Bang!
Yu Tianheng appeared in the doorway, his chest heaving as he gulped down great breaths of air.
He had raced all the way here after receiving the message. His handsome face was now filled with disbelief and deep anguish.
His gaze locked onto the dark green figure shrouded in golden light: Dugu Yan, his girlfriend, the woman he, Yu Tianheng, had vowed to spend his life with.
"Yanzi..." His voice was hoarse and trembling. "Is this true? Did you really... cultivate that Yin-Yang Reincarnation Technique too?"
Dugu Yan slowly turned around. A flicker of complicated emotion passed through her emerald-green eyes.
She said nothing, but her silence was the best answer.
Yu Tianheng's heart felt as if an invisible hand had clenched around it.
He abruptly stepped forward, his voice rising. "What's so good about that Brother Cao?! Why would you willingly debase yourself and become some fifth or sixth wife?! Yanzi, wake up! That guy's no good! He specifically goes after young, beautiful women. He's obviously a lecher!"
His voice was full of anguish and unwillingness, with a hint of pleading.
"Yanzi, come back! Didn't we promise? We'd cultivate together, grow stronger together, and... and..."
He couldn't go on. Dugu Yan's calm gaze made all his words seem feeble and powerless.
Dugu Yan gently shook her head. "Tian Heng, you don't understand."
"Brother Cao is the best person in the world, and also the most... forceful."
She paused, seeming to recall the time she had spent with Brother Cao in her dreams.
A faint blush appeared on her cool, beautiful face, along with a tenderness Yu Tianheng had never seen before.
"Don't compare yourself to him. There's no comparison."
Yu Tianheng's face turned as pale as paper.
"You..." He opened his mouth, only to find he couldn't say a single word.
"Tian Heng, you're a good person. Really."
"I hope you... find someone who's right for you."
Those words were like a dull knife, sawing back and forth across Yu Tianheng's heart.
A good person... The dreaded "you're a good person" speech! He had actually been given the good-person card!
Dugu Yan took a deep breath and looked at the three still-stunned committee members, then at Yu Tianheng, whose face was full of despair. She bowed slightly in farewell.
"Three committee members, Tian Heng... I'm leaving."
Meng Shenji came to his senses and hurriedly asked, "Leaving? Where are you going?"
Dugu Yan didn't answer. She simply raised her head and gazed into the distance.
"To find Brother Cao."
Then, with a flash, she became a streak of dark green light and shot out of the council hall.
All that remained inside were three dumbfounded committee members, and one...
"No!!!"
Yu Tianheng let out a heart-wrenching wail and rushed to the doorway, reaching out as if he could catch the streak of light already speeding away.
"Yanzi! Don't go!"
"How am I supposed to live without you?!"
"Yanzi!!!"
He pleaded loudly, but received no response.
The dark green streak of light had long since vanished without a trace.
Yu Tianheng's legs gave way, and he dropped to his knees. Bracing himself with both hands, he shuddered violently.
He lowered his head, his expression hidden, but each stifled sob was enough to break the heart.
"She... she just left like that?" Bai Baoshan murmured.
"The Heaven Dou Royal Academy has lost an eighty-ninth-level Soul Douluo..." Committee member Zhilin clutched his chest, feeling his heart bleed.
Meng Shenji was silent for a long while before finally letting out a long sigh.
"This Brother Cao... just who is he? How come all the beautiful girls in the world run off with him?"
After a long while, Yu Tianheng finally raised his head.
His handsome face was streaked with tears, but a complex light glimmered in his eyes.
He slowly rose and gazed in the direction where the streak of light had disappeared, murmuring to himself:
"Yanzi, from now on, your life will be without me..."
"You have to be happy!"
He spoke with such tragic devotion that even the three committee members were moved.
And yet, at that very moment...
"Pfft!"
A soft chuckle came from a corner. Everyone turned to look and saw Ya Qin covering her mouth, her shoulders shaking as she struggled to hold back her laughter.
Meng Shenji: "..."
Bai Baoshan: "..."
Zhilin: "..."
Yu Tianheng's face instantly turned beet red.
Ya Qin hurriedly waved her hands. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I usually don't laugh, it's just... I just think... um... Young Master Yu, why does your farewell speech sound a bit like something from a... from a stage play..."
She didn't finish, but everyone understood what she meant.
Like a pathetic simp who'd been dumped.
Yu Tianheng's face grew even redder. He opened his mouth to argue, only to find himself at a loss for words.
In the end, he could only take a deep breath, turn around, and stride away.
The three committee members exchanged glances and sighed in unison.
"Forget it, forget it..." Meng Shenji waved his hand. "Let's all disperse. This matter with the Sky Screen is beyond our control now."
Sunset Forest.
At the deepest point of the poison formation, an old man with green hair and beard lounged lazily atop a boulder riddled with holes from the corrosive poison. He held an unknown poisonous fruit in one hand and took a bite every now and then.
He was Poison Douluo, Dugu Bo.
The Sky Screen's appearance had piqued his curiosity, but only that.
What did it matter to him whether those young geniuses made the list? He was just a bystander, watching the show and offering the occasional comment. Life was carefree enough.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk..." Dugu Bo bit into the poisonous fruit and squinted at the Sky Screen. "Young people these days are one more outrageous than the next. An eighty-ninth-level Soul Douluo after another keeps popping up."
He took another bite. "I understand this continent less and less. That Yin-Yang Reincarnation Technique, that Brother Cao... I wonder which backwater hole they crawled out of. But it's got nothing to do with me. I'll just watch the show and snack. That's good enough."
He rolled over into a more comfortable position, ready to carry on watching as a bystander.
But just then, the Sky Screen's rankings updated.
[ Genius Ranking, tenth place: Dugu Yan. ]
The poisonous fruit fell from Dugu Bo's hand with a plop.
He sprang up, his formerly lazy green eyes now as wide as saucers!
"Y-Yan'er?"
"Yan'er made the list?"
He stared fixedly at the Sky Screen, at the three characters in Dugu Yan's name, checking them over and over at least ten times before finally believing it was real.
"Ha, ha, ha!!!"
Dugu Bo planted his hands on his hips and roared with laughter, startling the poisonous insects and snakes into scattering in every direction.
"Good! Excellent! She's truly my granddaughter! She's far surpassed what I was at her age!"
But once he had finished laughing, Dugu Bo's brow gradually furrowed.
An eighty-ninth-level Soul Douluo... That girl Yan'er had good talent, true, but on her own, she'd have little chance of reaching the Soul Douluo realm in her lifetime.
As her grandfather, he knew that better than anyone.
Could this Yin-Yang Reincarnation Technique... really be that miraculous?
Yan'er had made the list, and now the whole continent knew about her.
Would that girl run into danger?
Dugu Bo's expression instantly grew serious.
"No, I have to go check on her!"