Huo Yuhao, You'll Regret This

On the way to the Soul Duel Zone, Huo Yuhao handed the grilled fish he had saved earlier to Xiao Xiao and Wang Dong.

Although the grilled fish had gone cold after sitting for a while because of Xu Sanshi's interruption, it was still exceptionally delicious, drawing repeated praise from the two girls.

Naturally, this made the look Xu Sanshi gave Huo Yuhao even more hostile.

Before long, they arrived at the Soul Duel Zone. Thanks to the publicity spread by gossipmongers, even more students learned that Xu Sanshi would be fighting two freshmen.

Xu Sanshi was a regular at the Soul Duel Zone, so the students naturally knew he was a fifth-year student.

As a result, quite a few students became deeply interested in Xu Sanshi and the group led by Huo Yuhao, who would be facing him.

The Soul Duel Zone was hexagonal in shape, with rows of seats rising step by step around it. It could accommodate no small number of people.

By then, one or two hundred people were already seated around the edge of the arena.

Half of the admission fees charged by the Soul Duel Zone went to the victor of the match. This was also one of the methods used to encourage students to make a name for themselves here.

For a cross-year battle like the one between Xu Sanshi and Huo Yuhao's group, if Xu Sanshi, the upper-year student, lost, he would also have to pay Huo Yuhao's group an additional ten Gold Soul Coins.

At that moment, Xu Sanshi had already stepped into the Soul Duel Arena.

A teacher around forty years old entered alongside him.

On the other side of the Soul Duel Arena stood Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong.

The referee walked to the center of the arena and said in a deep voice, "Freshmen Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong are jointly challenging fifth-year student Xu Sanshi."

"If Xu Sanshi loses, he must additionally pay ten Gold Soul Coins. Both sides have privately agreed upon the stakes for victory and defeat. Are you ready?"

Huo Yuhao and Xu Sanshi both nodded to the referee.

After receiving their signal, the referee announced the start of the match and quickly retreated.

Wang Dong and Xu Sanshi released their martial souls at the same time.

When Wang Dong's incomparably magnificent Light Goddess Butterfly martial soul appeared in the Soul Duel Arena, the students who had never seen her martial soul before were instantly dazzled.

Even Xu Sanshi, who had already seen it once, could not help but feel shocked.

As for Huo Yuhao, standing not far behind Wang Dong, everyone naturally ignored him.

Not only because Wang Dong's martial soul was too dazzling and easily drew attention, but also because Huo Yuhao truly had nothing about him that could attract anyone's notice.

Flecks of golden light shimmered in Huo Yuhao's eyes as he shared Spiritual Detection Sharing with Wang Dong.

Only after the crowd recovered from their shock at Wang Dong did they notice Huo Yuhao's gleaming white Soul Ring.

"A white Soul Ring? No way. How did he get in here?"

The crowd began whispering among themselves, all of them greatly astonished.

If Wang Dong's martial soul had left them shocked, then Huo Yuhao's white Soul Ring left them utterly bewildered.

Xu Sanshi threw back his head and laughed. "Hahaha, your name is Huo Yuhao, right? A Soul Master with a white Soul Ring—where did you get the courage to provoke me?"

"If you admit defeat and kowtow to apologize now, I can still spare you this once. Otherwise..."

Huo Yuhao said flatly, "If this Old Turtle wants to make a move, then hurry up. Don't claim I never gave you a chance after you lose."

Xu Sanshi immediately flew into a rage. "Good, good, I'll remember you! Huo Yuhao, you'll regret this!"

As he spoke, Xu Sanshi's body began to swell, and the massive Darkwater Tortoise Shell Shield appeared in his right hand once more.

Wang Dong stared intently at Xu Sanshi. She felt as though she had gained another field of vision. Huo Yuhao's Spiritual Detection Sharing was like a heavenly eye, encompassing almost the entire arena.

Yet this perspective did not affect her own eyesight or vision in the slightest. It was truly wondrous.

In this state, Huo Yuhao was like an extra external brain for her, automatically processing the information around them and highlighting what mattered most.

At that moment, Wang Dong felt several times stronger than she was on her own!

Though it was merely an illusion born from suddenly gaining new power, it still proved just how much Huo Yuhao's support helped her.

In truth, Huo Yuhao's first Soul Ring came from the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm. Though it appeared merely gleaming white and looked very much like an ordinary Ten-Year Soul Ring, its true power had already reached the level of a six-hundred-year Soul Ring.

The Soul Ring the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm had bestowed upon Huo Yuhao was different from those of ordinary soul beasts and even Fierce Beasts.

Unlike their brief clash outside the city gates earlier, Xu Sanshi now looked exceptionally powerful. He was clearly taking this seriously.

During their previous exchange, Xu Sanshi had merely summoned his martial soul without using any soul skills. Wang Dong had only managed to break through his defenses because of that.

Xu Sanshi also did not know that Wang Dong had been able to break through his defenses and injure him because of Huo Yuhao.

Thus, in Xu Sanshi's eyes, Wang Dong was still the one he regarded more highly, rather than Huo Yuhao, who possessed only a "Ten-Year Soul Ring."

"Second soul skill, Darkwater Shield Array."

Xu Sanshi slowly shifted his stance. The Darkwater Tortoise Shell Shield in his right hand suddenly split apart, turning into several smaller tortoise shell shields that surrounded his body.

Front, back, left, right—small shields protected him from every direction, making him look rather like a humanoid turtle.

Wang Dong clearly recalled Huo Yuhao constantly calling him "Old Turtle." Seeing Xu Sanshi like this, she could not help but burst out laughing.

"You're courting death! Are you sick or something?!" Wang Dong's attitude enraged Xu Sanshi so deeply that fury surged straight to his head.

The Darkwater Shield Array specialized mainly in defense, but Xu Sanshi himself was no weakling either.

Relying on the defensive power of the Darkwater Shield Array, Xu Sanshi was confident that as long as Wang Dong could not break through the Darkwater Shield's defense, he would remain undefeated.

Wang Dong did not answer him. Her purple second Soul Ring lit up.

Only then, without the distraction of her gorgeous martial soul's appearance, did the spectators realize that Wang Dong's second Soul Ring was actually purple.

Even as students of Shrek Academy, they had scarcely ever seen a Soul Master whose second Soul Ring was a Thousand-Year Soul Ring.

This undoubtedly added a trace of suspense to a match they had originally thought would hold no surprises.

Second soul skill, Light of the Butterfly God.

The golden patterns across Wang Dong's butterfly wings erupted with intense radiance, like tiny suns, firing out clusters of golden light.

Not only was her martial soul dazzling, but her soul skill was equally dazzling. In the eyes of the spectators, Wang Dong had now become synonymous with brilliance.

Most of those small golden light clusters flew directly toward Xu Sanshi, while a smaller portion seemed to have eyes of their own, shooting toward weak points in Xu Sanshi's defense from extremely tricky angles.

Note [1]: Xu Sanshi's second soul skill did not originally have this effect. It was a rather stupid shield buff, so I altered it.