The good mood Li Hao had been in on his way home was completely shattered by that coarse roar.
Irritated, Li Hao turned around.
At the entrance to the valley stood a man as imposing as a mountain.
He was immensely stocky, his bare arms knotted with muscle and brimming with explosive strength.
He had a square face covered in lumps of flesh.
Combined with his large, bell-like eyes, he looked imposing even when he wasn't angry.
A powerful, domineering aura rushed toward them.
His Soul Power was at least level sixty.
A Soul Emperor.
Another huge hassle.
Li Hao's social-anxiety radar blared another piercing alarm.
All he wanted was to go home. He didn't want to deal with any strangers, especially the ill-tempered sort this man looked like.
The burly man strode into the valley. He glanced at the energy embers scattered across the ground, then took in the aura Li Hao had yet to fully conceal. His face immediately darkened with fury.
"Boy, it was you! You dared to steal the Soul Beast I, 'Immovable Wisdom King' Zhao Wuji, had my eye on!"
Zhao Wuji?
The name made Li Hao pause.
The vice dean of Shrek Academy? The muscle-bound tough guy who'd beaten Tang San and the others black and blue in the original story?
What was he doing here?
They were like ghosts that wouldn't stay buried—wherever Li Hao went, he ran into characters from the original story.
Li Hao grumbled furiously to himself, but his face remained expressionless. He didn't want to say a word.
He just wanted to leave.
So he chose the most direct approach.
He turned around and started walking, ready to leave this place of trouble.
To Zhao Wuji, that was blatant disregard and provocation.
He was the mighty Immovable Wisdom King, a Soul Emperor whose name had been renowned for years. And now some young punk was ignoring him?
"Stop!"
Zhao Wuji bellowed. A heavy pressure from his Soul Power slammed down on Li Hao's back.
"Did I say you could leave?"
Li Hao's steps were forced to a halt.
The pressure was strong, but to him, it felt like a somewhat powerful gust of wind. His spiritual power was more than enough to shrug off this level of intimidation.
But he was annoyed.
Very annoyed.
Why did people always have to shout?
Why did they always try to force others to do things they didn't want to do?
He slowly turned around and looked at Zhao Wuji's furious face.
Seeing him stop, Zhao Wuji assumed his pressure had worked. A vicious grin appeared on his face.
"Boy, get down on your knees and hand over whatever you got from that Soul Beast. Maybe I'll leave your corpse in one piece."
Li Hao still said nothing.
He just felt the world was too noisy.
The Soul Beast Paradise was better—quiet and peaceful, with only his own people around.
His silence finally set Zhao Wuji's anger ablaze.
"Looking to die!"
Zhao Wuji wasted no more words. His Soul Power erupted.
Yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black.
Six Soul Rings rose around him in an instant, two of them black ten-thousand-year Soul Rings!
The full might of a Soul Emperor was on display.
"Martial Soul Possession!"
With a thunderous shout, Zhao Wuji's body swelled rapidly. Thick brown fur covered him from head to toe, his hands became claws, and his towering frame grew to a terrifying size.
A Vajra Bear!
First Soul Skill, Immovable Bright King Body!
A golden glow enveloped him, making his already formidable defenses even more impregnable.
Second Soul Skill, Vajra Palm!
Zhao Wuji took one step forward, and the ground trembled beneath him.
His bear paw, larger than Li Hao's entire body, swept through the air with a howl and crashed down toward Li Hao's head.
He hadn't planned to hold back at all.
He was going to smash this ignorant punk into a pulp!
As the enormous bear paw came crashing down, Li Hao's social anxiety was finally overwhelmed by sheer irritation.
He sighed softly.
Why couldn't he just go home in peace?
Since you won't listen to reason,
then we won't use reason.
He didn't dodge or summon any Soul Beast Girls.
Instead, the deep purple Soul Ring representing his third Soul Ring quietly lit up.
Dream Space.
There was no earth-shattering boom, no dazzling burst of light.
An invisible ripple spread out from Li Hao in an instant.
The massive bear paw, carrying the weight of a thousand jun, stopped dead less than half a meter above Li Hao's head.
It was as if time had been frozen.
Zhao Wuji's huge body hung motionless in midair, locked in his attacking pose.
The fierce, violent expression on his face froze. The light rapidly faded from his bell-like eyes, leaving them empty and dazed.
It worked.
Li Hao looked at the "statue" before him, unmoved.
This was the power of his third Soul Skill.
In Zhao Wuji's world, he had returned to his youth—to the day he had been hunted down by several powerful Spirit Hall fighters and barely escaped with his life.
Endless enemies and deadly danger had dragged him into his deepest nightmare and the fiercest battle of his life.
In reality, he was nothing more than a motionless target.
Li Hao walked around the enormous bear paw and strolled over to Zhao Wuji.
He looked up at the mountain of a man, and the more he looked, the more he disliked him.
This guy had disrupted his plan to go home.
This guy had shouted at him in that booming voice.
This guy had forced him to use his brand-new Soul Skill, which he'd only just gotten and barely had a chance to enjoy.
A little grudge rose in Li Hao's heart.
He raised the ordinary-looking Karma Rod in his hand.
Then he brought it down, not too hard, on Zhao Wuji's enormous bear head.
Thump.
A dull sound.
"This strike is for shouting so loudly."
He struck again.
Thump.
"This strike is for throwing your weight around."
He raised the rod and struck a third time.
Thump.
"This strike is to teach you to think twice before disturbing other people."
After the three strikes, Li Hao felt the irritation in his heart finally ease.
He lowered the rod and dispelled Dream Space.
Almost at the same moment, the vacant look in Zhao Wuji's eyes faded, and his gaze returned to normal.
It was as if all the strength had been drained from his body. His mighty Vajra Palm completed its final arc in a limp, feeble motion, slamming helplessly into the ground.
The ground boomed, and dust billowed into the air.
"Ha... ha... ha..."
Drenched in cold sweat, Zhao Wuji gasped for breath and looked around in lingering terror.
Where were the enemies from Spirit Hall?
Where were those damned Titled Douluo?
Nowhere.
There was nothing.
He was still in the valley, with the young man holding a strange long rod standing in front of him.
The boy looked at him with an expression so calm it bordered on indifference.
What had happened?
Had everything he'd just experienced been an illusion?
Zhao Wuji instinctively reached up to touch his head.
Then he froze.
Three evenly sized, neatly arranged lumps on his forehead throbbed with searing pain.
It hadn't been an illusion!
Someone really had attacked him!
While he was trapped in the most terrifying memory of his life, utterly helpless, someone had struck him on the head three times!
An indescribable chill shot from the base of Zhao Wuji's spine straight to the crown of his head.
He looked at the seemingly ordinary young man before him, and immense fear instantly swallowed his anger and arrogance.
What kind of power was this?
Without a sound or warning, it had trapped a level-sixty-eight Soul Emperor like him in an inescapable illusion.
This kind of strength...
Li Hao saw the terror written across Zhao Wuji's bear-like face and knew he'd achieved his goal.
To make sure there'd be no trouble later, he decided to turn up the heat a little more.
Imitating the aloof manner of those otherworldly masters in novels, he spoke slowly, his tone distant and indifferent.
"Little Bear, you'd better watch yourself."
The four words were delivered lightly, yet they struck Zhao Wuji's heart like four heavy hammers.
L-Little Bear?
He had called him... Little Bear?
What an insult! What condescension!
And yet Zhao Wuji couldn't summon even the slightest urge to fight back.
Because the other boy had earned the right.
Just as Zhao Wuji's mind reeled, Li Hao's figure began to blur before him without warning.
After flickering a few times, he vanished completely into the dense forest of the valley, as if he'd never been there.
The empty valley was left with only Zhao Wuji, standing there in a daze.
The mountain breeze swept past, and he felt cold all over.
Trembling, he dispelled his Martial Soul Possession and touched the three humiliating lumps on his head again. The sharp pain confirmed that all of it had been real.
To make a Battle Soul Emperor renowned for his defense and strength fall helplessly into a spiritual world, without even knowing when he'd been attacked...
Such unfathomable power...
Zhao Wuji's lips began to tremble. A guess so terrifying it made even him shudder surged wildly through his mind.
"Could it... have been a Titled Douluo?"
Before you continue