A desolate sword aura rose slowly, its boundless shadow shrouding everyone's hearts.
At this moment, the seven students of Shrek Academy felt as if they were walking in a desolate wilderness.
They knew their teachers were beside them, yet it felt as if they were the only ones left in the entire world.
At the same time, the abyss-like darkness continued to encroach, oppressing them and making it increasingly difficult to breathe.
The boundless malice that permeated the vast wilderness was like countless sharp blades hanging over their necks,
making their limbs stiff, yet leaving them nowhere to hide.
After fear came despair, and from despair, an even deeper fear bred, in an endless cycle…
The color drained from Tang San and the others' faces, and cold sweat rolled down their temples.
Under the shroud of this sword intent, the seven genius soul masters from Shrek Academy, whose talent surpassed their peers, were all suppressed and unable to move, their auras rapidly waning like a tide… Just
as Flander and the others were about to make a move, they were locked onto by a gaze and instantly froze, unable to move.
Dugu Bo had made his move.
He ignored the low-level young students and instead looked at the academy teachers.
The moment he opened his eyes, the temperature in the entire Education Committee hall seemed to drop several degrees.
His dark eyes were filled with a deathly stillness, and although it was only a connection of auras, no one dared to make a rash move.
Meng Shenji and the others sighed inwardly upon seeing this, but said nothing more.
They were also stunned by the strength Su Cheng had displayed, but they believed that he knew his limits and wouldn't go too far.
On the other side, Yu Xiaogang, who had been ignored because of his low cultivation level, was the most relaxed at this moment.
But his attention was not on his own people; instead, he stared at Su Cheng in disbelief.
To be precise, he stared at the four spirit rings hovering beneath Su Cheng's feet, his face deathly pale.
He couldn't understand.
This was completely inconsistent with the information he had gathered.
No one knew better than him how severe the consequences of absorbing a spirit ring that exceeded one's own limits were—it was almost certain death.
Even Tang San's third spirit ring was only slightly beyond that limit, and he only managed to absorb it with his astonishing willpower.
Yet this person before him could absorb a thousand-year spirit ring in his second ring, and by his fourth, it was already at the ten-thousand-year level.
This was illogical!
The next moment, another change occurred in the room.
Brilliant lights flashed.
The martial spirits on the Shrek Academy students spontaneously appeared.
Silver Scepter, Phoenix, Sausage, Soft Bone Rabbit, White Tiger, Blue Silver Grass, Netherworld Cat…
one martial spirit after another flashed on the seven members of Shrek Academy.
This was not because they still had the strength to launch an attack.
Rather, it was an instinctive reaction of their bodies to protect themselves under the immense pressure brought by Su Cheng's sword aura.
At this moment, Dugu Bo's expression suddenly shifted. He tilted his head slightly, his gaze falling on Xiao Wu.
Then he looked at Su Cheng, his lips parting slightly as if he were saying something.
Su Cheng, however, simply shook his head.
Dugu Bo was taken aback, but then said nothing more, continuing to suppress Flander and the others with his aura.
Xiao Wu seemed to sense this as well, the color draining from her face instantly.
Beside her, in Tang San's left hand, a dark shadow flickered in and out of existence.
It was his second martial soul, the Clear Sky Hammer.
However, because of his cultivation of the Purple Demon Eye, his mental strength was relatively higher, leaving him with a sliver of energy to suppress the martial soul's instinct to rebel.
Complex emotions surged within him.
But compared to the ever-growing and spreading fear, there was even more anger and resentment.
"How is this possible?! He only has 0.5 level innate soul power! Why, why is he so strong?!"
"Trash martial soul, weak attack..."
The words Su Cheng said when he defeated him years ago echoed in his ears once again.
"If it's the Clear Sky Hammer... if it's the Clear Sky Hammer!"
Tang San's eyes reddened slightly.
If it were just that he was powerless to struggle, that would be one thing, but he also noticed Xiao Wu trembling beside him, which made his heart ache. He subconsciously thought that this was also caused by Su Cheng.
Waves of pressure surged and continued to come like a tide. In the seven people's senses, it seemed that a long time had passed.
But in fact, only a few minutes had passed outside.
At this moment, the pressure on the seven people suddenly eased.
Sweat poured out of their bodies, instantly soaking their clothes.
As if in a stress response, the martial souls on everyone's bodies immediately shone brightly.
But then they were suppressed by another sword intent that followed.
However, the oppressive feeling of this sword intent was much weaker than before; it only rendered them unable to move, and their five senses had returned to normal.
Su Cheng suddenly spoke, looking at Meng Shenji and saying, "Forget it, Committee Member Meng, I think the competition is unnecessary. Whether these people are here or not, it won't affect Team Two. They're not even enough for me to fight alone anyway."
His expression was relaxed, and he casually glanced at the Shrek Academy members.
He chuckled softly, "Don't you think so?"
No one answered.
Everyone trembled under the influence of his sword intent.
Only Zhu Zhuqing suddenly raised her eyes, stubbornly meeting his gaze.
Su Cheng's gaze flickered, lingering on her face for a moment.
Then he turned and walked out of the committee.
"Let's go, Senior Dugu."
"Senior, is that the other member of Team Two you mentioned?"
After Su Cheng and Dugu Bo left the committee, Flander silently swallowed, looking at Meng Shenji with fear.
He had just been locked onto by Dugu Bo's deathly aura, and his emotions hadn't fully calmed down yet.
"It's him," Meng Shenji sighed inwardly, feeling a little regretful.
Judging from Su Cheng's words, he wasn't planning to accept these people as new team members.
"Commissioner Meng, how old was that person just now?" Yu Xiaogang suddenly asked.
Unlike Tang San, he had never met Su Cheng before and had long forgotten about the person Tang San was talking about.
"He's the same age as that support-type Soul Master, not even fourteen yet."
"Fourteen? He's fourteen?" Flander was speechless.
He quickly asked, "His level...?"
Actually, he could roughly sense it when Su Cheng released his Martial Soul, but he still couldn't quite believe it.
Meng Shenji was silent for a moment before saying, "A month ago, he was level forty-eight."
"..."
The group's feelings were extremely complicated.
Doubt, amazement, worry, and other emotions intertwined.
"Teacher, he's the Su Cheng I told you about before." At this moment, Tang San suddenly whispered to Yu Xiaogang.
"Which one?" Yu Xiaogang was stunned at first.
Then he reacted, staring wide-eyed at Tang San, and said in astonishment, "That useless Soul Master with only 0.5 innate Soul Power?"
"0.5 innate Soul Power? Useless?" Hearing their conversation, Meng Shenji was slightly surprised.
He then chuckled and shook his head, saying, "Su Cheng seemed to have mentioned this when he enrolled. The person from the Spirit Hall who tested his soul power made a mistake. He has a mutated spirit and already had the cultivation of a Soul Master when he first arrived at the academy."
"..." Yu Xiaogang and the others fell silent again.
"So he left Notting City early because he had already cultivated to the Soul Master level?"
Tang San suddenly understood, then gritted his teeth inwardly.
The other party seemed to have never taken him seriously.
At this moment, a graceful figure suddenly turned and ran out of the room.
"Zhu Qing!"
Zhu Zhuqing ignored the shouts behind her and disappeared in the blink of an eye.
Dai Mubai's expression changed upon seeing this.
He had been paying attention to them and naturally noticed the strange changes in Zhu Zhuqing and Su Cheng's expressions; they seemed to know each other well.
Although he didn't understand why these two had any connection, it didn't stop him from feeling angry.
He moved, preparing to follow and see what was going on.
"Mubai!"
Seeing his movement, Flander shouted sharply, "Come back!"
Zhu Zhuqing was indeed difficult to manage; couldn't Dai Mubai manage her?
"..." Dai Mubai paused upon hearing this.
Although unwilling, he dared not disobey the dean's order and could only silently return to his original position.
His cultivation had progressed slowly over the past year, already greatly disappointing his teachers and teammates.
If he disobeyed again, Dai Mubai dared not imagine the consequences.
After the series of events, everyone was somewhat agitated and emotionally unstable.
No one noticed the lingering fear in Xiao Wu's eyes.
"Why won't you let me make a move?"
Outside the teaching committee, Su Cheng and Dugu Bo walked side by side. Dugu Bo finally spoke up, asking Su Cheng.
"What's the use of capturing her? Don't you even know where you are?" Su Cheng said calmly. "Are we waiting for the Spirit Hall to arrive?"
Just now in the teaching committee meeting room, Dugu Bo had transmitted his voice to him, revealing Xiao Wu's true identity as a spirit beast.
Su Cheng naturally knew this.
But even if he captured Xiao Wu here, what difference would it make?
Could a 100,000-year-old spirit beast fall into his hands?
Even if it were temporarily in his hands, at his current level, he wouldn't be able to absorb that spirit ring; he could only obtain a spirit bone that wasn't quite compatible with him.
Not to mention he didn't even know where Tang Hao was right now.
In short, now was definitely not the best time to kill her.
"Should we wait until they leave the academy before making our move?"
Dugu Bo asked grimly.
He was never one to be soft-hearted; he wouldn't hesitate to silence witnesses when necessary.
"You're overthinking it," Su Cheng glanced at him. "Have you heard of Tang Hao?"
"Tang Hao?" Dugu Bo was taken aback. "You mean the once-famous new generation Haotian Douluo of the Haotian Sect?"
"That's right, that Haotian Douluo. That kid with the Blue Silver Grass spirit is his son. He might be hiding somewhere now. Even if your strength has greatly improved, you can't beat him; he has a 100,000-year spirit ring."
"This Soft Bone Rabbit, is that the spirit ring Tang Hao left for his son?" Dugu Bo suddenly realized.
"It's hard to say," Su Cheng shook his head. "I don't know what he's thinking now, but to get that spirit ring, we'll definitely need to think of other ways."
"You don't seem surprised?" Dugu Bo glanced at him.
Dugu Bo himself didn't really care about things like 100,000-year spirit rings.
His spirit rings were already full, and even if he killed him, he wouldn't be able to absorb that spirit ring.
As for his granddaughter, Dugu Yan, she only had level seven innate spirit power, and it was hard to say whether she could cultivate to the Title Douluo realm.
He brought this up mainly for Su Cheng's sake.
The other party not only saved his and his granddaughter's lives but also helped him advance to the peak Douluo realm.
Although he hadn't mentioned it much, he had always been grateful for it.
"I already knew," Su Cheng nodded. "I studied at the same primary spirit master academy as them."
As he spoke, he was also thinking to himself.
Now that the Heartbreak Red was no longer concealing her aura, Xiao Wu might not participate in this spirit master competition, and might even find an opportunity to hide back in the Star Dou Great Forest and wait until she matured before coming out of the mountains.
Anyway, she's already been exposed to a lot of human energy, and her growth rate is fast enough.
Once the other party returns to the Star Dou Great Forest, capturing her will be incredibly difficult.
Those two 100,000-year-old soul beasts are no joke; killing them would cause a huge commotion, and might even benefit Bibi Dong in the end—the variables are too great.
At this moment, Dugu Bo suddenly gave Su Cheng a strange look.
"Someone's coming for you."
Even without him saying it, Su Cheng sensed the rapidly approaching aura behind him.
"Stop!" A cold female voice sounded behind him.
Su Cheng paused.
Then he turned around to look at the voluptuous girl in black.
Zhu Zhuqing's face was calm, but her chest heaved slightly, as if she was trying her best to suppress the complex emotions in her heart.
====================
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(End of Chapter)