He Is Still Holding Back

Mu En was a little curious too and followed Su Yuan's gaze.

They had been chatting perfectly normally just a moment ago. Why had he suddenly perked up and fixed his eyes on one particular direction?

Then a goose came walking toward them from the end of the path, dressed in fine clothes, sporting medium-length pink-and-blue scene-kid hair, and wearing an expression so cocky it practically demanded a beating, despite a pretty little face that looked like a femboy's.

Mu En raised an eyebrow at the sight, then turned to glance at Su Yuan's utterly serious face.

Wang Dong's little disguise from the Clear Sky Sect worked on ordinary people, but against a Limit Douluo like him, who had developed Sovereign's Arrival, its effect was quite limited.

He could tell at a glance that Wang Dong wasn't human...

Wasn't a man.

Though, strictly speaking, Wang Dong really wasn't human either. Tang San was half soul beast by blood, and Xiao Wu was entirely soul beast, which made Wang Dong seventy-five percent soul beast.

She had more soul beast blood than human blood. Killing her would probably even drop a soul ring.

Still, Mu En wasn't powerful enough to see through Wang Dong's bloodline. He had merely realized that this young fellow was actually a rather pretty young girl.

Mu En, an old man with no respect for his age, immediately let his mind wander to some rather peculiar possibilities.

Hmm?

Hmm...

Hmm!

Hmm~

So that was it~

Su Yuan clearly had none of the improper ideas Mu En imagined. He sipped his tea, eyes narrowed, and watched Wang Dong enter the freshman dormitory.

The show was about to begin!

He continued drinking tea quietly with Mu En, keeping a silent eye on the freshman dormitory.

Sure enough, faint sounds of an argument soon came from the dormitory. A little later, a furious Huo Yuhao emerged in front with a dark expression, while Wang Dong followed with her arms folded, her face full of arrogance and disdain.

As luck would have it, the two actually stopped in the clearing right in front of where Su Yuan and Mu En were drinking tea.

Could it get any better than this?

Su Yuan sat a little straighter, his eyes brimming with the joy of watching drama unfold.

Only then did Mu En catch on, feeling rather amused. After all that, Su Yuan wasn't interested in that little girl-he was interested in the spectacle!

How boring.

Despite that thought, Mu En watched with interest too.

Wasn't the whole point of basking in the sun beneath the freshman dormitory every day to watch these newly enrolled students put on all sorts of gloriously cringeworthy performances?

And so.

In the clearing, Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong faced off, the air thick with gunpowder.

Beneath the banyan tree, Su Yuan and Mu En drank tea, the fragrance of osmanthus drifting everywhere.

"Hey, you two, could you stop staring at us?" Wang Dong turned her head in displeasure and glared at Su Yuan.

Su Yuan leisurely took a sip of tea, then rolled his eyes. "Ever heard of first come, first served? Shrek's huge, but instead of fighting anywhere else, you just had to come fight where I'm drinking tea-and now I'm not allowed to watch? What, do you own Shrek?"

"You..." Wang Dong immediately choked with anger.

Unfortunately, she was precisely the sort who bullied the weak and feared the strong. She could bully anyone afraid of her to death, but against someone more badass than herself, she wouldn't dare let out so much as a fart.

With her anger bottled up inside, Wang Dong could only turn back and glare viciously at Huo Yuhao.

It was all this idiot's fault that I embarrassed myself like that. I had to teach him a proper lesson!

As for Huo Yuhao.

Hearing Su Yuan talk back to Wang Dong, Huo Yuhao also recognized that the big shot drinking tea was the absolute beast who had blasted through a dormitory wall with a single strike yesterday, unleashing a Mighty Heavenly Dragon.

He had dealt with his own wicked roommate yesterday, and today he was helping Huo Yuhao talk back to this unreasonable, overbearing young master.

What a good person!

But Wang Dong?

She had bullied him the moment they met and ordered him around like a servant. Now that she couldn't win an argument against Su Yuan, she actually wanted to take all her anger out on him. She was awful! Why did someone this awful even exist?

"Why do you have to bully me!" Huo Yuhao's faintly glowing eyes were bloodshot. Without another word, he activated Martial Soul Possession, and a pure white soul ring rose from beneath his feet.

Seeing that Huo Yuhao had only a single "white ten-year soul ring," Wang Dong couldn't hold back a derisive laugh.

"Against someone like you, this young master doesn't even need a martial soul!"

Three minutes later...

"Do you submit?"

"Submit, my ass! Let me go!"

Unsurprisingly, just as in the original story, the lower-level Huo Yuhao had overcome the higher-level Wang Dong, forcefully locking her down and pinning her to the ground as she struggled with a flushed face.

Only after Huo Yuhao stunned her with "If I'd used a knife, you'd already be dead" did she perform her traditional specialty: backing down.

She had clearly learned her military salute from the French.

Huo Yuhao limped away.

Wang Dong sat blankly where she was, thinking who knew what.

"You lost," Mu En said leisurely at that moment.

"I didn't lose!" Wang Dong abruptly turned and shouted at Mu En. "If I'd used my martial soul just now, he wouldn't even have been able to touch me! I just wasn't being serious!"

"You didn't lose in strength. You lost in your heart." Mu En shook his head, still dispensing lofty wisdom. "He has a fearless heart. You don't."

Su Yuan, meanwhile, mercilessly called her out. "You weren't serious? Looks to me like you just love showing off, playing the pig to eat the tiger. Hiding your martial soul, hiding your tricks?"

"What good did that do? Didn't you lose anyway? After losing, does saying you weren't using your full strength change anything? If you love holding back so much, you might as well wait until someone kills you and reveal your trump cards in your next life."

[Ding-]

[The host has triggered an iconic scene. Keyword available for extraction: [He Is Still Holding Back]]

[[He Is Still Holding Back] trait description: God held back his Flash from S7 all the way to S16. Once the host equips this trait, any enemy fighting the host who considered concealing their abilities before the battle will never remember to use those moves during the ensuing fight-even if the host beats them to death!]

See? Even my system bro had certified it.

Wang Dong, you really were Dong Qu. You'd Qu'd yourself into oblivion...

Across from the two of them, Wang Dong's face immediately alternated between green and white. She was so embarrassed that she wished she could dig a crack in the ground and crawl into it.

If it had only been the elderly Mu En's admonition, it would have been fine. In the original story, Wang Dong had taken his teaching deeply to heart and bowed to him before returning to the dormitory.

But now Mu En had Su Yuan beside him, playing good cop and bad cop together. One counseled while the other mocked; one offered a sweet date while the other swung a big stick. Dong Qu's glass heart instantly cracked under the pressure, and she ran off without a word.

"She really is useless..." Su Yuan couldn't resist making another jab.

System, extract the trait and equip it!

Though Wang Dong was useless, this trait's effect was genuinely powerful. It certainly hadn't let down the time he had spent getting up early and waiting here!