"Y-you... what did you say?"
The youth froze for a moment at Huo Yuhao's words.
"Don't you have ears?" Huo Yuhao asked impatiently. "I said, who the fuck are you?"
"Y-you... you..."
The youth's handsome face flushed crimson with anger. She trembled all over and took two steps back, pointing at Huo Yuhao, unable to string together a complete sentence.
She came from a distinguished family. Everyone around her had spoken gently to her since childhood. Who would ever dare speak to her like this?
"You what?" Huo Yuhao showed no mercy with his tongue, asking with a sneer, "Why such a big reaction? Don't you have one of those things?"
"Shut up!" the youth roared, her face scarlet. "You crude, ill-mannered lout!"
"Oh, so saying a couple of dirty words makes me ill-mannered, but ordering me around makes you well-mannered?"
Huo Yuhao wore a mocking smile as he clapped with exaggerated sarcasm.
"Well, aren't you the very picture of good manners-"
After clapping, he added, "We're half a pound against eight ounces, jackals from the same hill, evenly matched, goods of the same kind! Neither of us gets to point fingers."
"Y-you... I..."
The youth had little experience of the world. How could she win an argument against Huo Yuhao? Her face reddened, and with no idea how to refute him, she could only resort to bluster.
"Because I'm stronger than you, you have to do as I say, or I'll beat you out of here! The bigger fist makes the rules. Try me if you don't believe it!"
Having said that, the youth seemed to calm down somewhat. A hint of arrogance appeared on her face, apparently born of her confidence in her strength.
She did indeed have reason to be proud. At her age, she had already reached the level of a Two-Ring Soul Grandmaster.
"You think you're good in a fight?" Huo Yuhao asked with a sinister grin. "Right now, one on one. A grandpa-grandson showdown. Whoever loses kneels and calls the winner Grandpa. You game?"
The youth froze, not expecting Huo Yuhao to jump straight to such high stakes, but confidence in her strength and the hot blood of youth left her no room for retreat.
"Of course! Why wouldn't I be? Let's see what gives you the right to act so arrogant."
"Then come on." Huo Yuhao jumped off the bed and headed straight out of the dormitory building.
The pink-and-blue-haired youth followed him.
There was an open space in front of the dormitory building. Huo Yuhao stood there and cast a brief glance at the reclining old man, who seemed to be watching them with interest.
That was a mysterious expert. With him nearby, Tian Meng could only hide in Huo Yuhao's Sea of Consciousness, not daring to breathe a word.
"What, scared?" the pink-and-blue-haired youth taunted upon seeing Huo Yuhao hesitate.
Huo Yuhao shoved his hands into his pockets and said disdainfully, "Heh. Brother Hao doesn't cut down nameless nobodies. My name's Huo Yuhao. What's yours?"
"Wang Dong!"
Wang Dong's eyes were filled with disdain and contempt.
But she soon froze.
For she saw an even deeper, heavier contempt in Huo Yuhao's eyes.
Let's see what you're really capable of! Wang Dong thought viciously.
No one had ever dared look at her like that in her entire life. How could she not be furious?
"Show your martial soul," Huo Yuhao said calmly as his pure white first soul ring rose from beneath his feet. "Let's see yours."
Wang Dong paused, then clutched her stomach and burst into exaggerated laughter.
"Hahaha! I wondered what gave you the nerve to act so cocky, but that's all you've got? I don't even need my martial soul to deal with you."
"Careful you don't bite your tongue boasting like that!" Huo Yuhao sneered. "Not long ago, another fool laughed like that in front of Brother Hao. It ended very badly for it."
Wang Dong chuckled, pushed off the ground with her toes, and charged straight at Huo Yuhao.
She was fast, her light body brimming with strength, like an arrow loosed from a powerful bow.
In the blink of an eye, Wang Dong flashed into position before Huo Yuhao.
Yet Huo Yuhao remained unmoved, maintaining his arrogant stance with both hands in his pockets.
Scared stiff? Wang Dong secretly rejoiced, lifting her long, well-proportioned right leg and driving her foot straight toward his chest.
Huo Yuhao did not even move from his spot. He merely bent his knees slightly and turned his upper body a little, evading Wang Dong's kick.
"That confident?"
Wang Dong had not expected Huo Yuhao to evade her attack with such an effortless movement. She exerted force through her suspended right leg again, kicking toward his neck.
At that moment, Huo Yuhao straightened his bent legs, raising his upper body with them and neatly catching Wang Dong's right leg on his shoulder.
The two now held a bizarre pose: Wang Dong balanced on her left leg, with her right leg resting straight on Huo Yuhao's shoulder, as though performing a standing split.
"Heh."
Wang Dong was about to launch another attack when she heard a cold chuckle.
"Flowery fists and embroidered kicks. All flash and flourishes. Guarding one end and losing the other. Nothing but a pretty shell."
Their faces were close enough that Wang Dong could clearly see the icy blue gleam in Huo Yuhao's eyes.
"Your footing's unsteady, and you're still doing splits in midair? Has nobody ever taught you to keep your kicks below the knee?"
Huo Yuhao raised his foot and viciously kicked Wang Dong's supporting left leg.
A bone-piercing pain shot through Wang Dong's left knee. Her pink-and-blue eyes widened as far as they could, and she let out a soft cry of agony.
"Ah-"
Her left leg had been locked straight when an enormous force suddenly struck her knee from the front. Now it felt painful and numb, entirely beyond her control. Only sheer determination kept her from falling.
Huo Yuhao gave her no chance to catch her breath. Reaching out with his left hand, he pushed the right leg resting on his shoulder forward and sent Wang Dong straight to the ground.
Wang Dong hit the ground hard. Huo Yuhao planted his right foot against her left knee and pressed down hard on her right leg with his left arm, using her own right leg to pin her right hand.
Wang Dong was very flexible. An ordinary person would have found this position excruciating, but she could manage it easily.
Now, all her main limbs were restrained.
Wang Dong still tried to struggle, resisting with her only free hand, her left, but a dreadful chill touched her neck.
A short blade rested against her throat. Its cold surface pressed tightly against the fair skin of her neck, raising goosebumps.
A knife?
Wang Dong tilted her head back to look at the youth before her, his smile contemptuous and his eyes shining blue. A fear she had never known before rose within her.
Huo Yuhao asked, "Well? Still not giving up?"
The searing pain in her left knee, the chill against her neck, the fear in her heart... Wang Dong gritted her teeth and fell silent for a while before reluctantly saying, "I... I lost."
Huo Yuhao got off her, deftly twirled the White Tiger Dagger several times in his right hand, and tucked it into his belt. "No need to call me Grandpa. We're classmates, after all, and Brother Hao doesn't want to embarrass you too badly. I'll reluctantly settle for unilaterally adopting you as my grandson."
"From now on, don't think being strong gives you the right to throw your weight around and swagger about."
Freed at last, Wang Dong sat up and rubbed her left knee, staring at Huo Yuhao in utter shock.
Was he really a soul master with only a single ten-year soul ring? Why was he so strong? What was his martial soul?
Wang Dong could also tell that Huo Yuhao had held back with his kick. Otherwise, her left leg would have been crippled outright.
The thought that her carelessness had left her beaten so badly without even releasing her martial soul filled Wang Dong with grievance, shame, and anger.
"I won't accept this!" she shouted defiantly at Huo Yuhao, a few tears flying from the corners of her eyes.
Ever since she was little, the two elders in her family had protected her like a treasure, and anyone who sparred with her had always gone easy on her.
When had Wang Dong ever experienced anything like today, with someone holding a knife to her throat? Not only had she lost, but her opponent had even spoken to her so crudely beforehand...
She felt overwhelmed by humiliation and anger, and her voice took on a tearful edge.
Huo Yuhao shrugged.
These little brats were all the same. Lose a fight, and they started blubbering.
He was about to comfort the brat using his usual method when Wang Dong continued, "My soul power is clearly higher than yours, and I'm stronger than you! Why should I lose to you?"
Huo Yuhao's expression turned utterly dark.
"So you can cry too?"
"So you do know that the weak cry when they're bullied?"
He slowly walked up to Wang Dong, looking down at her with blue eyes so coldly indifferent they were frightening.
"But didn't you say the bigger fist makes the rules?"