Zhu Zhuqing, Can You Keep Up?

"How much faster are you than me, exactly?"

As soon as Zhu Zhuqing spoke, her Nether Civet Martial Soul possessed her.

Her usually cool demeanor gained a sharp edge. Her fingernails lengthened rapidly, a pair of black cat ears rose from her hair, and she lowered her body slightly, looking like a leopard ready to pounce.

Three Soul Rings, two yellow and one purple, slowly appeared.

Compared with Dai Mubai and Ma Hongjun, her aura was not especially forceful. But anyone who truly understood the Agility Attack System knew that the most troublesome thing about such Soul Masters was never the pressure they exerted head-on.

It was their speed.

They were so fast that the attack was over before you could react.

Ling Yun did not immediately use his fourth Soul Skill. He simply spread the water beneath his feet again, replenishing what had already dispersed.

Zhu Zhuqing glanced at him. "No Mist Veil?"

"Aren't you trying to compare our speed?" Ling Yun rolled his ankle. "Then let's keep it simple. Once I use Mist Veil, you won't even know where I am. How will you tell how far apart we are?"

Zhu Zhuqing did not take offense. She merely nodded.

"All right."

Both fell silent, and Dai Mubai, watching from the sidelines, grew more serious.

He knew better than almost anyone there how fast Zhu Zhuqing was. Once she activated her Soul Skills, it was extremely difficult for a Soul Master of the same level to catch her head-on.

But when Ling Yun had fought him and Ma Hongjun just now, how many times had he truly gone all out?

Probably not once.

"Begin."

Liu Erlong had barely finished speaking when Zhu Zhuqing vanished from where she stood.

That was no exaggeration. At least to the ordinary Blue Tyrant Academy students, only an afterimage remained in her place.

Her First Soul Ring lit up. With Hell Stab, Zhu Zhuqing crossed more than ten meters almost instantly, her sharp claws aimed straight at Ling Yun's shoulder.

Ling Yun leaned aside, and her claws skimmed past his clothes.

Zhu Zhuqing did not stop. The moment she landed, she changed direction, her second attack coming from the side almost immediately.

The water beneath Ling Yun's feet rippled softly, and he slid backward.

In just a few breaths, the two had changed positions more than a dozen times.

Many Blue Tyrant Academy students could barely follow them with their eyes. All they could do was listen to the repeated scrape of feet across the ground and water.

Ma Hongjun stood at the edge of the field. He had been about to make a few remarks, but now he fell quiet too.

"Zhu Zhuqing is that fast?"

Dai Mubai glanced at him. "She's always been an Agility Attack System Soul Master. It's just that in team battles, she has to coordinate with us. She rarely gets to focus on chasing down one person like this."

Tang San said nothing. He had activated his Purple Demon Eye, and through it, he could finally make out some of their movements.

Zhu Zhuqing was fast, especially in a straight-line burst. Each Hell Stab closed the distance in an instant.

But it was Ling Yun who made Tang San frown. His raw speed in a straight line might not have been much greater than Zhu Zhuqing's, but he changed direction far too quickly. After every attack, Zhu Zhuqing had to adjust her center of gravity again.

Ling Yun was different. With water beneath his feet, Wave Treading let him change direction at almost any angle.

One moment he was moving left; the next, he was sliding right along the water's surface. There was none of the obvious slowing that normally came with changing direction at high speed.

"The issue isn't how much faster he is."

Tang San finally spoke. "It's how he turns."

Yu Xiaogang had noticed it too. He nodded slowly. "Zhu Zhuqing's Martial Soul suits short bursts. In terms of instantaneous speed alone, she isn't at a disadvantage. But the water Ling Yun creates with his third Soul Skill lets him lose less speed with every turn."

In the field.

Zhu Zhuqing had clearly realized it as well.

If she kept chasing him like this, she would only burn through a great deal of Soul Power first.

The next moment, her Second Soul Ring flared beneath her feet.

Netherworld Hundred Claws.

Her hands became a dense flurry of claws, sealing off almost every direction Ling Yun could dodge at such close range.

If she could not catch him, she would leave him nowhere to turn.

For the first time, Ling Yun's gaze turned truly serious. He could have dodged with Water Shadow Clone, but he did not.

Instead, his Third Soul Ring shone even brighter.

Facing the oncoming storm of claws, Ling Yun did not retreat. He stepped straight forward.

Zhu Zhuqing visibly froze.

He's coming closer?

The next instant, Ling Yun dropped low and slid beneath her arm, almost brushing the water's surface.

As they passed each other, he planted one hand on the ground and used his momentum to spin sideways, sweeping his right leg toward Zhu Zhuqing's ankle.

Zhu Zhuqing reacted instantly and leaped up.

But Ling Yun had been waiting for her to leave the ground. The Pink Soul-Power Tongue Scarf lashed out.

Suspended in midair, Zhu Zhuqing only had time to twist aside before the scarf wrapped around her waist.

Ling Yun did not yank her back with brute force. Instead, he used Wave Treading to dart in the other direction. The sudden change pulled Zhu Zhuqing off course.

For the first time, she visibly stumbled as she landed.

Ling Yun had already stopped beside her.

His right hand did not strike.

He merely rested it lightly on her shoulder.

"Just a little short."

Zhu Zhuqing went rigid for a moment.

Then she slowly withdrew her Martial Soul.

"I lost."

She did not protest or make excuses.

In fact, she had already replayed that final exchange in her mind.

If Ling Yun had used Water Shuriken instead of placing his hand on her shoulder, the fight would have been over before she landed.

Ling Yun withdrew Greninja as well and, for once, did not tease her. "Your straight-line bursts are fast. If the field weren't covered in water, I wouldn't have shaken you so easily."

Zhu Zhuqing looked at him. "A loss is a loss. The field is part of a Soul Master's strength too."

Ling Yun raised an eyebrow slightly. This girl was more straightforward than the previous two.

Dai Mubai stood nearby, his feelings growing even more complicated. He and Ma Hongjun could at least say that one of them could not land a hit, while the other had been badly hindered by the conditions Ling Yun's Soul Skill created.

But Zhu Zhuqing's match had involved almost no tricks. It was speed against speed.

And she had still lost.

Ling Yun still had not used his fourth Soul Skill, either. Several nearby Blue Tyrant Academy students had begun talking quietly.

"The Shrek people really are strong."

"They just ran into our boss."

"With the speed of that cat Martial Soul, I doubt many in the Advanced Class could keep up."

Hearing that left the Shrek group with even less to say than outright mockery would have.

Because they knew it too: Ling Yun's fighting style defied common sense. He never played by the usual rules.

Dai Mubai was about to say there was no need to keep competing over the captaincy when Xiao Wu suddenly stepped forward.

"I've noticed something."

Everyone looked at her.

Xiao Wu pointed at Ling Yun and said earnestly, "Every time, you fight in whatever way suits you best. You kept your distance from Boss Dai, used mist against Fatty, and relied on the water to turn against Zhu Zhuqing."

Ling Yun laughed. "If I don't fight using what I'm good at, should I use what I'm bad at?"

"That's not what I mean."

Xiao Wu huffed, then reached out and pulled Zhu Zhuqing back beside her. "I mean, if one person can't catch you, what about two?"

Zhu Zhuqing paused in surprise. Ling Yun looked at her too.

Xiao Wu was already flexing her wrists, her scorpion braid swaying gently behind her.

"You've already won three in a row anyway."

"No more one-on-one for the next match."

"Zhu Zhuqing and I will take you on together."

The Blue Tyrant Academy students who had just started to leave stopped in their tracks.

They had already seen one-on-one fights.

Two against one sounded even more interesting.