Epiphany! Reign Over the World?

"Butterfly Goddess Moon Blade!"

Wang Dong'er thrust both arms forward, and the crescent light blade detached from her butterfly wings, hurtling straight at Dai Huabin with the force to destroy everything.

At the same moment.

Dai Huabin threw back his head and opened his mouth.

A thick white beam, as wide as a water barrel, erupted from his mouth.

This White Tiger Intense Light Wave was thicker and fiercer than any he had unleashed before.

The combined enhancement of White Tiger Vajra Transformation and White Tiger Protection Barrier pushed the energy density of this attack to his current limit.

The golden crescent light blade and the white beam erupted at the same time from twenty meters apart, the two energies nearly filling the entire arena in an instant.

But just before the White Tiger Intense Light Wave was about to collide head-on with the Butterfly Goddess Moon Blade, Dai Huabin's mind suddenly became quiet.

Not blank—an exceptionally lucid stillness.

All distracting thoughts vanished.

The calculations of a transmigrator, the direction of the original story, the time of Electrolux's awakening—all of it receded.

Only one thought remained in his mind.

Win.

That thought had not been born of reason. It surged up from his bones, from the depths of his bloodline.

Spiritual power poured from his spiritual sea and merged with the surging Soul Power within his body.

Then came his bloodline.

Dai Huabin could clearly feel the blood throughout his body accelerating. Every meridian, every inch of muscle, was cooperating with the gathering of that power.

Spiritual power, Soul Power, and Bloodline Power—three forces that had originally existed independently—twisted together into a single rope at the explosive point gathering strength in his throat.

The color of the White Tiger Intense Light Wave changed.

A faint layer of golden patterns emerged along the edges of the originally pure-white beam.

The beam's diameter did not change, but its density abruptly soared. Even the air around it, warped by the vibrations of Soul Power, seemed pressed back several degrees by that oppressive force.

On the platform.

Yan Shaozhe had already risen to his feet.

He had never been sitting steadily in the first place.

From the moment Wang Dong'er began gathering power, he had been calculating the upper limit of that attack's strength.

The conclusion was that with Dai Huabin's thirty-fourth-rank cultivation, even if he activated White Tiger Vajra Transformation, taking the Butterfly Goddess Moon Blade head-on would leave him seriously injured.

One of his feet had already stepped forward. He had been ready to intervene the instant the two attacks collided and catch the attacks of both children.

Then he stopped.

At the same time, Xuan Zi froze in his seat beside him.

The teacup in Cai Mei'er's hand hung in midair, Xian Lin'er's mouth fell slightly open, and Qian Duoduo sprang straight out of his chair.

"This is actually..."

Yan Shaozhe's voice caught in his throat.

He saw it.

That aura around Dai Huabin.

It was weak, so weak that it was almost negligible.

Yet it truly existed! Essence, qi, and spirit had merged as one, with a pure, untainted belief in certain victory serving as the catalyst, completely fusing the three powers.

He had seen this state on someone else before.

Mu En.

The former dean of Shrek Academy, the Titled Douluo known as the Dragon God Douluo, Mu En.

The core principle of his ultimate profound meaning, "Reign Over the World," was the ultimate unity of essence, qi, and spirit. With absolute will, it condensed an aura powerful enough to subdue heaven and earth.

A three-ring Soul Elder who had only just enrolled had inadvertently touched the threshold of a Titled Douluo's profound meaning on the final stage of the Freshman Assessment.

"Shaozhe! This..." Xuan Zi's tone carried a rare trace of uncertainty.

Yan Shaozhe slowly withdrew the leg he had stepped out with.

He sat back down, braced both hands on his knees, leaned forward, and stared at the blond youth in the arena.

"Don't stop them."

Du Weilun pushed up the glasses on his nose and softly reminded him, "Dean, what if..."

"It makes no difference whether we stop them or not."

Yan Shaozhe cut him off. "His White Tiger Intense Light Wave has changed in nature. This strike might not lose to Wang Dong'er's blade."

At the center of the arena.

Wang Dong'er knew nothing.

At that moment, she had poured her entire body and mind into that three-meter-long golden crescent light blade.

This attack had exhausted all her Soul Power and even overdrawn part of her spiritual power.

The instant the Butterfly Goddess Moon Blade left her butterfly wings, her body began falling.

But she did not care.

This was the strongest attack she could currently unleash. Since enrolling, over three months, all her training, all her unwillingness to concede, all her obsession with catching up to that person had condensed into this single blade.

The light blade howled forward.

The white beam crashed toward it head-on.

At the final instant before the beam left his mouth, Dai Huabin made an extremely subtle movement.

He tilted his head by roughly two degrees.

The angle was so slight that even the referee by the arena did not notice it, so slight that ninety-nine percent of the spectators in the stands could not possibly see it.

Yet that two-degree shift gave the White Tiger Intense Light Wave's trajectory an almost imperceptible curve.

The Butterfly Goddess Moon Blade and the White Tiger Intense Light Wave collided explosively at the center of the arena.

Blinding white light instantly swallowed the entire battlefield.

Several students seated in the front rows instinctively raised their hands before their faces. Some were pushed back several steps by the shockwave before falling flat onto the ground.

The referee's robes snapped wildly in the blast. He planted his feet firmly, protected himself with Soul Power, and barely managed to remain standing.

The light only began to fade after nearly three seconds.

When everyone could see the arena again, they all sucked in a cold breath.

A long crack had blasted open across the arena floor from the central point toward both sides. Rubble and dust had been hurled into the air and had not yet fallen.

At the point where the two attacks met, the stone tiles had been completely pulverized, exposing the layer of dirt beneath.

Wang Dong'er knelt on the ground, her butterfly wings folded in. All the Soul Power in her body had been exhausted, and her face was frighteningly pale.

But she was uninjured.

Dai Huabin stood where he was.

More than half his academy uniform had been shredded. The entire sleeve on his left arm was gone, exposing bruised and mottled skin beneath.

The cloth over his chest had been torn apart, revealing several bloody wounds of varying depth.

The enhancement from White Tiger Vajra Transformation had not completely faded, and tiger stripes flickered around the wounds.

He was gasping, breathing hard.

The aftermath of the Butterfly Goddess Moon Blade had still injured him.

Although the two-degree deflection had allowed the Fierce Light Wave to avoid Wang Dong'er, it also meant he could not use the full power of his attack to directly cancel out the light blade.

Dai Huabin had taken roughly thirty percent of the impact with his body.

Zhu Lu's expression changed at the edge of the arena. Her feet had already moved before Cui Yajie grabbed her.

"Wait."

Cui Yajie stared into the arena for two seconds, then released her hand.

"He's fine."

Zhu Lu clenched her fists, but she stopped.

The arena fell silent for several seconds.

Wang Dong'er slowly pushed herself to her feet with one hand on her knee, her legs trembling. She had seen it.

She had seen Dai Huabin tilt his head, seen the Fierce Light Wave miss her, and seen the wounds on Dai Huabin's body that should never have been there.

If he had not shifted those two degrees, the attack would have been a direct clash.

With the power of that altered Fierce Light Wave, the Butterfly Goddess Moon Blade might not have won.

But she would certainly have been caught in the blast. In her current state, without any defensive soul skills, the consequences would have been unthinkable.

He had yielded.

No, it was not yielding. He had won, yet protected her at the same time.

Wang Dong'er stood with her head lowered for a while, her pink-blue hair covering most of her face.

Then she raised her head and smiled helplessly.

"Class monitor, it seems I lost again this time."

Dai Huabin was clutching the wound on his chest. Hearing that, he gave a dry cough.

"Haha, I just got lucky."

He truly meant it.

Even now, Dai Huabin had not figured out how that state of essence, qi, and spirit becoming one had been triggered, or how it had disappeared.

Without that state empowering him, his White Tiger Intense Light Wave absolutely could not have withstood the Butterfly Goddess Moon Blade.

"And you still say it was luck." Wang Dong'er's voice was a little hoarse. "You obviously aimed that attack away."

"The wind was too strong."

"..."

Wang Dong'er laughed in spite of herself.

She wanted to curse him out, but she had no strength left at all. Even standing steadily was difficult.

Her vision began to blur, and a buzzing filled her ears.

Her legs gave out, and she pitched forward.

Xiao Xiao rushed over from the edge of the arena and caught her in a fluster.

"Dong'er! Dong'er, are you okay?!"

Wang Dong'er leaned against Xiao Xiao. Her lips moved, but no sound came out. Then her eyelids sank, and she fainted outright.

"Teacher! Teacher, come quickly! She fainted!" Xiao Xiao cried, her voice cracking with panic.

At the same time, Yan Shaozhe had already descended from the platform.

He moved quickly, with two healing Soul Masters following behind him.

When he reached the center of the arena, he first looked at the unconscious Wang Dong'er, then swept his eyes over Dai Huabin's injuries.

"You deliberately deflected that attack." Yan Shaozhe walked up to Dai Huabin, his tone calm.

Dai Huabin did not deny it. "She doesn't have any defensive soul skills."

Yan Shaozhe nodded without saying more. He turned and signaled for the healing Soul Masters to step forward.

Zhu Lu had already run over by then. She stood beside Dai Huabin, staring at the bloody marks on his chest, her fingers trembling slightly.

The wounds on Dai Huabin's chest were not deep, but the blood seeping out had already dyed his torn academy uniform dark red.

His breathing was slowing, and the tiger stripes of White Tiger Vajra Transformation were gradually fading from the surface of his skin.

"I'm fine." Dai Huabin grinned at her. "Just superficial wounds."

The moment he finished speaking, an intense feeling of weakness surged through every part of his body.

His head suddenly grew heavy, the sounds in his ears began to drift away, and gray blurriness appeared along the edges of his vision.

His spiritual power had run dry.

His Soul Power had also run dry.

That instant of essence, qi, and spirit merging as one had emptied every reserve in his body.

It was like a well where someone drew water with a bucket, only to drain even the dampness from the walls dry.

Dai Huabin's knees buckled.

Zhu Lu reacted instantly, stepping forward and tightly supporting both sides of his waist.

She was half a head shorter than Dai Huabin. The position looked somewhat comical, like a bamboo pole leaning against a small sapling.

"Huabin!"

"Huabin! Say something!"

Dai Huabin's lips moved, but he could not say anything.

The last image in his vision was Zhu Lu's pale little face.

Then there was nothing.

"Huabin! Huabin!"

Zhu Lu's voice suddenly sharpened. She supported Dai Huabin with one hand while frantically waving toward the edge of the arena with the other.

The two healing Soul Masters were already running over.

The one in front was a middle-aged woman. One of her Soul Rings lit up, and a ball of gentle green light enveloped Dai Huabin as she carefully sensed his condition for several seconds.

"Don't panic. His Soul Power and physical strength are simply completely exhausted. He has no internal injuries."

Zhu Lu gripped the corner of Dai Huabin's academy uniform, the tendons on the back of her hand standing out sharply. Only after several seconds did they slowly relax.

"Really? He's fine?"

"Really."

The healing Soul Master examined him again.

"His spiritual power has also been heavily depleted, but his spiritual sea is undamaged. He'll recover after one night's rest. This child has a strong foundation, so don't worry."

Zhu Lu slowly let out a breath. She carefully laid Dai Huabin flat on the ground, took off her own coat, and placed it beneath his head.