Chapter 104

Outside the Sea God Pavilion, Xuanzi stood with his hands behind his back, his face full of vicissitudes, and asked the white-clothed elder behind him: "How is the situation now?"

The white-clothed elder said: "The situation has stabilized; it's corpse poison, and fortunately it's just this single toxin. You brought them back in time, their lives are no longer in danger. Chen Zifeng's leg has been examined by the Soul Tool Department; making a prosthetic for him is no problem. Although his movement will be somewhat affected, the impact on his strength should not be large."

"That's good."

Xuanzi let out a long sigh.

At that moment, Yan Shaozhe walked out of the Sea God Pavilion.

"Xuan Lao, the Sea God Pavilion meeting you proposed is ready; you may come in."

"Okay."

Xuanzi turned and followed Yan Shaozhe into the Sea God Pavilion.

In Mu En's room, the place was again filled with people; unlike last year, the expressions of these Senior Elders were much graver.

Mu En's calm voice sounded.

"Speak, Xuanzi, what do you want to say by convening this Sea God Pavilion meeting?"

Xuanzi nodded and slowly rose.

"Everyone knows what happened this time; this is not the first problem that occurred under my leadership. As the leader, I am responsible, so I have decided to resign as Vice Captain of the Shi Lai Ke Surveillance Team and withdraw from the Sea God Pavilion, remaining only as an idle person in the Academy."

As soon as he said that, everyone present erupted.

Yan Shaozhe hurriedly said:

"Xuan Lao, this isn't entirely your fault; who would have thought that a Death God's Envoy, a Soul King, could unleash a full-power strike at the level of a Soul Saint? You are the pillar of our Academy; we cannot do without you!"

Xianlin'er beside him also nodded repeatedly.

"Yes, Xuan Lao, although you need to eat a lot because of your martial soul, your contributions to the Academy are obvious to all; your departure would be our true loss."

Xuanzi sighed.

"You don't need to comfort me; the incident with Le Xuan already made me blame myself enough, and this time I made the same mistake again—Yao Haoxuan died, and if it weren't for Huo Yutong being strong enough, she would have died at the hands of that Evil Soul Master. They were representing our Academy in the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Elite Competition, and now they have suffered such heavy blows; the Academy's ten-thousand-year glory could very well be ruined by my hands, and I no longer have the face to stay here."

Saying that, he turned and walked toward outside the Sea God Pavilion.

Mu En calmly called out to him.

"Come back."

Xuanzi stopped his steps, his voice painful.

"Mu Lao, I really have no face to stay anymore—I…"

Mu En's tone grew two degrees heavier.

"I told you to come back! Can't you hear me?"

Xuanzi was stunned; Mu En hadn't spoken to him in that tone for a long time.

Shocked by Mu En's anger, he eventually obediently returned to his seat.

Mu En coldly said: "When encountering matters you just know to flee; is fleeing useful? If everyone fled like you, our Shilake Academy would have been finished long ago! However, you are indeed not suitable to remain as deputy team leader of the Shi Lai Ke Surveillance Team; from now on you shall not hold this position, and honestly stay in the inner courtyard to teach disciples."

As for Xuanzi, Mu En truly didn't know what to say about him.

He has known this guy for so many years, he truly understands his personality all too well.

Lazy, gluttonous, neglectful of duties, obstinate, unrepentant, he has an extraordinary talent for relying on his own strength to act like a rascal, but as soon as it comes to situations requiring thought, he is utterly useless.

If Mu En had another rank-98 strong under his command, he wouldn't let this guy be the vice-pavilion master of the Sea God Pavilion, but there's no way—Mu En himself has little time left, and after his death he can only rely on Xuanzi to keep up appearances.

In this situation, no matter what Xuanzi does, he can only protect this guy.

He sighed and said to Gong Changlong:

"Changlong, after the Sea God Pavilion meeting ends, all inner courtyard disciples must go to you to have at least one flying soul tool and one defensive soul tool custom-made; anyone who objects again will leave the academy."

Gong Changlong hadn't even spoken when Yan Shaozhe's face darkened somewhat as he said: "Teacher, this isn't very appropriate, could we reconsider a bit?"

He had painstakingly suppressed the Soul Tool Department for so many years, personally creating the current situation where the Martial Soul Department dominates the academy; this one remark from Mu En could wipe out half of his efforts. Mu En glanced at him lightly.

"How come you insist on having this happen again? Besides, you're no longer the dean of the Martial Soul Department; I'm speaking to Changlong."

"……Yes."

Understood, Elder Mu.

Yan Shaozhe lowered his head, not daring to speak further, while Gong Changlong nodded and agreed.

Cai Meieri quickly smoothed things over for Yan Shaozhe, changing the subject.

Elder Mu, what should we do about this competition? There are still a dozen or so students remaining in the inner courtyard, but only two of them meet the age limit; should we send them over?

Xuanzi quickly said:

As long as I'm the one to send them, I can get them there before the competition starts.

However, Mu En shook his head.

Forget it; this time let's leave it to those kids.

What?!

Xuanzi was shocked and turned pale.

Elder Mu, please think again! They're just reserve team kids; how could they possibly win the championship? If that really happened, our academy's ten-thousand-year glory would be shattered!

Mu En tilted his head.

So what then?

?

Mu En's tone was really too relaxed, and everyone was stunned.

His tone was just like chatting about the weather; when Xuanzi said it would rain tomorrow, he replied that rain would be nice too.

Mu En said seriously: "If you ask me, our academy has been bound by this so-called glory for far too long, becoming increasingly arrogant and complacent. In this competition, it would naturally be best if those kids could win the championship, but even if they don't, it's no big deal—it would be a good chance to wake the academy up, as the saying goes, 'no destruction, no construction.' Besides, the strength of this reserve team is arguably the strongest in our academy's history; who says they can't create a miracle?"

He paused, then continued:

Lin'er, after this Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Elite Competition ends, you shall, in the name of our academy's Soul Tool Department, send a letter to the Sun Moon Royal Soul Tool Academy requesting exchange studies; we want to dispatch the outstanding students from our Soul Tool Department there as exchange students.

Xianlin'er was stunned.

"Mu Lao, will they agree? Besides, even if they do agree, our students probably also..."

Mu En smiled faintly.

"They will agree; they had already submitted an application for exchange study to us, but back then Shao Zhe stepped forward and refused, so you didn't know. As for our students, I'm not truly forcing them to learn anything specific; I just want them to see what truly advanced soul tools are like, to broaden their horizons—only by recognizing the gap between us and our enemies can we make progress."

"Yes."

Seeing Xianlin'er agree, Mu En turned his gaze toward Cai Meier.

"Meier, I know the finances of the Martial Soul Department are currently handled by you; after returning, please allocate a bit more of the Martial Soul Department's budget to the Soul Tool Department. Moreover, I require that from now on, all Martial Soul Department students must take a Soul Tool Department class once a week—not requiring them to be able to craft soul tools, but at least they must learn to use them; the development path of combining soul masters with soul tools is the prevailing trend, and our Academy never lacks talent, we cannot be left behind by the times."

"Yes."

Mu En spoke, and Cai Meier dared not disobey, so she could only lower her head and agree.

Seeing the many Senior Elders in Hai Shen Ge still wearing slightly dissatisfied expressions, Mu En knew that many people's thinking had not yet changed.

But he could wait no longer; although this incident was quite serious, on the flip side it was also an opportunity to wake up the Academy, and missing it might truly mean no such good chance would come again.

He let out a faint sigh in his heart.

"Let's disperse; I hope you will go back and think carefully about what I said today."

"By the way, I think Xuanzi is more special than that pure evil of Evil Soul Masters; he's stupid to the point of being wicked."

(End of chapter)