Flender looked awkward.
He really had no head for business; whatever petty cash he scammed from his shop was poured straight back into Shrek Academy.
Zhao Wuji hastily shook his head. "You'll have to talk to Flender—he's the one who tried to swindle you with nothing in hand."
Tang San silently took a step back, apparently trying to use Ma Hongjun's body to block the Twenty Four Moonlit Bridges at his waist, terrified Su Yan would snatch it away.
As for Dai Mubai and the rest, they didn't care; as students they'd already done their bit—what more could anyone expect them to put up as collateral?
No one could possibly justify asking for more.
The key point…
…was that they had nothing left to put up!
Grandmaster's Face was gloomy. "It's only eighty thousand gold coins. We'll make up the shortfall in ten days."
"The hell!"
Su Yan couldn't help swearing. "A guy who can't even scrape together five hundred gold coins—what are you trying to bluff me for?"
"You—"
Grandmaster ground his teeth in fury.
Not much damage, utterly humiliating.
Su Yan kept the verbal punches coming. "Strutting around all high-and-mighty every day—no strength, no money—what exactly are you showing off for, Yu Xiaogang?"
"If I were your age and had no strength, no family, no career, no money, no power—just a puffed-up loser—I'd be too ashamed to keep living in this World."
Grandmaster staggered back several steps, one hand clutching his chest, the other pointing at Su Yan, stammering "You… you…" before his eyes rolled back and he fainted clean away.
This time the jabs had broken right through Gang Zi's defenses.
Pure true-damage plus critical hits!
Flender hurriedly caught Grandmaster, cradling him and shaking him while shouting, "Xiaogang, Xiaogang, what's wrong? Don't scare me like this!"
Grandmaster was exasperated.
I finally fainted from rage—why did you have to shake me awake again, you bastard?
Seeing Grandmaster open his eyes, Flender secretly sighed in relief, then turned to Su Yan and barked angrily:
"Enough!"
"Su Yan, don't push people too far."
Su Yan actually burst out laughing.
"I'm pushing people too far?"
"None of you have a hundred thousand gold coins, yet you bet that amount against me—clearly planning to freeload—and now you're still eighty thousand short, and you have the nerve to say I'm the one pushing too far?"
"So the debtor becomes the boss now?"
Flender looked guilty, but still clenched his teeth and growled, "I'm the one who lost the bet and owes the money; this has nothing to do with Xiaogang. Don't make things hard for him anymore."
[I Am an Orphan: As expected of you!]
[Bo Saixi: I'm speechless—you Little Bastard really have a silver tongue; even your arguing is top-tier.]
[Bibi Dong: Liu Erlong, let me ask—does this Flender like you, or does he like Yu Xiaogang?]
[Liu Erlong:???]
[Hu Liena: Does Flender like you more, or Xiaogang more?]
[Zhu Zhuyun: I'm dying of laughter here.]
[Zhu Zhuqing: I mean… but… Flender does seem to care about Xiaogang a lot.]
[Ah Yin: Guys, do you think Flender's brotherly loyalty to Xiaogang weighs more, or his affection for Erlong?]
[Group Member Number Nine: Easy—next time let Liu Erlong and Xiaogang fight and see who Flender helps.]
At this moment…
Su Yan was speechless too—only you, Flender!
"Fine!"
"So we're still short eighty thousand gold coins—what now?"
Flender said in a deep voice, "I'll write you an IOU right now; ten days from now I guarantee every coin of that eighty thousand will be delivered."
Zhao Wuji couldn't help speaking up. "Su Yan, why don't we call it even for now?"
"Give us some time to scrape it together."
Grandmaster now dared not utter a word—he really had been shattered by Su Yan's barrage.
Seeing Grandmaster playing dead, Su Yan couldn't be bothered to keep tangling with Flender and the rest.
"Dean Flender, since we've talked it out to this point, I'll give you and Teacher Zhao Wuji some Face."
"Write the IOU now. If the eighty thousand gold coins aren't here in ten days, don't blame me, Su Yan, for not showing old friendship."
When Flender's group heard that, they finally breathed a huge sigh of relief, immediately fetched paper and brush, and wrote out the IOU for eighty thousand gold coins.
Su Yan pocketed the note, glanced at Grandmaster, and said to the group, "Then today's inter-academy exchange is over. When we have time, we'll come visit again."
"With a great Spirit Grandmaster like Grandmaster as your teacher, you're really in for a blessing—beating you later will be easy for us!"
"Pfft."
Ning Rongrong and the others couldn't hold back their laughter.
Grandmaster fainted again from rage, scaring Flender half to death.
"Xiaogang, Xiaogang, don't scare me like this!"
Zhao Wuji, seeing Su Yan's group turning to leave, looked exasperated. "All right, stop yelling 'Xiaogang'—get up and figure out how we're going to gather the next eighty thousand gold coins!"
"Hey, wait!"
Dai Mubai suddenly called out, "Su Yan, you… you can't leave yet—our Spirits and Spirit Abilities haven't recovered; we're all healing Spirit Masters right now!"
Ma Hongjun and Oscar also realized this and stared miserably at Su Yan's group—what are we supposed to do if you leave?
Su Yan turned with a grin. "You didn't think you'd keep those healing powers forever, did you?"
"In your dreams!"
"Once the Nine Heart Begonia flower on your Spirits completely fades, your Spirits will return to normal."
With that, Su Yan led his group away.
Dai Mubai and the other two instantly relaxed—so they would recover after all!
"Eh?"
Zhao Wuji's eyes suddenly lit up; he said to Flender:
"The healing power this Nine Heart Begonia granted them seems pretty strong. We're so short on cash—why not let Xiao Bai and the others work as healing Spirit Masters for a few days?"
Flender's eyes lit up too. "Seems doable; the Spirit Arena pays pretty well—though squeezing eighty thousand gold coins out in ten days is still brutal."
Dai Mubai's trio were stunned.
What the—?
We're already miserable enough, and now you want us to earn money as healing Spirit Masters?
Are you even speaking human words?
Just then…
Su Yan's group had only just left Shrek Academy.
Whoosh—
A figure suddenly dropped from the sky so fast no one had time to react.
"Eek!"
Xiao Wu saw it was Little Monkey and asked in bewilderment, "Little Monkey, where've you been? Huh? Why do I smell Da Ming on you?"
Little Monkey kicked the Dark Demonic Evil God Tiger to Su Yan's feet; the tiger instantly realized this was the real master.
The Dark Demonic Evil God Tiger hurriedly flopped by Su Yan's leg, rubbing its neck against him and barking "woof-woof" ingratiatingly.
Little Monkey leapt onto Su Yan's shoulder and chattered nonstop.
"Wait…?"
Ling Yuan and Ah Yin suddenly paled; although the Dark Demonic Evil God Tiger currently looked like a big black Kitty, they could sense its aura.
"That's a Spirit Beast over fifty thousand years old?"
"No way…?"
"Looks like a cat—no, a tiger—so why is it barking like a dog?"
[Nine Treasures Little Princess: pic (Dark Demonic Evil God Tiger, black-cat version)]
[Nine Treasures Little Princess: Sisters, does anyone know what Spirit Beast this is? Little Monkey just dragged it back; looks like a cat, should be a tiger, but it barked like a dog.]
[Everyone:???]
(End of Chapter)
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