Three days later.
In the center of Spirit City, people streamed past the entrance of the Welcome Hotel, which housed the competing teams under heavy guard.
Li Xun approached at an unhurried pace, but as soon as he neared the entrance, two guards in Spirit Hall uniforms extended their arms and firmly stopped him.
The guards looked stern, their tone stiff but polite. "Please stop here. These accommodations are reserved for contestants in the Continental Advanced Soul Master Tournament and their accompanying instructors. Unauthorized persons may not approach. Sir, please go elsewhere."
Li Xun remained calm and was just about to explain.
Just then, the hotel doors slowly opened, and a group emerged together.
At their head was Poison Douluo Dugu Bo, dressed in dark green robes, a faintly chilling aura characteristic of a poison-type Soul Master surrounding him.
Following close behind him were Tang San, Xiao Wu, Ning Rongrong, Zhu Zhuqing, and the other young women-Dugu Yan, Ye Lingling, and Shui Bing'er.
They had intended to get some fresh air and stroll through Spirit City's bustling streets. Yet the moment they stepped outside, their gazes all fell on the young man the guards had stopped.
At first, they gave him only a casual glance.
But when they recognized that face, at once familiar and unfamiliar, stripped of its youthful innocence and bearing the composure forged through countless battles and killings, they all stopped in their tracks.
For a moment, silence settled over them.
After two years apart, the young man had grown taller and more slender, his features cool and sharp. His bearing had undergone an earth-shaking transformation.
The once gentle youth now carried a deep, detached, chilling aura, as though he had passed through mountains of corpses and seas of blood. A single glance at him inspired awe.