Huo Yuhao Cheats, the Spiritual Millstone Crushes!

After settling the matter of exempting himself from courses, Xiao Yan stood up without dragging things out. After thanking Mu Jin, he led Xiao Xiao out of the office.

The wooden door closed behind them, cutting off the somewhat awkward atmosphere inside the classroom.

Xiao Yan knew very well that if they stayed any longer, this mature beauty of a teacher might really become so embarrassed that she would carve out a three-bedroom apartment in the wooden floor with her toes.

The two walked down the corridor, sunlight filtering through the window lattice and falling across the floor.

Xiao Xiao followed closely beside him, tilting her head all the way. Her emerald-green eyes were filled with confusion.

After holding it in for half the corridor, she finally could not resist anymore and reached out to tug on Xiao Yan's white sleeve.

"Brother, when you made your conditions just now, why did Teacher Mu Jin suddenly blush? She looked like a ripe red apple." Xiao Xiao gazed up at Xiao Yan's perfect profile, her face full of curiosity.

The muscles at the corner of Xiao Yan's eyes twitched uncontrollably.

He looked ahead, his tone steady and his perfunctory answer perfectly justified. "Adults' matters are none of a child's concern."

That answer clearly did not satisfy Xiao Xiao.

She wrinkled her delicate nose, planted her hands on her slim waist, and gave an adorable snort.

"What adults' matters! You're obviously the same age as me, and I'm not a child anymore!" Xiao Xiao argued reasonably, trying to defend her right to know as his peer.

Xiao Yan could not be bothered to keep arguing with her over this.

When dealing with a little girl whose curiosity had gone into overdrive, reasoning was the least effective method.

He flipped his wrist and took out a colorful lollipop as large as an adult's palm from his Storage Ring.

He stopped and held the enormous lollipop directly in front of Xiao Xiao's face, blocking her view.

The crystal-clear syrup refracted an enticing sheen beneath the sunlight, and its cloying fragrance instantly drifted into Xiao Xiao's nose.

Xiao Xiao stared at the lollipop before her, and the resolute momentum she had displayed while arguing a moment ago vanished without a trace.

With lightning speed, she snatched the candy away, skillfully tore off the wrapper, and popped it into her mouth.

"I'm a child, I'm a child." With the sweet candy in her mouth, Xiao Xiao changed her tune indistinctly. Her large eyes curved into crescents as she smiled, and she completely forgot why Teacher Mu Jin had blushed.

The two reached the broad tree-lined avenue outside the teaching building and found the situation around them somewhat unusual.

At this time of day, freshmen would usually head to the cafeteria in groups or return to their dormitories. Yet now, large numbers of Outer Court students in uniforms of all colors surged excitedly in the same direction like an incoming tide.

Heated discussions rose from the crowd from time to time, and the atmosphere was exceptionally lively.

Xiao Yan stopped and fixed his gaze on a familiar figure who was about to run past them.

He reached out and accurately grabbed the person's shoulder.

"Classmate, wait a moment."

The intercepted boy turned around, revealing a buzz-cut head.

It was Li Dazhuang, the first person in Class Nine to stand and introduce himself today, the one with the Iron-Back Bear martial soul.

When Li Dazhuang saw that the one stopping him was the white-clothed youth who had displayed such formidable strength in class, he immediately straightened up, his eyes filled with enthusiasm and admiration.

"Class monitor! It's you." Li Dazhuang scratched his buzz cut and pointed in the direction where the crowd was gathering. "You don't know yet? The Outer Court Twin Stars are having a wager match in the Soul Fighting Arena! Thunderbolt Bei Bei and Black Tortoise Xu Sanshi—those are the two strongest upperclassmen in our Outer Court. Everyone's rushing over to grab a good spot and watch!"

Upon hearing those names, memories rapidly churned within Xiao Yan's Sea of Consciousness.

He immediately recalled the sequence of events from this storyline.

It was a conflict sparked by grilled fish, Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon against Black Tortoise—a clash of spear and shield.

"Since it's a duel between Outer Court experts, it wouldn't hurt to take a look." Xiao Yan released his grip and nodded at Li Dazhuang.

The three followed the crowd and quickly arrived at Shrek Academy's Soul Fighting District.

The Soul Fighting District was a grand structure built in the style of an ancient Roman colosseum. At its center stood a spacious arena laid with sturdy metal plates and shock-absorbing stone.

By now, the surrounding tiered stands were packed with students who had rushed over upon hearing the news. The noise was deafening, and some upperclassmen had even openly started taking bets at the edge of the stands.

Relying on his aloof aura that kept others at bay, Xiao Yan forcibly cleared out a patch of space in the front rows of the crowded stands and led Xiao Xiao and Li Dazhuang to stand there.

As they looked toward the battle platform at the center, the two main figures about to fight were already in position.

The youth on the left was tall and straight, dressed in a fitted purple school uniform.

His long dark-blue hair fell casually behind his head.

His hands hung naturally at his sides, and a gentle, friendly smile rested on his lips. He exuded an elegant yet sunny air. He was Bei Bei, one of the Outer Court Twin Stars.

Xu Sanshi, standing opposite him, was a completely different type.

He was tall and solidly built, his muscles stretching his school uniform taut.

His fiery-red short hair stood straight up, making him appear exceptionally spirited.

He had a square face, with a trace of baby fat still lingering on both cheeks. His brows were thick, his eyes fierce, yet his skin was surprisingly fair.

The clamor in the stands reached its peak. Before either of them had even released their martial souls, the smell of gunpowder on the field was already intense.

The referee standing at the edge of the arena raised his right hand high. After sweeping his gaze around, he suddenly brought his arm down.

"Match begin!"

At the referee's command, the two men on the arena simultaneously activated their Soul Power.

Blue lightning and black ripples erupted across the metal platform, while the light of their Spirit Rings reflected off each other.

Just as the entire audience's attention was drawn to the dazzling collision of soul skills on the arena, Xiao Yan, standing in the front row, suddenly frowned.

He cultivated the Art of the Fuxi Emperor and had long condensed the Star River Sea of Consciousness of the Fuxi Bagua. He was extraordinarily sensitive to fluctuations in the surrounding spiritual energy.

The instant after the referee announced the start, a concealed and highly pervasive spiritual force silently spread from a corner of the stands, forming a net that directly enveloped the entire battle platform.

This spiritual force held no offensive power. Its purpose was utterly simple—detection and sharing.

It was as though countless surveillance cameras with no blind spots had been installed in midair, turning every contraction of Xu Sanshi's muscles and every path taken by his Soul Power into precise data, then transmitting it directly to someone else.

Xiao Yan turned toward the source of that spiritual force.

In a corner toward the left side of the stands stood a delicate-looking youth.

The youth tightly gripped the railing of the stands, his expression intensely focused.

A faint golden light shone from his eyes, while beneath his feet, an inconspicuous gleaming white Spirit Ring pulsed rhythmically.

Huo Yuhao.

That name immediately surfaced in Xiao Yan's mind.

Clearly, he was using his core soul skill—Spiritual Detection Sharing—to secretly assist Bei Bei.

Seeing this, Xiao Yan could not help shaking his head.

He did not dislike Huo Yuhao as a person, but he deeply detested this sort of rule-breaking behavior.

The Soul Fighting Arena was a fair one-on-one contest, testing a soul master's own combat instincts, application of soul skills, and ability to react in the moment.

If this had been a life-or-death struggle in the Star Dou Forest, then using any means necessary to survive would have been beyond reproach.

But on an arena with clear rules, relying on an external spiritual connection to obtain an omniscient perspective was no different from cheating on an exam.

Especially when the cheating method was this crude, and the caster himself was so weak that he could not even completely conceal the trajectory of his spiritual force.

Lacking strength and refusing to follow the rules—those were the greatest taboos for a cultivator.

Within Xiao Yan's deep black eyes, the intricate Fuxi Bagua Formation Map began to spin wildly.

He merely stood there quietly, mobilizing the spiritual force in his Sea of Consciousness—countless times greater and purer than Huo Yuhao's—along the paths of the Qiankun Bagua.

In the void, invisible spiritual force instantly condensed into a gigantic Spiritual Millstone.

The millstone hung above the battle platform, intangible and formless. Other than the caster, no one could perceive it.

The millstone slowly rotated, carrying the power to grind all falsehood into dust.

The net of spiritual force Huo Yuhao had released for detection and sharing touched the Spiritual Millstone in that instant.

Crack! Crack!

The Spiritual Millstone crushed down mercilessly, grinding Huo Yuhao's spiritual tendrils spread across the arena into fragments, reducing them to the most primitive remnants of spiritual force.

After destroying that cheating net, Xiao Yan did not stop there.

He controlled the millstone to reverse its rotation, gathered up every piece of crushed "spiritual garbage," then followed the connection Huo Yuhao had established and ruthlessly hurled it back the way it came, as if dumping trash.

In a corner of the stands.

Huo Yuhao, who had been wholly focused on maintaining Spiritual Detection, suddenly stiffened.

The faint golden light in his eyes instantly shattered like glass.

An indescribably terrifying impact surged backward through his spiritual channel and slammed directly into his Sea of Consciousness.

Boom!

Huo Yuhao felt a world-splitting explosion erupt inside his mind.

Before he could even scream, two streams of crimson blood burst from his nostrils. His entire body went rigid as if struck by lightning, and he toppled straight backward, passing out on the stands.

His once-stable Sea of Consciousness had nearly shattered under that blow.

At the same moment the unexpected change occurred, on the battle platform.

Relying on the omniscient perspective brought by Spiritual Detection Sharing, Bei Bei had been effortlessly evading Xu Sanshi's repeated shield strikes.

In his perception, every movement Xu Sanshi made had been slowed down and broken apart. He only needed to counterattack along the optimal route.

Just as he prepared to close in and launch a fatal strike, the three-hundred-and-sixty-degree panoramic vision in his mind vanished without warning!

The world instantly returned to its normal speed.

The immense sense of loss from falling from an omniscient "god" back to an ordinary mortal caused Bei Bei's body to instinctively lag for an instant.

His right foot, which had stepped forward, froze in midair for half a second, and his previously perfect attack rhythm completely shattered.

As the owner of the Black Tortoise martial soul, Xu Sanshi's battle instincts were incredibly sharp.

He had no idea why Bei Bei had suddenly spaced out, but he would never let such a rare opportunity slip away.

"Good chance!"

Xu Sanshi shouted, his legs violently kicking off the ground as his powerful body charged forward like a cannonball leaving its barrel.

The heavy, pitch-black Black Tortoise Shield of Profound Underworld in his hand smashed viciously onto the arena surface.

A black halo instantly spread outward from the shield.

"Profound Underworld Shock!"

The terrifying shockwave struck the rigid Bei Bei with perfect accuracy.

The powerful impact directly ignored the lightning shield Bei Bei had hurriedly formed, lifting both his feet off the ground.

Bei Bei lost his balance, his body flying like a kite with its string cut. He traced a long arc through the air before crashing heavily outside the battle platform with a muffled thud.

The noisy Soul Fighting Arena fell into brief silence at that moment.

No one understood why Bei Bei, who had held the advantage just moments ago, had suddenly made such a low-level mistake.

The referee on the arena reacted extremely quickly. With a flash, he appeared at the center of the battle platform and raised his right hand high.

"Bei Bei has fallen from the arena! The match is over! Xu Sanshi wins!"