"Could I possibly mistake that lifeless Soul Power of Tang Hao's?"
Bibi Dong sat up slightly and asked in return.
Naruto's face fell. He tugged at the corner of his mouth.
"Why'd he suddenly stop holding back?"
Just last night, Bibi Dong had sensed Tang Hao's presence. That sounded like good news: Tang Hao, who'd been hiding in the shadows, had finally surfaced. Perhaps this would even give Naruto an opening.
But when he heard where Tang Hao had been, Naruto was stunned. Tang Hao had been only a few hundred meters from his house! You could even say Tang Hao had been watching him from afar!
That close!?
What was he planning?
Naruto naturally couldn't focus on meditation. Afraid of alerting the snake, he could only stay home and keep still.
He spent the whole night trembling with fear. Yet by the next morning, when the sun had already risen, Tang Hao still hadn't done anything. He'd simply left in silence.
That only sent Naruto an even more dangerous signal.
Tang Hao was scouting the place!
That bastard was planning to strike!
"On this continent, the Upper Three Sects and Spirit Hall appear to live in peace. But behind the scenes, they assassinate each other's talented youths all the time. It's nothing unusual."
Bibi Dong spoke coldly, then glanced at the troubled Naruto. "As for you, you're no longer just the whetstone Tang Hao left for Tang San. You're a future enemy who must be cut down at once, roots and all."
The situation had changed.
This was no longer merely about saving face. It was about survival.
After sorting through the reasons, Naruto waved his hand irritably and plopped down in his rickety chair. "All right, I get it. You people have no decency. You won't even leave a model student like me alone!"
"You?"
Bibi Dong scoffed. She was about to list all the absurd, bizarre things Naruto had done at the academy over the years.
But then she saw him hang his head, brows tightly knitted, teeth clenched in indignation. She lost interest and turned to ask with concern, "What are you planning to do?"
Naruto took several deep breaths before managing to swallow down this miserable, helpless fury. In the end, he sighed in resignation.
"Make a run for it. I've already packed everything."
The gap between their strengths was like the distance between heaven and earth.
Even with Dong Trumpet, Naruto could only forcibly boost himself from Soul Grandmaster to Soul King level. The difference between him and Tang Hao was still despairing. No matter how unwilling, aggrieved, or furious he felt, that gap wouldn't shrink.
If Tang Hao wanted to strike, all Naruto could do was run...
Seeing that the little brat wasn't planning to do anything extreme, Bibi Dong let out a barely perceptible sigh of relief. Her words, however, remained sharp.
"At least you've got some sense. With your body as it is now, it couldn't withstand the full force of my spiritual power. And even now, I can't be sure where Tang Hao is hiding."
"He might be waiting right outside your house, for all we know."
That was also why it was nearly noon and the two of them still hadn't made a move, instead bickering here.
The enemy was hidden while they were exposed. Tang Hao, lurking in the shadows, weighed on them like a mountain.
Naruto didn't answer. He remained silent.
His awareness returned to the quiet courtyard. He looked up at the sun and silently calculated the time, as if waiting for something.
As the minutes slowly passed, something did indeed seem to happen. A stir arose in the usually peaceful Nuoding City. Countless residents poured into the streets, shouting about something no one could make out.
Naruto curled his lips into a smile and gave his answer.
"Then why not lure him out?"
Several minutes earlier.
At Notting Academy, the gates were shut tight, guarded only by a few sentries. Across a lively street stood rows of low buildings, between which countless dark alleys were tucked away.
Naruto pressed himself against a wall, concealed in the shadows. He tugged at the hood over his head, leaving only his dark-purple eyes exposed.
Through the passersby, he looked toward Notting Academy. After watching for a moment, he furrowed his brows.
This is troublesome...
In his field of vision,
Naruto first spotted his target in a corner of the academy. Then he looked toward several windows belonging to the teachers' offices. Figures moved about inside, and among them, one chubby silhouette stood out in particular.
Principal Fuqi hadn't gone out for an extra meal today?
He'd come up with this plan on a whim, so anything could go wrong. All Naruto could do was shake his head and accept his bad luck.
His main body—the bastard who did nothing but give orders—wouldn't have the patience to wait.
He'd have to force his way through the rest!
Having made up his mind,
Naruto drew back his gaze and took a deep breath, making his final preparations. First, he pulled out several orange-red sheets of paper and carefully stuck them to his body.
Then, in the corner of his eye, the trait labels unfolded.
[Orphan, No Regrets Youth, Ninja Academy Student, Ninja, Mischievous Troublemaker, Ramen Lover, One Thousand Years of Death...]
Over the years, Naruto had acquired all sorts of strange trait labels through various experiments. Unfortunately, most of them were underwhelming, and the system also imposed a limit: he could only equip three labels.
He swapped his labels for "No Regrets Youth," "Ninja," and "Mischievous Troublemaker," then formed Hand Seals to change his appearance and voice.
Next...
Bang!
"Yes, the habits of the Thunder Beast..."
In a study crammed with books, two people sat beside the window. Tang San, now a level twenty-four Soul Grandmaster, sat upright at the desk with a serious expression. Yu Xiaogang sat behind it, hands tucked into his sleeves and a smile on his lips, explaining a certain kind of unusual Soul Beast to Tang San.
Then a sudden boom, like a bolt of lightning from a clear sky, abruptly cut off the Grandmaster's lesson!
Right after that,
the entire Notting Academy was thrown into an uproar.
Countless gazes, including those of Tang San and his teacher, turned toward the noise through the windows. They saw the academy's massive iron gate bent into scrap and soaring through the air.
That was what had caused the deafening boom. At the gate, the two guards, still too stunned to react, had gone deathly pale and collapsed to the ground, trembling.
A stranger in a pitch-black cloak stood at the entrance. Purple-black Soul Power, mixed with a blood-red killing intent, poured out without restraint like a tsunami.
Beneath that blood-red killing intent,
even the sky over Notting Academy seemed to darken.
The weaker students rolled their eyes back and fainted on the spot.
Only those who had reached Soul Grandmaster level could barely withstand it. Yu Xiaogang's face turned deathly pale. Fortunately, Tang San saw what was happening and rushed over to support him, preventing him from falling.
But Yu Xiaogang had no time to worry about that. Eyes wide, he couldn't tear his gaze away from the stranger, muttering to himself.
"A Soul King? This Soul Power feels so familiar... Who is that?"
Bang!
The iron gate finally hit the ground, kicking up a thick cloud of dust. Through the swirling yellow-brown haze, a figure shot out like lightning, tearing straight through the smoke!
In Tang San and Yu Xiaogang's eyes, the figure blurred with its speed, becoming little more than a black streak.
In the blink of an eye,
the hairs on both men stood on end. They leaned back in unison, eyes wide and faces stricken with disbelief. The stranger hadn't slowed down—he seemed to be charging straight toward them!
But just as the two of them panicked, the entire Notting Academy reacted.
"Who goes there?"
A thunderous shout rang out over the academy. Brilliant golden light filled their field of vision as a gleaming golden bell appeared out of nowhere and came crashing in from the side!
Boom!
A metallic clang rang out.
The figure hurtling forward at breakneck speed had no time to dodge. The blow struck from the side, sending him off course and forcing him to stop.
The stranger brushed the dust from his face and looked up. Several teachers with grim expressions, all Soul Elders, and the Soul Ancestor principal had leapt through the windows and landed on the Training Ground, blocking his way.
Behind them, the golden bell blazed with light.
Principal Fuqi, furious beyond measure, looked like a wrathful Buddha.
Four Soul Rings—white, yellow, yellow, and purple—appeared beneath his feet. He stepped forward and stood in front of the others. "Evacuate the students! We'll hold him off here!"
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