East Sea, Aolai City
Outside Red Mountain Academy
Lu Chuan wore shabby clothes, had smeared a little ash on his face, and crouched by the roadside with his chin propped on his hand.
He looked a bit like a beggar.
But even dressed like that, Lu Chuan's looks were every bit as striking as those of the famous heartthrobs.
From young girls to married women,
anyone who passed by couldn't help stopping to take a look.
Time slipped away in the blink of an eye,
and before he knew it, evening had come.
The sun sank in the west,
and groups of students from Red Mountain Academy began filing out.
Most of them were accompanied by their parents,
with only a few exceptions.
But Lu Chuan still hadn't seen Tang Wuyue.
Had he crouched by the wrong school gate?
Just as Lu Chuan was beginning to wonder,
he suddenly heard a faint voice, edged with timidity and fear.
"G-go away!"
The voice was unfamiliar,
yet it tugged straight at Lu Chuan's heartstrings.
It was as if
if he didn't heed that voice,
he would lose something very important!
At Lu Chuan's level,
intuition sometimes amounted to prophecy!
So,
without a moment's hesitation, Lu Chuan sought the direction the voice had come from,
and swept it with his divine sense.
Before long,
Lu Chuan found the source of the voice.
It was a cute little girl.
She had silver hair and skin as fair as fine porcelain. Paired with her slightly chubby cheeks, she looked like a delicate doll, inspiring an intense urge to protect her.
Her violet eyes were clear as crystals, and her long, curled lashes gave her a bewildered air whenever she looked at someone.
She looked like a little airhead.
Thanks to the resonance of their bloodlines, Lu Chuan recognized the girl at a glance.
She was the one he'd been waiting for all along,
Tang Wuyue!
At that moment, she was curled up in the corner of an alley,
with nowhere left to retreat!
In front of her stood one fat man, one skinny man, and one blond punk—
three shadows like greedy hyenas, blocking every escape route.
The fat young man wore a lecherous grin. His tiny eyes crawled over Tang Wuyue, and he rubbed his hands together as his Adam's apple bobbed.
"What a prize! Even her cries for help are so sweet. She's just pitiful enough to make you want to protect her. Those old devils in the underground black market will love her!"
The skinny young man had a leering smile, with dark circles so heavy he looked half-dead.
"I'd love her too, heh heh... This trip was worth it. We should get a fortune for her—enough to live it up for a good long while!"
"Tch, keep it together. Have some dignity!"
The blond young man cocked his mouth to one side,
wearing a wicked smile.
"If you scare our little moneymaker, what are you going to pay us back with?"
As he spoke,
he reached for Tang Wuyue,
intending to cover her mouth,
knock her out, and take her away.
But Tang Wuyue instinctively knocked his hand aside.
By then,
Tang Wuyue had awakened her Martial Soul,
and with the Silver Dragon King Bloodline coursing through her, she possessed divine strength from birth.
Even a light slap
sent a sharp pain through the blond young man's hand!
"Well, well! Who'd have guessed this little beauty had such a temper?"
The blond stared at Tang Wuyue in surprise, then looked at the fat and skinny young men.
The three exchanged glances,
and each saw delight in the others' eyes.
After all,
a fiery little thing like her was even more sought-after on the black market than foreigners from the other two continents!
Her price would be several times higher, too!
For a moment,
all three couldn't help bursting into raucous laughter!
They had no idea
that a demon had already crossed Red Mountain Academy and reached the mouth of the alley!
Lu Chuan had arrived,
determined to kill all three of them!
He looked at them as if they were already dead and asked coldly,
"Hey, you three. What's got you so happy?"
Startled at being caught in the act,
the three turned around in alarm.
But when they saw it was just a little kid,
they immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
At the same time, anger welled up inside them.
The blond young man sauntered over to Lu Chuan with his hands in his pockets, swaying his head and looking cocky.
He raised a leg and kicked,
cursing as he did. "You little brat, you scared the hell out of me! If you don't want to die, get lost—"
But before he could finish,
Lu Chuan grabbed his leg!
In an instant,
the blond's ferocious expression froze into comical terror.
He looked into Lu Chuan's eyes.
They weren't human eyes at all.
They were cold,
majestic,
and merciless,
as if an ancient Ferocious Beast, slumbering since time immemorial, had opened its eyes in that very moment,
looking down upon a few clueless bugs!
A terror born of the instinct to survive surged from the depths of his heart.
He wanted to beg for mercy,
but Lu Chuan gave him no chance!
The Power of Destruction poured into the blond's body.
In an instant,
the blond young man's body and soul were completely annihilated!
He vanished from the world without a trace!
Against ordinary people,
even a single wisp of Lu Chuan's Power of Destruction left them no chance to resist!
"He... He disappeared!"
The skinny young man swallowed and stammered.
Seeing such an inexplicable sight,
the fat on the other young man's face twitched stiffly,
and his throat went dry.
Anyone would be afraid to see someone vanish into thin air.
But he'd been out running with the wrong crowd since he was young,
and had seen more than enough bloodshed.
He was used to this kind of business.
He knew that when life and death hung in the balance, he had to strike first,
take control of the situation,
and win when two opponents met on a narrow path!
He pulled the short dagger from the back of his waist,
then charged with a roar.
"Where'd you come from, you little fraud, putting on a show of sorcery? How dare you ruin my business! Bring the blond back, then get lost!"
However,
in just one exchange,
the short dagger was in Lu Chuan's hand.
Then,
Lu Chuan turned toward Tang Wuyue, huddled in the corner, and smiled gently.
"Little sister, close your eyes. Things might get a little bloody."
Tang Wuyue nodded at his words and closed her lovely eyes.
And the very next second after she shut them,
half the fat man's head vanished!
This time,
Lu Chuan didn't kill the fat man right away.
Instead, he made sure the skinny young man saw the whole thing happen!
"M-murder!"
Seeing the blond young man and the fat young man disappear one after the other, without even leaving behind their bones, the skinny young man let out a scream of terror.
He turned and tried to run, only to find himself at the end of a dead-end alley.
There was nowhere to escape!
"Thud!"
The skinny young man's legs gave out, and he fell to his knees.
He watched Lu Chuan walk toward him, step by step.
Snot and tears ran down his face
as he begged in terror,
"Please, please... don't kill me! Don't kill me!"
But
how could Lu Chuan possibly let him go?
"I'm sure you've heard plenty of pleas like that before, haven't you? Did you spare them?"
Lu Chuan stared coldly at the skinny young man.
At his words, the skinny young man's expression stiffened.
Suddenly, the pleas of the countless children he had once sold into the black market rang through his mind.
Today's retribution for yesterday's deeds.
Heaven's way comes full circle. Has my turn come at last?
The lean young man smiled bitterly.
Lu Chuan had already placed one hand on his head.
A searing pain coursed through his entire body in an instant,
and he could clearly feel
his internal organs,
his limbs and bones,
vanishing one after another.
That sensation
was just like someone cutting him open and digging out his organs and bones with a knife!
If I get another life, I'll definitely be a good person!
That was the lean young man's last thought.
Unfortunately,
he wasn't the protagonist.
[If] the rules were useless to him...
A quarter of an hour later,
the entire trio of evildoers had been executed!
Whether in his previous life as a human,
or in this life as the God of Soul Beasts,
in Lu Chuan's eyes,
human traffickers deserved nothing but death!
"Big brother... you killed someone."
A soft, sweet voice suddenly rang out.
Tang Wuyue had opened her eyes at some point.
In an instant,
all the killing intent around Lu Chuan vanished.
A gentle smile appeared on his face
as he looked at Tang Wuyue with a grin.
"Yeah, big brother killed someone. So what should we do?"
Tang Wuyue looked straight into Lu Chuan's eyes and said earnestly,
"Run!"
"Big brother, you just have to get away!"
"Mom said that killing someone means going to jail."
"But they need witnesses and evidence."
"Big brother, hurry home. You'll be fine once you're home. There aren't any cameras here, and I won't tell the police officers!"
After saying that,
Tang Wuyue patted her chest to show that she could be trusted!
Lu Chuan saw that this little girl, who had been so timid just moments ago,
was now bravely trying to help him get away with it,
and it was as if something had struck him deep inside.
He pinched Tang Wuyue's cheek and asked with a smile, "Then do you know that Soul Masters have a very respectable status? As long as you reveal that you're a Soul Master, they won't dare bully you!"
"I know. Mom told me, but... I only have Rank 3 Soul Power. I'm not as amazing as you, so I don't count as a Soul Master." Tang Wuyue lowered her head, her pretty face turning red as her voice gradually faded.
Lu Chuan understood at once: the little girl's pride was getting in the way.
She was too embarrassed.
Still,
Lu Chuan could understand.
It was like getting thirty points on a test out of a hundred.
Even if most people got zero,
as long as there were people who got eighty or ninety,
it was hard to admit to getting thirty.
Being human really was troublesome sometimes.
You not only had to get stronger, you also had to compare yourself with others your own age.
It was nothing like being a Soul Beast.
The strong were the boss, no matter their age.
A ten-thousand-year-old Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bear could beat up other Ferocious Beasts three or five times its age and become the king of its territory!
Lu Chuan sighed inwardly.
Tang Wuyue saw him standing there and grew anxious.
"Big brother... don't just stand there. Hurry home!"
"If the police officers catch you, you'll have to go to jail!"
Lu Chuan pointed at his tattered clothes. "Little sister, do I look like I have a home?"
Tang Wuyue looked Lu Chuan up and down.
She realized that the little big brother in front of her really was dressed like a beggar.
"All right, hurry home. I'll wait here for the police officers. If I go to jail, at least I'll have a place to shelter from the wind and rain! You do the crime, you do the time!"
Lu Chuan patted Tang Wuyue's head and joked.
For starters, he'd left no trace when he killed them. There was no way he'd be discovered.
Even if he was discovered, Di Tian wasn't useless.
And in the worst-case scenario,
if Di Tian dropped the ball again,
Lu Chuan wouldn't mind spending some time in jail.
Back then, the Silver Dragon King had protected him while he served time in the Divine Prison.
Now he could protect her and spend some time in the Mortal Prison. What was wrong with that?
Tens of thousands of years had passed.
This time,
it was his turn to protect her!
Before you continue