At the sight of Jiang Nannan's utterly complicated gaze, Li Mu's eyes also began to turn strange.
"You really want to be a whore and still have an archway erected to your chastity, huh? He harasses you, but you don't tell the teachers. You just keep getting tangled up with him every day."
"And fine, get tangled up with each other, but why do you always have to drag other people into it?"
As Li Mu spoke, he slowly raised his hand. A heavy hammer formed from ice appeared out of thin air in his grasp.
As Xu Sanshi was about to climb up from the ground, a terrifying hammer blow smashed straight into him.
Xu Sanshi opened his mouth and spat out another mouthful of blood. His whole body crashed heavily to the ground again, his eyes filled with pain.
Watching Xu Sanshi fall, a trace of disdain flashed through Li Mu's eyes.
Then he raised a foot and kicked Jiang Nannan directly.
"Whatever goes on between you two, all that back-and-forth and bothering other people, really has nothing to do with me."
"But you bothered me, so both of you will have to pay the price." As Li Mu spoke, he grabbed Jiang Nannan's long hair and hauled her up.
Her legs were somewhat weak now. She stared fixedly at Li Mu, her eyes filled with resentment.
But more than that, she was bewildered and at a loss.
Meeting Jiang Nannan's gaze, Li Mu shook his head. He had no gentlemanly manners.
The so-called rule against hitting girls did not exist in this world at all.
In this man-eat-man world, if he wanted to survive, never mind girls-he would kill the elderly and children just the same.
As they watched what was happening, quite a few students' expressions also began to turn somewhat strange.
What Li Mu said was not actually all that reasonable. After all, Xu Sanshi was the one pestering Jiang Nannan.
But Li Mu had been right about one thing: although Jiang Nannan had argued, resisted, and even kept rejecting him,
she had never told a teacher, nor had she shut the door on their relationship completely.
She still allowed for Xu Sanshi to come and see her, still allowed for him to become involved in her life.
Because she needed Xu Sanshi. How could an ordinary student without family standing or connections get into Shrek Academy?
Through her so-called Soft Bone Charm Rabbit Martial Soul? Or through that pretty face?
Wasn't it only by relying on the Mystic Nether Sect's backing and status that she had been able to enter Shrek Academy?
And once someone entered Shrek Academy, if they wanted to avoid being bullied,
unless their talent was dazzling enough, or they were enough of a genius, they needed a certain amount of backing.
"You act like you utterly loathe Xu Sanshi while stringing him along. Hah, you really are disgusting."
Li Mu shook his head as he spoke.
Although he somewhat disliked Jiang Nannan's actions, he did not have much ill feeling toward Jiang Nannan herself.
What she was like had nothing to do with him.
Of course, she had been the one to provoke him first, but Xu Sanshi had been the one who actually attacked.
So after grabbing Jiang Nannan by the hair and flinging her aside, he walked straight toward Xu Sanshi.
His expression remained utterly calm from beginning to end. As he stepped forward, a long flaming saber formed in his hand.
Under Xu Sanshi's resentful gaze, which was even filled with killing intent, the terrifying saber swept down.
Then Li Mu cut off the left arm Xu Sanshi had used to throw three Gold Soul Coins at him.
Scorching flames burned, and the terrifyingly intense pain made Xu Sanshi let out an involuntary scream.
Only this time, Li Mu acted as though he had heard nothing and waved his hand to disperse the flaming saber.
He lightly clapped his hands, brushed the dust off his clothes, then strolled leisurely outside.
Only after watching Li Mu leave, looking at Jiang Nannan lying on the ground with disheveled hair and red, swollen cheeks, stripped of her beauty,
and Xu Sanshi on the other side, whose left arm had been severed and whose blood had been completely evaporated by the flames,
did the atmosphere around them freeze utterly for a time. No one spoke or moved.
But that frozen atmosphere did not last long. Some people stepped forward to help Xu Sanshi and Jiang Nannan up, while quite a few students went to tell the teachers.
Li Mu knew nothing of any of this. He did not return directly to Shrek Academy.
Instead, he headed straight for the treasure pavilions in Shrek City outside Shrek Academy-or perhaps they should have been called shops.
On Shrek's side, Shrek City was somewhat extreme. Things were not all that good when it came to ordinary people's livelihoods.
Even large supermarkets and shops were relatively scarce, and places selling everyday necessities were pitifully few.
But materials needed by Soul Masters, Soul Tool materials, all sorts of machinery, and even Soul Tools-everything was available here.
The most famous among them was the Shrek Auction House, or perhaps it should have been called the Shrek Treasure Pavilion.
Aside from that, there were trading houses established by the various major powers nearby.
These places mainly served the teachers of Shrek City and the top Soul Masters who came to Shrek City.
So when Li Mu arrived, at the sight of his Shrek Academy uniform,
both the greeters at the shop entrance and the attendants behaved with exceptional courtesy and humility.
This could also be considered a good habit of Li Mu's: he did not like face-slapping.
Nor would he be sick in the head enough to wear utterly ragged clothes and then go inside.
After being humiliated by these people, he would then turn the tables and slap their faces.
In Li Mu's view, that sort of behavior was purely deranged. People's capacity to process information was limited to begin with.
At first glance, they looked at your appearance, your clothing, and other aspects,
including your expression, to judge things such as your personality and family background.
If you presented yourself in such a shabby state, although the main fault lay with the other party for discriminating against you,
wasn't that simply asking for trouble and wasting time?
This might be a routine used by many people who liked showing off, such as a rich young master wearing seemingly ordinary clothes,
which secretly turned out to be some designer brand unavailable for sale. But Li Mu would never do that.
After he explained why he had come and briefly described his needs, the young attendant led him straight to the second basement level.
Torches lined the dim stairway. Li Mu did not care whether these people would turn on him and rob him.
With the Snow Empress around, the possibility of such things happening to him was zero anyway.
As they reached the second basement level, lamplight illuminated the entire room, which was covered in black cloth.
Then, a moment later, the black cloth was pulled away, revealing Soul Tool machines standing quietly inside.
These things were all used to make Soul Tools, or were implements used in making Soul Tools.
Such things were highly prized and very advanced in the Sun Moon Empire.
Here, they were not only very outdated but also practically unsalable.
After all, there were truly too few Soul Engineers here. Apart from Shrek Academy's Martial Soul Department having a Soul Tool Department,
the number of Soul Engineers elsewhere was pitifully small.
After glancing around the entire room, Li Mu's expression also became somewhat helpless.
But as his gaze swept over it, the previously motionless Lan Xuanyu Template in his mind gave a slight twitch.
An illusory screen the size of an eye appeared before him. As the screen scanned slightly,
individual parts were marked out in this area piled with junk and discarded Soul Tools.
Then a strange, peculiar blueprint appeared.
It was a Class 4 Soul Tool blueprint, or perhaps it should have been called a blueprint for a Soul Tool crafting bench.
This sort of crafting bench was not difficult to make. It required no engraving of core formations, only assembly.
And with the materials collected, a large portion of the discarded materials here,
if put together, would probably be enough to assemble three or four of these Soul Tool benches.
This kind of Soul Tool bench was not particularly advanced. It could not even compare to the Soul Tool crafting benches used in the Sun Moon Empire Royal Soul Engineer Academy.
But even so, the technology of this kind of Soul Tool bench was definitely beyond what currently existed in Shrek City.