Xie Xie!

When Lu Chuan arrived, the two sides were locked in fierce combat.

The clang of clashing weapons and the splashing of water rose and fell in waves,

and thick fluctuations of Soul Power filled the air.

He spotted Tang Wuyue at a glance.

The little girl stood beneath a large tree,

her hands clasped in a seal,

碧-blue Water Element swirling around her.

At that moment,

her First Soul Ring was glowing,

and streams of water spiraled and danced around her fingertips.

Though only a few days had passed,

the little girl seemed to have taken her control over Water Element to another level!

Jinyu crouched on her shoulder,

her amber eyes fixed firmly on their opponent,

cautiously flicking out her forked tongue.

She wasn't taking part in the fight,

so it looked like a fair duel!

Tang Wuyue was facing a young woman.

The girl had a neat, neck-length bob of brown hair, its ends curling slightly outward.

A few loose strands had stuck to her forehead with sweat from the fight, but she didn't look disheveled in the slightest.

Her skin was very fair, her nose was high-bridged, and her eyes were set slightly deep. Her dark green eyes shone brilliantly in the dusk.

They were not large, but they were strikingly bright.

Now they brimmed with fighting spirit as she watched Tang Wuyue's every move.

In her right hand, she held a short dagger of gleaming white,

its surface shining with a faint halo.

Her left hand was hidden in her sleeve,

as though she had another dagger concealed there, one of a completely opposite color: pitch-black.

When Lu Chuan's gaze fell on the two daggers,

he couldn't help pausing.

Because he recognized the aura they gave off...

He knew them!

The Light Dragon Dagger and the Shadow Dragon Dagger!

The Space-Time Dragon's companion weapons!

And,

if he wasn't mistaken,

the girl before him was Xie Xie!

"What's going on? Why is this world getting more and more chaotic?"

Lu Chuan rubbed at his temples, unable to make sense of it.

Just then, the battle began again!

Xie Xie's figure blurred,

and she vanished from where she stood.

By the time she appeared again,

her true form had emerged about three meters to Tang Wuyue's right.

She moved so fast that she left a series of afterimages in her wake,

and her footwork was so strange,

it was as if she had predicted the direction of Tang Wuyue's defense in advance.

But Tang Wuyue was quick to react, too.

She gave a sharp cry. "Water Curtain!"

Her right hand swept out,

and in an instant, a blue-green curtain of water rose from thin air, blocking the space in front of her.

Xie Xie's dagger thrust into the water curtain,

sending water spraying everywhere.

Clearly, her assassination attempt had failed.

But she didn't retreat.

Instead, using the water curtain's resistance to spin around,

she swept out with her left leg,

aiming a kick at Tang Wuyue's waist.

Tang Wuyue furrowed her brows,

tapped the ground lightly with her toes,

and drifted back several meters.

At the same time, she curled a finger—

"Blue Silver Entanglement!"

A thick strand of Blue Silver Grass burst through the ground and coiled toward Xie Xie's ankle.

But Xie Xie seemed to have expected it.

Just as the Blue Silver Grass was about to touch her,

she, too, tapped the ground lightly with her toes.

Using the recoil,

she sprang into the air,

flipped once,

and landed steadily on a branch behind her.

Even Lu Chuan couldn't help cheering at that dodge!

No wonder they said people liked watching women fight.

Either they grabbed each other by the hair and went at it,

or they fought like this—

a feast for the eyes,

a battle of wits,

with eight hundred schemes between them!

"Not bad."

"You have the fastest reactions of any control-type Soul Master I've ever seen!"

Xie Xie crouched on the branch,

looking down at Tang Wuyue,

a roguish smile tugging at her lips.

Tang Wuyue looked up at her and giggled. "You're not bad yourself!"

"Of course. Back in the day, I was the fastest in my class."

Xie Xie accepted Tang Wuyue's praise without a hint of modesty, even taking the chance to praise herself a little more.

However,

Tang Wuyue hadn't actually been praising her.

She was only trying to stall for time

while building up her Soul Power.

She was drawing in Water Element from the air all around her.

As the concentration of Water Element rose rapidly,

the air around them gradually grew viscous.

Feeling the changes in her surroundings,

Xie Xie finally realized something was wrong.

"Trying to use your big move? Not so fast!"

Her dark green eyes narrowed.

She dived down again,

the Light Dragon Dagger in her hand carving a white arc through the air

as she stabbed straight at Tang Wuyue's shoulder.

By then, Tang Wuyue had already finished building up her strength.

Instead of dodging,

she charged straight into the attack,

shoving both hands forward.

"Water Tornado!"

At Tang Wuyue's sharp cry,

a spiraling stream of water suddenly coalesced between her palms,

then shot toward Xie Xie as she dived in.

Xie Xie's pupils contracted.

She had expected Tang Wuyue's move to be powerful,

but she hadn't expected it to be this powerful!

She hurriedly channeled the Soul Power within her,

forcing her body to twist in midair.

After expending a great deal of Soul Power,

she narrowly avoided taking the full force of the Water Tornado.

But the edge of the current still grazed her shoulder,

throwing her off balance.

She stumbled when she landed.

And that single stumble was the opening Tang Wuyue needed.

She seized the moment!

"Blue Silver Entanglement, Blue Silver Cage!"

Tang Wuyue cried out, clapping her hands together.

Dozens of Blue Silver Grass vines burst through the ground all at once,

weaving into a densely sealed cage,

spreading like a vast net,

and trapping Xie Xie inside in an instant.

Each Blue Silver Grass vine was coated in a thin film of water,

which shimmered beneath the setting sun.

By the time Xie Xie reacted,

she was trapped in the center of the cage.

She hurriedly used the Light Dragon Dagger to cut through the vines,

but found them astonishingly tough.

One slash wasn't enough to cut through them,

and even after several more,

she had only managed to cut halfway through.

Worse, the moment she looked away,

the water film on the vines had already repaired the part she'd cut,

healing at an astonishing speed.

"What the heck is this..."

Xie Xie couldn't help grumbling.

After trying a few more times and realizing she couldn't break through quickly,

she simply put her dagger away,

crossed her arms,

and leaned against the vines, glaring at Tang Wuyue outside with an unhappy look.

"Fine. You win again this time. But the location wasn't right. If we fought somewhere that was nothing but rock next time, I might not lose."

Xie Xie was clearly unconvinced.

Tang Wuyue, for her part, just happened to love seeing Xie Xie look so unconvinced.

After all,

she still remembered all too clearly how arrogant Xie Xie had been when she first arrived at the dorm!

"You lost, so you lost. What's with all the excuses?

"I had a slight advantage in the park, sure, but you're at level eighteen Soul Power, and I'm only at level twelve!

"Besides, what if I master the Earth Element next time? You'd still lose in rocky terrain!"

Tang Wuyue gave a huff.

With an older brother who loved showing off,

when it came to trash talk,

who was she supposed to be afraid of?

Hearing that, Xie Xie's head drooped:

"True. Your Blue Silver Grass is just too bizarre. It's bad enough that it won't stay cut, but it can even repair itself.

"And the craziest part is that you can control the Water Element. That Water Tornado just now could practically count as a Soul Skill! How did you even do that?"

As the girl spoke,

she seemed to lose all her strength.

Seeing this, Tang Wuyue couldn't help but smile smugly.

"It's nothing. Just think it through and practice more! Take the ideas in your head and apply them in actual combat. It's simple!"

At that, Lu Chuan couldn't help laughing out loud.

This little girl's humblebragging,

without her even realizing it,

had already reached thirty percent of his own mastery!