Word Count: 2,894 Words
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"Exchange student examination match, first round: Meng Hongchen versus Dugu Lin. Will both contestants please enter the arena!"
Yan Shaozhe, Dean of the Martial Spirit Department, personally took on the role of referee. A stick of ancient incense hovered in his palm. With Huo Yuhao, He Caitou, and others still at the Sun Moon Imperial Academy, these exchange students could not afford any mishaps. His presence as referee was the safest option.
The doors on both sides swung open. Two young, striking women slowly strode into the Spirit Dueling Arena. Dugu Lin radiated captivating allure with every smile and gesture, drawing every spectator's gaze like a beautiful serpent. Meng Hongchen stood facing her from afar, her pretty face covered in frost that seemed as if it would never melt.
The Nine Segment Jade ranked among the world's deadliest poisons. Dugu Lin's ability to tame it as a pet spoke volumes about her extraordinary strength. Yet Meng Hongchen, as the vice-captain of the exchange students, knew the stakes. A loss to Dugu Lin would weigh heavily on her companions' morale. She had to showcase the Sun Moon Empire's prowess in this opening battle.
Furthermore, Dugu Lin and Ling Bai behaved intimately, while Meng Hongchen intended to steal him away during this trip. An enchanting woman like Dugu Lin posed a significant threat. Meng Hongchen considered herself no less attractive in looks and figure compared to Dugu Lin; they each had their own unique charm. Perhaps surpassing her opponent in strength would be the weight that tipped the scales in her favor.
The Inner Courtyard students from Sea God Island had gathered in the spectator stands. Most had never seen Spirit Guidance Masters from the Sun Moon Empire and wanted to witness their abilities, while also cheering on Shrek Academy's representative.
"Dugu Lin, she's the one kicking off the exchange student examination..."
A subtle trace of apprehension flickered in Wu Ming's eyes. Dugu Lin's spirit power was only Rank 61, but Wu Ming had no desire to face this Jade Phosphor Serpent. The outcome would inevitably be mutual destruction, and even victory would come at a disastrous price.
Leaning slightly against Han Ruoruo beside her, Wu Ming commented, "That dangerous Lethal Serpent Maiden... I've heard even Pan Tao, who was somewhat close to her in the Outer Courtyard, has slowly distanced herself. Only your Ling Bai dares to get near her."
"Seems like you're itching for a beating. Since when did Ling Bai become 'mine'?"
Han Ruoruo pinched Wu Ming's cheek, tugging gently at her best friend's soft flesh. She emphasized, "They enrolled in the Inner Courtyard the same year. Little Junior Brother is kindhearted and can't stand to see Dugu Lin ostracized by everyone here. Ming'er, don't go spreading wild rumors about him."
Wu Ming smirked with a twist of her lips. "Keep fooling yourself. You'll regret it someday."
"Hmm?"
Han Ruoruo's beautiful eyes narrowed, and the pressure of her fingers intensified in an instant.
"Ouch, ouch, ouch! Sister Ruoruo, I was wrong!"
Wu Ming wriggled free from the 'demonic' grip, not daring to prod the oblivious party further. She turned her attention obediently to the battle between the two deadly poison-type Spirit Masters.
Both women released their Martial Spirits. A jade-green, diamond-shaped scale appeared at Dugu Lin's brow. Her voluptuous, alluring body seemed as boneless as a snake's as her legs fused, transforming into a long, jade-green serpent tail.
Meng Hongchen's wine-red hair shifted to snow white, her eyes turning a chilling blood-red. Behind her appeared the illusory figure of a pure white toad.
Two yellow, two purple, two black—identical sets of six spirit rings rose from beneath their feet, casting a radiant glow over their beautiful faces.
Meng Hongchen struck first. Blue light shimmered across her body as an exquisite, pale-blue armor encased her shapely figure. A heroic elegance swept through the arena, catching the eyes of many Inner Courtyard students.
It was a peak Class 6 Spirit Battle Armor, complete with a pair of Class 6 Spirit Swords and Spirit Thrusters.
Her sword vibrated, blue sword energy pulsing at its tip. Meng Hongchen's beautiful gaze lifted slightly. A thunderous roar erupted as her Spirit Thrusters unleashed twin streams of light, propelling her forward like a blazing meteor.
Only a hundred meters separated them. With the speed of Class 6 Spirit Thrusters, the gap closed in the blink of an eye. Her figure flickered, entering attack range in an instant. With a twist of her blade, she lunged at Dugu Lin's chest, striking with the ruthless precision of a venomous viper emerging from its den.
At the same time, Meng Hongchen's two yellow 100-year spirit rings ignited. Her first spirit skill, Icefire Poison, and second spirit skill, Icevenom Ring, activated. Icy mist spread through the air, laced with deadly poison. Close-quarters combat paired with the Red Eyed Ice Toad's poison was her specialty!
Two years ago, during the Continental Elite Spirit Master Academy Tournament finals, the Seraphim's innate Ultimate Holy power had naturally suppressed her abilities. Ling Bai, wielding the Angel Sword and Seven Kill Sword Technique, had limited her to barely a tenth of her strength. Now, facing the Jade Phosphor Serpent Dugu Lin, she held nothing back!
A pair of jade-green vertical pupils observed the sword tip growing larger in her vision with cold indifference. Dugu Lin's serpent tail slammed against the ground. A massive snake erupted from the earth, its eyes flashing with bloodthirsty, icy light. Its enormous jaws, gaping a full one hundred eighty degrees, could swallow Meng Hongchen whole!
Jade Phosphor Serpent's First Spirit Skill, Jade Serpent Strangle!
Meng Hongchen remained composed. With a sharp cry, her sword spun rapidly, condensing five strands of spiraling sword energy into a single, slender thread.
A shrill sound pierced the air as the wind broke. The giant snake's body shuddered violently, its head severed in an instant. The colossal serpent corpse crashed to the ground with a deafening thud.
A sickening stench radiated from the fallen snake. The ground beneath corroded into a pit over half a meter deep, its edges expanding outward like a ravenous maw.
"You're not as impressive as I thought..."
Hovering in midair, Meng Hongchen's lips curved into a smug smile. Dugu Lin's spirit skill seemed far less formidable than anticipated, crumbling swiftly under a single strike from her Class 6 Spirit Sword.
"Look up."
Dugu Lin's two airy words seemed to unlock the sky itself. Jade-green raindrops cascaded down, enveloping the arena in a dense curtain of green like a torrential downpour.
Fourth Spirit Skill, Skydeep Poison Pond!
The Spirit Masters tasked with the Spirit Dueling Arena's protective barrier had been on standby. They had to raise the barrier every time Dugu Lin fought. A golden light shield enveloped the spectator stands, safeguarding the Inner Courtyard students from the Skydeep Poison Pond's effects.
Skydeep Poison Pond was a rarely seen domain-type spirit skill and the core of Dugu Lin's combat style. Meng Hongchen's expression instantly changed drastically. Faint black spots had clearly begun to dot her Class 6 Spirit Battle Armor, as if countless tiny needles were relentlessly eroding the rare metals within, seeking to pierce through to her tender flesh!
Meng Hongchen bit down on her red lips with pearly teeth. Her Spirit Battle Armor projected a pale-blue Spirit Barrier. The incessant sizzling of poison rain striking and corroding the barrier rang in her ears. Below her, a deep pool of jade-green poisonous liquid submerged the arena floor. Her face finally grew solemn.
The terror of the Jade Phosphor Serpent Poison left her somewhat in disbelief. Theoretically, the toxicity of Jade Phosphor Serpent Poison was far inferior to Red Eyed Ice Toad Poison. Dugu Lin was definitely no ordinary Jade Phosphor Serpent!
The poisonous liquid coalesced into a towering jade-green snake. Dugu Lin stood atop its head, gazing at Meng Hongchen in the sky. Her smile remained unchanged, still dripping with allure.
A powerful sense of unease gripped Meng Hongchen's heart. She engaged her Spirit Thrusters to widen the distance, casting a quick glance at the incense stick in Yan Shaozhe's hand, which had yet to burn halfway. She took a deep breath and understood that stalling for time would not work; Dugu Lin would not give her the chance. Moreover, the longer this dragged on, the more poison Dugu Lin would control. She needed to end this quickly!
Meng Hongchen made her decision. Her fifth spirit ring flared with brilliant light. Her body spun violently in the air, transforming into a vortex of intertwined ice and fire. A hidden red glow pulsed at the center of the icy blue whirlpool, like a fierce blaze raging within a storm of frost.
Red Eyed Ice Toad's Fifth Spirit Skill, Icefire Venomdragon's Corkscrew.
It was a potent single-target offensive spirit skill, blending the dual ice and fire attributes of the Red Eyed Ice Toad with its deadly toad poison.
The Icefire Venomdragon's Corkscrew whirled, its high-speed gusts ripping through the poison rain as it barreled straight toward Dugu Lin. Dugu Lin's response was exceedingly simple. Her second and third spirit rings lit up simultaneously. The poison pond bubbled with hundreds of water spheres, beneath which fanged serpents lurked, unleashing thick torrents of virulent poison. Dugu Lin herself dove into the poison pond, vanishing from Meng Hongchen's line of sight.
The effect of Icefire Venomdragon's Corkscrew dissipated, revealing Meng Hongchen's figure once more. She had poured immense effort into the attack, yet failed to graze Dugu Lin even slightly. Frustration surged within her as she slashed out two arcs of sword energy, cutting down several poisonous snakes. But the vipers within the Skydeep Poison Pond regenerated endlessly, their numbers infinite. Her efforts were merely a drop in the bucket.
The poison rain fell without cease, etching crisscrossing black marks across the Spirit Barrier of her Class 6 Spirit Battle Armor. Repeated failures shook Meng Hongchen's composure. The dress she had carefully chosen to leave a lasting impression on Ling Bai now hung in disarray. White hair clung to her sweat-slicked, gleaming forehead, and her breathing grew faintly ragged.
Below the stage, two starkly contrasting scenes unfolded. Dugu Lin, representing Shrek, held a commanding lead, upholding the Inner Courtyard's prestige. The crowd burst into applause and cheers of celebration.
Meanwhile, on the Sun Moon exchange students' side, a deathly silence reigned. Dugu Lin appeared to be around twenty years old, an age at which she had not even participated in the Continental Elite Spirit Master Academy Tournament. Yet she effortlessly overpowered their second-strongest member with apparent ease.
Tension turned to panic, and even self-doubt, among them.
"You're not as impressive as I thought."
Dugu Lin emerged from the poison pond with a splash. Her outer garments had been entirely corroded by the poison, leaving only a dazzling golden, tight-fitting suit underneath. A bead of poison clung to her fingertip, falling into the pond and sending ripples across the surface.
"Your clothes... why do they carry Ling Bai's aura?"
Meng Hongchen ignored Dugu Lin's taunting echo of her earlier words. She had detected the distinct Ultimate Holy aura of the Seraphim on that bodysuit.
"Oh, this?"
A cunning gleam flickered in Dugu Lin's emerald vertical pupils. She smiled with mischievous delight, her cheeks seemingly tinged with a shy blush as she replied, "He measured my figure himself and made these clothes just for me. Of course, they'd bear his aura."
BOOM—
Meng Hongchen's inner fury detonated in an instant. Her spirit power surged like a raging tide, clearing a small patch of the Skydeep Poison Pond's toxic liquid in one burst.
She wasn't the only one erupting. In the spectator stands, a phoenix cry resounded, golden light flared, and a chilling aura spread. In the contestant waiting area, Chu Qingtian leaned toward Ling Bai with a gossip-hungry look.
"Ling-ge, you and Dugu Lin really...?"
Bei Bei, Xu Sanshi, Jiang Nannan… people were gossips by nature. Several pairs of ears subtly perked up.
"She's joking."
Ling Bai shook his head. The effect of Dugu Lin's second spirit skill, Soft Bone Serpent Body, allowed her to meld into the Skydeep Poison Pond, which inevitably corroded her outer clothing.
She needed innerwear that would not dissolve in the poison. One day, she had brought him a garment and asked him to coat it with a layer of Seraphim spirit power imbued with the Ultimate Holy attribute.
Favors were reciprocal. Precisely because he had helped her before, she always gave him face and would generally comply with his requests.
Dugu Lin had just been teasing, but Meng Hongchen took it to heart. Being suppressed by a fellow poison-attribute Spirit Master was already humiliating. Now, seeing Dugu Lin seemingly get ahead with the partner she fancied, Meng Hongchen wished she could tear Dugu Lin apart alive.
Meng Hongchen rose into the air, her face cold. Spirit power roiled around her like boiling water. Her body expanded slightly as she lifted her hands skyward. Her sixth spirit ring, the last in the sequence, shone bright, unleashing her hidden sixth spirit skill. Bulges swelled one after another across her back. Layer upon layer of icy blue light surged upward as an aura of terror rapidly intensified.
Red Eyed Ice Toad's Sixth Spirit Skill, Corrosive Ice!
It condensed her innate virulent poison into liquid form and combined it with her own spirit power. It possessed not only immense impact force but also a toxicity approaching Ultimate Poison.
This was Meng Hongchen's strongest killing move. The Sun Moon Imperial Academy had conducted simple tests: just a single tiny drop of Corrosive Ice could easily poison a giant 10,000-year Diamond Mammoth to death.
Against a human, even a Spirit Douluo would be unable to withstand a direct hit from the full Corrosive Ice without any defenses. As for Spirit Kings or Spirit Emperors, they would be instantly corroded into nothingness.
What was even more terrifying was that Corrosive Ice had a locking ability. Once locked onto a target, it would pursue the opponent relentlessly like a maggot clinging to bone. Over a dozen streams of ice-blue liquid, imbued with the Red Eyed Ice Toad's potent poison, surged toward Dugu Lin, blanketing the area.
Meng Hongchen was enraged to the point of exploding. Naturally, this strike was an all-out eruption. Her face turned deathly pale; the Corrosive Ice was bound to consume a massive amount of her spirit power. She felt certain that with the Corrosive Ice's power, even if Dugu Lin hid in the Skydeep Poison Pond, she wouldn't escape the fate of being dissolved by the Red Eyed Ice Toad's poison.
"ROAR!!!"
A low roar suddenly reverberated, echoing through the Inner Courtyard's Spirit Dueling Arena. Four illusory jade-green figures emerged from Dugu Lin's first four spirit rings.
Jade Phosphor Scorpion, Jade Phosphor Centipede, Jade Phosphor Toad, Jade Phosphor Gecko!
Five Poisons as One—Jade Phosphor Absolute Poison!
"Can't handle losing? Why so worked up?"
Dugu Lin sneered coldly. At this moment, she no longer held back her strength. Her Jade Phosphor Serpent fused with the other four poisonous spirit beasts, elevating her Jade Phosphor Serpent poison to the Jade Phosphor Absolute Poison, a half-step into the realm of Ultimate Poison. Immediately after, her sixth spirit ring also erupted. The Jade Phosphor Serpent's illusory figure flashed, opening its bloody maw as if to swallow the heavens.
Jade Phosphor Serpent's Sixth Spirit Skill, Abyssal Devourer!
All the Skydeep Poison Pond on the Spirit Dueling Arena surged into the Jade Phosphor Serpent's illusory figure. Still unsatisfied, the Jade Phosphor Serpent swallowed the icy blue liquid of the Corrosive Ice in one gulp. Its serpentine eyes stared at Meng Hongchen, grinning hideously.
The five-poison fusion Jade Phosphor Absolute Poison surpassed the single-attribute toad poison, but Meng Hongchen was still desperately squeezing out the spirit power within her body for another round of Corrosive Ice.
Dugu Lin tilted her head in annoyance. Just as the streams of poison liquid were about to land on the Jade Phosphor Serpent's illusory figure, the liquid suddenly halted, strangely suspended in mid-air as if frozen.
Fifth Spirit Skill, Time Solidification!
Dugu Lin's fifth spirit ring came from the 10,000-year Empress Medusa, the very one Ling Bai had captured alive during his freshman examination assignment. She had obtained a spirit skill that could be called divine: Time Solidification.
The Jade Phosphor Serpent's tail swept across. Meng Hongchen was powerless to resist in the state of Time Solidification. She was sent hurtling backward, spitting out a mouthful of fresh blood before collapsing unconscious.
"Exchange Student Examination Match, Round One: Dugu Lin wins!"
"Well fought!"
Yan Shaozhe announced the victor in a timely manner. Shrek Academy's Inner Courtyard cheered thunderously while the Sun Moon Imperial Academy fell into silence.
However, their losing streak was only beginning.
"Bei Bei wins!"
"Xu Sanshi wins!"
"Jiang Nannan wins!"
"Chu Qingtian wins!"
...
Nine consecutive losses!
"Exchange Student Examination Match, Round Ten: Xiao Hongchen versus Ling Bai. Will both contestants please take the stage!"
Xiao Hongchen slowly stood up. Looking at his dejected, pale-faced companions, he spoke in a heavy tone:
"It seems today is Shrek Academy's way of putting us in our place.
When our skills fall short, we must acknowledge it.
But the dignity of the Sun Moon Empire will not be trampled!
Please trust in me. I will reclaim the honor we've lost!"