"Children."
"Get up."
"All of you, get up and come outside with your teacher."
Dai Mubai clenched his teeth and opened his eyes.
He braced himself against the wall with his bandage-wrapped arms and swayed unsteadily to his feet.
Ma Hongjun gritted his teeth too, then climbed up from the ground and brushed the dust off himself.
His movements were slow, and every motion seemed to take tremendous effort.
Zhu Zhuqing wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes and rose from the little chair.
Her gaze had returned to its usual coolness, but her tightly pressed lips betrayed the turmoil within her.
Xiao Wu swayed as she stood, then shuffled over to Tang San's side.
She reached out a trembling hand and gently tugged at the hem of Tang San's clothes.
Oscar and Ning Rongrong supported each other as they struggled to their feet.
Tang San was the last to stand.
His eyes remained somewhat vacant, but a furious, unyielding fire danced wildly in the depths of his pupils.
The seven members of Shrek Academy followed Flender and Yu Xiaogang out of the lounge.
The corridor was long.
The wall lamps overhead shed a bright white light, stretching their shadows out to an incredible length.
Yet the once high-spirited, imperious young geniuses now seemed like eggplants struck by frost, utterly lifeless.
At the awards platform in the center of the arena,
the members of the Martial Soul Hall Team were already lined up.
Bibi Dong held the championship trophy, a symbol of supreme glory, and stood at the front of the team.
The trophy was made of pure gold.
Lifelike carvings of a Six-Winged Angel adorned it, and under the sunlight it shone with dazzling brilliance.
She walked up to Xie Yue and held out the trophy.
With his uninjured left hand, Xie Yue accepted it with some difficulty.
He drew a deep breath, then summoned all his strength to raise the trophy high above his head.
"Spirit Hall!"
"Spirit Hall!"
The Soul Masters in the stands erupted into cheers like a landslide crashing down.
And yet,
everyone's eyes had actually passed over Xie Yue and the trophy he held aloft, settling on Gu Sheng at the very back of the team.
Everyone knew that this young man was the one who had truly brought Spirit Hall this victory.
Gu Sheng stood there, his expression as calm as ever.
He looked at the clamorous stands with cool eyes, showing not a trace of pride or conceit.
Bibi Dong walked past Xie Yue and stopped in front of Gu Sheng.
Her beautiful eyes held undisguised approval.
She slowly extended her right hand.
It was a hand cared for to perfection, with slender fingers as pale as jade.
Under the sunlight, one could even make out the faint blue veins beneath her skin.
"Young man."
"Spirit Hall is proud of you."
Bibi Dong looked at him and parted her red lips. Wrapped in Soul Power, her voice rang clearly through every corner of the arena.
Gu Sheng looked at the hand before him, soft as if it had no bones, yet wielding the greatest power in the world.
He reached out and gently took it.
Bibi Dong's hand was cool, yet soft.
"Thank you, Your Holiness the Pope."
Gu Sheng replied calmly. There was none of the usual trepidation a Soul Master felt before the Pope, only composure.
Thunderous applause erupted throughout the arena once more.
Seated in the royal stands, Xue Qinghe watched the two shake hands onstage and applauded softly as well.
Her gaze remained fixed on Gu Sheng's handsome profile, and the smile in her eyes grew more pronounced.
Meanwhile, Tang San stood below the stage.
He stared fixedly at the figure onstage, the young man in the limelight, revered by thousands.
The boy standing atop the ruins, who had trampled all his dignity and pride beneath his feet.
"Gu Sheng..."
But at his side, Xiao Wu was trembling even more violently than he was.
The light Soul Power left behind in the air when Gu Sheng had used "Holy Spectrum Puni" had grown faint, but to Xiao Wu, it was no less than the most terrible punishment.
It was an utterly pure light, capable of cleansing every aberration and stain in the world.
Xiao Wu shrank in on herself as much as she could. Her rosy little face had turned deathly pale.
"Brother..."
Xiao Wu murmured in a barely audible voice. Her heart hammered violently in her chest, and every beat brought on another wave of suffocating dizziness.
Her Soul Power was nearly spent, and the tremendous shock to her spirit had sent the aura concealed within her into disorder.
The Immortal Herb tucked against her chest—Lovesick Heartbreak Red—trembled faintly as it sensed the remnants of the divine, holy light around them.
It was that brief tremor.
A wisp of the Source of the Forest's aura, faint yet incomparably pure, quietly seeped from Xiao Wu's collar.
The aura was exceedingly weak.
Even Dai Mubai and Zhu Zhuqing standing beside her sensed nothing.
But the senses of the Titled Douluo on the high platform were extraordinarily keen.
The eyes of Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan, outlined with heavy eyeshadow, flew wide open.
As the Control-System Titled Douluo most sensitive to the auras of plants and living beings, he turned almost at once and fixed on Xiao Wu's direction.
He gave a twitch of his nose. The eyes that had seemed somewhat delicate and feminine blazed with feverish greed.
"This scent..."
Yue Guan cried out inwardly.
This was absolutely not the Soul Power aura of an ordinary Soul Master. It was an immense life force, utterly pure and free of any human taint.
Gui Mei noticed Yue Guan's unusual reaction as well.
His shadow-like form shifted slightly, and he soundlessly moved closer to Bibi Dong's side.
"Your Holiness, something's wrong with Shrek's people."
Gui Mei spoke in a low voice.
After hearing his report, Bibi Dong slowly halted her steps, which had been carrying her away.
Her long, shapely legs in black stockings gleamed in the sunlight, but in that instant, her presence underwent a complete transformation.
The Pope, who had seemed gentle and noble, now wore an expression of utter coldness and authority on her peerlessly beautiful face.
She slowly turned around.
Her deep, beautiful eyes swept over the Shrek Academy group below her from above.
At last, her gaze landed squarely on Xiao Wu's shoulders, pressing down like two mountains.
She tapped the ground before her once with the Nine-Headed Serpent Emperor Scepter.
"Thud—"
A low yet piercing boom rang out across the arena.
Amplified by Soul Power, the blow cracked like thunder from a clear sky, leaving everyone's ears ringing.
The arena, which had been roaring with celebration over the Martial Soul Hall Team's victory, fell into an eerie silence at once.
"Wait."
Bibi Dong's clear voice rang with supreme authority, carried by the surging Soul Power into every person's ears.
The Shrek group, who had been preparing to follow Flender and Yu Xiaogang away, froze in place.
Flender hurriedly stopped and turned around.
Though his heart was heavy with the dejection of defeat, he still had no choice but to steel himself and bow toward the Pope on the platform.
"Your Holiness the Pope, may I ask what else you require of us?"
Before you continue