Douluo Continent: My name is Lu Mingfei, and my martial soul is Lu Mingze.

Elder Xuan clenched his fists, wanting to argue, but ultimately chose to remain silent, his head slightly lowered.

Following that, Elder Song listed all of Elder Xuan's previous dereliction of duty.

In the end, Old Song's voice was almost squeezed out through clenched teeth: "This isn't the first time. You know perfectly well why it happened last time, do I need to repeat myself?"

Elder Xuan paused for a moment, then remained silent.

Old Mu waved his hand: "Alright."

Old Song stopped talking, but his eyes remained sharp.

Elder Mu shifted his gaze from Elder Xuan, scanned the hall, and finally settled on Lu Mingfei.

"Mingfei," he said, his voice softening.

"You were there too, so you tell us about it."

All eyes in the entire Sea God Pavilion instantly focused on Lu Mingfei.

Lu Mingfei took a step forward.

All eyes were on him, the room was solemn, and the air felt heavy as lead.

Lu Mingfei cleared his throat and spoke.

In just a few words, without embellishment, without avoiding any facts, and without deliberately exonerating anyone.

He simply recounted the events verbatim.

Elder Xuan stood in the center of the table, his lips moved, but in the end he didn't say a word.

Old Song clenched and unclenched his fist repeatedly, but in the end he couldn't hold back.

She looked at Elder Xuan, her voice low, but each word seemed to be squeezed out from between her teeth.

"Listen to Mingfei, how easily he makes it sound like he was lucky to run into a peerless master who happened to be passing by."

"Listen to those three words—'good luck.' What if you were unlucky? What if Lexuan had also failed there? This meeting wouldn't be about discussing punishment!"

Elder Xuan lowered his head, his gray hair hanging down and covering half of his face.

"Last time, eight. This time, several. What about next time? Do you want to wait until next time? Do you think Shrek Academy's inner court students are just blown in by the wind, dying and then new ones springing up?"

Old Song's words grew increasingly weighty.

Qian Duoduo couldn't sit still any longer.

He and Xianlin'er exchanged a glance and stood up at the same time.

Qian Duoduo walked over to Old Song and whispered, "Old Song, calm down. It's not worth getting sick from getting angry."

Xian Lin'er also gently advised, "The matter has already happened, let's discuss the punishment first, please don't get so angry."

Old Song took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and leaned back in his chair.

Elder Mu's gaze swept across the faces of the assembled elders at the table, and he slowly spoke: "Speak up, everyone."

Lu Mingfei listened to most of the following discussion.

The elders offered their opinions one after another. Some believed that Elder Xuan was guilty and should be severely punished; others felt that Elder Xuan was, after all, an elder of the Sea God Pavilion, and his merits and demerits should offset each other, so he could be treated leniently. However, they argued that he could no longer be in charge of the Shrek Academy's oversight team, as matters of life and death could not be allowed to happen a third time.

Old Lin said calmly, "The Shrek Inspection Team does dangerous work, so the leader must be someone the team members can trust."

The implication is quite clear.

Yan Shaozhe rarely spoke, but he only said four words: "I second that."

Then continue to observe your nose and your mind.

The final decision was made by Elder Mu.

He turned his head slightly to look at Elder Xuan standing in the center of the room, his voice aged but undeniable: "Xuanzi, you may retain your position as a senior elder of the Sea God Pavilion, but you shall relinquish your position as head of the Shrek Academy's oversight team from today onwards."

"Another penalty is a three-year reduction in your offerings by half, and a period of abstinence from alcohol. Go and receive your punishment yourself. Do you have anything to say?"

Elder Xuan remained silent for a long time, so long that even the sound of breathing could be clearly heard in the hall.

Then he slowly bent down and bowed deeply to the elderly people sitting at the table.

"I admit it."

He knew that Elder Mu was already being lenient with him. If it weren't for his many years of merit, the combined effect of his dereliction of duty last time and this time would have made him risk losing his position as a senior elder.

Lu Mingfei glanced at Elder Xuan.

This usually carefree old man, who always carries a gourd of wine, now looked like an old tree bent over by the weight of snow, his back bent.

But Lu Mingfei didn't think much of it, thinking that the punishment was lighter than that of the students who died.

Finally, Elder Mu's gaze fell upon Zhang Lexuan.

"Le Xuan, is there anything else you want to say?"

Zhang Lexuan was silent for a few seconds, then shook her head.

When Elder Xuan was in trouble last time, she stood up for him.

She had said that although Elder Xuan had made mistakes, he had also saved the lives of countless comrades on the battlefield, and his merits and demerits should be counted separately, but this time she did not speak.

Elder Xuan turned his head and glanced at Zhang Lexuan.

That usually gentle face was expressionless, and she didn't look at him.

After the meeting ended, it was completely dark when Lu Mingfei walked out of the Poseidon Pavilion.

Life returned to normal.

The morning was still filled with Mr. Song's hellish training.

Old Song seemed to hit him harder than before, and every bone in his body ached.

In the afternoon, as usual, I went to Qian Duoduo's lab to tinker with the soul guide device.

Lu Mingfei learned with great difficulty, wasting several pieces of material, and finally managed to carve a decent semi-finished product.

Qian Duoduo examined the half-finished product over and over for a long time, then said, "It's alright, not too embarrassing," and then handed him a bunch of materials to practice with.

Xian Lin'er smiled and poured him a cup of hot tea.

Ma Xiaotao hasn't come to see him recently.

I heard that Yan Shaozhe sent him out on some mission and he won't be back for a while.

Lu Mingfei breathed a sigh of relief; at least for now, he wouldn't have to be carried away in public anymore.

Jiang Nannan would appear downstairs at his dormitory every day without fail, sometimes with breakfast, sometimes with snacks, and sometimes without anything, just to take a stroll.

Lu Mingfei asked her what she was doing there, and after thinking for a moment, she said, "On the way."

Lu Mingfei thought to himself, "Your dorm is in the girls' area, and I'm in the boys' area. What kind of route are you taking?" But he wisely didn't say it aloud.

As for the soul bone that fell from the body of the 100,000-year-old soul beast, Lu Mingfei examined it over and over again.

It was a left arm bone, dark gold in color, with fine lines on the surface. It felt warm and smooth like jade, but after being infused with soul power, it would glow with a blood-red light, exuding a menacing aura.

Its grade is not low; it's at least a level higher than the ten-thousand-year-old soul bone that Qian Duoduo gave him before.

Lu Mingfei kept the soul bone in his storage soul tool for two days and finally called Lu Mingze out to ask him.

"Can I use this bone?"

Lu Mingze sat cross-legged on the stone platform in the Sea of ​​Spirit, rested his chin on his hand, glanced at it, and then shook his head.

"no."

Why?

"Not up to par."

Lu Mingfei looked down at the dark golden soul bone, then looked up at Lu Mingze's youthful face, which was full of "I've seen a lot" written all over it.

"A soul bone aged 100,000 years, isn't that high-class enough?"

"You bastard, are you trying to fool me?"

"Ten thousand years is just the beginning." Lu Mingze yawned.

"Brother, a little thing like you who's only a hundred thousand years old isn't good enough for you."

"But it's already dead, we can't just throw it away."

"Sell it."

Lu Mingfei thought about it and felt it made sense.

Then he thought of someone—Zhang Lexuan.

A 100,000-year-old soul bone is something that countless soul masters would fight tooth and nail for if it were out in the open, but Zhang Lexuan is not an outsider.

She was the senior disciple of the inner academy and had always taken good care of Lu Mingfei, from leading him into the inner academy to guiding him along the way during this Soul Hunt, she never gave him any perfunctory treatment.

Lu Mingfei keeps a mental record: he treats those who are good to him well.

The next day, when Lu Mingfei found Zhang Lexuan, she was meditating in the cultivation room in the inner courtyard.

Hearing the knock on the door, he opened his eyes and saw Lu Mingfei, a gentle smile appearing on his face.

"Mingfei? Is something the matter?"

Lu Mingfei looked around the door of the training room to make sure no one was there, then slipped inside and closed the door behind him.

He took out the dark gold soul bone from his storage soul tool and placed it in front of Zhang Lexuan, his movements as swift as if he were trading contraband.

"Senior sister, do you want a soul bone?"

Zhang Lexuan looked down and then froze.