96: Chapter 96 The Pitiful People Beyond Happiness

The two of them valued Face and reputation above all else in their lives. Now that such a humiliating incident had occurred, they would rather swallow their broken teeth along with their blood than dare to blow the matter out of proportion.

Watching the two of them look so dejected, Zhao Wuji was so angry that he smashed his fist hard against the courtyard wall. Gravel flew, but he was helpless. He could only suppress his anger and curse, "Does that mean we just let it go?! Just let those three scumbags bully you for nothing?!"

Flender clenched his fists tightly, his nails digging deep into his palms. His eyes were filled with gloom, yet he couldn't say a single word.

Let it go? How could he be willing to do that! But other than letting it go, what else could he do?

Report it to the authorities? Or investigate it himself? Either way, it would make the matter known to everyone. By then, he, Yu Xiaogang, and Shrek Academy would completely become a joke.

Meanwhile, in Soto City, this matter had already spread throughout the streets and alleys.

Before dawn, the trio of Bu Le had already embellished their "achievements" from last night and told the Transmigration individuals who hired them. In tea houses and casinos, everyone was talking about the funny story of how the Shrek Academy dean and the Great Master of theory were pranked with tactics used to molest young girls. The Transmigration individuals laughed until they doubled over, one after another taking out gold coins to tip the trio of Bu Le, clamoring for them to keep up the good work and arrange for Zhao Wuji to be included next time.

"I'm dying of laughter! Little Dede, Little Ganggang, Little Rose—I can laugh at these nicknames until the end of the year!"

"Zhao Wuji thought Flender was out finding women to have wild fun with, but it turns out he was being bullied by hoodlums. This plot twist is too hilarious!"

"The trio of Bu Le really knows how to stir things up. This move directly slapped Shrek's Face until it swelled up. Let's see if they still dare to advertise their back-alley academy!"

"We must pay them more! Let them do something even wilder next time. It would be best if everyone in Soto City could see with their own eyes the 'demeanor' of these two Great Masters!"

The trio of Bu Le, pockets stuffed with gold coins, couldn't stop grinning. They patted their chests on the spot and guaranteed that next time, they would definitely arrange even more exciting new tricks for the teachers of Shrek.

In the Riverside Inn, the trio of Gui Mengguan listened to the detailed account brought back by their subordinates. Qiangu Jue laughed so hard he slid right off his chair. Oupai held onto the table, laughing so much he couldn't even hold his tea steady. Even the usually composed Gui Mengguan couldn't help but hold his forehead, his shoulders shaking with laughter.

"This wave really shows they've mastered the art of pranking; the humor is dialed up to the max."

Gui Mengguan shook his head with a smile, "Now Flender and Yu Xiaogang have absolutely no Face to go out. Let alone advertising for enrollment, I'm afraid they won't even dare to step out of the academy gate."

"That line from Zhao Wuji, 'Which woman were you out with last night, having such wild fun?', I'll remember that for a lifetime!" Qiangu Jue wiped away the tears of laughter, "Only a rough man like him would have that as his first reaction, adding another hilarious piece of dark history to Flender and Yu Xiaogang's already humiliating encounter."

Meanwhile, in the small courtyard of Shrek, the atmosphere was so oppressive it felt like it could drip water.

Flender and Yu Xiaogang hid in their rooms, locking themselves away for an entire day, refusing even to come out to eat.

Zhao Wuji sat in the courtyard, cursing in anger one moment, and then unable to suppress his laughter the next when he recalled the scene from the morning. The entire Shrek Academy had completely fallen into a bizarre atmosphere of both humiliation and hilarity. The previously vigorous enrollment campaign had also completely died down, and no one dared to mention it again.

Only in the streets and alleys of Soto City did the embarrassing story about the two Shrek teachers continue to spread, becoming the biggest amusement in all of Soto City this year.

In the largest tea house in Soto City, the embarrassing story about Shrek Academy had been circulating for three whole days.

In the scattered seating area of the front hall, Transmigration individuals gathered together, still enthusiastically discussing the iconic pranking scenes of the trio of Bu Le, erupting into bursts of laughter from time to time.

However, in the private room at the very back of the tea house, it remained quiet. The wooden door was tightly shut, and only the sounds of suppressed breathing and the occasional gritted-teeth cursing leaked out through the door crack.

There were over a dozen people sitting in the private room, men and women of all ages. Their attire was ordinary, and the highest fluctuation of Soul Power on them was no more than a level 50-something Spirit King, while the lowest was only a level 30-something Spirit Elder.

They were not Transmigration individuals, nor were they onlookers here to watch the fun; they were a group of people whose lives had been ruined by Shrek Academy for half their lives.

There were dropouts who left halfway through, graduates who barely managed to finish but whose futures were destroyed, and parents of students who had lost their lives while studying at Shrek.

They had been sitting in this private room for two whole days.

From the initial disbelief upon hearing the news that Flender and Yu Xiaogang had been bullied by hoodlums, to the subsequent trembling, and now to the resentment and hatred surging in their eyes—emotions that had been suppressed for years, or even over a decade.

Sitting in the main seat was a middle-aged man with a fleshy Face named Shi Lei. He was thirty years old and a dropout from Shrek twelve years ago. He now worked as a caravan guard captain in Soto City. He had a tough, well-trained physique and a scar on his Face that extended from his brow bone to his jaw, left behind when he was hunting a Spirit Beast in the Star Dou Great Forest back then.

He smashed his fist hard onto the table, and the solid wood tabletop instantly cracked with a fine fissure. The man's voice was as hoarse as if it had been ground against gravel, carrying the rage suppressed for over a decade: "Damn it! I've waited twelve years! Finally, I've waited for this day!"

"Back then, I was twelve years old, with level 29 Soul Power and Innate Soul Power of level 9! Any Empire academy or Spirit Hall academy was scrambling to have me. But I was swindled by that old fraud Flender, who said Shrek was a monster academy that only accepted Geniuses, and that it would allow me to reach the pinnacle of the Spirit Master's world!"

Shi Lei's eyes were frighteningly red, his fingers tightly clenched into fists, his knuckles turning white: "And what was the result? After entering the academy, I paid several hundred gold coins in tuition, lived in a dilapidated house that leaked when it rained, and ate brown rice that was worse than pig swill. Cultivate resources? There was absolutely nothing! We had to fight and scramble for everything ourselves!"

"When I was fifteen, I was aiming to break through to become a Spirit Elder and went to the Star Dou Great Forest to hunt for my third spirit ring. Zhao Wuji and Flender, a Spirit Saint and a Spirit Emperor, were leading the team. But when we encountered a thousand-year Spirit Beast, the two of them ran away first! Of us five students, three died. I fought with my life to survive, left with this scar on my Face, and missed the optimal time to absorb the spirit ring. In this lifetime, the highest I might reach is a Spirit Saint; I can never advance another step!"

"I went to find them to demand an explanation, and Flender just dismissed me with, 'Shrek does not raise trash; if you don't have the ability to survive, who can you blame?' Zhao Wuji even directly beat me out of the academy, threatening that if I dared to cause trouble again, he would cripple my Spirit!"

His words were like opening a floodgate; the people in the private room instantly turned red-eyed, the resentment that had been suppressed for years completely erupting.

The old woman sitting beside him, whose hair was mostly gray, clutched a tattered Spirit Master handbook with worn edges tightly in her hand. Tears streamed from her murky eyes, and her voice trembled uncontrollably: "My son… my Huzi…"