"First Soul Skill, Immovable Bright King Body!"
Riding the surge in his offense and defense, Zhao Wuji abruptly raised his enormous, fan-like palm and brought it crashing down on Su Chen's head with a piercing sonic boom!
The palm carried crushing weight. Wherever its wind swept past, it gouged a trench half a foot deep into the muddy ground!
Facing that heavy palm descending as though to blot out the sky, Su Chen stamped his foot hard!
Rumble...! The perfected Ancestral Dragon Hegemony Body Art ran wild within him. Pure yang blood energy, vast as an ocean across the nine heavens, surged madly from every limb and bone into his right arm.
Su Chen neither dodged nor retreated. His right arm became a stream of dark-gold light as he thrust it straight toward Zhao Wuji's heavy palm.
God-level self-created combat technique... Dragon Emperor Void-Shattering Fist!
Roar...! The ancient cry of a divine dragon tore through the air.
An intensely condensed dark-gold vortex abruptly contracted around Su Chen's fist, then slammed viciously into Zhao Wuji's Great Strength Vajra Palm.
Bang...!
Two towering peaks of black iron hurtling at full speed collided on that narrow patch of mud. The terrifying crash nearly shattered the eardrums of everyone present.
A violent shock wave swept outward from the two of them. Flagstones and earth within several yards of their feet were forcibly pulverized, throwing up a murky wave of dirt.
Thud... thud...!
Under everyone's gaze, Zhao Wuji, a level-seventy-six Soul Saint, swayed violently. The dark-gold light over his thick bear paw shattered inch by inch, and he staggered two great steps backward!
Opposite him, Su Chen's white robes danced wildly in the wind. Dark-gold dragon aura flowed around him; with the body of a level-forty Quasi-Soul Ancestor, he had relied on his physical strength, fist intent, and god-level self-created combat technique.
He had driven back Soul Saint Zhao Wuji head-on, even while Zhao Wuji was using his first soul skill!
"This... this is impossible!" Flender ripped the crystal spectacles from his nose and roared in disbelief, his eyes nearly bulging out of their sockets.
The entire crowd fell silent as a grave.
Ning Rongrong clamped her small hands over her mouth, her eyes brimming with shock and blazing admiration, while Xiao Wu clenched her little fists in excitement.
In that lightning-fast instant when everyone's minds reeled...
A sudden turn of events erupted! In his wheelchair, Tang San's eyes had been utterly consumed by a sick, venomous hatred.
He watched Zhao Wuji retreat and saw Su Chen's godlike, invincible figure. The sense of superiority he had carried as a transmigrator shattered into dust.
A vile, sinister thought grew like weeds in his mind...
As long as I cripple those two girls providing support and interference in the rear, I can use "helping Zhao Wuji by cutting off support" as my excuse. Not only will I distract Su Chen and get him injured, I'll force this academy onto my side, too!!
Tang San raised his left hand. Under cover of the swirling dust and mud, three Bone-Piercing Steel Needles shot straight toward the exposed throats of Ning Rongrong and Xiao Wu behind Su Chen!!
The hidden weapons made no sound, but their killing intent was razor-sharp!
"Rongrong, watch out!!" Xiao Wu was, after all, a hundred-thousand-year soul beast in human form. Instinctively sensing an icy threat slicing through the air, she was about to step forward to intercept it.
But beneath Su Chen's divine pupils, Tang San's furtive movements had nowhere to hide!!
Su Chen's previously calm gaze turned piercingly murderous. He swept his hand backward through the air!!
Boom...! A blast of Pure Yang Dragon Aura roared forth!!
The three poison needles, supposedly concealed beyond detection, barely touched the dragon aura before melting into three scalding drops of molten iron in its supremely pure yang dragon flame. They did not last even half a breath!!
The crimson-gold dragon aura lost none of its momentum. With an overwhelming ferocity that could crush everything in its path, it became a heavy javelin hurled through the air toward Tang San!
"No!!" Tang San turned deathly pale and frantically tried to roll aside.
Bang...! The savage dragon aura struck squarely in the center of Tang San's already caved-in chest!!
"Aah...!!"
A shrill scream ripped across the sky. That airborne strike sent Tang San and his wheelchair flying several yards before they crashed heavily into a muddy puddle.
"You little bastard, how dare you!!"
Zhao Wuji finally steadied himself. His fierce face alternated between livid and red. Though rough-tempered, he was a veteran powerhouse who had been famous for years, and he had always been proud and arrogant.
It was bad enough that he had suffered a head-on setback while sparring with a boy. Yet a junior in a wheelchair behind him had actually used his name as cover to launch a sneak attack on several underage girls with such despicable poisoned hidden weapons!
This was practically pressing the faces of Shrek Academy and Zhao Wuji, the Immovable Wisdom King, into the dirt and trampling them again and again before every Soul Master on the continent!!
"You dog, you don't know what's good for you!" Zhao Wuji whipped his head around and cursed at Tang San in the muddy puddle. "I'm a proper Battle Soul Saint sparring with a junior! Who gave you the right to fire sneak attacks here? Such vile, underhanded methods disgrace every Soul Master!! If it weren't for Flender, I'd slap you to death!"
Yu Xiaogang rushed over and fumbled to lift the nearly breathless Tang San from the mud. Listening to Zhao Wuji's merciless rebuke, his old face turned the color of pig liver. He trembled with shame and fury, wishing he could find a crack in the ground and crawl into it.
The applicants and parents around them hurled undisguised curses and scorn.
"So he's just a vile little sneak who attacks people from behind. Disgusting!"
"And he wants to enter Shrek? What a piece of scum!"
Flender strode forward, his face livid. He looked at the gravely wounded, dying Tang San, then at the desperate pleading in Yu Xiaogang's eyes, and felt his chest tighten again and again.
Yu Xiaogang was his sworn brother, and Tang San was the twin martial souls genius mentioned in Grandmaster's letter. No matter how furious he was, he could only grit his teeth. With a dark expression, he ordered two veteran teachers to carry the unconscious Tang San into the rear courtyard for emergency treatment, pinching his nose and accepting this rotten mess.
Shrek Academy's name had become the laughingstock of the entire city that day.
On the muddy ground, Su Chen calmly lowered his hand.
"Flender, half an incense stick hasn't burned yet. Does that mean I've won our wager?" Su Chen raised his eyes toward Flender.
Flender looked as though he had aged ten years. With a defeated expression, he nodded. "You won. Shrek Academy... will honor its wager. All registration fees collected today will be refunded in full shortly."
Su Chen turned toward the onlookers. "A wild chicken is still a wild chicken. Draping itself in a monster's skin won't change its nature-it can still see no farther than a rat."
"Starting today, I will officially establish a team at the Soto Great Soul Arena. Anyone with ambition is welcome to come and compete."
With that, surrounded by Ning Rongrong, Zhu Zhuqing, and Xiao Wu, Su Chen strode toward the official road.
As the four upright figures receded into the distance, the morning light stretched their shadows long behind them. They left the devastated entrance to Shrek Village far behind.
The instant Su Chen stepped beyond the village entrance, the system's settlement notifications quietly sounded in his mind:
[Ding...!] [Detected: the host drove back Soul Saint Zhao Wuji head-on, publicly exposed the hidden-weapon ambush of the Child of Destiny, Tang San, and crushed it.] [Tang San's exposed methods drew universal condemnation, severely damaging both his spirit and his meridians; successfully severed Ning Rongrong's and Zhu Zhuqing's ties to Shrek Academy and snatched the core members of destiny's faction.] [The Child of Destiny's fortune points plummeted by 6,000. Shrek Academy's fortune has been greatly weakened.] [God-level critical hit reward settlement triggered.] [Congratulations! The host has obtained: God-Gifted Fourth Soul Ring (automatically condenses a soul ring of the optimal age according to the absorber's physical limits).] [Congratulations! The host has obtained: Ancient Sacred Relic-Pure Yang Dragon Marrow (contains supreme dragon emperor origin essence; can cleanse the marrow and temper the bones, completely expel all cold, sinister poisons, and reconstruct the martial soul's foundation).]
Listening to the notifications in his mind, he continued walking. His divine pupils casually swept over Zhu Zhuqing, who walked lightly beside him.
Under the golden light of his divine pupils, which could see through to the very essence of things, a deeply rooted mass of netherworld cold poison lay entrenched within the girl's circulating Hell Spirit Cat meridians, radiating a bone-piercing chill. With every circulation of soul power, it silently eroded the foundation of her heart meridians.
Inside his sleeve, Su Chen lightly rubbed the newly acquired Pure Yang Dragon Marrow, which radiated a gentle warmth. A faint glimmer flashed through his eyes.
This newly acquired sacred relic had arrived at just the right moment.
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