To be honest, Yan Shaozhe had already calculated every part of the affair down to the last detail.
He planned to have Ma Xiaotao receive Li Mu first, then casually set aside some of the pills to offer him as a sweetener.
He would use the opportunity to ask him to help suppress the Evil Fire inside Ma Xiaotao. By then, Li Mu would not even have the right to refuse.
As for whether Li Mu could withstand the ordeal, Yan Shaozhe gave it no thought whatsoever.
Ma Xiaotao could hardly take his life, after all. At worst, he would simply need to recuperate a little longer.
To Yan Shaozhe at present, Ma Xiaotao was naturally the most important one.
Even if Li Mu truly possessed an Ultimate Martial Soul, it would still take more than a decade for him to truly mature.
Ma Xiaotao, however, was already his personal disciple, a member of Shrek Academy's team, and the captain of the Shrek Seven Devils.
Her status was so distinguished that she could directly succeed him in the future.
Under these circumstances, putting her first was perfectly normal, and Yan Shaozhe had acted much the same way in the original timeline.
He had forced Huo Yuhao to help suppress the Evil Fire, but as for whether it would delay Huo Yuhao's cultivation...
He neither concerned himself with it nor cared.
Precisely because Li Mu knew the timeline and had thoroughly grasped Yan Shaozhe's character,
he had already seen straight through the old fox's thoughts.
Of course, however he looked at it, he had suffered a major loss this time. Not only had he failed to get rid of Zhou Yi, he had instead thoroughly offended everyone in the Soul Tool Department.
The affair left Li Mu deeply displeased, yet his expression remained as calm as still water.
Responding to Xian Lin'er's demands, Yan Shaozhe spent a long while trying every persuasion.
In the end, he not only canceled the punishment of expelling Zhou Yi from the academy, but also transferred her to the Soul Tool Department as a teacher. Only then did he barely manage to settle the disturbance.
As compensation, Xian Lin'er gave Li Mu a token offering of two hundred-year spirit herbs, and nothing more.
Hundred-year spirit herbs were indeed spirit herbs, but truthfully, their underlying value only fluctuated around ten or twenty thousand Gold Soul Coins.
For Shrek's powerhouses above Level 90, these were already the most worthless resources.
They would not even offer their own disciples anything so paltry as a reward.
Faced with such blatant contempt, bordering on humiliation, a murderous glint flashed through Li Mu's eyes.
Yan Shaozhe offered him another couple of hypocritical words of comfort, then sent him away.
Remembering that old fox Yan Shaozhe's conduct, then thinking of that arrogant woman Xian Lin'er, Li Mu could not help the twitch at the corner of his mouth.
His mood had truly hit rock bottom.
Ever since he had stepped into Shrek Academy, from the moment he had fought Dai Huabin directly, all sorts of trouble had practically never stopped.
It was not that he clashed with all of Shrek Academy, but that his forceful personality simply did not fit in here.
He could either have his sharp edges ground down like the original Huo Yuhao, then obediently become some powerhouse's dog,
or become one of the stubborn old guard. Otherwise, he would have almost no chance to rise.
Here, strength reigned supreme. In their eyes, it was perfectly normal for the strong to humiliate you while you were weak.
But Li Mu was precisely the sort of person who would not meekly submit to adversity.
He was forceful and domineering by nature, innately commanded the Gold and Silver Twin Dragon Kings, and also possessed the technological foundation of ten thousand years in the future.
With his strength and potential laid out before him, how could he possibly resign himself to being bullied?
I might as well leave a place like Shrek Academy. Had I known, I would have been better off going straight to the Sun Moon Empire.
As Li Mu thought, he rubbed the space between his brows and sighed.
He had already been considering whether to slip away to the Sun Moon Empire after finishing this semester and join the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy.
But after this incident, he had truly made up his mind.
When the holidays arrived, he would head straight to the Sun Moon Empire to take the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy's entrance examination.
I'll see whether I can bring Wang Dong along. Her talent really is quite good.
Especially her identity as Tang San's daughter. Perhaps I can make use of that and use her to counterbalance Huo Yuhao. That should be a great help to me.
As Li Mu made his plans, he also considered the road ahead.
His Martial Soul was certainly terrifying, but his true trump card was not the Gold and Silver Twin Dragon Kings.
Rather, it was his command of the terrifying technology of ten thousand years in the future, whether Battle Armor technology, mecha technology, or the research technology concerning high-tier Soul Tools.
So long as he brought these things out, he could help the Sun Moon Empire swiftly become stronger, even grow by leaps and bounds.
Part of the reason he had come to Shrek Academy rather than the Sun Moon Empire was that it was too far away.
Traveling from the snowy lands of the Far North across two great empires to reach the Sun Moon Empire was extremely difficult, and mountain ranges also blocked the way.
The time it had taken him to reach Shrek Academy had already been somewhat outrageous. To reach the Sun Moon Empire, he would not only have to cross the border, but also encounter all sorts of trouble.
Before his strength had grown enough to protect himself, rashly heading there could easily cost him his life.
Of course, most importantly, Li Mu at rank nineteen and Li Mu at rank twenty could not be mentioned in the same breath.
At rank nineteen, Li Mu could only contend with a Soul Elder, but at rank twenty, he could easily defeat a Soul Ancestor. That was the difference between the two.
Once this semester's classes ended, his two-ring strength would naturally make traveling to the Sun Moon Empire much less difficult.
Thinking as he went, Li Mu headed toward the dormitory building.
Although there were still two or three months left, he would definitely leave after the freshman tournament.
After all, he was not even a core disciple here. He would have to be sick in the head to stay.
Just as he returned to the third floor and gently pushed open his door, a wave of warm air washed over his face.
The warmth came rather abruptly, leaving Li Mu briefly stunned.
Normally, he had no need to bathe at all. He only had to envelop himself in water element, and all the impurities and ash would be swept away.
He did not even need to wash his clothes. A casual sweep would clean everything.
Thus, he had never used that washstand, or rather, that bathroom.
For a moment, the sudden warmth left him rather bewildered.
But after that moment of bewilderment, his brows immediately drew tightly together.
He raised his hand, and five water blades slowly slid around his palm.
At that very moment, the bathroom door was flung open.
Li Mu had actually anticipated this.
He had guessed it might be Wang Dong. After all, her true identity was that of a girl.
If she bathed while he was away, she might not deliberately conceal her figure, and might instead reveal everything.
It would inevitably be somewhat awkward for him to barge in at such a moment.
Li Mu felt his guess should be right. After all, that fragrance should have belonged to a girl.
But the person who emerged was not Wang Dong.
It was a girl wearing only a white shirt on her upper body, her figure no more than the first budding of early autumn.
Yet her long blue hair, paired with those blue eyes of utmost ethereal grace, gave her an exceedingly peculiar air.
In particular, the girl's eyes were currently filled with an emotion called coldness.
Her head was slightly lowered, and as the door opened, their gazes met.
Huo Yuhao-or perhaps she should have been called Huo Yutong-abruptly froze in place.
With some disbelief in her gaze, she looked at the boy before her, who had already closed the dormitory door.
At that moment, Li Mu was likewise staring blankly at Huo Yutong before him, his eyes filled with disbelief.