Gazing at the two elders confronting each other in midair, Huo Yuhao let out a silent sigh.
The tangled grievances and affections between Mu En and Long Xiaoyao could never be explained in just a few words.
They had once been close friends who entrusted each other with their lives.
While traveling the continent together, they both fell in love with a woman named Ye Xishui.
They agreed to determine her hand through a duel.
But when the day of the battle arrived,
neither could bear to harm their brother in arms, and both voluntarily withdrew.
They left Ye Xishui waiting at the appointed place for three days.
Believing herself abandoned and toyed with, her emotions spiraled out of control during cultivation, leading to a deviation. She was later rescued by evil Spirit Masters.
To take revenge on the two of them,
Ye Xishui devised a scheme for Mu En to witness her intimate encounter with a drunken Long Xiaoyao.
From then on, Mu En became disheartened and returned to Shrek Academy.
As for Long Xiaoyao, burdened by guilt toward both his closest friend and beloved, he chose to follow Ye Xishui and joined the Holy Spirit Cult.
"Sigh…" Huo Yuhao could not help but sigh again.
The entanglement among Mu En, Long Xiaoyao, and Ye Xishui was far more complicated than these few brief lines.
Fortunately, in this rebirth of his, the trajectory of fate had already quietly shifted.
"Elder Mu's life force is nearly exhausted. If I tell him the truth of that year now, the emotional upheaval might worsen his condition."
"I must grow strong enough as soon as possible to take the Golden Tree as my Spirit Ring and use its divine-level life energy to prolong Elder Mu's life and heal him."
"Once his foundation is stabilized, then I can reveal the hidden truths of the past."
As Huo Yuhao's thoughts churned,
Long Xiaoyao's gaze had already settled upon him like something tangible.
"Roar!"
A vast dragon's cry suddenly shook heaven and earth.
Rolling clouds surged and condensed high above into a Darkness Holy Dragon stretching for thousands of miles.
Dim light flowed across its body, its dragon's might deep as abyss and prison.
Under its oppressive aura, the entire city of Shrek trembled endlessly.
Huo Yuhao felt as though a mountain were pressing down upon him. His ultimate body instinctively erupted with resistance, boundless blood energy surging like a great river, precious radiance flowing across his form.
"Long Xiaoyao, what is the meaning of this?"
Mu En stepped forward, placing himself in front of Huo Yuhao. His clouded eyes fixed steadily upon his old friend.
"After so many years, you remain as sharp-edged as in your youth."
"Just now you said you accepted a mission. Could it be that you've come for my disciple, Huo Yuhao?"
Long Xiaoyao fell silent for several breaths before speaking slowly.
"Mu En, since Huo Yuhao is your disciple, I ought not to make things difficult."
Dark Spirit Power churned within his gray eyes.
It seemed to pass through Mu En and fall directly upon Huo Yuhao, his tone carrying a rare trace of astonishment.
"It seems the rumors across the continent are true. This child is indeed an unprecedented prodigy—far surpassing you and me in our youth."
His voice paused briefly, and the dragon's might rose again.
"Precisely because of that, today I must take action."
"Mu En… I hope you will not resent me."
Hearing this, Mu En spoke with difficulty: "Is it… because of her?"
He did not say the name.
But in Long Xiaoyao's ears, it caused the inky sea of Spirit Power behind him to surge violently.
—Indeed, it was Ye Xishui.
Yet even without Jing Hongchen's commission, he would not have spared Huo Yuhao.
The Holy Spirit Cult stood as the foremost force among evil Spirit Masters on the continent, opposed to Shrek Academy—and indeed to all righteous Spirit Masters.
And now there had appeared such an unparalleled genius in Spirit Master history, capable at merely twelve years old of suppressing a Super Douluo.
Such talent—
even if he had not yet clashed with the Holy Spirit Cult,
as long as he stood among the righteous path, he would inevitably become a grave threat in the future.
The Holy Spirit Cult would never allow him to grow.
It could be said—
no matter who in the world asked Long Xiaoyao to kill Mu En's disciple, he would have refused.
Except—
Ye Xishui.
Mu En slowly closed his eyes. When he opened them again, all ripples of emotion had been restrained, leaving only the stillness of a deep pool.
"Let us not speak of the past today."
"The Holy Spirit Cult is cruel and tyrannical, irreconcilable with the righteous path. You and I… can no longer share a cup beneath the moon as we once did."
He stepped forward half a pace. His hunched frame straightened in that instant like a pine tree.
"If today you wish to touch my disciple, you must first step over me."
"Roar!"
But at that very moment—
a furious roar exploded across the heavens.
Elder Xuan arrived riding upon the Godly Taotie Bull, carrying overwhelming ferocity as he charged forward.
Long Xiaoyao suddenly turned his head, his silver hair whipping wildly in the wind.
The heaviness in his heart—born from reuniting with an old friend yet being forced to strike at that friend's disciple—finally found an outlet for release.
The Darkness Holy Dragon moved in anger.
He thrust out a palm. It swelled against the wind, expanding within mere breaths until it seemed to grasp heaven and earth itself, before crashing down toward the Godly Taotie Bull.
Boom!!!
A world-shaking explosion resounded.
Elder Xuan's Martial Soul True Body was shattered by that single strike, and he was blasted backward at a speed even faster than his charge.
The academy's powerhouses who had just arrived were all horrified at the sight.
Elder Xuan was a level 98 Titled Douluo, even slightly stronger than Jing Hongchen.
What kind of existence…
could send him flying with a single palm?
Zhang Lexuan, Ma Xiaotao, and Wang Dong turned pale, yet without the slightest hesitation they still tried to rush forward.
They had heard clearly—this terrifying expert had come for Huo Yuhao.
"Stop."
Yan Shaozhe swept out his sleeve.
A surge of Spirit Power blocked the three girls.
"In a battle of this level, if you step forward, you will not help—you will only become a burden."
"Rest assured. With Elder Mu here, Yuhao will be fine."
Hearing this,
they halted, their beautiful eyes filled with anxiety and dread, gazing from afar at the three figures suspended motionless in the night sky.
"Roar!"
Another deep dragon's cry rang out.
With Mu En at the center,
the power of light surged outward, spreading across half the sky.
Behind him, the sea of clouds churned and likewise condensed into the phantom of a Light Holy Dragon—similar in size and shape to the Darkness Holy Dragon, yet radiating pure brilliance.
One of light, one of darkness—two dragons dominating the heavens.
Their vast dragon might intertwined and clashed, causing even the gathered powerhouses' Spirit Power circulation to stagnate.
"Mu En, in our youth, you and I fought seven times. I won three and lost four."
Long Xiaoyao's tone carried the sigh of years worn away by time.
"I had wished to continue with an eighth battle. But now your oil is spent and your lamp is dry—you are no longer my match."
"I do not wish to fight you."
"Mu En…"
"Step aside."
Mu En did not utter a single word.
The light-attribute Spirit Power around him rose another thirty percent.
He had already given his answer in the most direct way possible.
And just then—
a slender hand came from behind and rested upon Mu En's shoulder.
A gentle, healing radiance flowed from the palm, quietly soothing the elder's increasingly frail body, strained by forcibly circulating his Spirit Power.
"Teacher, let this battle be fought by your disciple."
"Yuhao…"
Mu En's brows furrowed. He seemed about to speak, yet stopped himself.
In the distance, the many Shrek powerhouses watching from afar showed complicated expressions, worry and solemnity interwoven.
"Please trust me, Teacher."
Huo Yuhao stepped forward.
The youth who in his previous life had always been protected behind his elders
now, in this life, before a similar crisis,
finally possessed the strength and the right to stand out.
He lifted his eyes and met Long Xiaoyao's gaze directly.
"Long Xiaoyao, since you are willing to be a tiger's accomplice and seek my life—"
"Then come and try."
Long Xiaoyao looked at the impudent youth. There was no anger on his face—rather, admiration.
"That Mu En, in his twilight years, could gain you as a disciple—I am happy for him."
He slowly raised his hand.
Dark Spirit Power coiled around his arm like an inky dragon.
"Since you are his disciple, today you will take ten moves from me."
"After ten moves—if you remain unharmed, we shall call it even."