Who Was the Real Monster? Get Down on Your Knees and Talk!

The dilapidated village outside Suotuo City seemed to have had its sound switched off.

The once-rowdy registration site had fallen so silent that a pin could be heard dropping.

Only the golden, sacred warmth lingering in the air and the dust drifting away silently told of the earth-shattering battle that had just taken place.

"Ten moves."

Su Yun's cool, jade-like voice broke the silence.

In midair, the phantom of the Judgment Angel behind him had not vanished. Instead, after enduring the battle, it had grown even more solid. Its six wings beat gently, every feather flowing with an oppressive force that made Spirit Masters' souls tremble.

Su Yun slowly descended from the sky, his white robes as pristine as snow. Not even the hem of his clothes had been disturbed by the fierce battle.

Before him, the once-solid earth had become a huge crater ten meters across.

At its center lay Zhao Wuji, the level-seventy-six Soul Saint who had once shaken the Spirit Master World and earned the title Immovable Wisdom King. He was in a sorry state.

The Vajra Bear Martial Soul he had once prided himself on had long since been beaten back into his body. His thick, muscular frame was covered in purple and blue bruises, and his once-fearsome round face was swollen like a ripe pig's head. Blood streamed from his nose, and his breathing was faint.

"Cough... cough, cough..."

Zhao Wuji coughed violently. Each time, bloody froth mixed with fragments of his organs spilled from the corner of his mouth.

His cloudy eyes held none of their earlier ferocity or wildness. All that remained was abject terror of an unknown power.

He had lost.

He had lost to a boy in his teens whose level was barely above twenty.

And his opponent had used only ten moves.

Su Yun walked toward the edge of the crater, then leaped lightly down, landing softly on Zhao Wuji's chest.

"Thump."

Su Yun's cloud-patterned boots looked light, but now they weighed a thousand jun. He planted one firmly on the Soul Saint's breastbone.

"Ugh...!"

Zhao Wuji let out a pained groan, but he no longer had the strength to resist.

Su Yun looked down at him, a deeply mocking curve at the corner of his mouth. He tapped the folding fan in his hand against his palm, again and again. Each sharp smack seemed to land on the face of Shrek Academy.

"Immovable Wisdom King?"

Su Yun's voice was not loud, yet boosted by Soul Power, it carried for miles around.

"I'll grant you this: that tortoise shell of yours is pretty tough. But that's all it is. In the face of absolute judgment, even the thickest hide belongs to a lamb waiting for slaughter."

Pinned beneath Su Yun's boot, Zhao Wuji's face flushed crimson with humiliation. He was so ashamed he wanted to die, yet could not utter a word.

Only then did the watching parents and students finally recover from their utter shock.

"He won... he really won!"

One of the applicants trembled with excitement.

"He beat a Soul Saint head-on in ten moves! Is he even human? Now that's a real monster!"

"Good! That was great!"

A parent whose registration fee Li Yusong had taken moments earlier suddenly led the applause.

"This Shrek Academy keeps talking about rules, but they couldn't even last ten moves against that young man! They're nothing but a scam shop! This young master's done the people a service!"

"Exactly! He's done the people a service! Give us our money back! Give us back our hard-earned money!"

Applause thundered, and shouts rose one after another.

The ordinary people who had once regarded Shrek Academy with awe saw Zhao Wuji trampled beneath Su Yun like a dead dog, and their fear instantly turned to anger.

At the edge of the crowd, Tang San stood motionless, as if struck by lightning, his mind completely blank.

"Impossible... This is absolutely impossible!!!"

Tang San stared at Su Yun's imposing figure, the violet light in his eyes trembling violently.

He had trained hard with Hidden Weapons and the Mysterious Heaven Skill, convinced that he was destined for greatness. He had thought that fighting opponents above his level was already enough to astonish the world.

But Su Yun had crushed his pride in a way he could not begin to understand.

"That's a Soul Saint! Someone even I could only look up to. How could he lose so miserably?"

Tang San glanced at the Sleeve Arrow in his hand. The trump card he had once been so proud of now seemed utterly laughable.

In front of Su Yun, he was like a child pointing a toy gun at a true god.

A sense of defeat he had never felt before, along with a deep jealousy, gnawed at his heart like a venomous snake.

Beside him, Yu Xiaogang—Grandmaster—looked as if his stiff, corpse-like face had completely collapsed.

His mind, which he had always claimed was Theory Invincible, was now a jumble of nonsense.

"Level suppression... Martial Soul suppression... Soul Power reserves... None of this makes sense! It completely defies the logic of the Martial Soul world!"

Yu Xiaogang muttered, his face deathly pale.

"Could it be... that a god-level Martial Soul really can ignore a gap of dozens of levels? If that's true, then all my years of research have been a joke!"

Su Yun paid no attention to the wails of these insignificant people.

He pressed down slightly with his foot, drawing a miserable scream from Zhao Wuji, then spoke without expression:

"Zhao Wuji, as a Soul Saint, you could have become a powerful figure in this world, protecting ordinary people and bringing prosperity to the region. But what did you do?"

"You call yourself the Immovable Wisdom King, yet you hide away in this remote village, working with that money-grubbing Flender to cheat people out of their money and lead students astray."

Su Yun pointed at the ordinary people in the distance, their registration fees stolen and their faces sallow. His voice grew colder.

"Ten Gold Soul Coins are several years' worth of expenses for an ordinary family. You demand them without batting an eye, then refuse to return them when you reject someone. You take this ill-gotten money and live in a rundown shack. Doesn't your conscience hurt?"

"You claim you're here to cultivate monsters. I say you're just using these so-called geniuses to satisfy your laughable egos."

"Today's only a small lesson. I broke a few of your ribs; consider that interest. If I ever see your Shrek people bullying the innocent, cheating and swindling again..."

Golden light blazed in Su Yun's eyes, and a killing intent instantly enveloped Zhao Wuji.

"I'll break every last bone in that old body of yours and feed them to the dogs!"

With that, Su Yun leaped out of the crater as lightly as a swallow. He did not even look back at Zhao Wuji.

Ning Rongrong stood among the crowd, her beautiful eyes now shaped like hearts. Her heart was beating so fast it seemed ready to leap out of her chest.

"So cool! Now that's what a true powerhouse looks like!"

Though Ning Rongrong was spoiled and willful, members of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect revered strength above all.

The sect's core disciples had always fawned over her, and she had thought that was only right. Deep down, she had even looked down on them for it.

But Su Yun's swagger—kicking a Soul Saint around like a ball while pointing at him and accusing him of leading students astray—had completely captured the heart of this young princess with a flair for the dramatic.

"What Dai Mubai? What Oscar? They're not even worthy of carrying his shoes!"

Ning Rongrong cupped her burning cheeks, her mind filled with the fierce whip kick Su Yun had just delivered.

Zhu Zhuqing, too, gave Su Yun a long, searching look.

She still seemed cool and composed, but her clenched fist revealed how deeply shaken she was.

Could this man really help her rewrite her fate, just as the Diary had said?

Su Yun walked over to Xiao Wu and took the folding fan from her. With a sharp swish, he opened it, once again becoming the refined young gentleman he had been before.

"Let's go. The air here stinks. If I breathe it in any longer, I'll lose my appetite."

Just then, the system's prompt rang in Su Yun's mind, right on cue:

[Ding! Because the host decisively defeated Zhao Wuji and completely shattered the authority of Shrek Academy's first trial, reward: Villain Value +10,000!]

[Ding! Detected a sharp rise in key character "Ning Rongrong"'s favorability. Current state: Utterly Adoring.]

[Ding! Law of Causality correction: Tang San's confidence has suffered a devastating blow. Luck Value -500.]

Su Yun's lips curled slightly as he cheerfully pulled out the black Diary.

[Daily check-in: Phase One of the Shrek Academy demolition plan is complete.]

[I have to say, Zhao Wuji makes a great punching bag. Tough skin and thick flesh—perfect for getting a feel for my Soul Power. But for level seventy-six, he's that weak? Shrek's credentials are looking worse by the day.]

[Seeing Tang San looking like he wants to kill me but doesn't dare makes me feel downright refreshed. Little San, little San, can't take it already? The fun's only just begun.]

[Come to think of it, the Shrek person I find most disgusting isn't even one of these old fools. Oscar—the guy who goes around shouting, "I have a sausage," and thinks he's a ladies' man when he's really just a creep—is probably lurking nearby, too.]

[Since he's here, I might as well take them all in one go. Next, I'll deal with the sausage seller.]