Gu Yue Complains

As Tang Wulin let out a loud shout, golden scales rapidly surfaced from the fingers of his right arm, and the entire arm seemed to swell a size.

Tang Wulin's pupils had turned completely gold. Like an S-rank student at Kassel Academy, he stamped his left foot against the ground, unleashing a deep boom, then accelerated toward Lan Kai like a cannonball.

Then Tang Wulin's right hand suddenly grew larger, his fingers lengthened, and golden claws rapidly shot out, transforming into a dragon claw.

"Oh? Is Tang Wulin already going to use his legendary invincible Golden Dragon Claw?"

Seeing Tang Wulin charge at him with such ferocity, Lan Kai immediately raised the Orb Ring in front of himself.

Although he had just cosplayed Ultraman Agul to the fullest, his body was nowhere near as strong as Ultraman Agul's. Tang Wulin's Golden Dragon Claw also had a pulverizing effect, and he didn't want to gamble on something so risky.

If he realized something was wrong, found that his current body couldn't withstand Tang Wulin's Golden Dragon Claw, and was forced to counterattack with the Light of Orb—only to knock Tang San out of Tang Wulin's body—then things would be hard to resolve.

So Lan Kai decisively took out the Orb Ring and began transforming.

"Ultraman, senior!"

"Tiga, senior!"

"Please lend me the power of your light!"

"Fusion Up!"

"Ultraman Orb, Specium Zeperion Form!"

As the Orb Ring emitted a blinding burst of light, Lan Kai completed his transformation and punched Tang Wulin's Golden Dragon Claw, sending him flying backward into Gu Yue. The two of them fell to the ground together.

But after transforming, Lan Kai didn't press his advantage. Instead, he stood in place with his hands on his hips, striking a pose that looked imposing.

"Damn it... Who the hell are you?"

Tang Wulin climbed to his feet and stared unwillingly at Lan Kai, who seemed to have turned into another species. His furious gaze was practically aflame—or dazzling enough to pierce someone with his eyes.

"I am Orb! I will illuminate the darkness and drive back evil!"

Lan Kai answered Tang Wulin's deadly question, the kind that would get him killed by Wang Xiaoming if he asked it on the Kamen Rider set, then charged at Tang Wulin and Gu Yue.

Tang Wulin gritted his teeth, brought out his Golden Dragon Claw again, and lunged at Lan Kai. At the same time, he used Blue Silver Grass to grab the Thousand Refinement Deep Silver hammer he had dropped on the ground and swing it at Lan Kai.

This time, Gu Yue didn't boost Tang Wulin. Instead, she raised both hands again, gathering a light wheel between them as she prepared a deadly attack against Lan Kai.

But Lan Kai raised his hand and threw out another Ultra Slash, severing Tang Wulin's strand of Blue Silver Grass completely. The red parts of Lan Kai's body lit up as well. He grabbed Tang Wulin's Golden Dragon Claw, swung him around once, and hurled him off in the opposite direction. Tang Wulin landed at Wu Zhangkong's feet.

Then Lan Kai turned to Gu Yue and struck the same taunting pose as that smug king, beckoning to her with his right hand.

"You forced me to do this! Take my Super Ultra Slash!"

Seeing Tang Wulin thrown out of the ring and Lan Kai taunting her again, Gu Yue gritted her teeth as sweat began to bead on her forehead.

Soon, the light wheel in her hands took shape. It looked much like Lan Kai's Ultra Slash, and she flung it toward him.

Gu Yue's "Super Ultra Slash" seemed even faster than Lan Kai's Ultra Slash. In the blink of an eye, it was right in front of him.

Lan Kai raised his left hand and traced a circle in the air. A round shield of light instantly appeared before him, deflecting Gu Yue's "Super Ultra Slash" back into the air. It skimmed past Gu Yue's ear as it flew skyward.

A few strands of hair fell from the spot where Gu Yue's own "Super Ultra Slash" had just grazed her. They dropped alongside her cold sweat.

"Do you still want to fight? If we keep going, I can't promise I'll hold back."

Lan Kai canceled his transformation, walked toward Gu Yue with his hands in his pockets, and suggested it with a smile.

He hadn't wanted the first appearance of Ultraman Orb's Specium Zeperion Form to end so anticlimactically. But Gu Yue wasn't some monster, and using the Speperion Ray on her would have been far too harsh.

So he decided to leave the choice to Gu Yue: she could save face herself, or let Lan Kai do it for her.

If Gu Yue still wanted to fight to the bitter end, Lan Kai could also use the Specium Ray, whose power was easier to control, to end the match.

"...I give up."

Gu Yue was unwilling to admit defeat, but the memories she had retained from her time as Na'er told her that if she kept fighting now, she would end up in a very sorry state.

So, after hesitating for a little while, she gritted her teeth and conceded.

Still, before turning to leave, she muttered something under her breath, loud enough for only Lan Kai to hear:

"I'm going to report you to Mr. Juggler."

"Can't win, so you're going to tattle to your parents? Interesting. But wouldn't that count as a confession...?"

Watching Gu Yue turn and walk away, Lan Kai's lips curled into an amused smile. He was already three-tenths of the way to looking like Juggler.

His transformation this time had been forced, after all. Tang Wulin's Golden Dragon Claw really could break through his body's current defenses. If he wanted to face it head-on, Lan Kai's only option at his current strength was to transform.

Even if Gu Yue had a way to complain to Juggler, Lan Kai had plenty of perfectly reasonable excuses to defend himself.

What Lan Kai didn't expect was that Gu Yue really would find a way to lodge a successful complaint—and do it with considerable skill.

A day later, after Juggler agreed to take Lan Kai to the Spirit Pagoda in Eastsea City to train in the Spirit Ascension Platform, a tall, red-haired beauty greeted them in the lobby on the first floor of the Eastsea City Spirit Pagoda, with a grinning Gu Yue by her side.

"Fancy meeting you again, Spirit Envoy Juggler," the red-haired beauty said warmly.

"Vice Pagoda Master Leng, what brings you here today?" Juggler replied formally, identifying the red-haired beauty as he did so.

"What the hell? Gu Yue was already Leng Yaozhu's personal disciple at this point? Could it have something to do with her arriving a month late?"

Looking at Gu Yue's gleeful grin, how could Lan Kai not understand what she'd meant when she said she would report him?

But another matter had made him even more curious: Juggler's attitude toward Leng Yaozhu seemed a little strange. It reminded him of how Juggler had acted toward Mr. Ye Hu in the Storage Facility—the man the audience had once suspected was Astra.

Could Juggler's joining the Spirit Pagoda have something to do with Leng Yaozhu?