The Strong-Willed Xiao Xiao, Breaking the Formation: Sea Absorbing Melody!

The referee's announcement echoed through the entire soul fighting arena via the amplified soul guidance device, instantly igniting a roar of noise and cheers from the stands.

Some cheered for Xu Sanshi's desperate counterattack, while others beat their chests and stomped their feet in frustration over Bei Bei's inexplicable blunder.

Amidst this surging wave of sound, Xiao Yan withdrew his gaze, turned, and headed toward the exit of the stands.

He had never held much interest in this farcical gambling match; crushing that overstepping mental force had merely been a casual act of clearing away the chaotic energy that had violated the rules.

As for Huo Yuhao, who had fainted in the corner of the stands due to the mental backlash, others would naturally attend to him; it was none of his concern.

"Class Monitor!"

Li Dazhuang squeezed out from the crowded throng, his forehead drenched in sweat, his expression a mix of excitement and anxiety.

"The match is over, I need to hurry back to the dormitory." Li Dazhuang reached up to wipe the sweat from his brow. "The song you and Xiao Xiao played was divine! I feel like the heaven and earth energy around me is drilling right into my pores. My talent is poor to begin with, so I have to use all of my afternoon for meditation while I still have this boost!"

Looking at the stocky, determined boy with the buzzcut, Xiao Yan nodded slightly.

"Go on. Keep your energy steady during your practice; avoid any restlessness or impatience."

"You got it! See you tomorrow, Monitor!" Li Dazhuang agreed repeatedly, then turned and took long strides, sprinting toward the freshman dormitory area in a rush.

After parting ways with Li Dazhuang, Xiao Yan led Xiao Xiao out of the gates of Shrek Academy.

The midday sun spilled over the wide street, and the snack street outside the academy was entering one of its busiest hours of the day.

Stalls of all kinds lined both sides of the road; the smoky aroma of barbecue, the sweet fragrance of pastries, and the rich, savory scent of various braised meats intertwined, constantly teasing the taste buds of passersby.

Over the past few days, this street had become the siblings' fixed base for lunch.

Xiao Xiao held two skewers of meat, roasted to a golden, oily crisp, her cheeks stuffed full.

She moved nimbly between the various stalls, her large eyes darting around as she scouted for her next target.

There were simply too many types of snacks here; even though they hadn't missed a meal in days, they had barely tasted half of what was on offer.

The two ate and stopped along the way until Xiao Xiao finished the last piece of osmanthus cake, at which point she pulled out a handkerchief and wiped her mouth with satisfaction.

Having eaten their fill, it should have been the perfect time to return to the dorm for a nap, but for the first time ever, Xiao Xiao didn't complain about being sleepy.

She stepped up to Xiao Yan's side, tilted her head back, and a spark of eagerness flickered in her emerald eyes.

"Brother, we don't have class this afternoon. Let's find a place to practice the zither and cultivate!"

Xiao Yan paused and looked down at her with some surprise.

Then, the corners of his mouth curled up, and he teased her mercilessly: "Oh? Who was it back home a few days ago, complaining every day that cultivation was too tiring and saying they wanted to play to their heart's content for a month once they reached the academy?"

One had to understand that for the siblings, so-called "practicing the zither" was a form of deep-level cultivation.

The Fuxi Zither and the Nine Phoenix Flute acted as primary and auxiliary instruments.

When played in harmony, they could not only resonate with the heavens and earth but also form a massive energy vortex.

Within this vortex, the rise and fall of the musical theory guided the heaven and earth energy to cleanse the meridians, allowing their cultivation speed to take a qualitative leap.

This was the main reason Xiao Xiao had been able to reach the level of a thirty-fifth-rank Soul Elder at her age.

Her Nine Phoenix Flute martial soul, through years of resonance with the Fuxi Zither, had long since been polished to a state of extreme purity, allowing her to absorb soul power with efficiency far beyond that of ordinary people.

As for Xiao Yan himself, his cultivation progress was actually not particularly fast.

The Art of the Fuxi Emperor required the simultaneous cultivation of essence, energy, and spirit, and its demands on the quality of energy were outrageously strict.

Ordinary soul masters only sought quantity when absorbing soul power, but he had to repeatedly refine and compress every wisp of energy he drew into his body, converting it into the endless, primordial Taiji energy.

Furthermore, to bear the bottomless energy consumption of the Eastern Emperor Bell in the future, he had to solidify his foundation until there wasn't a single gap left.

If not for this near-perverse level of compression and refinement, with his supreme talent—having been baptized by the Fuxi inheritance—and the added boost of the zither and flute harmony, his cultivation would have been at least that of a high-level Soul King, with a very high probability of having already broken through to Soul Emperor.

Hearing Xiao Yan's teasing, Xiao Xiao's fair cheeks flushed slightly.

She certainly wouldn't admit that she had been provoked.

This morning in the Class Nine classroom, when that blonde girl named Ning Tian revealed her thirty-first-rank soul power, Xiao Xiao's heart had skipped a beat.

Although she hadn't said anything, as someone who had always been by Xiao Yan's side, she was inherently competitive.

She would never allow herself to be outdone by outsiders, nor would she allow herself to become a burden to her brother.

"Brother! Let's go, let's go!"

Xiao Xiao reached out and grabbed the white hem of Xiao Yan's school uniform, beginning to employ her unique skill—acting spoiled.

She shook Xiao Yan's sleeve while urging him on with that soft, sweet, and naive voice.

Watching the little girl's shameless display, Xiao Yan shook his head helplessly.

He understood the human heart and could naturally see through the competitiveness Xiao Xiao hid beneath her cute exterior.

This sense of urgency, born from the desire to improve after realizing one's shortcomings, was an essential catalyst on the path of cultivation.

"Let go, you're wrinkling the clothes." Xiao Yan pulled his sleeve away, tapped her bun-styled hair, and started walking. "Fine, let's go find a quiet place."

The two re-entered the academy, avoiding the crowded teaching and dormitory areas, and headed deep into the heart of Shrek Academy.

Before long, a wide, shimmering lake appeared in their field of vision.

The lake water was clear and azure, reflecting the blue sky and white clouds. A faint mist hovered over the surface of the water, marking the famous landmark of Shrek Academy—Sea God Lake.

Xiao Yan led Xiao Xiao along the edge of Sea God Lake, finally coming to a halt in a secluded and quiet grove by the shore.

The trees here were lush, their interlacing branches and leaves blocking out the sunlight, leaving only a few mottled beams of light cast upon the moss-covered stone slabs.

The surroundings were filled only with the rustling of wind through leaves and the sound of distant waves lapping against the shore, making it an excellent place for cultivation.

Xiao Yan sat cross-legged on a flat bluestone.

He spread his hands flat, and with moon-white and purple-gold divine radiance intertwining, the ancient and weathered Fuxi Zither hovered in the air before him.

Xiao Xiao sat down opposite him, and with a flicker of green light, the Nine Phoenix Flute was held to her lips.

Without the need for excessive verbal communication, the moment their eyes met, they had already decided on the piece for this duet.

Unlike the soothing and gentle melody of the Lingshu: Yuan-Gathering Melody they had played in the classroom that morning, Xiao Yan's technique this time was bold and expansive.

He hooked his right index and middle fingers onto the strings and plucked upward with a sudden, forceful motion.

"Zheng—!"

A high-pitched, impassioned zither note exploded suddenly, like a sharp sword unsheathed, piercing straight into the firmament.

This piece was titled Breaking the Formation: Sea Absorbing Melody.

Xiao Xiao's flute melody cut in immediately afterward.

The originally ethereal sound of the flute became urgent and soaring, echoing and swirling through the woods in rhythm with the zither.

As soon as the melody unfolded, the small grove underwent a drastic change.

The heaven and earth elemental energy within a radius of several hundred meters felt a powerful summons, beginning to converge frantically toward the location where the two were sitting.

A visible current of energy formed a small vortex above the woods, and the leaves shook violently under the pull of this airflow.

When these wildly surging elemental energies touched the sound waves of the zither and flute duet, it was as if they had passed through a precision filter.

The originally chaotic and manic energy was forcibly shattered and purified by the sound waves, then transformed into trickles that flowed continuously into their bodies, following the rhythm of their breathing and the circulation of their meridians.

Xiao Yan's eyes were tightly shut, his ten fingers flying across the strings, leaving behind a blur of afterimages.

He guided the massive elemental energy to scour his bones and meridians, compressing it into the Taiji Qi Sea in his Dantian, steadily pushing his soul power forward.

The two were immersed in this deep state of cultivation.

Just then, a sudden change occurred on the wide, calm surface of Sea God Lake.

A blinding red light suddenly shot into the sky from the direction of the Lake Heart Island, racing across the surface of the water at an incredible speed.

It was a woman dressed in red.

She was completely enveloped in crimson flames, with fire soaring into the sky.

The moment the lake water beneath her feet touched that terrifying high temperature, it emitted a harsh hissing sound, and large areas of the water were instantly evaporated into white steam.

From a distance, she looked like a meteor flying low over the water, trailing a long wake of white steam behind her.

The woman's consciousness was in a state of chaos, and the evil fire within her body was wantonly burning away her sanity.

Her eyes were blood-red, and she had been running aimlessly across the lake purely on instinct, attempting to use the chill of the water to suppress the heat within her.

Suddenly, her figure faltered on the surface of the lake.

Through her dim and confused vision, she keenly sensed an anomaly coming from a certain direction by the shore.

There, an extremely vast and pure concentration of heaven and earth elemental energy was gathering.

To someone being tortured by evil fire to the point of nearly suffering a cultivation deviation, that pure gathering place of energy was like a spring of water appearing in the desert, radiating a fatal attraction.

The woman in red let out a painful, stifled groan, then changed direction, transforming into a violent line of fire as she headed straight for the secluded grove.