Hearing that familiar, furious roar, Dugu Yan and Ye Lingling instinctively turned toward the sound.
Yu Tianheng strode straight toward them with a face as dark as storm clouds, his steps fierce and domineering. Soul power surged faintly around him, and even the air carried a scorched tang, as though torn apart by electricity.
He looked like an enraged lion.
Seeing the usually proud and arrogant Yu Tianheng so frustrated and furious, even the taciturn Ye Lingling covered her lips with a soft laugh. She leaned toward Dugu Yan's ear and teased her in a low voice:
"Yanyan, look who's here! Someone saw a handsome young man stop you, and his jealousy is practically tearing the whole academy apart. He's clearly planning to play the 'hero saving the beauty.'"
"Stop teasing. Who needs him to save me?"
Dugu Yan shot her friend an exasperated look, but her striking face still betrayed a flicker of secret pride at being valued so highly by a top genius her own age.
In the blink of an eye, Yu Tianheng had come striding over.
Completely ignoring every gaze around him, he stepped sideways with his tall, powerfully built frame.
He planted himself forcefully in front of Dugu Yan, shielding both girls behind his broad back.
His dark eyes, flickering with lightning, locked onto An Jing, filled with undisguised hostility and scrutiny.
"Yanyan, who exactly is this guy?
"What's he skulking around for? What does he want with you?"
That domineering, uncompromising display of protection instantly set the crowd at the academy gates ablaze as students poured out after classes.
The noble girls who admired the young heir of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan erupted into barely restrained cries and squeals.
"Oh my god! It's Senior Yu Tianheng!"
"He saw a stranger chatting up Dugu Yan and rushed straight over to stake his claim! He's so domineering! You'd feel so safe with him!"
"I'm so jealous of Dugu Yan, being protected like that by a top genius of the Upper Three Sects..."
Noisy exclamations of awe and envy rose one after another, carried on the breeze into Zhu Zhuqing's ears as she stood nearby.
Yet as she watched the swaggering Yu Tianheng, who thought he had the whole situation under control, an exceedingly strange trace of pity flashed through Zhu Zhuqing's eyes.
As for An Jing, at the very center of the storm, he could not even be bothered to lift his eyelids to examine this menacing brute.
His hands remained casually tucked into his coat pockets, and his gaze passed over Yu Tianheng's tall shoulders to settle directly on Dugu Yan behind him.
"I was asking Dugu Yan."
"Where did a brute like you crawl out from, daring to block my way?"
Before his words had even fully dispersed in the wind, the air abruptly fell deathly silent.
Yu Tianheng's savage grin had barely begun to form. Before he could even finish imagining himself trampling this white-haired madman underfoot, all he saw was a blur flashing past.
Fast! So fast it exceeded the limits of sight and reflex!
Smack-!!!
That was no ordinary slap, but a muffled sonic boom like thunder erupting from level ground!
An Jing merely flicked the right hand hanging at his side. Violent air pressure, carrying overwhelming physical force, struck squarely across Yu Tianheng's handsome face, so full of arrogance and lightning.
The instant the slap sent his entire body airborne, Yu Tianheng's mind plunged into unprecedented confusion and blankness.
His proud Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon physique, his two yellow soul rings and one gleaming purple one, his Thunder Dragon Claw that could shred powerful opponents of his generation...
Before that slap, they were as flimsy as wastepaper pasted onto his face.
Impossible...
How was this possible?!
He was the peerless genius of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan! He was supposed to be the protagonist of this after-school farce, the domineering hero protecting the beauty!
Boom!
His thoughts came to an abrupt halt.
Yu Tianheng's body became an azure cannonball, hurtling backward more than ten meters before slamming into the White Jade Pillar several meters thick at the academy gates. The impact actually smashed a web of cracks into the hard stone.
Then he slid to the ground like a puddle of mud, his twisted limbs sprawled in the middle of the road. His eyes rolled back as he passed out on the spot, lying utterly motionless, looking for all the world like a speed bump laid across the academy entrance.
The formerly clamorous students all turned to stone, even their gasps catching in their throats.
The illustrious young heir of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, captain of the Heaven Dou Royal Team, had not even unleashed the power of Martial Soul Possession before being... slapped unconscious in public?
"All thunder, no rain."
An Jing could not even be bothered to spare that heap of "mud" another glance. "I thought he might be formidable. Turns out he's just a speed bump."
With that, his gaze shifted again, landing directly on Dugu Yan.
Dugu Yan's whole body was taut, her emerald snake-like eyes filled with horror and extreme wariness.
She instinctively stepped sideways to shield Ye Lingling behind her. Soul power quietly circulated through her as she stared fixedly at the unfathomable white-haired young man before her.
"You... have you lost your mind?! Do you even know who he is, attacking him so viciously?!"
He was the eldest grandson of the main bloodline of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, one of the Upper Three Sects, and its future heir!
If this white-haired young man intended to catch her eye through such extreme measures, then Dugu Yan could only say that he was not merely foolish-his death was close at hand!
"Who he is doesn't matter." An Jing's voice was utterly calm.
Looking at his indifferent expression, as though the Upper Three Sects meant nothing, Dugu Yan took a deep breath, forcibly suppressed the alarm in her heart, and asked coldly:
"I'm Dugu Yan. Tell me, what exactly do you want, going to all this trouble to find me?"
"I'm here to see your grandfather."
"My grandfather?" Dugu Yan froze briefly, clearly not expecting her grandfather to be his target.
"Is your grandfather at his residence?" An Jing kept it brief.
Dugu Yan examined An Jing suspiciously. Seeing his cold expression and clear purpose, she felt that he really did not seem to be making a fool of her, so she answered honestly:
"My grandfather isn't in Heaven Dou City.
"His whereabouts are unpredictable. It'll probably be some time before he returns.
"If you're not in a hurry, you can leave your name and address. Once Grandfather returns to the residence, I'll tell him immediately."
"Oh? So I have to wait..." An Jing's brows drew together slightly as he murmured thoughtfully.
Seeing An Jing sink into thought, Dugu Yan took Ye Lingling by the wrist and turned to leave, offering one cold warning before she went:
"If there's nothing else, I'm heading back.
"And a word of advice: after you hit Yu Tianheng, the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan will never let this go.
"Having offended the Upper Three Sects, you probably won't have an easy time ahead. Don't end up a corpse before my grandfather even returns to the city."
"Lingling, let's go."
Yet the two girls had barely taken half a step when a tall, cold figure quietly moved sideways and blocked their path.
Dugu Yan's slender brows shot up, and she glanced at him warily. "What else do you want?!"
"My time is precious. I've never made a habit of waiting for anyone."
An Jing remained calm, merely offering a faint, friendly smile. "Since that old poison master isn't home, sorry for the trouble, but his precious granddaughter will have to come with me and show me the way."
Before you continue