With the bloodline of the radiant sacred dragon, the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon certainly wasn't any weaker than Wang Dong'er's light goddess butterfly.
And as a descendant of Mu En, the Sea God Pavilion Master, Bei Bei naturally received training that was no worse than what Wang Dong'er received in the Clear Sky Sect.
Although he had no idea why Bei Bei had been so unremarkable in the original story, if Bei Bei truly devoted himself to cultivation, absorbing a thousand-year soul ring as his second soul ring was hardly incomprehensible.
In the original story, after Zhang Lexuan arrived, Bei Bei experienced a sense of familial affection that Mu En had never given him. According to Zhang Lexuan's recollections in the original, Bei Bei had often played all over the place with her as a child, and had even said he would have her marry him when he grew up.
For the withdrawn Bei Bei to suddenly meet Zhang Lexuan, someone who could give him all the motherly love he needed, it was perfectly normal for him to lose interest in cultivating. Mu En wouldn't demand that this great-great-grandson of his, who had suffered such a turbulent fate, achieve anything in particular either.
With him and Shrek Academy backing Bei Bei, nine rings were practically guaranteed in his future anyway, so whether he worked hard as a child didn't really matter.
Geniuses always had a few privileges.
Then Bei Bei met Tang Ya and started playing some little sect-rebuilding game with her, which meant that by the time Huo Yuhao enrolled, Bei Bei was already in his fourth year and somehow only at level thirty-seven.
Unless he had simply given up trying, there was no way to explain how someone with Bei Bei's talent could have such pathetic cultivation.
Things were different in this timeline.
Bei Bei had met Ye Qing even before he met Zhang Lexuan. He was also a few months older than Ye Qing, yet his younger playmate had come from behind and overtaken him by a huge margin.
What was more, both of them had innate full soul power.
Without a comparison, there was naturally no sense of urgency. With a walking cheat like Ye Qing driving him onward, how could Bei Bei have so much time to play? He cultivated like his life depended on it every day, hoping to catch up to Ye Qing.
And sure enough, the moment he obtained his second soul ring, he excitedly sought Ye Qing out.
"Ye Qing, fight me!" Bei Bei's roar startled Ye Qing, who was cultivating on a branch of the Golden Tree.
Two soul rings, one yellow and one purple just like Ye Qing's, circled his body as he stared at him with blazing eyes. "I know your soul power level is higher than mine, but I'm level twenty-two now too. I refuse to believe I'm any worse than you!"
"Fight me!"
Sitting in the tree, Ye Qing was somewhat speechless.
He had only just finished a day of water-pressure training, and his soul power had recovered to barely thirty percent. His muscles were still numb from the cold lake water and the high pressure, and had yet to recover.
Right now, all he wanted was to laze around for a while and squeeze a little more juice out of Ah Yin to restore himself.
What had he done wrong?!
"Are you sure?" Ye Qing's expression fluctuated.
He couldn't decide whether to pound Bei Bei to death with one punch or use a Mamba elbow to show him who was the king and who was the joker.
"Of course!" Bei Bei looked supremely confident. "We're both Soul Grandmasters now, and we both have thousand-year second rings. Those measly few levels of soul power? Consider them my handicap to you!"
"Very good." Ye Qing nodded, and two soul rings appeared around him as well.
Seeing Ye Qing release his martial soul, Bei Bei grew excited, but also braced himself for battle. White-purple lightning arcs began coiling around his body.
But Ye Qing's second soul ring merely flashed, and he vanished from the spot. Before Bei Bei could react, agonizing pain erupted at the back of his head. His vision went black, and he fell straight into a quality slumber.
Behind him, Ye Qing slowly withdrew his elbow, caught Bei Bei's collapsing body without expression, and carried him into the Sea God Pavilion.
Bei Bei: I went in, and it was over in one move! What else is there to say~
Inside the Sea God Pavilion, Mu En sat beside a window, basking in the sun. When he saw Ye Qing enter through the front door with the unconscious Bei Bei slung over his shoulder, a helpless look appeared on his aged face.
"Teacher, where should I put him?" Ye Qing looked equally speechless.
He couldn't understand how Bei Bei had dared to fight him. Even if he hadn't yet figured out Locomotive Impact, even if Light-Breaking Demon was his only instant-kill skill, there was no forgetting that he was a power attack system soul master.
He had already been able to absorb a 6,800-year soul ring for his second ring. How could his body possibly be weak?
A blink behind someone followed by an elbow strike-below the Soul Ancestor rank, almost no one other than defense-type tanks could withstand it.
That was also why Mu En felt so helpless.
When two youngsters sparred, an old man like him really couldn't step in and say much. He could only hope Ye Qing wouldn't deal Bei Bei too harsh a blow. Having a goal like Ye Qing standing before him was good for Bei Bei's growth as well.
Mu En had seen all the effort Bei Bei put in.
On one hand, he was gratified that Bei Bei could charge courageously ahead. On the other, he worried that Ye Qing would crush his confidence so badly that he would never recover.
Mu En understood this young disciple's talent all too well.
"Just put him here. Go back to cultivating," Mu En said.
Ye Qing nodded, placed Bei Bei on a chair in the Sea God Pavilion, then flashed out of the pavilion. With a few nimble leaps, he returned to the branch where he had been meditating earlier.
The branch was surprisingly comfortable on his backside. Combined with the abundant light soul power and vitality in the air, it allowed Ye Qing to recover his soul power far faster than elsewhere. Cultivating in this environment every day, he would have had trouble advancing slowly even if he wanted to.
No wonder Ma Xiaotao had reached level sixty-seven before turning twenty in the original story. There was a reason for it.
Speaking of Ma Xiaotao, Ye Qing had met her a few times already. Although the evil fire had yet to make her as ill-tempered as she would become later, she certainly wasn't eager to interact with this junior martial uncle who was younger than she was.
There was nothing Ye Qing's Light of the Holy Hall could do about that kind of conscious resistance.
Of course, he had no interest in getting involved with Shrek's number-one horny chick either. They could each cultivate on their own, so long as she didn't come bother him.
Otherwise, he might end up having to expose his ultimate divinity ability to purify her evil fire someday. Ultimate divinity soul power was far more useful than ultimate ice, and could well be called the best power for dispelling evil.
That ultimate purifying power could cleanse Ma Xiaotao's little bit of evil fire in no time.
But living in Shrek Academy, Ye Qing genuinely feared that if he didn't keep a few tricks up his sleeve, he might someday be brainwashed into a deranged Shrek fanatic too. That was not something he wanted to see.
"Ah, Shrek..."
Even after living in Shrek for six or seven years, Ye Qing still found it difficult to shake his prejudice against Shrek Academy from the original story. As a result, he remained wary of Shrek and everyone in it.
"Since I don't like Shrek as it is, once I'm strong enough in the future, I'll turn it into the Shrek I want."
Ye Qing soon sank into meditation and began restoring his soul power.
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