"Seventh Soul Skill, Martial Soul Avatar, Golden Crocodile King!"
Golden Crocodile Douluo made no attempt to test his opponent.
The instant the battle began, he went all out.
A ten-thousand-zhang golden crocodile phantom surged into the sky, suppressing heaven and earth.
The savage, violent Soul Power exploded with a thunderous roar, shaking the surrounding arena violently.
His ultimate Soul Ring configuration of two yellow, two purple, four black, and one red burned fiercely, unleashing the full depths of a century of cultivation!
Xuan Zi's expression changed.
Sensing Golden Crocodile Douluo's terrifying killing intent, he forcibly summoned his Martial Soul and struck back.
"You have no honor!"
"You, the dignified Second Worship of Spirit Hall, are taking advantage of someone when he's down. Even if you win, aren't you afraid people will say your victory was dishonorable?"
Xuan Zi's Godly Taotie Bull collided with Golden Crocodile Douluo.
But Golden Crocodile Douluo had no desire to waste his breath on Xuan Zi.
"Eighth Soul Skill, Golden Crocodile Rotation!"
A golden storm abruptly took shape.
Countless scales coalesced into peerless blades. They spun at high speed, tearing through the void with a terrifying force that could shred flesh and bone, and hurtled straight toward Xuan Zi!
This was Golden Crocodile's most reliable close-combat killing move: both offense and defense, and utterly domineering.
If Xuan Zi had been sober, he would only have needed a thought to unfurl the Taotie Prison-Suppressing Domain and effortlessly suppress and devour the attack.
Without lifting a finger.
But now, drunk and dazed, Xuan Zi was a full beat too slow.
In a battle between experts, the smallest detail in a split second often decided victory or defeat.
"Taotie... suppress."
Xuan Zi's head lolled, his words slurred as he hurriedly tried to counterattack.
Black Taotie Soul Power barely surged into motion.
The domain that should have been dense and solid, enveloping the entire arena, was instead broken and incomplete, as thin as a cicada's wing.
It couldn't even unleash half its power.
Crack!
The fragile Taotie Domain was torn apart in an instant by the Golden Crocodile Rotation storm!
The furious golden force of the spinning blades rushed straight at him. The protective aura Xuan Zi hastily raised shattered with a crack, and the tremendous impact sent him stumbling backward several steps, his blood and qi surging and a metallic sweetness rising in his throat.
With just this one move, Golden Crocodile Douluo had severely wounded Xuan Zi.
The blow didn't clear Xuan Zi's already muddled head. It only made him even dizzier.
Golden Crocodile Douluo was greatly surprised.
"Was he really drunk?"
He had thought Xuan Zi was merely pretending.
But after that exchange, Golden Crocodile Douluo could tell for certain that Xuan Zi was genuinely not in fighting shape.
Otherwise, with his strength, Golden Crocodile Douluo could never have landed a hit so easily.
"Does he think this is a joke?"
"He dares get this drunk before fighting me?"
Golden Crocodile Douluo furrowed his brows, and an even more ferocious assault followed.
It didn't matter why Xuan Zi had shown up drunk.
Golden Crocodile Douluo knew that being drunk had weakened Xuan Zi, but hadn't made him helpless.
He absolutely couldn't afford to be careless.
Xuan Zi still had the foundation of a Level 98 expert.
His body, his basic Soul Power, and the remaining might of his divine beast were still terrifying.
If Xuan Zi could force the alcohol from his system and steady his mind,
he might turn the tables in an instant.
If Golden Crocodile Douluo wanted to win, he couldn't drag out the fight.
He had to seize his opponent's moment of weakness and end the battle in one fell swoop.
"Ten Thousand Crocodiles Devour Heaven!"
Golden Crocodile Douluo unleashed his Ninth Soul Skill!
Blood-red golden crocodile phantoms filled the sky, blotting out the sun.
With the frenzied force of a fight to the death, the ferocious beast phantoms sealed off every avenue of escape.
No thought for the cost, no thought for defense—only the desire to kill his opponent!
Reeling with dizziness, Xuan Zi braced himself and defended with all his might against the countless crocodile phantoms bearing down on him.
"Devour heaven... swallow earth!"
Xuan Zi urged the chaotic Soul Power within him and activated his Ninth Soul Skill.
A black devouring vortex barely took shape.
But his chaotic Soul Power simply couldn't sustain a top-tier devouring law!
The Taotie Vortex, which once could devour heaven and earth and dissolve all techniques, was now weak in its pull and narrow in range.
The countless crocodile phantoms battered the vortex's walls, tearing through them again and again and breaking past the restraints of its devouring force.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
A chain of explosions thundered across the sea of clouds!
The remaining Power of Ten Thousand Crocodiles broke through the vortex and slammed into Xuan Zi's Taotie True Body.
Xuan Zi's body shook violently as he staggered backward again and again.
The white jade tiles beneath his feet shattered inch by inch.
Drunk, he couldn't keep up his strength or replenish it. Every time he took a blow head-on, he suffered a pure loss.
His blood and qi rapidly dwindled, and his Soul Power plunged.
Golden Crocodile Douluo, meanwhile, kept attacking without defending, trading injuries for the chance to kill.
The force of the backlash carved a deep, bone-baring gash across his chest.
Golden blood seeped out, and patches of his scales shattered.
Yet his assault didn't weaken. It grew more and more frenzied!
"Not enough! Still not enough!"
Golden Crocodile Douluo roared, his eyes bloodshot as he stood drenched in blood.
He knew Xuan Zi had far too much room to recover.
Even badly weakened, he could still turn the tables while clinging to the last of his strength.
That was the terrifying thing about a Soul Core.
To secure victory beyond all doubt, he had to inflict an injury that couldn't be undone!
He couldn't give Xuan Zi any chance to recover.
"Taking advantage of someone when he's down."
"This is taking advantage of someone when he's down."
The effects of the alcohol surged through Xuan Zi. His vision went dark in waves, his consciousness grew muddled, and he could no longer direct his Soul Skills precisely.
Relying on the instincts of a Level 98 Super Douluo, he raised one last layer of the Godly Taotie Bull Protective Divine Light.
But against Golden Crocodile Douluo's frenzied assault, trading injuries for a kill,
his remaining defense was no match at all!
BOOM!!!
A cataclysmic final collision erupted!
Blood-red golden light pierced through the black divine light and slammed into Xuan Zi's chest!
Pfft!
Xuan Zi spat out a mouthful of scalding blood. His body flew backward like a kite with its strings cut, crashing heavily against the edge of the arena.
The Godly Taotie Bull phantom dimmed, shattered, and disappeared.
Xuan Zi's meridians had sustained widespread damage. He had completely lost the ability to fight!
He braced himself against the arena floor and tried to get up, but his legs gave way.
At the center of the arena, Golden Crocodile Douluo stood tall.
He had won!
Though it was true that his victory had been somewhat dishonorable.
But Xuan Zi had only himself to blame.
He was the one who had let them down at the crucial moment.
Before the Arena Tournament even began, he'd gotten himself dead drunk.
Golden Crocodile Douluo had simply seized the opportunity. What had he done wrong?
"You've got to be kidding me!"
"The fight's already over..."
Ning Fengzhi stared at everything unfolding in the arena, eyes wide with disbelief.
He'd foolishly thought Xuan Zi was just making himself look weak to lure his opponent in, playing the pig to eat the tiger.
But who could have guessed that Xuan Zi really was a pig?
What kind of normal person got himself drunk before a fight?
Was that even something a human being could do?
Ning Fengzhi felt as if his entire worldview had been turned upside down.
By all rights, there was no way a Level 98 Super Douluo could be so reckless.
And yet Xuan Zi was a freak.
If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, Ning Fengzhi would never have believed that a Super Douluo could be this absurd.
"No..."
"My Soul Power..."
Ning Fengzhi's heart was bleeding.
He'd planned to make back his losses with this bet.
He'd hoped to make up for what he'd lost last time.
But that deadweight Xuan Zi had only made his losses even worse.
At that moment!
Ning Fengzhi wanted to kill Xuan Zi.
This loss was just too unfair.
Ning Fengzhi cursed Xuan Zi's entire family in his heart.
He really wanted to know what kind of faction the Sea God Pavilion was, if it could raise a pig like Xuan Zi into a Super Douluo.
This battle would go down in the annals of history among the various factions.
Xuan Zi could serve as a cautionary example, used to teach others.