The Worst Had Happened

After a long while, Xuan Zi took a deep breath and forcibly suppressed the fury in his heart.

The oppressive Soul Power surrounding him slowly subsided. The rubble in the corridor stopped trembling, and the air became breathable again.

Though the sense of restraint remained, it no longer intensified as wildly as before.

"Well played, boy. I admit defeat." Xuan Zi spoke through gritted teeth, yet there was nothing he could do. "I accept this wager."

"Within one year after the tournament, as long as you can win, I will present you with a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone with both hands."

He finally understood. The youth before him was no ordinary genius, but an old fox wearing a young man's skin.

In a battle of wits against him, even a Super Douluo who had lived most of his life had fallen behind.

A satisfied smile curled Lu Ren's lips.

"Then thank you for granting my wish, Senior Xuan Zi."

Xuan Zi snorted coldly, unwilling to spare Lu Ren another glance.

With a flicker, he vanished from the dormitory, leaving only an icy remark echoing in the air.

"I'll be waiting to see how you lead a bunch of Soul Engineers to defeat Shrek!"

Quiet returned to the corridor.

Rubble littered the floor, cracks spread across the walls like spiderwebs, and most of the ceiling's Soul Guidance Lamps had burst. Only a few still clung to life, casting a dim yellow glow.

Lu Ren stood where he was and slowly raised a hand to rub his tight chest. Taking a Titled Douluo's oppressive presence head-on had still left him with some internal injuries.

His ribs ached faintly, his organs felt as though they had been squeezed, and each breath carried a trace of bloody sweetness.

"Good thing the worst didn't happen..."

Lu Ren murmured to himself.

Naturally, he had only managed all this because he knew the entire plot and had long understood what sort of person Xuan Zi was.

If others could dupe Xuan Zi, why couldn't he?

In the original story, without Huo Yuhao, even that five-ring Evil Soul Master probably could have escaped right under Xuan Zi's nose.

At that thought, Lu Ren shook his head and was just about to leave when a figure appeared before him out of thin air.

Xuan Zi had returned, his expression so foul that he looked as though he had swallowed a live fly.

Lu Ren froze for a moment, then raised an eyebrow.

"What, Senior Xuan Zi? Can't bear to leave?"

The corner of Xuan Zi's mouth twitched.

"I suddenly realized something."

His voice was low, and his strange gaze swept over Lu Ren again and again, as though appraising merchandise awaiting the right price.

"With the wager binding me, I truly can't do anything to you."

"But I can take you away right now and have you join Shrek Academy."

"As long as I have you join some other academy's team before the Continental Tournament begins..."

He paused, a smug curve lifting the corner of his mouth.

"Once you lose, you'll willingly become one of Shrek's people and behave yourself, won't you?"

As his words fell, he reached out to grab Lu Ren.

Then the alarm sounded.

An ear-piercing shriek tore through the quiet of dusk, and the entire academy's Soul Tool defense systems activated at once.

Red warning lights flashed frantically at the end of the corridor, making the shattered flagstones and blood-covered walls look as though they were submerged in bloody water.

Xuan Zi's hand froze in midair.

Immediately afterward, blood surged from Lu Ren's body in an all-engulfing torrent.

Like an erupting volcano, enormous quantities of blood instantly flooded the entire corridor. Crimson waves churned and thundered, obscuring Xuan Zi's vision and engulfing his figure.

The entire process took less than half a second.

From the moment the alarm sounded to the formation of the sea of blood, not even the blink of an eye had passed.

Xuan Zi's brain stalled for an instant.

"Impossible!"

He stood where he was, letting the waves of blood surge past his sides.

When the blood touched his body, it flowed around him as though alive, without a single drop staining his robes.

But that was not the point.

The point was that, with his abilities, he should never have been detected infiltrating the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy.

He was a Level 98 Super Douluo. Once he concealed his presence, even experts at his own level would struggle to detect him.

Yet the alarm had sounded.

Xuan Zi closed his eyes, and his Spiritual Power spread in every direction like a tide.

Then he sensed large numbers of high-ranking Soul Engineers converging on him from every corner of the academy. The dozen or so presences leading them all belonged to Titled Douluo.

Of course, those alone did not frighten him. What he feared most was that those Titled Douluo were all Level 9 Soul Engineers. With the entire academy's Soul Tool defense network added to the mix, no matter how damn formidable Xuan Zi was, he could not contend with them.

"So how exactly was I discovered? And judging by their presences, they seem to have pinpointed my location immediately..."

Xuan Zi opened his eyes. A flash of realization crossed them, then turned into even deeper anger.

"So that's it. I understand."

Xuan Zi remembered the spherical Soul Tool he had casually tossed aside.

There had been a drop of blood on it.

A drop of blood containing Soul Power.

At the time, he had merely taken it for an ordinary bloodstain and paid it no mind.

Thinking back now, Lu Ren had infused that drop of blood with Soul Power from the beginning. Through the connection between the blood and the Soul Tool, he could trigger the alarm at any moment.

Even without the Soul Tool on him, he could still do it as long as that drop of blood remained.

In other words, from the moment Xuan Zi stepped into this corridor, Lu Ren had already prepared a way out.

If negotiations succeeded, everything would be fine.

If negotiations failed, he would sound the alarm outright and bring the entire Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy's might down on him.

"Interesting. Truly interesting." Xuan Zi suddenly laughed.

His laughter gradually rose from a low rumble until it became a wild, sky-shaking roar.

He looked at this vast ocean formed from blood, watching its surging waves turn the entire corridor into a crimson abyss.

Meanwhile, Lu Ren's figure had long since vanished into the sea of blood, without even a trace of his presence to be found.

"One of your abilities is turning Soul Power into blood so you can escape, isn't it?"

Xuan Zi's voice echoed through the sea of blood, laden with disdain.

"Unfortunately, you have no idea how truly terrifying a Level 98 Super Douluo is."

He snorted angrily, and his immense Spiritual Power spread like a net spanning heaven and earth, covering the entire sea of blood.

He intended to find Lu Ren's actual body. Though this blood carried Lu Ren's presence everywhere, his actual body had to be hiding in some corner.

Then his expression changed.

The information his Spiritual Power sent back left him utterly stunned.

Lu Ren's presence was everywhere throughout the sea of blood.

Every drop contained the same Soul Power fluctuations and Spiritual Power imprint, all completely identical.

To his senses, it seemed as though there were thousands upon thousands of Lu Rens here, yet also as though there was not a single one.

He actually could not find the other's actual body.

"Impossible," Xuan Zi said through gritted teeth. "My Spiritual Power has sealed off the area. You have no way to escape. You're still here, so why can't I find you?"

But his words received no reply.

There was only the sound of surging blood, like waves crashing against reefs.

Xuan Zi's expression grew uglier and uglier.

At last, he understood.

Lu Ren had been laying his plans from the very beginning.

When he used Soul Power to resist the pressure, he had not truly been resisting it, but secretly spreading his Soul Power throughout the scene.

That Soul Power had mingled with the air, seeped into the stone walls, and settled on the ground, disguised as traces left by his resistance to the pressure.

Once they turned on each other, that Soul Power instantly transformed into blood, obscuring vision and confusing perception, then buying time while he waited for the academy's forces to come protect him.

Every drop of blood was Lu Ren, yet none of them was Lu Ren.

Finding his actual body within this sea of blood would take time, and time was what Xuan Zi lacked most right now.