The referee raised a hand to signal that Cui Yajie was no longer able to fight. The medical team rushed over from the sidelines and quickly carried her away.
"Zhu Lu!" Dai Huabin roared. He pushed off the ground and released the Evil-Eyed White Tiger's first Soul Skill, White Tiger Protection Barrier. A layer of white light covered his body as he charged toward Huo Yuhao like a cannonball.
His tactical judgment was sound. Mu Chen was too strong; they couldn't beat him head-on. They had to take out the support first and rob Mu Chen of his battlefield awareness.
But he had forgotten there was someone else on the field.
"Second Soul Skill, Light of the Butterfly Goddess."
Wang Dong spread the Light Goddess Butterfly's wings in the morning sun. Pink-and-blue Light Butterflies poured out like a rainstorm, cutting off Dai Huabin's path.
The Light Butterflies struck the White Tiger Protection Barrier with a dense hiss. Each impact chipped away at the white membrane.
Dai Huabin's charge faltered.
That brief pause was all Zhu Lu needed.
Among Soul Masters of the same level, the Hell Spirit Cat was peerless in speed. She became a black blur, darted around the barrier of Wang Dong's Light Butterflies, and lunged straight for Huo Yuhao's throat with her razor-sharp claws.
The natural advantage of an agility-type Soul Master against a support-type Soul Master gave her confidence that she could end the fight with one strike.
But when she was five meters from Huo Yuhao, a piercing mental shriek suddenly rang through her mind.
The sound didn't enter through her ears. It exploded directly in the depths of her consciousness.
Soul Shock.
After Huo Yuhao advanced to level fourteen, the power of Soul Shock had increased as well.
It still wasn't enough to inflict any real mental damage on Zhu Lu, who was level twenty-nine. But the momentary blank in her awareness was enough to make her movements falter for an instant at high speed.
An instant was all it took.
A blue Trident dropped from the sky, its shaft slamming down right in front of Zhu Lu.
A shock wave wrapped in a gust of sea-salt air hurled her back five meters.
Zhu Lu staggered as she landed. Her claws gouged three white furrows into the ground before she managed to regain her balance.
Mu Chen stood in front of Huo Yuhao, the Trident angled toward the ground, his blue hair snapping in the morning breeze.
"Your opponent is me," he said.
Zhu Lu gritted her teeth. Her second Soul Ring lit up as she unleashed Hell Stab.
Her speed surged again. Three nearly indistinguishable afterimages streaked through the air as she lunged at Mu Chen from three directions at once.
Mu Chen didn't try to tell the real one from the fakes.
He didn't need to.
In the sensory map created by Spiritual Detection Sharing, all three versions of Zhu Lu appeared, but only one had a genuine Soul Power fluctuation.
The other two looked convincing, but they were just empty shells formed from Soul Power.
The left.
Mu Chen didn't even turn his head. He swept the Trident to the left.
Its blade carved a blue crescent through the air and struck Zhu Lu's true body with pinpoint accuracy.
Zhu Lu crossed her arms to block it, but the overwhelming strength of a Soul Ancestor sent her flying sideways like a wave had crashed into her. She slammed down at the edge of the arena.
She struggled to get back up, but the churning blood and qi in her chest made her vision go black. She couldn't stand for the moment.
At the same time, Dai Huabin finally broke through Wang Dong's blockade.
The Evil-Eyed White Tiger's second Soul Skill, White Tiger Intense Light Wave.
A white beam shot from his tiger jaws, carrying scorching heat and devastating force as it blasted straight toward Wang Dong.
Wang Dong folded her butterfly wings and flipped backward in midair, barely avoiding the beam's main force. But its wake still grazed the edge of her left wing, melting several Light Butterflies in the searing heat.
Wang Dong grunted. When she landed, her left leg gave way, and she dropped to one knee.
Dai Huabin didn't pursue her.
His target had been clear from the start: Mu Chen.
Wang Dong and Huo Yuhao were secondary. As long as he defeated Mu Chen, the other two wouldn't be a problem. So the instant he forced Wang Dong back, his third Soul Ring lit up.
The purple light of the Thousand-Year Soul Ring shone blindingly across the arena.
The Evil-Eyed White Tiger's third Soul Skill, White Tiger Vajra Transformation.
Dai Huabin's body grew three inches taller. His muscles swelled, and beneath his uniform, his physique became like cast iron.
Golden tiger stripes surfaced on his skin. His hands transformed into half-human, half-tiger claws, every knuckle gleaming like metal.
This was Dai Huabin at his strongest.
"Mu Chen!" he bellowed as he charged, his tiger claws tearing through the air with a piercing whistle. "Let me see how strong that Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring of yours really is!"
Mu Chen stood his ground.
Four Soul Rings rose from beneath his feet: yellow, purple, purple, black.
He didn't use his fourth Soul Skill.
There was no need.
His first Soul Skill, Ocean's Fury.
His eyes turned red, and all his attributes increased by fifty percent. Mu Chen stepped forward. The flagstones beneath his feet shattered into a shallow crater as he swung the Trident upward. Its blade collided with Dai Huabin's tiger claws in midair.
Boom!
The clang of metal on metal shook the arena so violently that the Soul Tool monitoring pillars around it trembled.
A shock wave burst outward from the point of impact, sending dust billowing into the air.
Dai Huabin felt as if his claw had struck an underwater mountain. The recoil traveled up his arm and into his shoulder, leaving his entire right arm numb.
Mu Chen hadn't moved an inch.
The second strike.
No Soul Skill, just overwhelming strength. The Trident came crashing down from above. Dai Huabin raised his other tiger claw to block it, but the metallic sheen shattered piece by piece under the weight of the blade.
His knees bent, and a spiderweb of cracks burst across the flagstones beneath his feet.
The third strike.
A sweeping blow.
The Trident sent Dai Huabin flying sideways. The light of his White Tiger Vajra Transformation flickered wildly under the violent impact.
He tumbled through the air twice. His tiger claws carved six deep furrows into the arena floor before he finally managed to halt his slide.
Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
Three strikes.
No Soul Skills, just three strikes—and Mu Chen had beaten Dai Huabin, even with White Tiger Vajra Transformation activated, so thoroughly that he couldn't fight back.
The viewing stands fell silent.
Then applause thundered through the arena.
It was respect for the strong, regardless of allegiance.
Dai Huabin knelt on one knee at the edge of the arena, gasping for breath.
He looked up, and for the first time, fear appeared in his slanted eyes.
Yes, fear. This heaven's favorite, raised in the White Tiger Duke's Mansion, had never known defeat among his peers. Even upperclassmen had never dared to go all out against him.
But now, this blue-haired, blue-eyed youth was telling him something in the most direct, most brutal way possible: your pride means nothing to me.
"Zhu Lu!" Dai Huabin roared. "Get over here!"
Zhu Lu had just climbed to her feet at the edge of the arena. She gritted her teeth at his roar and darted to his side.
The phantom forms of the Hell Spirit Cat and the Evil-Eyed White Tiger appeared behind them. Then their two utterly different Soul Power fluctuations began to merge.
Mu Chen's blue eyes narrowed slightly.