The morning light slanted across the Shrek Academy, Huo Yuhao stumbled into the classroom as the school bell rang, his school uniform collar askew and a few flower petals stuck to the ends of his hair.
He slumped into his seat, rubbing his aching temples, the image of the Third Prince drinking heartily from the Lotus Sea of Divine Soul consciousness, mixed with the aroma of wine, still lingering in his mind. "Truly, 'the world is vast in drunkenness,' and this is what I'll be like when I wake up..."
"What's wrong with Yuhao? He walks like he's walking on cotton!" Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's voice boomed in the Sea of Consciousness, making Huo Yuhao's temples throb.
Electrolux smiled knowingly, "You were still asleep at the time. Yuhao went nearby and bought a lot of wine, then started drinking from the jar. I don't know what triggered it, but he was drinking and grinning like an idiot while looking at the moon. Strangely enough, after he fell asleep, his Soul Power fluctuations steadily increased—he's now a level thirty-five Soul Elder."
(Hehe, Huo Yuhao really had a rough night. He's drinking in the Lotus Sea of Divine Soul right now, and then for some reason, he got a little depressed and went to buy more wine to drown his sorrows. He kept saying he was saying goodbye to his friends and to himself, and he was muttering that if he ever went back to the East Sea, he would never be able to go back to the East Sea...)
"Drinking until level 35?! 666, is he cheating?" Tian Meng's scream made Huo Yuhao's head throb. "What kind of cheat-level cultivation method is this?!"
The desks creaked under the mountain of parchment, and the aroma of love letters and challenges mingled with the smell of alcohol. Huo Yuhao casually tore open the top gold-embossed envelope, and Dai Huabin's provocative words appeared on the paper.
He rubbed the letter between his fingers, a cold smile playing on his lips, "Perfect timing. I haven't even looked for you yet, and you've delivered yourself right to my doorstep."
Suddenly, two beautiful figures loomed over the desk. Huo Yuhao looked up and met a pair of amber eyes— Ning Tian, dressed in a blue and white school uniform, couldn't hide the amazement in her eyes.
The girl coughed lightly, then tossed her hair, feigning composure. " Huo Yuhao, don't you remember me? I challenged you to a duel, but you never responded, so I came to find you." She secretly bit her lower lip; how could this man, even in his drunken state, be so... handsome?
Wu Feng, standing to the side, tilted his head to examine Huo Yuhao's reddened earlobes and slightly tipsy face, then suddenly burst out laughing, "Young Master, judging from his current state, he's probably going to try some drunken boxing with us."
Before he finished speaking, whispers began to circulate in the back of the classroom, and countless gazes were fixed on him like thorns in his back, but none of them could compare to the subtle sound of Huo Yuhao's fingers forming the challenge letter.
Huo Yuhao glanced at the two intertwined figures, his brows furrowing slightly from the alcohol. "Not interested." He casually stuffed the love letter into the drawer, the movement ruffling Ning Tian's hair.
"Scared? You wouldn't dare, would you?" Wu Feng suddenly sneered, her silver bell earring swaying slightly with the movement. "The top freshman at Shrek, so you can hide like a coward too?"
"You think you can provoke me like this? You underestimate me. I have no reason to fight you," Huo Yuhao said casually, resting his chin on his hand.
"Ten thousand Gold Soul Coin." Before Ning Tian could finish speaking, Wu Feng had already pulled out a money bag and slammed it heavily on the table. The sound of the gold coins clattering startled the sparrows outside the window. "Win or lose, it's all yours."
Huo Yuhao paused for half a second as he stood up, his knuckles tapping out a broken rhythm on the wooden table. When he looked up again, the drunkenness in his eyes had vanished, replaced by the cold glint of a hunter locking onto its prey. "Deal."
The gates of the Soul Fighting Arena burst open with a roar, and cheers rushed in. The stands were already packed, but three figures stood out— Yan Shaozhe stood with his hands behind his back, his hair blowing in the wind; the old man beside him had hazy, drunken eyes, and the wine poured from his wine jug condensed into a water bag in the air, but not a drop fell.
"Is that the Huo Yuhao you mentioned?" Xuan Zi chuckled softly, his cloudy pupils suddenly flashing with a sharp light.
Yan Shaozhe replied, "That's right, didn't Mu En tell you?"
Xuan Zi said casually, "Before witnessing it with our own eyes, even if it's Mu En's instruction, we still need to see if it's true. After all, everyone in the academy is practically treating him as a legend."
Yan Shaozhe gazed at the young man slowly walking onto the stage. The lingering wine stains on Huo Yuhao's school uniform echoed the aura emanating from him in a strange way, "Soon, you will know that he is more terrifying than the rumors suggest."
The spotlights on the Soul Fighting Arena suddenly blazed on, enveloping the three figures. Ning Tian lightly raised his wrist, and the jade bracelet on his wrist emitted a shimmering white light. The phantom of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda slowly rose from his palm, each layer of the pagoda shimmering with a strange light.
Wu Feng spun around in place, his crimson scales covering his entire body like flames, and his dragon tail swept across, creating a sharp, piercing sound. Ning Heavenly Soul rings bloomed one after another, the yellow, yellow, and purple halos reflecting off the Red Dragon scales, eliciting gasps from the stands.
Ning Tian, a level 31 Auxiliary System Tool Soul Elder.
Wu Feng, Level 25 Power Attack System Battle Soul Master
Huo Yuhao's face flushed slightly, and his mind cleared a little as he said, "Come on, I won't use my Martial Soul, I'll only use my fists and feet."
"It's the Red Dragon Martial Soul, a top-tier Beast Martial Soul!" A sharp-eyed spectator suddenly pointed in the direction of the two and exclaimed, "Top-tier? Who dares to say 'top-tier' in front of Huo Yuhao? Have you forgotten the giant dragon phantom that appeared on his body back then?" These words were like water droplets thrown into boiling oil, instantly igniting a discussion throughout the audience.
The referee announced the start, Ning Tian softly chanted, "First, speed! Second, resolution! Third, power!" Layers of light from the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda poured down, and a sudden Wu Feng rose around her. She instantly sprang into action, her sharp claws tearing through the air as she aimed straight for Huo Yuhao's throat. The force of the wind she generated even made the flags on the edge of the Soul Fighting Arena flutter loudly.
"Too slow, I'll play with you guys for a bit." Huo Yuhao's lips curled into a faint smile as he moved to the side like Gui Mei.
The Wu Feng's attack grazed past his ear, but the shockwave it generated missed its mark. He spun around on one foot, his combat instincts honed from his past life's battlefield battles awakening at this moment. (He hadn't activated his Spirit Eyes; now, he possessed the experience of his past life, and after further training, he wouldn't fear even ten fifth-year seniors from Shrek Academy.)
Every dodge was precisely aimed at the blind spot of the opponent's attack. When Wu Feng swung his claws again, he suddenly lunged forward, his right hand gripping the opponent's wrist like an iron clamp, and using the momentum, he slammed him hard to the ground.
With a muffled boom, Wu Feng's scales sparked as they scraped against the black iron floor. Huo Yuhao, however, shot towards Ning Tian like an arrow released from a bow. Before his fist even arrived, a chilling shockwave tore through the girl's skirt.
Ning Tian retreated in alarm, hastily releasing the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, only to see Huo Yuhao suddenly stop his attack. The wind from his fist grazed her nose, exploding into layers of air waves behind her, making her hair fly wildly.
"You've lost." Huo Yuhao stood up, his school uniform hem fluttering in the wind. " The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, hailed as the world's number one support item, is nothing special."
His gaze swept across the stands, sharp as a torch. "Now, I'll give you a chance. Anyone who wants to challenge me, 500 Gold Soul Coin each, I'll give you the right to challenge me. Who else, who else...--"
Before the words were even finished, dozens of figures leaped up simultaneously, their shouts, the clinking of gold coins, and the booming sounds of their Martial Soul mingling together.
Amidst this boiling chaos, Shrek's true monster is embracing challenges from all sides with the most flamboyant attitude; after all, sending out challenge letters every day is quite boring.
A big name means that some people like him and some people hate him, and of course, there are quite a few people who dislike Huo Yuhao.
The battles here are no longer about maintaining fairness. Several people take to the field to challenge a monster. Facing Shrek's true monsters, many people naturally want to experience their prowess.
A harsh sneer came from the shadows, "Just a bastard who became famous by luck!" Three or four figures leaped up from different directions at the same time, the light released by their Martial Soul intertwining into a net in mid-air.
Some swung out barbed chains, some conjured ice spikes at their fingertips, and others unfurled blood-red bat wings behind them, their sharp fangs gleaming with eerie blue venom.
" Huo Yuhao, I challenge you."
"I think you're desperate for money. I'll teach you a lesson."
Even if one person can't beat you, with so many of you, let's see how long you can hold out.
"Five hundred Gold Soul Coin to teach him a lesson!" Huo Yuhao advanced instead of retreating, an invisible aura rising around him. The moment the iron chain wrapped around his neck, he twisted his body sharply, using the momentum to throw the attacker into the air, and his right fist, carrying the power to split mountains and shatter rocks, slammed out. With a scream, the man fell to the ground like a kite with a broken string, blood spurting from his mouth and nose.
Immediately afterward, an ice spike grazed past his ear. Huo Yuhao lightly touched the ground with his toes, gliding along the ground like Gui Mei. The force of his sweeping leg knocked two opponents over. Before the remaining opponents could react, he had already closed in, striking one of them on the back of the neck with a palm strike. The precise force left the opponent limp as mud.
Amidst the rising and falling cries of agony, more and more figures leaped onto the Soul Fighting Platform. Some of these people had red eyes, while others formed formations with cold smiles, the light released by their Martial Soul illuminating the arena as if it were daytime.
Huo Yuhao seemed to blend into the storm of the battlefield, his fists flashing and the resulting shockwaves shattering all attacks. His footwork appeared casual, yet he always managed to precisely strike at his opponent's weaknesses, each punch accompanied by the cracking sound of bones dislocating.
The spectators in the stands, initially mocking, gradually turned to shock. Some gripped the armrests of their seats and muttered, "Insane... this isn't a human battle!" Others screamed, "Get down! You're courting death!"
"Challenge Huo Yuhao? Don't be shameless. Among the freshmen, if he dares to claim second place, no one dares to claim first."
"Exactly, they've really made a fool of themselves."
Yan Shaozhe, watching this scene from a distance, said, " Xuan Zi, should we stop it?"
Xuan Zi's wine jug paused at his lips, a glint of shrewdness flashing in his cloudy old eyes. The sight of Huo Yuhao tearing through his opponent's defenses with his bare hands made the Sea God Pavilion token at his waist slightly hot. "Without Martial Soul, he can repel everyone with just his fists and feet? Truly, he has the power to hold off ten thousand men!"
He slammed his hand on the railing, making the entire Soul Fighting tremble. " Yan Shaozhe, stopping now would be a real waste! I want to see just how much potential Huo Yuhao has."
Yan Shaozhe gazed at the tireless figure in the arena, a complex light flickering in his silver eyes.
Every punch Huo Yuhao threw carried a ruthlessness beyond his years, yet he precisely controlled the degree of his power—this was not a battle, but a declaration to everyone: Shrek's most terrifying monster had only just begun to bare its fangs.