Although Han Ruoruo decisively unleashed her Shimmering Gold True Body and Wu Ming used every trick she had, Zhang Lexuan still ended the duel without using her seventh or eighth soul skills.
She dragged the exhausted Han Ruoruo and Wu Ming away, clearing the Training Arena.
Zhang Lexuan glanced at Yao Haoxuan and Qian Shaoshao, then knowingly walked over to Ling Luochan. "Luochan, are they bothering you again?"
When Qian Shaoshao felt her gaze sweep over him, he immediately shrank his neck and unconsciously took half a step back, already thinking of retreating.
Who in the Inner Court did not know the First Senior Sister's reputation? Causing trouble in front of her—even ten times the courage would not be enough.
Yao Haoxuan cursed his useless pig of a teammate inwardly. When it mattered, he still had to rely on himself.
He forced out a respectful smile.
"First Senior Sister, this has nothing to do with Luochan. It is simply that this freshman is not an Inner Court student, yet he appeared in this important Inner Court area. We stepped forward to question him, but he turned around and challenged us to a duel. We were only following the rules and had no other intentions."
"I was brought into the Inner Court by Dean Yan. What is improper about that? You were the ones who spoke rudely first. Giving you a lesson is only what you deserve."
Ling Tianchen spoke indifferently, barely even lifting his eyelids.
"Empty words prove nothing. How can you prove it?"
Yao Haoxuan snorted, though his tone involuntarily weakened by several degrees.
Seeing Ling Tianchen in a white freshman uniform yet looking so fearless, it really was possible that Dean Yan had brought him in.
"Enough. I understand what happened."
Zhang Lexuan raised a hand, stopping the pointless verbal dispute.
"No matter the outcome of the duel, afterward I will personally take him to Dean Yan to verify his identity. Now, all of you go prepare. I will serve as referee for this duel, so stop when appropriate. Do not make any excessive moves that could seriously injure your opponents."
As she spoke, she deliberately swept her gaze toward Yao Haoxuan's side, lingering there a beat longer than she had on the others.
Yao Haoxuan and Qian Shaoshao exchanged looks. They could only nod helplessly in agreement, while inwardly cursing Ling Tianchen bloody.
This brat was truly lucky to run into the First Senior Sister, someone so impartial, as referee. Otherwise, they would definitely have made sure he could not get out of bed for weeks.
Still, even if they could not hit too hard, they could at least make him humiliate himself in public. Then let them see whether he still had the face to hover around Luochan.
"Sigh, fine then." Ling Tianchen sighed softly.
Yao Haoxuan and the others were the lucky ones. Zhang Lexuan had meant well but had inadvertently caused trouble; maiming opponents in front of a Soul Douluo like her would not be easy, though there was still plenty of room to maneuver.
He absolutely would not allow them to walk off the Training Arena so easily. He had to teach them a permanent lesson.
With that thought in mind, he slowly walked toward the center of the Training Arena.
"Aren't you worried about him?"
After all, Zhang Lexuan could clearly see that this matter had started because Yao Haoxuan and the others were jealous of Ling Tianchen.
"Worried?"
Ling Luochan shook her head. In fact, ever since Ling Tianchen had obtained his first soul ring, she had never won a sparring match against him.
"First Senior Sister should worry about finding replacements for the next team's official members. Those two probably will not make it."
"Is that so?"
Zhang Lexuan looked at Ling Tianchen's back thoughtfully.
It seemed Ling Luochan thought highly of him. That happened to match her own intuitive judgment.
For some reason, she was more willing to believe this boy she had never met than Yao Haoxuan and the others, who had been in the Inner Court for years.
Perhaps he was the same kind of person as her. Their eyes were both so calm.
The loneliness born from absolute strength...
She had possessed that look before as well. Had she not swept through every competing team with overwhelming force and claimed the championship in the previous tournament?
People of the same kind appreciated one another. Zhang Lexuan folded her arms, lifting her ample chest high, and a smile rose at the corner of her lips.
She was beginning to take an interest in this freshman.
Ling Tianchen and the pair faced each other from over a hundred meters apart. At Zhang Lexuan's cry of "Begin," all three released their martial souls.
A heaven-shaking roar rang out. Yao Haoxuan's body suddenly swelled, shredding his school uniform to pieces and leaving only the golden undergarment he had put on beforehand.
In the blink of an eye, the muscles of his limbs bulged grotesquely. He became a giant man four meters tall and over three meters broad at the shoulders, his skin turning iron gray while his eyes became a deep green.
This was Yao Haoxuan's martial soul, the Heaven-Shaking Ape, a beast martial soul that combined support and control.
He was also a level fifty-one Soul King. Among the original main team members, he had served as Ling Luochan's secondary control partner and thus had many opportunities to spend time with her.
However, because Martial Soul Possession made him look like an ugly gorilla, Ling Luochan had naturally kept her distance from him.
Qian Shaoshao, meanwhile, produced a violent series of metallic mechanical clanks all over his body. His entire frame was enveloped in a heavy metal shell, while more than forty metal barrels flipped out from it. The barrel at the center of his chest was the largest, its bore a full half-foot wide.
Two yellow, two purple, and one black soul rings lit up one after another. Visible streams of Gold Element surged madly toward him in a funnel shape, red lights flashing deep within every metal barrel as though they could unleash devastating firepower at any moment.
Ling Tianchen could not see through his martial soul, but he could sense that it definitely enhanced the power of Soul Tools.
In truth, Qian Shaoshao's martial soul was the Gold Element, but it was not pure. He could only manipulate relatively low-grade metals. Rare metals such as Diamond Essence Gold were beyond his reach.
There was a vast gap between him and Xiao Hongchen, who possessed the Three-Legged Golden Toad martial soul. The latter could manipulate all metals and even carried divine beast bloodline. Fortunately, Ma Xiaotao had taken his slot; otherwise, if Ling Tianchen encountered Xiao Hongchen, he would be shot full of holes.
Among soul masters with the same attribute, the suppression of a higher rank over a lower rank was absolute.
Yet precisely because of his Gold Element, he had been utterly captivated by Ling Luochan, who possessed an ice-element martial soul and peerless beauty. He had constantly fawned over her, and because of his godfather Qian Duoduo, Ling Luochan could only avoid him as best she could.
After Ling Tianchen underwent Phoenix Possession, a beat of his wings carried him into the air. Looking down upon the two below, he could not help laughing aloud.
"Ha ha ha... Now I know why you two ended up together. A fat pig paired with a gorilla—what a match."
Sunlight spilled across the ice wings behind him, refracting a crystal-clear sheen like glazed glass. Every detail of every feather was visible, so magnificent it seemed almost unreal.
Even Yao Haoxuan and Qian Shaoshao, standing against him, had to admit that this was the most beautiful martial soul they had ever seen.
Yao Haoxuan glared up at the graceful, elegant figure floating in the sky. A sense of resentment immediately flooded his chest. Why could Ling Tianchen look like that, while his Heaven-Shaking Ape could only turn him into something neither human nor ghost?
Qian Shaoshao had been thoroughly provoked. What he hated most was being called a fat pig.
"Brat, it's not too late to surrender now! Kneel and kowtow to me three times, then promise to stay far away from Chenchen from now on. I might consider going easy on you!"
"Hmph. One Tiger Tank and one Mountain Bo Gang, and you dare act arrogant in front of me? Get lost!"
Ling Tianchen smiled disdainfully. With a forward sweep of his right hand, a vast number of ice spikes formed out of thin air and shot down in a concentrated barrage.
Though this was not a soul skill, the ice spikes had been formed from Ultimate Ice. Their destructive power could not be underestimated.
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