Chapter Ninety-Three: Shrek’s Movements (Part Two)

After being soundly beaten, Snow Crash promptly went to complain to his uncle, Prince Snow Star.

But Dark Poison Sage had already broken with Prince Snow Star, and the prince had nowhere to find someone who could truly hold the line.

Only the imperial Crown Douluo could be summoned by Emperor Snowy Night himself. If a mere prince dared to entangle himself in利益 with those who served only the emperor, Snowy Night would be the first to send him straight to his grave.

Prince Snow Star had heard of the Four-Eyed Owl, Flender, and the Immovable King, Zhao Wuji. Both were now high-level Soul Sages, and with only the spirit masters kept in his own ducal residence, they would not even be enough to fill the gap between someone else’s teeth.

What, then? Was he supposed to sit there while his nephew got beaten, and then, as the uncle, lean his own face over for two more slaps?

But what kind of man was Prince Snow Star? Together with Snow Crash, he had managed to keep even Crown Prince Qian Renxue and Ning Fengzhi in the dark. One roll of his eyes, and he had a rotten idea.

If he could not beat Shrek openly, then as the man in charge of the Heavenly Dou Royal Academy, he could still work behind the scenes and make life miserable for them. He could withhold benefits from the teachers and students of Shrek, arrange poorer lodging for them, and incite troublesome students to cause chaos in the classes taught by Shrek’s instructors.

The most important tactic of all was to encourage the royal academy students to go and pick on the Shrek Seven Devils.

What? You say the Shrek Seven Devils are too strong, that no one is their match? Then why not bring in outside help? Those graduated seniors are all nobles of the Heavenly Dou royal house, and however roundabout the ties, there is always some family connection somewhere. Surely they can be asked to step in.

And so it came to pass that the students of the Heavenly Dou Royal Academy and the Shrek Seven Devils fought each other inside the school every few days. Small fights on the third day, larger battles on the fifth, until the whole place was thrown into chaos, with feathers flying and everyone coming away bruised.

Among the Shrek Seven Devils, the one who suffered the worst beatings was Ma Hongjun. After all, his soul power was the weakest of the seven, and his evil flame would flare up and run wild at the slightest provocation, making it easy for people to corner him every few days. On top of that, he was never a quiet one to begin with. When he walked the academy grounds, his eyes would leer shamelessly at the female students, regardless of whether they were accompanied by male companions, so sometimes even people who had not come looking for trouble would end up fighting him.

Second only to him was Dai Mubai. His soul power had reached level thirty-eight, and looking across the entire Heavenly Dou Royal Academy, not even the mighty chief student Yu Tianheng could be certain of defeating him. The young heir of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan was hardly going to obey Prince Snow Star’s commands.

But the academy had sheer numbers on its side. If one was not enough, send ten. If ten were not enough, send a hundred. Even if they could not kill you, they could wear you down to death.

What was more, the students could also call for outside help. The worst beating Dai Mubai ever suffered came when the instigators actually summoned a senior at level forty-eight to assist them. They literally beat the tiger into a sickly cat, and it took him three full days in bed before he could recover.

Oscar, Tang San, and Xiao Wu were more or less evenly matched in terms of how much trouble they drew. Oscar was a food-type spirit master, and when he was beaten, it was usually by a mob; word would not spread well if a whole group bullied a lone food-type master. As for Tang San and Xiao Wu, the students were wary of them because they struck too hard and too ruthlessly. Tang San’s hidden weapons all went straight for vital points and joints, while Xiao Wu’s soft techniques would not stop until she had thrown someone hard enough to break bones. On top of that, the two of them together could even make a Soul Ancestor struggle to win, so many students would rather pick a fight with Dai Mubai than with either of them.

If they went after Dai Mubai, at worst he would leave them black and blue. But Tang San was far too dark-hearted. One student was struck by his hidden weapon and his poison erupted on the spot, writhing in agony as though he were dying. In the end Tang San, out of respect for a teacher’s face, helped detoxify him, but the student remained weak for nearly half a month and even now still had nightmare after nightmare whenever he slept at night.

Zhu Zhuqing and Ning Rongrong, by contrast, were left untouched. Zhu Zhuqing treasured the hard-won environment for cultivation and was almost always in seclusion, seeking a breakthrough; her soul power was already nearing level thirty. As for Ning Rongrong, what a joke—who in Heavenly Dou City did not know the little devil of the Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Sect? The students had no desire to be visited by Sword Douluo or Bone Douluo and, in one glorious package, receive the full annihilation of their entire families.

Flender was a proud man. How could he possibly stomach such humiliation? More than a month earlier, he had already wanted to leave the Heavenly Dou Royal Academy, but Yu Xiaogang had stopped him.

Yu Xiaogang was different from Flender. Ever since his spirit awakened as a pig, he had been mocked by others more times than he could count. Though equally arrogant, he had far thicker skin than Flender.

For him, the most important matter at present was his beloved disciple Tang San. So long as Tang San could display overwhelming brilliance at the coming Spirit Master Tournament and prove the invincible theory of Master Yu, then all the humiliation suffered before that would be worth it.

The Shrek Academy was good in every way, except that it had no formal license and therefore could not take part in the Spirit Master Tournament. For the sake of his grand dream of fame, he could only endure the grievance and remain at the Heavenly Dou Royal Academy.

Under Yu Xiaogang’s relentless moral pressure, Flender also forced down his dissatisfaction and stayed.

Because his heart was full of frustration, Flender would run off to Heavenly Dou City every few days to drown his sorrows in drink.

As fate would have it, on one such occasion he unexpectedly met the goddess of his dreams, Liu Erlong.

The two had not seen each other for twenty years. In their sudden reunion, they sat down at once and spoke at length.

Only then, in the course of their conversation, did Liu Erlong learn that her Flender elder brother and her long-cherished white moonlight cousin, Yu Xiaogang, were both at the Heavenly Dou Royal Academy, suffering endless difficulty and humiliation.

Liu Erlong, who bore the title of the Killing Horned Dragon, had a temper as fiery as anyone could imagine. She slammed the table and rose at once, determined to go and demand justice for them.

Flender was frightened out of his wits. However excessive Prince Snow Star might be, he was still the younger brother of Emperor Snowy Night. Liu Erlong, with the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan behind her, might fear nothing, but he was a powerless nobody. When the time came, would not all of Prince Snow Star’s rage simply be vented upon him?

After Flender’s desperate persuasion, Liu Erlong, still furious, finally revealed her wealthy woman nature. She suggested that Flender and the others resign from the Heavenly Dou Royal Academy and leave, and even offered to rename her own Blue Overlord Academy under her name as Shrek Academy and give it to Flender.

Flender was overjoyed at the proposal. Compared with staying at the Heavenly Dou Royal Academy, forced to live under someone else’s roof and read the room every day, how could there be any comfort greater than having his own academy? He agreed without the slightest hesitation.

After returning, he immediately discussed the matter with Yu Xiaogang, Zhao Wuji, and the rest of the old hands. Of course, to prevent Yu Xiaogang from slipping away again, Flender concealed Liu Erlong’s true identity and only said that it was help from an old friend.

He knew Yu Xiaogang’s nature all too well. Right now, his heart and eyes were filled entirely with his disciple Tang San. So long as Tang San settled down in the academy, there would be no way he could leave.

It could be said that our “Boiling” Flender truly had to wrack his brain just to make sure his goddess could get what she wanted and indulge in that forbidden romance. That level of dedication would be enough to make later generations of simps lower their heads in shame.