The clamor outside echoed through the dim corridor.
Qian Renxue clutched the wooden token, a trace of helplessness in her eyes.
Dazzling white light pierced through the iron bars ahead, signaling that her first match was about to begin.
The heavy iron gate slowly rose with a harsh metallic scrape.
A burly man was already standing on the Soul Fighting Arena.
He was bare-chested, his knotted muscles gleaming bronze beneath the lights.
Four striking Soul Rings pulsed up and down around his feet.
The pressure of a Battle Soul Ancestor with four Soul Rings swept across the arena without restraint.
The audience in the stands erupted into a deafening roar of cheers.
By contrast, Qian Renxue had just stepped onto the arena. She was petite, with an unremarkable face.
Only three faint Soul Rings flickered around her.
The burly man looked down at his opponent, his eyes full of contempt.
"Where'd you crawl out from, little girl? You haven't even grown your first hairs, and you dare come to the Great Soul Arena to get yourself killed?"
"You're only level thirty, and you still dare take me on? Don't go crying for your mama when I break your bones."
His coarse jeers sent the surrounding stands into uproarious laughter.
Qian Renxue didn't even look the burly man in the eye. She simply rolled her slender wrists.
Having spent years in a position of power, she was unmoved by such vulgar remarks. They couldn't stir the slightest ripple in her heart.
The moment the referee dropped his hand,
the burly man stomped, cracking the stone slabs beneath his feet, and charged like a rampaging rhino.
The gust of wind he kicked up stung people's cheeks.
Qian Renxue lightly tapped the ground and moved like a nimble falling leaf, narrowly slipping past the man's fist.
"Remember, don't use your Martial Soul too readily."
"Rely on your body's instincts to dodge. Feel out the flaws in your opponent's moves, and sharpen your combat intuition."
Gu Qing's voice traveled along a thread of Soul Power and slipped soundlessly into Qian Renxue's ear.
Qian Renxue had been about to gather Soul Power and counterattack, but her movement abruptly stopped.
Her slender fingers curled into a fist.
She forcibly suppressed the surging power of her Six-Winged Angel.
Relying only on basic Soul Skills and the pure strength of her body, she weaved in and out of the burly man's storm of attacks.
The fighters' shadows crisscrossed across the arena.
Every one of the burly man's punches packed a thousand catties of force, and when they struck the hard stone slabs, shards of stone flew everywhere.
Yet he never managed to touch even the hem of Qian Renxue's clothes.
Though it looked as if she were in constant danger, Qian Renxue was gradually finding her rhythm under the intense pressure.
As a top-tier divine Martial Soul, the Six-Winged Angel had given her physical abilities far beyond those of ordinary people.
Even without releasing her Martial Soul, the explosive power of her muscles and the resilience of her bones surpassed those of an ordinary Battle Soul Ancestor.
The seconds ticked by.
After launching a furious assault for a full fifty exchanges, the burly man began to breathe heavily.
Sweat beaded on his forehead and slid down his cheeks, and his movements inevitably began to falter.
Now!
A sharp glint flashed in Qian Renxue's clear eyes.
Instead of retreating, she surged forward, closing in on the heavy punch the burly man swung at her.
Her arms coiled around his defenses like nimble serpents.
Her clenched right fist struck with pinpoint precision at the softest spot on his abdomen.
A dull thud exploded across the arena.
The burly man's massive frame flew backward as if struck by a giant hammer, his feet lifting off the ground.
Under the astonished gazes of countless spectators, he sailed more than ten meters through the air and crashed heavily onto the ground outside the arena.
The entire venue fell silent.
No one had expected a seemingly frail level-thirty Soul Elder to cross a ten-level gap and take down a Battle Soul Ancestor.
Qian Renxue stood at the edge of the arena, panting heavily.
A lock of hair over her forehead was soaked with sweat and clung to her flushed cheek.
Though every muscle in her body ached from her strenuous dodging, her eyes shone with a brilliance she had never felt before.
The exhilaration of setting aside her identity and Soul Power, and defeating an opponent through skill and instinct alone, was something she had never experienced in the twenty years of her life.
Down in the corridor, Gu Qing leaned against a stone wall in the shadows.
He held out a bottle of water, still cool to the touch.
"Nice fight."
Gu Qing's voice was calm, but his words of approval gave Qian Renxue a strange sense of satisfaction.
"Of course."
Qian Renxue took the bottle and tipped her head back, gulping down more than half. A brilliant smile bloomed across her pale face.
Even her plain, disguised features looked especially beautiful at that moment.
Before she had even caught her breath,
Gu Qing glanced at the hourglass on the wall.
"Get ready for the next match in one minute."
The smile on Qian Renxue's face instantly froze.
She nearly spat out the water in her mouth.
"Do you think I'm made of iron?"
The young woman glared fiercely at the man before her, who remained utterly unruffled.
Her heaving chest made her displeasure plain.
She had every reason to suspect that this bastard was using special training as an excuse to settle a personal score and deliberately get back at her.
Gu Qing ignored her protests and turned toward the registration hall.
Watching his tall, lean figure walk away, Qian Renxue gritted her teeth, clenched her fist, and followed.
Over the next two hours, the arena became Qian Renxue's proving ground.
She wore down a level-forty-two Power Attack System Soul Master and kicked him off the arena before a hundred moves had passed.
A level-forty-five control-type Soul Ancestor failed to trap her slippery, loach-like figure with vines.
The relentless, high-intensity battles pushed Qian Renxue's stamina to a perilous limit.
Every muscle in her body screamed with exhaustion.
By the time her fourth opponent stepped onto the arena, the atmosphere in the venue had reached a fever pitch.
Four exceptionally solid Soul Rings pulsed around this opponent, whose Soul Power had reached level forty-seven.
Worse still, he was an Agility Attack System Battle Spirit Master renowned for his speed.
The moment the match began, the Soul Master became a string of blurry afterimages, surrounding Qian Renxue completely.
The wind tore through the air like blades, howling in from every direction.
Qian Renxue's vision blurred, and a sharp pain shot through her right shoulder.
The razor-sharp wind from his claws ripped her sleeve, spraying a string of scarlet blood droplets.
The relentless attacks clung to her like maggots in her bones. No matter how she dodged, she couldn't shake them off completely.
In just a few breaths, several wounds of varying depths had appeared on Qian Renxue's body.
Bright red blood slowly seeped from the corner of her mouth and dripped onto the stone slabs beneath her feet.
The air seemed to have been sucked out of her lungs. Her legs grew so heavy that even taking a single step felt like a struggle.
The girl stared fixedly at the afterimages darting around her, her vision beginning to blur.
"The Angel Martial Soul has extraordinary perception."
Gu Qing's steady voice reached her ear again through their Soul Power connection.
"Your eyes can deceive you, but the source of your Martial Soul cannot."
"Give up on those useless attempts to resist. Listen. Feel even the slightest changes in the air currents around you."
On the verge of collapse, Qian Renxue took a deep breath.
She stopped using brute force to try to keep pace with her opponent.
Then, right there in the middle of the Soul Fighting Arena, she slowly closed her eyes.
A gasp rose from the stands. Everyone thought this undefeated miracle had given up resisting at last.
The level-forty-seven Agility Attack System Soul Master let out a piercing laugh.
The afterimages instantly converged, and his razor-sharp claws shot straight for Qian Renxue's throat.
At that life-or-death moment,
Qian Renxue's mind settled completely.
A faint golden ripple, imperceptible to ordinary people, silently spread out from her body.
The wind changed direction.
In her closed-eyed vision, the killing intent and Soul Power fluctuations radiating from her opponent became a clearly visible trail.
Qian Renxue abruptly turned her head.
The fatal claw barely grazed the tip of her nose, severing a few strands of her falling hair.
His attack missed, and a hint of panic flashed in the Agility Attack System Soul Master's eyes.
His old strength had run its course, and his new strength had yet to gather.
In Qian Renxue's precise perception, that brief pause seemed to stretch endlessly.
She didn't hesitate for a moment. Her hand turned into a blade, and she struck with pinpoint precision at the carotid artery, where her opponent's defense was weakest.
The muffled crack of bone striking bone rang across the arena.
The level-forty-seven Battle Soul Ancestor didn't even have time to grunt. His eyes rolled back, and he fell face-first to the ground.
The cheers seemed ready to tear the roof off the Soul Fighting Arena.
The instant the referee declared her the winner, the taut string within Qian Renxue finally snapped.
All her strength drained away at once.
She slumped helplessly onto the cold stone slabs, gasping for breath as blood from her wounds stained her clothes.
Steady footsteps drew closer through the din.
Gu Qing walked onto the arena and, heedless of the crowd's stares, bent down and lifted Qian Renxue into his arms.
The sudden sensation of being lifted made Qian Renxue stiffen instinctively.
But, surprisingly, she didn't resist. She simply leaned against his broad chest.
The dim corridor shut out the noise outside.
Gu Qing carried her to a stone bench where people could rest and gently set her down.
Several Blue Silver Grass plants, vibrant green and brimming with life, appeared out of thin air.
Their tender leaves settled over Qian Renxue's open wounds.
A cool, soothing sensation seeped into her skin.
Nourished by this vitality, the searing pain faded at a visible rate.
The pallor gradually left her face, bringing back a hint of color.
Qian Renxue raised her head slightly, her gaze falling on Gu Qing as he focused on controlling his Soul Power.
The dim lamplight traced the contours of the man's strong profile.
She couldn't help feeling that this man truly possessed abilities beyond the reach of ordinary people.
Tonight's life-and-death battles against opponents of higher rank had been like a hammer, shattering the shackles of her past cultivation.
They had brought out every bit of potential hidden deep in her bones.
While Qian Renxue hid backstage to recover,
news of a level-thirty Soul Elder defeating multiple level-forty Battle Soul Ancestors in succession while disguised spread through the entire Great Soul Arena like wildfire.
The various factions secretly scrambled to find out who this monstrous newcomer was.
Meanwhile, at the main entrance of the Great Soul Arena,
a group of people in matching dark green uniforms slowly entered the spacious registration hall.
Dai Mubai, walking at the front, had a dark expression, and thick bandages were wrapped around his chest.
The people from Shrek Academy had arrived at Heaven Dou's Great Soul Arena that very night for combat training.
The moment the Shrek group stepped into the hall, the roaring din swept toward them.
Almost everyone nearby was heatedly discussing the same name.
The newcomer called "Xue" had relied on nothing more than level-thirty Soul Power to beat several long-established Battle Soul Ancestors until they couldn't fight back.
All kinds of outlandish descriptions filled the air.
Dai Mubai, at the front of the group, stopped in his tracks.
The heavy bandages wrapped around his chest tightened sharply with his rough breathing, and pain tore through his wounds.
But at that moment, he couldn't care less about how his body felt.
His sinister, heterochromatic eyes narrowed slightly, and utter astonishment showed in their depths.
A level-thirty Soul Master had won in succession against multiple level-forty Soul Ancestors.
Even he, with his top-tier White Tiger Martial Soul, had never managed to utterly overwhelm an opponent across an entire major rank like that.
Dai Mubai clenched his fists, and his knuckles cracked sharply.
"A level-thirty Soul Master defeating level-forty opponents in a row."
"This Great Soul Arena in Heaven Dou City is certainly interesting."
Wearing a tattered dark green team uniform, he was seething with Evil Fire he had nowhere to vent. He desperately needed a bloody victory to wash away the humiliation he had suffered before.
Tang San walked beside Dai Mubai, his deep gaze sweeping over the excited crowd in the hall.
He wasn't blindly marveling like everyone around him.
The Purple Demon Eye flashed briefly in his gaze, and Tang San's mind was already racing through the battles those people had just been discussing.
"Mubai, we must never underestimate our opponent."
Tang San spoke calmly, his reasoning exceptionally clear.
"The gap in Soul Power Level is a real chasm."
"The fact that our opponent has won so many consecutive matches means their strength is nowhere near as simple as it appears on the surface."
"This person either possesses some kind of extremely domineering Mutated Martial Soul, or has mastered a terrifying striking technique and combat instincts."
Tang San's words made the atmosphere among the Shrek Academy team grow a little more solemn.
At the very back of the group, a round figure was struggling to carry a large assortment of luggage.
That was Ma Hongjun.
Ever since the proud Evil Fire Phoenix bloodline within him had been completely stripped away, he had grown dispirited, like a lump of mud.
Without the support of a top-tier Martial Soul, his standing at Shrek Academy had plummeted.
The once arrogant, overbearing fatty had now been reduced to the team's errand boy, serving tea and water.
Sweat, cloudy with grime, dripped in large drops down his fat-laden cheeks.
Ma Hongjun panted heavily and instinctively raised his head, searching for an open spot where he could set down his luggage and rest for a moment.
His gaze passed through the bustling crowd and landed on a relatively dim lounge on the second floor of the hall.
The fat on his round face gave a sudden twitch.
Ma Hongjun's beady eyes instantly went wide, bulging so far they looked ready to pop out of their sockets.
The heavy bundle in his hands hit the bluestone floor with a thud, and the water bottles inside rolled everywhere.
He froze in place, as if struck by a bolt of lightning from the heavens.
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