Chapter 45 - Played like a Fool

Before the giant palm could squash Elder Cai into a meat paste, a seemingly youthful person wearing a four-word battle armour suddenly appeared.

In his hands was a long spear. With a loud shout, he thrust upwards against the giant palm that seemed to cover the heavens and the earth.

The boundless dao of the universe coiled around his spear as he did so, but in the face of the giant palm, it was still insufficient. He was actually being suppressed by this incredible force.

His shout turning into a roar, nine rings appeared behind his back as he tried to push back against the seemingly unstoppable palm.

It didn't work.

Fortunately for him though, it was at this moment that the giant palm from the illusory figure flickered. Before he could react, the world without space and time he was in returned to normal, as if what just happened was just an illusion.

With a pale face, he was gasping slightly as he stood straight with his spear in his hand. Although he was a Rank 99 Quasi God with a four word battle armour, never in his life did he ever see an attack this domineering before.

From the descriptions given, anyone from Shrek Academy could tell that this person was Yun Ming, the Sea God Pavillion Master.

He turned to look at Elder Cai, a guilty look on his face. He picked her up before shifting his gaze to the ones who had caused this attack.

In front of him, was Huang Yu with Gu Yue in his arms. She was unconscious, but he seemed to be as fresh as a daisy, as if he hadn't just done a spirit fusion that caused even a Demigod like Yun Ming to nearly perish by its hands.

"Are you going to leave just like that?"

An emotionless look was on Huang Yu's face as he stared at arguably the strongest Spirit Master in the world at the moment with an emotionless look.

Although Huang Yu was only 13 years old and was only a Spirit Elder, something that was considered a miniscule existence compared to him, Yun Ming couldn't help but feel a shiver down his spine at Huang Yu.

'What an extraordinary presence…' exclaimed Yun Ming inside his thoughts. He had been watching Huang Yu ever since he had entered. Although he did feel that Huang Yu was strong and had great potential, he didn't think that Huang Yu had the necessary presence of an expert.

Seeing him now, made Yun Ming start to change his thoughts about him.

He had already been incredibly satisfied with Huang Yu's performance against Elder Cai today, but he hadn't expected that he would also have a fusion attack with Gu Yue that was capable of threatening even his life!

Yun Ming coughed drily before giving a reply. "Of course not. All of this was a problem caused by one of our elders. As the Sea God Pavillion Master, I shall apologise to you in her stead."

"If an apology could fix everything, why would there be laws and the police?"

A wry smile appeared on Yun Ming's face. Most people would already be extremely grateful to receive even a word from him, much less an apology. However, this boy clearly didn't give him any face at all.

He was quite conflicted about this. He didn't like that he wasn't being shown respect by a boy over a hundred years younger than him, but at the same time, he felt as if this was an attitude needed to be taken for one to be a supreme expert.

"In that case, what do you want?"

Huang Yu smiled. "The two of us have been rather traumatised from being ȧssaulted by an elder from Shrek Academy and even the Sea God Pavillion Master had to save us right? I'm thinking that some remuneration should be necessary for the emotional and physical distress we have suffered from all of this."

Yun Ming chuckled. "So is that the story you're going with?"

"What do you mean? Everything I said made complete sense." A ċȯċky smirk was on Huang Yu's face.

Yun Ming closed his eyes for a few moments, stuck in thought before he opened them again.

"Very well. What do you want? As long as it isn't too outrageous, like asking for Cai Yue'er's life, I'll do everything in my power to get you what you want to put the water under the bridge."

The smirk never leaving his face, Huang Yu flicked his wrist before a folded piece of paper was sent flying towards Yun Ming at invisible speeds.

As Yun Ming caught the piece of paper, he couldn't help but narrow his eyes.

'This boy already had his demands written on a piece of paper? Was everything that happened all within his plans already?'

Yun Ming knew at this moment that he had completely misjudged the type of person Huang Yu was. In the beginning, he had thought that Huang Yu was a gullible and arrogant boy, but now, he felt as if what he saw previously was all an act just for this exact scenario.

There would be nowhere out for him at this moment. He had to get the two of them into Shrek Academy now thanks to Huang Yu's machinations. If they left, Shrek Academy's name would be completely dragged into the mud.

This wouldn't affect them much now, but in the future, less people would want to join Shrek Academy as a result of Elder Cai's actions today in fear of getting attacked. Eventually, this would cause the decline of Shrek Academy, not unlike the one the Tang Sect had experienced ten thousand years ago.

"You want ten each of all these fifty thousand year old herbs? That's too much even for us. The most we can give is five each."

"Deal." Huang Yu said without hesitation.

At this, Yun Ming realised that he had just been duped by the boy in front of him again. He had been so focused on Huang Yu's previous actions in his head, that he had accidentally fallen into the oldest business trick in the book.

Huang Yu gave a completely unreasonable ask so that Yun Ming would give a price that would at least be close to it.

In reality, if Yun Ming had been thinking straight, he may have been able to negotiate an even lower price. But now, since he had already given the offer, he had dug a grave for himself.

Huang Yu pulled out another piece of paper from his spatial ring before tossing it over to Yun Ming again. "You don't mind if you write an IOU do you? You may be the Sea God Pavillion Master and your words hold a lot of weight, but this is just an ȧssurance."

Yun Ming sighed. With his spirit energy, he engraved an IOU onto the piece of paper he had just received before sending it back to Huang Yu.

After a short reading of the IOU he had just gotten from Yun Ming, Huang Yu returned the piece of paper into his storage ring before.

"Nice doing business with you, Sea God Pavillion Master."

"May I ask what you'll be doing with those herbs?"

"That's for me to know and for you to find out."

In actuality, Huang Yu wanted all of these herbs to study them. If he could understand how these herbs were formed, he could make more of them himself and speed up the process of them growing immensely, giving a major boost of cultivation resources to Nox.

Although Nox was getting more powerful, it didn't have the resources nor the connections of a thirty thousand year old lineage to get the herbs he wanted. Hence, he went to Shrek to find a way to 'convince' them to hand the things he wanted over.

"So you'll join Shrek like you said in the contract?"

"Only if we receive 'fair' treatment of course."

"You two want to join the inner court immediately?" Yun Ming asked with a raised eyebrow.

Huang Yu shook his head. "No need. We'll stay in the outer court. Just make our dorms more 'presentable'."

Yun Ming sighed. "Ok. In that case, would it be too much if you finished the rest of the trials? No matter the results, you'll still be in. It's just a formality."

"Sure. Just delay it until Gu Yue wakes up."

At that, Yun Ming gave a nod before he flew off with Elder Cai in tow. As he flew back to the Sea God Island, he couldn't think that Huang Yu was really too frightening. However, that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. If a person like him were to become a pillar of the academy, there would be a chance that Shrek Academy could reach even greater heights.

For now, he would have to find a way to make up for all the resources that Shrek would be missing after this exchange. The things that Huang Yu had asked were stupidly expensive after all.

'Huang Yu…' Yun Ming thought, 'He really played us all like a monkey on Buddha's palm.'