In Heaven Dou City, sunlight filtered through the lush leaves, scattering golden flecks across the broad, smooth flagstone street.
Gu Qing sat alone in a quiet courtyard, holding a cup of tea that still sent wisps of steam curling into the air.
A brisk set of footsteps came from outside, quickly breaking the rare stillness.
Dugu Yan wore a neat, dark purple outfit. Her long, straight legs carried her quickly through the gate.
After the detoxification treatment at the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well, Dugu Yan's skin had become even fairer and more luminous. Her long, purplish-gray hair, which had once looked somewhat unhealthy, had also regained its natural, healthy sheen.
"Gu Qing, are you free today?"
Dugu Yan stopped beside the stone table, braced her arms on it, and leaned forward to ask in a lowered voice.
Gu Qing gently blew the tea leaves floating at the rim of his cup, then took an unhurried sip of the fine Yuqian Longjing Tea.
"I don't have anything important to do these days. What is it? Has something happened with your grandfather again?"
Hearing his easygoing reply, Dugu Yan hurriedly waved her hands and explained.
"Grandpa is doing just fine. I have a small favor to ask you."
Dugu Yan pulled out the stone stool beside her and sat down, her eyes full of anticipation.
"Our Heaven Dou Royal Academy team has been doing intensive closed-door training lately, but we've hit a few tactical bottlenecks."
"I was thinking that you're so strong and so experienced. Could I trouble you to come to our academy and give the team a little guidance?"
After saying this, Dugu Yan felt a little uncertain. She was afraid that Gu Qing might resent being bothered with such a time-wasting little task.
Gu Qing set down his teacup and let his gaze linger for a moment on Dugu Yan's hopeful face.
"I happen to have some free time. It might be nice to get out for a walk. Lead the way."
Gu Qing stood up and casually straightened his slightly wrinkled sleeve, making no attempt to put on airs.
Dugu Yan was overjoyed that Gu Qing had agreed so readily. She quickly got up and led the way.
Heaven Dou Royal Academy was built against the mountains and beside the water. Its picturesque campus was full of aristocratic students dressed in fine clothes.
Gu Qing and Dugu Yan walked side by side down a wide, tree-lined avenue. Their familiar, easy conversation soon drew the attention of the students around them.
As one of the academy's most famous figures, Dugu Yan rarely got so close to men outside the few familiar faces on her team.
Now, seeing the usually aloof and proud Dugu Yan chatting and laughing with a young man they didn't recognize, the students nearby stopped in their tracks.
Whispers quickly rippled through the crowd. All kinds of rumors spread around the academy as if they had grown wings.
"Isn't that Senior Dugu? Who's the guy beside her? He's pretty handsome."
"I've never seen him before. Is he some young master from a major clan who just transferred here?"
Hearing the unabashed gossip around them, Dugu Yan's cheeks flushed faintly, but she made no effort to put distance between herself and Gu Qing.
Just as the two were about to reach the team's private Mimicry Training Ground, a soft, melodious female voice suddenly came from the side.
"Yanzi, you're late today."
Ye Lingling wore an elegant, pale dress and a thin black veil over her face. She emerged gracefully from behind a cluster of flowering shrubs.
As soon as she appeared, Ye Lingling's gaze passed right over Dugu Yan and fixed on Gu Qing.
Surprise flashed through her pretty eyes above the veil. Ye Lingling then hurried over to Dugu Yan and linked arms with her best friend.
"You, Dugu Yan! How could you keep something this big from me?"
Ye Lingling leaned close to Dugu Yan's ear and began whispering, her voice low enough for only the two of them to hear.
"Come clean. Where did you pick up such a handsome guy? And you even dared to bring him to the academy to show him off?"
Faced with Ye Lingling's rapid-fire questions, Dugu Yan flusteredly covered her best friend's mouth.
"Lingling, don't make things up. This is Gu Qing, the man who saved my life and Grandpa's. I specifically invited him here today to guide our team."
Dugu Yan quickly gave Ye Lingling a brief introduction to Gu Qing, afraid that her friend's careless joking might offend him.
When Ye Lingling heard the words "the man who saved your life," curiosity and interest filled her gaze as she looked at Gu Qing.
Before Ye Lingling could ask anything else, an angry voice suddenly rang out from the training ground entrance.
"Yanzi, who is he?"
Yu Tianheng strode out through the gate, his handsome face dark with anger.
As the direct heir of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, Yu Tianheng had always considered Dugu Yan his woman, even though she usually kept him at arm's length.
When he heard all the gossip flying around the training ground just now, jealousy had already turned his stomach into a churned-up vat of vinegar.
Now that he'd seen Dugu Yan standing beside a strange man with his own eyes, Yu Tianheng felt an inexplicable blaze of anger shoot straight to his head.
He walked right up to the three of them, his aggressive gaze fixed on Gu Qing's calm, composed face.
"This is Heaven Dou Royal Academy. Outsiders aren't allowed in. Yanzi, have you forgotten the academy's rules?"
Yu Tianheng deliberately raised his voice, trying to use his condescending attitude to overpower this unknown rival.
Dugu Yan's brows drew together at once. She stepped forward and moved in front of Gu Qing.
"Yu Tianheng, quit making a scene. Gu Qing is my invited guest. You have no right to interfere."
Dugu Yan's blunt retort only added fuel to the fire, igniting the fuse of Yu Tianheng's patience.
He clenched his fists, his knuckles crackling. Blue sparks began to flicker across his skin.
"Your guest? I say he's nothing but a fraud who doesn't know his place."
Yu Tianheng raised his right hand and pointed at Gu Qing's nose, his voice full of scorn and provocation.
"Kid, if you're a man, don't hide behind a woman. I, Yu Tianheng, challenge you to a duel!"
Hearing such an outrageous declaration, Dugu Yan felt her heart skip a beat. A cold sweat even broke out across her forehead.
Others might not know Gu Qing's background, but Dugu Yan had witnessed his unfathomable methods at the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well herself.
Dugu Yan hurriedly turned around and grabbed Yu Tianheng by the arm, trying to stop this utterly one-sided tragedy before it began.
"Yu Tianheng, stop messing around. Take back what you just said. Don't provoke Gu Qing!"
Dugu Yan's voice trembled with desperation as she earnestly tried to talk sense into the team captain, who had been blinded by jealousy.
"Gu Qing's strength is far beyond anything you can handle. If you fight him, you'll be the one who suffers."
But her heartfelt warning landed in Yu Tianheng's ears like a knife stabbing into the deepest part of his pride.
Rather than calm him down, it only made him feel utterly humiliated in front of everyone.
The woman he loved had just belittled him without mercy in front of the whole crowd, elevating another man he'd never met. How could the proud Yu Tianheng possibly swallow that insult?
Yu Tianheng suddenly flung Dugu Yan's hand away. Fury was about to burst from his eyes.
"I, Yu Tianheng, am the pride of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan. How could I possibly lose to some pretty boy?"
He turned to glare at Gu Qing and ground out his threat.
"I will fight him today, no matter what! Nobody's stopping me. I'll see just how much he can really do!"
Watching Yu Tianheng stubbornly refuse to back down until he hit a wall, Dugu Yan gave up. All she could do was cast a pleading glance at Gu Qing behind her.
Gu Qing remained as calm as an ancient well, as if everything happening before him were nothing more than a tedious farce.
He sighed, clasped his hands behind his back, and slowly stepped out from behind Dugu Yan.
"Since you're so eager to get beaten up, I'll do you the favor of accepting your challenge."
His tone was utterly flat, as if he were agreeing to some trivial little task.
His nonchalant attitude struck another deep blow to Yu Tianheng's sensitive, fragile pride.
The students watching the spectacle seemed to reach an unspoken agreement. They quickly backed away, clearing a broad patch of open ground for the duel.
Yu Tianheng drew a deep breath. His bones began to crack and pop.
Violent blue lightning gathered around his right arm. A thick dragon arm burst through his sleeve, radiating destructive thunder.
"If you lose today, stay away from Yanzi from now on."
Yu Tianheng lifted his chin confidently and released the full pressure of his Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Martial Soul.
Gu Qing paid no attention to the pointless pre-fight threats. He simply raised his right hand.
A mass of emerald light brimming with boundless vitality bloomed silently in his palm, filling the surrounding air with the breath of life.
Translucent strands of Life-Type Blue Silver Grass, traced with golden patterns, spread swiftly from Gu Qing's fingertips like serpents bursting from the earth.
Seeing that Gu Qing had summoned the continent's famously useless Blue Silver Grass, the students watching burst into whispers.
Yu Tianheng let out a cold laugh. He felt that his caution just moments ago had been a huge joke.
"A mere blade of grass dares show off before the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon? Get down!"
With a roar, Yu Tianheng kicked off the ground and charged at Gu Qing like a blue shooting star.
His dragon claw, crackling with terrifying lightning, cut a dazzling blue streak through the air as it smashed toward Gu Qing's chest.
Faced with this thunderous attack, Gu Qing didn't so much as shift his feet.
He casually swept his right hand downward, and the Life-Type Blue Silver Grass coiling in midair instantly became a storm of green afterimages.
Thick Blue Silver Grass vines ignored the raging lightning completely. Like unbreakable steel whips, they lashed hard across Yu Tianheng's dragon arm.
A dull thud rang out, and Yu Tianheng's charging body stopped dead in midair.
The Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon's mighty strength, the very thing he took such pride in, had no more effect on this seemingly delicate Blue Silver Grass than a mud cow disappearing into the sea.
Before Yu Tianheng could recover from the jarring contrast, a dozen strands of Blue Silver Grass had precisely wrapped around his limbs.
Gu Qing clenched his fingers. The vines binding Yu Tianheng surged with force, flinging him bodily into the air.
Then the Blue Silver Grass traced a great semicircle through the air and smashed Yu Tianheng hard into the solid flagstones.
"Bang!"
The heavy impact made everyone's heart clench.
Yu Tianheng felt his insides churning. The protective lightning he had been so proud of had already been forcibly dispelled by the life force clinging to the Blue Silver Grass.
But this was only the beginning. Gu Qing had no intention of easily letting this man, who had provoked him again and again, off the hook.
Emerald vines rained down like a violent storm. Each lash precisely avoided vital spots, yet brought Yu Tianheng the most excruciating pain.
The number-one prodigy of Heaven Dou Royal Academy, the hope of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, was now like a helpless punching bag, getting thrashed until he was covered in dirt.
The entire duel, from start to finish, didn't even last half an incense stick's time.
With one final sweep of Gu Qing's right hand, Yu Tianheng was hurled like a torn sack onto the open ground more than ten meters away, too weak to get back up.
The entire place fell deathly silent. Every student stood there with their mouth hanging open.
Even Ye Lingling covered her mouth in shock, unable to believe what she was seeing.
A common blade of Blue Silver Grass had just utterly crushed the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon, hailed as the greatest Beast Martial Soul under heaven.
Only now did these usually lofty, heaven-blessed prodigies truly witness Gu Qing's downright terrifying power.
Gu Qing dispelled the Blue Silver Grass in his hand and casually brushed nonexistent dust from his clothes, as if he'd just finished a simple warm-up.
Dugu Yan looked at Yu Tianheng lying on the ground, his face swollen and bruised. She felt a little sorry for him, but mostly she was shaken by what might have happened.
If Gu Qing had truly meant to kill him just now, Yu Tianheng would probably be a corpse by now.
Ignoring Yu Tianheng's groans on the ground, Gu Qing turned toward the team members, who were still completely stunned.
"Since I agreed to come and guide you, I can't leave without doing anything."
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