Chapter 22

Meanwhile, inside the Sea God Pavilion.

Translation: "At the same time, inside the Sea God Pavilion."

We need to keep punctuation? The Chinese line ends with a period (。). We'll translate to English with a period.

Thus: "At the same time, inside the Sea God Pavilion."

"How many times do I have to say it, Yan Shaozhe? Look at this piece of metal—Tang Wulin's forging talent means he is destined to enter the Soul Tool Department!"

Translation: "How many times do I have to say it, Yan Shaozhe? Look at this piece of metal—Tang Wulin's forging talent means he must go to the Soul Tool Department!"

We need to keep the quotes and punctuation. The Chinese line has 「... ！」 with exclamation inside quotes. We'll keep English quotes and exclamation.

Thus: "How many times do I have to say it, Yan Shaozhe? Look at this piece of metal—Tang Wulin's forging talent means he must go to the Soul Tool Department!"

Look at this piece of metal

"Old Qian, don't get excited; you should know that forging talent is ultimately just a side job, while cultivating one's martial soul is the true duty of a soul master."

Translation: "Old Qian, don't get worked up—you should know that forging this talent is ultimately just a side job; cultivating one's martial soul is the true duty of a soul master."

We need to keep quotes. Use em dash? We'll use comma or dash. Let's do: "Old Qian, don't get worked up—you should know that forging this talent is ultimately just a side job; cultivating one's martial soul is the true duty of a soul master."

"Yan Shaozhe, cut the crap! If you want to compete with me for a person, just say it straight! No need to beat around the bush here!"

Translation: "Yan Shaozhe, cut the crap! If you want to compete with me for a person, just say it straight! No need to beat around the bush here!"

"If you want to compete with me for a person, just say it straight!"

"Sigh, Lin'er, that's wrong. This child Tang Wulin possesses an ultimate martial soul, a once-in-a-millennium talent; if his cultivation is delayed, who among you will take responsibility?"

Translation: "Sigh, Lin'er, that's wrong—Tang Wulin is a once-in-a-thousand-years prodigy with an Ultimate Soul; if his cultivation is delayed, who among you will take responsibility?"

"Sigh,"

Thus: "Sigh, Lin'er, that's wrong—Tang Wulin is a once-in-a-thousand-years prodigy with an Ultimate Soul; if his cultivation is delayed, who among you will take responsibility?"

「」

Translation: "" (empty quotes). The line is just 「」 with nothing inside. So we output: "" (two double quotes). Actually Chinese uses 「」. We'll output English double quotes with nothing inside: "".

Thus: ""

Yan Shaozhe, Cai Meier, Qian Duoduo, and Xian Lin'er gathered together, fiercely debating Tang Wulin's future.

Translation: "Yan Shaozhe, Cai Meier, Qian Duoduo, and Xian Lin'er gathered together, fiercely debating Tang Wulin's future."

Note: we should keep the punctuation; after the list there is a comma in Chinese. Thus we translate: "Yan Shaozhe, Cai Meier, Qian Duoduo, and Xian Lin'er gathered together, fiercely debating Tang Wulin's future."

Before them, Mu En sat in his wheelchair, eyes closed as if asleep, yet no one present dared to ignore him.

Translation: "Before them, Mu En sat in a wheelchair, eyes closed as if asleep, yet no one present dared to ignore him."

We need to keep punctuation. Use commas.

Thus: "Before them, Mu En sat in a wheelchair, eyes closed as if asleep, yet no one present dared to ignore him."

At this moment, Yan Shaozhe's expression was utterly helpless.

Translation: "Yan Shaozhe's expression at this moment was utterly helpless."

Sigh, Old Qian, Lin'er, let me be frank with you: actually, Tang Wulin originally should have been a child of our martial soul system; it was Mu En who said not to interfere, so I didn't take the initiative to act against him; otherwise, do you really think you could outcompete me?

He thought he had already been merciful enough.

If not for Mu En's order, he would have long gone personally to Tang Wulin, promising him a lot to lure him over.

Qian Duoduo spat, saliva flying.

"Nonsense, Yan Shaozhe, don't think I don't know what you're secretly preparing; if we don't take the initiative, wouldn't we just stand by and watch this child Tang Wulin be snatched by you?"

He knew full well the situation of the Soul Tool system; relying solely on one's own ability, it would be nearly impossible to snatch Tang Wulin away.

But he really couldn't bear to let go of a student with such formidable forging skills, so he could only summon Xian Lin'er to go with him to seek Mu En for an opportunity.

Yan Shaozhe spread his hands in a shameless manner.

"Hey, Old Qian, you can't just spout blood and accuse me; you say I've been doing little tricks behind the scenes—if you have the ability, produce some evidence!"

"You……"

Qian Duoduo felt depressed and almost spat out a mouthful of blood.

"Evidence? He has a hammer as evidence!"

"This guy Yan Shaozhe is no good at anything else; he has a whole set of petty tricks behind the scenes, and he would never let Qian Duoduo and Xian Lin'er catch him."

Seeing him unable to speak, Yan Shaozhe turned to Mu En.

"Teacher, didn't you say earlier that we should let each rely on our own ability, letting that child Tang Wulin decide which academy to go to? Now Qian Duoduo and Xian Lin'er have taken the lead in violating the rule—what do you think we should do?"

Mu En slowly opened his eyes and looked toward the two deans of the Soul Tool system.

"Qian Duoduo, Xian Lin'er, I understand your feelings, but this cannot be forced; the child's future direction should be decided by himself; we cannot ignore his opinion."

"……Yes."

As soon as Mu En spoke, Xian Lin'er and Qian Duoduo's fire went out instantly.

Although Mu En hasn't been managing affairs much in recent years, his prestige within the Sea God's Pavilion has not diminished at all; as long as he speaks, no one from Shrek dares to disobey.

Yan Shaozhe curled the corner of his mouth, a smug look on his face.

He is not in a hurry at all.

According to the academy's rules, all students belong to the martial soul system in their first year; only when they reach third year will they, depending on circumstances, be assigned a batch to the Soul Tool system.

Putting it bluntly, the students of the Soul Tool system are basically the leftovers from the martial soul system; over time, the martial soul system crushes the Soul Tool system in both resources and prestige, leaving the Soul Tool system with nothing to contend with.

As long as we steadily build a good relationship with Tang Wulin, we won't worry about him being unable to outcompete the Soul Tool system.

However, he didn't expect that after mentioning the two deans of the Soul Tool system, Mu En would suddenly turn to him and call him out.

"And Yan Shaozhe, explain to me what happened with Ma Xiaotao this morning." "Um..."

Yan Shaozhe's face instantly tightened.

He knew, this matter probably couldn't be concealed.

At a time like this, lying won't do any good; the best approach is to tell the truth and strive for the teacher's forgiveness.

Yan Shaozhe lowered his head and said guiltily: "Sorry, Teacher, I know you're aware of Ma Xiaotao's Evil Fire matter; I underestimated the impact of her Evil Fire, failed to stop her in time from continuing her cultivation, nearly causing a major disaster; if you're going to punish, punish me alone."

Mu En said coldly: "What's the use of just punishing you? I want this kind of thing to be completely eradicated in the academy from now on; if Ma Xiaotao herself doesn't learn her lesson, it will be of no use at all."

He hadn't been in charge for many years; although he knew the academy's recent atmosphere had become somewhat improper, before this morning he truly hadn't imagined it had sunk to this point.

Due to poor discipline, Inner Courtyard disciples almost killed Outer Courtyard students; after the incident was resolved, the first thought was not to have the perpetrators apologize to the victims, but to threaten and lure the victims into secrecy—how is this still what an academy should be like!

If it weren't for Tang Wulin's sake causing him to pay a bit more attention to Huo Yutong, Ma Xiaotao's injuring incident would probably have been covered up by Yan Shaozhe.

"Yes."

Yan Shaozhe's eyes held a hint of bitterness; he knew Ma Xiaotao's punishment this time would likely not be light.

How unlucky! Who would have thought this scene would happen to be bumped into by the teacher? Wait, bumped into by the teacher?

Yan Shaozhe suddenly lifted his head, eyes shining as he looked toward Mu En.

"Teacher, do you mean you saw the whole process of this morning's incident?"

"Hmm."

Seeing Mu En lightly nod, Yan Shaozhe became even more excited.

"Then, Teacher, did you see who saved Huo Yutong? This is extremely important for Ma Xiaotao!"

After examining Ma Xiaotao's body, he concluded that a very powerful Ice Attribute soul master had stopped her.

And the chilling aura left by that mysterious Ice Attribute soul master greatly suppressed Ma Xiaotao's Evil Fire, returning her to normal.

Yan Shaozhe was eager to know the identity of that Ice Attribute soul master; if he could find the other party, Ma Xiaotao might thereafter be able to cultivate like a normal person.

To his surprise, after a moment of silence, Mu En said lightly:

"I know the truth of the matter, but I cannot tell you; you also shouldn't go investigate—it would be wasted effort."

"Why, Teacher?!"

Yan Shaozhe suddenly became a bit anxious.

Mu En closed his eyes and said: "I definitely have my reasons; you will understand sooner or later; this matter ends here. When I return, I will notify you of Ma Xiaotao's punishment—go on ahead now."

"…… is."

Mu En having said that, Yan Shaozhe could only assent with a bitter expression, and together with Qian Duoduo and the others he left the Sea God Pavilion.

After everyone had left, Mu En's eyes opened a slit, and the events of this morning seemed to appear again before his eyes.

The petite, cute girl let out a loli voice that didn't match her appearance from her mouth, haughtily pointed at the red-haired girl, and the scorching flames beside the red-haired girl all went out, and she miserably fell into the water.

Recalling that scene, the corners of Mu En's mouth rose slightly.

Unexpectedly, after Tang Wulin, another surprise appeared within the Academy.

"This kind of near-extreme cold... Looks like I'll have to find time to make a trip to the Extreme North."

(End of chapter)