"I con..."
She had actually knelt before a student of her own accord.
Zhou Yi's eyes were lifeless, as though something within them had vanished completely.
It was her spirit.
Forget it...
I should just concede...
Zhou Yi, who had been turned into a spinning top when her Martial Soul's legs gave out, opened her mouth to speak.
But before she could finish saying "concede," a hard, purple-black dragon claw slammed into her face again.
Crimson-black arcs of electricity splashed out, spreading across her entire body.
Black Flash!
El flickered, appearing in front of her.
"When you hit someone, you've got to hit the mouth first."
That punch left Zhou Yi's jaw twisted and deformed.
"I... I can take it! (I... I con...)"
"You can still take it, huh? Now that's perseverance!"
Watching Zhou Yi fly into the air, El lightly beat the dragon wings on his back. His figure flickered again, and he appeared behind her in an instant.
"Get down there!"
El clasped his hands together and raised both arms high above his head. His fists crashed down on Zhou Yi beneath him like a crimson meteor hammer!
BOOM!!!
A crimson meteor streaked through the air.
Like a shell fired from a cannon, Zhou Yi hurtled away.
Shattered stone flew everywhere.
A web of cracks spread through the arena's stone floor, centered on the point where Zhou Yi's body landed.
"Pfft!"
Blood sprayed from Zhou Yi's mouth, tracing a speckled arc across the ground.
That blow had broken practically every one of her ribs.
She could even feel those dark red energies doing something to her bloodline and Martial Soul, somewhere no one else could detect...
"I... I..."
"You, you, you-what about you?"
El strolled leisurely up to her and planted a foot on her neck.
In passing, he once again stopped her from conceding.
Think you can get off that easily?
She had started this fight, but she certainly would not get to decide when it ended.
The Dragon King's majesty was not something she could offend so lightly!
A trace of crimson-black flashed through El's orange-gold Dragon Eyes as he wore a savage grin.
His fist, wreathed in the power of annihilation, hammered Zhou Yi's body again and again.
Dull thuds rang out without pause.
El's dragon fists thoroughly attended to every other part of her body that was still more or less intact.
"This one's for your arrogance and insolence, for daring to insult my family."
"Do you even know what a Limit Douluo is?"
"You blind fool."
El casually seized Zhou Yi's shoulder, tightened his dragon claw, and twisted his hand sharply!
CRACK!
In an instant, her arm became like a stalk of sugarcane twisted in opposite directions at both ends by a machine.
Blood spurted from the torn wounds. Stark white bone splinters pierced her flesh and lay exposed to the air, making their presence unmistakable.
"Mmph!!!"
Zhou Yi's unfocused pupils suddenly sharpened again.
It hurt!
It hurt too much!
I want to concede!
Zhou Yi tried to speak in terror, but she could no longer form clear words.
"This one is because you look down on everyone and don't deserve to be a teacher.
"What do students even mean to you?"
"Those students left with lifelong injuries by your brutal training, who were even expelled and branded as trash-their futures had barely begun before a beast like you snapped them in half."
"And all of it was just because you didn't like the look of them!"
"Don't you love making people run?"
With every sentence, El's fists struck a little harder.
He shattered both of Zhou Yi's legs, inch by inch!
"If you ever dare cross my path again, I'll break both your legs first, then make you run a hundred laps!"
"Go over the time limit or skip a lap, and I'll break every bone in your body!!"
"I... con... cede..."
Zhou Yi's pupils lost focus again.
An utterly unintelligible whimper escaped her mouth.
"Finally..."
Crimson-black light had almost completely overtaken El's Dragon Eyes. With savagery and fury on his face, he lifted Zhou Yi off the ground in his dragon claw.
As though he were picking up a dead dog.
"Who gave you the courage to talk about her like that?!"
"You damned vermin!"
"You lowly piece of trash, worse than a beast!"
"Who do you think you are!"
The purple-black dragon claw slowly tightened, and the sensation of suffocation crowded out Zhou Yi's senses bit by bit.
Her face flushed red. She wanted to struggle, but nearly every bone in her body had been broken, and it would no longer obey her.
With growing despair, Zhou Yi realized she could do nothing but feel death approaching, little by little.
Her Soul Emperor cultivation even stretched out death's approach considerably.
But this was not salvation. It was another form of torture inflicted on her soul.
"Urgh... kh!"
With the last of her strength, Zhou Yi squeezed two syllables from her throat.
"El, that's enough."
At the sight, Yan Shaozhe's eyelid twitched as he hovered overhead.
He first glanced at Fan Yu, who was almost at the Soul Fighting Arena's entrance, then at the savage-faced boy on the platform.
A voice transmission carried by Soul Power then reached El's ears.
Beat her however you like, but with all these students and teachers watching, don't actually kill her!
Otherwise, this really will be hard to explain.
Below, El curled his lip almost imperceptibly when he heard Yan Shaozhe's words.
Of course he knew he could not kill Zhou Yi under these circumstances.
That would hinder his future prospects at Shrek.
That was precisely why His Highness the Radiant Dragon King, the "hot-blooded youth" swept up in his emotions, had been waiting for Dean Yan's voice transmission all along!
If you don't give me a way to back down, how am I supposed to play a hot-blooded youth who can't read the situation?
El's steadily tightening dragon claw suddenly loosened.
"Hah! Hah!"
Her nasal passages clear again, Zhou Yi gulped down fresh air after her long suffocation, snot and tears covering her face.
"Still..."
El smiled slightly as he watched her pathetic state, having just dragged her life back from the brink of death.
"You may escape a death sentence, but you won't escape punishment."
His dragon claw pressed against the crown of Zhou Yi's head, lifting her up again.
With thunder, shatter the darkness!
Wisps of blue-white electricity emerged, coiling around his Heaven-Ruling Horn.
Ultimate Lightning!
An ultimate attribute devoted to offense!
Surging currents gushed from El's scales, flowed along his arm, and gathered in the hand holding Zhou Yi.
In an instant, lightning blazed!
A figure whose expression could not be made out began dancing within the pool of lightning.
"AAAAAAAAAAAH!!!"
Several seconds later, the lightning gradually dissipated.
"Now that's refreshing."
El gently exhaled a stale breath and casually tossed Zhou Yi onto the ground. Her skin was as black as you-know-who's, and tiny arcs of electricity still flickered over her from time to time.
He had controlled the output of his ultimate lightning. At most, this would leave Zhou Yi half-dead with ruptured meridians.
It absolutely would not endanger her life.
...Probably.
El turned and left without hesitation, not sparing her so much as a glance.
"Oh, right."
Only when he was about to jump off the platform did El remember that the result had not yet been announced.
"Dean Yan, shouldn't you announce the winner?"
"Ahem!"
With a light cough, Yan Shaozhe descended from the air, his expression solemn.
"I hereby announce that the winner of this Soul Fighting match..."
"Is El!!"
"Ohhhhhhhhhh!!"
At Yan Shaozhe's announcement, the Soul Fighting Arena, which had fallen deathly silent at El's earlier brutality, erupted in an instant.
"El! El! El!"
Countless students shouted his name.
A Three-Ring Soul Elder had brutally crushed a Six-Ring Soul Emperor!!
And he had won with such overwhelming force, like snapping rotten wood and sweeping away dead branches, like an old man toying with a naughty child!!
They had witnessed a new chapter in the history of the Soul Master World!!
As for Zhou Yi...
Aside from Fan Yu, who had just arrived, no one cared.
Before you continue