Battle Against Xu Sanshi

"Screw you, you old fox. You definitely don't have any good intentions, so I'm not playing along with you," Qian Duoduo said irritably.

"What kind of talk is that? We've been old friends for so many years; would I ever try to cheat you?"

"Heh!" Qian Duoduo sneered. "Is there any shortage of times you've cheated me?"

"I was only doing that to safeguard the interests of the Martial Soul Department of the outer courtyard."

"To hell with your bullshit interests! Are the interests of my Soul Guidance Department not interests too? My department provides your Martial Soul Department with so much teaching funding every year, yet you—you use my department's money while belittling it as worthless. It's like throwing meat buns at a dog."

"Ahem!" Yan Shaozhe looked a bit embarrassed. "A Spirit Master is only truly powerful if they are strong themselves. Relying on those unorthodox paths is nothing, don't you think?"

"You pedantic old guy who refuses to adapt, do you really have to wait until the students of the Martial Soul Department pay a heavy price for your arrogance before you wake up?"

Yan Shaozhe said proudly, "I believe that our students at Shrek Academy can rely on their own formidable strength to deal with anything that might happen."

"After all these years, you still can't see it clearly. You really are a pedantic fellow." Qian Duoduo couldn't help but shake his head.

Taking advantage of the time they spent arguing, Xu Sanshi had already walked to one end of the Soul Fighting Zone.

"Xu Sanshi! Xu Sanshi!..."

As soon as Xu Sanshi appeared, students from the outer courtyard in the stands began to chant his name. And when Xia Linyuan walked out, the students were still chanting Xu Sanshi's name.

The referee teacher walked to the center of the arena and said in a deep voice, "First-year freshman Xia Linyuan challenges fourth-year student Xu Sanshi. If Xu Sanshi loses the match, he must pay an additional ten Gold Soul Coins. You should have already made a private agreement regarding the stakes. Are you both ready?"

Xia Linyuan and Xu Sanshi both nodded to the referee.

"The match begins." After the referee announced this, he quickly retreated.

As soon as the words fell, Xu Sanshi released his martial soul without hesitation, and a massive turtle shell shield appeared in his right hand.

After releasing his martial soul, Xu Sanshi's entire demeanor lost its restlessness and instead gained a sense of heaviness, like a mountain.

In contrast, Xia Linyuan just stood there, motionless, without even the slightest fluctuation of power on his body, as if an unremarkable ordinary person were standing there.

Seeing this, many people were secretly puzzled. The match had already started, yet Xia Linyuan wasn't making any preparations. Could it be that he was giving up before the fight even began?

Some students who didn't know how things would develop even began to secretly despise Xia Linyuan.

If you don't even dare to fight, what are you posturing for?

Xu Sanshi, holding the Mysterious Turtle Shield, was also confused, but his sharp gaze never moved a fraction from Xia Linyuan. He suspected that Xia Linyuan might be deliberately trying to make him lower his guard, causing him to be careless and reveal a flaw during the fight.

He didn't believe that he could compete in terms of strategy with Xia Linyuan, who was known for his brilliant intellect.

Xia Linyuan's strategic mind had been accumulated bit by bit in cruel wars, not just empty talk on paper. While he had some small cleverness, he certainly wouldn't measure up in front of the former.

Out of caution, Xu Sanshi took a step to the side, carefully moving toward Xia Linyuan.

When he had slowly moved to a distance of thirty meters, Xia Linyuan finally moved.

As three spirit rings—yellow, yellow, and purple—emerged from beneath his feet, the shadow connected to him on the ground became solid. A pitch-black shadow, as if tangible, began to rapidly devour everything in the Soul Fighting Zone with him at the center.

As the dark shadow covered more than half of the arena, it writhed and condensed behind him into a three-meter-tall humanoid shadow, clad in robes and armor, carrying heavy weapons.

Three rings!

This first-year freshman who had just enrolled was actually a three-ring Spirit Venerable!

The audience stands erupted in an uproar.

A Spirit Venerable—this was a level of cultivation that even most fourth and fifth-year senior students hadn't reached yet! How could they not be shocked that a freshman like Xia Linyuan already possessed cultivation comparable to senior students?

Xu Sanshi was also horrified at this moment. Xia Linyuan, who was at least three years younger than him, was not far behind him in cultivation. No wonder he had the confidence to make such a high-stakes bet with him.

However, he wouldn't be defeated so easily!

As Xia Linyuan revealed his martial soul and spirit ring configuration, everyone held their breath, not daring to make a sound, fearing they would disturb the performance of the two in the arena.

Xu Sanshi let out an angry roar. Although he was holding a shield at least two meters high, his speed was not slow at all, and he crossed dozens of meters in the blink of an eye.

Just as Xu Sanshi rushed to a distance from Xia Linyuan, he slammed his Mysterious Turtle Shield hard onto the floor. At the same time, his first hundred-year yellow spirit ring lit up.

The black halo swirling on his turtle shell shield doubled in intensity, and a powerful black shockwave spread out from the shield, covering an area of over a dozen square meters.

Mysterious Turtle Shock!

If hit by Xu Sanshi's Mysterious Turtle Shock, one would be knocked back by the impact, and those with lower cultivation than him would even be stunned while being knocked back.

This move was something even Beibei didn't dare to take head-on.

However, to Xu Sanshi's surprise, Xia Linyuan didn't even try to dodge his Mysterious Turtle Shock.

Just as he released his first spirit skill, the first yellow spirit ring beside Xia Linyuan also shone brightly.

At the same time, those august and stern golden eyes flared with evil light. As the gaze intensified, a harsh sound of metal clashing echoed through the Soul Fighting Zone without warning. Gray, metal-textured chains as thick as an adult's arm rose from the pitch-black ground beneath Xia Linyuan, stretching into infinity.

The colors of the entire world seemed to have been stripped away by these gray chains; wherever the eye could see, there was only a deathly, lifeless gray.

The moment the rising chains made contact with the soul guidance protective barrier around the arena, a point of blackness erupted from the contact site, forming a bottomless black vortex that swallowed the chains.

Immediately after, one black vortex after another appeared out of thin air in mid-air, and chain after chain shot out from them. Just as they were about to pierce the ground, another black vortex would open, and the chains would plunge straight into it.

It was as if they had fallen into an infinite loop like a Möbius strip, a cycle without end, impossible to escape.

Seeing this, alarm bells rang in Xu Sanshi's heart, and the Mysterious Turtle Shield in his hand moved closer to his body instinctively.