Hearing those two words, Dugu Yan trembled with even greater fury.
"Y-you still dare to insult me!"
"You don't need to explain yourself!"
She stopped wasting her breath. The first Soul Ring beneath her feet abruptly lit up as she prepared to attack.
But Lan reacted faster than she did.
"Quiet."
He didn't even release his Martial Soul. He merely willed it.
A surge of blue-white Soul Power silently seeped into the entire lake.
The lake's calm surface seemed to come alive.
A stream of water transformed into an invisible whip and lashed out of thin air, striking Dugu Yan's wrist precisely as she raised it.
Dugu Yan felt her wrist go numb. Her Soul Power stalled, and the Soul Skill she had been about to unleash was forcibly interrupted.
"You!"
Shocked and furious, she was just about to say something else.
The lake water beneath her suddenly formed an invisible giant hand and yanked hard.
"Ah!"
Dugu Yan cried out as she lost her balance and toppled backward.
Splash!
Water sprayed everywhere.
She tumbled awkwardly into the lake. The icy water instantly soaked through her clothes, making her shiver.
Dugu Yan choked on a mouthful of water. She had just opened her mouth to keep cursing...
Smack!
A crisp sound rang out abruptly by the lakeside, loud enough to drown out the splashing.
Ye Lingling, following behind, and Purple Scorpion, in the water, both froze.
Dugu Yan's whole body stiffened.
A moment later, a burning sensation spread from that unspeakable place behind her.
At first it hurt, then it turned into a strange tingling that swiftly ran through her limbs, making her feel weak all over.
She... she'd been hit?
And on... her bottom?
Dugu Yan's mind went blank.
Ever since she was little, no one had so much as spoken harshly to her, let alone hit her.
Her grandfather was a Titled Douluo and had doted on her, giving her almost anything she wanted. It had made her fearless.
When had she ever suffered such... humiliation?
And in front of Ye Lingling, no less!
"Ahhh!"
A scream of utter shame and fury burst from her lips.
She struggled desperately, only to realize that at some point, an iron-clamp-like hand had locked around her waist, pinning her across his leg so she couldn't move.
Her fair skin gleamed in the sunlight as Lan held her firmly in place, her soft, delicate body pressed close against him.
This was the height of humiliation!
Dugu Yan clawed and flailed like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.
"Y-you let me go!"
Her voice quavered with tears, but she still forced herself to sound furious.
"Do you know who my grandfather is? You're dead!"
Dugu Yan's threat meant no more to Lan than ripples on the lake.
He couldn't even be bothered to answer.
Smack!
Another crisp sound rang out, seemingly harder than the first.
Dugu Yan shuddered violently. The burning sensation flared again, making her arch her back like a kitten that had been scalded.
"Y-you still dare!"
Smack! Smack! Smack!
Three merciless yet rhythmic smacks answered her.
One after another, neither rushed nor slow, as if he weren't disciplining a Soul Elder but spanking an unruly object.
Dugu Yan's mind was in complete disarray.
The flames of shame and fury threatened to burn her to ashes, yet deep inside her body, an indescribable, strange current surged up her spine and into her brain.
It left her weak all over, unable to summon the slightest bit of Soul Power. Even her strength to struggle slowly faded.
Her screams gradually shifted from pure anger to tearful whimpers, broken and intermittent as they echoed across the silent lakeside, taking on an oddly different quality.
Her soaked green dress clung tightly to her body, outlining every dip and curve of her graceful figure.
Each involuntary tremor seemed like an enticing stone tossed into a placid lake, sending ripples spreading across its surface.
On the shore, Ye Lingling's beautiful eyes were wide as saucers, her small mouth hanging open. She was utterly dumbfounded.
W-was this really Dugu Yan, the one she knew—the haughty girl who ruled the academy like a peacock?
Listening to the crisp smacks and Dugu Yan's broken cries, Ye Lingling felt her cheeks grow hot and her heart inexplicably race.
Without realizing it, she pressed her legs together, as if that invisible hand had struck her too, sending an indescribable shiver through her.
Dugu Yan in the lake finally couldn't hold on any longer.
The unrelenting humiliation and the strange sensations in her body completely shattered her pride.
She lay limp as mud across Lan's leg, able to do nothing but call out through her tears with the last of her strength.
"My grandfather is a Titled Douluo—Dugu Bo! He... he'll be here soon!"
Her voice was full of grievance and a threat that sounded more bluster than courage.
"I'll make him teach you a lesson!"
Lan's raised hand paused in midair.
Not because of her threat.
Just then, he really did sense an extremely cold, overbearing aura steeped in deadly poison racing toward them.
At first, that aura was like a faint thread in the distant sky, almost imperceptible.
But in an instant, it became a towering, dark-green tide, carrying death and decay as it swept toward them from every direction.
"Chirp, chirp—"
The birds' cheerful calls in the forest abruptly turned to terrified shrieks. As if faced with their doom, they frantically beat their wings and fled the area in panic.
"Rustle, rustle..."
Next came the dense patter of movement from the ground.
In the grass and tree hollows, snakes, insects, rats, mice, rabbits, and foxes—all living creatures seemed to receive some primal signal of terror and fled wildly into the distance.
In a matter of seconds, the lakeside went from brimming with life to utterly silent.
Worse than silence.
It was the lifeless stillness of a world stripped of life.
Before Lan's eyes, the once-lush green trees began to turn yellow, curl, and wither at a visible pace, their leaves so brittle they seemed ready to crumble at a touch.
The clear water beneath his feet also began to take on an eerie, ominous green hue, darkening by the moment.
Whoosh.
The newcomer's strength was so great that he didn't even need to appear; this stretch of land and water had already become his domain of poison.
Lan's brows furrowed slightly.
"Hahaha..."
Dugu Yan, still sprawled across his leg, suddenly laughed.
She could feel it—that familiar poisonous Soul Power, etched into her bones, the strongest support she'd had since childhood!
"It's Grandfather! My grandfather's here!"
Dugu Yan abruptly lifted her head. Her pretty face, streaked with tears, now shone with joy.
She stared at Lan and spoke each word distinctly. "You shameless brute, you're dead!"
Grandfather was finally here.
This bastard would soon pay a hundredfold for everything he'd done to her!
Smack!
The crisp sound rang out once more, abruptly shattering all her fantasies.
Before you continue