Chu Yao vs. Oscar

The commentator's voice still carried the tremor from the life-or-death battle before.

"Second individual match—Sky Abyss Academy's Chu Yao versus—Shrek Academy's Oscar!"

The roaring atmosphere throughout the arena suddenly turned cold.

A support fighter against a support fighter.

An astonishingly uniform thought arose in the minds of ninety percent of the audience—time for a trip to the restroom.

One made sausages, the other refined gu poison. Were they going to feed each other onstage and see who got poisoned to death first?

Before the murmurs had faded, Chu Yao had already stepped onto the stage.

The entire arena fell deathly silent.

Her ice-blue gown brushed over the rubble, making a soft rustling sound like cracking ice.

She walked slowly, yet every step carried an aura that crushed all before her. She was neither hurried nor rushed, and she would never yield the way for anyone.

She stopped at the center of the arena.

The male spectators in the first three rows nearly forgot to breathe at the same time. Someone in the fourth row dropped their teacup, which rolled away and shattered across the ground.

It was not because they had been stunned by her beauty.

Rather, a faintly sweet fragrance silently spread from the center of the arena.

The scent was not strong, but it carried an irresistible warmth that lured people into indulgence and drew them toward sleep.

In the seventh row, a middle-aged merchant's eyelids became as heavy as lead, and his head uncontrollably drooped.

In the fifth row, a female Soul Master clamped a hand over her nose and mouth, but a trace of sweetness still slipped through her fingers. Her pupils began to lose focus.

The chief referee's expression changed drastically. He slammed a palm against the bronze pillar at the edge of the stage and roared!

"Activate the Isolation Formation!"

Six curtains of light rose from the ground, enveloping the entire platform within a transparent Soul Power barrier.

That faint fragrance was completely sealed off.

The spectators in the front rows jolted awake, their backs already drenched in cold sweat.

The chief referee looked at Chu Yao with deep wariness.

She had not even released her martial soul yet.

This was merely the scent naturally emitted by her physique.

Oscar stepped onto the final stair and suddenly paused.

Inside the Isolation Formation, a thin layer of pale purple mist still clung to the ground, not yet fully dispersed.

He glanced once more at the face across from him.

Her ice-blue eyes held nothing. Beneath her high nose bridge, the natural downward curve of her lips seemed to proclaim her utter lack of interest in this world.

Oscar's Adam's apple bobbed.

He turned toward the contestants' seats. Tang San was watching him with a calm gaze. Beside him, Ma Hongjun raised a fist at him—go for it!

Oscar steadied himself, turned back, and forced what he believed was a dashing smile onto his face.

"Um... can I ask something before we start? Do you have a boyfriend?"

The entire arena burst into laughter.

Chu Yao's expression did not change in the slightest.

"That's your last words?"

The laughter came to an abrupt stop.

Oscar's smile froze, but he reacted quickly. He clapped his hands together, and his martial soul was released!

"I might not be able to beat you, but I can—stay alive!"

Before he finished speaking, his hands blurred as six golden sausages formed in rapid succession.

He stuffed three Recovery Sausages into his pouch, bit two Speed Sausages directly into his mouth, and tightly gripped the final Detox Sausage in his hand!

"Do you know how my teacher evaluates me? He says I'm the hardest man to kill at Shrek Academy!"

Oscar swallowed the Speed Sausages in one gulp. A pale golden glow spread over his body as his legs suddenly exerted force!

His entire body became a blurry streak of light as he raced around the edge of the arena at high speed!

"If you can't catch me—you can't hit me—my sausages—can keep me going forever—!"

His voice was shredded into fragments by the wind.

Chu Yao remained where she was, unmoving.

She lowered her eyes and looked at her long, fair fingers. Her nails, glimmering with a pale purple sheen, seemed rather bored.

"Boring."

First Soul Skill: Gu Poison Diffusion.

There was no fluctuation of Soul Power, no dazzling visual effect.

From the cracks between the shattered stone slabs beneath her feet, wisps of nearly invisible pale purple smoke silently seeped out.

The smoke spread along the ground, so quietly that it seemed to have no presence at all.

Within three seconds, the entire arena floor was covered.

Oscar glanced down, but his speed did not decrease.

He broke open the Detox Sausage in his hand and took a savage bite. Warm Soul Power formed a protective membrane inside his body.

"Useless! My Detox Sausage can resist ten-thousand-year-grade toxins!"

His voice was filled with confidence. Grandmaster had specifically researched poison-type Soul Masters. The formula for his Detox Sausage had undergone three improvements and was remarkably effective against forty-seven known ten-thousand-year-grade deadly poisons.

Chu Yao tilted her head slightly.

The motion was small, carrying the indifference of someone watching prey make its final struggle.

"Who told you I was using poison?"

When Oscar's right foot touched the ground, he sensed that something was wrong.

The Speed Sausage's enhancement effect—was weakening.

It had not suddenly vanished. Rather, something was corroding it, causing it to drain away bit by bit. His speed declined from its peak, every step just a fraction slower than the last.

"My gu isn't poison."

Chu Yao walked slowly through the purple mist. As her long gown swept past, the fog automatically parted to make way for her.

"It is Erosion."

"What it corrodes is not your body, but the enhancement effects produced by your soul skills."

Oscar's pupils suddenly contracted.

"Your sausage lasts ten minutes?" Chu Yao's voice was flat and emotionless, as though she were merely stating a fact. "Within the range of the Erosion Gu, five minutes."

Oscar felt as if his feet had been filled with lead. The Speed Sausage's boost had already dropped by forty percent. Without time to think, he pulled out a second Speed Sausage and stuffed it into his mouth!

"Three minutes."

The enhancement from the second sausage had barely surged up before it began to decay at an accelerated rate.

"One minute."

Oscar was beginning to lose the ability to run.

He panted heavily, producing and swallowing Recovery Sausages, Speed Sausages, and Detox Sausages one after another.

Crumbs covered the corners of his mouth, his cheeks were puffed out, and he looked utterly miserable.

Fifteen seconds later, his speed boost fell to zero.

His steps changed from a mad sprint to a jog, then from a jog to a brisk walk.

Thirty seconds later, his recovery boost fell to zero.

The warm protective membrane within his body completely dissipated. Nothing he ate could provide even the slightest bit of Soul Power anymore.

Forty-five seconds—

Oscar's face suddenly flushed the color of liver.

He abruptly bent over, bracing his hands against his knees as his whole body convulsed in violent retching.

"Bleurgh—!"

The sixth sausage he had just eaten not only failed to produce any effect, but instead exploded into a reverse flow of Soul Power inside his body!

That power wildly battered his meridians, the pain ten times worse than a stomachache from spoiled food!

The entire arena was silent.

Everyone witnessed a scene they would never forget: a food-type Soul Master being devoured by the backlash of his own food.

"The final stage of the Erosion Gu."

Chu Yao walked up to him and stopped. Pale purple mist curled obediently around her feet.

"Your enhancement-type soul skills will reverse into debuffs."

She lowered her head and looked down at the figure curled into a ball on the ground.

"In other words—the more you eat, the faster you die."

Oscar lay sprawled across the cold shattered stone slabs, his stomach churning violently. He used the last of his strength to raise his head and met those ice-blue eyes.

His lips trembled.

"You... you devil..."

Chu Yao crouched down.

The hem of her ice-blue gown spread across the ruin-like arena as she leaned close to Oscar's ear.

That faintly sweet scent of lilacs surged over him again, right beside him.

The entire arena held its breath.

"Thank you for the compliment."

She rose, turned around, and walked off the stage without looking back.

The chief referee remained silent for a full two seconds before raising his right hand.

"Second match—Sky Abyss Academy's Chu Yao wins."

He paused, then added one more sentence.

"Time taken—one minute and twelve seconds."

At the contestants' seats, Ning Rongrong felt a chill shoot from her tailbone straight to the top of her head. Her limbs turned ice-cold.

Her Seven Treasure Glazed Tower was the strongest enhancement martial soul on the Douluo Continent.

Speed, strength, defense, Soul Power—she could stack seven terrifying enhancements onto her teammates.

That was her pride, the foundation of her identity as the heir to the world's greatest support sect.

But that woman just now, and her gu—

Specialized in corroding enhancements.

The more enhancements there were, the fiercer the backlash.

This was not suppression.

This was a complete—negation at the very root of the rules.

Ning Rongrong clenched the corner of her skirt tightly, her knuckles already white.

Tang San took all of this in without saying a word.

He raised his head and looked toward the contestants' seats on the other side.

Su Chen was still leaning against his chair, looking casual. His gaze happened to cross the entire arena and lightly meet Tang San's in midair.

Su Chen smiled, then slowly raised three fingers toward Tang San.

Tang San understood.

The third match.

Two to zero. Abyss remained in the lead.

And their true trump card had yet to appear.