"You performed very well!"

"Then I'm coming."

Before the words had even faded, Wu Zhangkong's figure vanished from where she stood.

Her first and second soul rings released simultaneously beneath her feet.

The next moment, she appeared to Lu Chuan's left, her long sword slashing down at an angle, the trajectory cunning, the speed blinding.

Coupled with

the restrictions of Frost Mark and Frost Mist upon Lu Chuan, Lu Chuan's situation turned perilous in an instant.

"Frost Mark for deceleration and freezing prediction, Frost Mist for freezing damage and dual debuffs to attack speed and agility—Teacher Wu, you truly are ruthless!"

Feeling the debuffs on his Bloodline Aura, Lu Chuan couldn't help but sigh.

This combo skill of Wu Zhangkong's, paired with this earth-shattering sword strike, would be enough to send an ordinary five-ring Soul King into a panic!

If not for his second soul skill providing immunity to control, he would likely be pinned in place, forced to take the beating.

Since he wasn't controlled, Lu Chuan certainly wouldn't just stand there and take it.

He pushed off the ground with both legs, rushing forward to meet her, Dragon Scales erupting across his right arm, and like a reckless brute, he punched straight toward the edge of the Sky Frost Sword!

Bang!

Fist and blade collided, emitting a crisp sound like clashing metal.

Wu Zhangkong felt her long sword shudder, a terrifying force traveling up the blade, numbing the web between her thumb and forefinger.

Lu Chuan, on the other hand, despite having taken several of her strikes, remained completely unscathed.

Any minor wounds

healed completely within a few breaths of the combat!

What kind of monster is this! How can his physical body be this strong?

Wu Zhangkong was secretly shocked.

Hailing from Shrek, she had seen countless geniuses, but she had never seen one

with a physical body like Lu Chuan's.

In this situation, unless she used her fourth or fifth soul skill, she simply couldn't break through Lu Chuan's defense, but bullying the young with her seniority

was something she, Wu Zhangkong, could not do!

I never expected to be forced to use Sword Intent by a Soul Elder!

Wu Zhangkong sighed inwardly.

She took half a step back.

Her wrist turned, and her long sword transformed into a sky full of sword shadows, descending like a blizzard.

Lu Chuan looked up at the sea of sword shadows, and for a fleeting moment, he wondered if he was no longer on the Douluo Continent, but had instead transmigrated into a xianxia world overflowing with rebellious disciples.

But it was only for a moment, because Wu Zhangkong's Sword Intent was too weak; it completely lacked that sharp, all-severing edge!

To deal with such Sword Intent, he still only needed to use his fists!

Lu Chuan's eyes narrowed, his feet shifted slightly, and his figure blurred like a ghost, rising into the air to meet the sword radiance head-on.

A golden halo swirled around his body, his physical strength increasing once again.

Both fists struck out, shadows of punches flying; those sword shadows were no different from dregs of tofu before him.

Break his defense?

That was nothing but a pipe dream!

Amidst the splashing ice shards, his figure wove through the fray like a swimming dragon, not a single speck touching him—agile, and yet extremely domineering!

For an instant, Wu Zhangkong was even a little stunned.

So much so that she had to gradually use her full strength for the remainder of the fight.

As fist and sword collided, her offensive grew faster and faster, and her Sword Intent became increasingly fierce.

She increased her power from fifty percent at the start to seventy percent, and then from seventy to ninety percent.

Yet Lu Chuan was always able to catch them steadily; although he was occasionally forced back a few steps by the sword qi, he never once revealed a true opening!

There were even a few times when Lu Chuan's attacks broke through her Sword Intent and slammed into her chest, without a hint of mercy!

Wu Zhangkong felt a wave of shame and anger at that moment, nearly losing her temper on the spot and unleashing Soul Power that did not belong to the Soul Elder realm.

However, the moment she released even a fraction of her strength, Lu Chuan's power surged in tandem, growing fiercer with every exchange! From that moment on, she understood that this brat, Lu Chuan, was playing the pig to eat the tiger! And the subsequent battle only served to confirm it.

Inadvertently, she faintly sensed a terrifying power slumbering within Lu Chuan's body, one he had yet to unleash. That power would occasionally leak a trace of its aura with his movements; though fleeting, she still managed to catch it. Most terrifying of all was that her own martial soul instinctively trembled in the face of that power. It was the kind of suppression that only occurred when a superior exerted dominance over an inferior! Yet, Lu Chuan was clearly only a Soul Elder...

"Enough."

After being thwarted in yet another clash, Wu Zhangkong hesitated for a moment before sheathing her sword and standing tall! She bit her lip, feeling somewhat unwilling. But having already used her first, second, and third soul skills, along with her Sword Intent, without managing to take Lu Chuan down, there was no point in continuing. Unless she used her sixth soul skill for crowd control, combined with her fifth soul skill to break his defenses... But what if that still didn't work? As a teacher, she had a reputation to maintain!

Hearing Wu Zhangkong call for a halt, Lu Chuan immediately ceased his movements. He had truly enjoyed this fight; if it had been Xiao Wuyue, she likely would have been unable to withstand his heavy blows and would have fainted long ago. As his Bloodline Power subsided, the Dragon Scales on his body slowly faded away, the golden light retracting until he returned to the appearance of an ordinary youth.

"Teacher, how did I do?" Lu Chuan walked up to Wu Zhangkong and grinned. That standard smile—had it been before this battle, Wu Zhangkong might have still thought Lu Chuan was just a bright, cheerful boy. But now? It was nothing more than a monster's disguise!

Wu Zhangkong really didn't want to acknowledge Lu Chuan, though it wasn't out of dislike.

It was the frustration of a genius encountering a monster!

Yet, Lu Chuan wore such an expectant expression, waiting for an evaluation, that she was forced to respond.

"You performed very well!"

Wu Zhangkong gritted her teeth and said softly.

Her words were actually quite conservative; in fact, Lu Chuan had performed far better than just "well."

She had almost been unable to handle him!

The curriculum only officially began on the second day, so Lu Chuan finished his classes early.

He first went to the girls' dormitory to find Tang Wuyue, but the little girl had gone to the cafeteria to eat, so he didn't see her.

Consequently, Lu Chuan left the academy directly and headed to the Forging Stone Association to accept a few forging tasks.

They were all minor Spirit Forging tasks, with an average reward of eight million Federation Coins.

Back when Lu Chuan had just started learning to forge, such money would have been unthinkable.

But after successfully promoting to a level-six blacksmith, everything seemed so easy.

After accepting the tasks, Lu Chuan immediately headed to Mang Tian's studio in Eastsea City to begin forging.

By the time he finished, several hours had already passed.

Thinking about the tens of millions of Federation Coins he had earned, Lu Chuan felt a wave of joy. He was just planning to spend a little to treat himself when, while passing by Eastsea Park, he sensed the presence of Tang Wuyue and Jinyu, along with the fluctuations of released Martial Souls!

"Don't tell me this little girl is getting confessed to by some boy on the first day of school again!"

As Lu Chuan spoke, he hurried toward the source of the aura.

Of course, he wasn't worried that Tang Wuyue would fall for someone else—he was very confident in that regard—but rather, he was worried for whoever was fighting the little girl.

With Jinyu's company, Tang Wuyue's combat limit had skyrocketed.

With the Water Element and Blue Silver Grass, she could not only coat Jinyu in a layer of fire-resistant Wood Vine Armor, but she could also use the Water Element to nourish the Blue Silver Grass, combining it with her first soul skill, Entangle, to form a Blue Silver Forest.

It was not only a powerful crowd-control ability, but it could also conceal Jinyu's figure.

Provided she had enough Soul Power, the little girl was fully capable of beating several Soul Grandmasters to a pulp.

"I need to be faster. Why did they build this Eastsea Park so big?"

"What if some old man or woman out for a stroll gets caught in the crossfire?"

Lu Chuan grumbled as he rushed along, his figure darting past century-old trees until, finally, at the edge of his vision, he saw Tang Wuyue and Jinyu.