Peerless: The Starry Sky Revival Plan of the Auspicious Beasts

Those are the people she wants to protect.

But now it's all...

Ma Xiaotao was only eighteen years old, not a cold-blooded demon who killed people without blinking an eye. Since she could remember, except for the fact that her cultivation was sometimes affected by her martial spirit, her life had always been smooth sailing. How could she have suffered such a big blow?

If it was just Yan Shaozhe's bland retelling after she woke up from the coma, she wouldn't have any sense of reality, wouldn't have learned a lesson, and wouldn't have reflected on it. But now, the bloody facts were thrown at her in a tragic way, and she couldn't even escape.

For a moment, regret and self-blame almost overwhelmed her.

“Ahh…” A hoarse, meaningless female voice rang out, like a wounded beast, echoing on the scorched earth of Poseidon Lake at the end of the world.

A dark red flame like dried blood emerged, leaving a small space with Ma Xiaotao's body as the center.

Ma Xiaotao, who was on the verge of collapse, did not realize that someone was coming behind her.

With a somewhat helpless sigh, her eyes went dark and she fainted.

……

"Awake?" an old voice asked, calmly but with a hint of concern, "Do you remember who I am?"

"Teacher..." Ma Xiaotao said hesitantly.

"It's good that you still have reason." Yan Shaozhe snorted coldly, "Do you know how much trouble you have caused?"

"I know. I... killed two junior students from other colleges." Ma Xiaotao lowered her eyes. She was not a coward and would never deny the mistakes she had made.

"The Seagod Pavilion has given you a punishment. You will be confined to the Seagod Island for a year, and your training will be suspended. You cannot leave your room. If you lose control again, the Seagod Pavilion will regard you as an evil soul master. Don't try to escape, there are people watching outside." After Yan Shaozhe finished speaking, he left the room.

As soon as he left the room, Yan Shaozhe's stern face immediately fell, revealing deep fatigue.

He was also protecting his adopted daughter. Ma Xiaotao's martial spirit problem was too special, and this time she did accidentally kill someone - if no one died, even if Ma Xiaotao set the entire outer courtyard on fire, Yan Shaozhe would be sure to suppress the matter.

But the death of a person, and a disciple from the outer courtyard, was a huge scandal for Shrek. When Ma Xiaotao was in a coma, an elder at the Sea God Pavilion Council proposed that Shrek must not protect the evil spirit master, and that they should put Xiaotao to death for the greater good.

...In fact, it doesn't matter whether he is an evil soul master or not, as long as he promises not to deliberately kill others to increase his strength and accepts supervision. Shrek does not intend to kill all soul masters with dark martial souls. Ma Xiaotao's biggest fault is that she has brought shame to Shrek Academy, and the academy's reputation cannot be tarnished.

But how could Yan Shaozhe agree?

He has lived a confused life and it is impossible for him to have his own biological children. Although Ma Xiaotao, who was raised by him since childhood and has a similar martial spirit to him, was adopted, he is closer to her than his own daughter.

Fortunately, Xiao Tao was conscious when she woke up, otherwise he would not know what decision the elders of the Sea God Pavilion would make.

Locking her up for a year was also to keep her away from subsequent events...Yan Shaozhe shook his head.

The death of the external college student will eventually be cleared and the truth will not be leaked, but he knows Ma Xiaotao's character well, and if she does something irrational on impulse... then everything will be over.

I just hope that this experience won’t be too much of a blow to Xiaotao, and that she can cheer up soon.

Yan Shaozhe sighed and left.

Ma Xiaotao, who stayed in the room, sat in the corner with her head resting between her knees, her hands pulling her messy long red hair, her dark red eyes full of bloodshot, as if filled with a pool of hazy blood.

She fell into unprecedented confusion.

She was only eighteen years old, and only one step away from becoming a Soul Saint. She could see where the steps were, and even the scenery behind them. Compared to others who were stuck at bottlenecks during their cultivation, she could just lift her foot and cross that step.

She had lived in Shrek City as long as she could remember. She was raised by Yan Shaozhe, and the elder closest to her was the strongest person on the continent. She could almost be said to have lived in a place that ordinary people could not imagine as long as she could remember.

But what is the equivalent of the extremely powerful Soul Emperor cultivation outside in Shrek Academy?

If age is not taken into consideration, the Soul Emperors of Shrek Academy are almost no different from the low-level trash.

How could Ma Xiaotao, who lived among the top powerhouses, be willing to stop at the Soul Emperor level? How could she be willing to be as mediocre as an ant?

But her martial soul was flawed, and just now, she killed two innocent children.

In the past, she thought she could control it, thought she could harness the changes in her martial soul, and she could confidently say that she could defeat the evil spirit and not be affected by it.

But now?

What to do now?

Do I really have to... stop practicing now and be trapped as a mediocre Soul Emperor for the rest of my life?

113. Chapter 111: Both Illusion and Reality

113.

2023-10-17

The time in confinement passed quickly.

It seems... a little too fast.

Ma Xiaotao was led out of her room by Yan Shaozhe in a daze, and her one-year confinement was lifted.

She walked outside in a daze, the confusion from before still buzzing in her chest. Even after a year, she still didn't get an answer.

...But has this year really passed by too quickly?

It’s not that Ma Xiaotao likes her confinement life that much, but when she tries to recall what she has done in the past year... she feels that she has done nothing, and every day seems to be the same, just staring blankly in the bedroom...

She felt like her memories of this year were all vague, like how people occasionally couldn't remember what they had for dinner last night...it was also a bit like time had been stolen.

Something seems wrong.

But when I think about it carefully, I can't find any problem. Maybe it was because the confinement was too boring and nothing impressive happened?

Ma Xiaotao scratched her hair in confusion, and finally gave up thinking about it.

In reality, it was certainly impossible for her to actually spend a whole year in the fantasy world.

Wang Rui wanted to test people's reactions, but he didn't want to go to jail for a year. He didn't have some eye-spell cheats that could make a three-day illusion. He just blurred Ma Xiaotao's sense of the passage of time, creating the illusion that a long time had passed, and filled her mind with many images of the time she was in solitary confinement.

If Ma Xiaotao wasn't an intuitive player, she probably wouldn't have noticed something was wrong at the first moment.

After a series of tests, Yan Shaozhe finally brought his disciples back to his office.

The results of various tests showed that the evil aura in Ma Xiaotao's martial soul had subsided and was no longer surging and about to explode like before. It seemed that this year's confinement was a good thing for her.

"Over the past year, you haven't been in a hurry to cultivate your soul power. The negative aura in your martial soul has become much more stable, and the tendency to lose control has also been controlled." Yan Shaozhe was very satisfied. "You kid... you were too impatient before. You should know that more haste makes waste. You are already a genius, and you can't be so rash and aggressive. I hope you can remember this lesson, and don't be greedy when you practice in the future..."

Yan Shaozhe's chattering sounded like the buzzing of a fly. Those words entered Ma Xiaotao's left ear and went straight out of the right ear. She looked daydreaming and nodded randomly.

"The Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Soul Fighting Competition is about to begin. If you adjust your condition now, you can still catch up... I hope you can arrive before the quarterfinals and debut as a secret weapon."

This was Yan Shaozhe's compensation for putting his disciple in solitary confinement for a year.

After the evaluation just now, he thought Xiaotao's condition was relatively stable and she was able to participate in the competition.

Ma Xiaotao has always wanted to take part in the competition, and she had been practicing very hard before in preparation for the competition. If it were usual, she would have jumped for joy when she heard the news, instead of looking distraught and staring out the window like she does now.

Yan Shaozhe's heart skipped a beat.

Could it be that this incident was really too much of a blow to the child?

He really wanted to teach his disciple a lesson, but if he hit the child too harshly, it would not be worth it!

"Xiao Tao, are you listening to me?" Yan Shaozhe asked with a frown.

"Yeah." Ma Xiaotao said sullenly, staring at her toes. "If there's nothing else, I'll leave."

She simply got up and left.

Sitting in the office, Yan Shaozhe felt more and more that something was wrong.

He understood his adopted daughter's temperament.

Ma Xiaotao is young and innocent, her life is so pure that she spends almost nothing but cultivation. She is now at an age where the world is either black or white, right or wrong. Plus, she is a straightforward person and cannot tolerate any sand in her eyes... and she still looks like she hasn't gotten over the accident a year ago and still feels guilty.

In other words, she is likely to act on her emotions and do something that is detrimental to the college.

Yan Shaozhe originally thought that the competition could distract her attention, but now it seems that this matter is far from over.

He couldn't sit still.

……

Yan Shaozhe's guess about his adopted daughter was absolutely correct. The highly mobile Ma Xiaotao was currently standing in the archive room of the outer courtyard.

She was in a hurry and had a gloomy face, so the teacher in the archives room dared not stop her.

"Soul hunting accident?" She murmured, looking at the file in her hand.

There were only two students who left the school at this time last year. She easily found the files of those two students, which also recorded their respective home addresses.

Ma Xiaotao temporarily put aside the question of whether to continue practicing. After the confinement was over, the first thing she wanted to do was to visit the homes of the two students from other colleges, apologize, and try to make amends.

If it's wrong, it's wrong. She, Ma Xiaotao, is not a coward who dares not admit her mistakes!

But Shrek Academy obviously did not disclose the cause of death of the two students... No one in the entire outer school knew that they were killed by their own loss of control.

But this record is beautifully written and there is no flaw at all.

"But this is not right..." Ma Xiaotao gritted her teeth, put down the file in her hand, turned around and walked away, looking like a stream of scarlet fire.

Right is right, wrong is wrong, and the things she did wrong were just turned over and covered up by the academy, as if it was an insult to her, like a needle pricking her neck.

It may be difficult for older people to understand this mentality. Probably only young people who are inexperienced and not sophisticated enough would care so much about right and wrong. It is similar to how young people who have just started working would feel uneasy and resistant to paid slacking. This is a very clear kind of stupidity.

Maybe in a few years, Ma Xiaotao will turn a blind eye to these two wronged souls, but she still can't do it now.

There was only black and white in her eyes, no room for gray.

...The young and inexperienced person that people often talk about is probably someone like her.

So when Yan Shaozhe found her, she was packing her luggage.

"What are you going to do?"

"I plan to go to the homes of those two students." Ma Xiaotao said in a low voice.

“You’re not allowed to go!” Yan Shaozhe’s eyes went dark and he almost vomited blood. He knew that the child was quiet and must be doing something naughty. “The academy has finally suppressed this matter. Why are you making trouble? Put your things down!”

"I did something wrong, so I have to take responsibility." Ma Xiaotao stiffened her neck and did not lower her head.

The two people started arguing, and neither could convince the other. After all, Ma Xiaotao's personality was so stubborn that when she got angry, she was like an old cow and no one could pull her back.

Yan Shaozhe was so angry that he almost flipped the table and shouted: "Whether you are right or wrong, the academy cannot be wrong. Do you want to ruin the reputation of Shrek Academy for ten thousand years? Grow up, Ma Xiaotao! What's the point of you running over like this, except giving people something to talk about? Are you going to make everyone think that the younger generation of disciples in Shrek's inner courtyard are all crazy?!"

The reputation of Shrek has been maintained by many generations. Although Yan Shaozhe loves his adopted daughter, in his heart, Shrek is much more important than anything else.

Ma Xiaotao also started to speak without thinking: "At worst, I can just quit——"