Chapter 96: Conflict
As the group headed toward the village, they passed by a thatched house, where a crowd of men and women caught their attention.
"Cuīhuā, are you going to leave me too? I don't agree with this."
With that, the red-haired fat man began a series of entanglements with the woman.
Xiao Wu, seeing this, immediately felt the urge to intervene. Her meddling soul surged, and she was about to step forward to teach the red-haired fat man a lesson.
Dai Mubai quickly stopped her and explained, "Er, this is also one of our academy's students, named Ma Hongjun. His martial soul is a bit special, it's not what you think."
Ma Hongjun seemed to have noticed the presence of the academy members, and with a sly glance, he quickly spotted the three girls behind Dai Mubai. He completely ignored Cuihua and walked straight toward the group.
Cuihua, seeing this, quickly took the opportunity to leave the village.
"Hello, ladies. My name is Ma Hongjun, a level 27 Great Soul Master. My martial soul is the Evil Fire Phoenix."
The three girls scoffed and turned away, ignoring him.
The fat man wasn't in a hurry and followed the group to the cafeteria. Oscar was already there.
At this point, he had shaved off his beard, revealing the face that Ma Hongjun described.
When he saw Ning Rongrong, his eyes brightened. This girl gave him a different feeling, and he decided to try harder.
"You guys are here, come sit down."
He greeted everyone to take their seats, and then he glanced at the fat man.
His eyes were wandering between the three girls, making Dai Mubai furious. Oscar, too, was speechless, not wanting to let his target slip away.
"By the way, have you met him? His name is Ma Hongjun, and his martial soul is the Evil Fire Cock."
"You're the only one who's a cock. I'm the Evil Fire Phoenix."
Ma Hongjun was not pleased when he heard Oscar insult him.
"Where do you see a phoenix as fat as you?"
"I don't care, I'm a phoenix."
Xiao Wu and Ning Rongrong silently sighed. This wasn't a monster academy, it was just a gathering place for perverts—one color old tiger, one color cock, and one lecherous old man.
"Fatty, keep your eyes to yourself and stop looking around."
"Dai laoda, when you eat meat, you should at least leave me some soup, right? Or are you planning to take all three of them?"
Dai Mubai nervously glanced at Xiao Cat beside him, seeing her looking at him with disdain. He quickly reprimanded Ma Hongjun.
"Stop talking nonsense, you fat pig. Be careful, or I'll beat you into a dead chicken."
"Tch."
As they spoke, Oscar brought the food to the table: porridge with salted vegetables.
The others lost their appetite at the sight, except for Tang San, who wasn't picky and slowly started eating. After all, he had endured far worse when he was a child.
"By the way, is your academy really that poor? I can't even see any meat."
Ning Rongrong scooped some of the watery porridge with her spoon. Forget about meat, there was barely any rice. The water content was over 90%, it was like food for a dog.
Dai Mubai's face flashed with embarrassment. "If you hadn't come, we'd likely be the last batch of students here. The headmaster said that we'd rather not take anyone than take mediocre students."
If Ning Bei had heard these words, he would have contemptuously told him to shut down the academy and stop exploiting mediocre talents.
"Why don't you ask your headmaster to go out and ask for some money? That teacher Zhao has Soul Saint-level strength, and the headmaster's strength should be even higher."
Dai Mubai and the others looked at Ning Rongrong in confusion.
"Ask for money?"
"Well, just go to the local gang and borrow some money. My brother says that blackmailing is the fastest way to make money."
Ning Bei, far in the distance, sneezed.
"Ah-choo! Strange, who's thinking about me?"
Dai Mubai and the others, as if they had discovered a new world, agreed to bring this up to the headmaster. Especially Oscar, who was getting tired of eating plain porridge every day, though luckily he had his sausages.
While they were talking, the sound of a bell rang across the playground.
Xiao Wu looked at Dai Mubai in confusion.
"What's that sound?"
"Let's hurry, the headmaster is calling us to assemble."
They quickly made their way to the playground.
As they stood there, a figure appeared in the center of the field.
With a shoehorn-shaped face and large glasses, it was none other than Flander.
"Ah-hem, let me introduce myself. I'm Flander, the headmaster of Shrek Academy, a level 78 Battle Soul Saint. Welcome, little monsters, to our academy. First, please pay your tuition, which is 100 Gold Soul Coins per year."
Ning Rongrong was secretly amazed. From the teaching staff alone, this academy had some merit. There were already two Soul Saints, not to mention the Soul Emperor elder who was in charge of admissions.
"Ning Rongrong and Oscar, step forward."
"???"
Ning Rongrong walked out of the line in confusion.
"As an auxiliary Soul Master, the first thing you need to learn is to run away. Your task is to run twenty laps around the village."
The others were free to move around, but they had to assemble again in the evening.
"Yes."
Oscar immediately began his running task. Ning Rongrong, disdainfully looking at the meticulous lecherous old man, didn't move and instead called Xiao Wu to go to Soto City for lunch.
Ning Bei, watching Oscar run alone, felt a bit puzzled. Flander shouldn't have received a letter from Ning Fengzhi yet, so how was he still able to act this way? Or was this old man just trying to drive away the two "young ladies?"
As expected, when night fell and everyone gathered again at the playground, Flander called out Oscar's name with a dark expression.
"Oscar, did you finish running twenty laps?"
"I finished."
"I asked, did you finish?"
Oscar, with a troubled look, glanced at Ning Rongrong behind him and then made up his mind.
"We finished."
"Good. Since you like to protect her, you can run her laps as well. I've sealed your soul power, go ahead."
He patted Oscar's shoulder, signaling him to start running.
Flander then looked at Ning Rongrong, who was kicking stones on the ground with an indifferent expression.
Sighing slightly, Flander thought to himself. This girl, with Xiao Wu, was the "arrogant little sister" that the elder mentioned. She was truly quite conspicuous. It would be better to send them back as soon as possible. Otherwise, if anything went wrong, Jian and Gu wouldn't be playing around.
"Ning Rongrong, have you finished running?"
"No, why should I run that ridiculous circle? I haven't even eaten lunch."
"So you ran off to Soto City to eat whatever you wanted?"
Ning Rongrong's face changed, and she felt a trace of displeasure.
"Are you spying on me? Flander, you're just a small Soul Saint. I advise you not to meddle in other people's business, or the consequences will be beyond what you can bear."
Ning Rongrong's words made Zhu Zhuqing and the others look at her with some strange expressions. What a domineering girl, but she clearly had the capital to back it up. Otherwise, she wouldn't be so bold. However, her "young lady" image in their hearts was quietly shattered.
Ning Bei, watching from the tree, couldn't help but laugh at Ning Rongrong, who was angrily pointing at Flander.
She had always been cute and obedient in front of the elders, but now her true nature was showing.
"I may just be a small Soul Saint, but Shrek is nothing compared to your Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Sect. So now, you can leave."
"And that girl behind you, at level 40, is already eligible to graduate from here. You don't even need to enroll."
Xiao Wu and Ning Rongrong's faces stiffened. What was this? They had just escaped from their sect, and now they were already told to leave?
"Rongrong, what should we do? Go back?"
After a moment of hesitation, Ning Rongrong glared at Flander.
"Just because you told me to go back, does that mean I will? That would be too embarrassing! I'm not leaving."
With that, she folded her arms and turned away.
Flander, realizing it wasn't so simple, thought to himself that a few hundred gold Soul Coins weren't that easy to collect.
"Then let me make this clear: if you want to stay at the academy, you have to listen to orders just like the other students. Otherwise, why not go back to your Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Sect? Why stay here?"
Ning Rongrong felt irritated, almost wanting to flip the table and go home, but since she had finally left the sect, she didn't want to leave so quickly without finding a new place.
"I'll listen, fine. It's just twenty laps, right? I'll catch up tomorrow morning."
After strengthening her body with whale glue, Ning Rongrong wasn't the small fry she used to be. Twenty laps was nothing, she just didn't want to run.
(END CHAPTER)
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