Two women walked into the area from outside the Mimicry Cultivation room. One of them had a very fiery personality and looked like she had a short temper. The other woman seemed as gentle as water, moving with a quiet grace. These two were the best friends of Zhang Lexuan. Their names were Wu Ming, who people called the Golden Crow Holy Maiden, and Han Ruoruo, who was known as the Golden Fairy.
Han Ruoruo spoke softly, her voice sounding a little bit sad as she told Zhang Lexuan that her time was up. The soft glow that had been surrounding Zhang Lexuan slowly disappeared. Her long eyelashes moved slightly before she finally opened her eyes.
She had spent a whole month in this room alone. This long time spent training had helped her reach rank sixty-nine spirit power. However, there was no look of happiness on her face even though she had made a breakthrough. She did not even look relaxed now that her punishment was over. Instead, her eyes were filled with a very deep and heavy silence.
She stood up without saying a single word. She simply gave her two friends a small nod and began to walk out of the room. Wu Ming watched her walk away and felt worried. she hurried her pace to catch up with her friend. She sounded very angry as she spoke. She told Zhang Lexuan that she had done nothing wrong.
She called the man who was killed a scoundrel. She pointed out that he only got away with his bad deeds because his father was an elder in the academy. She said the man had forced good students to die and never felt sorry for it. She believed that by killing him, Zhang Lexuan had actually helped the people by getting rid of a monster.
Han Ruoruo also walked up and took Zhang Lexuan's arm gently. She tried to comfort her by saying that she should not worry too much about what happened. She mentioned that even though the dean and the elders forced her to stay in the room for a month, everyone else understood that she did the right thing.
Zhang Lexuan stopped walking for a second but still did not speak. She was very confused in her heart. She kept asking herself if she was right or wrong. Her own family had been destroyed by evil Spirit Masters when she was young.
Because of that terrible tragedy, she had always seen Shrek Academy as her only true home since Elder Mu adopted her. In this place, she had been able to train in peace and find good friends like Ruoruo and Wu Ming. She had spent many happy years here. She truly believed that Shrek Academy was a place of light and justice.
However, her feelings about the academy had started to change about a year ago. It all started when she found some small clues about where she came from. She was curious and started to look for more information.
During her search, she started to see shadows hidden beneath the glory of Shrek. She found out that some teachers were stealing resources meant for the students. She saw older students bullying younger ones, and she found out about many other bad things happening behind the scenes.
At first, she really believed that the academy was a fair place. Every time she found something bad, she went and reported it to the people in charge. In the beginning, those people were actually punished. This made her feel better. But soon, she realized that the punishments were not real. After a short time, those bad people would come back. Sometimes they even had better jobs than before.
She tried to argue and ask why this was happening. The leaders of the academy gave her very confusing answers. They told her she needed to think about the bigger picture instead of small problems.
Later, she reported a director who was stealing from the students, but the academy only gave him a small warning. She did not think this was fair, so she went to talk to Elder Mu. Only then was the problem fixed. At that time, she thought it was just one mistake and that the top leaders were still good people.
But these bad things kept happening more often. Most recently, she found a teacher who was in charge of buying supplies for the school. This teacher was being very mean to the poor students who had to work to pay for their school. He treated them so badly that some of those students decided to end their lives because they could not take it anymore.
Zhang Lexuan did what she always did. She gathered proof and reported him. She watched the guards take him away and thought that justice had been served. But then, she got a message from the Mingmeng Chamber of Commerce. They told her that a spirit tool she had bought for her training was ready. They also said they had found some information about her Moon Spirit.
While she was walking to the luxury restaurant near the business group, she saw the teacher who was supposed to be in jail. He was walking with someone else, his face was red from drinking, and he looked very happy. He did not look like he felt bad at all. She felt like she was in a dream as she followed him.
She hid in the next room and listened to him brag. He said that a few days in jail was nothing. He laughed and said that since his father was an elder, no one at Shrek would dare to hurt him. He even said the poor students deserved to die because they were weak. He bragged that the money he stole was enough to live a great life for years.
At that moment, Zhang Lexuan could not hold back her anger anymore. All the bad feelings she had been hiding for a long time exploded. She came out of hiding and shouted at him. But the man was drunk and did not care. He insulted her and told her he would be free again very soon. She lost control of herself and attacked him. While he was cursing her with his last breath, she killed him. After that, the academy had to judge her.
Dean Yan Shaozhe did not tell the public what happened. He tried to hide the whole thing. But many of the elders, especially the dead man's father, were very angry. They thought she was disrespectful for acting on her own. In the end, they decided that since she was a good student, they wouldn't kick her out, but she had to stay in the cultivation room for a month to think about what she did.
She could not understand how the high-ranking elders could ignore the evil things their children did. She wondered why they would ignore justice just to keep the school looking good.
She suddenly felt like Shrek Academy, the place she loved so much, had become cold and strange. She took a deep breath and tried to push her feelings down. She gave her friends a small smile and told them she was okay now. She said she wanted to go to the Mingmeng Chamber of Commerce to pick up her spirit tool.
Wu Ming and Han Ruoruo looked at each other but did not say anything else. They just followed her. Inside Shrek City, many people were starting to use spirit tools. Even though Shrek Academy did not like these tools very much, the Mingmeng Chamber of Commerce had made them very popular. They sold many useful tools for normal people and Spirit Masters.
Shrek Academy did not use these tools because they liked their old traditions. There were also rumors that the school's own spirit tool department was not smart enough to copy the tools made by the Mingmeng group. However, many young students liked the new tools and went to buy them in secret.
The area around the business building was very busy. As Zhang Lexuan walked in, she looked at the crowd. Suddenly, she stopped. She saw a young man who looked very handsome. He seemed very calm and gentle, even though it was very noisy around him. He looked much more mature than other boys his age. Next to him was a girl with short purple hair. She was holding his arm and talking a lot. She looked very curious about everything.
Zhang Lexuan could not stop looking at him because he seemed so different from everyone else. Wu Ming noticed what she was looking at and laughed. She nudged her friend and joked about how handsome the boy was. She asked if Zhang Lexuan liked boys who looked like that.
Zhang Lexuan felt a bit embarrassed and told her friend to stop talking nonsense. She claimed she only thought he looked special. Wu Ming did not believe her and kept looking at the boy. She remarked that he was very young but already had a girl with him. She joked that if he were a little bit older, she might try to date him herself.
Zhang Lexuan looked at her friend and felt a bit helpless. She knew Wu Ming liked to talk big, but she was actually very shy around boys and would usually chase them away with fire if they got too close. Zhang Lexuan took one last look at the handsome young man. She pushed her strange feelings aside and went into the building with her friends.
On the other side of the building, Kong Mingan was busy answering many questions from Xu Tianzhen. Suddenly, he felt like someone was watching him. He looked over toward the door and then looked away.
He thought to himself that it seemed like all of these people could be poached from Shrek. He realized that stealing talent was a very addictive thing once you started doing it. He smiled as he thought about how many more people he could bring to his side.