Mu En's face instantly turned green.
"Xuan Zi, I fuck your ancestors!"
It wasn't just Mu En. The other Sea God Pavilion Elders' faces were just as remarkable at that moment, their expressions so varied and indescribable that they defied words.
For Xuan Zi, death was a release. The punishment he deserved most was to live with the guilt and pain over those dead children, never again meddle in any of Shrek's affairs, and serve only as Shrek's enforcer and the one who did its dirty work until the end of his life.
But that fucking bastard, after screwing Shrek out of an entire generation and leaving Mu En without an heir, had actually dusted off his ass, dissolved his body, and logged out!
He had simply quit playing, dumped the mess, and run!
Now look at the situation. Once Mu En died, Shrek would not only have lost its next generation, with no sufficiently outstanding young prodigies, but also its top experts of the current generation. The strongest one left would be Song Yunzhi!
No wonder the old geezers' faces turned green and ashen. Mu En in particular genuinely had the urge to drag Xuan Zi out and whip his corpse. Two hundred years of self-restraint and composure shattered completely in that instant.
"Teacher, you..." Yan Shaozhe began, then stopped.
Watching Mu En gasp for breath, his face ashen and his forehead covered in sweat, Yan Shaozhe was genuinely afraid that Mu En, who was already low on health, might accidentally anger himself to death.
"I'm fine." Mu En took two deep breaths, forcibly suppressing the frustration and fury in his heart.
"Yan Shaozhe, make the arrangements. As last time, compensate the families of the students who died and offer them a sincere apology in Shrek's name. Don't just put on a show, and don't play any tricks with the compensation."
"As for that good-for-noth... keep Xuan Zi's death quiet for now. Don't let word of it get out. Our academy can't weather any greater upheaval."
"Teacher, what about the Soul Fighting Tournament?" After hesitating for a while, Yan Shaozhe asked the question.
"We're not going," Mu En said calmly and decisively. "Send word to the Star Luo Empire that the academy cannot participate in the tournament due to some unforeseen circumstances. Apologize to the Star Luo Empire, then announce our withdrawal."
"Huh? Withdraw? But..." Yan Shaozhe was immediately reluctant.
Shrek couldn't do without the tournament championship, just as Douluo Continent couldn't do without love-brained fools, and the Asura Sword couldn't do without a scabbard.
Without the championship, was Shrek still Shrek?
"No buts." Mu En glanced at him, a hint of frustration that iron could not become steel in the depths of his eyes. "Yan Shaozhe, when will you understand that the academy's honor isn't upheld by some so-called tournament?!"
"Don't say another word. Go hand over your duties and take care of all this mess Xuan Zi left behind. Once that's done, step down as dean of the Martial Soul department and enter seclusion beneath the Golden Tree. When you've finally thought things through, come out and take over the academy's other affairs!"
"As for the dean's position, let Mei'er hold it for you for now. As for vice dean, let that girl Lex..." Mu En's voice caught at that point, and a trace of desolation and sorrow appeared in his eyes. "Let that girl Han Ruoruo take the post. I believe they can do a good job."
Yan Shaozhe also knew that Mu En, in this state, would not change his decision for anyone, nor would he make any wrong decisions. They could only follow Mu En's arrangements.
"Yes, teacher." However helpless he felt, Yan Shaozhe could only accept the order.
The only way Yan Shaozhe was probably better than Xuan Zi was that he was obedient enough. Whatever Mu En arranged, he would spare no effort to carry it out, without any outward obedience and secret defiance or dissatisfaction.
After everyone had left, Mu En bathed in the sunlight, yet felt cold all over. A sweet taste rose in his throat, and he suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood.
He reached out and wiped his lips. Without looking at the bloodstain on his sleeve, he gazed toward the outer academy with a weary, helpless look in his eyes.
Or rather, he looked in the direction of the statues in the outer academy's Sea God Plaza.
"Ancestors... can Shrek still weather this calamity and carry on its legacy for another ten thousand years?"
After Mu En had made his arrangements, Shrek's higher-ups all mobilized to carry out the tasks he had assigned them.
Meanwhile, a handwritten letter from Yan Shaozhe, bearing Shrek Academy's official seal, was placed on the desk before Xu Jiawei, the Star Luo Emperor.
"Shrek Academy... is withdrawing?" Xu Jiawei blinked, his face full of disbelief.
Those lunatics who valued the championship more than their own lives had actually chosen to withdraw?
Had the sun risen in the west?
Though that was what he thought, Xu Jiawei made a decision at once: he summoned Xu Jiujiu and increased the Star Luo Royal Academy's investment in this tournament.
As long as the Star Luo Royal Academy kept the championship in Star Luo City at this tournament, his prestige would rise greatly!
Meanwhile, news of Shrek's withdrawal spread as if it had grown legs, beginning in Star Luo City and spreading like a plague, causing an uproar across the continent.
Ming Zhao, who had arrived in Star Luo City several days earlier, also heard the news.
His first thought was: Those savages from Shrek have finally developed some intelligence.
Only then did his second thought occur to him: Mu En has stepped in.
With losses this severe, Shrek's decision to give up on this tournament was a reasonable one. But Shrek's people never did something merely because it was reasonable, and in all of Shrek, only Mu En had the resolve to make such a decision.
Ming Zhao was still extremely wary of that old geezer of a final boss. In all of Shrek, Mu En was the only person he considered worth treating seriously. As for the others?
He didn't even need to bother with them; they would stab themselves.
"No, I need to think of a way to send that old bastard Mu En on his way quickly, preferably one that won't even let him lodge his soul in the Golden Tree." Ming Zhao rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
Once Mu En was dead, all of Shrek would be nothing to worry about. It was a whole circus of jumping clowns, and Ming Zhao had ten thousand ways to destroy Shrek without Mu En holding the fort.
Killing Mu En was actually quite simple.
"I'll just borrow a knife to kill him..."
He immediately thought of the Holy Spirit Cult, Shrek's ill-fated lover that had been entangled with it for countless years.
Mu En's original cause of death had been the Holy Spirit Cult's surprise attack on Shrek and abduction of Ma Xiaotao, which caused Mu En to expend too much of his life force in that battle. Not long afterward, he had passed from the world.
Ma Xiaotao was still at Shrek, so this plan could naturally still be used.
Although they were all Evil Soul Masters, Ming Zhao did not consider the Holy Spirit Cult's Evil Soul Masters his own kind. Let alone using them as pawns and borrowing their knife to kill someone, he wouldn't even blink an extra time if he actually devoured them as nourishment.
"There's no hurry to put this plan into action. Whatever else happens, I should at least give Shrek a little time to catch its breath." Ming Zhao chuckled, then began wandering around Star Luo City.
Walking down the main road, sunny and cheerful, he looked nothing like a great fiend who had slaughtered people like hemp.