He Arrived, Bringing a "Traitor"

Bei Bei stood at the front, dressed in a fitted blue outfit, his gaze sharp as a blade. Xu Sanshi stood at his side, his usual laziness nowhere to be seen, replaced by a mountain-like steadiness. Huo Yuhao, Xiao Xiao, and Jiang Nannan stood behind them in separate positions, each wearing a solemn expression and radiating the tragic resolve of those prepared to die.

Their eyes were all fixed on the contestants' passageway on the other side of the soul fighting platform.

The entire arena's attention was focused there as well.

Time passed, second by second.

The commentator's impassioned voice had grown somewhat hoarse from shouting, while the cheers from the stands gradually turned into whispers tinged with confusion.

"What's going on? Where's Thunder Dragon?"

"It's already time. Why hasn't he come out yet?"

"Don't tell me he got scared and doesn't dare show up?"

The expressions of the Shrek group grew uglier and uglier.

Yet the tightly sealed metal gates on the other side of the soul fighting platform remained motionless.

The man who had stirred up the entire city and forced Shrek Academy to stake all its honor.

Yu Chen still had not appeared.

Several gamblers in the front rows, their eyes red from losing, had begun smashing their ticket stubs against the backs of their seats and shouting for refunds. Even the young masters in the VIP section had lost their usual composure, their brows twisted into deep furrows as they stared at the empty passageway entrance.

The commentator gripped the soul-powered amplifier in his hand, the back of his shirt soaked with cold sweat. He swallowed dryly as he tried to figure out how to calm this crowd, which looked ready to riot at any moment.

Clang—

Amid the deafening commotion, an exceptionally dull sound of grinding gears came from beneath the heavy refined-steel gate on the eastern side of the soul fighting platform.

The sound was not loud, yet it seemed to possess some strange magic. The uproar throughout the arena was instantly strangled by an invisible hand, falling eerily silent for a second.

Then, the gate slowly rose.

Against the blinding backlight, a figure in white walked out at an unhurried pace.

There was no flashy combat attire, no martial soul possession at the ready—not even a bracer on his arm. He had merely thrown on a clean white outfit, one hand tucked into his trouser pocket while the other casually brushed aside the loose strands of hair the wind had tousled across his forehead.

With that leisurely gait, he looked nothing like someone here to fight a life-or-death battle watched by the entire city. He looked more like someone taking a stroll through the backyard after a full meal.

"Thunder Dragon!!"

No one knew which corner of the stands the first shout came from.

The entire Great Soul Arena exploded.

The emotions that had been suppressed for over half an hour rebounded from rock bottom, like tons of explosives detonating at once. Ear-splitting screams and roars nearly blew apart the steel framework of the ceiling. Countless people leaped to their feet, red-faced and thick-necked as they waved their fists.

But that frenzied, eardrum-piercing fervor lasted less than seven or eight seconds.

It was as though someone had pressed pause. Starting from the front rows, the noise quickly spread toward the back, dying out layer by layer.

The wildly waving arms froze in midair, and the expressions on those flushed faces solidified into comical disbelief.

Because everyone saw clearly that less than half a meter behind the relaxed figure in white, another person was following.

Neat, short pink-blue hair framed features so delicate that even women would envy them. It was plainly the appearance of a girl dressed as a boy.

She kept her head lowered. She did not look at the sea of spectators around her, nor did she look at the opponents on the platform. She simply followed Yu Chen's shadow step by step. She was so close that her shoulder nearly pressed against his back.

That distance was far too intimate, and far too obedient.

The entire arena fell deathly silent.

The commentator's mouth fell open. His amplifier slipped from his hand with a clatter, landing on the table and emitting a piercing screech.

On the other side of the soul fighting platform, the atmosphere in the Shrek reserve team's camp was no longer merely silent. It was as though they had fallen into an abyss of ice.

The refined calm on Bei Bei's face was ripped to shreds in that instant. He suddenly stepped half a pace forward, and because he used too much force, the stone slab beneath his foot cracked into a web-like pattern. His pupils contracted violently as he stared fixedly at that pink-blue figure.

The Black Tortoise Shield in Xu Sanshi's hand, weighing several hundred jin, slammed down onto his foot with a clang. He did not even try to dodge it. He simply stood there like a wooden statue, mouth agape and face full of disbelief.

"Wang Dong..." Xiao Xiao covered her mouth, her eyes reddening instantly.

What had they just seen?

Wang Dong'er was not wearing Shrek's signature green academy uniform at all today. She had changed into a fitted moon-white robe. The material, the cut, even the patterns at the cuffs were astonishingly similar to those of the man called Yu Chen standing ahead of her.

It was like a resounding slap across Shrek Academy's face, delivered squarely before tens of thousands of people across the city.

"Wang Dong! You... how could you be with him?!"

Bei Bei's voice cracked completely, carrying a tremor even he had not noticed. The finger he pointed at the other side shook uncontrollably in midair.

Only last night, Wang Yan had finished laying out their tactics and treated Wang Dong'er and Huo Yuhao's martial soul fusion skill as their only lifeline. But today, not only had that lifeline snapped—it had become a blade aimed at their hearts.

Faced with Bei Bei's questioning, Wang Dong'er finally raised her head.

Her pink-blue eyes, which had always carried a hint of pride and liveliness, were now so calm that not a ripple could be seen within them. She did not even look at Bei Bei's twisted expression. Instead, she naturally moved half a step aside, passed around Yu Chen, and silently walked toward a corner at the edge of the platform.

She did not say a single word.

Yet where she stood made her position abundantly clear.

She would not fight, but she stood on Yu Chen's side.

That silent gesture became the final straw that crushed the Shrek group's sanity.

At the very back of the team, Huo Yuhao began trembling violently as if seized by a fit.

His mind buzzed. The panic he had felt the previous night finally became a tangible blade, wildly churning through his insides.

Why?

That was the brother who shared a dormitory with him, cultivated with him, and used a martial soul fusion skill with him! That was the person he had secretly felt closest to in his heart!

And now she was standing across from him like an obedient attendant, wearing clothes identical to that man's?!

An unprecedented wave of jealousy and humiliation bit through his reason like a venomous snake. Huo Yuhao's eyes instantly bloodshot, turning so red they seemed ready to drip blood.

"Wang Dong!!"

Huo Yuhao violently shook off Jiang Nannan's hand and lunged forward two steps like a crazed little beast. He roared himself hoarse, "Have you lost your mind?! Do you know what you're doing?! You betrayed us! You betrayed the academy!!"

His roar echoed over the spacious, silent soul fighting platform, filled with the shrill desperation of someone beside himself.

Wang Dong'er remained quietly in the corner. Even her eyelashes did not tremble, as though the hysterical person across from her was nothing more than a puff of air.

Yu Chen finally stopped walking.

He slowly turned around and casually tugged at his collar. His deep, black eyes swept across the five people opposite him, whose formation had completely fallen apart and whose emotions had entirely spiraled out of control.

He looked at Bei Bei's fury, Xu Sanshi's stunned expression, and Huo Yuhao's madness.

The corner of Yu Chen's mouth lifted into the faintest curve. There was no explanation, no mockery—only a condescending disdain, as though he were watching clowns.