The blue-and-green whirlpool spun outward, like a miniature tornado.
Lingbing Plaza wasn't all that dirty to begin with — at most, just a light layer of dust, and no visible trash in sight.
As soon as the vortex hit the ground, a strange scene appeared: you could clearly see the plaza's surface dust being rapidly sucked up, leaving the ground looking like it had been scrubbed clean, fresh and bright.
"She's doing all the work by herself. I almost feel bad," Xie Xie chuckled awkwardly.
"Look at your pervy grin. You're actually just happy about it, aren't you?" Xu Xiaoyan teased with a smirk.
Xie Xie huffed, "I was saying how amazing Gu Yue is, okay?"
"Pfft." Xu Xiaoyan snorted in mild disdain.
When they registered for school, each of them had received just two sets of uniforms and a Shrek Academy student ID card. Gu You hadn't gone to register himself, but Xie Xie had asked Shen Yi to handle it for him.
That touched Gu You a little.
This guy — maybe he's worth keeping around.
The ID card was made of metal, with clearly etched soul-guiding array patterns on its surface — very finely crafted. The academic office had explained that it served as their official ID; they'd need it to go anywhere on campus, including entering or leaving the academy.
Shrek Academy, as it turned out, wasn't as tightly regulated as one might imagine — at least, students were free to come and go without restrictions. In fact, the outer court of Shrek was practically a self-contained city, where anything you needed could be handled without ever leaving the academy grounds.
And really, why would anyone want to leave? If you wanted to make it into the inner court, you had to buckle down and work hard!
Still, the living conditions were rough. While Gu Yue worked away cleaning the plaza, Gu You had gone out and bought some fancy living supplies, then had Xie Xie help set them up, with Xu Xiaoyan in charge of the arrangement. After all, girls usually had a better eye for aesthetics, and sure enough, the space ended up looking quite nice.
Gu You also noticed that in this whole section of the work-study student dorms, not every room was occupied — in fact, only three or four showed any signs of being lived in. From the outside, they all looked extremely humble, which seemed to be something of a tradition among the work-study students. Clearly, it wasn't their place to disrupt that.
Even with the help of such efficient soul skills, it still took Gu Yue a full four and a half hours to finish cleaning all of Lingbing Plaza. That alone showed just how massive the plaza was. By the afternoon, the four of them had returned to their room to meditate and cultivate.
Boom!
A powerful aura burst forth — Gu You's third bloodline soul ring rose beneath his feet. Unlike the previous two purple-blue rings, this one shone with a dazzling purple-gold hue, as if overflowing with destructive energy. His terrifying bloodline power surged outward, but to the three outside, Xie Xie and the others, it caused no discomfort — on the contrary, they just felt their own bloodlines racing inside, as if being pulled along.
Purple-Gold Dragon Armor!
This was the ability of Gu You's third bloodline soul ring — after absorbing Tang Wulin's Golden Dragon King power, he had indeed inherited a new skill, and it was a monstrously powerful one.
His overall defense was boosted by sixty percent; even direct damage was reduced. When activated, his entire body would be covered in dragon scales, turning him into a humanoid dragon. At the same time, it would constantly emit waves of destructive energy, dealing minor area damage around him.
A majestic, imposing image of the Purple-Gold Dragon Emperor appeared behind Gu You, scaled down but distinct. Unlike when his martial soul had first awakened, the aura it gave off was now steady and controlled, no longer wildly violent — though those blood-red eyes still held no hint of emotion.
"So cool!" Xie Xie couldn't help but sigh in admiration. Training beside Gu You, he didn't know if it was just his imagination, but his cultivation speed felt nearly twice as fast.
Gu Yue, meanwhile, remained fully focused on her own training, seemingly unfazed by the waves of energy coming from Gu You's side.
"Stop staring at me like that. Let's go eat, it's late already — I'm treating you all," Gu You opened his eyes, a streak of purple light flashing across them.
"Yeah! Awesome!" Xie Xie was the first to dash out the door.
The academy's dining hall was massive, able to seat over a thousand people at once. Most of the outer court students seemed to eat there. However, the rules for work-study students were different from those for regular students. Ordinary students got free meals provided by the academy, but work-study students had to pay, using contribution points they earned through assigned jobs and tasks.
Today's task had only earned the group a measly hundred contribution points — nowhere near enough for a decent meal. But Gu You had his own methods: he exchanged several unused spirit-forged metal pieces at the academy's contribution point exchange, netting a whopping eight thousand points.
Money solves everything, Gu You thought to himself. He'd considered eating outside the academy, but the outer court was like a city in itself — too big, and just going in and out would take half an hour. Better to settle it here.
Gu You found a large table first, then had Xie Xie fetch the food — and only the most expensive dishes, of course. The Shrek Academy dining hall was enormous, easily handling over a thousand diners at once.
Xie Xie struggled to carry back load after load. The three of them didn't eat much, but Gu You's appetite was massive — he needed Xie Xie to really pile it on.
At first, no one paid much attention, but soon enough, when the stack of plates on their table had reached three layers high, someone walked over.
It was a young man, looking about twenty years old, with a stern face and a red armband on his right arm.
Gu You glanced up — oh boy, here comes an official.
"I'm Xie Peichen, an enforcer with the academy's disciplinary squad. What class are you in? Why are you taking so much food? Don't you know that under academy rules, if you waste food, you'll be fined ten times the cost of the wasted portions?"
Xie Xie froze, gulping nervously. He glanced helplessly at Gu You, not daring to answer.
"Good evening, senior. We can finish all of this," Gu You stood up to smooth things over.
"You can finish it all?" Xie Peichen's voice rose slightly. He'd originally assumed Xie Xie was carrying food back for a larger group, maybe enough for thirty people — but this table only had four people in total, counting the one fetching the dishes.
And these weren't ordinary dishes, either — many were made with century-old spirit ingredients. Wasting even a bit would be a disgrace, no matter how many contribution points they had.
"Mm," Gu You replied calmly.
"You — fine! I'll stand right here and watch you eat. If you don't finish it, don't blame me for what happens next," Xie Peichen's face darkened. But just as he…
(End of Chapter)
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