This Era Is Far Crueler Than Imagined

He stood before the city gates and looked back at the road they had come from. After a moment of silence, he said to the two girls, "Go back and get some rest. You've been traveling with me for so long. You must be tired too."

Standing beside him, Ye Guyi hesitated before finally saying, "How about... I speak to the headmaster and move into the boys' dormitory? That way, it'll be easier for me to take care of you."

Jiang Nannan hurriedly nodded in agreement. "Yeah, yeah! I can help too!"

Li Changqing shook his head and gently refused. "There's no need. I'm not as fragile as you think. I'll recover naturally after resting for a while."

He paused, his gaze drifting into the distance. His voice carried a trace of gravity and reflection. "What I didn't expect was that a simple outing would lead us to two evil soul masters at the level of Titled Douluo. This era is even worse than I imagined."

The two girls fell silent, unsure how to respond.

Indeed, they had run into evil soul masters just by going out for a trip. This world truly was far too chaotic.

When would it all end, allowing the continent to return to peace?

The two girls escorted Li Changqing to the entrance of his dormitory.

Li Changqing pushed open the dorm room door and walked inside.

Wang Dong, who had been lying on her bed reading, looked up at the sound.

The moment she saw Li Changqing's pale face and weak aura, she froze. The book in her hand nearly fell onto the bed.

"Damn? Senior? Didn't you go out for a trip? How did you end up like this?" Wang Dong hurriedly sat up, her face filled with shock.

Li Changqing walked over to his bed and plopped down on it, his tone carrying a hint of helplessness. "Don't mention it. My luck was awful. I ran into some tough opponents."

He did not explain further. Instead, he immediately sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and rapidly formed hand seals, entering a meditative state.

The next moment, a black-and-white Taiji Diagram slowly emerged behind him and began to rotate.

Pure, ancient, mysterious yin and yang energy flowed from the Taiji Diagram. Like two winding dragons, it coiled around his body and continuously poured into him.

If one sensed it carefully, they would notice that the yin and yang energy also contained faint traces of Life's aura and Destruction's aura.

Though weak, they were especially distinct.

Wang Dong stared at the slowly rotating Taiji Diagram, completely dumbfounded.

She blinked, then asked in confusion, "Isn't Senior's martial soul the Heavenly Profound and Earthly Yellow Exquisite Pagoda? What is this thing?"

Ye Guyi stood at the doorway and explained softly, "As you can see, Changqing has twin martial souls."

Wang Dong sucked in a cold breath upon hearing that.

Although she herself possessed twin martial souls, that did not mean twin martial souls had become common everywhere.

Ye Guyi paused, then looked at Wang Dong with a pleading expression. "Junior, may I ask you for a favor?"

Wang Dong came back to her senses and asked curiously, "What is it?"

Ye Guyi said softly, "Changqing was seriously injured during this trip. I hope that in the future, you can help us look after him a little more. Of course, you may not need to do much. It's just... in case."

Jiang Nannan also nodded earnestly from the side. "Please."

Wang Dong looked at Li Changqing, who was meditating on the bed, then at the two seniors standing at the door with earnest expressions. She did not refuse and readily agreed. "No problem. We're roommates. It's only right that we look out for each other. Don't worry."

Ye Guyi and Jiang Nannan both sighed in relief.

After thanking her, they turned and left the dormitory, heading toward the girls' dormitory.

Only after Ye Guyi and Jiang Nannan had left did Wang Dong sit down again.

She did not continue reading. Instead, she braced her hands against the edge of her bed, her gaze fixed unwaveringly on Li Changqing.

More precisely, it was fixed on the slowly rotating Taiji Diagram behind him.

Her beautiful eyes were full of curiosity and scrutiny.

What kind of martial soul was this?

She had grown up in the Haotian Sect, pored over countless records, and seen all manner of martial souls. She had thought her horizons were broad enough.

Yet she had never heard of or seen the mysterious black-and-white pattern slowly rotating before her.

She could sense the power contained within that Taiji Diagram.

Pure, ancient, profound—it seemed to encompass every mystery between heaven and earth.

Its aura even caused the Clear Sky Hammer martial soul within her to stir subtly, as though it had encountered an existence on a higher level.

This was definitely no ordinary martial soul.

Wang Dong silently remembered this, then withdrew her gaze and lay back down on her bed. Staring at the ceiling, her thoughts churned.

She was increasingly convinced that her roommate was far more mysterious than she had imagined.

Elsewhere, in the girls' dormitory.

After returning to their room, the two girls almost simultaneously collapsed onto their beds, unwilling to move at all.

Their half month of fleeing had exhausted all their strength and energy.

Now that they had finally returned somewhere safe, their tightly wound nerves suddenly relaxed. Exhaustion surged over them like a tide, swallowing them whole.

The room remained quiet for a long while.

Jiang Nannan lay on her back, staring blankly at the snow-white ceiling.

After a long time, she finally spoke softly, her voice carrying an indescribably complicated emotion. "Sister Guyi... are those evil soul masters the enemies we'll have to face in the future?"

Ye Guyi lay on the other bed. Hearing this, she was silent for a moment before softly murmuring, "Mm."

"Yes."

Her voice was quiet as she added, "And what we encountered today was only the tip of the iceberg. The Holy Spirit Cult has far more than just these two Titled Douluo. There are plenty who are even stronger than them."

Jiang Nannan said nothing more.

She simply stared at the ceiling as scenes from that day replayed in her mind.

The burning village, corpses strewn everywhere, the twisted faces of those evil soul masters, the two enormous black banners, and that terrifying black shadow.

Her fingers unconsciously clenched the bedsheets.

Was she afraid?

Of course she was.

But more than that, she felt a clarity she had never experienced before.

At last, she understood what Li Changqing and Ye Guyi had meant whenever they spoke of "chaotic times."

And at last, she understood why Li Changqing had said, "You'll experience this kind of thing many times in the future."

This world was far crueler than she had imagined.

And she had to become stronger as quickly as possible.

Otherwise, forget having the chance to revive her mother—even surviving in these chaotic times was uncertain.