Snow Yao, standing on the steps before the gate, suddenly sighed.
It was a sigh full of helplessness, with even a hint of amusement.
"What do you mean?"
Dugu Yan froze.
"Are you looking down on me?" Dugu Yan's voice shot up, her chest heaving with anger.
"No."
Snow Yao looked down at her from above.
His gaze was utterly calm.
It wasn't provocative or contemptuous. It was simply... the look you gave a fool.
"I just think this so-called 'challenge' is incredibly stupid."
Snow Yao spoke unhurriedly. His voice wasn't loud, but it carried exceptionally clearly through the quiet street.
"Stupid? You dare call me stupid?!" Dugu Yan's brows rose in fury, and the poisonous mist at her fingertips trembled.
Snow Yao ignored her anger completely.
He leaned forward slightly, looked Dugu Yan straight in the eyes, and asked in an even tone:
"You're eleven this year, right?"
Dugu Yan answered instinctively, "So what if I am?"
"Good."
Snow Yao nodded and raised one finger.
"Then let me ask you. How old are you, and how old am I?"
"You're eleven, almost twelve. I'm six. You're nearly twice my age."
Snow Yao's voice was cold, backed by an indisputable logic.
"You've been cultivating for five years since awakening your Martial Soul, and you're about to break through to level twenty as a Soul Grandmaster. As for me, it's only been three months since I awakened my Martial Soul."
At that, Snow Yao paused.
His gaze swept slowly over Dugu Yan and the few followers behind her, who stood there dumbfounded.
The corner of his mouth curled into an utterly scornful smile.
"A Soul Grandmaster who's nearly twelve and has cultivated for five years."
"Leading a pack of lackeys, you block the gate of a six-year-old kid who awakened his Martial Soul just three months ago."
Snow Yao put heavy emphasis on the words "six-year-old kid."
"Then, in front of the entire academy, you brazenly shout that you want to 'challenge' me?"
Snow Yao chuckled.
His laughter was full of mockery.
"How could you bring yourself to say the word 'challenge'?"
"Is that what you call a challenge? That's throwing your weight around! You're a student at an intermediate academy, going to a kindergarten to pick a fight. Then, if you win, you'll go around boasting that you're invincible!"
"Old Senior Dugu has been a hero all his life. If you beat me, will it bring honor to Old Senior Dugu?"
Boom!
Those few words were like crisp slaps, smacking Dugu Yan right across the face!
Every word struck straight at her heart!
The students gathered to watch were all stunned.
Until then, every one of them had fallen into the same mistaken way of thinking.
Because Snow Yao carried the halos of "number one genius" and "Viscount Sky Wind," they had unconsciously treated him as an opponent on equal footing with Dugu Yan.
But now that Snow Yao had laid it all bare—
They suddenly came to their senses.
Right!
Snow Yao was only six!
A six-year-old brat who'd only been at school for three days. And an eleven-year-old upperclassman had brought people to block his gate and beat him up.
What kind of challenge was that? Wasn't it just straight-up bullying?
A bigger kid bullying a smaller one, an older kid bullying a younger one!
"Pfft..."
Someone in the crowd finally couldn't hold it in and let out a tiny snicker.
The laughter seemed contagious.
"This... does sound pretty absurd..."
"An eleven-year-old beating up a six-year-old... Winning wouldn't be honorable, and losing would be even more embarrassing..."
"Yan's handling of this today really was a bit beneath her..."
Whispers surged in from all sides like a rising tide.
The looks of awe from before had turned strange and amused, with even a trace of disdain.
The few followers behind Dugu Yan flushed bright red. They wished they could find a crack in the ground to hide in. One of them had even quietly taken two steps back, trying to distance himself from the whole thing.
As for Dugu Yan, standing at the very front, she had gone completely rigid.
She stood there, dazed.
Her beautiful face went from pale to the red of a ripe apple in an instant. She was so red she looked ready to bleed!
She was overwhelmed with shame and fury!
Snow Yao hadn't even laid a hand on her. He hadn't even released his Martial Soul.
With just a few sentences, he had stripped away every last shred of the dignity she was so proud of, along with her supposedly righteous "challenge"!
The pride of a genius, the face of Poison Douluo's granddaughter—everything had been ground to dust!
"You... you..."
Dugu Yan pointed at Snow Yao. Her finger trembled as if it were cramping.
She felt the Evil Fire stirred up by the poison in her chest begin to rebound violently. The unbearable shame and fury made her vision go black in waves.
She wanted to argue, to curse him out.
But Snow Yao was telling the truth. The undeniable truth!
She couldn't find even half a word to refute him!
"Do you still want to fight?"
Seeing Dugu Yan's eyes beginning to redden, Snow Yao slowly delivered the final blow.
"If you insist, I'll gladly oblige. At worst, by tomorrow everyone in Heaven Dou City will know that Poison Douluo's granddaughter relies on bullying six-year-old children to keep her title as the number one genius."
"What an honor."
He'd killed her with words.
She was completely broken.
"Snow Yao! You bastard!"
The tears in Dugu Yan's eyes finally overflowed.
She shouted the insult through her sobs.
She hurriedly withdrew her Martial Soul and clamped both hands over her burning-red face.
She couldn't bear to stay here for even one more second.
She shoved past the lackeys behind her and fled through the crowd like a startled rabbit.
She didn't dare look back.
"Yan! Yan, wait for us!"
Seeing this, her followers abandoned any pretense of saving face, lowered their heads, and hurried after her.
The Viscount Mansion's gate, where the air had moments ago crackled with tension, fell silent in an instant.
Only a crowd of stunned onlookers remained.
Snow Yao stood on the steps.
Watching Dugu Yan flee, he shook his head in exasperation.
"Kids are kids. They just can't take a hit."
Did she really think fighting was all about blasting away with Soul Skills?
When logic crushed you completely, just a few words could make you die of social embarrassment.
He'd won without drawing blood and scored first blood.
He hadn't even broken a sweat.
"All right, move along. Get to class, or get back to cultivating."
Snow Yao waved at the stupefied students outside.
Then he turned around.
With a bang, he shut the heavy redwood gate.
He left everyone standing there, utterly bewildered.
From that day on, a new tale joined the legends of Heaven Dou Royal Academy, alongside the story of the "number one genius."
This six-year-old kid's tongue was sharper than a Title Douluo's blade!
The farce of Dugu Yan fleeing in disgrace spread throughout Heaven Dou Royal Academy in just one afternoon.
By evening, even the noble circles of Heaven Dou City had heard about it.
For a time, the glorious tale of "a six-year-old making an eleven-year-old genius cry" became the talk of every gathering. Snow Yao's title as the "number one genius" wasn't diminished; if anything, this one-sided victory made him seem even more unfathomable.
However, Snow Yao, the person at the center of it all, couldn't find anything to laugh about.
In the Viscount Mansion's hall.
Snow Yao had just finished bathing and was dressed in fresh clothes. He held a gold-embossed invitation in his hand, his brows drawn tightly together.
The invitation was made from an exceptionally fine material: rare agarwood, pressed into a sheet. It gave off a faint, soothing fragrance that cleared the mind.
A golden swan seal was stamped neatly beside the signature.
It was the symbol of the Heaven Dou Empire's imperial family.
"Crown Prince, Xue Qinghe."
Snow Yao stared at the name on the invitation and murmured it. A deep wariness flashed in his eyes.