Discovering Clues

The snow-white petals bore a blood-red blush, rooted atop a black stone.

As the fresh blood dripped onto them, it swiftly spread and merged into them like ink falling onto rice paper...

"She actually made the Lovesick Heartbreak Red acknowledge her as its master!"

Dai Mubai was somewhat surprised at the sight. He had only meant to give it a try; after all, both he and Zhu Zhuqing were completely different from their counterparts in the original story.

He had never expected it to succeed.

Immediately afterward, the Lovesick Heartbreak Red bloomed.

"I... I succeeded."

Looking at the Immortal Herb that had already blossomed before her, and feeling the bond connecting it so closely to her, Zhu Zhuqing still found it hard to believe.

But the truth was right before her eyes.

"Take it. This Lovesick Heartbreak Red can fundamentally change everything about you."

Dai Mubai looked at Zhu Zhuqing with a smile and gently reminded her.

Because the Lovesick Heartbreak Red had bloomed, a trace of tenderness had also entered his gaze as he looked at her.

As for keeping the Lovesick Heartbreak Red by her side, he would never do such a thing.

Lovesickness meant separation, and heartbreak meant suffering. This was a divine-grade herb that carried the power of fate.

If she wore it at all times, she might be guided by fate and encounter all manner of trials and tribulations.

That was not something he wanted.

"But... I'm a little reluctant to..."

Whether it was the Immortal Herb's influence or some other reason, an inexplicable reluctance to hurt it arose in Zhu Zhuqing's heart.

"This is the Immortal Herb's trial, and its beguilement as well. Only by consuming it can you make the best use of its effects."

"If you can't resist this beguilement, the power of fate it contains will guide us toward being separated by life and death..."

Dai Mubai did not directly order Zhu Zhuqing to consume the Immortal Herb. Instead, he coaxed and hoodwinked her with his words.

From the moment Zhu Zhuqing had made the Lovesick Heartbreak Red bloom, Dai Mubai had accepted her from the bottom of his heart.

Although he was a bastard who could not devote sincere feelings to just one person, that did not mean he did not want a woman by his side whose eyes were filled with him alone, and who loved him wholeheartedly!

"I... I'll listen to you. I don't want us to be separated..."

Hearing Dai Mubai say that the strange feeling in her heart was the Immortal Herb's beguilement, Zhu Zhuqing immediately grew anxious.

In that instant, her mind cleared.

Then, without further hesitation, she consumed the Lovesick Heartbreak Red.

While Zhu Zhuqing refined the Immortal Herb's power, many things happened at Shrek Academy.

Oscar brought Ma Hongjun back to the kitchen area in the villa, under the fine-sounding pretext of preparing a welcoming feast for their newly enrolled junior schoolmates.

During this process, Ning Rongrong used her curiosity about the academy as an excuse to approach Oscar and ask him all sorts of questions.

Ning Rongrong's thinking at that moment was simple: she wanted to know how Oscar possessed considerable combat strength as a support-type Soul Master.

Although his opponent had one fewer Soul Ring than he did, that opponent was, after all, an Agility Attack System Soul Master with considerable combat strength. Oscar defeating him with a support Martial Soul was enough to draw Ning Rongrong's attention.

At that moment, Ning Rongrong was wholly focused on prying Oscar's secrets out of him, treating him as her prey.

She did not know that the roles of hunter and prey often switched in the space of a single thought.

Tang San and Xiao Wu, meanwhile, were simply overlooked.

Fortunately, there were other teachers at the academy who made arrangements for them.

By then, Tang San's injuries had almost completely healed under the treatment of Shao Xin's Sugar Beans.

He was taking Xiao Wu around to get properly acquainted with the academy.

"Xiao Wu, I think we came to the right place."

After learning something about the academy, and with Yu Xiaogang having boasted about it to him before, Tang San's first impressions combined with what he subsequently learned made him feel increasingly that Shrek Academy was mysterious and unfathomable.

The only thing that displeased him was the academy's senior students, each of whom relied on their higher cultivation to bully others.

"Xiao San, look at that house. It's so beautiful, and the surroundings are lovely too."

"I wonder whether it's the dean's residence or something else?"

After spotting Dai Mubai's villa nearby, Xiao Wu's eyes filled with a bright light.

The villa was now more than just a villa. Around it were an artificial lake, all sorts of scenery, and many beautiful plants.

Oscar and Ma Hongjun had brought all these things over while trying to curry favor as his two lackeys.

Compared with that villa, the surrounding buildings were simply on an entirely different level.

The contrast was far too jarring.

"Xiao Wu, don't think about it. That isn't a place we can set our sights on right now."

"I promise I'll give you a house even more beautiful than this villa in the future."

To be honest, Tang San also felt somewhat envious and covetous when he saw that villa.

Although he did not know whose villa it was, it was certainly not somewhere two newly enrolled students like them could approach.

"Xiao San, you're so good to me!"

Hearing Tang San's promise, Xiao Wu immediately broke into a delighted smile.

"If you want to live in a villa like that, you can!"

Just then, Zhao Wuji's voice rang out beside Tang San and Xiao Wu.

Zhao Wuji's purpose in coming here was simple. He kept feeling that this little girl named Xiao Wu was no ordinary girl.

During the battle earlier, especially at the moment she grew angry, the aura she displayed had been very unusual.

Normally, even in its juvenile stage, a soul beast that had undergone Soul Beast Transformation could not be identified by a Soul Saint. Even a Soul Douluo would need to make contact and probe with Soul Power to discover it.

At present, Zhao Wuji was merely a Soul Saint. Although he was not far from becoming a Soul Douluo, he was still not one.

He should not have been able to notice anything unusual about Xiao Wu.

Over the years, through constantly fighting Dai Mubai and honing himself, his spiritual power had reached the Soul Douluo realm ahead of his cultivation. Coupled with the power Xiao Wu had unleashed for that brief instant, which had faintly surpassed her own realm, this had allowed Zhao Wuji to notice a few clues.

However, he had not considered Soul Beast Transformation. After all, not everyone knew that a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast could take human form. He merely felt that there was more to this little girl than met the eye.

He happened to be passing by, so he came forward to strike up a conversation.

And briefly sense her at close range.

"Teacher Zhao, what do you mean by that?"

"Are you saying we can live there too?"

Tang San was rather surprised that Shrek Academy offered such a thing. Could the academy have some reward system that allowed outstanding students to live in that villa?

"It's very simple. Just build one yourselves."

"There's still plenty of empty land at the academy. If you don't think the dormitories the academy provides are good enough, you can build your own."

"Mubai built that villa himself. The two buildings beside it were built by Ma Hongjun and Oscar respectively."

Zhao Wuji explained to Tang San with a smile, while in fact using his spiritual power to sense Xiao Wu.