Who Else Could She Date but a Troublemaker! Thunder Douluo, Yu Yuan

"Don't thank me just yet."

Dugu Bo snorted coldly, a trace of headache flashing through his emerald eyes.

Did he really think soul beasts over fifty thousand years old were cabbages that could be found whenever he wanted?

Just finding suitable ones would run his legs off.

Helping him find Soul Rings was truly a headache.

Yet he had no choice but to do it.

"Let me make this clear first. When you need Soul Rings of eighty or ninety thousand years in the future, that'll be the real trouble."

"Even this old man would face risks hunting soul beasts of eighty or ninety thousand years alone. You'd better find a way to get to know a few more Title Douluo who can help you."

Ye Qing smiled awkwardly.

Of course, he knew Dugu Bo was telling the truth.

For a Title Douluo around level ninety-one like Dugu Bo, fighting an eighty- or ninety-thousand-year soul beast alone was indeed asking too much.

Finding Soul Rings only got harder the further one progressed.

Seeing Ye Qing's awkward smile, Dugu Bo felt another wave of irritation.

He suddenly thought of a particularly painful question.

Who else could Yanzi have dated? Why did she have to pick this little troublemaker?

Ever since she had met this brat,

he, a dignified Title Douluo, had first spent three months as a chauffeur for hunting soul beasts.

Then he had handed over his Medicine Garden as a dowry.

And now he had to scour the entire continent for fifty-thousand-year soul beasts for him.

This was still only the dating stage.

Once they were actually married, wouldn't this brat squeeze every last drop out of these old bones?

The more Dugu Bo thought about it, the more annoyed he became at the sight of Ye Qing's face.

He needed to leave now!

If he stayed another second, he feared he would not be able to stop himself from dosing this brat with Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor Poison.

"Enough. This old man is leaving."

Dugu Bo raised his hand and withdrew the Soul Power barrier, then turned and strode toward the academy's outer wall.

After three steps, he stopped again and tossed out a sentence without looking back.

"Brat, if you dare let Yanyan suffer even the slightest grievance, this old man will make you regret it."

Standing in the night wind, Ye Qing's mouth twitched. There it was.

That familiar flavor—just one scratch, and it flared right up.

He had heard threats like "I'll make you regret it" no fewer than twenty times over the past few months.

This was the Dugu Bo he knew.

Sharp-tongued, fiercely protective, and never repeating the same threat.

That old fool from earlier, solemnly saying, "This old man will remember your kindness," had indeed been an illusion.

Dugu Bo had already reached Dugu Yan.

The fierce expression on his face instantly switched into that of a kindly grandfather.

The speed of the switch was so astonishing that even a master of Sichuan opera face-changing would call him an expert.

His rough palm patted his granddaughter's head, and his tone immediately softened. "Yanyan, Grandpa is heading back first."

"If anything happens, come find me anytime."

Dugu Yan nodded obediently. "Grandpa, be careful on the way."

Dugu Bo gave a grunt, then slightly nodded to Ye Lingling in farewell.

His figure flashed,

turning into a streak of green that swept over the academy's outer wall,

vanishing into the darkening sky.

Ye Qing noticed that the old fool was moving more than twice as fast as when he had arrived.

Was he that impatient to get farther away from him?

Dugu Yan watched her grandfather's figure disappear,

then turned to Ye Qing, curiosity flashing in her emerald eyes.

"What did my grandpa say to you? Why were you talking for so long?"

Ye Qing walked over to her.

After thinking for a moment, he summed it up with a straight face. "Your grandpa said that if I dared make you suffer, he'd poison me into paralysis and have you take care of me for the rest of my life."

"He also said that was solving the problem at its root."

"If I can't move, I can't bully you."

"But if you take care of me, you'll have to do it for life."

Dugu Yan froze for a moment, then burst out laughing.

Her emerald eyes brimmed with amusement as she reached out and lightly pinched Ye Qing's arm.

"Then you'd better behave yourself."

"Otherwise, my grandpa will do exactly what he says."

"You know him. He's never soft-hearted when it comes to poisoning people."

"I know that all too well."

Ye Qing rubbed the spot she had pinched.

With a bitter smile, he recalled that afternoon when the old fool had used Jade Phosphorous Serpent Poison on him as an experiment.

Ye Lingling stood behind the two of them and slightly turned her head away.

She suddenly felt like an oversized lightbulb,

glowing brightly and even giving off residual heat, yet unable to switch herself off.

"Yanzi."

She gently spoke up, interrupting their cloying flirtation. Her voice was as soft as ever.

"If we don't go to the Great Soul Arena now, it'll be too late to register tonight."

"Oh, right!"

Only then did Dugu Yan remember the important matter.

She grabbed Ye Qing's hand and pulled him outside.

"Come on, come on. Let's get your Soul Fighting Badge before they close."

"When I got my Silver Soul badge last time, it took me ages."

"For your first registration, you can only start as an Iron Soul."

"Then fight your way up to Silver Soul, then Gold Soul?"

Ye Qing cut in, a confident curve lifting at the corner of his lips.

A ranking match? That was what he knew best.

Too bad there was no Diamond or King rank.

"Good that you know."

Dugu Yan rolled her eyes at him, but she could not hide the curve of her lips.

With Ye Qing's strength, enough to crush Yu Tianheng, advancing through individual soul fights would probably be easier than chopping vegetables.

She could already imagine the expressions of the Great Soul Arena's managers after Ye Qing's first soul fight.

At the same time.

Heaven Dou City, the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan residence.

When Yu Tianheng pushed open the heavy gates of the clan, the two guards standing watch both froze.

They had never seen the young clan leader look like this.

His robes still bore scorched marks from the Chaos Green Flame.

There was a hole the size of a palm in the cloth over his chest, exposing the scabbed wound beneath.

What unsettled them even more was his gaze.

Those eyes no longer held the sharp confidence of a favored son of heaven. All that remained was a murky, vacant haze.

"Young Clan Leader, you—"

Before the guard could finish speaking,

Yu Tianheng had already passed him by.

His steps were unsteady, as though every footfall landed on cotton.

He passed through the clan's corridors and through the gallery of portraits of past ancestors.

The elders of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan in those portraits stared with piercing eyes, as if judging him, an unworthy descendant who had disgraced the clan's honor.

The pride of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon and the glory of the Upper Three Sects had been trampled to pieces in his hands.

He had sat in his room for less than a quarter of an hour when steady footsteps sounded outside the door.

The door was pushed open.

An elderly man with white hair and beard and a burly frame stood in the doorway, faint dragon-patterned lightning flowing around him.

The current clan leader of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, a level ninety-five Title Douluo—Yu Yuanzhen.

Seeing his grandson so utterly distracted, Yu Yuanzhen's brows furrowed almost imperceptibly.

He then shut the door behind him.

"Tianheng."

Yu Yuanzhen's voice was deep and resonant, carrying a clan leader's stern expectations for his heir.

"Putting on that half-dead expression—have you forgotten the glory of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon?"

Those words struck Yu Tianheng's final psychological defense like a heavy hammer.

He could no longer hold back.

He dropped heavily to his knees and bowed his head without rising.

"Grandfather... I lost."

"Lost to a nobody."

"I have disgraced the name of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon!"