Tang San vs. Gu Qing!

Tang San stood at the edge of the deep crater, his hands clasped behind his back.

The glow of the Purple Demon Eye flickered in his gaze as he carefully sized up the opponent before him, who was running out of strength.

The high-intensity battle had long since drained Qian Renxue's stamina.

Tang San gave a cold snort inwardly, his opinion of Qian Renxue plummeting at once.

If this lackey who charged into battle was only this capable, then that so-called young master standing below the platform couldn't be all that strong, either.

To Tang San, Gu Qing's calm and unruffled demeanor was nothing more than a bluff.

"Your strength only goes this far."

Mighty Mysterious Heaven Skill internal energy surged through Tang San's palm and traveled directly along the Blue Silver Grass.

A tremendous pulling force erupted. Tang San tried to use it to fling Qian Renxue straight off the platform.

Qian Renxue's legs were planted on the shattered stone slabs, but the force dragged her half a step forward.

Sweat trickled down Qian Renxue's chin, soaking the rough cloth at her chest.

Her ragged breathing rang clear across the quiet platform.

Just as Tang San was about to exert himself again and put an end to this farce,

a slender, fair hand suddenly reached out of the shadows and caught the taut Blue Silver Grass vine with perfect precision.

At some point, Gu Qing had stepped onto the platform and placed himself firmly in front of Qian Renxue.

Not a single Soul Ring flashed, and no earth-shattering aura erupted.

Gu Qing merely curled his fingers slightly, without even leaking the slightest trace of excess Soul Power.

"Crack."

The crisp sound of something snapping rang out abruptly through the vast Soul Fighting Arena.

The Blue Silver Grass that Tang San had prided himself on, so tough and unyielding, was crushed to pieces in Gu Qing's bare hand.

Countless blue-violet sparks burst through the air.

Tang San felt an irresistible counterforce surge back along the vine.

Pain shot through his wrist, and Tang San stumbled backward two steps despite himself.

The Purple Demon Eye shrank to pinpoints as Tang San stared at the handsome young man before him, unable to hide his shock and uncertainty.

Gu Qing casually brushed the plant fragments from his palm without even sparing Tang San a proper glance.

"The match ends here."

Gu Qing's voice was not loud, but every person present heard him clearly.

"You waited until someone else was exhausted before coming out to play the hero. What kind of skill is that?"

Gu Qing lifted his chin slightly, his gaze passing over Tang San and landing directly on the Shrek rest area on the second floor.

"Since the people from Shrek Academy are so eager to fight,"

"let's change the rules."

Gu Qing's gaze swept over the faces of Shrek's students.

"We accept a two-on-two match."

"Shrek Academy, send down anyone else you like."

At Gu Qing's words, an uproar swept through the audience of the Great Soul Arena.

A two-on-two challenge was one of the most entertaining kinds of match in the Soul Arena.

Tang San's expression darkened. He studied Gu Qing from every angle, trying to see through him.

By the second-floor railing, a flash of pink could no longer contain her fury.

"Third Brother, let me help you teach them a lesson!"

Xiao Wu cried out and leaped down from the second floor like a nimble pink butterfly.

Her long scorpion braid swept through the air in a graceful arc.

Xiao Wu landed steadily beside Tang San, her pink eyes fixed on Gu Qing with open hostility.

After seeing Dai Mubai beaten into such a sorry state, Xiao Wu had wanted to step in for a long time. The Shrek Seven Devils stood together as one.

Behind Gu Qing, Qian Renxue clasped her reddened wrist.

Her chest heaved as she drew in great lungfuls of air.

The Millennium Banyan Bark inside her had been frantically suppressing the aura of her Angel Martial Soul, leaving her with a powerful sense of emptiness.

Qian Renxue gritted her teeth and forced her aching legs to take half a step forward, standing shoulder to shoulder with Gu Qing.

"Don't mind me."

Qian Renxue's voice was stubborn, yet weak.

"I'm completely exhausted. I can't even fully summon my Martial Soul."

"If I force myself into a two-on-two match, I'll only hold you back."

As the Young Master of Spirit Hall, Qian Renxue's pride would not allow her to become someone else's burden.

Rather than become a weak point on the platform, Qian Renxue would rather let Gu Qing face them alone.

Gu Qing turned his head and looked at the girl beside him. Her face was disguised, but her eyes remained stubborn.

Gu Qing raised his right hand and gently ruffled Qian Renxue's slightly disheveled hair.

Beneath the coarse disguise powder, her hair still felt soft.

"Stay by my side and relax."

Gu Qing kept his gaze straight ahead, his tone firm with certainty.

"I told you I'd make sure we won."

Qian Renxue froze for a moment, a complicated glimmer passing through her eyes.

That warm hand seemed to bring her a curious sense of reassurance, calming the restless blood and energy within her.

Qian Renxue did not argue again. She simply lowered her stance and silently entrusted her back to Gu Qing.

Across from them, Tang San and Xiao Wu exchanged a glance.

Years of understanding allowed them to settle on a strategy in an instant.

Tang San confidently believed that even if Gu Qing was strong, there was no way he could withstand both of them attacking at once.

Especially with Qian Renxue, who had completely lost her ability to fight, to protect.

"Big talk."

Tang San sneered as Mysterious Heaven Skill internal energy raced through his meridians.

"Xiao Wu, go!"

Xiao Wu struck the ground hard with her toe, and her Hundred-Year Soul Ring lit up beneath her feet.

"First Soul Skill, Waist Bow!"

Xiao Wu's speed instantly reached its peak. She became a pink blur and darted straight toward Gu Qing.

Her goal was clear: use her close-combat advantage in soft techniques to forcefully break through Gu Qing's defenses.

At the same time, Tang San slammed both hands against the ground.

"First Soul Skill, Entangle!"

Dozens of thick Blue Silver Grass vines shot along the edge of the platform, closing in on Gu Qing and Qian Renxue from every direction.

Their venomous thorns glimmered with a cold blue light, sealing off every possible escape route.

The Shrek duo's teamwork was flawless. They gave their opponents no room to catch their breath.

Faced with the fierce pincer attack, Gu Qing did not move a step.

Gu Qing slowly raised both hands, turning his palms upward.

A terrifying pressure that made the heart shudder suddenly poured out of Gu Qing without restraint.

It was as though the air throughout the Great Soul Arena froze in that instant.

Brilliant emerald light burst from Gu Qing's left palm.

Vast vitality, like all things awakening in spring, filled the entire platform.

One by one, crystalline Blue Silver Grass blades wound out from his left hand, as if carved from the finest jade.

These Blue Silver Grass blades radiated a sacred, pure vitality. They held no poison, yet were terrifyingly resilient.

But the sight in Gu Qing's right palm was the complete opposite.

Black light, deep as ink, swallowed all the light around it.

Dark Blue Silver Grass, covered in dark red patterns, surged forth in a frenzy.

The aura of destruction, decay, and fury emanating from the Dark Blue Silver Grass plunged the surrounding temperature by more than ten degrees.

Life-Type Blue Silver Grass in one hand.

Dark-type Blue Silver Grass in the other.

The ultimate display of Twin Martial Souls shook the entire arena.

Xiao Wu, who had been charging at the front, watched with constricted pupils and forced herself to stop.

A shudder from the depths of her soul made Xiao Wu instinctively sense the extreme danger.

The confidence on Tang San's face crumbled in an instant.

The poisonous Blue Silver Grass vines he had taken such pride in stopped moving the moment they touched the two auras emanating from Gu Qing.

It wasn't because Tang San had stopped supplying them with Soul Power.

It was absolute suppression from the Martial Soul Origin.

Faced with the auras of these two sovereigns, life and darkness, ordinary Blue Silver Grass could only cower and tremble.

Tang San's Blue Silver Grass seemed to have encountered its natural enemy. It began to wither and retreat against his will.

The blue venomous thorns corroded by the Dark Blue Silver Grass's aura turned directly into pools of black liquid.

Meanwhile, the Life-Type Blue Silver Grass completely unraveled every trace of Tang San's Soul Power.

"W-what kind of Blue Silver Grass is this?"

Tang San drew in a sharp breath, his hands clenching.

All the experience he had gained over two lifetimes failed him in that instant. Tang San simply could not understand what he was seeing.

Feeling the boundless, ocean-deep Soul Power radiating from Gu Qing, Tang San's alarm bells rang.

He absolutely couldn't let Gu Qing take the initiative.

With his Martial Soul completely suppressed, Tang San immediately made the most decisive choice.

Tang San's hands swept rapidly across the Twenty-Four Moonlit Bridges at his waist.

The crisp clink of metal rang out jarringly above the noisy arena.

Willow Leaf Blades, Locust Stones, Bone-Piercing Nails.

Dozens of cold flashes leaped between Tang San's fingers, then poured out like flowers scattering across the sky.

Tang San pushed his Hidden Weapon techniques to their limits.

The Hidden Weapons traced incredibly strange arcs through the air, avoiding Gu Qing's frontal defenses.

Tang San's target was viciously clear.

Every Hidden Weapon curved around toward Qian Renxue behind Gu Qing.

If Gu Qing tried to save her, he would inevitably expose a weakness. That was Tang San's calculation.

Watching the cold flashes sweep toward her from all sides, Qian Renxue's exhausted body could not manage even the smallest evasive movement.

But Gu Qing reacted faster than the Hidden Weapons.

A mocking sneer curled Gu Qing's lips.

The Dark Blue Silver Grass in his right hand suddenly surged outward.

Countless black vines wove through one another in midair, instantly forming an impenetrable black shield in front of Qian Renxue.

"Clang, clang, clang!"

The dense clanging of metal blended into one continuous roar.

Tang San's pride and joy, his poison-coated Hidden Weapons, all shattered the instant they struck the Dark Blue Silver Grass.

The corrosive power of its dark attribute melted the refined-steel weapons into scrap metal.

Tang San's eyes widened, and his breath caught.

He had played every trump card, yet he couldn't even shake his opponent's defenses.

Gu Qing gave Tang San no time to think of a countermeasure.

The Life-Type Blue Silver Grass in his left hand swept out like a flood dragon awakening.

The thick jade-green vines lashed toward Xiao Wu, who had just landed, with a sonic boom that ripped through the air.

Xiao Wu desperately tried to use Instant Shift to dodge.

But Gu Qing's Soul Power pressure had already locked down all the space around Xiao Wu.

"Thud!"

A muffled impact rang out.

Xiao Wu did not even have time to scream before the Life-Type Blue Silver Grass sent her flying.

Her pink body tumbled across the ground more than a dozen times before slamming into the edge of the barrier and falling unconscious.

Tang San's eyes bulged with rage. He was about to shout out,

when Gu Qing's Dark Blue Silver Grass had already pierced through the ground.

The vines, like black giant pythons, wrapped around Tang San's legs and whipped him upward.

Tang San's body was flung into the air, leaving him off balance.

Gu Qing casually pressed his right hand downward.

Tang San, suspended in midair, seemed to have been struck by an invisible mountain.

His body dropped straight down, slamming hard beside the crater Dai Mubai had made earlier.

"Boom!"

The hard platform shattered again, sending broken stones flying in every direction.

Tang San spat out a mouthful of blood. Even the light of his Mysterious Jade Hand dimmed in an instant.

In a single exchange,

Tang San and Xiao Wu, the two people Shrek Academy relied on most, were both knocked flat by Gu Qing with overwhelming ease.

Over the next few days, the Heaven Dou Imperial Palace seemed calm on the surface, but beneath it, currents of intrigue surged.

By day, Qian Renxue had to sit upright at the redwood desk in the Crown Prince's East Palace, wearing Xue Qinghe's gentle, refined mask.

She had to fend off the open attacks and covert schemes of Prince Xue Xing's faction while also handling the endless memorials pouring in from every corner of the Heaven Dou Empire.

This ceaseless disguise and scheming kept Qian Renxue's mind taut with tension every moment.

But whenever night fell, her exhausted body would brim with an astonishing, unnatural vitality.

Qian Renxue would deftly wash the disguise powder from her face and change into a fitted black outfit without a trace of royal insignia.

Like a nimble night bird, she would silently slip through layer upon layer of corridors and climb into the secluded courtyard where Gu Qing was staying.

Gu Qing had already used a special Blue Silver Domain to seal off every trace of energy fluctuation in the courtyard.

In the center of the yard lay a piece of Millennium Banyan Bark, its ancient wood giving off a deep, rich fragrance.

Gu Qing had gone out of his way to find the bark. It could suppress the wild Holy Angel Martial Soul inside Qian Renxue to the greatest extent possible.

Gu Qing's demands were exceptionally strict. During the special training, Qian Renxue had to face every attack using nothing but her physical strength.

Moonlight poured like water over the courtyard paved with blue-gray stone.

Qian Renxue bent her knees slightly, her gaze fixed intently on Gu Qing, who sat on a stone stool.

Without the slightest warning, the flagstones beneath Qian Renxue's feet cracked with a dull snap, and she shot forward in an instant.

Her slender arm cut through the air with a shrill whistle as a powerful straight punch shot toward Gu Qing's face.

There was nothing flashy about the punch. She simply unleashed all her strength in a single instant.

Gu Qing remained seated, even now toying with a verdant leaf between his fingertips.

Only when the force of the punch was about to brush the tip of his nose did Gu Qing raise his left hand, seemingly at a leisurely pace.

His wrist turned slightly, and his palm met the side of Qian Renxue's knuckles with perfect precision.

There was no dull crash of force meeting force. Gu Qing's palm was like a soft wad of cotton, instantly dissipating the punch's fierce momentum.

Following the momentum of Qian Renxue's lunge, Gu Qing applied a little pressure with his fingers and gently drew her hand outward.

Qian Renxue felt a long, yielding force wrap around her arm, and her center of gravity immediately slipped out of control.

She stumbled forward two steps, unable to stop herself, leaving her defenses wide open.