Li Yuan VS Shrek Seven Devils, Meng Yiran

The next moment!

The impatience on Zhao Wuji's face froze instantly.

The seven soul rings beneath his feet had not yet had time to withdraw, but now, before Long Yuan's nine soul rings, they looked as small as cheap toys laid out on a roadside stall.

He stared at that smear of scarlet among the nine soul rings, his mouth opening and closing, unable to make a sound for a long while.

A Titled Douluo?

A hundred-thousand-year soul ring?

Zhao Wuji was completely dumbfounded.

The Titled Douluo he had seen in his lifetime could be counted on one hand, and every one of them was someone whose stomp could make the continent tremble.

But this man before him had revealed nine soul rings right from the start.

Eight of them were all black ten-thousand-year soul rings, and the last one was even a hundred-thousand-year one.

It was the first time he had ever seen such a setup.

Zhao Wuji subconsciously glanced at Di Jun. The man's expression was calm, his aura so restrained that he almost had no presence at all.

But the more he was like this, the more Zhao Wuji's scalp tingled.

Someone who could stand on equal footing with a Titled Douluo behind the same person—how could he possibly be harmless?

Zhao Wuji's feelings at this moment could be summed up in one sentence.

This mouth of mine has never backed down this fast in my life.

Even against Haotian Douluo, at least he had still had the courage to run out and face him.

But these people...

He swallowed hard. That impatience had long since been flung beyond the highest heavens, and a smile uglier than crying piled onto his face as his rough hands waved again and again.

"No, no, no... Your Majesty, please calm down, calm down!"

As he spoke, he retreated half a step, feeling both his legs go a little weak. "A misunderstanding, it's all a misunderstanding!"

The Shrek students huddled behind Zhao Wuji, each more obedient than the last.

Dai Mubai clenched his fists. Zhu Zhuqing's face was taut. Oscar hid behind Tang San, poking half his head out.

Xiao Wu tugged at Tang San's sleeve, her small face full of nervousness.

Chao Tianxiang stood across from them, the cane in her hand trembling three times, her head of silver hair nearly standing on end.

Li Yuan stood beside Long Yuan, his expression as usual, not even lifting an eyelid.

He raised his hand and lightly pressed down on Long Yuan's shoulder.

Long Yuan gave a cold snort, and the pressure slowly withdrew.

The suffocating oppression in the air finally dispersed, and everyone let out a breath at the same time. Zhao Wuji, in particular, felt as if the sweat on his back was about to soak through his clothes.

"Everyone, I want this Phoenix-Tail Cockscomb Serpent. There's no problem with that, right?" Li Yuan stood in the center of the clearing and spoke expressionlessly.

"No problem, no problem!" Zhao Wuji was the first to jump out, his face full of smiles as his big hand thumped his chest. "It's this snake's good fortune that Your Majesty has taken a liking to it. Please, take it as you wish!"

He spoke readily, but in his heart he knew perfectly well.

With a Titled Douluo with a hundred-thousand-year soul ring standing in front of him, was he going to turn hostile over a thousand-year Phoenix-Tail Cockscomb Serpent?

It wasn't as if he was stupid.

Oscar stood behind Zhao Wuji. When he heard this, his lips pressed together, and an unconcealable trace of disappointment surfaced in his eyes.

He had finally waited for a suitable soul beast, and just when it was about to be his, someone had barged in halfway.

But when he looked at the nine soul rings beneath Long Yuan's feet, the words that had reached his mouth were swallowed back down.

The expressions of the other Shrek students did not look too good either. Unwillingness was unwillingness, but before absolute strength, whatever temper they had needed to be tucked away.

Chao Tianxiang took a step forward with her cane, smile lines piling onto her thin, withered face. "This old woman also agrees. Since this little... this lord has taken a liking to it, we naturally have no reason to fight over it."

As she spoke, her gaze secretly swept back and forth between Long Yuan and Di Jun, and in her heart, she had already placed the young man before her into the category of "cannot be provoked."

Li Yuan swept his eyes over the expressions on everyone's faces, his gaze pausing for an instant on Oscar's unwilling face.

"I know you're unwilling, but I'm not some unreasonable brute either. How about this..."

He raised his hand and pointed at the Shrek Seven Devils, then pointed at Meng Yiran.

"The eight of you, come at me together. Whoever can knock me down in the end gets the Phoenix-Tail Cockscomb Serpent."

The clearing fell into dead silence.

Only after several seconds did someone react.

"What?!"

Oscar was the first to widen his eyes.

Dai Mubai's brows suddenly shot up. His fists clenched, then loosened, and he looked Li Yuan up and down as if he were looking at a monster.

Xiao Wu directly tugged at Tang San's sleeve and whispered, "Third Brother, did he say he wants to fight all eight of us?"

Tang San said nothing, his calm gaze fixed on Li Yuan as he rapidly assessed something.

Zhao Wuji was utterly stunned and blurted out, "May I ask... what rank of soul master are you currently?"

Li Yuan glanced at him and said casually, "Rank thirty."

He did not reveal his soul rings, afraid he might scare them into wetting themselves on the spot.

The scene fell silent for a moment.

Immediately after, a commotion erupted on Shrek's side.

"Rank thirty?!" Ma Hongjun could not help shouting. "Did I hear that right? A rank-thirty Soul Grandmaster wants to fight the eight of us? Dai Mubai alone could pin him to the ground and grind him into it, right?"

Dai Mubai frowned and did not answer, but his face was also full of the words, "This guy has got to have something wrong with his head."

Oscar's mouth twitched even harder. "Rank thirty against eight people, and one of our team is even a rank-thirty-seven assault-type... Is he serious?"

Xiao Wu tilted her head and blinked. "Third Brother, does he not know what level we're at?"

Tang San did not answer. His gaze merely lingered on Li Yuan for a long time.

He could sense that this young man had an indescribable composure about him, a composure that did not care about winning or losing at all.

On the other side, Meng Yiran leaned close to Chao Tianxiang's ear and muttered in a low voice, "Grandma, isn't this guy way too arrogant? Rank thirty against eight of us—how is that any different from handing over his head?"

Chao Tianxiang did not speak, but her brows also furrowed slightly.

Although she was wary of that Titled Douluo, rank thirty against eight people was so absurd that even an old hand like her felt it had gone too far.

Li Yuan stood where he was, taking in every discussion and every look.

The corner of his mouth slowly curved upward.

"What?"

He looked at the eight people in front of him, his voice unhurried. "The mighty Shrek Seven Devils, along with the granddaughter of the Dragon and Snake Duo, don't even dare accept a challenge from a rank-thirty opponent?"

The moment those words came out, the place exploded.

Ma Hongjun was the first to step forward. His round face carried that particular pride of youth as he raised his chin. "Hmph! Who's afraid of who? Just don't blame us for not holding back if you get beaten flat in a moment."

Dai Mubai patted his shoulder and strode forward. The wild arrogance in the bones of the third prince of the Star Luo Empire had been ignited by that single sentence, and a faint, amused smile tugged at his lips.

"Rank thirty against eight. This is the first time I've seen that. Interesting. We accept."

Zhu Zhuqing said nothing, but she had already silently moved to Dai Mubai's rear flank, her catlike pupils narrowing slightly as she entered a combat stance.

Oscar took a deep breath, gripping several sausages in his hand. Though he had been somewhat disappointed earlier, now that they were facing provocation, a young man's hot blood also surged up in him.

Xiao Wu tugged Tang San forward by two steps, her ponytail swishing as she planted her hands on her hips. "Third Brother, we can't let him look down on us!"

Tang San glanced at Li Yuan and slowly nodded.

Although his intuition told him this young man was not simple, it was still rank thirty against eight people. The gap was right there.

He had no reason to back down.

The seven of them lined up, the glow of their soul rings interweaving and flickering beneath the sunlight, each with its own color. Most were only hundred-year and thousand-year rings, but when the seven stood together, their presence was still rather impressive.

On the other side, Meng Yiran walked forward with her serpentine short blade in hand.

She glanced at the Shrek group. Though she was not very willing to join forces with them, when she thought of that Phoenix-Tail Cockscomb Serpent, she gritted her teeth and gave a cold snort. "Although this young lady really doesn't want to associate with you people and gang up on one person, for the sake of this thousand-year soul ring, it's worth a try."

She walked into the field and stopped on the other side not far from the Shrek seven. The serpentine short blade spun once in her palm as she assumed her opening stance.

The eight of them spread out in a fan shape, faintly surrounding Li Yuan in the center.

Li Yuan stood at the center of the circle, his hands hanging naturally at his sides, not even taking a stance.

He swept his gaze over the eight young faces before him, his expression still unchanged.

At the edge of the clearing, Di Jun and Long Yuan retreated beneath a large tree.

"Looks like we've got a good show to watch."

Long Yuan leaned against the trunk with his arms folded and grinned.

"Di Jun, how many exchanges do you think it'll take for our lord to flatten them? I'm guessing less than three."

"I guess two exchanges," Di Jun said calmly, standing with his hands behind his back.

On the other side.

Zhao Wuji and Chao Tianxiang each stood behind their own juniors, arms crossed, their gazes fixed tightly on the situation in the field, ready to intervene at any moment if things got out of control.

A gust of wind swept across the clearing, lifting a few fallen leaves.

"Since you're all ready..."

Li Yuan raised his right hand, palm upward, and crooked his fingers slightly.

"Come."