Killing her directly would be too easy for her. Is this the thought of a healing class!

"Okay, Great King Gu."

Zhuang Minghui did not listen to Gu Yue at all and continued to call her Great King Gu as he pleased.

Zhuang Minghui's figure flashed like Guimei, Ghost Douluo of the Spirit Empire from ten thousand years ago, and in an instant, he was shielding Wang Dong'er, Xiao Xiao, and the students of Class One.

Facing the blazing meteors rushing toward him, a trace of mockery appeared in his eyes.

A Soul Emperor's cultivation was certainly powerful, powerful enough to crush every student in the outer courtyard.

But that was completely useless against him.

He might only be a Soul Ancestor on the surface, but his true combat strength had long since reached the level of a Soul Emperor.

"Third soul skill, Spirit Devouring Shield!"

Zhuang Minghui let out a low shout and pushed both hands forward.

A huge emerald-green, translucent barrier suddenly opened and spread at an astonishing speed, enveloping Wang Dong'er, Xiao Xiao, and all the Class One students collapsed on the ground behind them.

The violent remnants of the Red Dragon's fire slammed into the emerald-green barrier, yet not only did they fail to cause any damage, they were instantly devoured and converted by the strange life force flowing across the barrier.

With every strike of flame, a warm surge of life energy spilled through the inside of the barrier and fed back into Wang Dong'er and Xiao Xiao, easing the sense of exhaustion in their bodies.

"What... what kind of defensive soul skill is this?" Xiao Xiao's beautiful eyes widened. She only felt a warm current pour into every part of her body, and her originally limp, drained body actually recovered a bit of strength.

Wang Dong'er also stared blankly at Zhuang Minghui, whose clothes were slightly dirtied as he stood in front of her, and huge waves surged through her heart.

This powerful life energy felt so familiar.

She seemed to have felt it somewhere before.

But she just could not remember. The moment she came into contact with this life energy, her heart could no longer stay calm.

The instant Zhuang Minghui steadily protected everyone, Gu Yue moved as well.

She stepped forward, and a cyan-blue light abruptly lit in her eyes as three soul rings—yellow, purple, purple—appeared one after another beneath her feet.

Zhou Yi's martial soul was the Red Dragon, possessing extremely powerful fire-attribute explosive strength.

But before Gu Yue, playing with flames was no different from showing off a firestone before a god—an egg smashing itself against a rock.

"Water element."

Gu Yue lightly raised her jade-like hand. In an instant, the water elements within several hundred meters frantically condensed in the void.

Even the tiny wisps of vapor in the air produced by the flames' evaporation were forcibly stripped away in an instant.

"Elemental Tide!"

Gu Yue reached out and lightly pointed in Zhou Yi's direction.

A stormy wave rose from flat ground!

A vast, sky-filling blue tide surged out of thin air and collided head-on with the Red Dragon flames Zhou Yi had unleashed.

Hiss—!

An ear-piercing sound of evaporation rang across the entire field.

However, the expected violent explosion of incompatible water and fire did not occur, because the instant that tide of water touched the Red Dragon flames, it swallowed and extinguished those scorching waves of fire with an almost absolute suppression!

"What?!" Zhou Yi's pupils abruptly shrank.

Her Red Dragon fire was so tyrannical, yet it had not even lasted a single second before being extinguished by this little girl's water flow?

Impossible. Absolutely impossible!

She was a Soul Emperor!

Suddenly, Zhou Yi felt as if her chest had been struck by a heavy blow.

At that moment, the fire elements within her body completely stopped responding.

Not only that, the flow of soul power inside her became extremely sluggish, and every elemental reaction was forcibly stripped away in an instant.

"What... what did you do to me!"

The moment the words left her mouth, a fierce hurricane was born beneath Zhou Yi's feet, and she was sent flying without the slightest ability to resist, crashing heavily to the ground.

This move was clearly Gu Yue's control over the wind element.

"Why so much nonsense!"

An extremely sharp wind blade swept through the air, not only severely injuring Zhou Yi, but also tearing apart the disguise on her face the instant it brushed past.

With a soft snap, the human-skin mask Zhou Yi had used for years to disguise her appearance was shredded by the wind blade, revealing the true face hidden beneath the mask.

To everyone's surprise, beneath the mask was not a stern, elderly old woman, but a fair, delicate face that could even be called beautiful—a mature woman.

Unfortunately, that face was now twisted with fear and anger.

"You... just who are you?!" Blood leaked from the corner of Zhou Yi's mouth as she clutched her chest and stared in disbelief at Gu Yue, who was approaching step by step.

She, a Soul Emperor, had actually been stripped of her power and utterly defeated in an instant by a first-year student who had just enrolled!

If she had not been the victim herself, she would rather have killed herself than believe something so absurd.

The silver light in Gu Yue's eyes flared wide, and her instincts told her that there was no need to show mercy to someone like this.

"Today, I'm going to rid the people of a menace. Humans like you have no need to live in this world."

Just as Gu Yue was about to kill Zhou Yi, a warm hand gently pressed down on her shoulder.

"Gu Yue, wait." Zhuang Minghui's voice rang out from beside her.

Gu Yue frowned slightly and turned her head to look at him, her eyes filled with questioning confusion.

"That's right, Gu Yue. I know you're furious, but killing someone inside the academy—even if you're in the right—will still get you punished afterward." No matter how deeply Mu Jin despised Zhou Yi, it would be far too much of a waste for Zhou Yi to die here on such fertile soil.

Besides, over at the Soul Guidance Department, they would not be easy to persuade either.

Yet an extremely cold hint of mockery flashed through Zhuang Minghui's eyes. "Right. You really can't kill someone inside the academy. But that doesn't mean Zhou Yi has escaped."

"Trash like her, who thinks she stands above everyone else and likes trampling on other people's dignity as she pleases—death would be a release instead."

"There's a way to torment her even more. Want to hear it?"

Gu Yue frowned and lightly spat out one word. "Talk."

What were these humans playing at?

Why not just kill this scum Zhou Yi outright, and instead keep her alive?

She wanted to see what trick Zhuang Minghui had up his sleeve.

Maybe she could learn something from it.

Zhuang Minghui turned his head and looked down from above at Zhou Yi, who lay collapsed on the ground, gasping for breath. He sneered. "How about we cripple her Red Dragon martial soul first, then throw her near the homes of those students she once expelled for all sorts of brainless reasons?"

"Guess how those students whose futures she ruined, and their families, would welcome a cripple who'd lost her cultivation?"

"I think the reason she wore a mask and lived in Shrek year-round was probably because of this."

"Then if we expose her true face and make her a target for everyone, wouldn't that feel even better than killing her outright?"

Gu Yue froze slightly. The icy killing intent in her black eyes stalled for an instant, replaced by panic.

A trace of astonishment rose on her cool, otherworldly face as she stared at Zhuang Minghui, as though reassessing him.

She had thought that, as the co-lord of soul beasts, her methods toward humans were already cold and ruthless enough. But she had never expected that Zhuang Minghui, this guy who usually seemed gentle, casual, lively, and even called himself a "healer," was completely black on the inside once cut open.

This method of not only killing someone but crushing their heart was simply a hundred times crueler than directly killing Zhou Yi.

"You..." Gu Yue murmured, yet the corners of her mouth unconsciously lifted slightly. "That idea isn't bad. It's mine now."

This trip had not been wasted!

It seemed she could learn more useful things, perhaps even use them against those lofty God Kings!