"That damned fat pig is disgusting!"
Qian Renxue frowned and turned her face away.
"Calling him a pig is an insult to pigs! Pigs are our good friends, and pork belly smells delicious. A beast like him only makes people sick!"
Wang Qiu'er curled her lip and scoffed.
"Qiu'er is right."
Gu Yuena nodded in agreement.
"Brother Xuan, look at him! Bullying someone like that in broad daylight-he's utterly shameless!"
"Hurry up and punish him, just like you punished those two hypocrites, Tang San and Yu Xiaogang!"
As for Xiao Wu, with her strong sense of justice, her face had flushed red with anger as she tugged at Yao Xuan's sleeve and shook it.
"Yes, a beast like him needs to be dealt with."
Yao Xuan raised his eyes and glanced at Ma Hongjun.
Then he casually exhaled.
An invisible wisp of breath silently settled on Ma Hongjun.
Ma Hongjun was still feeling smug.
Suddenly, his body went rigid.
The smile on his face froze bit by bit.
He could clearly feel the mass of evil fire inside him, which he had always kept carefully suppressed, surge as though someone had kicked its floodgates open!
The fire shot up all at once!
His skin flushed crimson at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Beneath his skin, firelight could faintly be seen churning.
"No... this isn't right!"
Ma Hongjun panicked at once, frantically trying to suppress the fire inside him.
"What's happening? Why can't I hold it down?!"
But the evil fire no longer obeyed him.
Pfft.
A tongue of flame shot out of his cuff.
Then came a second, and a third.
More and more flames appeared, burning faster and faster.
In the blink of an eye, Ma Hongjun's entire body became like a lit candle!
Flames soared into the sky!
"Help... help! Someone save me!"
Screaming, he rolled frantically on the ground at the village entrance, trying to smother the fire.
But no matter how he rolled or slapped at it, he could not put it out.
"Water! That's right, water!"
Midway through rolling, Ma Hongjun suddenly remembered something.
He scrambled up from the ground and plunged headfirst into the lake at the village entrance!
Splash!
Water flew everywhere.
But the very next moment.
Instead of going out, the fire burned even more fiercely!
A layer of white mist actually rose over the lake.
It was steam from the lake water being heated by the flames.
The billowing white vapor shrouded the entire lake.
From a distance, it looked as though a great furnace had been lit beneath the lake.
"Aaaah-!"
Ma Hongjun's screams grew piercing.
He desperately dove into the water, then desperately clambered out, dove in, and climbed out again.
But no matter how he struggled, the fire seemed to have taken root in his body, burning ever more fiercely!
"How could this happen... how could this happen?!"
He howled in despair.
But the fire could not understand his words.
The flames crawled up his flesh, inch by inch.
From his cuffs to his arms, to his shoulders, to his neck.
In an instant, they covered his entire body.
In the clearing at the village entrance, a burning figure struggled madly, leaping and screaming.
The watching villagers backed away again and again in fright, their faces pale.
"What... what kind of fire is that?"
"Uncanny. That's just too uncanny!"
Some people murmured among themselves, but not one dared take even half a step forward.
Behind Yao Xuan, however, the girls watched with relish.
"Good. Let him burn."
Wang Qiu'er folded her arms and offered her verdict.
"People like him are just begging to be taught a lesson."
Xiao Wu curled her lip, feeling no pity at all.
The fire burned for a full incense stick's worth of time.
After that time had passed.
The sobbing and screaming weakened little by little.
The flames gradually died down as well.
Only then did Yao Xuan speak indifferently.
"Enough. Leave him alive."
As his words fell.
The fire extinguished itself outright, without even a breath of wind.
Only a charred black figure remained in the clearing.
At that moment.
Ma Hongjun no longer looked human.
From head to toe, his entire body had been burned into a length of charcoal.
His flesh was glossy black, with thin wisps of bluish smoke still rising from it.
He lay facedown on the ground, his whole body twitching incessantly.
As for that pinhole-sized thing on his body...
It had vanished in the fire without even a sound.
From then on, there would never again be any descendants of Ma Hongjun on the Douluo Continent.
He had become a eunuch through and through.
"My... my..."
Ma Hongjun lay on the ground, murmuring something with barely a thread of breath.
But halfway through, he could no longer continue.
He opened his mouth.
He wanted to curse, to beg for mercy, to ask how the thing his parents had given him could be gone.
But he could not utter a single word.
His eyes suddenly widened.
They were filled with disbelief, terror, and despair.
He finally understood.
Some things were gone.
Gone forever.
At that very instant, the last trace of color drained from his charred face.
He made two rasping sounds, his head lolled to one side, and he passed out completely.
"Ma Hongjun, what happened to you?!"
Just then, two furious shouts rang out from the direction of the village entrance!
Immediately afterward, two figures flashed over as swiftly as lightning.
They were Zhao Wuji and Flender, the head and deputy head of Shrek Academy.
At the sight of the charred figure on the ground, both their expressions changed drastically!
"Hongjun!"
Flender rushed over and frantically checked Ma Hongjun's breathing.
"He's still breathing, still breathing!"
"Zhao, hurry! Let's carry him back first!"
The two frantically lifted Ma Hongjun and hurried to fetch the academy's highest-level healing Soul Master.
Only after a great deal of effort did they barely manage to keep him alive.
Focused entirely on saving him, neither had time to investigate who had done it.
Only after getting him settled did they turn around.
And just then, an indifferent voice came from nearby.
"By the way, I find your Shrek Academy rather interesting."
"So, starting today, I'm the head of this place."
At those words.
Zhao Wuji and Flender both froze.
They turned their heads.
They saw a black-haired youth standing not far away with four girls.
His expression was composed, his tone casual.
It was as though he had merely made a passing remark.
"You've got some nerve, brat, spouting such outrageous nonsense! You must be tired of living!"
Zhao Wuji's expression darkened at once.
"Hmph, have you come here to stir up trouble?"
"Kneel and apologize right now, and I can pretend you never said that."
"Shrek Academy isn't a place where any stray cat or dog can come and run wild."
Flender pushed up his glasses and spoke coldly as well.
Before his words had faded, both their auras surged!
Humm-
Ring after ring of Soul Rings slowly rose from beneath their feet!
One, two, three...
At the same time, two Martial Soul phantoms slowly materialized behind them!
One was an enormous Great Strength Vajra Bear, mountainlike in its brawn and brimming with murderous intent!
The other was a Four-Eyed Cat Owl, its wings spread wide, with the faint sound of wind and thunder!
A full seven Soul Rings quietly circled each of them!
Seven-Ring Soul Sages!
Two terrifying waves of soul power bore down on Yao Xuan and his companions like mountains!
Before you continue