I Think We Can Cancel Our Cooperation

Zhou Yi's voice was shrill and sharp, like a rusty knife scraping against stone.

"Are you deaf? Did you hear me tell you to run laps? Shrek Academy doesn't take freeloading trash like you! Look at that delicate skin of yours. Your family has a little filthy money, so they shoved you in here to idle your days away, didn't they? Let me tell you, in my class-"

"Teacher," Xu Jingyao interrupted her, his fan still folded and his tone unchanged. "I told you, I'm not a student."

"Still talking back!"

Zhou Yi's temper flared, and her finger nearly jabbed the tip of his nose. "I've taught in the outer court for thirty years. I've seen plenty of students like you! Just because your family has a few Soul Tools and some filthy money, you think getting into Shrek means you've entered paradise. All you do is enjoy yourselves. You won't put any hard work into cultivating, and you even try to shirk running a few laps! Did your parents send you here to play the lord?"

The more she spoke, the more worked up she became, spittle nearly spraying Xu Jingyao's face. "Let me tell you, Shrek Academy doesn't keep loafers! Get the hell out of Shrek Academy right now, before I call enforcement to drag you out!"

Xu Jingyao's eyes narrowed briefly.

Just briefly.

Then he raised his hand, unhurriedly, and swung a backhanded slap.

Smack.

The sound was as crisp as someone snapping a piece of dry firewood.

Zhou Yi went flying, rolled sideways over the stone steps at the edge of the field, knocked over two potted plants, and finally hit the bluestone ground and slid twenty feet. She lay facedown, not moving for a long while.

The students running laps on the field all stopped in their tracks, dozens of pairs of eyes widening into circles.

Wang Dong, the pink-and-blue-haired youth, stopped too. She shaded her eyes against the morning sunlight with one hand and looked over, her expression shifting from curiosity to astonishment.

"..."

Dead silence settled over the field.

Xu Jingyao withdrew his hand and lightly brushed nonexistent dust from his cuff with his fingertips.

He lowered his gaze to Zhou Yi's back as she lay on the ground, his face expressionless. He had not even taken the fan from his waist.

"Noisy."

With that one word, he turned and left.

His pace was neither hurried nor slow. His moon-white robe stirred gently in the morning breeze as he followed the stone path he had come along toward Sea God Lake, as though nothing had happened.

Shadow Douluo flashed out of some corner and silently followed. His gray figure flickered among the shadows of the trees, his movement almost imperceptible.

The students on the field exchanged glances.

"Was that... an outer court student?"

"A student, my ass! Have you ever seen a student wearing Yunjin? That outfit could pay your tuition for three years!"

"Then who is he?"

"No idea..."

Wang Dong tilted her head as she watched Xu Jingyao's retreating back, a hint of amusement flashing in those eyes that so closely resembled Tang Wulin's.

"Interesting," she murmured, turning to resume her laps.

Xu Jingyao did not return to the little lakeside building.

He walked straight through the outer court's cluster of buildings, skirted the northern shore of Sea God Lake, and went all the way to the outer court's administrative area.

Yan Shaozhe's dean's office was on the third floor of the administrative building. The door stood half-open, and the rustling of files being turned came from within.

Xu Jingyao pushed the door open and entered.

Yan Shaozhe looked up. Before the smile on his face had fully formed, Xu Jingyao walked over, pulled out the chair opposite him, sat down, and set his fan on the desk.

"Dean Yan, our cooperation is canceled."

Yan Shaozhe's smile froze.

"...Pavilion Master Ziqing, what did you say?"

"Our cooperation is canceled," Xu Jingyao repeated, his tone as flat as though he were reading out accounts. "The supply agreement is void, the scholarships will no longer be provided, and all the custom Soul Tool orders we previously negotiated are withdrawn. The Carefree Pavilion's branch in Shrek City will remain open as usual, but starting today, it will no longer provide Shrek Academy with any form of preferential internal pricing or supply support."

The color slowly drained from Yan Shaozhe's face.

He put down the files in his hands and leaned forward slightly. "Pavilion Master, where is this coming from? Have we been remiss in our hospitality? Or was there something you found objectionable in the terms we just discussed? Everything is negotiable, everything-"

"There's nothing to discuss."

Xu Jingyao stood and tucked his fan back at his waist in one brisk motion. "Dean Yan, the Carefree Pavilion's rules for doing business are very simple: give me a foot of respect, and I'll return ten. The reverse holds true as well."

He turned and left, his moon-white figure flashing past the doorway and vanishing.

Shadow Douluo followed without so much as glancing at Yan Shaozhe from beginning to end. His gray shadow slipped past the doorframe, and the door curtain swayed gently before falling still.

Yan Shaozhe sat in his chair, stunned for several breaths.

He shot to his feet, pushing his chair half a foot backward into the wall with a bang.

"Pavilion Master Ziqing! Please wait!"

He rushed out of the office, abruptly driving his Soul Power into motion. Nine Soul Rings rose beneath his feet-two yellow, two purple, four black, and one red. His Titled Douluo-level Soul Power erupted, pressing down even the air around him slightly.

He raised his hand, and a golden beam condensed from Soul Power blasted straight toward the moon-white figure at the end of the corridor.

He did not dare strike to kill, so there was no intent to injure, only to render him immobile.

The instant the golden beam left his hand, the purple ring on Xu Jingyao's right index finger suddenly grew warm.

Just for an instant.

Then Yan Shaozhe witnessed something that made his scalp crawl.

When the golden beam reached a point three inches behind Xu Jingyao's back, it abruptly stopped as though it had struck an invisible wall, then rebounded along its original path.

It traveled twice as fast as before.

The golden beam twisted and swelled in midair, its color shifting from gold to purple. Carrying a terrifying pressure that made even Yan Shaozhe's Soul Power begin to turn sluggish, it blasted straight into his chest.

Yan Shaozhe did not even have time to react.

Struck by his own beam of Soul Power, he hurtled backward, smashed through his office's mahogany door, then shattered the filing cabinet behind it. Finally, he fell amid wood splinters and scattered papers, spitting out a mouthful of blood that stained the white clothing over his chest red.

"Pfft-"

He lay on the floor and braced his right hand against the broken wood, trying to get up, but his arm trembled too badly to support him.

Agony surged through his chest. At least two ribs were broken, and Soul Power darted wildly through his meridians like a nest of frightened snakes.

Xu Jingyao paused at the end of the corridor.

He did not look back.

He merely stopped for an instant before walking on, his moon-white figure rounding the corner and disappearing.

From beginning to end, he had not noticed what had happened behind him.

The ring's warmth had lasted less than a breath, and he had paid it no mind at all. Since the super divine artifact had recognized him as its master, it occasionally grew hot. He had long since grown accustomed to it.

But Yan Shaozhe did not know that.

He lay on the floor, his mouth filled with the taste of blood, his eyes fixed on the end of the corridor, his pupils contracted to pinpoints.

That power just now.

That purple light.

He, Yan Shaozhe, a rank ninety-five Super Douluo, had had his Soul Power reflected back along its original path. The force of that rebound had at least doubled, and the aura carried within it-