"Uh, this..." Xuan Zi's old face turned beet red, stammering and unable to utter a single unnecessary word.
Seeing Xuan Zi's appearance, Elder Zhuang's heart sank, and a bad premonition suddenly surfaced in his mind.
If they had truly encountered a powerful enemy, Xuan Zi would absolutely not be like this. He would only be consumed by rage, clamoring to gather people to fight back the moment he returned to Shrek.
Xuan Zi's behavior made Elder Zhuang recall another incident from a few years ago.
That time, too, Xuan Zi, that unreliable fellow, led a team of inner court students to the Star Dou Great Forest to hunt soul beasts. However, due to drinking and delaying matters, he got separated from the team, ultimately leading to the inner court students being attacked by a 100,000-year soul beast, suffering heavy casualties.
Even though that 100,000-year soul beast was eventually killed by the desperately resisting inner court disciples, its soul ring and soul bone were absorbed by the current inner court chief disciple, Zhang Lexuan, becoming her power.
But those deceased inner court prodigies were, after all, dead.
Now, again, Xuan Zi was leading the team, and again, inner court disciples suffered numerous casualties, and Xuan Zi still had that constipated expression. It was truly difficult for Elder Zhuang not to suspect something.
And the more crucial point was...
He was absolutely right!
"Elder Xuan, speak quickly!" Thinking this, Elder Zhuang couldn't help but shout loudly.
Xuan Zi's tall figure trembled slightly. After a long sigh, he said disconsolately, "Let's go to the Sea God Pavilion. We'll talk there."
Elder Zhuang clenched his fist, rage flaring in his heart.
If it weren't for the fact that Xuan Zi's soul power level was higher than his, and that he was a healing-type soul master, he would surely jump up and punch that old face of his hard.
Son of a bitch!
Quickly concocting a series of medicinal herbs into three tubs of medicinal bath, Elder Zhuang carefully placed Dai Yueheng and the other two into them, and then followed Xuan Zi to the Sea God Pavilion.
Shrek's people were famously stingy, and Elder Zhuang was no exception, but he was ultimately a healing-type soul master, with his own principles and bottom line.
If it were truly according to Shrek's tradition, wasting many precious medicinal herbs on three disabled people to heal them would definitely be worthless. The best option should be to cut losses in time.
But his pride as a healing-type soul master wouldn't allow him to do so. Since the injured had been brought before him, he had an obligation to do his best to treat them.
The three medicinal baths were formulated according to the different injuries of Dai Yueheng and the other two.
Dai Yueheng's medicinal bath focused on healing internal injuries and replenishing vitality.
Gongyang Mo's medicinal bath was formulated for detoxifying corpse poison and replenishing his origin, as the corpse poison had truly burned away half his life. Elder Zhuang could only do his best to replenish what he could.
Xixi's medicinal bath was similar to Dai Yueheng's, as their injuries were largely the same.
This was all Elder Zhuang could do.
In the Sea God Pavilion, the strange fluctuations representing the Sea God Pavilion meeting once again spread from the Golden Tree. The other old men of the Sea God Pavilion, though wondering why recent Sea God Pavilion meetings were so frequent, still rushed towards the pavilion.
Upon entering, they saw Elder Zhuang with a cold face, and Xuan Zi, full of remorse, drinking heavily.
On the main seat, Mu En quietly appeared. He eyed Xuan Zi suspiciously, wondering what this unhinged fellow was up to again, but his heart inexplicably skipped a beat, suddenly feeling a sense of suffocation.
Cardiac arrest!
Damn it, something bad's going to happen!
Mu En's old face immediately darkened. He glared at Xuan Zi with an unfriendly gaze, his dim golden eyes flickering, as if contemplating whether to just slap Xuan Zi to death.
Just by looking at Xuan Zi, Mu En could guess that he definitely wasn't holding back anything good.
Having known him for nearly two hundred years, Mu En understood Xuan Zi's character all too well. If Xuan Zi so much as hunched his backside, Mu En would know whether he wanted to defecate, fart, or be hunched.
But ultimately, he had to wait for Xuan Zi to explain himself.
Mu En could only suppress the urge to kill Xuan Zi and spoke indifferently: "Speak. What is the reason for this Sea God Pavilion meeting, and why have you, a teacher leading a team in the Soul Dueling Grand Tournament, suddenly returned to the academy?"
Upon hearing Mu En's words, Xuan Zi put down his wine gourd, an air of decay settling about him, and his expression filled with self-abandonment.
"The reason for calling this Sea God Pavilion meeting is twofold: first, because the competition team suffered heavy losses due to my mistake, and second, because I wish to resign from all my positions in the academy and simply become an idler," Xuan Zi said in a low voice, suppressing intense pain.
Just as everyone was about to speak, Xuan Zi raised his hand to stop them, tears streaming down his old face: "Everyone, I have failed the children! It is all my fault!"
(Truly worthy of being the Supreme Elder, his acting is invincible!)
Following that, Xuan Zi recounted exactly what happened during the main team's mission and the extent of the team's losses, narrating the entire sequence of events.
He concealed nothing, except for his act of catching Void Kun Chickens, which he explained as trusting the students and therefore staying outside the cave to drink. Everything else was disclosed.
After speaking, Xuan Zi immediately stood up and staggered towards the outside of the Sea God Pavilion.
That figure truly carried endless regret and bitterness, appearing exceptionally aged and desolate...
"Stop right there," Mu En said indifferently.
"You cannot leave!"
Xuan Zi did not turn around, his voice trembling: "Elder Mu, I truly have no face to remain here any longer!"
"Heh, you think you can come and go as you please? Do you think Shrek Academy is a vegetable market?" Mu En sneered, his soul power gradually surging. The brilliant aura of his Radiant Saint Dragon intertwined with the radiant aura of the Golden Tree, like a roused lion, exuding intense pressure.
"Originally, I gave you another chance, allowing you to lead a team in the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Tournament again, and then returning to face the wall in the lowest level of the Golden Tree to reflect on your mistakes. But you've gone and caused something like this again."
"Now that something's happened, you think of escaping?"
Xuan Zi's breath hitched, his expression turning to one of terror.
"I told you, if you cause trouble again, you'll go and be neighbors with Shaozhe. You'll never take a single step out of the lowest level without my command!" Mu En's eyes blazed with fire. He instantly appeared before Xuan Zi, and his withered hand struck Xuan Zi's chest, then threw him into a spatial tunnel.
As an Ultimate Douluo, Mu En naturally could wield spatial power. Tossing Xuan Zi directly into the Golden Tree to operate a sewing machine was merely a trifle.
One could even say that as long as he was within the Golden Tree, Mu En possessed power on par with a quasi-god during the Dragon King Legend era. Such was the might of the Golden Tree.
(End of Chapter)
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