Refused Too Well!

"You didn't win!"

Yan's voice was squeezed out from the depths of his throat, filled with suppressed rage.

He lowered his head, staring intently at the scabbed-over, thin mark on his right fist. The wound was shallow, and under the Flame Lord's powerful self-healing ability, it was now just a faint pink line.

But he knew it had been pierced.

"I haven't lost yet either!" He suddenly raised his head, his dark red eyes burning with an unyielding flame as he glared at Chen Li. "I was just careless just now! Let's go again, and I definitely won't let you succeed!"

His breathing was rapid, his chest heaving violently.

Losing to a brat five years younger, six levels lower in Soul Power, and with one less Soul Ring? How could he accept that?

"Yan." Xie Yue stepped forward two paces, standing between Yan and Chen Li.

His voice was calm, even carrying a hint of coldness, yet it was like a basin of ice water, dousing Yan's anger without mercy. "You were careless. Therefore, you lost."

Yan's breathing hitched.

"I..." He wanted to retort, but found himself unable to muster any reason that could stand up.

Indeed, he hadn't gone all out from the start. He had underestimated his opponent; he had looked down on Chen Li... but...

"I definitely won't lose if we go again!" His voice lacked its previous confidence, sounding more like stubborn defiance.

Xie Yue glanced at him. The gaze wasn't heavy, but it felt like a mountain.

"That's not important. Not being able to face your own defeat is your biggest failure today," he said plainly, as if stating a fact. "If you had treated Chen Li as an opponent of equal standing from the beginning, the outcome might have been different. But you made another choice."

He didn't elaborate, but the meaning was clear enough.

You lost, not because you were weaker, but because you didn't even consider your opponent.

Losing this way was more humiliating than being defeated fair and square.

Yan clenched his fists, his knuckles turning white. He didn't speak again, nor did he look at anyone else. He just gritted his teeth, the muscles in his face twitching slightly.

"Hmph!"

Finally, he forced out a very soft snort from his throat and turned his head away. He neither admitted defeat nor offered further defense.

Xie Yue didn't look at him again.

He turned around to face Chen Li, a rare, faint hint of approval appearing on his stern face. He extended his hand.

"Welcome to our team, officially."

His voice was still calm, but every word was clear and powerful.

"The future of the Martial Soul Hall will have a place for us. I hope you will be here too."

Chen Li looked at the slender, pale hand before him.

He knew what this meant.

Before this, although he had been included in the Core Disciple circle and was nominally on the same team, it was merely an administrative arrangement by the Martial Soul Hall.

Xie Yue, Hu Liena, and Yan were true comrades who had fought side-by-side through countless battles. Their approval was never given lightly.

And now, Xie Yue had extended his hand.

Chen Li did not hesitate. He grasped it.

"We will."

His reply was brief, but his eyes were equally clear.

Their hands clasped, then parted instantly.

Xie Yue nodded slightly and said nothing more. But the way he looked at Chen Li was different from before.

Hu Liena watched the scene from the side, a faint smile flashing in her eyes.

She took a step forward, her posture graceful, her voice carrying a hint of lazy interest.

"Chen Li, I'm almost at the point of breaking through level thirty." She paused, her seductive, fox-like eyes looking at him with a half-smile. "It just so happens that we can go out for some training together, and perhaps get a Soul Ring together. We can look out for each other."

Her tone made it sound like a casual, spontaneous invitation.

Chen Li looked at her.

Of course, he knew this wasn't spontaneous.

Training together sounded like a normal proposal from a companion, but in the context of the Martial Soul Hall's Core Disciples, it often implied a deeper level of connection.

Fighting side-by-side, entrusting their backs to each other, facing life and death together – this was a bond stronger than any words.

As the Saintess of the Martial Soul Hall and Bibi Dong's only direct disciple, Hu Liena didn't need to win anyone over in this manner.

Unless she felt someone was worth it.

"You're going too?" Chen Li didn't respond immediately, instead asking a question.

"What?" Hu Liena tilted her head slightly, the smile on her lips undiminished. "Not welcome?"

Her tone was light, even teasing. But her eyes were quietly observing every subtle change in Chen Li's expression.

Yan, standing nearby, was completely beside himself.

He had just been wallowing in the humiliation of losing to Chen Li, but now it was as if someone had doused him with a bucket of hot oil. Anxiety, unease, and even a sliver of panic surged through him simultaneously. His gaze was fixed intently on Hu Liena's face, a face he had pursued for two years, a face that had never shown him such an expression before.

And now, she was looking at Chen Li with that kind of gaze.

"I don't plan on going with anyone else."

Chen Li's voice was calm and direct, without the slightest hesitation.

Hu Liena's smile faltered slightly.

"Since it's a trial, I want to try it myself," Chen Li didn't avoid her gaze, his tone sincere. "Facing Soul Beasts alone, making decisions alone, bearing the consequences alone. Growth under these circumstances is different from when you're with someone else."

He didn't say he didn't welcome her, nor did he say he didn't need her. He was simply stating a fact.

He had to go alone.

It wasn't because he looked down on Hu Liena, nor was it due to some inexplicable pride.

It was because he carried a secret that could not be discovered by anyone: the Gulp Gulp Fruit, mountains of Soul Rings piled up in his system space, and that first purple Soul Ring he had forged with his own hands, which was still slowly evolving.

He needed to hunt Soul Beasts in large numbers.

He needed to try, fail, refine, and try again repeatedly.

These processes were something no one could share with him, nor could anyone be present.

Therefore, he had to go alone.

"I see..." Hu Liena fell silent for a moment.

The lazy smile on her face receded slightly, replaced by a calmness that was hard to decipher.

Her gaze fell on Chen Li's face, lingering for several breaths, as if confirming something, or perhaps just simply observing.

"...You actually refused."

Her tone revealed no hint of emotion, flat and plain, as if stating a fact.

But deep within her alluring fox-like eyes, a faint, almost indiscernible emotion flickered, one that even she couldn't fully identify. It wasn't anger, nor was it embarrassment, but a kind of surprised scrutiny.

This was the first time she had actively extended an olive branch to a peer, and she had been rejected.

This feeling... was novel.

Meanwhile, Yan, standing beside them, experienced an extremely complex emotional rollercoaster at that moment.

First came panic, then bewilderment, followed by disbelief, and finally, when the fact that Chen Li had rejected Hu Liena settled in completely, an irrepressible surge of ecstasy washed over him.

Good that he refused!

It was too good that he refused!