Setting Out for Shrek

As they left Nuoding City, Wang Xingyu walked at the back and glanced over his shoulder at the drab gray city wall.

Now it was time to leave.

Xiao Wu led the way, her scorpion braid swaying back and forth. Tang San walked in the middle, his fingers occasionally brushing the six-foot-square storage pouch at his waist. It was a new replacement, and its leather cord had yet to be worn smooth.

Wang Xingyu brought up the rear. At some point, a fan had appeared in his hand. He snapped it open and gave it a wave. Its surface was plain white, without a single painting.

Xiao Wu looked back at it. "It's not even hot. Why are you fanning yourself?"

"Style." Wang Xingyu waved the fan. "You wouldn't understand."

Xiao Wu rolled her eyes and turned back around.

Wang Xingyu waved his fan, turning over the road ahead in his mind. Shrek Academy. To be honest, it wasn't as if he hadn't considered going somewhere else. As a transmigrator, he knew roughly what opportunities, dangerous places, and notable figures existed on the continent.

He could easily take Tang San and Xiao Wu down another road, avoiding Shrek's rules and people like Flender, as well as Spirit Hall's pursuit.

But he hadn't done that. The reason was simple: Tang San eventually became the Sea God and the Asura God, bearing Dual Godhood and standing at the very pinnacle of the continent.

Though the road wasn't easy, the outcome was good. If he forcibly changed Tang San's course, there was no telling whether those opportunities would still fall into Tang San's lap.

There was no need to gamble. What he had to do wasn't rewrite Tang San's path, but accompany him, lend a hand along the way, make up for some regrets, and grow stronger himself.

As for Shrek itself, Wang Xingyu waved his fan and couldn't help clicking his tongue inwardly. Only monsters, no ordinary people? The slogan was loud enough to shake the heavens, but, bluntly put, all they did was gather geniuses who had already distinguished themselves and say, "Look, we've raised geniuses."

Geniuses were geniuses to begin with, no matter where they went. Raising geniuses into geniuses was practically cast from the same mold as the Grandmaster's line about "no Trash Martial Souls, only trash Soul Masters."

No wonder they were the Golden Iron Triangle. Their theories all followed the same approach. Still, Flender was a bit better than the Grandmaster; at least he wasn't stuck at level twenty-nine himself.

Forget it. Complaints aside, they still had to go to Shrek. Tang San needed the opportunities there, while Xiao Wu and Wang Xingyu needed the platform it offered. All three of them needed Shrek as a stepping stone.

At that thought, Wang Xingyu turned his head to look ahead. Xiao Wu had her head tilted toward Tang San as she spoke to him. Whatever she said, she broke into a smile, her eyes curving into crescent moons.

Tang San didn't smile, but the tips of his ears turned slightly red. Wang Xingyu folded his fan, then snapped it open again and waved it. It was good that they were close. With Xiao Wu and Little San close, he could at least set half his worries to rest. After all, he really had shipped the two of them before.

After traveling for several days, they entered Suotuo City.

The three first found a Spirit Tool shop. Xiao Wu pulled Tang San inside, with Wang Xingyu following behind. The shop was small. Behind the counter sat a middle-aged man with a face like a shoehorn and a pair of glasses. His head was lowered as he fiddled with a piece of crystal in his hands. Flender.

The dean of Shrek Academy was currently posing as an ordinary shopkeeper and didn't even raise his head.

Tang San's gaze swept across the counter and suddenly stopped. A palm-sized piece of crystal lay in a corner, transparent throughout, with wisps of extremely fine golden threads inside. Hair Crystal, and Plate Crystal at that. The golden threads inside were Hair Gold.

"Shopkeeper, how much for this crystal?" Tang San pointed at it.

Flender lifted his eyelids and quoted a price offhand. "A hundred Gold Soul Coins."

Xiao Wu sucked in a breath. "That expensive?"

Flender picked up the crystal and turned it in his hand. "Rare crystal, top quality. No bargaining."

Wang Xingyu snapped open his fan and waved it. "Shopkeeper, this has been sitting here for quite a while, hasn't it? Rare as it is, people who can work it are even rarer. Your shop's in Suotuo City, and plenty of Soul Masters come and go, but this crystal still hasn't sold. That means the price is wrong." He folded his fan and pointed at the Plate Crystal. "Sixty Gold Soul Coins."

Light flashed across Flender's glasses. "Eighty."

"Sixty. Every day you keep it here is another day's rent. Sixty, paid on the spot."

Flender was silent for a moment, then set the Plate Crystal on the counter. "Take it."

Tang San paid and put the Plate Crystal in his storage pouch. The three left the shop, and Xiao Wu looked at Wang Xingyu. "How did you know you could bargain him down?"

"Style." Wang Xingyu waved his fan.

Xiao Wu stopped asking.

It was getting late, so the three found a hotel. The Rose Hotel had a pink sign by the entrance with a rose painted on it. Wang Xingyu looked up at it, then pushed the door open and went inside.

The receptionist was a man in his twenties. He paused when the three entered. "A room for the three of you?"

"Two rooms," Wang Xingyu said.

"Sorry, there's only one left." The receptionist leafed through his register. "It's the weekend, so rooms are tight."

Before Wang Xingyu could speak, several guests waiting to check in had already turned to look. Their gazes were a little strange.

"One room it is," Xiao Wu said.

The looks around them grew even stranger. The receptionist lowered his head and wrote something in the register. Wang Xingyu snapped open his fan and hid his face behind it.

Footsteps sounded at the entrance. Three people walked in. Leading them was a tall blond youth, a full head taller than others his age, with sharply defined features and mismatched eyes-one blue, one yellow. Dai Mubai. He had a girl on each arm. They were seventeen or eighteen and looked somewhat alike, probably sisters.

Dai Mubai walked up to the front desk. "My usual room."

The receptionist looked up, his expression awkward. "Young Master Dai, these three guests just booked your room. It was the last one left."

Dai Mubai turned, his gaze resting on each of the three in turn for a moment. The two girls beside him looked over as well. Their eyes swept over the three children, and they covered their mouths and laughed. Three people, one room.

Wang Xingyu lowered the fan from his face. "Stop right there. We're just staying at a hotel. An ordinary hotel stay."

Dai Mubai ignored his explanation and walked up to Tang San. Nearly a head taller than him, he looked down at him. "I've booked that room long-term. Go somewhere else."

Tang San looked at him. "We booked it first."

Dai Mubai smiled faintly, clenched his right hand into a fist, and pushed it straight toward Tang San's shoulder.

It wasn't a real attack, but a probe. Tang San stepped aside and turned his left hand over, gripping Dai Mubai's wrist. Dai Mubai was slightly startled. He jerked his right arm but couldn't pull free. Tang San's fingers clamped around his wrist like iron pincers: Mysterious Jade Hand.

Dai Mubai curled his left hand into a claw and grabbed at Tang San's forearm. Tang San raised his right hand: Controlling Crane Capturing Dragon. With a pull and a guide, Dai Mubai's left hand was drawn off course by its own force. His center of gravity wavered, and he stumbled back two steps.

Dai Mubai steadied himself and looked at Tang San, his gaze changed. He didn't probe again. A layer of white light shone from his body, his hair grew thick and coarse, his pupils narrowed into vertical slits, and his nails lengthened. White Tiger Martial Soul possession. Three Soul Rings rose from beneath his feet: two yellow and one purple.

Tang San extended his right hand. Blue Silver Grass emerged from his palm, two lines interweaving along the edges of its leaves.

"Blue Silver Grass, a Trash Martial Soul," Dai Mubai said with a smile.

Tang San didn't answer. Two Soul Rings rose from beneath his feet-the First Soul Ring was yellow, and the Second Soul Ring was purple.

Dai Mubai's expression changed. He stared at the purple second ring, then looked at the Blue Silver Grass in Tang San's palm. The smile vanished from his lips.

The receptionist's mouth hung open. The twin girls stopped laughing, too, and all the guests around them fell silent. A thousand-year Second Soul Ring-no one had ever seen such a configuration.

Dai Mubai said nothing more. The light of his White Tiger Martial Soul grew a shade brighter. Tang San's Blue Silver Grass spread out along the floor, its vines extending from his palm. The two stared at each other.

Dai Mubai struck first, his right claw swooping down with a rush of wind. Tang San sidestepped, and Blue Silver Grass sprang up from the floor, curling toward Dai Mubai's ankle.

Dai Mubai swept his left claw across and struck the vine-but didn't break it. The Blue Silver Grass that had absorbed Iron Thorn Vine was exceptionally tough. The blow knocked it to one side, but it immediately sprang back.

Dai Mubai struck repeatedly with both claws. Tang San's Blue Silver Grass split into three strands, winding toward him from three directions at once. Dai Mubai's tiger claws flew as the two advanced and retreated, exchanging blows in the lobby.

After more than a dozen exchanges, Dai Mubai could break Tang San's Blue Silver Grass with his Third Soul Skill, but Tang San used his Second Soul Skill, Offshoot, and it grew back.

Neither could get the better of the other. Dai Mubai forced Tang San back half a step with a claw strike, then leaped back himself, putting distance between them. They faced each other, both breathing slightly hard.

Dai Mubai suddenly smiled and withdrew his Martial Soul. "A draw."

Tang San withdrew his Blue Silver Grass as well and nodded.

Dai Mubai glanced at him, then at Xiao Wu and Wang Xingyu. "We may see each other again soon." He turned and led the two sisters out of the hotel.

Wang Xingyu waved his fan. The receptionist handed over the key, his fingers trembling slightly. Wang Xingyu took it and headed upstairs. Behind him, the guests spoke in hushed voices. He couldn't make out what they were saying, but their surprise still showed in their tone.

The three entered the room. Wang Xingyu looked around-one large bed, pink sheets, pink curtains, and a rose in a vase on the bedside table. Xiao Wu tossed her bundle onto the bed and flopped down on it. "Comfortable."

Wang Xingyu folded his fan and leaned against the window. Tang San sat on the edge of the bed, still feeling the piece of Plate Crystal in his hands.