Zhao Wuji's Shock

"Teacher Zhao, please don't tease me." Seeing that it was his teacher, Zhao Wuji, Dai Mubai gave an awkward smile, a trace of embarrassment flashing across his face.

He then went into the dining hall and got himself some breakfast.

Sweet potato porridge and a small dish of pickles. It had to be said, the food could rival the fare at Tang San's home.

Soul Masters held a higher social standing than ordinary people, yet lived in such poverty. For a moment, Dai Mubai hardly knew what to say.

The food at Tang San's home was poor because his blacksmith drunkard of a father spent all their money on wine.

Shrek Academy's food, on the other hand, was so poor purely because Dean Flender was stingy.

I'm at the age when I'm still growing, and cultivation requires an ample supply of energy and nutrition. I'm afraid I can't keep eating only at the academy dining hall while I cultivate. I'll need to improve my diet too.

Carrying his sweet potato porridge and pickles, he sat down across from his teacher, Zhao Wuji.

Though Dai Mubai showed no distaste for the academy's food, he had quietly made up his mind.

"Mubai, you brat, you came back plastered last night. Oscar even threw out his back dragging you to your dorm."

"Normally, you'd probably sleep until one or two in the afternoon. How come you're up so early today? And you look bright-eyed and full of life, kid, without a trace of a hangover."

"Especially with that spring breeze of success all over your face, looking so full of vigor. That's nothing like the usual you."

"Come on, tell me. What wonderful thing happened to pull you out of your slump, Mubai? Tell Old Zhao here so I can be happy for you."

Beneath Zhao Wuji's thick brows, his bright, spirited eyes scrutinized Dai Mubai from head to toe. Then he put down his bowl of porridge and asked curiously.

Zhao Wuji... The five teachers had founded Shrek Academy partly because they were tired of the fighting and killing in the Soul Master world and wanted a peaceful place to spend their later years, as well as something to occupy their otherwise dull lives.

Secondly, they all came from commoner backgrounds, with no families or factions behind them to support them.

Yet they had acquired such formidable abilities, which could even be called powerful.

Perhaps those abilities amounted to little among the upper and middle ranks of the two empires, or in Spirit Hall's Pope Hall, Elder Hall, and Worship Hall, or among the Upper Three Sects.

But among commoner Soul Masters, they were first-rate experts at the very top. Thus, Zhao Wuji and the others had their own pride.

Besides wanting to cultivate talented Soul Masters from commoner backgrounds, they had also founded Shrek Academy with the intention of finding successors to inherit their mantles.

Flender had been lucky enough to find a phoenix in a chicken coop, taking Ma Hongjun as his final disciple early on.

Shao Xin, a Food System Soul Master, taught Oscar, a gifted Food System Soul Master with Innate Full Soul Power, as his disciple.

Dai Mubai was the academy's third student, and because he possessed the White Tiger, a top-tier Power Attack System Beast Martial Soul, when he first entered Shrek Academy,

Zhao Wuji and Li Yusong, both Power Attack System Soul Masters, saw his promise and thought of taking him as a disciple.

Zhao Wuji, whose Martial Soul was also a Power Attack System Beast Martial Soul, was the most eager of the two. To compete for the disciple, he had sparred with Li Yusong quite a few times in private.

Later, however, Dai Mubai began to lead a listless, dispirited life.

Li Yusong's Martial Soul was the Dragon Pattern Staff, a Tool Martial Soul that was not particularly compatible with Dai Mubai's White Tiger Beast Martial Soul.

Moreover, his Soul Power Level was only that of a level sixty-three Soul Emperor. His strength and cultivation were lower than Zhao Wuji's as a level seventy-six Soul Saint, so he had never held the advantage in their competition for the disciple.

Yet Li Yusong had never given up competing with Zhao Wuji.

Seeing how listless, dispirited, and self-indulgent Dai Mubai was, he was also the first to grow disappointed in him and abandon the idea of taking him as a disciple.

Zhao Wuji, who had originally thought highly of Dai Mubai, was likewise deeply disappointed afterward.

But unlike Li Yusong, who had lost all faith, Zhao Wuji still clung to the hope that Dai Mubai could pull himself together and, like a prodigal son, find his way back.

Until today, however, Zhao Wuji's disappointment in Dai Mubai had only continued to pile up.

Zhao Wuji had even gradually lost all hope in Dai Mubai and left him entirely to his own devices.

Yet Zhao Wuji had never expected that Dai Mubai, who had always been so listless and dispirited,

would cast off his former gloom today, his whole demeanor renewed, as if he had become another person.

This rekindled Zhao Wuji's hope of taking him as a disciple, though he had previously been bitterly disappointed in Dai Mubai.

At the same time, he was intensely curious about what exactly had happened to Dai Mubai in the space of just one night.

What had made him, who had been dead drunk when he returned from Suotuo City last night, so full of vigor this morning?

His once-dim eyes once again shone with a determination to strive and press forward.

Hearing Zhao Wuji's question, Dai Mubai was startled.

He had thought Zhao Wuji looked like a big, brawny roughneck. He had never expected the man to notice something unusual about him from a few small details the moment they met.

Beneath Zhao Wuji's rugged exterior lay a mind as fine as a hair and a keen eye.

It had to be said...

You really can't judge a person by their looks. And sure enough, no one who came from a commoner background and cultivated such formidable abilities is simple.

Dai Mubai was secretly startled and sighed inwardly.

He had thought he had hidden it well, but now it seemed he was still too green before an expert like Zhao Wuji.

If even a roughneck like Zhao Wuji was this sharp, Dean Flender, renowned for his cunning and craftiness, would probably be even harder to fool.

Dai Mubai had already prepared an explanation for the change in his First Martial Soul, but now he immediately went over it in his head again, refining and improving it.

Though he refined the explanation, Dai Mubai did not change his mind about revealing the change in his First Martial Soul.

He had decided early on to make the change in his First Martial Soul known to the academy's teachers.

Now that Zhao Wuji had asked of his own accord, Dai Mubai naturally had no reason to keep it hidden. He immediately told him part of it, mixing truth with falsehood.

"Haha... As expected of you, Teacher Zhao. I was going to give you and Dean Flender a surprise, but I didn't expect you to see through me as soon as we met."

"Since you've already noticed, Teacher Zhao, naturally I have nothing to hide." Dai Mubai put down his bowl of porridge, his face full of delight.

"Save the compliments and flattery. I'm not Flender, and I don't fall for that."

"And quit keeping me in suspense, Mubai. Hurry up and tell me what happened. If you dawdle any longer, watch out, or I'll give you a practical combat lesson this morning."

Zhao Wuji's firm, heavy-jowled face was full of menace.

Although Dai Mubai's compliments and flattery had pleased him greatly, Zhao Wuji did not show it, so as to maintain a teacher's dignity.

"All right, Teacher Zhao, I'll tell you right away." Sensing that beneath Zhao Wuji's impatience lay even greater concern and worry for him, Dai Mubai stopped keeping him in suspense.

He went straight to the point, giving the concise explanation he had prepared-

"Teacher Zhao, I broke through. My Soul Power Level has reached level thirty, the Soul Elder realm."

"What?!" Zhao Wuji's face filled with surprise at Dai Mubai's words.