Chapter 65 Winter Vacation

Shrek Academy, Sea God's Pavilion.

Yun Ming sat at the head of the table, looking at the people seated below.

"Everyone, what are your thoughts on this matter?"

"What thoughts could there possibly be!" Long Yeyue slammed her hand fiercely onto the table from her position as the left vice-head.

"The Holy Ghost Church is truly becoming more and more lawless. If we don't teach them a lesson, they will really think that Shrek and the Tang Sect are easy to bully!"

"Elder Long is right." Pavilion Elder Cai Yue'er chimed in actively:

"Pavilion Master, in my opinion, we should restart Shrek's Continent-Wide Inspectorate. Just like ten thousand years ago, we should supervise the world on behalf of the Federation, punish evil and promote good, eradicate violence to bring peace, and completely prevent such incidents from ever happening again!"

In her view, it was precisely because the Federation was too incompetent that such events were allowed to occur.

Since the Federation was incompetent, Shrek should take charge of these matters, just as it did ten thousand years ago. With Shrek's Continent-Wide Inspectorate overseeing the Three Empires of Tianhun, Douling, and Xingluo, an incident like this would never have happened.

To this, Yun Ming remained silent, instead casting his gaze toward Zang Xin, the Vice Master of the Tang Sect, who was seated at the right vice-head position.

Sensing this inquiring gaze, Zang Xin could no longer afford to remain a mere spectator, and was forced to speak:

"Everyone, please think carefully. If the Holy Ghost Church were truly behind this, it wouldn't just be my Tang Sect's subsidiary company that was razed to the ground; the entire East Coast Soul Guidance Technology Park would have been destroyed."

"There is likely another mastermind behind this incident. By letting the notorious evil soul master organization, the Holy Ghost Church, take the blame, the true culprit can remain safely out of reach."

"Judging by your tone, you already have a suspect in mind?" Yun Ming looked at Zang Xin thoughtfully.

"Indeed," Zang Xin said with a half-smile:

"The Pagoda of Spirit has been getting more and more mysterious these days!"

...

The events that took place at the East Coast Soul Guidance Technology Park were broadcast on the midday news, spreading throughout the entire Federation by noon that day and soaring straight to the number one spot on the Soul Guidance trending searches, remaining firmly at the top.

As the location of the incident, East Coast City was in an uproar, with the matter becoming virtually common knowledge to everyone.

East Coast Academy.

Upon learning the news from Xie Xie, Tang Wulin felt a chill run down his spine, breaking out in a cold sweat all over.

If he hadn't already joined the Pagoda of Spirit, he would undoubtedly have accepted without hesitation when Teacher Wu invited him to join the Tang Sect yesterday.

And if he had agreed to infiltrate the Tang Sect, he might very well have been visiting the Tang Sect branch today—namely, the flattened Xuanshi Tang Sect Technology Co., Ltd.—and the probability of running into that group of terrorists would have been astronomically high.

"That was close. If Aunt Bi hadn't given me a quota for core discipleship in the Pagoda of Spirit, I'd probably be in hell right now, and I'd never get to eat delicious food ever again."

***

Tang Wulin wasn't the only one who felt like he had just brushed shoulders with the gates of hell; Xie Xie felt the same way.

Faced with Teacher Wu's invitation, Xie Xie had indeed been tempted to join the Tang Sect.

However, considering that among the three members of Class Zero, the big boss Gu Yue and his good brother Tang Wulin had both joined the Pagoda of Spirit, joining the Tang Sect would have left him completely isolated.

With this in mind, Xie Xie hesitated and ultimately declined the Tang Sect's invitation, planning instead to follow his two Class Zero companions and join the Pagoda of Spirit.

Therefore, when Xie Xie's private chauffeur notified him via soul guidance communication that something had happened to Xuanshi Tang Sect Technology Co., Ltd., his reaction was no better than Tang Wulin's current state.

Had he chosen to join the Tang Sect during his hesitation yesterday, he would likely have been blown to smithereens alongside that Tang Sect subsidiary, reduced to absolute nothingness.

"I wonder if Gu Yue knows about this?"

Yesterday marked the end of the final exams, and today was the first day of winter vacation.

Gu Yue had left East Coast Academy to go home early in the morning.

Xie Xie's family lived in East Coast City, so he was in no rush to leave.

Tang Wulin, on the other hand, was waiting for Teacher Wu to take him to Dou Ling City under the guise of broadening his horizons, so he hadn't gone home with Bibi to their residence in East Coast City.

"Gu Yue's temper has been acting all weird ever since the exams ended yesterday."

Hearing Tang Wulin's words and recalling Gu Yue's strange behavior, Xie Xie said half-jokingly:

"Didn't you say Gu Yue has a very high status in the Pagoda of Spirit?"

"Could it be that because she lost to the Ice Ling Dou Luo, she couldn't swallow her pride, and in a fit of anger, she had the Pagoda of Spirit wipe out this Tang Sect subsidiary?"

"Impossible." Tang Wulin shook his head fiercely:

"Gu Yue isn't that kind of person."

Aunt Bi was so gentle and kind; as a member of her family, how could Gu Yue possibly do something like that?

"Boring," Xie Xie muttered, adding with a cheeky grin:

"Why are you defending Gu Yue so much?"

"Besides, don't you like Ouyang, the campus belle of our academy?"

"I'm telling you, even though we're good buddies, I severely despise your habit of playing both sides!"

...

Ming Du Blacksmiths' Association.

"Zhao'er, do you have any plans for this winter vacation?"

Zhen Hua looked at the disciple before him with a beaming smile and pushed a fruit platter toward him.

Across the table, Xu Zhao looked at his teacher with a guarded expression.

When someone offers courtesies for no reason, they are either plotting theft or treachery.

"Teacher, just say what's on your mind. But if you're planning to make me spend this winter vacation entirely focused on forging, you can forget it."

"Rest assured, rest assured, it's not that." Zhen Hua poured a cup of fruit juice and pushed it toward his disciple, slowly beginning to recount:

"It's like this."

"A while ago, my junior sister's daughter made a soul guidance call to complain to me, saying that her father—which is to say, my junior brother—recently took on a new disciple with extraordinary talent."

Hearing this, Xu Zhao raised an eyebrow.

A junior sister's daughter? A junior brother's disciple?

Ah, so it was Mu Chen's family of three, plus Tang Wulin.

Instantly intrigued, he listened as his teacher continued:

"Sigh, my niece has been pampered like the moon surrounded by stars since she was little, and her talent is considered top-tier among her peers."

"But ever since my junior brother took on this new disciple, he's spent every day praising how talented the disciple is in front of my niece, telling his daughter to learn from him."

"Later on, my junior brother's disciple turned out to be an orphan who lost his federal identity card, requiring a guardian to accompany him to reissue it."

"For some reason, the person he found to be his guardian ended up being my junior brother, which deeply wronged my niece and even earned her a slap from her father."

At this point, Zhen Hua couldn't help but feel a secret surge of joy.

When Mu Xi called him to complain via soul guidance communication, she had vented the entire process to him, including a specific remark:

She had tried to "persuade her mother to remarry Uncle Zhen Hua."

Back then, because he was too distracted by forging, Junior Sister's heart was quietly and craftily stolen by Junior Brother Mu Chen's wandering hands, leaving him—the continent's only Divine Craftsman—still a single dog to this day.