Conflict and Instant Kill

Dai Mubai launched himself forward like an arrow loosed from a bow, hurtling toward Ryotaro.

"Looks like I can only Henshin."

As he spoke, a black card appeared in Ryotaro's hand, while a mysterious Belt materialized around his waist.

Ryotaro pressed the third yellow button on the Belt, and a pleasant sound rang out around him.

Ryotaro clapped his hands, then dropped into a squat with his legs spread apart, assuming the stance of a sumo wrestler.

He then lightly swiped the card in his hand across the Belt.

"Henshin!"

A strange suit of armor appeared on Ryotaro's body. Finally, a golden battle-axe moved along the rails atop his head and transformed into something like a visor.

Ryotaro was so relaxed because he was far stronger than the current Dai Mubai.

"Before my strength—"

Ryotaro stood with his back to the charging Dai Mubai as though he did not care at all.

"Cry!"

Under the scorching sun, Dai Mubai's claws looked exceptionally sharp in the refracted sunlight, yet they also carried a trace of chill.

Just as Dai Mubai's sharp claws were about to touch Ryotaro—

Dai Mubai could already imagine his claws effortlessly tearing the other party apart.

Just as Dai Mubai began letting his imagination run wild—

Kintaros, who had his back to Dai Mubai, moved.

Kintaros was not a complete idiot. Though he craved battle and longed to fight powerful opponents, fighting and taking a beating were two entirely different things.

Although he gave others the impression of being a reckless brute who charged headfirst at anything he saw, the rougher someone appeared on the surface, the more meticulous their thoughts often were.

It was like how Zhang Fei in the new Three Kingdoms had been portrayed as Li Kui.

Kintaros turned around and threw a punch at Dai Mubai. It looked like an easy, casual swing of his fist.

But in truth, it contained Kintaros's immense strength.

"Ah!"

This time, Dai Mubai did not fly very far.

Instead, he spun two and a half times through the air before falling to the ground.

His clothes were covered in dust and riddled with holes.

Then Dai Mubai performed the classic second Rider expression: mouth open, eyes shut.

For that instant, it was as though Jobber Go and Jobber Dragon had possessed him.

With Dai Mubai wearing a mask of pain, his Martial Soul Avatar also vanished.

His body's protective mechanisms forcibly took his Martial Soul offline.

Dai Mubai could only feel tears continuously welling up in his eyes.

But at this moment, Dai Mubai could only pretend to be unconscious. Otherwise, he could not afford to lose that much face.

"Well, he fainted already? What a total loser."

As he spoke, Kintaros canceled his transformation.

At this point, Ryotaro had also regained control of his body.

"Ah, sorry. Kintaros hit too hard just now. Sorry!"

The first thing Ryotaro did after reclaiming his body was run over to Dai Mubai's side and help him up.

But Dai Mubai had never seen anything like this before, nor did he know Ryotaro could switch personalities.

So Dai Mubai could only keep pretending to be unconscious.

"This..."

The battle between the two had left Tang San beside them completely stunned.

Tang San believed that if he did not use hidden weapons, he definitely would not be able to defeat Dai Mubai.

Moreover, Tang San knew that Dai Mubai's soul power had reached Soul Elder.

That was a Soul Elder—the realm his teacher, Grandmaster, would never reach in his entire life.

And yet he had been knocked unconscious with a single punch?

For a moment, Tang San even began wondering whether his teacher, Grandmaster, had been fooling him. Why did it feel like his Innate Full Soul Power cultivated more slowly than anyone else's?

As for his Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul, what nonsense about there being no trash Martial Souls, only trash Soul Masters—Tang San's actual experience was that his Martial Soul felt more useless than anyone else's.

However, Tang San quickly shook his head, as if driving Grandmaster's mistaken ideas out of his mind.

Still, although Tang San retained some doubts about Grandmaster deep down, he probably would not, at least for now, think that Grandmaster had a path to death.

Though logically speaking, Tang San should have approached every aspect of Ryotaro with a scholarly mindset of investigation and experimentation.

But Tang San had a bad impression of Ryotaro—no, an extremely bad one—so he instinctively regarded everything about Ryotaro with a certain...

Although the other party was an excellent specimen for studying Martial Souls, Tang San was still unwilling to have even the slightest contact with Ryotaro.

So even though Ryotaro, with his level-six Innate Soul Power, now far surpassed him in both Soul Power and strength, Tang San simply did not want to think about anything related to him.

So what if Ryotaro's Soul Power was higher than his? Higher was higher. Xiao Wu was with him, after all.

Thus, just like how telling too many lies could eventually deceive oneself, Tang San gradually deceived himself deep down as well.

"No matter what earth-shattering, ghost-weeping feat Ryotaro accomplishes, I won't feel even the slightest ripple again!"

Tang San thought this to himself. Of course, that was only on the condition that the other party did not approach Xiao Wu.

Watching Ryotaro stagger away with Dai Mubai on his back to seek treatment, Tang San finally let out a sigh of relief.

"That room should belong to us now, right?"

Tang San said this as he looked at the Lobby Manager.

"Ah, y-yes, yes, yes."

The Lobby Manager had long since been scared out of his wits.

"Here, this is the lodging fee."

Tang San knew that Xiao Wu simply could not save money, so he was the one paying.

"Ah, there's no need for you to pay, sir."

The Lobby Manager said politely.

"Hm?"

Tang San was curious too. They could stay at an inn without paying? Was there really such a good deal?

"It's like this: after that tall, skinny lord took Young Master Dai away, he paid us directly."

The Lobby Manager knew that those before him were all Lord Soul Masters, so naturally he did not dare offend them.

"So he said this money would count as compensation. If there's anything left over, it can be used to cover the lodging fees for you two."

"I..."

Tang San originally wanted to declare, "I do not accept handouts!"

But after pretending not to care and feeling his wallet, then quietly doing a rough count in his heart...

Tang San decided not to say anything.

I originally wanted to refuse, but he had already paid.

"Well, Third Brother, since they've already paid, let's just stay here!"

Xiao Wu's standard was simple: as long as she did not have to pay herself, it was okay.

Faced with the chance to get something for free, Xiao Wu believed that only a fool would refuse to take advantage of it.

So Tang San could not outargue Xiao Wu and could only "reluctantly" take her into the hotel.

"Wow, look, Third Brother! So many rose petals!"

Xiao Wu threw herself onto the bed. The soft mattress made her forget herself entirely.

After all, ever since coming to the human world, she had spent six years sleeping in the old, cramped little bed of a Work-Study Student.

By the time Xiao Wu turned thirteen and began to grow taller, she felt that her pair of slender long legs might no longer even fit on that bed.

So when faced with this wide, soft bed, Xiao Wu was naturally tempted.

And no matter what, Xiao Wu was still a girl, so she naturally had no resistance to a bed covered in flower petals and immediately fell for it.

Tang San's response to this was: getting things for free really was great.