Sea of Consciousness!
"Waaah... stop pinching! It hurts..."
Tian Meng finally escaped Huo Yuhao's pincers and explained.
"My original body has already fused completely with you. This transformed body is made from my residual power. There were always outsiders around before, so I never came out."
Huo Yuhao asked, "Oh? How strong are you?"
"I was never good at fighting, but when I'm near you, I can draw on the portion of spiritual power in your body that originally belonged to me."
"What if you don't use spiritual power?"
"Um... probably... about as strong as a Wind Baboon..."
"What use are you, then..."
An evil smile appeared on Huo Yuhao's face. "But if you can come out, then you're very useful indeed-"
"W-what are you going to do?" Tian Meng grew uneasy.
Could Huo Yuhao really bring himself to lay hands on a pure-as-ice, flawless-as-jade little blond boy like him?
"What do you mean, what am I going to do?"
Huo Yuhao sneered, picked Tian Meng up again, and set him on the floor. At the same time, he swept his right hand over his belt and tossed him a rag and a broom.
"Go clean this room for me."
Having issued his command, Huo Yuhao lay back down, took out a Recipe Book, and spread it open over his face. He lay motionless, as though already asleep.
Tian Meng: "..."
He picked up the rag and hurled it viciously at the floor.
"Hmph! What do you take Lord Tian Meng for?"
Ten minutes later.
"La la la, I'm Little Tian Meng, the hardworking maid~"
Tian Meng hummed softly as he wiped the dust off the walls with the rag.
Though he was supposedly cleaning, he looked more like he was playing around...
Without water, he breathed out a mouthful of cold air and used the tiny ice fragments to clean. The wall, which had originally only been lightly coated with dust, now had dirty patches at regular intervals.
It would have been better not to clean at all...
Tap, tap, tap-
"Huh? Someone's coming."
Tian Meng was having fun when his keen spiritual power detected footsteps approaching outside the door. His figure vanished instantly as he returned to Huo Yuhao's Sea of Consciousness.
Click.
The dormitory door opened from outside, and a boy walked in with a smile.
He had delicate features, fair skin, and neat short hair. Both his hair and his bright, lively eyes were a faint pinkish blue. Few could rival his handsome looks.
The moment he entered the dormitory, his fairly cheerful mood soured, and his handsome face fell.
Though the lack of furniture and clutter kept the dormitory from looking particularly messy, it could hardly be called clean.
The dust on the floor had been swept into scattered patches, and there were quite a few dirty marks on the walls. A broom and a rag had simply been tossed onto the floor.
And the culprit behind all of this actually had the nerve to lie in bed sleeping!
The pinkish-blue-haired boy had always loved cleanliness. Furious, he strode straight toward Huo Yuhao.
He barked, "Get up!"
The Recipe Book covered Huo Yuhao's face, hiding his expression, but judging from the movement of his hand as he prepared to remove it, he was most likely awake.
"I told you to get up!"
Huo Yuhao's dawdling only fueled the boy's anger. With a sharp sweep of his right hand, he knocked the Recipe Book straight off Huo Yuhao's face.
Smack-thud.
The Recipe Book struck the wall hard and fell to the floor, its pages fluttering wildly.
"I live in this dormitory too. I order you to clean it up immediately, and I hereby declare that from now on, I'm the Dormitory Boss. You'll obey my rules. Otherwise, get out!"
"Do you understand?"
The boy lowered his voice, bristling with aggression.
Huo Yuhao sat up in bed with a dark expression and spoke coldly.
"I declare your declaration invalid."
"Who the fuck are you?"