Tiger Tank and Mountain's Po Kong

Although Han Ruoruo decisively unleashed her Shimmering Gold True Body and Wu Ming gave it everything 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 ground for them.

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 met her gaze, he immediately shrank his neck and involuntarily shuffled half a step back, already thinking of retreating.

Who in the inner court did not know the Eldest Senior Sister's fearsome reputation? Causing trouble in front of her—even ten times the courage would not be enough.

Yao Haoxuan cursed his useless pig teammate under his breath. At a critical moment like this, he still had to rely on himself.

He forced out a respectful smile.

"Eldest Senior Sister, this has nothing to do with Luochan. It's just that this freshman is not an inner court student, yet he appeared in this important inner court area. We merely questioned him, but he turned around and challenged us to a duel. We were simply following the rules and meant nothing else."

"Dean Yan brought me into the inner court. What is improper about that? You were rude first. Giving you a lesson is no more than you deserve."

Ling Tianchen spoke calmly, barely even lifting his eyelids.

"Words alone prove nothing. How can you verify that?"

Yao Haoxuan snorted, though his tone unconsciously weakened by several degrees.

Seeing Ling Tianchen in his white freshman uniform and acting so assured, it really was possible that Dean Yan had brought him in.

"Enough. I understand what happened."

Zhang Lexuan raised a hand, stopping the meaningless argument.

"Regardless of the duel's outcome, I will personally take him to Dean Yan afterward to verify his identity. For now, all of you get ready and take the field. I will referee this duel, so stop when appropriate. Do not make any excessively harmful moves against one another."

As she spoke, she deliberately swept her gaze toward Yao Haoxuan, lingering on him a beat longer than she had on the others.

Yao Haoxuan and Qian Shaoshao exchanged looks and could only nod helplessly, though inwardly they cursed Ling Tianchen bloody.

This brat was unbelievably lucky. Of all people, he had run into the Eldest Senior Sister, a woman known for her iron-clad impartiality, as referee. Otherwise, they would have made sure he could not get out of bed for weeks.

Still, so what if they could not strike too heavily? They could at least make him embarrass himself in public. Then they would see whether he still had the nerve to hang around Luochan.

"Fine, then." Ling Tianchen sighed softly.

Yao Haoxuan and the others were the lucky ones. Zhang Lexuan's good intentions had actually ruined his plans. Crippling them in front of a Soul Douluo like her would not be easy, though there was still plenty of room to work with.

He absolutely would not let them walk off the training ground so easily. He had to give them a lesson they would never forget.

With that thought, he slowly walked toward the center of the training ground.

"Aren't you worried about him?"

After all, Yao Haoxuan and the others had started this because they were jealous of Ling Tianchen. Zhang Lexuan could see that much clearly.

"Worried?"

Ling Luochan shook her head. In truth, ever since Ling Tianchen had obtained his first soul ring, she had never won a spar against him.

"Eldest Senior Sister, you should worry about replenishing the candidates for next session's main team. Those two probably won't make it."

"Is that so?"

Zhang Lexuan looked at Ling Tianchen's back thoughtfully.

It seemed Ling Luochan thought highly of him. That matched her own instinctive judgment.

For some reason, she was more willing to believe this boy she had never met than Yao Haoxuan and the others, who had spent several years in the inner court.

Perhaps he was the same kind of person as her. Their gazes were both calm.

The loneliness born of absolute strength...

She had possessed that look before as well. Had she not swept through every competing team with overwhelming force to claim victory in the previous tournament?

Kindred spirits naturally appreciated one another. Zhang Lexuan folded her arms, lifting her ample chest high, and a faint smile appeared at the corner of her lips.

She was beginning to take an interest in this freshman.

Ling Tianchen faced the pair from over a hundred meters away. At Zhang Lexuan's shout of "Begin," all three released their martial souls.

With an earth-shaking roar, Yao Haoxuan's body abruptly swelled, shredding his school uniform into pieces and leaving only the golden underwear he had worn beneath it.

In the blink of an eye, the muscles in his limbs bulged grotesquely. He became a giant over four meters tall and more than three meters wide at the shoulders. His skin turned iron gray, while his eyes became a sinister 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 rank fifty-one Soul King. Among the original main team members, he had served as Ling Luochan's secondary controller and had many opportunities to spend time with her.

But clearly, because his martial soul possession left him looking as ugly as a gorilla, Ling Luochan had always kept her distance from him.

Meanwhile, Qian Shaoshao's entire body emitted a violent series of metallic mechanical clanks. His whole body became encased in a heavy metal shell, while more than forty metal tubes unfolded from it. The tube at the center of his chest was the largest, with a diameter of a full half-foot.

Two yellow, two purple, and one black soul rings lit up one after another. Visible metal elements surged toward him like a funnel, while red lights flickered deep within every metal tube, ready at any moment to unleash devastating firepower.

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 metal element, but it was not pure. He could only manipulate relatively low-grade metals. As for rare metals such as Diamond Essence Gold, he could only look on in helpless longing.

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 possessed divine beast bloodline. Fortunately, Ma Xiaotao had taken Xiao Hongchen's spot. Otherwise, if Ling Tianchen encountered Xiao Hongchen, he would be shot full of holes.

Among soul masters of the same attribute, the suppression of a higher tier over a lower tier was absolute.

Yet it was also because of his metal element that he coveted Ling Luochan, who possessed an ice-element martial soul and extraordinary beauty. He had constantly tried to curry favor with her. Because of his adoptive father Qian Duoduo, Ling Luochan could only avoid him as much as possible.

After Ling Tianchen underwent Phoenix Possession, a flap of his wings sent him flying into the sky. Looking down at the two below, he could not help laughing.

"Ha ha ha... Now I know why you two ended up together. A fat pig paired with a black gorilla—what a perfect match."

Sunlight spilled over the pair of icy wings behind him, refracting a crystal-clear sheen like glazed glass. Every pattern on every feather was distinctly visible, so gorgeous that it was 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 that elegant, graceful figure in the sky. An unbalanced resentment immediately surged through his chest. Why could his Heaven-Shaking Ape 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! Kneel and kowtow to me three times, then promise to stay far away from Chencheng from now on. I might consider going easy on you!"

"Hmph. A Tiger tank and Mountain's Po Kong. You think the two of you can act arrogant in front of me? Get lost!"

Ling Tianchen sneered disdainfully. With a wave of his right hand, countless ice spikes formed out of thin air and rained down upon them.

Though this was not a soul skill, the ice spikes had been condensed from ultimate ice. Their destructive power could not be underestimated.