Hearing the names Shrek Academy and Soul Elder, the crowd let out a collective gasp.
Everyone could only watch helplessly as the innocent woman was humiliated, shaking their heads and sighing.
Dugu Yan stood at the edge of the crowd, her face livid with anger.
She had always despised the vile practice of throwing one's weight around to bully others.
A thick green poisonous mist had already begun to gather faintly in her palm.
"What a piece of human garbage!"
"How dare he abduct a woman in broad daylight, right here in Heaven Dou City!"
Just as Dugu Yan was about to step forward and teach the damn fatso a lesson he wouldn't forget,
a dark figure had already darted past her.
Gu Qing didn't waste a single word.
He strode forward, his figure slipping through the crowd like a ghost in an instant, and appeared directly behind Ma Hongjun.
Ma Hongjun was puckering his lips, about to kiss her.
Suddenly, he felt an incredibly terrifying force seize the back of his collar.
Gu Qing grabbed Ma Hongjun by the collar with one hand and yanked him backward as if he were tossing out garbage.
The terrified woman finally broke free and dropped onto the ground on her rear.
The sudden force sent Ma Hongjun stumbling. Before he could open his mouth to curse,
Gu Qing raised his right hand and slapped him hard.
Smack!
A crisp crack that made one's teeth ache exploded through the street.
Gu Qing hadn't used any Soul Power in that slap, but the terrifying base strength granted by his hundred-thousand-year Titan Giant Ape right arm bone was more than enough to overwhelm a level-thirty Soul Elder.
Ma Hongjun's bulky, two-hundred-plus-pound body was slapped clean off its feet.
He spun through the air like a top, completing three and a half full turns!
Thud!
Ma Hongjun crashed heavily onto the flagstones, landing flat on his face.
Several blood-streaked broken teeth flew from his mouth and rolled across the ground.
The entire crowd fell silent.
Everyone stared in terror at the young man who had suddenly stepped in.
Gu Qing didn't even bother with the fatso on the ground.
He turned to look at the commoner woman, still trembling on the ground, and spoke in a calm voice.
"Hurry and find your family."
"You're safe now."
The woman was as though granted a pardon. She scrambled to her feet.
With tears in her eyes, she bowed deeply to Gu Qing.
"Thank you for saving my life, young master! Thank you!"
Then she forced her way through the crowd and ran off in a flash, disappearing from sight.
At that moment, Ma Hongjun finally came around a little from the dizzying sensation of the world spinning around him.
Half his face had swollen into a purplish-red steamed bun, with five clear finger marks stamped across it.
His head buzzed as if hundreds of bees were swarming inside it. He could barely stand, swaying several times before managing to steady himself.
The intense pain and humiliation of being disgraced in public sent Ma Hongjun into a furious rage.
He glared at Gu Qing, his eyes practically spitting fire.
"Bastard!"
"How dare you meddle in your grandpa Ma's business? And you even hit me!"
"Do you know who I am?"
Ma Hongjun pointed at Gu Qing's nose, spittle flying from his mouth.
"I'm a monster from Shrek Academy!"
"If I don't burn you to ashes today, then I'm no Evil Fire Phoenix!"
A shrill bird cry rang out.
A violently surging, dark-red flame erupted from Ma Hongjun's body.
Scorching heat swept across the entire street in an instant.
A phoenix wreathed in Evil Fire took shape behind him.
Yellow, yellow, purple.
Three Soul Rings, the standard optimal configuration, lit up one after another beneath his feet.
The scorching wave forced the nearby pedestrians to retreat again and again, afraid the flames would catch them.
Seeing his opponent summon his Martial Soul, Gu Qing's expression remained unchanged.
He didn't even move a step.
He simply raised his left hand and spread his five fingers.
A dark-blue Blue Silver Grass vine slowly emerged from his palm.
It swayed gently in the air, looking utterly harmless.
Ma Hongjun stared at the sight, first stunned, then burst into wild laughter as he clutched his swollen cheek.
"Hahahaha!"
"I thought you were some kind of formidable expert."
"So you're just a useless wretch with the trash Martial Soul, Blue Silver Grass!"
The flames around Ma Hongjun burned even more fiercely, and he was utterly triumphant.
"My Evil Fire is the finest mutated fire-type Martial Soul on the whole continent!"
"My flames are made to counter plants."
"You dare play the hero in front of your grandpa Ma with a lousy weed like that?"
"You're finished today!"
Ma Hongjun's arrogant laughter echoed down the broad street.
His face, swollen into a pig's head, twisted with overexcitement.
Dark-red flames surged skyward from beneath his feet.
The powerful fluctuations of Soul Power sent the flags outside the nearby shops snapping in the wind.
The commoners who had retreated into the distance were so frightened that they backed away another dozen steps.
The scorching waves seemed ready to set the very air alight.
"Third Soul Skill, Phoenix Sky-Screaming Strike!"
Ma Hongjun roared as the third, purple Thousand-Year Soul Ring around him blazed with light.
With another shrill bird cry, the dark-red phoenix apparition spread its wings.
A terrifying pillar of flame, several times larger than before, crashed toward Gu Qing's position like an erupting volcano.
A sea of flames swallowed Gu Qing's upright figure in an instant.
Even the dark-blue blade of grass in his hand, which had looked so frail, disappeared in the dazzling blaze.
Ma Hongjun smugly dusted off his hands.
Flames of this intensity would certainly burn a Martial Soul user with a useless Martial Soul—and not a single Soul Ring revealed—to a cinder.
However,
as the dark-red flames gradually died down, the scene in the middle of the street made everyone gasp.
Gu Qing still stood where he was, one hand resting behind his back.
There wasn't even a scorch mark on the edge of his clothing.
What shocked everyone most was the Blue Silver Grass in his hand.
After being burned by what was supposedly a top-grade mutated fire-type Martial Soul, the blade of grass hadn't withered at all.
Instead, it looked even lusher and more vibrant, brimming with life.
The smug expression on Ma Hongjun's face froze.
His eyes bulged so far they nearly fell from their sockets.
He rubbed his little mung-bean eyes, wondering if that slap had left him seeing things.
How was this possible?
That was his Evil Fire Phoenix!
How could it fail to burn through even a single strand of the most useless Blue Silver Grass?
Gu Qing regarded the fatso on the verge of a breakdown with a placid expression.
With the Life Domain and the terrifying regenerative ability of Life Blue Silver Grass, forget a level-thirty Soul Elder—
even if that fatso stood there burning for ten thousand years, he still wouldn't be able to hurt Gu Qing in the slightest.
He gave the other man no time to keep standing there in a daze.
Gu Qing gave his left wrist a light flick.
The frail-looking Life Blue Silver Grass instantly surged in size, transforming into a long, sturdy whip.
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