"Gu Yue, you should know that our Spirit Pagoda doesn't accept just anyone."
"If you want our teacher to take you as a student, you'll have to pass an assessment too."
Li Zha held the Fire-Tipped Spear, a smile on his face.
Trussed up in the Heaven-and-Earth Silk, Gu Yue hung in midair with her hands bound behind her back.
She wore short shorts, and the Heaven-and-Earth Silk cinched tightly around her rounded, snow-white, straight thighs.
At that moment, however, Gu Yue's silky black hair cascaded down her back.
Her eyes were hazy, her cheeks flushed red.
Without deliberately making herself look ugly, Gu Yue was quite a beauty. Even with black hair and black eyes, her lovely oval face and sculpted features made her look almost as attractive as Na'er.
"All right, I have no objections. I'll do whatever you say, senior brother."
Gu Yue made her voice a little sweeter.
"Hey, hey! Who are you calling senior brother? Have you freaking passed the assessment yet? And you're already calling him senior brother?!"
Na'er frowned.
Gu Yue's damned sugary, two-faced tone was driving her up the wall.
"Na'er, this isn't the time to argue. I won't fight with you anymore, so don't interfere with senior brother's work."
"Since you're his junior sister, you ought to be more considerate of him."
Gu Yue replied with a smile, dripping with saccharine sweetness.
"Motherfucker!"
Na'er was getting goosebumps.
She was watching a lustful dragon flirt!
"I'm going to summon Heavenly Thunder and strike you dead!"
Na'er pointed at the sky. Dark clouds immediately gathered overhead, lightning flashing through them.
Gu Yue's eyes widened.
Holy shit.
The inheritance Li Zha gave Na'er was incredible. Water control and lightning control, huh!
Choosing to get close to Li Zha was definitely the best decision I'd ever made!
An angel investment!
"Enough, Na'er."
Li Zha held Na'er back, and the Heavenly Thunder in the sky dispersed.
"Go hunt some Soul Beasts nearby, absorb some Soul Power, and increase your Soul Rings' ages. Leave this to me. I'll come find you as soon as I'm done assessing Gu Yue."
"If it's convenient, help clear out the other Soul Masters too."
Na'er snorted. "All right, senior brother."
With that said,
Na'er reluctantly turned and left. Before leaving, she shot Gu Yue a fierce glare, warning her not to fucking act shamelessly.
Gu Yue raised her head and smiled. "Are we starting the assessment now?"
"Yes. Isn't your Martial Soul the Elemental Envoy? Try breaking free of my Heaven-and-Earth Silk. As long as you can escape, you'll pass."
Gu Yue nodded lightly.
"All right, I understand, senior brother. Let me try."
Although Gu Yue said that, she didn't take it very seriously. In her eyes, the Heaven-and-Earth Silk wasn't Li Zha's Martial Soul. It seemed more like an external object, something akin to a Soul Tool.
Li Zha himself was certainly powerful, but Gu Yue was still confident that she could escape an external object like this.
She immediately began using the power of multiple elements: water, fire, wind, lightning, space, earth, light, and darkness.
A dense barrage instantly engulfed the Heaven-and-Earth Silk-spatial cuts, ice quenching and fire tempering, collisions of light and darkness.
But Gu Yue's expression soon turned serious. She discovered that even the varied elemental attacks she unleashed with all her strength barely affected the Heaven-and-Earth Silk!
"What?"
Gu Yue's gaze sharpened as she calmly observed it.
"How could this happen?"
Gu Yue examined it closely and discovered that her elemental attacks left only tiny gaps and tears in the Heaven-and-Earth Silk.
Moreover, the Heaven-and-Earth Silk quickly repaired those small tears as soon as they appeared.
"So that's it. The Heaven-and-Earth Silk repairs itself far faster than I can attack. No wonder, no wonder it looks as though my attacks aren't doing anything."
"I've got it. Focus on a single point and reach the pinnacle!"
Having settled on a strategy, Gu Yue immediately adjusted her attacks. She gathered all the elements into a single point and attacked furiously.
Li Zha watched quietly. After more than ten minutes, the Heaven-and-Earth Silk finally snapped because its repairs couldn't keep pace with Gu Yue's attacks.
Putting this divine artifact in the Douluo Plane really was casting pearls before swine. What the fuck had it been nerfed into?
Li Zha sighed inwardly.
[Master, you need not worry. All your divine artifacts will grow stronger as your own power rank increases. Once nourished with incense power, the Heaven-and-Earth Silk's effects will improve dramatically, or once you attain Godhood, the Heaven-and-Earth Silk will also transform into a true divine artifact.]
The Slaughter Karma Fire System offered an explanation, seemingly worried that Li Zha would doubt its abilities.
"All right."
Li Zha nodded slightly.
Meanwhile, seeing that her attacks had finally snapped the Heaven-and-Earth Silk, Gu Yue cried out in delight:
"Senior brother! I did it!"
A faint sheen of sweat already covered Gu Yue's forehead, but her smile froze almost as soon as it appeared.
She discovered that after all her effort to break the Heaven-and-Earth Silk in one place, it had actually become two lengths!
"What the-holy shit, what is this thing? Is this really right? Is this really a Soul Tool?!"
Gu Yue was on the verge of losing it.
Just then,
Li Zha beckoned, recalling the Heaven-and-Earth Silk.
"Gu Yue, it looks like your strength isn't quite up to scratch. At this rate, there's no way you could escape the Heaven-and-Earth Silk's restraints."
"No... I..."
Gu Yue was speechless.
She now realized just what a monster Li Zha was: high attack power, high mobility, and high defense.
As if that fucking wasn't enough,
he also had an absurd restraining weapon like the Heaven-and-Earth Silk.
By Gu Yue's conservative estimate, someone would need to be at least a Soul King, or even a Soul Emperor, to escape its restraints.
Gu Yue hurriedly spoke:
"Give me another chance! My Elemental Envoy is a Martial Soul that develops later. I'm still nowhere near bringing out its full power."
"Hmm, then when will you be able to bring it out?"
Once released, Gu Yue rubbed her arms and straightened her clothes. "Soul Emperor-no, Soul King. Once I become a Soul King, I'll be able to."
"Hmm..."
Li Zha pretended to think.
"All right, then. I'll tell our teacher that you're only a nominal disciple for now. If you can't keep your word when the time comes, I'll have our teacher kick you out."
Li Zha had his reasons for choosing to keep Gu Yue.
He had already figured out that rebuilding the Divine Realm required incense power. That meant the people who could gather incense power were the ones he needed to find.
Okay, now came the question.
Nothing said that only humans could contribute incense power. Although the Star Dou Great Forest had shrunk to less than ten percent of its original size, Di Tian and the others all obeyed Gu Yue.
As long as Li Zha could get Gu Yue under his thumb, he could effectively get Di Tian under his thumb too, making those ferocious beasts contribute incense power.
Still, Li Zha wasn't insisting that it had to be Gu Yue.
If Gu Yue didn't work out, heh, having Di Tian act as the Soul Beasts' representative would work too.
In any case, Li Zha genuinely thought Di Tian was better suited than Gu Yue to be the lord of the Soul Beasts.
Meanwhile,
outside,
Tang Wulin sat up in excruciating pain, feeling as though every fucking bone in his body had fallen apart.
"Wulin! Are you all right?"
Xie Xie asked anxiously. His chest was also in terrible pain; after all, Li Zha had skewered him to death with a single thrust.
"I-I'm okay."
Tang Wulin gritted his teeth and stood.
Wu Changkong walked over to them. "Let's go. Back to school."
Wu Changkong stood with his hands behind his back, his expression grim.
"You should know now just how far you are from a true genius."
Tang Wulin clenched his fists. "Teacher, I understand, but I'll work even harder! I will join Shrek. Sooner or later, I'll catch up to Li Zha!"
Inside Tang Wulin, Tang San's divine consciousness smiled.
Good. That's my son!
Tang San was confident. Even without the Golden Dragon King's power, once Wulin entered Shrek, with Tang San nurturing him and his mother, Ah Yin, the Golden Tree, supporting him,
Wulin might not fall very far behind Li Zha in the future.
If I can't win at the same level, I'll fight across levels.
Tang San already had a plan. He intended to make Wulin's Soul Power advance faster. In the future, surely a higher-ranked fighter could beat a lower-ranked one.
With immortal herbs to consume and the Golden Tree's energy nourishing him, Tang San was confident that Wulin's Soul Power could catch up to-and surpass-Li Zha's.
Before you continue