The Referee! We Surrender! The Number One Sycophant! Breakthrough? This is Feinting East, Luring West!

Behind Huo Wu, a thirty-meter-tall flame giant slowly rose.

"No—Huo Wu, don't! Don't be so impulsive!"

Huo Wushuang's face turned deathly pale as he saw the flame silhouette from afar.

He knew Huo Wu had been secretly researching Self-Created Soul Skills and had indeed made some progress.

But this skill was far from stable, succeeding perhaps once in ten attempts, and any slight mistake could lead to a backlash so severe it would endanger her life!

"Referee! Referee! We surrender!"

Feng Xiaotian also panicked, shouting desperately towards the stage.

But the referee merely glanced at them coldly, unmoved.

Once a match began, it would not be paused by any external force, unless the contestants surrendered themselves.

Otherwise... even their parents' intervention would be useless!

"Huo Wu..."

"Vice-captain..."

Huo Wushuang, Feng Xiaotian, and the others could only pray that Huo Wu would succeed, as that would at least lessen the aftereffects.

The spectator stands.

Watching the three soul rings fuse into one, the flame giant rising behind Huo Wu, the suffocating pressure made countless spectators' eyes widen in unison.

They had never witnessed such a sight.

Soul rings could fuse? What kind of soul skill was this?!

The stage.

Qian Renxue's brow also furrowed; she had never seen such a soul skill either.

To be able to fuse soul rings into one.

Feeling the heart-pounding aura of the flame giant, she didn't know if she could block it.

But she had no retreat.

Her entire being was highly concentrated, her mind and spirit united, entering a state of clarity she had never experienced before.

Soul power surged into her sword!

At the same time, Huo Wu finally completed her Ring Fusion, and the flame silhouette behind her suddenly opened its eyes.

Huo Wu raised her hand, and the silhouette raised its hand as well.

With a palm strike, carrying world-ending might, it slammed down towards Qian Renxue.

Sword light collided head-on with the flame silhouette—

Although Qian Renxue had gained some initial mastery of techniques through the fusion of the Battle Qi System and the Soul Master System, her current soul power was only around level thirty.

The power she could unleash was limited, not even comparable to her third soul skill.

Meanwhile, Huo Wu's three fused soul rings had a combined age of nearly three thousand years.

Her skill was not weaker than the fourth soul skill of some Soul Ancestors.

Qian Renxue's sword light held on for only a moment before it was on the verge of collapse.

But just then—

The flame giant behind Huo Wu suddenly trembled.

Its power drastically decreased, almost dissipating!

Sensing the overwhelming pressure suddenly lighten by more than half.

A sharp glint flashed in Qian Renxue's eyes.

She had no time to ponder what had happened, nor to suspect if Ling Xiao had intervened secretly.

Her body reacted first, pouring the last trace of soul power within her into the sword's edge without reservation.

The sword light suddenly surged, slashing directly towards the faltering flame silhouette!

Outside the stage.

Huo Wushuang and Feng Xiaotian turned pale.

"Not good—"

"Huo Wu exhausted too much soul power earlier, and now that she's forcing her Self-Created Soul Skill, she can't maintain it anymore!"

"It's a backlash!"

The crowd below also noticed something was wrong and began cursing in anger.

"What's going on?! Why drop the ball at such a critical moment?"

"Rigged!"

"There must be a fix!"

Just as everyone thought Qian Renxue was about to "arrogantly" win this match again—

The Flame Giant, which was about to dissipate, suddenly stabilized.

Not only did it stabilize, It surged to more than double its original size!

The Flame Giant roared at the sky, its wild and untamed voice echoing throughout the Soul Fighting Arena.

"Hahahaha! Didn't expect that, did you? This young lady had a breakthrough right in the middle of battle!"

"Hahahaha!"

"Many thanks to you, pretty boy!"

"As a token of my gratitude, this final victory, along with the one hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins..."

"This young lady will gladly accept them!"

Before the words even faded, the giant flame shadow, carrying a momentum even more terrifying than before, Threw a punch.

It descended like Mount Tai crushing down.

Qian Renxue had no time to react.

Even if she had, she would have been powerless to block a strike far stronger than the previous one.

She only had time to hold her sword horizontally in front of her—

Boom!

She was sent flying, landing in a heap outside the ring.

This twist-filled battle

Left even the experienced host stunned for a moment, before he excitedly announced:

"The winner—Flame Queen!"

"Congratulations to the Flame Queen for winning the excess bet of one hundred thousand and five hundred Gold Soul Coins!"

The audience below finally reacted, their cheers and curses blending into a chaotic mess:

"Holy crap! She won! She finally beat that kid!"

"One hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins! That pretty boy must be crying his eyes out in the bathroom, right?"

"Let's see if he dares to be arrogant again!"

Qian Renxue dragged her injured body step by step toward the backstage.

Although she had guessed she might lose, She never imagined she would be counter-killed at the very moment victory was within her grasp.

She was unwilling.

Truly, deeply unwilling.

"Hmm, your luck was indeed poor just now; I didn't expect that little girl to have a breakthrough in the heat of battle!"

Ling Xiao appeared once again, handing over a recovery pill while casually pouring a bowl of chicken soup for the soul.

"However, you have touched upon the threshold of merging the Battle Qi System with the Soul Master System; I believe things will be much better moving forward!"

Sure enough, after being told this by Ling Xiao, Qian Renxue took a deep breath, her eyes becoming firm once more.

"Teacher is right; it's just one defeat, it's nothing."

"I will not be discouraged!"

Even after winning against the Goat-Horned Youth earlier, she had felt no confidence.

But this time, She had truly seen the hope of achieving victory.

Candidate Hall.

Huo Wu had barely stepped through the door when the members of Blazing Fire Academy swarmed around her, their faces etched with excitement and pride.

"Vice-Captain, you're amazing! One hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins—that's enough for us to live it up for over half a year!"

"Ugh, your perspective is too small!"

"Do you think we care about mere Gold Soul Coins?"

Huo Yun cast a glance at Huo Lie, whose eyes were practically turning into dollar signs, and said with disdain, "What we earned today is our dignity!"

"We let him know that there is always someone better, and a mountain beyond every mountain!"

The other soul master contestants in the hall also crowded around, offering their congratulations in a cacophony of voices:

"Congratulations, congratulations! Blazing Fire Academy truly lives up to its reputation; there are no frauds under such a famous name!"

"Hmph, that brat should know by now what happens when you underestimate the soul masters of the world!"

The group was delighted that someone had finally taken down a show-off, while simultaneously envious that she had secured such a massive wager.

Why hadn't they been the ones chosen instead?

One hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins!

It was heartbreaking!

"Hmph, it was a small matter, a mere trifle. With me taking the field, is there anything I can't win?"

Huo Wu tilted her chin slightly; though she called it a trifle, the smugness on her face was impossible to hide.

As she basked in the adulation of the crowd, Huo Wushuang stepped forward, his face still lingering with traces of lingering anxiety:

"What happened back there?"

"Wasn't your Ring Fusion running out of steam and about to fail? How did you suddenly manage to pull it back together?"

"Ah, Captain, you just don't understand!"

Huo Yun, Huo Wu's number one sycophant, chimed in before she could answer, "The Vice-Captain was using a feint to lure the enemy deep!"