Ye Qing and He Mingqin exchanged a glance, then burst out laughing at the same time.
"Go easy on you?" Ye Qing bared a mouthful of white teeth. "Don't worry. Your senior knows his limits. I won't beat you until you cry."
He Mingqin chuckled along with him.
"Kid, if you can't take it later, just call a stop. Don't force yourself."
Mu Tianyi smiled but said nothing, turning toward the arena.
The referee was a middle-aged man in his forties.
He had just finished presiding over Ye Qing and He Mingqin's match and was packing up to leave.
Hearing that someone wanted another round, he showed no impatience and returned to the referee's seat.
"Both sides, take the stage and state your martial soul levels," the referee said in a businesslike tone.
Ye Qing was the first to leap onto the platform, moving with flair. However, there were no spectators left below the stage.
"Ye Qing, third year. Martial soul: Wind-Thunder Tiger. Level thirty-two agility-type battle Soul Master."
Mu Tianyi stood across from Ye Qing.
"Mu Tianyi. Martial soul: Bright Sacred Dragon. Level twenty-five assault-type battle Soul Master."
At those words, Ye Qing's expression changed.
His martial soul was the Wind-Thunder Tiger.
Yet this little brat's martial soul was apparently some Bright Sacred Dragon.
Although he did not know what rank the Bright Sacred Dragon was, he knew there had to be a considerable gap between them.
No matter how strong a tiger was, it was still the king of beasts on the ground.
And what was a dragon?
It flew in the skies. It stood at the very top of the soul beast bloodline food chain.
The difference in martial soul quality was like that between a mongrel and a war wolf. They were not even in the same league.
Ye Qing swallowed, unease already building in his heart.
But what truly made his scalp go numb was what Mu Tianyi did next.
The boy raised his right hand, and two soul rings rose beneath his feet, slowly circling at his side.
The first ring was purple.
The second ring was purple.
Two purple rings.
Two thousand-year soul rings.
Ye Qing's mind crashed for a full three seconds.
He was fourteen this year and level thirty-two. After working so hard for so many years, his best soul ring was only a thousand-year third soul ring.
This child in front of him had two thousand-year soul rings?
Was this a joke?
He Mingqin's expression below the stage was even more dramatic. The features on his round face scrunched together, making him look like a bun that had been squeezed.
"Referee..." Ye Qing began with difficulty, wanting to say something. But when he met Mu Tianyi's calm black eyes, he swallowed the words back down.
He suddenly realized something.
From beginning to end, he had been played by this kid.
What "testing a new soul skill," what "please go easy on me, seniors"—it had all been an act.
This little bastard had been scheming from the very beginning!
But it was already too late for regret.
The referee was in position, and the match had reached the point where the arrow was on the string and had to be fired.
Ye Qing took a deep breath, gritted his teeth, and released his martial soul.
Two yellow and one purple soul rings lit up.
The phantom of the Wind-Thunder Tiger emerged behind him.
Its tiger eyes shone brightly, while tiny cyan wind blades and flickering lightning surrounded its body.
In terms of Soul Power, he was a full major realm above Mu Tianyi.
In terms of soul rings, he had one more.
The advantage was his!
"Begin!"
The referee gave the order.
Ye Qing moved first.
A level thirty-two agility-type Soul Master was indeed no slouch in speed.
Empowered by the Wind-Thunder Tiger martial soul, his body became a cyan-black afterimage, crossing nearly half the arena in an instant.
His tiger claw carried the force of wind and thunder as it struck toward Mu Tianyi's face.
He did not hold back with this move.
Not because he wanted to hurt him, but because he wanted to end the fight quickly.
He was just a kid. Scare him a little, and he would surrender.
But he was wrong.
Mu Tianyi did not even dodge.
His second soul ring lit up.
Deep purple light burst from beneath his feet, instantly covering his entire body.
A gentle golden glow enveloped him, as though he had been coated in a layer of flowing warm sunlight.
Radiant Dragon Body.
Ye Qing's tiger claw struck the golden glow.
Bang—
A faint rebounding force knocked his claw away. It did not hurt, but the sensation was strange, like striking a ball of warm light. Most of the force had been dispersed.
Meanwhile, Mu Tianyi did not move an inch.
Ye Qing's pupils contracted.
Then he saw Mu Tianyi raise his head.
The boy's black eyes gleamed brilliantly beneath the golden radiance, and the corners of his lips curled upward.
"Senior, my turn."
Mu Tianyi vanished from before Ye Qing's eyes.
The two-hundred-percent boost to strength and speed granted by the Radiant Dragon Body allowed an eight-year-old child's explosive power to directly crush that of a fourteen-year-old agility-type Soul Master.
Bang!
Mu Tianyi appeared at Ye Qing's side and drove a fist into his arm.
Ye Qing felt a tremendous force strike him. His entire body was sent flying sideways, and he rolled twice across the ground before barely steadying himself.
Before he could rise, Mu Tianyi was there again.
Golden afterimages flashed across the arena, each appearance accompanied by a clean, sharp attack.
Fist, palm, elbow, knee—
Mu Tianyi did not use any soul skills, only the most basic hand-to-hand techniques.
But with the two-hundred-percent boost from the Radiant Dragon Body, every blow felt as heavy as being struck by an iron hammer.
Ye Qing desperately activated his wind-and-thunder martial soul, trying to counterattack. Wind blades shot in all directions with every swing of his tiger claws, while lightning exploded around him.
But the problem was...
He could not hit him.
Mu Tianyi moved as nimbly as a loach, always slipping away at the instant before Ye Qing's attacks landed.
Even when one or two attacks grazed him, that layer of golden radiance dispersed most of their force.
But whenever Mu Tianyi hit Ye Qing, every strike landed solidly.
Thus, an utterly bizarre scene unfolded on the arena.
A fourteen-year-old boy was chased all over the stage by an eight-year-old child, occasionally letting out a muffled groan.
"Y-you... don't come any closer!"
Background music:
"You say you're a little hard to pursue, wanting me to back off in the face of difficulty. Gifts don't have to be the most expensive, as long as..."
Ye Qing rolled away from a punch in a miserable scramble, his face full of disbelief.
Mu Tianyi paid no attention to his cries to stop. His steps never slowed as he chased after him again.
He Mingqin watched from below in utter shock, his mouth hanging open in an O for a long time.
On the arena.
Mu Tianyi chased, and Ye Qing ran.
One was a golden afterimage clinging like a shadow; the other was a cyan-black figure fleeing in disarray.
The scene was so absurd that it hardly resembled a proper Soul Fighting Arena match.
Ye Qing gritted his teeth and held on for another half minute before finally giving up completely.
His legs gave out, and he collapsed on the arena floor, gasping for breath. He did not even have the strength to raise a hand and wipe away his sweat.
"I'm not fighting... I surrender... I surrender!"
The referee glanced at Mu Tianyi.
The boy stopped. The golden glow slowly receded, and his expression remained calm. Even his breathing was not disturbed.
"Winner: Mu Tianyi."
The referee's mouth twitched slightly as he announced the result, as if he were holding back laughter.
He Mingqin's face was as dark as the bottom of a pot as he hurried onto the stage to help Ye Qing up.
The two huddled together and muttered for a few moments, their faces filled with pained reluctance.
Still, they obediently took out their money pouches and counted out twenty Gold Soul Coins for Mu Tianyi.
Mu Tianyi accepted them with a grin, weighing them in his hand as they gave off a crisp clinking sound.
"Thanks, seniors."
Ye Qing's mouth twitched while He Mingqin lowered his head in silence. At that moment, both of them only wanted to find a crack in the ground and crawl into it.
Mu Tianyi said nothing more. He tucked the money pouch into his sleeve and turned toward the entrance of the Soul Fighting Arena.
Report them?
He had no such intention.
Match-fixing was an open secret and an unspoken rule in the Soul Fighting Arenas of every major academy.
When the water was too clear, no fish could live in it. Some things were best handled by turning a blind eye.
Besides...
He had already gotten what he wanted.
Before you continue