"Don't you want to ask why you ran into something like that?"
Mu En was still the first to speak, putting the question to Mu Yueye. The latter shrugged and said to Mu En,
"There's no point asking. If you want to tell me, you will. If you don't, I won't get anything out of you by asking. I only need to be sure you were involved in this."
Mu En watched Mu Yueye's reaction. After a moment's silence, he spoke.
"You won that fight beautifully. Even your great-great-grandfather back in his day couldn't have done much better. It was a test from a friend of your great-great-grandfather's. As for who he is, you aren't ready to know yet."
Mu Yueye nodded without exposing anything. Who had the inclination to put on such a test for him and could also mobilize an Evil Soul Master?
It could only be Dragon Emperor Douluo Long Xiaoyao.
Whatever that man's purpose, he was not someone Mu Yueye could deal with at his current level. No matter how muddleheaded Mu En was, he wouldn't go so far as to set him up at a time like this.
Seeing Mu Yueye's response, Mu En nodded in satisfaction and said,
"You're more levelheaded than I thought. I expected you to cry and ask why I'd betrayed you."
Mu Yueye smiled, then let the smile fade and said,
"I'll only ask one thing: was Zhang Lexuan involved?"
Mu En shook his head and said to Mu Yueye, his expression natural,
"Forget Zhang Lexuan-even Yan Shaozhe knew nothing about it. There was no need for Lexuan to put on an act. Given how well I know the academy, I could arrange the whole thing without involving anyone else."
Mu Yueye saw that Mu En was speaking sincerely, and the Light Sacred Dragon Martial Soul detected no trace of a lie either. He nodded and continued,
"All right. But if that person tries this again, find someone a little more challenging. Putting him to sleep in one move was too boring."
Mu En rolled his eyes and said,
"That's enough. I picked out an Evil Soul Master of average strength with almost no evil in him, and you're still complaining? An Evil Soul Master that lacking in evil is hard to find these days."
Mu Yueye merely smiled and waved a hand at Mu En before saying,
"But what does that senior have to say? He can't have put me through all that for nothing."
Mu En smiled and continued,
"Aren't you confident in your performance? Why worry about that?"
Mu Yueye shrugged and didn't continue bickering with Mu En over it. After leaving Mu En's room, he thought for a moment, then headed toward the outer courtyard.
From a distance, Mu Yueye saw Zhang Lexuan and Yan Shaozhe returning together. Flames had scorched a few black spots into Zhang Lexuan's clothes, but she didn't look seriously hurt.
The moment Zhang Lexuan saw Mu Yueye, she ignored Yan Shaozhe beside her and hurried over to him.
Mu Yueye reached out and embraced Zhang Lexuan. They looked at each other and spoke at the same time.
"Sister Lexuan/Yueye, are you all right?"
After they asked after each other at the same time, the air fell silent.
"You two really are a perfect match."
Yan Shaozhe teased Mu Yueye and Zhang Lexuan with a smile. Zhang Lexuan's ears immediately turned peach pink, while Mu Yueye smiled and briefly fixed his gaze on Yan Shaozhe.
The smile on Yan Shaozhe's face didn't change in the slightest. Though tonight he had been a scatterbrain like the elder brother of his disciple Ma Xiaotao, he knew about Zhang Lexuan and Mu Yueye's engagement.
Leaving aside Mu Yueye, the foremost young master in all of Shrek Academy and even the entire continent, the major life events of Zhang Lexuan, the inner courtyard's top student, were bound to concern Yan Shaozhe.
This didn't even count as special attention. According to the dean's handbook Mu Yueye had seen under the desk in Yan Shaozhe's office, it was part of the dean's job.
The principle was rather like an officer needing to know the family circumstances of the rank-and-file soldiers under his command.
So neither of them minded Yan Shaozhe bringing it into the open. After sending the smiling Yan Shaozhe away, Zhang Lexuan paid no heed to her own scorched, spotted-dog appearance and examined Mu Yueye from head to toe.
Mu Yueye looked helplessly at the concern written all over Zhang Lexuan's face. He had to admit his heart had warmed a little, but he still said,
"That's enough, Sister Lexuan. I'm fine. You should hurry back, take a bath, and change your clothes. You look a little ridiculous like that."
As Mu Yueye spoke, he reached out and gently poked a black spot in the middle of Zhang Lexuan's chest. Even that gesture, which held little suggestion of teasing, made her tremble.
"I know! Yueye, you're already learning bad habits!"
With that, Zhang Lexuan hurried off toward her room. Mu Yueye smiled, and his lips curved up a little further, as though he had recalled the painful memories of being suffocated in the middle of the night and subjected to an unconscious taekwondo whirlwind triple kick in bed when he had gone Soul Hunting with her before.
After that night, Zhang Lexuan went into seclusion, while Mu Yueye was summoned by Mu En to the Sea God Pavilion conference room.
As soon as he entered the room, Mu En handed him a brocade box.
"This is compensation for your ambush last night, and a small welcoming gift from the person who tested you. Take it."
Mu Yueye weighed the box in his hand and only opened it gently after making sure it wasn't some kind of prank.
A black bracelet lay quietly inside. Its material looked like both jade and iron. Its opening was initially wide, but after Mu Yueye slipped it onto his wrist, it naturally fitted itself to him.
It didn't feel uncomfortably tight, nor did it hinder his movements. Mu Yueye looked at the bottom of the box.
Its purpose was written there in a forceful, imposing hand.
[Black Dragon Bracelet, Level 9 Soul Tool. Usable by Soul Ancestors and above. Contains 120 cubic meters of storage space. It can stably accommodate other Storage Soul Tools stacked inside it beforehand, and can link to them to retrieve items from the Soul Tools stored within. Its own storage space can hold living creatures and place them in a dormant state.] [Can release a defensive shield that fits closely around the user. The upper limit of its defense is determined by the user's Soul Power. It cannot be activated at will and only detects hostile attacks.]
Mu Yueye narrowed his eyes. This thing performed well. Leaving everything else aside, the ability to link to other Storage Soul Tools placed inside meant its storage was nearly limitless.
The Sun Moon Empire even had card-shaped Storage Soul Tools. Though relations between Douluo and the Sun Moon Continent were strained,
it wouldn't be hard for Mu Yueye to get his hands on finished Storage Soul Tools of that kind.
At that thought, Mu Yueye looked up at Mu En, who merely smiled and said,
"Go on. You should know why you've been given these things. Don't feel pressured, but don't slack off either."
Mu Yueye nodded, then turned and returned to his room.
Over the following months, Mu Yueye lived a peaceful life for a while, spending his days studying theory and cultivating, with nothing else on his schedule.
Though his Soul Power progressed much more slowly than it had before he became a Soul Elder because of his dual Ultimate Attributes, he still advanced one level without trouble, prompting Mu En to praise his talent once more.
Three months later, Ling Luochеn and the others faced their first real battle...