A Showdown Between Two Transmigrators

Meng Baichuan in particular was impeccable, both in his combat skills and his control over his soul skills.

But that strength was still within an acceptable range.

One-on-one, he could at most put up a fight against a Soul Ancestor.

Against a Soul King, his defeat would be certain.

What Lin Yuan truly cared about, however, was how the two fought together.

Their coordination far exceeded his imagination.

Lin Yuan believed he could swiftly finish either opponent in a one-on-one fight, but taking on both at once would multiply the difficulty several times over.

And that was without the two even using their Martial Soul Fusion Skill, Dragon Snake Combined Strike.

Their spiritual power is linked when they fight, allowing their minds to communicate. It looks like I still need to observe them more. It won't be too late to look for an opening once I become a Soul Elder.

Lin Yuan reined himself in.

Over the following days, aside from staying at Suotuo City Intermediate Soul Master Academy and immersing himself in its library, reading books unavailable at Nuoding Academy,

Lin Yuan spent his time cultivating.

Every academy was lenient toward good students.

Because of Lin Yuan's outstanding talent, even skipping class brought no consequences.

He only needed to attend the weekly combat drills.

Almost every time, Lin Yuan managed to achieve the excellent result of "third place."

That way, the academy's classes did not delay his cultivation, nor did he draw too much attention.

After all, he had enrolled as a twelve-year-old.

A twelve-year-old at rank twenty-four was a rare genius, but not so rare that one could search the entire Soul Master World with a lantern and still fail to find another.

Between cultivation sessions, Lin Yuan also occasionally visited the Soul Fighting Arena to observe the siblings, Meng Yiran and Meng Baichuan.

After nearly two years of observation, Lin Yuan finally gained a thorough understanding of their abilities.

Like Huo Zhongxian and Third Division's Hundred-Percent Martial Soul Fusion Skill, they could increase their cultivation speed by sharing the fruits of each other's cultivation.

As for whether Meng Baichuan possessed a second martial soul, that remained unknown for now.

However, Lin Yuan could roughly guess his goal, judging by how he had not particularly tormented Ma Hongjun or Dai Mubai.

Presumably, he intended to become the eighth and ninth monsters together with Meng Yiran, following Tang San on the path to godhood.

By now, Lin Yuan was eleven.

After becoming a Soul Grandmaster, he could no longer raise his soul power by one rank every two months or so as he had at the Soul Master stage, but gaining a rank roughly every two and a half months was still a very impressive cultivation speed.

After one year and eleven months of arduous cultivation, Lin Yuan had reached rank thirty-five.

His third soul ring came from hunting a Golden Sword Bamboo over seven thousand years old.

It happened to be time for Flender's annual trip around the surrounding villages to drum up business-poaching talented Soul Masters.

By this time, the vast majority of children of the appropriate age had already awakened their martial souls.

The Soul Masters attending Junior Soul Master Academies had also returned to their villages.

A little asking around was enough to find out about them.

That was how Flender had picked up that fatty Ma Hongjun from Phoenix Village in the first place.

Flender simply gave Ma Hongjun, Dai Mubai, Meng Yiran, Meng Baichuan, and the other Shrek students a month off.

Naturally, Ma Hongjun ran off to visit the brothels.

Because Lin Yuan had robbed him, Dai Mubai still owed Shrek Academy ten Gold Soul Coins in enrollment fees and a hundred Gold Soul Coins in tuition.

On top of that, he had yet to become a Soul Elder.

As a result, whenever his monthly subsidy of ten Gold Soul Coins from Spirit Hall arrived, Flender took most of it to repay his debts.

He was even poorer than Ma Hongjun.

Yet he could not lower himself to pursue those "painted common beauties."

Meng Yiran suited his tastes, but unfortunately, while he fancied her, she did not fancy him.

To seize pleasure while he could, he had no choice but to follow Ma Hongjun and look for a phoenix in a straw nest.

As for Meng Baichuan, who prided himself on keeping his hands clean, he naturally went home with Meng Yiran to visit their grandparents, just as he had the year before.

But whether the fellow was too confident, stupid, or acting for some other reason, he had actually gone two years in a row without having anyone from the Dragon Snake Family come to escort them, choosing instead to travel alone with Meng Yiran.

That gave Lin Yuan precisely the opportunity he needed.

First, he carefully inspected the route they had to take back to their clan.

He confirmed that there were neither ambushes nor anyone waiting to meet them.

Then he tailed them for over a hundred li, checking again and again.

Only then did he finally decide to act.

This was already his second time doing something like this. The previous time, because the Dragon Duke and Snake Granny had been waiting outside Suotuo City to meet them, Lin Yuan had chosen not to act.

This time, he had made every preparation.

The sun shone overhead.

It was just past noon, and the siblings Meng Yiran and Meng Baichuan were hurrying along the road from Suotuo City to the Dragon Snake Family.

As they passed a bamboo grove, Meng Baichuan suddenly stopped, grabbed the back of Meng Yiran's collar as she rushed forward, and pulled her back amid her startled cry of "Ah!"

The next instant, a pebble flew through the spot Meng Yiran had just occupied.

With a dull thud, it struck the ground at an angle, gouging out a shallow pit.

Coming to her senses, Meng Yiran saw the shallow pit in the ground and was instantly both shocked and furious. "Who dares ambush me? Get out here right now!"

Meng Baichuan, however, looked remarkably calm. He said coldly, "Come out, my friend who snatched our whale rubber back then."

As his words fell, mist gradually shrouded their surroundings until nothing could be seen beyond five meters.

Then a hazy figure dressed in black robes, with black gauze covering his face and a Veiled Hat on his head, emerged from the mist like a ghost.

"You seem to have known I would come?"

Lin Yuan spoke, a rarity for him, having already planned his escape route and prepared to withdraw at any moment.

As though possessed by the brilliant detective Di Renjie, Meng Baichuan said gravely,

"At first, I didn't suspect anything. I simply took you for Dai Mubai and thought you were buying whale rubber as an aphrodisiac."

"But after actually getting to know Dai Mubai, I discovered he was so poor that he had to visit brothels with Ma Hongjun."

"When I asked, I learned that he'd been robbed. All his money, along with his soul tool, had been taken. Naturally, that included the gold card bearing the Star Luo Imperial Family's insignia."

"Only then did I realize that wasn't him, but a fellow countryman of mine." He placed particular emphasis on "fellow countryman."

"She didn't originally have to die." Hearing that, Lin Yuan smiled.

According to Lin Yuan's original plan, after striking Meng Yiran's Sleep Point with a pebble, he would have left her alone.

He would only need to slip the Star Luo Imperial Family token he had found in Dai Mubai's soul tool into the dead Meng Baichuan's hand, making it look like an assassination by the Star Luo Imperial Family.

After all, assassinating geniuses from hostile factions was already a common occurrence on the Douluo Continent.

The Dragon Snake Family was located in the Balak Kingdom and naturally leaned toward the Heaven Dou Empire. It would be perfectly reasonable for the Star Luo Empire to assassinate Meng Baichuan, a genius who, at just eleven, already possessed rank thirty-nine cultivation and a yellow-purple-purple soul ring configuration.

But Meng Baichuan had actually pulled her back, allowing her to evade the pebble.

She would inevitably witness the coming battle between the two of them.

To keep his identity from being exposed, he could only ruthlessly crush this flower.

Meng Baichuan said helplessly, "Can't we avoid fighting?"

"With our talent and strength, if we follow Tang San, becoming gods is as certain as a nail driven into a board. Why fight to the death? The Divine Realm isn't short of three godhood inheritances for you, me, and Yiran."

"As for all that talk about double standards, the Tang Family's private garden, and whatever else, what does any of it have to do with us? If we really can't stand it, once Spirit Hall is destroyed, we can just establish an organization capable of replacing it ourselves."

"If you want beauties, you can take your pick of Qian Renxue, Hu Liena, or even Bibi Dong. I only want Ning Rongrong and Zhu Zhuqing."