The blazing sun hung high overhead, its rays pouring down from the distant sky, dispersing the thin mist shrouding the Soul Arena and illuminating the two figures facing each other.
"I've been looking forward to this battle for two years."
Xiao Hongchen looked at Ling Bai and spoke slowly, his voice steady and powerful. "Back in that final, my ambitions were higher than the heavens. I didn't know what an opponent was.
"You were the one who shattered my pride piece by piece. You made me understand that there was always someone stronger, always a higher sky beyond the sky. So I tempered myself anew with the attitude of an apprentice.
"Shrek brought you here to suppress me. I'm deeply honored. But I feel this battle ought to be purer than that."
He raised one finger and slowly turned in a circle, pointing at the Inner Academy disciples around him one by one. The Sun Moon Empire had suffered nine consecutive defeats, and the sharp, cutting ridicule had come from all directions. Xiao Hongchen had long been holding in a bellyful of anger.
Ling Bai smiled unconcernedly. "You know perfectly well what kind of relationship exists between the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy and Shrek Academy. You invoke interests when it suits you, then demand purity when it suits you. The world doesn't work that way.
"What you need to do is conquer."
"Fine, then I'll start with you!"
Xiao Hongchen burst into laughter. He would make these Shrek Inner Academy disciples submit one by one. Six soul rings—two yellow, two purple, and two black—rose around him. His First and Third Soul Rings lit up as he swung his hands and flung out hundreds of metal spheres. Using those spheres as cores, thick metal cannon barrels grew out one