Xiao Wu's Childish Plan: A Hundred Thousand Years Had Only Made Her Older

"What is it?" Qin Yun asked.

Xiao Wu said,

"I want to team up with you for a two-on-two spirit match!"

"You teamed up with Rongrong for a match, so team up with me for one too!"

"Hm?"

As Qin Yun remembered it,

after six years together at Nuoding Academy,

Xiao Wu should have grown deeply attached to Tang San. Why would she ask to team up with him now?

Something was off.

Qin Yun did not answer at once. He simply looked into Xiao Wu's eyes.

His gaze was not intense, but it had a steady, penetrating quality.

Xiao Wu grew uncomfortable under his scrutiny, and her mouth twitched.

"Well? Will you or won't you? Just one match!" she urged.

Qin Yun looked away, the faintest smile touching his lips.

He did not call her out.

He wanted to see what the little rabbit was plotting.

So he agreed.

"All right. I'll team up with you for one match."

"Great!" Xiao Wu broke into a radiant smile.

Then she grabbed Qin Yun by the sleeve and dragged him toward the registration desk.

"Let's go now! We can sign up right away! There's an opening in the next match!" She moved as though she feared Qin Yun might change his mind.

Ning Rongrong remained where she was.

Watching Xiao Wu drag Qin Yun away, she found it strange too.

Then she hurried after them.

Two-on-two spirit matches were far less common than one-on-one matches, and there were not many pairs competing at Level 40.

After they registered, they barely had to wait.

A woman's voice rang through the corridor, announcing their aliases and their opponents' information.

When Qin Yun and Xiao Wu stepped onto the arena floor, one after the other,

the two soul masters opposing them were already there.

They were an older sister and younger brother. The sister was tall, with an Azure-Scaled Snake as her Martial Soul. Four Soul Rings—one white, two yellow, and one purple—slowly revolved beside her.

Her younger brother was stocky. An earthy yellow glow shimmered faintly beneath his feet, and his Martial Soul was evidently some kind of earth-attributed defensive beast.

Both looked at Qin Yun with unmistakable wariness.

They had just watched from below as he set up his lightning array and crushed the two brothers in the previous match.

The sister looked Qin Yun up and down, then glanced at Xiao Wu beside him.

After a brief silence, her tone took on a hint of mockery.

"You swap partners pretty often, kid."

"Where's that pretty little support-type girl from before?"

"And now you've already got someone new?"

She smiled as she spoke, but her eyes never left Qin Yun's hands.

She might have been running her mouth, but her body remained on high alert.

Qin Yun did not take the bait.

He merely flexed his wrist and spoke evenly.

"Enough talk. Come at me."

He glanced at Xiao Wu beside him. "When I put pressure on them, look for an opening and attack however you like. Don't overthink it. Their attention will be on me."

It was a reasonable plan.

Xiao Wu nodded at once. "Okay! No problem!"

She wore an obedient smile.

But the moment Qin Yun turned away, the smile vanished from her face.

She lowered her eyes and used his position to hide her movements. Quietly, she drew the Godly Zhuge Crossbow from her sleeve and eased its mechanism halfway open. Then she took three short bolts coated in pale green poison from a hidden pouch at her waist and slid them into the crossbow's groove, one by one.

She moved lightly, afraid Qin Yun would notice.

Resentment churned inside her.

Qin Yun had hurt Tang San. The first time, he had injured his left arm; the second, he had pierced a joint of his Eight Spider Lances. Each time, she had stood at the edge of the arena, fists clenched and lip caught between her teeth, unable to do anything.

Now she finally had a chance to stand behind Qin Yun. Why should she care about the rules of a two-on-two spirit match?

She only wanted to ambush him while he was busy fighting those two Level 40 soul masters.

Even if she missed his vital points, making him suffer and humiliating him once would be payback for Xiao San.

She felt entirely justified and never thought a step further.

Qin Yun was a Soul Ancestor with four black Soul Rings, while she was a Soul Elder who had only just passed Level 30. What chance did she have of landing a sneak attack?

Besides, her reason for teaming up with him had been baffling. How could Qin Yun possibly fail to guard against her?

The Soft-Boned Enchanting Rabbit had cultivated for a hundred thousand years, yet the only thing that had grown was her age.

She was as naive now as she had been when she sneaked out of the Star Dou Great Forest in her youth and wandered around Nuoding City.

The siblings exchanged a glance and moved together.

They had seen Qin Yun's lightning array firsthand. What they feared most was giving him time to set up those metal pillars.

So they opened by closing in to pin him down.

The sister glided low across the ground like a snake, Soul Power from her Azure-Scaled Snake Martial Soul forming a fine ring of green light around her. Wherever she passed, shallow cracks silently spread across the arena tiles.

Her younger brother stamped both feet. An earthy yellow Soul Power barrier spread upward from beneath them, enveloping him and his sister. He charged straight at Qin Yun like a moving fortress.

Qin Yun stood still and raised his left hand, Soul Power flowing between his fingers.

Of course he heard the faint click of the hidden crossbow's mechanism behind him. He knew Xiao Wu was handling a hidden weapon.

He neither turned around nor exposed her.

By then, the siblings had closed in.

The younger brother struck first. He stamped hard, forming a rugged wall of stone armor before him, and drove it straight at Qin Yun.

The charge carried the full weight and Soul Power of a Level 40 soul master. Even the arena tiles cracked beneath his feet.

Qin Yun neither retreated nor dodged. Instead, he stepped half a pace toward the stone armor.

The boost from his four Ten Thousand Year Soul Rings had given Qin Yun a body far stronger than that of an ordinary soul master at his level.

He had nothing to fear from close combat.

He thrust out his right hand, fingers pressed together like a blade, and struck the thickest part of the stone armor. Soul Power jolted through his palm, sending a dense, powerful force back through the cracks inside it.

The younger brother's expression changed. Under Qin Yun's seemingly casual strike, the stone armor he took such pride in split from within, deep cracks tearing across it.

The force drove him staggering backward.

At almost the same instant, the sister became a green-gray blur and skimmed in low from the flank.

Her Azure-Scaled Snake Martial Soul formed a phantom more than ten feet long around her arm. Its jaws opened wide, dark green poison gathering between its fangs as it lunged for Qin Yun's right ribs.

It was her usual ambush: while her younger brother drew an opponent's attention from the front, she delivered the killing blow from the side.

But Qin Yun's left hand was already poised at his side.

He lightly rubbed two fingers together, igniting a cloud of combustible hydrogen and oxygen with his Soul Power.

A silent blast erupted at his side.

It caught the sister squarely in the middle of her approach.

The blast swept past the phantom Azure-Scaled Snake.

The searing air knocked her attack off course, and the snake's jaws snapped shut on nothing.