In the Soto Great Soul Arena's private underground preparation room, Yu Xiaogang sat in a specially made iron wheelchair, his eyes wild.
"Flender brought you to Suotuo City so that you geniuses could reach the summit of this continent! Shrek cannot afford to lose this team battle, and neither can you! Don't let outsiders say we can't even deal with an arrogant brat who hasn't grown his first whisker!"
Standing in the shadows, Flender knitted his brows, wanting to speak but holding back.
The Spirit Hall's Shadow Guard still left him shaken, but his hunger for fame and instinct to preserve the academy's livelihood ultimately overpowered his misgivings. He simply turned his head aside, tacitly consenting to the match.
Dai Mubai abruptly rose from the bench.
"Don't worry, Grandmaster. I was careless this afternoon. I never expected that bitch to secretly learn such crooked arts. Tonight, I'll crush her bones inch by inch! She'll never escape the palm of my hand as long as she lives!"
In the corner, Tang San sat alone on a wooden chair, adjusting Twenty-Four Bridges Bright Moon Night at his waist. At the thought of the adoration in Xiao Wu's eyes when she looked at Su Chen, his features beneath the shadow of his black hair twisted almost beyond recognition.
His calloused fingers slid gently along the inside of his belt, brushing the hidden weapon that gleamed with a cold, eerie light... the Godly Zhuge Crossbow.
The barbed grooves at the tips of its bolts were coated with Mandala Snake venom that sealed the throat the moment it drew blood.
Under the Great Soul Arena's ironclad rules, lethal hidden weapons like these were strictly forbidden in competitive duels, but nothing remained in Tang San's eyes except sinister cruelty.
Under the highest tenet of the Tang Sect's rules, once someone had been judged to have "courted death," all means and rules could be thrown away like trash!
"Teacher, leave the tactics to me." Tang San raised his head.
"Once the match starts, Boss Dai and Fatty will pressure them head-on and tear open their formation. I'll use Blue Silver Grass to block Ning Rongrong's sight. As for Su Chen... I'll make sure he stays in Suotuo City forever."
Recognizing that familiar killing intent in Tang San, Yu Xiaogang smiled. "Good. History is written by the victors. As long as we win, the process doesn't matter."
The central main Soul Fighting Zone of the Soto Great Soul Arena.
As the grandest platform in the entire Great Soul Arena, the central main ring had been carved from a single mass of hard adamantine rock, surrounded by enormous tiered stands that could hold tens of thousands.
At that moment, massive soul-powered magical chandeliers lit the entire ring as brightly as day. Fanatical cheers surged like mountains roaring and seas crashing, nearly lifting the roof!
"Ladies!! Gentlemen!!"
Hovering in midair with a pair of pure-white wings on her back, Doudou held an Amplifying Soul Tool, her voice clear and bright. "Tonight's final team battle in the central main ring will pit the miracle team that swept every subsidiary ring today with an undefeated record... the Dragon God Team, against the Shrek Team, led by mighty Soul Elders! Let's welcome both teams with our warmest applause!"
Boom...!
Amid a storm of streamers and feverish cheers, the iron gates of the northern and southern contestant passages slowly rose.
The seven members of the Shrek Team filed out of the southern passage. Dai Mubai led the way, savage white tiger energy spilling violently around him as his clenched fists crackled. Tang San followed close behind, his face wooden, his right hand concealed against his waist the entire time. Ma Hongjun sported a mohawk, his gaze sinister, while Oscar and Xiao Wu's former roommates behind them wore differing expressions.
From the northern passage, the Dragon God Team walked slowly onto the ring. Su Chen stood at their center, his white clothes brighter than snow, carrying a composure as steadfast as a mountain, far above the mortal dust.
Beside him, Zhu Zhuqing wore sleek, fitted black leather, her long hair tied into a high ponytail. Xiao Wu wore a pink dress, fierce fighting spirit woven into her playful air. Ning Rongrong rested her delicate chin on her hand, an elegant, confident smile unique to the nobility of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect gracing her lips.
Three girls of peerless beauty and bearing guarded Su Chen's sides wholeheartedly. The instant they stepped onto the platform, the difference in poise and presence between the two teams was plain for all to see!!
"Zhu Zhuqing, take the offensive and cut off Dai Mubai's attack. Xiao Wu, control the field and pluck that turkey. Rongrong, just maintain the usual thirty-percent boost."
Reaching the edge of the ring, Su Chen sat straight down in the waiting seats.
"Don't hold back. Let these clowns see the difference."
"Yes, young master." Zhu Zhuqing nodded slightly.
"Just sit back and enjoy the show, Brother Su Chen." Xiao Wu smiled sweetly, raising her small fist.
But to Dai Mubai and Tang San opposite them, Su Chen's lofty disdain, his refusal to even enter the fight himself, was like a resounding slap across their faces!
"You arrogant little bastard!" Dai Mubai's eyes bulged with fury as a beastlike roar tore from his throat.
"Both sides, salute and release your Martial Souls! Five-second countdown!!" Doudou flew into the air and swept her flag downward.
Hum...! With the clear chime of a pagoda, Ning Rongrong cried out first, "Seven Treasures Have Names! First: Strength!! Second: Speed!!"
Dazzling seven-colored radiance shot skyward from the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda in her palm. Two dense beams of divine light plunged directly into Zhu Zhuqing and Xiao Wu.
With that supreme support, Zhu Zhuqing's normally cool aura instantly surged! A faint layer of dark-gold dragon aura draped like gauze over her long legs and arms.
"White Tiger Vajra Transformation!! Die!!"
The instant the countdown reached zero, Dai Mubai lost every shred of tactical reason. Completely ignoring the formation Tang San was arranging behind him, he unleashed his level-thirty-seven soul power without restraint. His third soul ring blazed, and the phantom of a raging white tiger, its body swelling several inches, materialized behind him.
Then he stamped forward, turning into a furious white cannonball as he lunged straight at Zhu Zhuqing. All he wanted now was to tear apart the fiancée who had betrayed him before tens of thousands of spectators and trample her beneath his feet!!
"Mubai, don't charge alone!" Tang San's expression changed drastically. He hurriedly activated his first soul skill, trying to support him with Blue Silver Grass, but Dai Mubai was far too fast. Their formation was shattered on the spot.
Facing Dai Mubai's furious, all-out strike, Zhu Zhuqing's cool, beautiful face showed not the slightest ripple. Once, before this raging Evil-Eyed White Tiger, she could only hide helplessly and flee, trembling beneath her family's cruel shadow. But now, she was her young master's blade-and the Nether Shadow Dragon Cat, reborn!!
Rooar...! A primordial dragon roar quietly reverberated from deep within Zhu Zhuqing's marrow. The girl's figure flickered, leaving a pitch-black afterimage where she had stood.
Too fast!! An ultimate netherworld assassination that surpassed the limits of the naked eye!!
Dai Mubai's savage claws slammed into the afterimage, tearing apart nothing but empty air. Before he could withdraw his attack and change moves, an edge so sharp it chilled his spine had already closed in beneath his left ribs!!
"First soul skill, Hell Stab!"
Zhu Zhuqing's voice suddenly rang out beside Dai Mubai's ear. Her ten fingers curled slightly, and dark-gold dragon-scale patterns surfaced across her once-pale cat claws.
Boom...!
The dark-gold claw shadows struck Dai Mubai's prized White Tiger Protection Barrier with unerring precision!!
The assault swept through like a storm crushing rotten wood!
Before the ultimate armor-piercing power bestowed by the Pure Yang Dragon Marrow, the White Tiger Vajra defense, supposedly invincible against opponents of the same rank, exploded into a skyful of white motes upon contact!
"How is that possible?" Dai Mubai's face drained of color. As his soul power defense broke, savage pure yang force surged through the meridians beneath his ribs and into his body like an avalanche overturning mountains and seas!
What terrified him even more than the physical agony was that, in the thousandth of an instant when they crossed at close quarters, Dai Mubai's White Tiger Martial Soul formed an instinctive bloodline resonance with the Martial Soul within Zhu Zhuqing.
The netherworld and white tiger energies had once complemented each other. Now, all Dai Mubai sensed was the primordial ancestral dragon's domineering essence, vast as an abyss and blazing like a divine sun!
That incomparably tyrannical dragon qi had long since branded itself deep into Zhu Zhuqing's limbs, bones, extraordinary meridians, and even her soul, cleansing, possessing, and reshaping her completely from within!
"You... you actually let him... possess you completely?" Dai Mubai felt as though five thunderbolts had struck him. His mind utterly collapsed!
Cold light flashed in Zhu Zhuqing's eyes. Without giving him a moment to breathe, her second soul ring abruptly lit up. Netherworld Hundred Claws became a skyful of dark-gold afterimages, every strike slamming viciously and precisely into Dai Mubai's unprotected chest!!
Crack...! Dai Mubai's breastbone caved inward several inches on the spot!
"Aaargh...!"
Dai Mubai let out a desperate, agonized scream as he flew backward and smashed through the ring's railing, utterly losing the ability to fight!!
Meanwhile, Ma Hongjun had been about to spew evil fire from the flank to provide suppressing fire. Before he could even lock onto a target, Xiao Wu appeared above his head as though she had teleported.
Without a single wasted movement, Xiao Wu's long, shapely legs locked around Ma Hongjun's thick neck like spirit snakes. Empowered by the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda's potent amplification, her first soul skill, Waist Bow, erupted with brutal force!!
Boom...!!
Ma Hongjun did not even manage a scream before an irresistible force swung his entire body around and smashed him into the adamantine floor. The hard surface caved into a human-shaped crater half a foot deep. His bulky body twitched twice before he passed out on the spot!!
From the start of the team battle to both of Shrek's main assault fighters crashing down in a devastating rout, barely five breaths had passed...
The entire central Great Soul Arena, capable of holding tens of thousands, fell utterly silent!!
The spectators in the stands stared in disbelief. In the VIP seats, Manager Ao's hand trembled slightly against the railing.
As for Yu Xiaogang, sitting in his wheelchair below the platform, his entire face was deathly pale. His lips quivered, and he looked as though he had lost both his parents!
The monstrous geniuses Shrek took such pride in were nothing but clay chickens and pottery dogs before this team called Dragon God!
"Boss Dai! Fatty!!"
On the shattered platform, Tang San stared helplessly at Dai Mubai and Fatty lying in pools of blood, their fates unknown, and felt as though he had plunged into an icy cavern.
Humiliation, despair, jealousy, and towering killing intent utterly swept away the defenses of the reason he had built across two lifetimes!
"Su Chen... I'll kill you!"
Before you continue