"Haha." Boss Xiao let out a deliberately casual laugh. "Scared? I mean — hey,
Xiao Wu was visibly losing patience. "Enough talk. Let's just start. Tell me — how do you want to fight?"
Boss Xiao's eyes shifted, a cunning glint creeping across his face. "Don't worry, I won't pick on you. There are ten of you here, right? So we'll send out ten as well. One-on-one, rotation style — whoever wins stays on to face the next opponent. We keep going until one side is completely beaten."
The reason Boss Xiao had risen to the top among the students wasn't because he was reckless — quite the opposite. He was sharp. On the surface, Xiao Wu didn't look like much of a threat. But Boss Xiao had been beating Wang Sheng up for a long time, and he understood the boy's character well. If this little girl didn't have something to her, there was no way Wang Sheng would have so readily acknowledged her as the work-study students' representative.
And so what if she was strong? His side was entirely upperclassmen, each of them no pushovers. On the work-study side, only Wang Sheng had any real ability, and with this little girl added, that was at most two people worth worrying about. Let his brothers grind them down one by one. He might not even need to lift a finger before the fight was already won. A duel that looked fair on the surface — but was it really fair?
Wang Sheng saw through Boss Xiao's scheme too, but before he could speak up, Xiao Wu had already answered breezily. "Fine, it's a deal. Come on — who's your first? Send them out."
By now, it was too late for Wang Sheng to stop her.
Boss Xiao jerked his chin toward the people behind him, and a tall upperclassman stepped forward immediately.
Wang Sheng clenched his teeth. "Sister Xiao Wu, let me go first." He knew this upperclassman well — they were in the same class, and Wang Sheng had fought him one-on-one multiple times. The results had always been ugly. This student's Martial Soul was a staff. But not just any staff.
Xiao Wu nodded with a big-sister air, granting Wang Sheng's request.
Wang Sheng drew a deep breath and walked to the front. "
A yellow glow flared in Liu Long's hand, and a staff over two meters long materialized in his grip. "A loser I've already beaten before. Wang Sheng, today if I don't leave you bedridden for days, my surname isn't Liu."
Before Wang Sheng could reply, Xiao Wu had already chimed in from behind with a laugh. "Well, if you lose, you can just change your name to 'Loser Liu' from now on."
Liu Long's expression went cold. Without another word, he lunged forward, the staff arcing overhead and smashing straight down toward Wang Sheng.
Wang Sheng's body blazed with the glow of Soul Power. With a tiger's roar, he met the blow head-on, arms crossed above him, blocking the incoming staff.
With a muffled thud, Wang Sheng grunted and staggered back two steps. His arms, suffused with Soul Power, snapped forward, both hands seizing the staff — but despite the protection of his Soul Power, that initial impact had already left a bloody streak along his forearm. Bruising was inevitable.
Liu Long smirked. "Still haven't learned your lesson. This is my Martial Soul."
With a flash, the end of the staff Wang Sheng was gripping simply vanished. In the next instant, the staff thrust forward, threading straight past his arms and jabbing squarely into his chest. The force sent Wang Sheng flying backward.
There was no questioning Wang Sheng's will to fight, and his raw strength clearly surpassed his opponent's. But his disadvantage was that he had no Soul Rings yet and couldn't perform Martial Soul Possession. With the boost of Soul Power he was certainly stronger, but his agility fell short. Against an opponent wielding a staff-type Martial Soul, the classic "one inch longer, one inch stronger" principle left him utterly unable to close the distance.
He sprang to his feet, another tiger's roar ripping from his throat — but moments later, his body was already sent tumbling by the staff once more.
That said, Wang Sheng was built tough. Years of taking beatings had given him far more durability than the average student. Even though he was completely outmatched, putting him out of commission wasn't going to be easy either. Before Xiao Wu and
"Wang Sheng is too impulsive. In a head-on clash, he can't get close. And only if he gets close does he have any chance of winning."
While Xiao Wu was watching with deep furrows in her brow, a low voice suddenly sounded in her ear. She turned her head, and a delighted light welled up in her beautiful eyes. "Little San, you're back."
The one who had come to stand beside her was Tang San. Having crossed over the academy's back mountain, he had spotted the scene unfolding in the woods. He hadn't made a sound, simply slipping over to Xiao Wu's side. He wasn't tall, and Boss Xiao's group hadn't even noticed his arrival.
Tang San looked at Xiao Wu, wanting to say something, but held himself back.
Xiao Wu caught the hesitation in his expression. "What? Going to call me reckless again?"
Tang San shook his head. "We work-study students can't just keep getting pushed around forever. Settling things through a duel with the class bosses — that's a one-and-done solution, in its own way. You did the right thing. But you really should have at least waited for me to come back before issuing the challenge. Our odds would've been a lot better that way."
(End of Chapter)