At the referee's command, Tang San made the first move.
"First Soul Skill-Entanglement!"
Blue Silver Grass surged from his palm, instantly turning into several blue vines as thick as massive tree trunks that swept toward Luo Chen!
Fast, wide-reaching, and coming from tricky angles, the attack could be said to have inherited the essence of the Mandala Snake's strikes.
That was not all. With the addition of the Mandala Snake Soul Ring, every vine of his Blue Silver Grass was now steeped in its paralytic toxin. Once an enemy was entangled, numbness would spread from the point of contact throughout their body, leaving them unable to move. It was formidable indeed.
But to Luo Chen, who possessed a top-tier Martial Soul and a seven-hundred-year first Soul Ring, it was no trouble at all.
Luo Chen merely called out lazily:
"Martial Soul Possession!"
"First Soul Skill-Scorpion Emperor Transformation."
In an instant, a cold, powerful presence erupted from his body.
Dark green carapace patterns swiftly covered Luo Chen's exposed skin. At the same time, his lower body transformed into a scorpion's body, pincers appeared on his arms, and a scorpion tail shot skyward from his sacrum.
In his scorpion transformation state, all his attributes increased by eighty percent.
So when the Blue Silver Grass swept toward him, Luo Chen did not dodge at all. Instead, he swept his pincers across it.
Crack, crack, crack...
Several thick strands of Blue Silver Grass were severed by his pincers.
Seeing this, Tang San immediately increased his Soul Power output. More Blue Silver Grass surged from every direction, forming an airtight net that rushed toward Luo Chen.
"Not bad," Luo Chen appraised. "You do qualify to be my opponent!"
"But this still isn't enough!"
The scorpion tail behind Luo Chen flicked, lashing like a whip at the incoming Blue Silver Grass.
Whoosh!
Gleaming with a ghostly green chill, the scorpion tail plunged precisely into the Blue Silver Grass.
The Nine Poison Scorpion's potent venom was more than a single tier above the Mandala Snake's paralytic toxin, not to mention that it also carried a trace of the Netherworld Scorpion Emperor's deadly venom.
The instant Tang San's Blue Silver Grass touched the scorpion tail, it rapidly withered from the venom.
Meanwhile, Tang San's pupils turned faintly purple. As he stared at the withered Blue Silver Grass, he could not help being inwardly shocked.
What powerful venom! Although my Blue Silver Grass is steeped in the Mandala Snake's paralytic toxin, it can't withstand a single blow before Luo Chen's scorpion venom.
Do I have to use the hidden weapons Teacher instructed me to use? But this is only a spar!
Seeing that Tang San remained unresponsive, Luo Chen shouted, "Tang San, don't let your guard down. Come at me with everything you've got!"
At his words, Tang San came back to his senses.
For the first time, determination appeared in his eyes as he looked at Luo Chen. "Since you've said that, I'll see this through to the end!"
With that, Tang San stopped holding anything back and immediately unleashed every means at his disposal.
"Mysterious Jade Hand!"
A layer of jade-white luster appeared over Tang San's hands, and then he repeatedly fired sleeve arrows with both hands.
In an instant, a string of extremely fast, powerful hidden weapons shot toward Luo Chen like a rainstorm, coming from tricky angles.
"Hmph!" Luo Chen gave a disdainful snort.
After cultivating Twin Emperor Soul Guidance to the introductory stage, his spiritual perception covered a forty-meter radius. To him, Tang San's extremely fast hidden weapons were absurdly slow.
In his scorpion transformation state, with his attack, speed, strength, and defense all increased by eighty percent, his scorpion tail formed a dark green barrier, knocking away every hidden weapon in turn. None could break through his defenses.
"Damn it!" Tang San spat through gritted teeth.
Meanwhile, under the gaze of his Purple Demon Eye, Luo Chen's movements became clear.
The more clearly he saw, the more Tang San crumbled inside.
In his scorpion transformation state, Luo Chen's attack, speed, defense, and strength all increased by eighty percent. Combined with the Netherworld Scorpion Emperor's top-tier Martial Soul quality, he was an insurmountable mountain in Tang San's eyes.
He simply could not defeat the opponent before him. The gap between them was too great.
"Out of tricks already?" Luo Chen chuckled. "My turn."
Then the scorpion tail behind Luo Chen flicked, stabbing toward Tang San like lightning!
Tang San's pupils contracted sharply. Blue Silver Grass surged out wildly as he tried to block the blow.
The instant the scorpion tail touched the Blue Silver Grass, it withered. The hooked stinger pierced Tang San's shoulder without resistance, and at the same time, the deadly venom coating its tip instantly seeped into his body.
In an instant, Tang San felt unbearably cold and wracked with pain, as though he were standing in freezing weather while a blade sliced his flesh.
Tang San grunted and clenched his teeth, forcibly suppressing the spread of the venom as he tried to counterattack with Mysterious Jade Hand.
Meanwhile, his reason frantically told him that Luo Chen's strength was far above his own, and continuing would only lead to an even more miserable defeat.
A moment later, Tang San suddenly spoke. "I concede."
Hearing this, Luo Chen looked at Tang San with some surprise.
After all, Tang San had been an assassin in his previous life, and after reincarnating, he had become the most talented human on the Douluo Continent.
How could someone born with five cultivation methods concede so easily?
At that thought, Luo Chen encouraged him, "Tang San, stand up. Let's keep fighting!"
"I can't beat you." Tang San lowered his head, his voice carrying no resentment, only acceptance. "Continuing would only invite humiliation."
"You?!"
Luo Chen had not expected God King Tang to be this sort of person at this point in time.
"Thank you for the match."
With that, Luo Chen lightly pricked Tang San with the scorpion tail behind him. After drawing out the venom, he released his Martial Soul Possession.
Tang San raised his head and looked at Luo Chen's calm face, a surge of complicated emotions welling up inside him.
Resentment, admiration, and puzzlement flickered through his eyes, finally converging into a single sentence:
"Your venom... is very powerful. I've never seen venom like it."
"I got lucky and killed a poison-attribute Soul Beast whose attributes matched my Martial Soul." Luo Chen smiled. "But your hidden weapons are impressive too. An ordinary person might have lost when you unleashed those countless strands of Blue Silver Grass."
"But what can you do? You happened to run into me."
At his words, Tang San stiffened. A moment later, he turned and walked off the arena without a word.
Yu Xiaogang stood at the edge of the arena. At this sight, his face turned livid.
He had wanted Tang San to defeat Luo Chen, proving his theory correct and proving that he was not a useless "parasite on geniuses." Yet Tang San had actually lost, and in a defeat where he had been utterly powerless to fight back at that.
That was not even the worst of it. What enraged him more was that Tang San had conceded of his own accord. Without even struggling, he had simply conceded!
"Trash!"
Yu Xiaogang slammed his hand on the table, his thunderous voice ringing across the entire field.
"Tang San, you piece of trash!"
Every student present froze.
Yu Xiaogang's face flushed crimson with fury. Pointing both hands at Tang San's retreating figure, he roared, "Blue Silver Grass is a trash Martial Soul, and you're trash too!"
"What good is innate full Soul Power? You can't even win a single duel!"
"You've utterly disgraced your teacher!"
At his words, Tang San stopped in his tracks. He turned around and looked at Yu Xiaogang with utter shock in his eyes.
"Teacher... I..."
"Don't call me Teacher!" Yu Xiaogang's voice became unbearably coarse. "I don't have a useless disciple like you!"
At those words, the entire crowd erupted in an uproar.
The students exchanged looks, scarcely able to believe their ears.
After all, Yu Xiaogang was universally acknowledged as useless at the academy. Their teachers had all urged Tang San to stay away from him, but Tang San had brushed them off with the excuse, "A teacher for a day is a teacher for life."
And now this useless man was actually calling his disciple with innate full Soul Power trash in public? What an utterly ludicrous farce.