Before long, the four arrived before the Soto Great Soul Arena's immense arched entrance, as majestic as a mountain.
Even in the early morning, the Great Soul Arena was already a cauldron of voices, with countless Soul Masters, nobles, and merchants bustling back and forth.
Su Chen looked composed. His robes stirred slightly as he headed straight for the highest-tier Team Registration Counter.
"Honored Soul Masters, would you like to register a new team? By regulation, you must present each member's Soul Power badge and pay a registration fee of ten Gold Soul Coins." The middle-aged steward in charge of registration wore a professionally courteous smile.
Ning Rongrong stepped forward and lightly tapped the Wishful Treasure Pouch at her waist. Ten weighty Gold Soul Coins landed on the marble counter with crisp clinks.
Then she lifted her palm slightly, and a shimmering phantom of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda flashed into view. The two bright yellow Hundred-Year Soul Rings pulsing upward around her made several stewards behind the counter abruptly catch their breath.
"S-Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda? A direct descendant of one of the Upper Three Sects?" The middle-aged steward's courtesy turned into utter shock.
Before the steward could recover, Su Chen, standing at the front, had already pressed his palm onto the Team Insignia.
With a slight shift of his thoughts, the fully mastered Ancestral Dragon Hegemony Body Art within him stirred, and a terrifying trace of pressure suddenly swept across the counter.
It was the aura of a black Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring-his fourth Soul Ring!
The middle-aged registration steward felt as though an immense weight had settled onto his shoulders. Cold sweat soaked his clothes, while the two Soul Grandmaster guards behind him gave muffled grunts, their eyes filled with terror.
"Team name: Dragon God." Su Chen tapped his slender fingertips twice against the cold black-iron insignia. "Captain: Su Chen. Members: Xiao Wu, Zhu Zhuqing, Ning Rongrong."
"Y-yes! Honored Lord Soul Ancestor! I'll take care of it immediately!" With trembling hands, the steward finished engraving the insignia and entering their permissions faster than he ever had in his life, granting the team the highest priority outright.
Meanwhile, deep in the shadows of the second-floor gallery, a steady pair of eyes watched the white-robed youth in the center of the hall.
Ao Tianhai, the manager of the Soto Great Soul Arena, gripped the railing as towering waves of shock surged through his heart.
There was no mistaking that fleeting fluctuation from a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring. When had such a young four-ring Battle Soul Ancestor appeared?
Once registration was complete, Su Chen gave his instructions.
"Rongrong will coordinate the enhancements. Zhu Zhuqing and Xiao Wu will handle the main offense. Go to the two-on-two and three-on-three subsidiary Soul Fighting Zones and fight without holding back."
"Don't worry, Brother Su Chen! Watch Zhu Zhuqing and me beat them until they scatter like fallen blossoms and flowing water!" Xiao Wu waved her little pink fist, her charming face brimming with eager fighting spirit.
Zhu Zhuqing nodded slightly, a sharp, shadowy dark-gold light glimmering in her feline eyes. "I won't disgrace you, young master."
The main stage of the thirteenth subsidiary Soul Fighting Zone.
"Next up, a two-on-two match! The veteran Mad Lion and Iron Horn Combination, already riding a four-win streak, will face the Netherworld Soft-Bone Combination in their debut!"
As Doudou's clear announcement rang out, several hundred spectators erupted into enthusiastic cheers.
Two burly Soul Elders at the peak of the thirtieth level stepped onto the stage. One had a savage lion Martial Soul; the other had the Ironclad Rhinoceros, renowned for its defense.
In the waiting area, Ning Rongrong revealed her Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda. Two brilliant beams of rainbow light shot through the air and entered Xiao Wu and Zhu Zhuqing's bodies.
"Seven Treasures Have Names! First: Strength! Second: Speed!"
With a thirty-percent boost to her strength and speed, Zhu Zhuqing's figure became a bolt of shadowy lightning!
Fast! So fast that she surpassed the limits of what the naked eye could follow!
"You little brat, you're courting death!" The Mad Lion Soul Elder laughed viciously and unleashed his third Soul Skill, Mad Lion's Roar, his sharp claws whipping up a fierce wind as they struck straight at Zhu Zhuqing's face.
But at that moment, her transformed Nether Shadow Dragon Cat Martial Soul displayed its terrifying dominance.
Suspended in midair, Zhu Zhuqing stepped through the void with dark-gold light beneath her toes and abruptly activated her first Soul Skill, Hell Stab!
This thrust was utterly different from her formerly frail cat-claw strikes. Baptized by the Primordial Ancestral Dragon's pure Yang essence, the nails on all ten fingers gleamed with dark-gold edges as indestructible as dragon scales!
Riiip!
The thick protective aura the Mad Lion Soul Elder took such pride in crumbled inch by inch like brittle paper the instant it met those dark-gold claws!
Blood sprayed wildly. Before the Mad Lion Soul Elder could even make out Zhu Zhuqing's movements, three wounds deep enough to expose bone had been torn across his chest, and he flew off the stage with a scream!
At the same time, the Ironclad Rhinoceros Soul Elder tried to launch a charge, only for Xiao Wu to flash directly behind him with her phantom-like teleportation.
Her Scorpion Braid coiled around his neck like a nimble snake. With Ning Rongrong's strength enhancement and Su Chen's usual guidance, her first Soul Skill, Waist Bow, erupted ferociously. The burly man weighing several hundred jin was swung into the air like a punching bag, then smashed heavily into the floor, sending shattered stone flying everywhere!
From the first exchange to the finish, only three short breaths had passed!
The entire arena fell silent, then erupted into frenzied cheers that thundered like mountains roaring and seas surging!
In the elevated VIP seats, Su Chen reclined against a soft fur-covered chair. Deep violet-gold light flowed through his eyes as he took in every tiny flaw in the battle.
In the three-on-three team battles that followed, the Dragon God Team advanced like a blade splitting bamboo!
A clean sweep in two-on-two! A clean sweep in three-on-three!
In just half a day, the Dragon God Team's points skyrocketed as they swept through the Soto Great Soul Arena's established teams!
Just as the entire thirteenth subsidiary Soul Fighting Zone boiled with excitement over the Dragon God Team's invincible showing, Flender strode down a dim passage toward the rest area, leading a group with varied expressions.
Behind Flender, who was pushing a wheelchair, came Tang San, whose injuries had improved somewhat but whose face was as gloomy as a ghost's, and Dai Mubai, the Evil-Eyed White Tiger, his eyes bloodshot and his entire body radiating frenzied malice.
Behind them, Oscar and Ma Hongjun hunched their shoulders, the atmosphere stifling to the extreme.
To recover the face he had utterly lost at the entrance to Shrek Village, Flender had deliberately brought them to the Great Soul Arena for intensive practical combat training.
Yet the instant they entered the waiting hall, the enormous Soul Guidance Screens on every side were scrolling through the Dragon God Team's battle reports!
"Netherworld Soft-Bone Combination: seven consecutive victories!"
"Dragon God Team sweeps the Savage Bear Team in a team battle, claiming five straight victories!"
Dai Mubai stopped dead.
He stared fixedly at the cool, beautiful girl on the screen, clad in tight black leather, her figure alluring and noble. He felt as though lightning had struck him!
At the edge of the stage, Zhu Zhuqing, who had just stepped down, accepted a silk handkerchief from an attendant and meekly offered it to Su Chen as he approached.
His fiancée, who was always cold as ice toward him and treated him like disgusting scum, now looked at the white-robed youth with eyes full of tenderness as gentle as water and wholehearted attachment!
"Zhu... Zhu... Qing!"
Dai Mubai's eyes widened until they nearly split, and veins bulged across his forehead! Jealousy and humiliation twisted like a steel blade through the last scraps of his reason!
That was his fiancée! The woman destined to perform the Martial Soul Fusion Skill, Hell White Tiger, with him!
Yet now, not only had someone else utterly transformed her from the marrow outward, she nestled beside his enemy like a docile house cat!
Tang San's face twisted as well. Watching Xiao Wu smile sweetly beside Su Chen, happily peeling a Spirit Fruit and offering it to his lips, Tang San clenched the concealed Bone-Piercing Nail in his left hand beneath his sleeve, murderous intent surging wildly.
Under the ironclad rules of the Tang Sect's Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record, stealing a man's wife and severing his path were already grounds for death! He silently swore that if he met Su Chen in the arena, he would unleash the Tang Sect Fatal Hidden Weapons he had spent his life refining and shoot Su Chen full of holes like a hedgehog!
"You bitch! Stop right there!"
Dai Mubai completely lost his reason. Like a crazed tiger, he suddenly charged out of the passage, his rough, broad hand carrying a violent white tiger gale as he grabbed straight for the girl's wrist!
"You betrayed the Star Luo Imperial Family and your family's marriage agreement! Today, I'll cripple you right here, you treacherous bitch who bites the hand that feeds you!"
Faced with this sudden attack, Zhu Zhuqing did not retreat even half a step.
The instant Dai Mubai came within three feet of her, the girl's clear feline eyes abruptly darkened.
Boom! The Nether Shadow Dragon Cat's Martial Soul Possession took hold. The girl moved like a phantom, leaving an afterimage where she had stood. Her right hand curled into a claw, and a Hell Stab imbued with pure Yang armor-piercing dragon aura lashed back as swiftly as lightning!
Crack! The dark-gold, dragon-shaped claw light tore through his defense like rotten wood, smashing the hastily formed White Tiger Protection Barrier to pieces!
"Aaargh!"
Dai Mubai let out an agonized groan. The sleeve covering his entire right arm shredded in the gale, and he flew backward several yards like a kite with its string cut!
One move! With just one ordinary counterattack, the thirty-seventh-level Soul Elder, the Evil-Eyed White Tiger, had been blasted away and overwhelmed head-on by the twenty-ninth-level Zhu Zhuqing!
"Dai Mubai, put away that revolting expression." Zhu Zhuqing slowly withdrew her delicate hand and looked down at the crippled white tiger on the floor. "The Star Luo Imperial Family's marriage agreement became void when I was on the verge of death. In this life, I, Zhu Zhuqing, honor only Young Master Su Chen. If you dare foul your mouth again, next time, it will be your throat that shatters."
Tap... tap... tap...
Su Chen approached slowly with his hands behind his back. He glanced indifferently at Dai Mubai, sprawled on the floor like a dead dog, then looked at the pale, venomous faces of Tang San and Yu Xiaogang.
"Dean Flender, are these the monsters Shrek takes such pride in? Aside from impotent rage and shooting arrows from behind, they truly have nothing to offer."
"You... arrogant brat!" Yu Xiaogang trembled with fury in his wheelchair, his face contorted. "Zhao Wuji merely let his guard down for a moment! Do you really think this ragtag team you cobbled together can defeat the tactical formation I painstakingly trained in a proper team battle?"
Yu Xiaogang turned toward the arena steward beside him and roared fiercely, "In the name of the Shrek Team, I challenge the Dragon God Team to a full-team deathmatch! Tonight, in the Central Main Soul Fighting Arena! Be there!"
To reclaim his dignity as a theoretical Grandmaster, Yu Xiaogang had already descended into complete madness!
He firmly believed that as long as Tang San used all his hidden weapons and battlefield-control methods, supported by Dai Mubai and Ma Hongjun's powerful assaults, they would surely tear this white-robed youth who knew neither heaven's height nor earth's depth into countless pieces!
Hearing this hysterical challenge, Flender and Zhao Wuji's expressions shifted slightly. They wanted to stop him, but the shouts of several hundred surrounding Soul Masters had already forced them onto a stage from which they could not retreat.
Faced with the challenge, the vast ancestral dragon bloodline within Su Chen rumbled faintly. An ancient, primordial dominance that towered above heaven and earth flowed naturally from his body.
"Since you're so eager to die, I'll grant your wish."
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