Goal: Great Soul Arena, Registration Trouble

He turned around, stepped over the gravel on the riverbank, and walked straight ahead.

"Dong'er, let's go."

Wang Dong'er cast a cold glance at Bei Bei kneeling on the ground and Tang Ya, whose face was streaked with tears, then quickly followed Yu Chen.

A breeze swept along the riverbank, and the scent of grilled fish gradually faded.

Bei Bei knelt on the gravel, watching that black figure slowly recede into the distance. Cold sweat ran down his chin and dripped into the dirt.

His Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon martial soul, the one he had always been so proud of.

Before that boy, it did not even have the right to remain standing.

The trees along the outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest gradually became sparse.

Yu Chen walked ahead, the hem of his black robe swaying gently in the breeze.

Like a little tail she could not shake off, Wang Dong'er clung close behind him, her bright, lively eyes occasionally sneaking glances at his back.

What had happened by the riverbank just now was like a sledgehammer, ruthlessly smashing apart the understanding she had built over more than a decade.

"Brother Chen." Wang Dong'er finally could not hold back any longer, her voice clear and pleasant.

"That man called Bei Bei has the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon martial soul, one of the continent's publicly acknowledged top-tier beast martial souls. Why did a single look from you suppress him so badly that he could only kneel there?"

Yu Chen stopped and tilted his head slightly, looking at Wang Dong'er's face, which was filled with curiosity.

A trace of disdain flashed through his deep eyes.

"A top-tier beast martial soul?"

"Before a true dragon clan, that mongrel worm is not even worthy to carry shoes."

"These so-called high-grade martial souls are merely rankings devised by frogs at the bottom of a well on this continent. When power from a higher dimension descends, the bloodline they take such pride in has no choice but submission."

Wang Dong'er only half understood, but when Yu Chen spoke those words, the air of supremacy around him was simply mesmerizing.

A sentence often mentioned in her family's teachings suddenly surfaced in her mind. It was a famous saying left behind by Yu Xiaogang, the first-generation master of Shrek Academy.

"But the adults at home all say that there are no useless martial souls, only useless soul masters..." Wang Dong'er muttered softly.

Yu Chen let out a cold laugh.

"Only the weak use such self-deceiving lies to conceal their own incompetence."

"If there truly were no useless martial souls, why was that worthless Yu Xiaogang unable to break through Rank Thirty for his entire life?"

"If there truly were no useless martial souls, why does Shrek Academy only recruit freaks with exceptionally high innate soul power, while shutting out those who are truly ordinary?"

Every word Yu Chen spoke was like a sharp scalpel, mercilessly cutting open that sanctimonious hypocrisy.

Wang Dong'er froze where she stood, her eyes widening wider and wider.

She suddenly felt something crack inside her. Then, an unprecedented sense of exhilaration surged through her heart.

"Brother Chen, you're right!" Wang Dong'er nodded forcefully, her eyes brimming with blind admiration as she looked at Yu Chen.

The two continued onward. Before long, the outline of a massive city appeared on the horizon.

Star Radiance City.

It was the nearest large city to the Star Dou Great Forest. Its walls towered into the clouds, while the city gates bustled with traffic, merchants, and mercenaries coming and going without end.

Yu Chen led Wang Dong'er into the city.

The broad streets were paved with bluestone, and the shops lining both sides displayed a dazzling array of goods. Hawkers' cries rang out endlessly.

Though Wang Dong'er was of noble birth, she had been raised under strict discipline and rarely had the chance to wander the streets so freely.

When she spotted a vendor selling candied hawthorns by the roadside, her eyes immediately lit up, and her steps unconsciously slowed.

Yu Chen noticed her little movement. He casually tossed out a silver soul coin, plucked a skewer from the straw bundle full of candied hawthorns, and held it out before Wang Dong'er.

"Eat."

Wang Dong'er took the candied hawthorn skewer with delight and bit into it. The sweet-and-sour flavor spread across her mouth, and her eyes curved into happy crescents.

"Thank you, Brother Chen!"

Yu Chen looked at the money pouch in his hand and frowned slightly.

When he had left, those old geezers from the Heavenly Dragon Gate had been afraid that he would pick up bad habits outside, so they had not given him many gold coins.

In this world, it was impossible to get anywhere without money. He had no desire to end up sleeping on the streets over the cost of a few meals.

"Come on. Let's earn some pocket money," Yu Chen said flatly.

Still chewing on her candied hawthorns, Wang Dong'er asked indistinctly, "Where are we going to earn it?"

Yu Chen raised his head, his gaze passing over the layers of buildings before settling on the dome-shaped structure in the city center, like a colossal beast crouched on the ground.

Soto City, Great Soul Arena.

The deafening uproar was like boiling water, filling the entire soul arena with stifling heat.

The smell of sweat, dust, and the sour stench of cheap ale mingled together, forming a unique odor that made one's head spin.

Yu Chen frowned slightly. Dressed in immaculate white, untouched by the slightest speck of dust, he stood amid the noise and chaos like a drop of clear water falling into boiling oil, utterly out of place.

"Hey, newbie, get in line!"

A thick arm suddenly shoved him, urging him on with impatient force.

Yu Chen did not even raise his eyelids. The aura around him merely turned imperceptibly cold, and the arm that had just touched his sleeve recoiled as though struck by lightning.

The burly man who had shoved him wore a bewildered expression. For an instant, he had felt as though an ancient ferocious beast had fixed its gaze upon him, making every hair on his body stand on end. Yet when he looked again at Yu Chen's lean back, he could not understand where that terrifying pressure had come from.

"Name, martial soul, rank."

Without raising his head, the receptionist at the registration desk lazily asked while picking his ear with the end of his pen.

"Thunder Dragon."

Yu Chen calmly uttered two words.

The receptionist paused, then finally raised his greasy face and looked Yu Chen over from head to toe.

He wore exquisite white robes, had a face like carved jade, and carried an otherworldly air. No matter how one looked at him, he seemed like a young master from some noble family out to experience life, someone from an entirely different world than the desperadoes in the soul arena who lived by licking blood from their blades.

He snorted and tapped the registration book with his pen. "I'm asking for your arena alias, not a story."

"Thunder Dragon is my alias." Yu Chen's voice remained calm, but it carried an indisputable edge.

"Ha, you've got a big mouth." The receptionist curled his lip. "With that pretty-boy face of yours, Thunder Dragon? Calling you White-Faced Dragon would be more fitting... All right, all right. What's your martial soul and rank?"

Yu Chen's gaze finally fell upon his face. Those black eyes were as deep as an abyss, devoid of the slightest emotion.

The mockery on the receptionist's face instantly froze. A layer of cold sweat inexplicably broke out across his back, and the rest of his words lodged in his throat.

"Is that any of your concern?" Yu Chen asked.

"Th-the rules..."

"I am the rules."

After leaving those words behind, Yu Chen ignored him and strode directly toward the passage leading to the rest area marked "Iron Soul Fighting."

The receptionist opened his mouth and watched the youth's aloof figure depart. In the end, he did not dare say another word. He merely scribbled a question mark after "Thunder Dragon" in the registration book.