The Decisive Battle

The winners' group final drew a deafening crowd. Unless something unexpected happened, the champion would come from this group. The undisputed top student in the grade—who hadn't heard of the top student back in school? That meant a powerful connection. If you got the chance, you had to latch on, especially when there were so many opportunities to be had through all kinds of trials.

But the most important thing to Huo Yuhao was the prize money. He liked Soul Tools, but Soul Tools didn't care for his family's circumstances. Without money, how could some rich young lady ever take a liking to him? Even the cost of the most basic experimental materials was more than Huo Yuhao could afford right now. What was more, he already owed a great deal of money.

There was a lot of padding in his Level 20. He'd eaten plenty of highly nourishing food and taken many pills to improve his aptitude and Soul Power. Xu Sanshi had paid for all of it. Huo Yuhao didn't even dare curse Xu Sanshi now. He was his biggest creditor, after all, so he'd better be polite. It put him at a psychological disadvantage.

But things would change in the future. As long as Huo Yuhao had thick enough skin, he wouldn't care about any of this. Once you had too many lice, the itching stopped; once you owed too much, there was no point worrying. When the figure got beyond what a person could imagine, they lost their sense of judgment. Earning hundreds of millions a year seemed normal, yet in reality, they couldn't even come up with a few thousand. At its core, it was a loss of perspective.

People couldn't imagine a life they'd never seen. Once the numbers attached to a debt lost all meaning, so did the emotions tied to it.

So Huo Yuhao, still eager to settle his debts, stepped onto the competition stage. There he saw his old rival, Dai Huabin. They hadn't met earlier because the draw had separated them. Otherwise, they would've beaten each other senseless. But better late than never.

The two exchanged a look, murderous intent rising between them. They were on the competition stage now, not in a place where they could play dirty tricks behind the scenes. Since assassination hadn't worked, they would have to settle things out in the open. But neither of them had the power to kill the other yet, and the circumstances wouldn't allow it. The teacher acting as referee was also an expert far beyond their understanding.

They couldn't pull any tricks under the teachers' noses. They would have to wait until the teachers no longer had absolute control before making their move. But by then, everyone would surely know who had done it. The most important thing was to leave no evidence. No one could be certain who had caused a mental illness.

But wouldn't the culprit be obvious from public opinion at the time? The most important thing was making sure the teachers didn't think it was you. If a teacher thought you'd done it, then you had, evidence or not. But if a teacher didn't think you'd done it, then you hadn't—even if every piece of evidence pointed to you. It all depended on how much value you had.

The champion was undoubtedly valuable; everything else came down to negotiation. As long as they covered their tracks well enough, the academy wouldn't pursue the matter too seriously. Rules could always be adjusted. The academy already had its grievances with the White Tiger Family, so this would be a perfect opportunity to put them in their place. It would only be self-satisfaction, of course. Would Shrek stop just because it told the family to?

They would certainly have to distance themselves from the family. Huo Yuhao, their enemy, would be very useful then: they could point to him and say the academy had already severed its ties with the family. That would make him the main target of everyone else's hatred. But Huo Yuhao would have gotten his revenge, too. There were gains and losses in everything.

Huo Yuhao was figuring out how to accidentally kill his opponent. As for Zhu Lu, who had teamed up with Dai Huabin, she wasn't important. A speed-based Soul Master couldn't get past Spiritual Detection Sharing and Xiao Xiao's control unless her speed surpassed his ability to react. She couldn't threaten Huo Yuhao. The most direct approach was a powerful assault, smashing through their defenses head-on.

During their countless practice bouts, Xu Sanshi and Bei Bei had used that exact strategy. If you couldn't withstand a direct attack, nothing else mattered. Smash through their formation, and they were done. This had made Huo Yuhao and Xiao Xiao realize they weren't the strongest. There was a reason every role existed. A team missing a member had a weakness, and a major one at that.

Never underestimate an organized opponent. An individual and a team weren't on the same level. It was like an organized army crushing rioters. If necessary, it was a massacre. There was no other outcome. The only force that could stand against an army was another army.

The greatest respect you could show your opponent was to give it your all. That didn't mean using all your strength; it meant performing at your level. Just like the way Huo Yuhao and the others had fought their way to this point, it worked against opponents both strong and weak: Huo Yuhao controlled, while Xiao Xiao dealt damage. The downside of such a formula was obvious. It was easy to see through—or rather, it laid their intentions bare for the enemy.

But it was a calculated strategy. If you could break it, then you were beyond their level, or the situation had changed—for example, if a two-on-two match became a seven-on-seven. Then things would be different, and someone would help break up their formation. What Huo Yuhao saw now were two Soul Masters at the two-ring level. They had practically no way to beat his team's formula.

Just as Xiao Xiao's Three-Life Soul-Suppressing Cauldron was about to hit their opponents, Huo Yuhao had already prepared a Mental Attack. Unexpectedly, they both charged right into it. Huo Yuhao stared in confusion, and the spectators around them looked just as baffled. Then the pair flew straight out of the arena and were ruled out of the match.

The outcome had been a little unexpected, but the winners had already been decided. It was normal not to understand a Spirit System Soul Master's battle. If you knew every last detail, you wouldn't live long. When mental attacks hit you, you could naturally feel them yourself.

But the attacker was the one best qualified to say whether an attack had landed. Huo Yuhao and Xiao Xiao were still completely bewildered when they were announced as having advanced to the final. Dai Huabin and Zhu Lu, being treated below, looked up at their opponents onstage. They exchanged a glance and understood that they would meet again in the final. That was when they would settle things.

Huo Yuhao had a few suspicions about what their actions were based on. That ability could only be used once, after which it would be unavailable for a long time. What could it be? Could they really have come across one? For people like them to stumble upon such good fortune—it was so unfair.

And so, the prize money Huo Yuhao coveted was within reach. Even the second-place reward wasn't small, but first place offered the most. Why bother thinking about second place? They were all defeated opponents. The two of them had already become a small team, with assault, support, and control capabilities all covered.

The only one who stood a chance was that young lady from the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect. But she hadn't yet developed her full potential, and her support abilities weren't enough to handle two roles for a team.

Huo Yuhao had never dealt with this sort of ability before. Martial Soul Fusion Skills were simply too rare. Shrek had top-tier Martial Souls everywhere, but Martial Soul Fusion was still uncommon. Even with the Evil Eye White Tiger and Hell Spirit Cat, a pair proven to be ideally compatible, it was rare for a pair to be born in any given generation who could fuse their Martial Souls. And there was another very important problem.

The genders of the two parties. The two families stayed closely connected through marriage, and by now they could practically be considered one family, merely divided into two branches according to their Martial Souls. A Martial Soul Fusion Skill was just what the name suggested: a fusion of Martial Souls, not people. The human factor mattered very little.

If the pair were two men or two women, what would happen to the family line? Those capable of fusing their Martial Souls could practically be considered the designated heirs. So how would they solve this problem? In the end, they would have to secretly find some heir from who knew where to inherit the position.

This difficulty showed just how rare Martial Soul Fusion Skills were. Even among huge families with such compatible Martial Souls, there were very few. And there were even more difficult conditions. Even if you had a suitable person, how would you find them? Even if you crossed mountains and rivers and met someone who suited you, how could you tell whether the two of you were compatible? Could you possibly judge everyone?

It could only come down to luck—or something more mystical: fate.

Regardless, Huo Yuhao began studying Martial Soul Fusion Skills. Only by understanding them could he find their weaknesses and truly defeat them.