Dai Mubai unleashed his third Soul Skill again-White Tiger Fierce Light Wave.
He held nothing back. The sight of Tang San being stripped naked still spun through his mind, and he poured all the fire in his belly into that wave of light.
The wave reached Qin Chuan.
It passed straight through him.
It entered his chest, emerged from his back, and struck the domain's membrane of light, dissolving into white mist. Qin Chuan stood where he was, without so much as a flutter of his clothes.
He looked down at his chest and patted it twice.
"Inside my Game Domain, none of your Soul Skills can affect me!"
Qin Chuan gave him no time to digest that.
"Third Soul Skill, Truth or Dare."
Two spheres of light descended from overhead, hovering above Dai Mubai's head, one on either side.
Halfway through his lunge, Dai Mubai felt all four legs sink. His feet stuck to the ground, unable to lift. The white tiger markings that had erupted across his body shrank back one by one. Something had pinned his Soul Power down, leaving it unable to stir.
[Clown Dwarf] explained, "Choose one of two options within ten seconds. Truth activates Honesty Lock. Dare activates compulsory execution. Violators suffer a Soul Power backlash."
After finishing, [Clown Dwarf] blinked. "If you don't choose, the punishment doubles."
Several people in the stands burst out laughing. "Here it comes again!"
Dai Mubai panted heavily, his mind racing.
He had seen exactly how Tang San had fallen. Refusing to choose meant double the punishment.
Dare? Just hearing it tells me I'll die.
Dare might cost me my life. Truth can only cost me face.
He turned to glance at Zhu Zhuqing.
Zhu Zhuqing stood in a corner of the arena, her tight black combat outfit torn in several places. She stood there watching him, her face expressionless.
Dai Mubai's heart lurched.
He wondered, What do I have that I can't talk about?
"I choose truth!"
[Clown Dwarf] clapped his hands. "Truth, Honesty Lock, activated!"
Red light enveloped him. Dai Mubai shuddered all over, his Adam's apple bobbing involuntarily.
Qin Chuan walked over and stood before him.
Dai Mubai stiffened his neck. "Ask away. I'm not afraid of anything."
"Good."
Qin Chuan paused for two seconds, considering his wording.
A truth question needed finesse-too mild, and it was boring; too obscure, and the audience wouldn't feel anything. He needed to hit the point everyone present would understand and want to hear about.
He remembered. Some details from what he had read in his previous life remained crystal clear.
"Two years ago, at the Rose Hotel. Those twin sisters."
He paused.
"Are you still in contact with them?"
Dai Mubai's expression changed in stages.
First came shock. The base of his neck flushed red, the color climbing to his cheeks before turning white, then livid. All three colors cycled across his face in less than two breaths.
Only one question remained in his mind: How does he know?
The Rose Hotel was in Suotuo City, and he used the side entrance. He changed clothes every time he went and never used his real name. The twins were a pair of top-class dancing girls whose circle had no overlap whatsoever with anyone he knew.
He had never told anyone about this.
Qin Chuan thought, You think you hid it well? The book I read in my previous life spelled it all out. They didn't even change the hotel's name.
Dai Mubai wanted to shut this down. He would say he had broken things off long ago, that he had been young and foolish.
He tried to lie, but something else came out instead.
"Keh-heh-heh!"
The cackle rang out, shrill and piercing, across the entire square.
"Of course we're still in contact! I've been keeping them for ages. We have parties at least twice a week! Working both sides, firing both barrels! All kinds of candles, whips, and red ropes-anything goes."
The square fell silent for one breath.
Then it erupted.
"Keeping them?"
"Twice a week?"
"Working both sides? Firing both barrels? Wh-what kind of filthy talk is that?"
"Candles, whips, red ropes? Damn, you're into some wild stuff!"
"If there's another question, I want details. Like how he works both sides and fires both barrels. Wonder if that would get past the censors."
"Doesn't he already have someone? That girl from the Zhu Family of the Star Luo Empire!"
"Isn't Zhu Zhuqing standing right there in the arena?"
The female Soul Masters were the first to raise their voices. A girl in a blue dress in the front row stood up, pointed at the arena, and shouted, "Scumbag!"
"Shameless!"
"He said it right in front of his girlfriend, and he was even cackling so happily!"
That "keh-heh-heh" was repeated over and over. Someone mimicked Dai Mubai's laugh with a couple of shrill cackles, leaving the people nearby laughing so hard they could barely stand.
In the VIP seats, the Star Luo Empire Envoy slowly covered his face with his hand.
An attendant bent down and asked quietly, "Sir, how should we report this when we return?"
The envoy glanced at the arena through his fingers, then pressed them together again. "Don't ask me. I heard nothing."
"But a hundred thousand people heard it..."
"I said I heard nothing."
The attendant swallowed his words. If the Zhu Family learned of this, they would probably explode.
Over on Shrek's side, Ma Hongjun's mouth hung open.
"Boss... twice a week? How come I didn't know? What days did you go?"
Oscar kicked him in the shin. "Is that the point?"
Ma Hongjun rubbed his leg and gave it serious thought. "It kind of is. He goes twice a week, and it doesn't even get in the way of cultivating or dating?"
Oscar opened his mouth, only to discover that the question really was hard to answer.
Supporting Xiao Wu, Ning Rongrong turned to glance at Dai Mubai kneeling on the stone platform.
"He's like that too? Is there a single normal person in Shrek?"
Her eyes red, Xiao Wu said nothing and only tightened her grip on Ning Rongrong's hand.
On the stone platform, Dai Mubai came to his senses. When he realized what he had just said, a chill soaked through his entire body.
Dai Mubai turned and shouted at Zhu Zhuqing, "Zhu Zhuqing! This is dark sorcery! It's all fake! He forced me to say it!"
His voice cracked, its final notes trembling.
Zhu Zhuqing wasn't looking at him.
Her head was lowered as she stared at her right hand.
Her five fingers curled into her palm, her nails digging into the flesh. Beads of blood seeped between her fingers, slid down her palm, and dripped onto the broken stones beside her feet.
She made no sound.
Ning Rongrong noticed and reached out to take her hand. Zhu Zhuqing shifted half a step away, dodging her outright without letting Ning Rongrong touch her.
Scene after scene from the past echoed through Zhu Zhuqing's mind.
When she had left the Star Luo Empire, dawn had yet to break. Carrying a simple pack, she had climbed over her family's courtyard wall and set off alone for a distant land.
To catch up with Dai Mubai, she had cultivated as though her life depended on it. She trained to exhaustion during the day and until her hands trembled at night, all to close the gap in their levels and stand proudly by his side.
Yet in the end, it had all been her own one-sided wish.
Meanwhile, Dai Mubai had been enjoying his nights of pleasure at the Rose Hotel, twice a week, without ever stopping.
Tang San had actually known about the Rose Hotel affair long ago. When Shrek's term began, Dai Mubai had monopolized the hotel's couples' suite, and the two had argued and fought over it.
Zhu Zhuqing unclenched her right hand, raised her head, and glanced at Dai Mubai.
Just once. Then she looked away.
There was no emotion in that glance. Not anger, not sadness. Nothing at all.
Dai Mubai saw it. He felt he would have been better off if Zhu Zhuqing had cursed him out or slapped him twice.
Standing beside the stone platform, Hu Liena looked at Zhu Zhuqing, then at Xiao Wu leaning against Ning Rongrong.
She couldn't help sighing inwardly. This Shrek team-first Tang San, now Dai Mubai. What kind of men have these two girls ended up with?
Hu Liena then turned her gaze aside, giving Qin Chuan a long, searching look.
Qin Chuan's earlier question aimed at Tang San had struck Xiao Wu's vulnerable spot; the one aimed at Dai Mubai had shattered Zhu Zhuqing's fixation.
Every question had targeted precisely where the two girls hurt most.
He was absolutely doing this on purpose!
Only then did Hu Liena belatedly realize:
Qin Chuan's Soul Skills did little damage, but inflicted immense humiliation.
This was murder with a borrowed blade-killing them by destroying their hearts!
On the surface, he seemed to be targeting only Tang San and Dai Mubai, but in reality, he had dealt a vicious blow to the entire Shrek Four.
After that ordeal, Tang San and Dai Mubai's mental states had completely collapsed, leaving them all but ruined, while Xiao Wu and Zhu Zhuqing were trapped in emotional knots they could not unravel, already on the verge of turning dark!
After analyzing it this way, even Hu Liena was startled by her own conclusion.
[What sort of person possesses such terrifying methods, able to overturn heaven and earth and shatter people's hearts in an instant with just a few Soul Skills?]
Just then, Qin Chuan turned around and crooked a finger at Dai Mubai.
"We're not done yet."
"Second Soul Skill, Rock-Paper-Scissors!"
Dai Mubai had barely propped up his upper body when the stones beneath his feet shifted.
The ground opened, and a stone platform thrust up from below, lifting his entire body.
He jolted against its surface, only steadying himself by hooking his fingers into a crack in the stone.
Lying prone on the stone platform, Dai Mubai had only one thought left: How did I end up back on the table?
Before you continue