So Liu Jiayi kept fighting, growing stronger.
But a person's talent had its limits, and he had to admit that. No matter how hard he tried, he still couldn't get past the hurdle of defeat.
Then came the scene from a few chapters ago, when he'd been hiding from his debtors...
"Prove it to me."
The man in Black Robe spoke to him, handing him a pill.
The pill was pitch-black all over, and it gave off an unsettling aura.
"What's this?"
"Swallow it, and gain power."
Seeing no other way out, Liu Jiayi swallowed the pill.
In an instant, he felt strength surge through his entire body. But even so—no, it was precisely because of that—he sensed how powerful the man before him was.
The man standing in front of him was absolutely no one a mere nobody like him could stand against.
"How do you feel?"
"I feel like I'm full of strength."
Liu Jiayi answered honestly, noticing the black vapor rising from his hand.
"This pill is still in development. It has side effects, like making people lose their minds and causing wounds to appear on their bodies. But I imagine those are nothing compared to gaining power, right?"
As the man in Black Robe spoke, he let out another strange laugh.
Liu Jiayi nodded.
Of course they weren't.
Of course they weren't... right?
Over the next few days, he won almost every match at the Great Soul Arena. Every now and then, he lost control and badly injured someone. Some went home to recover; others died despite treatment.
That had nothing to do with him. His opponents had simply been weaker.
Liu Jiayi tried to reassure himself, but the pill seemed stranger and stranger. At least the daily dose was becoming more refined, and his own power was growing. He'd earned enough to pay for the two elders' medical expenses...
By now, wounds had appeared on his body, and his mind had begun to wander. Liu Jiayi lost himself once more.
He remembered the look on the two elders' faces the last time they'd seen him go mad after missing a match. It had been terror, the kind of terror people felt when they saw a monster.
When he went mad, he seemed to loathe everything in the world. Why was that? Why?
"Do you crave power?"
The man in Black Robe's voice rang in Liu Jiayi's ear. Liu Jiayi felt as if something were about to grow out of his body.
"Power... no, that's not right. Run, run—"
He roared, and the light faded from his eyes.
His body split open in several places, and bizarre vines sprouted from it. They kept growing, gradually spreading across a quarter of the Soul Fighting Arena. At the same time, white mist poured from his body, spreading evenly around the arena and shoving the referee away.
As the white mist surged, the twisted outline finally came into focus. The Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda rose above Ning Rongrong's palm, its pale light shining for just an instant before the horrific sight before her made her tremble.
Liu Jiayi no longer looked human.
His face was completely disfigured. Vines had crushed his features into a twisted mess, forcing his eyes out of their sockets. At their tips, translucent purple sacs bloomed. His arms and hands had vanished, replaced by thick vines with blade-sharp tips. His legs had sunk into the stone floor of the Soul Fighting Arena, their roots burrowing deep into the cracks. His flesh had split open all over, exposing bone-deep wounds. No blood flowed from them; instead, vines, dark green wrapped in dusky purple, crawled out. Their oily surfaces were covered in tiny barbs, and as they writhed, the faint scrape of the barbs against bone made the hair stand on end.
Flesh and vines intertwined into a deformed monstrosity, every vine-tip aimed at Ning Rongrong.
"Whoosh!"
A vine grazed Ning Rongrong's cheek, leaving a cut. If she hadn't dodged in time, she might have been scarred far worse.
[The Fallen One, Liu Jiayi, Level 38]
It had been a long time since Lu Ma had seen a prompt like that. At least two hours.
"Another boss fight? What are the odds?"
The real Ning Rongrong was jolted awake by the voice, dragged out of a dream that had been equal parts life and death.
Her own voice couldn't wake her, but someone else's might. And Lu Ma's voice was special: at certain times, hearing him call out would wake her right up.
She opened her eyes and saw the monster before her, trembling.
What the heck was that...
Why were you either fighting Man Faced Demon Spiders above your level or battling monsters, day in and day out? Was that normal?
But then she realized she wasn't quite as scared as she should have been.
Had she gotten used to it? That was pretty miserable.
She thought.
"What's going on!"
Countless spectators in the stands voiced their displeasure. But when they thought about it, this didn't seem to be the Great Soul Arena's fault. Even the referee had been forced out of the arena.
"An emergency has occurred at the Great Soul Arena. All matches are suspended! I repeat, an emergency has occurred at the Great Soul Arena. All matches are suspended!"
The official announcement rang out. Staff began evacuating the spectators, and matches at the other Soul Fighting Arenas were forcibly stopped as well.
Some staff had already tried to enter the white mist, but they couldn't break through the barrier.
Some of the contestants were still furious, but when they saw what was happening, they gave up resisting and obediently evacuated.
"What the hell is this?!"
Flender stood beside the white mist and kicked it several times, but the barrier didn't budge.
He'd already tried a whole host of Soul Skills before that.
Here was a joke: the moment he saw the white mist, he'd rushed to the edge of the Soul Fighting Arena, but the barrier was already there. The white mist wasn't part of the barrier. It prevented anything outside from observing what was inside, just like the white mist in the Star Dou Great Forest.
"Sir..."
"Cut the crap! My students are still in there!"
Flender pounded on the barrier with all his might.
Only the six members of Shrek remained in the stands now, every one of them on tenterhooks.
"What's happening?"
Tang San had racked his brains, but he still had no idea what was going on. The Grandmaster had never told him about anything like this.
And Dean Flender couldn't do anything about the white mist, either. If even a Soul Saint was wary of it, then it had to be the work of a Soul Douluo, or even a Titled Douluo.
It had all happened silently, right under their noses.
Who was behind it?
"We have to do something!"
Dai Mubai quickly assessed the situation and said it aloud, but he had no idea what they could do.
That was right. If even Flender couldn't handle it, what could they do?
"Black vapor."
Zhu Zhuqing spoke up.
"The moment that man turned into a monster, I saw black vapor."
"Black vapor? What does that mean?" Xiao Wu asked.
"It means the barrier is connected to that black vapor. We have to find its source," Tang San explained before Zhu Zhuqing could.
"Isn't the source their opponent? That black vapor was leaking out of Ning Rongrong's opponent," Xiao Wu retorted.
"Well..." Tang San was briefly at a loss for words. He'd thought the same thing.
"No." Zhu Zhuqing shook her head. "He's only a Soul Elder. Someone else is behind that black vapor. We have to find him."
"Clap, clap, clap."
The sound of applause rang out, perfectly timed.
"Not a bad guess. Good news: you're right."
"You're that refined-looking man!"
Tang San recognized the man at once and grew wary.
"Did you do this?"
Zhu Zhuqing charged forward without thinking. The man before her looked weak. If he really was the mastermind, then she could surely—
The world stood still.
A second before Zhu Zhuqing could reach the refined-looking man, the person behind him simply extended an index finger and pressed it against Zhu Zhuqing's forehead. She couldn't move at all.
Only then did they notice the person standing behind the man. His aura was far stronger than Zhao Wuji's—at least Soul Douluo level. No, at least Titled Douluo level.
"Who exactly are you?"
The other five surrounded the man warily.
But the man only smiled.
"Who I am doesn't matter. What matters is that if you keep surrounding me, Flender is going to have a hard time."
The group scattered, and only then did they see that Flender had already started fighting someone below—and seemed to be at a disadvantage.
The staff had vanished from the entire Soul Fighting Arena. Only they, the refined-looking man, and a hunched figure in Black Robe remained.
"Who are you? A Soul Douluo, and so young... You're an Evil Soul Master!"
After several exchanges, Flender had figured out who the person before him was. He'd never expected to actually encounter one of the Evil Soul Masters he'd only ever heard about as an abstract notion.
"As expected of the dean of Shrek Academy. You've got a sharp eye."
"Allow me to introduce myself. I'm the Seventh Elder of the Holy Spirit Sect, Zhao Asi, Level 81."
Before you continue