Tang San the Dog Turned Hysterical, Yu Xiaogang Became Yu Xiao-anus, and Everyone Was Flogged!

White.

White again.

Another white, ten-year Soul Ring from ten-year solitary bamboo!

Tang San shot to his feet, his chest heaving violently.

"Impossible... impossible!"

"It was clearly a Man Faced Demon Spider! It was clearly a thousand-year Soul Ring!"

"How did it turn into this?!"

As he roared, he threw himself onto the Man Faced Demon Spider's corpse and frantically searched through it.

But the corpse had long since gone cold.

There would be nothing else.

"Why!!"

Tang San knelt on the ground and roared at the sky.

His eyes were frighteningly red.

He had finally struggled his way to his third Soul Ring, finally hunted down a thousand-year soul beast.

Yet the result was still white.

Still ten years.

And from the most worthless ten-year solitary bamboo, at that.

"Why... why?!"

He grabbed a nearby stone and smashed it hard against a tree.

Then he grabbed another.

And smashed it again.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Before long, he had battered the tree's bark to shreds.

The stones had rubbed Tang San's fingers bloody.

Yet he seemed unable to feel it.

After all, at that very moment, his composure had completely exploded, leaving him hysterical.

Meanwhile, elsewhere.

Yu Xiaogang had led Ma Hongjun, Dai Mubai, and Oscar only a short distance before Er Ming caught up with them.

The giant ape, over ten meters tall, planted himself in front of them.

All four men's legs went weak on the spot.

"Spare... spare us!"

Yu Xiaogang dropped to his knees with a thud, kowtowing like someone pounding garlic.

"Answer me. Why did you come here?"

Er Ming lowered his head and glanced at him.

"Soul... Soul Hunting! We humble ones came for Soul Hunting!"

Yu Xiaogang hurried to answer as he kowtowed.

"We only came to hunt Soul Rings for the students! We would never dare offend you!"

At those words, a vicious glint suddenly appeared in Er Ming's eyes.

"Soul Hunting?"

"You lowly soul beasts think you're worthy of hunting the lads of our Soul Beast Clan?"

"Today, I'll make you wish you were dead, so you'll remember this lesson forever!"

With that, he raised a paw and slapped twice toward the woods behind him.

A commotion came from deep in the woods.

Before long.

Several hundred slightly smaller apes and monkeys emerged from the trees.

They surrounded Yu Xiaogang.

Yu Xiaogang's pupils abruptly contracted.

"What... what are you going to do?!"

"Don't... don't come any closer! I'm the Grandmaster of Shrek Academy!"

The apes and monkeys ignored him.

A powerful arm lifted him off the ground.

Immediately afterward, he was dragged into the nearby bushes.

"No-!"

The bushes shook violently.

Yu Xiaogang's screams came from within, one after another.

The three men standing outside were so frightened their faces turned ashen, and they dared not make a sound.

An unknown amount of time passed.

The bushes stopped shaking.

Yu Xiaogang was dragged out.

He lay face down in the mud, his clothes in tatters and his whole body trembling.

"I... I..."

He opened his mouth, but could not even manage a complete sentence.

Tears mixed with mud flowed from the corners of his eyes all the way to his chin.

He, a dignified "Grandmaster" of Shrek Academy, had actually been... by a troop of apes and monkeys in a forest.

At that thought, Yu Xiaogang felt his vision go black and wished he could die on the spot.

From that day onward, Yu Xiaogang became "Yu Xiao-anus."

He told himself over and over that it had been a nightmare.

But his two legs reminded him plainly that it had not been a dream.

"And you."

Er Ming turned his head toward the others.

The three men's faces instantly went white.

"G-great king, spare us!"

"We didn't see anything! We didn't hear any-"

Before they could finish.

Er Ming had already turned away.

"Roar!"

Another chorus of ape howls rose from deep in the woods.

A short while later.

Yu Xiaogang and his group staggered out of the forest.

Every one of them was smeared all over with something yellowish-brown, sticky, and foul-smelling.

It was the apes' and monkeys'...

Poop.

"Urgh-"

Oscar braced himself against a tree and vomited until heaven and earth spun.

Ma Hongjun, already weak, plunged headfirst into the grass beside the road.

Dai Mubai pinched his nose, his face flushed red from holding his breath.

Yu Xiaogang walked at the very back.

His legs trembled with every step.

On the main road outside the forest.

Yao Xuan stood with his hands behind his back, already waiting there.

Behind him, several girls stood in a row.

"Bleurgh!"

As the men approached from a distance, the girls all stepped back in unison.

"Oh?"

Yao Xuan looked at them and smiled. "It's only been a little while. How did every one of you end up looking like this?"

"R-reporting to the dean, we encountered a Titan Giant Ape in the forest."

Yu Xiaogang lowered his head, his voice hoarse and trembling.

"Heh, then you were lucky to make it back alive!"

"But you're truly disgusting now. Get away from me and crawl back to Shrek Academy yourselves!"

Yao Xuan raised his eyebrows and mocked them.

"Brother Xuan, they stink!"

Xiao Wu covered her nose and backed away a little.

"Exactly. Did you go Soul Hunting, or did you go clean out a latrine?"

"Every last one of you stinks beyond belief."

Qian Renxue followed with her own mockery.

At those words, their faces alternated between red and white.

"You've completely disgraced Shrek Academy."

"A teacher of this academy took students out, only to return looking like this."

"If word gets out, who would still dare come to our academy?"

"When we return, I will punish you severely!"

Yao Xuan shook his head, his tone indifferent, then turned and left with the girls.

Only Yu Xiaogang, Flender, Zhao Wuji, and the Shrek Four Dogs remained.

They stood there, bedraggled and embarrassed.

Several days later.

Yu Xiaogang and the others finally returned to Shrek Academy, stumbling and crawling.

"All of you, stand in the square."

Looking at the returning group, Yao Xuan gave the order coldly.

"The academy has its rules."

"You went out once and disgraced the academy like this. You deserve punishment!"

"One hundred lashes each."

Pausing, Yao Xuan looked at the five people standing in a row.

"Dean! The students were attacked by the Titan Giant Ape-"

Yu Xiaogang hurried to explain.

"For defying your superior, another fifty lashes!"

Yao Xuan spoke coldly.

Instantly, Yu Xiaogang choked back the rest of his words.

And so.

The five men knelt in a neat row in the square.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

The whip struck again and again, each lash landing precisely on their backs.

"Ah! Yamete!"

Tang San had been pierced by a Dragon Whisker Needle just a few days earlier, and his wounds had yet to heal fully.

That single lash hurt so much that his entire body jerked upward.

Yu Xiaogang fared even worse.

He had been tormented half to death in the forest, and after a few lashes, he was like a puddle of sludge.

"Aah-!"

"Spare us! Dean, spare us!"

"We won't dare do it again!"

Screams rose and fell across the square.

The students watched from afar, their necks drawn in, not even daring to breathe loudly.

Fifty lashes later.

All five lay neatly on the ground, without a single patch of intact flesh on their backs.

As for Yu Xiaogang.

After taking an additional hundred lashes, he was whipped unconscious.

"Remember this."

Yao Xuan tossed aside the whip and said flatly.

"If you disgrace Shrek Academy again, you won't get off with just fifty lashes."

In the square, the seven lay face down in a row. None dared utter a word.