Dai Mubai's face was filled with grief, and he seemed somewhat incredulous. "Ah." He heaved a long sigh and said, "It's just an ordinary restaurant. Come tonight, all of you. Zhu Zhuqing and Rongrong too."
Only after hearing this did Zhu Zhuqing and Ning Rongrong stop commenting.
"Xiao Hao, you're still young. Wait until you're older before thinking about this sort of thing," Ning Rongrong admonished him.
Ning Yuhao smiled and nodded. "All right, Sister Rongrong."
Inwardly, however, he was somewhat unwilling. Didn't you tell me five or six years ago to have lots of children?
Dai Mubai beckoned. "All right, let's stop standing around in the road. Come on, let's head into the academy."
Dai Mubai led them to the entrance and greeted the old man. "Elder Li, these are my friends. I'll take them straight inside."
The old man smiled and pointed at him. "You brat. You know our academy's rules. Don't make things difficult for this old man."
Dai Mubai replied with a smile, "Don't worry, Elder Li. They all meet the requirements. I'll take them straight to the fourth test."
The old man waved a hand. "Go on, go on."
Dai Mubai and the others had just turned to leave when, unexpectedly, someone jumped out of the queue.
"Unfair! Why don't they have to queue up for the tests? How come they get to go straight in?"
The speaker was a girl with a somewhat round face, but very large eyes. She was the cute type, dressed in pink clothes that tightly hugged her figure. Her most distinctive feature was her hair: her long black hair was woven into a scorpion braid, and it was exceptionally long, hanging past her calves. It was clear at a glance that she took her hair very seriously.
As the girl spoke up, the people waiting in line began murmuring among themselves, clearly uncomfortable with the matter as well.
When the girl stepped forward, another boy, who presumably had come with her, stepped up beside her.
Compared with the girl, the boy looked rather plain, let alone compared with Ning Yuhao and Dai Mubai.
The boy was simply dressed in a light blue combat outfit. He stood around 1.7 meters tall, somewhat shorter than Ning Yuhao and Dai Mubai. Most eye-catching of all was the belt set with twenty-four pieces of jade around his waist, which did not look like something a person like him could own.
The old man glanced at Dai Mubai with a smile, as though saying, See? All you do is cause me trouble.
"Quiet!" the old man said in a deep voice. An immense presence surged from his body as six Soul Rings lit up beneath his feet and pulsed: one white, one yellow, three purple, and one black. This ordinary-looking old man was, in fact, a Soul Emperor-level powerhouse.
The long staff in his hand struck the ground, and a low, muffled thud spread outward. Almost everyone stumbled, and the crowd waiting in line fell silent.
Soul Emperor-level Soul Masters were scarce throughout the entire Balak Kingdom. Now, even an old man recruiting students at Shrek Academy's entrance was a Soul Emperor. This thoroughly stunned the crowd.
Unexpectedly, however, the girl still refused to let the matter drop and stiffened her neck. "Hmph! Is Shrek Academy going to use its power to bully people?"
The boy frowned. He did not want to clash with a Soul Emperor-level powerhouse and pulled the girl behind him. The girl was still somewhat angry. "Xiao San, don't pull me."
With a gentle smile on his face, the boy cupped his hands toward the old man. "I'm sorry. My little sister was a little impatient. But we're all queuing here for the tests, so when we see someone going straight to the fourth test, it's only natural that we'd feel something about it. Shrek Academy is very famous as an academy that only accepts monsters. Naturally, our expectations are somewhat higher-in every respect."
The boy's words were much more pleasing to the ear than the girl's. The old man withdrew his imposing presence and sat back down, replying flatly, "Shrek Academy has no need to explain its actions."
The boy pressed his lips together, but ultimately forced a smile and nodded without saying anything more.
Watching this scene, Ning Yuhao had already guessed who the pair were.
If he had judged them solely by their appearances, Ning Yuhao really would not have recognized them. But that personality marked her at a glance as that "stupid rabbit," Xiao Wu. As for the boy, he was presumably Tang San, and the belt around his waist was the Twenty-Four Moonlit Bridges that Yu Xiaogang had given him. Its name came from Du Mu's poem: "On a moonlit night at the twenty-four bridges, where does the fair one teach the flute?"
Ning Yuhao had not expected Tang San, an outer disciple of a second-rate sect from a feudal era, to have actually read books.
"Oh? That little girl is rather interesting. She seems to be a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast in human form," the Ice Empress said. Then she poked the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm. "Tian Meng, your spiritual power is good. Probe her again."
Only then did the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm wake up. He probed her with his spiritual power, then immediately said in delighted surprise, "She really is a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast in human form, and she's still very weak right now. Hahahaha! Heaven truly favors us! Xiao Hao, go!"
Ning Yuhao was somewhat speechless. "Did you forget that it's not time for me to break through yet?"
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm, however, was somewhat speechless himself, looking at Ning Yuhao as though he were an idiot. "Your Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda can't have another Soul Ring added right now, but your Wicked Lord Shingan and Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion both still have empty Soul Ring slots! A Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring, and a Soul Bone too-what could be better than that?"
"Xiao Hao, do it!"
Meanwhile, Xiao Wu suddenly shuddered. She felt as though someone had just seen right through her, and immediately became uneasy. That shouldn't be right. There shouldn't be a Titled Douluo in a place like this.
Xiao Wu suddenly grew somewhat frightened and clutched Tang San's arm tightly.
"Let's wait and see," Ning Yuhao finally decided, not wanting to kill Xiao Wu now.
He actually had yet to decide how to treat or deal with Tang San and Xiao Wu. As the staunchest warrior of feudalism, Tang San naturally had his merits if put to good use. After all, feudalism was ultimately somewhat more advanced than aristocracy. Moreover, he could not really be called old yet. Given his inherent personality, perhaps he could be trained into the most loyal of enforcers, like "Cheng Du."
Most crucially, Ning Yuhao could now be said to have taken almost all of Huo Gua's cheats from ten thousand years in the future. Surely he could not leave the man without even a wife. Without Tang San and Xiao Wu, Wang Dong and Wang Qiu'er would both be gone as well.
Ning Yuhao stepped forward, a smile at the corners of his mouth and an unfathomable expression on his face. He deliberately lowered his voice. "Little girl, didn't you say it was unfair? But have you ever considered that there is no fairness to speak of in the Soul Master World to begin with? Strength is the greatest fairness."
As these words fell, Ning Yuhao's presence climbed as well. A seven-story pagoda nearly half a person's height appeared in his hand. Its entire body had the texture of glazed tile, with seven-colored treasured light flowing over it, radiating nobility.
What was rather unusual, however, was that the light of the bottom three stories was completely different from that of the upper four. The upper four stories all shone alike, their seven colors mingling and flowing, while each of the bottom three stories had a single dominant color, with the other colors interwoven through it.
The first story was white, the second was greenish-brown, and the third was a blazing scarlet.
As the Martial Soul appeared, Soul Rings also emerged over the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda: one white, one purple, and one black. The presence of a level 38 Soul Elder was unleashed without restraint, making everyone's breath catch.
"Heavens, how old does he even look? He's already a Soul Elder!"
"It's not just his cultivation. Heavens, what am I seeing? My eyes aren't deceiving me, are they?"
"And his Martial Soul-is that the legendary Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda? How can it be so big?"
"I once had the good fortune to see disciples of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect. Their Martial Souls weren't this big either!"
The appearance of Ning Yuhao's Martial Soul provoked even louder discussion than before. The people queuing were now shocked beyond words. Even with his presence intimidating them and their throats tightening, they still found it impossible to suppress their urge to speak. A faint premonition arose in their hearts: this was probably the most shocking sight they would ever witness in their lives.