Aftermath.

"Aiden. Now you've done it, shameless sonny. Now, wait for this lady to properly educate you!" - raged Erlong in her office, drowned under the pile of complaints from prominent figures, noble people, and even a prince. She read through them while fuming. A couple of letters after her attitude changed to the opposite. - "What? What did you write about my Aiden? Brute? Uneducated? Your entire family are brutes, your granny is uneducated! Good, good, good. This lady stayed silent when you come to disturb the peace of my academy and when my good Aiden taught you a lesson you complain? Do you dare? Alright, alright!"

She immediately changed attitude after a couple of rude letters.

"Erm, Vice Headmaster, you have several visitors."

"What visitors? I don't expect visitors." - Erlong dismissed the servant.

"But they are rather insistent."

"Tch." - Erlong nastily snorted and waved the servant away from the room.

A moment later several old people entered with large strides and arrogant attitudes.

"We believe you received our letters beforehand. We came to discuss compensation." - said the oldest. He was very proud of himself and looked at Erlong with an air of superiority.

"What did you say? Repeat it. I believe I heard some nonsensical blabbering right now. Something about our academy compensating people who trespassed on its territory, attempting rape and kidnapping of our students, and ruining academy property. No, you positively couldn't have said something like that, right?" - said Erlong with a righteous tone.

'Fuck! How can she be so shameless? Rape, kidnapping? They came to propose an escort for a date! Destroying academy property? Your own student did it, okay?'

"This... Vice Headmaster Erlong, you can't say it like that..." - started the old man, but what was really similar about Erlong and Aiden, is the inability to listen to bullshit.

"I can." - she said directly.

"Who said so? On what ground?" - questioned the other elder with a goatee that shivered in the air.

"I'm a Titled Douluo." - she said simply.

"Erm... what? No, that is wrong. Wait..." - their brains short-circuited. - "Erm... let's discuss it... you see, you can't claim that we destroyed the property of your academy. This is wrong."

"I'm a Titled Douluo." - she said with boredom and looked at her nails. The crowd in front of her was silently cursing and sweating profusely.

Erlong smirked and released her rings. They covered the entire room. And the last, the ninth one, was glaring at the visitors with crimson luster.

They all gulped in succession.

"Do you agree with what I said?" - she continued without even looking at them.

Little did the crowd know, today was the first day she presented her level to the world.

"We... we..." - they looked at each other in great dismay, not knowing what to say. Were they brave enough to blackmail a Titled Douluo?

"I'm a Titled Douluo." - she said again with a gleeful smile that caused all the old men to shiver.

"We... agree..." - they hanged their heads and cursed their unfilial grandsons inwardly.

"Awesome!" - she exclaimed. - "So, how will you compensate me for your felony?"

"Erm..."

'We shouldn't have come here. How the hell did she become a Titled Douluo? Why weren't we aware? The hell is with that setting, it is totally wrong!'

"But... our descendants just wanted to be with their loved ones, they mean no harm..."

"Uhum." - Erlong nodded, shifting to the nails on her other hand and saying in a bored tone. - "But I'm a Titled Douluo."

'Fuck, we give up.'

"We will rebuild the square. And publicly apologize." - said the main elder. His face looked awful, like a shriveled lemon. The color was the same.

"And buildings around the square that were destroyed. Your people annoyed him. It was your fault. All buildings, every single one. Eight in total. And make it shiny, so that when I go there, I will be blind from happiness." - she stated with a bland look, blowing at her slender fingers.

"But it was your stu..." - weakly protested the elderly people. In their view, they were inside a frying pan while slowly getting ready to be a delicious snack for this female tyrannosaurus.

"But he is a student of Titled Douluo." - Erlong felt great bullying those shameless pricks. They came to swindle talents into their families and kidnap brides. If anything, this alone was enough to make her go bonkers.

"We... we comply."

"Awesome!" - she clapped her hands and stood up with a bright smile. - "Now you can see yourselves off. Go, go."

They disappeared faster than they came.

Erlong stretched while feeling very pleased with herself and threw all letters into the fireplace. The servant came in with light steps and great caution.

"Done. Problem solved. See, twenty minutes and all is fine. Aren't this Vice Headmaster amazing?" - she laughed and stormed off. - "But I need to give some peace of mind to my sonny. He-he, whatever, he did well. Quite to my liking!"

She made her way to the forest at the back of the academy and entered the yard. There, she saw Aiden sitting by the table and writing something with a sinister expression. She walked over seamlessly and sat by the side, resting her chin on her palms and silently gazing at the youth.

A slight sigh escaped her lips.

She couldn't properly explain what lingered in her heart.

Affection? Yes. Naturally not a romantic one, but she felt better seeing him smile and raged when he got hurt. She felt worried when he did something risky and proud when it turned to be accomplished. It was an unknown spectrum of emotions and feelings that governed her life for quite a prolonged time.

Sometimes she didn't want for him to leave her sight, but not like Xiaogang. It was different. If she felt the longing for her husband than she felt protectiveness over this youth. The youth was through so much in his life. Maybe others saw him as the strongest genius, but she just wanted him to be happy.

She looked at him engrossed in something and laughed inaudibly.

'He is clearly up to something. This crafty look. And now, that sinister smile. Hm... what is he writing?'

She walked over and looked above his shoulder.

'Cultivation for Dummies? What does it mean? Oho... oh my. My goodness, that must be hard. Oh, oh, that is a good idea, but it might kill people! Oh, and that would be rather painful. But it is all really effective. But the workload is insane. Those dummies he is writing it for. They will be very... mm... impressed, yes, impressed.'

"Lazy kitty cat, cocky chicken, pervy sausage... you just wait. He-he, you too shameless spear, and pole freak. I finally complete your training regime!" - said Aiden with a proud expression, while holding the stack of papers. - "Aunt Erlong!"

"Little Monster, live it to Aunty, he-he." - she winked and snatched the written book. She was rather impressed and wanted to know what will be the result if they survive that. - "Just tell your aunt here who are our targets? Who provoked you?"

"You know me best, aunt Erlong!"

The duo smiled sinisterly at each other.

Two Devils of Shrek were officially provoked this time. No one will come out unscathed out of their storm.

Erlong walked away, and Aiden sat by the table. But after a moment, he froze.

'Why do I have a feeling that I'm like some young master flaunting his authority? Tch, forget it, it's for their own good. The training was compiled with Nexus and he made very precise calculations. They won't die. Hehe. But they would like too. Hmm, but later they will thank me. It will create monsters of cultivation. With this, the championship will be in the pocket. All I need now is to create sufficient force to defend against underhanded methods.'

He sighed and looked sideways. There, out of the shadows, came a woman in black with a mask. A roman number three was present on her cheek.

"Sovereign. I have news about Tang Hao. You won't like it." - she said simply and gave Aiden a report.

The moment he started reading was the same moment his eyes grew red with self-blame and rage.