This flame looked gentle, but it held a heart-stopping heat.
Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle!
In an instant, Yue Guan's imposing ninth Soul Skill—the countless golden petal blades filling the sky—met the green flames and vanished like snow meeting magma. It didn't even last a second before it was burned to nothing!
Not even a speck of ash remained!
"Wha—what?!"
Yue Guan's ultimate attack had been interrupted, and the backlash left him badly injured. He spat out a mouthful of blood and stared at the old man in shock.
"Who are you?!"
The old man glanced at him, his gaze pausing for a moment on the nine Soul Rings around him. A trace of surprise flashed in his eyes, then turned to scorn. "Those flashy rings of energy—what barbarian tribe did you crawl out of?"
"I am Fama, president of the Alchemist Guild of the Jia Ma Empire."
"As for the one you just tried to kill—"
Fama pointed at the Red Fire Pig, which was still calmly eating grass, and said flatly, "That's my medicinal pig. I use it to test the medicinal properties of the first-grade Yellow Chrysanthemum Herb."
"You destroyed my medicinal field, and now you want to kill my pig?"
After seeing this sudden scene on the Sky Screen, the people of the Douluo Continent fell into stunned silence.
Douluo Continent, Shrek Academy.
Tang San stared fixedly at the screen, gripping the Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record in his hand so tightly it was almost crushed.
"Y-Yellow Chrysanthemum Herb?"
"A first-grade medicinal herb?"
"That's something beyond the Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum, an Immortal Herb among Immortal Herbs!"
"And in this world, it's only a first-grade herb? They even use it to feed pigs?"
Tang San's entire worldview collapsed in that moment.
The medicinal knowledge he had always prided himself on, the Immortal Herb compendium he had treasured like a priceless possession—in this higher-dimensional world, they were nothing but a book of jokes!
The so-called Immortal Herbs were pig feed here.
And the so-called ninth Soul Skill couldn't even block a casual wave of someone's hand.
"How are we supposed to compete with that?"
Oscar, beside him, slumped to the ground, his face full of despair. "Our finish line doesn't even measure up to their starting line."
"The thing Chrysanthemum Douluo risked his life to protect is just a weed for feeding pigs in their eyes—"
"Is there any justice in this world?"
Meanwhile, in the scene on the Sky Screen.
Fama clearly had no interest in wasting words on this oddly dressed savage.
He looked Yue Guan up and down, then suddenly his eyes lit up. "Oh? It seems your body contains a very unusual affinity for plants."
"Your strength is lacking—you're not even a Da Dou Shi—but your constitution is a Flower Farmer Saint Physique, born to tend flowers."
"Fortunately, the weeds in my medicinal field have been growing too fast lately. I'm short a hand for weeding and spreading fertilizer."
As he spoke, Fama raised a hand and grabbed. An invisible force of spiritual power instantly immobilized Yue Guan. No matter how he struggled, he couldn't move.
"Since you're here, you might as well stay."
"From now on, you'll haul manure and fertilize my fields. If you do a good job, I might reward you with a few Yellow Chrysanthemum Herbs to eat."
With that, Fama casually tossed Yue Guan a hoe and two manure buckets.
And so, Yue Guan—the legendary figure of the Douluo Continent, an elder of Spirit Hall, and a level-95 Titled Douluo—was forced to put away his Martial Soul under the gaze of Soul Masters across the continent. Tears of humiliation streaming down his face, he hefted the two heavy manure buckets and began his career as a heaven-chosen flower farmer.
Elsewhere, at Spirit Hall.
Elder Hall.
"No!!!"
Ghost Douluo let out a piercing wail, and he seemed to age a dozen years in an instant.
If Yue Guan had died in battle, that would have meant he was simply outmatched.
But hauling manure—
For a Titled Douluo who loved beauty more than life and was a clean freak, it was a torment ten thousand times worse than being slowly cut to death!
"Why? Why did it have to turn out this way?!"
Meanwhile, behind the Sky Screen.
After Bibi Dong finished cleaning the Heavenly Palace steps again, the old man appeared carrying a bowl of food.
"Since you're done working, it's time to eat."
"I figured you wouldn't know where to find food, so I'll bring you a meal one last time. Remember to collect it yourself next time."
As he spoke, the old man casually pulled a chipped, broken porcelain bowl from his sleeve. A bit of black grime even clung to its rim.
"Here. This is yours."
"I asked them to save you some broth to build up your strength."
The old man held the chipped bowl out to Bibi Dong.
Bibi Dong shakily lifted her head and looked into the bowl.
What was that stuff?
A cloudy white liquid, with a few yellowed leaves floating on top and several hard, uncooked grains of rice. It even gave off an indescribable stench.
That was clearly slops!
The kind that had gone cold, fit only for pigs!
"P-Predecessor..."
Seeing this, Bibi Dong fought back the urge to throw up and tried to protest.
She had accepted being made to sweep.
She had accepted being made a slave; she'd even endured that for the sake of becoming stronger.
But making her eat something worse than pig feed—that was trampling on her dignity!
"What? You don't want to eat?"
The old man's eyes turned icy, and the air around them instantly froze. A pressure thousands of times more terrifying than the weight of the steps came crashing down, pinning Bibi Dong in place. "At the Heavenly Palace, wasting food is a grave offense."
"If you won't eat it, then I'll pour it out for the dogs."
"But let me make this clear: if you starve to death, I'll throw you off the cliff for the eagles."
"I'll eat. I'll eat—"
Feeling that palpable killing intent, Bibi Dong gritted her teeth and clenched her fists as she answered.
Then she closed her eyes, two streams of tears sliding down her cheeks. With trembling hands, she picked up the chipped bowl and tipped it back, gulping down its contents as if she were drinking poison.
Gulp.
As the cold, cloudy liquid slid down her throat, Bibi Dong braced herself for the disgusting taste and her stomach to churn.
But the moment the slops entered her stomach—
Bibi Dong's eyes flew open. Her beautiful eyes widened to their limits, her pupils contracting violently!
How could that be slops?!
It was an incredibly pure mass of nourishment—more potent even than the bowl of white rice porridge she'd had last time!
The next second, Bibi Dong let out a muffled groan she could no longer suppress.
The energy was simply too concentrated. Like a surging river, it rushed into Bibi Dong's long-dried meridians in an instant!
Under its cleansing force, the meridians that had been damaged by overexertion recovered completely in a flash, becoming even more resilient than before!
The few yellowed leaves floating in the bowl transformed into concentrated life essence, flooding through her internal organs and nourishing them.
Her body, which had grown somewhat gloomy from the Rakshasa God Trial, brimmed with more vitality than ever before!
And those few grains of uncooked rice drove the pure power straight into her body, blasting open the unbreakable bottleneck at level 99!
Before you continue