Opening with a Thousand-Year Soul Ring? This Fight Will Drive You to Despair!
Three days passed in the blink of an eye.
Night fell, and the bustling central district of Suotuo City blazed with lights.
The hundred-meter-tall Soto Great Soul Arena loomed like an enormous oval beast lying dormant in the night. Long before anyone reached its gates, the roar of the crowd and its feverish cries were already deafening.
The uproar on White Stone Long Street three days ago had long since spread throughout Suotuo City.
A mysterious young man in white had casually produced a supreme-grade Life Spirit Crystal at the Rare Treasures Auction House. A purple-haired swordswoman under his command had then driven back the level seventy-six Immovable Wisdom King, Zhao Wuji, with a single sword strike from the front, without even revealing a Soul Ring. They had also made a wager with Shrek Academy in the middle of the street, agreeing to fight at the Great Soul Arena tonight.
The news had caused a sensation throughout the city.
The newcomers' Soul Fight, originally scheduled for a division arena, had been moved at short notice to the central main arena, which could hold tens of thousands. The Great Soul Arena's management had made the exception because nobles and Soul Master factions had flocked in to see it.
By now, every seat in the circular stands surrounding the central main arena was occupied.
Huge Soul Tool spotlights hung overhead, illuminating the hundred-meter-wide bluestone fighting platform below as brightly as day.
In a VIP box on the second level, where the view was best, Chu Yuan reclined against a spacious couch covered with a sable-fur blanket, dressed in a white robe embroidered with gold.
Beside him, Mona, wearing a pointed witch's hat, sat with her legs elegantly crossed. Her slender legs, encased in gradient starry-black stockings, swayed gently as she held a plate of sliced, translucent preserved fruit, feeding the pieces to Chu Yuan one by one.
Behind the couch to the left, Ning Rongrong stood obediently holding a teapot in both hands. Dressed in a pale-yellow flowing gown, she peered curiously through the floor-to-ceiling crystal window with her large, bright eyes, looking down at the packed stands.
"My lord, there are so many people at the Soto Great Soul Arena tonight! Even the city lord stationed in Suotuo City by the Balak Kingdom has gone to the box diagonally across from us!"
Ning Rongrong murmured in amazement as she carefully topped up Chu Yuan's warm tea.
During her three days at the residence in the east of the city, she had witnessed Chu Yuan's wondrous methods firsthand. She had long since put away every trace of her former young-miss temper, hoping only that, after tonight's Soul Fight, her lord would keep his promise to help her evolve her Martial Soul.
Chu Yuan swallowed the candied fruit Mona had fed him and, in the same motion, gently pinched the astrologer's soft, smooth cheek. Mona's cheeks flushed slightly, and she shot him a reproachful glance.
At the same time, Chu Yuan could clearly sense that, as the tens of thousands of spectators below kept turning their gazes toward his main box at the top of the arena, wisps of invisible Vow Power, gathered from awe, curiosity, and fervor, were flowing without end into the Crown of Heavenly Principles in his sea of consciousness.
The four diamond-shaped wings on either side of the crown pulsed faintly with light, refining this mixed renown from the masses into pure Primordial Divine Power.
"It's about to begin down there."
Chu Yuan lowered his eyes to glance at the entrance to the fighting platform below.
At that moment, the host, dressed in a tailcoat, stood in midair above the platform, gripping an Amplifying Soul Tool. His face was flushed with excitement as he shouted:
"Honored guests! Tonight, the central main arena brings you a special wager match! Under the liability waiver for life and death signed by both sides before the match, the usual limits on team size will not apply. Victory will be decided only when every member of one side is unable to fight or has fallen from the platform!"
"First to enter, from Shrek Academy—the White Tiger Three-Five Combination!"
As the host called out, the steel gate on the eastern side rumbled open.
Three figures walked out of the passage side by side, stepping onto the hard bluestone platform.
At the forefront was Dai Mubai.
His golden hair stirred without wind, and the strange double pupils in his eyes flashed with a bone-chilling light. He released the formidable Soul Power of a level thirty-seven Battle Soul Elder without restraint, his bearing fierce and imposing.
For the past three days, the scene of Zhu Zhuqing crushing her jade pendant in the street, declaring her defection from the Zhu Family, and calling him a coward had been an almost inescapable nightmare.
To wash away the humiliation, he had spent those three days desperately getting himself into fighting shape under Flender and Zhao Wuji's supervision, waiting for tonight to trample his opponents underfoot before the eyes of the crowd!
Tang San and Xiao Wu followed close behind Dai Mubai, one on either side.
Tang San wore a grave expression, a faint, deeply restrained purple glimmer in his eyes. His hands hung naturally at his sides, beside the Twenty-Four Moonlit Bridges belt.
Xiao Wu wore her hair in a neat scorpion braid. As soon as she stepped onto the platform, her gaze drifted unconsciously toward the most prestigious VIP box on the second level.
"Look! A level thirty-seven Battle Soul Elder! And two Soul Grandmasters at the peak of level twenty-nine!"
"Shrek Academy actually sent three people to join forces! That level thirty-seven White Tiger Soul Master won several matches in a row in the division arena recently, and he fought viciously!"
A clamor of discussion rose from the stands.
In the nearby contestants' viewing area, diagonally below the box, Flender and Zhao Wuji stood side by side, their expressions tense.
"Xiao San has equipped all the mechanical tricks he's kept up his sleeve these past few days. Add Mubai's level thirty-seven power-attack suppression, and as long as that boy in white doesn't take the field himself, no one of their generation could possibly stop the three of them together."
Zhao Wuji folded his arms and spoke in a low, rumbling voice.
Flender adjusted his black-framed glasses, his gaze fixed on the still-closed entrance to the western passage.
"We can't be careless. Manager Ao of the Great Soul Arena confirmed it to me personally just now: only two women registered to fight on the other side. And when that purple-haired girl was tested with the crystal ball, her Soul Power fluctuations were extremely strange. She was classified as a participant of roughly level thirty!"
On the platform, Tang San and Dai Mubai had apparently also learned their opponents' lineup through the entrance passage.
Just then, the steel gate on the western side slowly rose.
Without the slightest fanfare, two exquisitely beautiful, graceful figures walked calmly onto the platform, one behind the other.
In front was Keqing, dressed in a luxurious purple-and-black formal gown.
Brilliant spotlight beams fell upon her, making her purple hair, carefully arranged into cat-ear buns, shimmer with color.
Dark-purple stockings sheathed her long, straight legs. The gold ornaments beneath her skirt chimed softly with each light step, and the purple-gold Electro-Attribute Vision at her waist radiated a noble luster that made hearts tremble.
Half a step beside Keqing was Zhu Zhuqing, dressed in a tight-fitting black leather combat outfit.
The close-fitting black clothes traced the young woman's breathtaking curves to perfection. Yet her cold, beautiful face was utterly expressionless, and her dark-purple slit pupils were fixed coldly on Dai Mubai across from her.
"Whaa-!!"
When the tens of thousands of spectators saw that only two peerlessly beautiful young women had entered, and that Chu Yuan in the second-level VIP box showed no intention of even getting up, the entire arena erupted!
"Only two girls? That young man in white isn't even going to fight?!"
"That's far too arrogant! Shrek has a level thirty-seven Battle Soul Elder and two level twenty-nine Soul Grandmasters. How are they supposed to fight two against three?"
Hearing the cries from the stands, Dai Mubai froze for a moment on the platform. Then his face flooded with rage at being so utterly disregarded.
He jerked his head up to look at Chu Yuan in the second-level box, then turned his gaze back and glared at Zhu Zhuqing, shouting viciously:
"Fine! Just fine! That pretty boy doesn't even have the guts to step onto the platform, so he sent you out to die instead! Zhu Zhuqing, you think this purple-haired woman can keep you safe? Once Tang San and Xiao Wu hold her off, I'll break your limbs myself, drag you back, and lock you up!"
Faced with Dai Mubai's frenzied barking, Keqing could not even be bothered to look at him. She merely turned her head slightly and spoke calmly to Zhu Zhuqing beside her:
"My lord ordered that noisy white cat to be left for you to deal with personally. I'll take care of the other two."
"Thank you, Lady Keqing."
Zhu Zhuqing answered respectfully, then stepped forward. Her dark-purple, lightning-lit eyes met Dai Mubai's, and her cool voice was utterly steady.
"There's no need for my lord or Lady Keqing to lift a hand against trash like you, who can do nothing but run his mouth. I'm enough on my own."
"You're courting death!!"
Dai Mubai was utterly enraged.
As he remembered it, the Hell Spirit Cat of the Star Luo Zhu Family had always been a step beneath the White Tiger Martial Soul. Besides, how old was Zhu Zhuqing? She was a level twenty-seven or twenty-eight Soul Grandmaster at most, yet she dared boast that she could deal with him, a level thirty-seven Battle Soul Elder, on her own?!
Purple light flashed in Tang San's eyes. He quickly lowered his voice and urged:
"Brother Dai, end this quickly! Use White Tiger Fierce Light Wave and White Tiger Vajra Transformation to take Zhu Zhuqing down first. Xiao Wu and I will do everything we can to hold that purple-haired woman back. We can't let her help!"
Tang San had calculated everything carefully.
Three days ago on the long street, Keqing had driven Zhao Wuji back with one sword strike while he was off guard. But after calmly reviewing the encounter over the past three days, Tang San had concluded that it must have been some secret method or special Soul Tool that consumed an enormous amount of power.
On this broad fighting platform, all he had to do was use Blue Silver Grass's Entanglement and Parasite together with the Tang Sect Hidden Weapons to seal off Keqing's movements. Once Dai Mubai finished off the level-twenty-something Zhu Zhuqing in an instant and joined them to surround Keqing, victory would be theirs for certain!
"Soul Fight-begin!!"
At the host's command from midair, Dai Mubai stomped down, shattering the bluestone beneath his feet, and let out a deafening tiger roar.
"White Tiger Possession!!"
Roar-!
Violent white Soul Power surged into the sky. The bones throughout Dai Mubai's body cracked, his muscles swelled, and a distinct "king" marking appeared on his forehead. His hands transformed into razor-sharp, twelve-foot tiger claws, and three Soul Rings, two yellow and one purple, abruptly rose from beneath his feet!
Not only that, but to utterly destroy Zhu Zhuqing's pride at their very first exchange, Dai Mubai immediately lit up the purple thousand-year Third Soul Ring beneath him!
"Third Soul Skill, White Tiger Vajra Transformation! First Soul Skill, White Tiger Protection Barrier!"
Golden and white light instantly enveloped Dai Mubai's body, and his attack, defense, and strength doubled in an instant!
Grinning viciously, he locked onto Zhu Zhuqing a hundred feet away and pushed off hard, charging like an out-of-control heavy war chariot. His claws tore through the air with a piercing whistle as he reached straight for her shoulders.
"Get on your knees!!"
Many spectators in the stands cried out in alarm, as if they could already see the tragic sight of the girl in black having her clothes torn apart by a single claw and suffering a crushing defeat with grievous injuries.