Hidden Radiance, the Invincible Straightforward Woman

"Watch our Fart King Combination Skill!"

The first match of the Promotion Tournament.

In the battle between Class Five and Class Four of Year One, Class Five had seized an absolute advantage from the very start, relying on Gu Yue's elemental bombardment and the support of Lin Xun and Xie Xie.

But just as Class Four stood on the verge of defeat, two of its students suddenly unleashed a combination skill.

It was not a martial soul fusion skill, but two identical soul skills released simultaneously.

Wang Jack and Wang Dongni stood shoulder to shoulder, their faces bearing expressions of utter resolve. Wang Jack was tall and skinny, while Wang Dongni was short, fat, and solid. Standing together, they looked like a pair of upside-down exclamation marks.

Their martial souls lit up at the same time, and the phantoms of two Sharp-Tailed Skunks emerged behind them. Their tails rose high, their backsides aimed at the three from Class Five.

"What are they trying to do?" Xie Xie gripped his dagger tightly, staring warily at the two skunk phantoms.

Wang Jack and Wang Dongni exchanged a glance, then shouted in unison.

"First Soul Skill, Poison Gas Release!"

The two skunk phantoms turned their backsides at the same time. Two streams of yellow-green gas erupted from the base of their tails, intertwining and merging in midair into a thick poisonous fog that refused to disperse.

The fog spread in all directions at a visible speed, and the grass on the field wilted everywhere it passed.

"Holy shit!" Xie Xie was closest and took the first breath. Tears immediately streamed down his face. "What is that smell?! My eyes! My nose! My brain is shaking!"

The stench was like rotten eggs, durian, canned herring, and socks that had been sealed up for three days throwing a party in a garbage dump.

Gu Yue had already retreated to the very edge of the field, the corner of her mouth twitching slightly. For a dragon whose sense of smell was hundreds of times stronger than a human's, this was torture on the level of a biochemical weapon.

Wang Jack took a deep breath, his face full of pride. "This is the combination skill my brother and I trained for three years to master: the Two-Level Reversal Stench Formation! Within this range, every enemy's sense of smell will be completely destroyed!

"Tremble! Weep! Kneel before the power of the Fart Kings!"

Wang Dongni nodded beside him, equally proud. "No one in all of Donghai Academy can withstand this move head-on. You're not the first opponents we've smoked out, and you won't be the last."

Xie Xie had already retreated to the edge of the field. Gagging, he shouted, "You call this a soul skill? This is a fucking biochemical weapon! This is a crime against humanity! The Federation Convention explicitly prohibits poison gas bombs! I'm filing a complaint against you with the Soul Master Association!"

"A soul skill is a soul skill. There's no such thing as noble or lowly among them!" Wang Jack retorted righteously. "Our martial souls are Sharp-Tailed Skunks. This is how we fight! If you don't like it, let one loose yourself!"

"I'm not a skunk! What am I supposed to let loose?!" Xie Xie pinched his nose, his voice sharp and muffled. "Your martial souls are way too vile! Do your families know about this?!"

Wang Dongni smiled honestly. "Of course they do. My dad's a Sharp-Tailed Skunk, and my mom's a Sharp-Tailed Skunk too. There are four people in our family, and three Fart Kings. Whenever there's a holiday, one fart from us and the neighbors along the whole street come over to 'pay us New Year's calls.'"

Xie Xie felt as though his worldview had been shattered.

Gu Yue truly could not endure it any longer. Pinching her nose, she waved her right hand, and a gust of wind element howled forth, attempting to blow the poisonous gas away.

The wind really did blow through it.

But not only did the poisonous gas fail to disperse, it was swept up by the wind instead, forming a small yellow-green tornado that spread in every direction.

The students of Class Five and Class Four watching at the edge of the field had been enjoying the show, but in the next second, they were engulfed by the toxic fog.

"Holy shit, who used wind?!"

"Fuck, did the academy's septic tank explode?!"

"Loud farts don't stink, stinky farts aren't loud, but a chain of farts is both loud and foul!"

"Oh, Mom, I'm leaving!"

Gu Yue's expression turned even colder, but the twitching at the corner of her mouth was clearly far more pronounced than before.

Lin Xun glanced at her and gave a soft laugh.

The Ex-Girlfriend Sword fell into his hand. His first soul ring shattered, while his second soul ring lit up at the same time.

He pressed a brand-new capsule into the slot on the sword hilt. On the back of the capsule was a translucent, crystalline ice toad covered in vermilion, while the front bore the figure of a woman with long red hair.

Meng Hongchen, Vermilion Clear Ice Toad.

A thin layer of vermilion ice crystals spread across the pink blade.

The ice crystals extended along the sword edge, condensing at the tip into the phantom of a palm-sized ice toad.

The ice toad opened its mouth, spraying a stream of frigid vermilion mist toward the yellow-green poisonous fog.

The two mists collided, like two blobs of paint blending in water. The vermilion ice mist swallowed the yellow-green poison gas at a visible speed.

The Vermilion Clear Ice Toad's trait was using poison against poison. The ice toad's venom could suppress many similar toxins, and farts like these essentially counted as toxins too.

Lin Xun swung his sword.

Yet the red-and-blue sword energy, which carried tremendous force, passed straight between the two of them.

Wang Jack and Wang Dongni froze for a moment, then planted their hands on their hips and burst into wild laughter.

"Missed, missed! You can't even hit us when we're standing still!" Wang Jack twisted his waist.

"Your swordsmanship sucks, classmate! Want me to teach you a move or two?"

Wang Dongni twisted along with him.

Lin Xun tilted his head.

"Three."

"Two."

"One."

The phantom ice toad abruptly puffed out its cheeks, and a crimson mist silently spread through the air.

Wang Jack and Wang Dongni's laughter came to an abrupt stop. Both rolled their eyes at the same time, their legs gave out, and they face-planted onto the training field in neat, matching poses, as though they were paying New Year's respects to the earth.

That sword aura had not been meant to directly attack them in the first place. It carried the ice toad's poison, which had spread silently as it passed between them.

Xie Xie walked over, pinching his nose, and lightly nudged Wang Jack's calf with the tip of his foot. "Fart King, huh? So who's the Fart King now? Get up and let one rip."

With his face pressed to the ground, Wang Jack muttered incoherently, "Mom... I can smell vanilla..."

"That's because the poison has numbed your brain." Xie Xie squatted down and poked the back of his head. "Hey, before you pass out, tell me—does your family really have three skunks among four people? Is your mom's martial soul a skunk too? Did she marry your dad because they were a perfect stink match?"

Wang Jack did not answer.

He had already completely passed out, a mysterious smile still hanging at the corner of his mouth. He was probably dreaming of the day he and his future wife held their wedding in a skunk church.

Kindred stenches—nothing could be truer.

After the battle was over, Lin Xun and Gu Yuena walked down from the arena side by side. Behind them, Xie Xie was still bragging to Zhou Changxi about how bravely he had resisted the poison gas just now.

Walking beside Lin Xun, Gu Yuena suddenly spoke.

"That capsule of yours."

Lin Xun's steps paused slightly.

"Hm?"

"Why does every one of them have a humanoid pattern on it?"

Lin Xun's expression did not change, and his tone remained casual. "It's an effect that comes with my martial soul. I'm not too sure about the exact principle either. It's probably some kind of power imprint or something. Everyone's martial soul manifests differently. Your elemental control is six colors mixed together too, isn't it?"

Gu Yuena turned her head and glanced at him.

"Power imprint."

She repeated the phrase, though no emotion could be heard in her voice.

"Right. Like your elemental light orbs—different colors represent different elements. The humanoid patterns on my capsules are just a different form of manifestation."

Gu Yuena withdrew her gaze and looked ahead.

Just as Lin Xun thought the subject had passed, her voice drifted over again, quiet and faint.

"Then why does every person in those patterns look different?"

"My martial soul has artistic aspirations."

After barely managing to fool Gu Yuena, Lin Xun walked along the edge of the training field when an even more terrifying thought suddenly surfaced in his mind.

What if the system gave him a capsule of Gu Yuena someday?

A capsule of the Silver Dragon King, with Gu Yuena's face on it.

How would he explain that then?

Forget it. If it ever happened, he just would not use it.

Just as he was thinking that, his soul communicator vibrated.

[Hidden Radiance]: There?

[Donghai's Deepest Romantic]: I'm here. What made you think of looking for me?

[Hidden Radiance]: I want to ask you something.

[Donghai's Deepest Romantic]: Ask away.

[Hidden Radiance]: If someone owes another person a life, how should they repay it?

Lin Xun stopped walking.

If anyone else had asked that, he would have thought it was a philosophical discussion. But Hidden Radiance was asking, and he knew she was serious.

[Donghai's Deepest Romantic]: Depends on the situation. Who do you owe?

[Hidden Radiance]: Someone very important.

[Donghai's Deepest Romantic]: Then you don't need to repay it.

[Hidden Radiance]: ?

[Donghai's Deepest Romantic]: Important people won't make you repay them. They'll only hope that you live well. So if you live your life well, that's repayment enough.

The other side fell silent for quite a while.

[Hidden Radiance]: Sometimes, you sound pretty human.

[Donghai's Deepest Romantic]: ...Do I not usually sound human?

[Hidden Radiance]: No.

Lin Xun stared at the screen, the corner of his mouth twitching.

This girl's angle of attack was always unexpected.

[Hidden Radiance]: There's one more thing. Before, you told me that you'd owed an emotional debt.

[Donghai's Deepest Romantic]: Yes.

[Hidden Radiance]: Have you paid it back yet?

[Donghai's Deepest Romantic]: I can't. There's too much.

[Hidden Radiance]: Then keep owing it. Owing is fine too—either way, they'll remember.

Lin Xun was feeling a little touched when another message popped up.

[Hidden Radiance]: Anyway, you deserve it if they remember.

Lin Xun: "..."