Tang San slowly woke up. The sight of the familiar thatched cottage, his familiar teacher, and the teachers of Shrek Academy left him in a daze.
"Am I back?"
When Yu Xiaogang saw Tang San wake up, he covered the distance to his side in two strides, overjoyed.
"Teacher."
Tang San answered weakly.
Yu Xiaogang took Tang San's hand and comforted him gently. "You were gravely injured when Zhao Wuji brought you back. I had to call on some connections to find a healing-type Soul Emperor to treat you. You're still very weak, so you need to rest and recuperate."
Tang San's eyes reddened, and he was deeply moved.
Zhao Wuji curled his lip.
Yu Xiaogang certainly knew how to play the good guy. Flender was the one who had enlisted the healer, but Yu Xiaogang had made it sound like his own accomplishment.
Zhao Wuji looked at Flender, who simply stood there smiling, without the slightest sign of displeasure. Zhao Wuji could only sigh inwardly.
Flender is willing to let him do it, so what can I do?
Tang San turned his head and looked around. He saw Dai Mubai, Oscar, and the others, but Xiao Wu was nowhere to be found.
"Teacher, where's Xiao Wu? Didn't she come back?"
Tang San's heart sank. He unconsciously tightened his grip on Yu Xiaogang's hand as he asked anxiously.
Yu Xiaogang was silent for a moment before comforting him. "Xiao San, Xiao Wu was taken by the Titan Giant Ape. That's the king of the forest. There's no chance she could have escaped its grasp. You have my condolences. There are fragrant flowers everywhere under heaven; you don't need to dwell on Xiao Wu too much!"
"Teacher, say no more!"
Tang San abruptly flung Yu Xiaogang's hand away, his expression turning cold.
"I respect you greatly, but Xiao Wu is my sister. I'll never give up looking for her. Even if she's dead, I'll avenge her! Whoever dares hurt Xiao Wu, I'll make him pay a thousand, ten thousand times over, even if he's the Titan Giant Ape, the king of the forest!"
"Perhaps I'm no match for him now, but one day I'll tear out his tendons and flay his skin, and leave him without a place to be buried. I, Tang San, swear it on my soul!"
Yu Xiaogang's expression stiffened for a moment. Then he shook his head and sighed. "Xiao San, you're simply too attached to your feelings!"
At that moment, Oscar, Dai Mubai, and Ma Hongjun also woke up one after another.
"I'm still alive?"
Oscar stared blankly for a moment. When he saw Flender, he immediately burst into tears of joy.
"Dean! It's so good to see you again. I thought I'd never see you again!"
The corner of Flender's mouth twitched.
The way Oscar put it, you'd think I was the one who'd met with an accident.
Dai Mubai and Ma Hongjun likewise wept tears of joy, immensely relieved.
The group had survived, and their spirits relaxed. Ma Hongjun noticed Dai Mubai's and Oscar's bottoms and burst out laughing.
"Boss Dai, Xiao Ao, why is one side of your butts higher than the other? Will your poop leak out the side when you take a dump from now on?"
Dai Mubai and Oscar hurriedly reached behind themselves, and their hearts sank. Unwilling to accept it, they felt around a few more times, but one side was still plump and perky while the other was shriveled.
Ma Hongjun was still laughing when Dai Mubai shot him an annoyed glare. "Fatty, take a look at yourself before you laugh at us!"
Ma Hongjun's expression froze, and he reached behind himself.
It was gone!
All gone!
To his even greater horror, not only was his butt gone, but so was the little brother he depended on to survive.
Ma Hongjun looked at Flender with a mournful face.
"Dean, what happened? What are we supposed to do?"
Flender sighed.
"The Titan Giant Ape set off a beast tide. You ran into a pack of hyenas, and half your butts were bitten off. This was as much as the healing could do."
Oscar's and Dai Mubai's expressions darkened.
Oscar wore a mournful face. With a butt like this, how could he face anyone?
Rongrong will definitely be disgusted.
Dai Mubai's face was as still as water.
Losing half his butt was no small blow to him.
He was a prince of the Star Luo Empire. Now that he had only half a butt, people would surely laugh at him. He had lost not only half his butt, but also the face of the Star Luo Empire!
Not to mention that it also affected his fighting ability.
The position of crown prince really was slipping farther and farther out of his reach!
Dai Mubai could not help feeling dejected.
Ma Hongjun fared even worse, howling like a ghost and wailing like a wolf. "Dean, how am I supposed to vent my Evil Fire from now on? Am I going to die?"
Flender hurriedly comforted them. "There, there. At least you're still alive. Your butts are just a little shriveled, that's all. At worst, you can stuff them with some cotton to keep up appearances. They'll still look the same as before from the outside."
He then looked at Ma Hongjun, a troubled expression on his face.
There was nothing he could do about Ma Hongjun's situation either, so he turned to the theory Grandmaster Yu Xiaogang for help, hope in his eyes.
"Xiaogang, Hongjun is my disciple. With your theoretical knowledge, you must have a way, right?"
"A Martial Soul defect?"
Yu Xiaogang held one hand behind his back and stood tall, chest out, looking as though he held the pearl of wisdom in his grasp.
"Naturally, I have a solution. I've done some research into Martial Soul Mutation and Martial Soul defects. If I dare claim first place, no one on the continent would dare claim second."
"Really?"
Flender was overjoyed. He clapped Yu Xiaogang on the shoulder and laughed heartily. "I knew this wouldn't stump you, Xiaogang."
Yu Xiaogang smiled stiffly and said calmly:
"This child has a mutated Martial Soul. The direction in which a mutated Martial Soul changes cannot be controlled, so some defects are inevitable. But this child is luckier than I am."
"My Martial Soul underwent a complete mutation in the wrong direction. This child's mutation was in the right direction; only a small part of it went wrong. We only need to correct that small mistake, which will be much easier."
"Grandmaster, how should I correct it?" Ma Hongjun looked at Yu Xiaogang excitedly and asked with the utmost respect.
Yu Xiaogang said calmly, "Soul Rings can make up for a Martial Soul's attributes, so naturally they can also make up for its defects. Xiao San's Blue Silver Grass was nothing more than a trash soul, but he accepted my theory and absorbed a highly venomous Mandala Snake. Not only did it gain a deadly poison that's hard to guard against, but its toughness also became far greater than that of ordinary Blue Silver Grass."
Everyone had seen Tang San's Blue Silver Grass before, and Yu Xiaogang's words left them completely convinced.
Yu Xiaogang continued, "Correcting the direction of a Martial Soul's mutation is different from making up for its defects. Blue Silver Grass lacks attack power and toughness, so I hunted a Mandala Snake for Xiao San to make up for those shortcomings. But correcting the direction of a Martial Soul requires a heavy dose!"
"A heavy dose?" Flender looked thoughtful.
"That's right!"
Yu Xiaogang pointed at Ma Hongjun with complete confidence. "The reason he's consumed by Evil Fire is that his Martial Soul mutated too far, and its fire is too vigorous. So we need to find him an ice-attribute Soul Ring. The higher its quality, the better. That way, we can correct the direction of his mutation and set it back on the right track."
Flender immediately clapped his hands as realization dawned on him.
"So that's how it is!"
Zhao Wuji could not help saying, "But when absorbing a Soul Ring with an opposing attribute, even if he's lucky enough not to die from the clash of attributes, it will still waste his Martial Soul's potential for nothing. His achievements in this lifetime will be limited too."
That was common knowledge throughout the Douluo Continent. Who knew how many people had burst apart and died from absorbing Soul Rings with opposing attributes?