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The back hill of Blue Tyrant Academy, once a quiet sea of flowers, was now a scene of utter devastation.

At the bottom of a huge crater, Liu Erlong lay sprawled in the dirt, disheveled. Her once-neat blue dress was in tatters, exposing swathes of snow-white skin. Blood stained the corner of her mouth, and her hair was a mess.

She always wore clothes suited for battle.

Her tight black leather outfit traced the startling contours of her figure—broad shoulders that could weather any storm, paired with a surprisingly slender, supple waist. Years of intense combat and Soul Power training had forged her into a perfectly proportioned, powerfully built woman. The muscles in her arms and thighs were sleek and taut—not soft like those of a sheltered young lady, but lean and coiled like a leopard ready to pounce.

Dark red dragon-scale patterns adorned the armor at her collar and cuffs. She had forged it herself, and it was an extension of her Martial Soul. Whenever her Soul Power surged, the scales grew warm and glimmered with a dark, lava-like light. A broad leather belt cinched her waist, holding a flask and a short dagger—the marks of her twenty years spent wandering. She drank to drown her sorrows and wielded the blade to cut through every obstacle.

Her skin was a healthy wheat-brown, and faint scars marked her exposed wrists and neck. The most conspicuous ran diagonally from her left collarbone to the upper right side of her chest. Its color had faded to a soft pink, but it remained a record of a brutal fight in which she had come close to death. She never hid these marks. They were her medals, proof that she was still alive.

But her heart hurt more than her body.

At that very moment, the young man named Yu Tianyu had one foot planted on the back she was so proud of, looking down at her with the gaze one might give a beast.

And the man she had yearned for over twenty years—Yu Xiaogang—was slumped more than ten meters away, terror in his eyes. He didn't even dare utter a threat.

"L-let me go!!"

Liu Erlong was still struggling, her eyes blazing with a fury that seemed ready to consume Yu Tianyu. "If you've got the guts, kill me! What kind of accomplishment is it to humiliate a woman?"

"Humiliate you?"

Yu Tianyu pressed down slightly with his foot. A crackle of grinding bones rang out.

"Liu Erlong, you've got it wrong."

"I'm saving you. Pulling you out of the swamp that is Yu Xiaogang."

Yu Tianyu ignored her struggles beneath his foot and raised his head, his gaze cutting toward Yu Xiaogang in the distance.

"Hey, you good-for-nothing."

Yu Tianyu crooked a finger. "Your woman's under my foot right now. If you dare charge over and throw one punch at me—even if I beat you to death for it—I'll respect you as a man and let her go."

"Come on."

The whole place fell silent.

Flender clenched his fists, but he didn't dare move. Another figure had descended from the sky—a green-clad Dugu Bo, arms folded, watching them coldly. The killing intent of a Titled Douluo had locked onto everyone present.

All eyes turned to the Grandmaster.

Liu Erlong struggled to lift her head. Her beautiful, bloodshot eyes held a last glimmer of hope.

Xiao Gang... You'll stand up for me, won't you? Even if we die, we can die together...

But—

One second, two seconds, ten seconds passed.

Yu Xiaogang's face had gone deathly pale, and sweat soaked his clothes. His lips trembled, and his legs shook. He looked at Yu Tianyu, who seemed like a demon god, then at the terrifying Dugu Bo.

At last, beneath Liu Erlong's despairing gaze, he lowered his head.

"Erlong... I'm sorry..."

The Grandmaster's voice shook, almost breaking into sobs. "As long as the green hills remain, there'll be wood to burn... We can't beat him... You... you just have to endure it for now..."

Those words hit harder than Yu Tianyu's kick. They crushed Liu Erlong's heart to pieces.

Endure it?

He wanted her to endure it while he watched his woman being humiliated?

Was this the Grandmaster who had proposed the Ten Core Competencies? The man she had waited for twenty years?

So he really was just a coward.

"Hahahaha!"

Yu Tianyu burst into laughter, his voice full of scorn and contempt.

"Did you hear that, Liu Erlong?"

"That's your beloved. To save his own skin, he's telling you to 'endure it for now.'"

Liu Erlong's voice was hoarse, as if she had used up every last bit of strength.

"Let them go... The academy is yours now. I'm yours, too..."

"Good."

Yu Tianyu withdrew his foot, satisfied.

He turned to Flender and the others, his gaze icy. "You heard her. To save your worthless lives, Dean Liu sold herself."

"Now take your trash and get out of my sight."

"If you have a problem with that, feel free to come back and get yourselves killed."

"Erlong!" Flender cried in anguish. "We can't leave you behind..."

"Get out!!"

Liu Erlong suddenly screamed, her tears spilling over. "Take him and go! I never want to see any of you again!!"

Flender gritted his teeth. He looked at Liu Erlong, on the verge of breaking down, then at the murderous Dugu Bo beside him.

"Go!"

He grabbed the limp Grandmaster and fled with Tang San and the others, not once looking back at the place of heartbreak.

As the Grandmaster was dragged away, he didn't even look back at Liu Erlong.

Perhaps he didn't dare. Or perhaps his instinct to flee danger had overwhelmed everything else.

After Shrek's departure,

the back hill fell silent again. The little wooden house, once so warm and inviting, now seemed especially desolate and cold.

Liu Erlong still lay on the ground, like a doll emptied of its soul.

"Get up."

Yu Tianyu's voice came from above.

Liu Erlong didn't move.

"I won't say it twice."

Yu Tianyu bent down, grabbed her messy black hair, and forced her to stand.

Showing no tenderness, he dragged her into the delicate little wooden house.

"Bang!"

The wooden door slammed shut, cutting off everything outside.

The room was filled with the faint scent of flowers, the result of Liu Erlong's careful tending. A painting she had made herself even hung on the wall. It showed the blurred silhouette of a man—there was no need to say who.

"Whoosh!"

Yu Tianyu flicked his hand, and the painting instantly crumbled to dust.

"Don't..." Liu Erlong started to protest instinctively, but when she met Yu Tianyu's eyes, burning with golden flames, the words died on her lips.

Yu Tianyu sat in the wicker chair that had belonged to Liu Erlong and crossed one leg over the other. He pointed at the floor in front of him.

"Don't push me too far..." Liu Erlong gritted her teeth, tears of humiliation filling her eyes.

"Too far?"

Yu Tianyu sneered. "When your Xiao Gang told you to 'endure it for now,' why didn't you think that was too far?"

Liu Erlong's body shuddered.

She closed her eyes, and two tears slid down her cheeks.

Thump.

Her long, shapely legs, still wrapped in torn stockings, slowly bent.

He reached out and tilted Liu Erlong's chin up.

"But Liu Erlong, ask yourself honestly."

Yu Tianyu's fingers brushed lightly across her flushed cheek, then came to rest at her collarbone.

"Do you really love Yu Xiaogang?"

"Or is it just an obsession born from not being able to have him? A sacrifice that makes you feel good about yourself?"

"You're a Fire Dragon. He's nothing but a failed mutant pig."

"How could a dragon and a pig ever fall in love?"

"Lies! That's Luo Sanpao! The Holy Dragon mutated into him!" Liu Erlong retorted stubbornly, even as she knelt.

"The Holy Dragon? Hahahaha!"

Yu Tianyu laughed as if he'd just heard the funniest joke in the world.

"Then let me show you what a real dragon is!"

Boom!

Yu Tianyu stopped suppressing the aura inside him.

Dragon God Bloodline, fully unleashed!

A dragon's majesty, originating from the ancient primordial world and supreme above all, instantly filled the little wooden house.

Behind Yu Tianyu, the faint phantom of an enormous Nine-Colored Giant Dragon appeared—the progenitor who stood above all creation.

Liu Erlong gasped. The once-clear image of Yu Xiaogang in her mind grew blurry, then finally faded away.

In its place stood the domineering, powerful young man before her, whose presence shook her soul.

"You are... my master..."

At last,

the two words slipped from her lips.

They carried shame, but also a sense of release.

Admit it, Liu Erlong. Deep down, you're drawn to the strong.

You'd loved Yu Xiaogang for twenty years, but what you really loved was the image of a "genius whose talents had gone unrecognized." When that image crumbled and a truly powerful man appeared, your body made the most honest choice.

"Good girl."

Yu Tianyu patted her cheek, made even slicker by sweat.

"From today on, Blue Tyrant Academy will be renamed Tyrant Dragon Academy."

"As for Yu Xiaogang..."

A cruel glint flashed in Yu Tianyu's eyes.

"The next time you see him, I want you to break his legs with your own hands."

"Can you do that?"

Liu Erlong lay in Yu Tianyu's arms. A flicker of struggle crossed her eyes, but it was soon replaced by hatred for the coward who had fled.

"I can..."

She answered softly, her voice edged with menace.

"That coward... He doesn't deserve me."

Heaven Dou City, slums.

Inside a cramped rented room that reeked of mildew,

"Achoo!"

Yu Xiaogang sneezed, wrapped in a ragged quilt.

"Teacher, are you all right?"

Tang San came over with a bowl of cold water, his eyes full of worry and hatred. "It's so cold here. Your health..."

"I'm fine."

In a dark corner, the master and disciple encouraged each other, dreaming of revenge in the future.

Little did they know,

the Liu Erlong they longed to "save" was now lying in a comfortable bed, enjoying the unprecedented strength and pleasure that "beast" had given her.

Heaven and hell were often separated by only a single thought.

Liu Erlong's beauty was a long-dormant volcano, a crimson blade that drew blood the moment it left its sheath. Her battle-ready outfit could not hide her fiery curves, and twenty years of yearning and resentment had settled between her brows. When her fierce Crimson Dragon Martial Soul possessed her, fury and Soul Power blazed together, making her seem like a goddess of vengeance.

Yet beneath that iron-hard exterior lay a tenderness toward Yu Xiaogang, worn almost to breaking by the passage of time. That extreme contrast between fierceness and fragility was what made her beauty so striking.