A blissful night passed amid overwhelming indulgence.
When Huo Yuhao woke the next morning, he saw the three girls returning with breakfast.
Ning Tian, being a little heiress, had brought food so nutritious that even compared to what Huo Yuhao had received as the Holy Son of the Holy Spirit Sect, it wasn't far off.
"Yuhao, how does it taste?" Ning Tian asked gently, leaning by his table. "If it's not enough, I can have someone buy more."
"No such thing as free kindness. You're either up to something or trying to steal something," Huo Yuhao said lazily, sipping a cup of kidney-tonifying herbal tea. "Come on, what's the real reason you're suddenly being so nice to me?"
"Huo Yuhao, don't be so ungrateful!" Wu Feng snapped, slapping the table.
"Feng'er!" Ning Tian quickly stopped her and smiled at Huo Yuhao. "Yuhao, your physique is extremely beneficial to our cultivation. I've already arranged for my family to forcibly buy a villa in Shrek City. We'd like you to live there with us."
"During that time, any cultivation resources you need, our Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect can provide."
"You just want me to be your human pillow every night?" Huo Yuhao rolled his eyes. He was still a young man full of vitality—if this continued every night, he might really lose control.
"Yuhao, we admit we want to benefit from your abilities. And with your talent, you could very well become an honored guest of our sect in the future," Ning Tian continued to entice him.
"Why not just marry into your sect?" Huo Yuhao said with a wicked grin. "You know, with my potential, my future achievements definitely won't be low."
Ning Tian blushed and took a deep breath, meeting his gaze seriously. "According to our sect's intelligence network, your background is still too mysterious. You don't seem like the child of a mere servant from a duke's household."
"Moreover, our sect has strict rules. As a current successor, I must choose a husband who is already a Title Douluo—not just a genius with the potential to become one."
"After all, in this world, there are countless talented people who die before reaching their potential."
Huo Yuhao listened calmly, then shook his head with a smile.
"Yuhao, I know the rules are strict, but if one day you truly—"
"No need to say more," Huo Yuhao interrupted, raising a hand. A mocking smile appeared on his lips. "I'm just a wanderer. There's no need to keep digging into my past."
"Also, my view of relationships is very different from your sect's traditions. If I were to choose a partner, as long as we truly love each other, I wouldn't care about rules or restrictions."
"If love has to be entangled with political interests and family agendas, I think it's meaningless. Better to walk away cleanly." As he spoke, he pulled Wu Feng into his arms. "Honestly, I think Wu Feng is braver than you. At least she dares to follow her heart."
"Huo Yuhao! Let go of me!" Wu Feng's face turned scarlet as she struggled.
"You already kissed me by force. That makes you my girlfriend, so why would I let you go?" Huo Yuhao grinned and pinched her snow-white chin. "So? Do you want to be with me or not?"
Faced with his intense gaze, the usually fiery Wu Feng felt her mouth go dry, her face flushing like a ripe apple. Her voice was barely a whisper, "Who said I'm your girlfriend…"
"Still acting shy?" Huo Yuhao laughed heartily, letting go of her. Then, to Ning Tian's surprise, he turned and picked up the quiet Nanmen Yun'er by the waist.
"You know, if I had to choose a girlfriend, I'd actually prefer someone like Yun'er—someone without background or political baggage."
Startled, Nanmen Yun'er struggled even more than Wu Feng. "Yuhao, what are you doing?!"
"I don't know how you really feel about me, Yun'er, but if I were to pursue someone, it'd be someone like you." Huo Yuhao barely avoided a slap to the face before quickly putting her down.
"Yuhao, don't tell me… you actually think you're some kind of love guru?" Ning Tian asked sarcastically, her expression strange.
"I'm definitely not a love expert. I just want to make something clear…" Huo Yuhao turned back to her, leaned in close, and stared straight into her eyes. "Don't try to string me along using your sect's rules. I'm not some prize to be won. If we really like each other, I'll just take you away."
"I don't care what the three of you think. If I had to choose one, I'd pick Wu Feng—at least she dares to be honest with her feelings."
With a laugh, Huo Yuhao walked out without looking back, tossing out one final line:
"I'll help you with your cultivation, fine. Consider it a trade. But within three months, I want a spatial-attributed soul bone that's over 10,000 years old. If not, only Wu Feng gets to sleep holding me!"
"This guy…" Wu Feng wished she could sink into the ground. Yet her eyes also showed a trace of complicated emotion.
Ning Tian gave a bitter smile. Why did he react so strongly to this kind of thing?
Only Nanmen Yun'er stood dumbly in place, staring in the direction Huo Yuhao left. For the first time, she thought… this rogue might actually be kind of… handsome?
After giving that high-and-mighty lady a good dressing down, Huo Yuhao felt completely refreshed. Even his footsteps felt lighter.
He returned to the academy, intending to check on Xie Huanyue. But as he approached the dorm area, he saw a crowd of new students gathered outside the building—some were even vomiting.
What happened?
He squeezed to the front and immediately caught a nauseating stench that nearly knocked him out. After enjoying soft beds and sweet company all night, he couldn't tolerate such a smell and quickly joined the others in vomiting.
Using his spiritual detection to scan the dorm, Huo Yuhao instantly understood.
From the third floor down, thick, oily sludge was leaking from one of the rooms. Some unlucky students on the first floor had gotten drenched in it. Even after cleaning off, the smell was enough to kill their appetite for days.
Considering Xie Huanyue's former size, he must've burned through an astonishing amount of stored fat…
Huo Yuhao even heard someone say that one of the old folks who liked to nap downstairs had gotten a full face—no, a full mouth of it. He nearly dropped his jaw in shock.
For a brief moment, everyone who saw it thought they were witnessing a miracle: that elderly man instantly transformed into a dragon of light, stood upright, and flew off while vomiting—his back straight and legs swift.
Fatty, you're amazing! Even the Dragon God Douluo's old injuries—ones countless healing-type Title Douluos couldn't fix—got cured!
Who would expect an Extreme Douluo to be taken out by… that?
As Huo Yuhao was still mourning for Mu En's dignity, several streaks of light flew toward the freshman dorms from the sky.
Looks like the academy elders are on the way, he thought. Shrek Academy, you love giving us shabby dorms, huh? Let's see how you deal with this mess.
"Look! It's the academy's powerhouses!" The freshmen all turned to the sky excitedly.
"What's going on?" the leading elder asked after landing. His expression was odd—he'd just seen Dragon God Douluo Mu En flying back to Sea God's Pavilion… vomiting all the way. Something terrible must've happened here.
Soon, the elders too caught a whiff of the unbearable stench and retreated while covering their noses.
Judging from this, Xie Huanyue's purification must have been a huge success. All the filth he'd accumulated over more than a decade had been expelled—no wonder it stank this badly.
Huo Yuhao kept his distance. He knew the high-level staff would soon block their sense of smell and check inside. As the "culprit," Xie Huanyue was still unconscious, so nothing could be pinned on him—for now. That's why Huo Yuhao wasn't worried.
A few moments later, Xie Huanyue was carried away by some inner court students using soul power. From the brief glance Huo Yuhao got, Fatty was clearly slimmed down.
The dorm was such a disaster that the academy had to hire over a dozen high-level water-attribute soul masters to clean up. The freshmen, who had long complained about the poor dorm conditions, were thrilled. They even developed reverence for the mysterious figure who'd forced the academy to finally fund cleaning services.
With nothing better to do, Huo Yuhao decided to head back into Shrek City and find a quiet place to study the corpse of the Purple Cloud Eagle. But just as he stepped out of the dorm area, a young man bumped straight into him.
This surprised Huo Yuhao. With his spiritual awareness, he shouldn't have been caught off guard—unless the other party could completely hide from his senses.
Only one explanation remained:
The person's identity was about to be revealed…
(End of chapter)
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