Chapter 77: Elder Xuan Breaks Down! What Am I Supposed to Say Now?
Inside the grand banquet hall, thousands of carefully carved Soul Tool lamps blazed to life, bathing the entire state guesthouse in a brilliance that rivaled the midday sun. The moment the Heavenly Soul Emperor concluded his address, the royal musicians struck up a solemn, elegant melody that drifted through the opulent chamber.
Tucked away in the deepest, darkest corner of the hall, Elder Xuan crouched like a shadow. A coarse, gray-brown cloak swallowed his entire figure. His gaze, sharp and unblinking as a venomous snake, remained deadlocked on the far end of the crimson carpet leading to the high platform. The suffocating tension in his chest forced his breathing to a near halt. He even clamped down on the circulation of his own blood, forcibly suppressing the thumping of his heartbeat lest the monstrous senses of Du Busi detect his presence.
Under the breathless anticipation of the gathered elite, two figures finally emerged from behind the velvet curtains.
Princess Vina walked with a light, graceful gait, her delicate hands gently resting on the arm of the youth beside her. The young man wore a tailored outfit woven with complex black and gold patterns, his posture as straight and unyielding as a towering pine. He wore no mask. He made zero effort to conceal his identity. His face, still carrying the faint traces of youth yet already defined by sharp, striking features, was completely exposed beneath the intense glare of the Soul Tool lights.
In that split second, Elder Xuan's pupils violently contracted into tiny pinpricks.
His vision tunneled. He saw it with agonizing clarity. The slight, familiar slope of the nose. The calm, abyssal depths of those eyes. That lingering, bone-chilling indifference resting between his brows.
Elder Xuan knew this face. He knew it far, far too well.
Memories crashed into his mind like a tidal wave. Just a few short months ago, in the sun-drenched courtyard of the Shrek Academy freshman dormitories, the owner of this exact face had stood before him. That boy had listened to his cold, merciless expulsion order in complete silence. There had been no tears. No begging. No desperate pleas for a second chance. The boy had simply turned around, hoisted a battered knapsack over his shoulder, and walked out of Shrek Academy's towering gates, step by steady step, never once looking back.
'It actually... really is him?'
Elder Xuan's frail body shuddered violently beneath his heavy cloak. He stood frozen in the shadows, his limbs turning to lead, as if a supreme ice-attribute Soul Skill had frozen the very marrow in his bones.
Before arriving at the Heavenly Soul Empire, a pathetic, desperate sliver of hope had clung to the darkest corners of his mind. He had spent days comforting himself with lies. He told himself it was merely a coincidence. Just a boy with the same name. Perhaps a distant relative with a similar Martial Soul. After all, the Liu Yuan he had personally thrown out of Shrek Academy possessed Soul Power so pitifully low he was considered absolute trash. Worse still, his Martial Soul was fundamentally crippled, half-blind and utterly useless in the eyes of the continent's number one academy.
Elder Xuan had refused to believe that the crippled boy could achieve such monstrous growth. It defied the very laws of cultivation. No one, absolutely no one, could leap from a discarded waste to a peerless prodigy in a mere matter of months.
Yet, as that calm, indifferent face bathed in the golden light of the banquet hall, the final, fragile glass of Elder Xuan's delusion shattered into a million jagged pieces.
'This... how is this possible? Why did it turn out like this?'
Elder Xuan's mental defenses collapsed entirely. A deafening roar echoed in his skull, as if ten thousand bolts of heavenly lightning had struck his brain simultaneously. His decades of supreme logic, his unshakable arrogance as a Super Douluo, his absolute faith in Shrek Academy's infallible judgment—all of it was ground into fine dust beneath the crushing weight of reality. A sickening, miserable bile rose in his throat. An unmatched wave of suffocation clamped around his chest, squeezing the air from his lungs.
He could only stare blankly at the radiant youth below.
That child... that brilliant, heaven-defying child should have been cultivating diligently within the sacred grounds of Shrek Academy's inner courtyard. He should have been the one to don the Shrek uniform, to fight for their supreme glory in the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Soul Dueling Tournament. He should have been Elder Xuan's personal, most prized disciple.
Instead, that very same boy was standing at the absolute center of the Heavenly Soul Empire's imperial court, bathed in glory, calmly accepting the awe and worship of the continent's most powerful elites as the undisputed successor of the Body Sect.
And the sole culprit responsible for handing this peerless gem to their greatest rival... was Elder Xuan himself.
The old man shrank further into the suffocating darkness, his eyes hollow and dazed. He did not dare shift his weight. He did not dare exhale too loudly. One wrong move, one spike of emotional fluctuation, and the monstrous Du Busi would instantly detect him and tear him limb from limb.
Down in the glittering center of the banquet, the atmosphere was entirely different.
Liu Yuan remained completely oblivious to the pathetic figure spying from the rafters. In such a chaotic, noise-filled environment, unless Elder Xuan leaked a direct trace of killing intent, it was virtually impossible for a younger generation Soul Master to detect a Level 98 Super Douluo actively concealing his presence.
At this moment, Liu Yuan was smoothly handling the sea of distinguished guests with Vina by his side. Following the Heavenly Soul Emperor's public declaration of their engagement, their union had officially received the ironclad backing of both the imperial royal family and the continent's most overbearing faction, the Body Sect.
High-ranking nobles, wealthy merchants, and even arrogant envoys from neighboring dukedoms and rival sects eagerly cast aside their usual haughty airs. They swarmed forward like bees to honey, practically tripping over themselves to initiate conversations and curry favor with the young man.
Their desperation was entirely justified. Liu Yuan's current status was simply too terrifying. He was not just the undisputed, heaven-ordained successor of the Body Sect. He was Princess Vina's official fiancé, cementing his position as the prospective son-in-law of the Heavenly Soul Empire.
Within the borders of the Heavenly Soul Empire, the Body Sect served as the ultimate state-protecting pillar, enjoying a extraordinary authority that even the Emperor had to respect. Liu Yuan's future influence would not be confined to the martial world; his words would carry world-shaking weight within the highest echelons of the imperial court's political decision-making.
These aristocrats were old foxes who had survived decades of political bloodshed. When faced with a monstrous talent destined to ascend to the absolute peak of the Soul Master world, securing his goodwill was not just an option—it was a matter of survival.
Liu Yuan handled the relentless wave of flatterers with practiced ease. His responses were crisp, concise, and perfectly measured. He offered no arrogant boasts, nor did he show any subservience. This terrifying composure, far exceeding his actual age, forced the few remaining skeptical nobles to nod in genuine, begrudging admiration.
A short distance away, Wang Yanfeng leaned against a marble pillar, casually swirling a glass of crimson wine. He watched the couple handle the crowd with a broad, teasing grin. "Well, this is just perfect," he chuckled to the fellow Body Sect disciples gathered around him. "Junior Sister Vina can finally sleep soundly at night. With the Emperor announcing it to the whole world, Junior Brother Liu Yuan's status as her husband is locked in stone. He couldn't run away now even if he grew wings."
Chen Lu shrugged, tossing a grape into his mouth. He stared at the picture-perfect image of Liu Yuan and Vina standing shoulder-to-shoulder, a heavy sigh escaping his lips. "Junior Brother's wedding is practically right around the corner. Makes a man wonder when the rest of us rough brothers are going to find decent partners. We can't just sit around watching them drown us in their sickeningly sweet affection every single day, right?"
Gu Tong, who had been keeping a watchful eye on the perimeter, suddenly turned his head toward Long Aotian.
Unlike the rest of them, the Body Sect's former chief disciple wasn't enjoying the festive atmosphere at all. Long Aotian was staring blankly at a faint, spiderweb crack in the marble floor—the exact spot where Liu Yuan had pushed off to ascend the stage earlier. His focus was so intense that he didn't even notice the expensive wine slowly spilling from his tilted glass onto his boots.
Gu Tong nudged him sharply in the ribs, his brow furrowing in confusion. "Aotian, what in the world is going through that thick skull of yours? It's the biggest celebration of the year, and you're standing here spacing out like a wooden block?"
Long Aotian blinked, violently pulled back to reality. He stared at the spilled wine for a second before his expression hardened into dead-serious concentration. "I was analyzing the moment Junior Brother Liu Yuan activated his physical amplification," he muttered, his eyes gleaming with martial obsession. "The specific method he used to detonate his Soul Power pressure was incredibly unique. Once we return to the Sect, I need to completely overhaul my Heaven and Earth Transformation technique. If I can forcibly integrate a high-frequency vibration attribute while maintaining my Silver Awakening state... perhaps I could finally gain a slight tactical advantage when sparring against his Double Pupils."
A heavy, collective silence fell over the group. The corners of every single disciple's mouth twitched in perfect, synchronized disbelief.
Wang Yanfeng slapped a hand over his face, dragging his fingers down his cheeks in a long, suffering sigh. "I swear, I don't know whether to pity you or admire you. It is a day of massive celebration, the wine is flowing, the food is divine, and your brain is still completely stuck on internal sect spars and cultivation theories? Aotian, at this rate, I'm afraid you're going to end up marrying your own Martial Soul for the rest of your miserable life."
...
The lavish banquet flowed on, with the subsequent dances and diplomatic receptions stretching deep into the night.
Finally, as the moon reached its zenith, the grand affair drew to a close. The Heavenly Soul Emperor retired to his private palace chambers to rest. Liu Yuan, enduring a highly reluctant and lingering farewell from Vina, gathered the core disciples of the Body Sect and made his way back to the luxurious state guesthouse arranged exclusively by the royal family.
It wasn't until the dazzling Soul Tool lights in the grand hall were extinguished one by one, and the very last attendant had scrubbed the floors and departed, that Elder Xuan finally dared to peel himself out of the suffocating darkness.
As he stepped into the dim moonlight filtering through the high windows, his complexion was ghastly. His skin carried a sickly, ashen pallor, deeply tinged with a faint aura of death.
"Damn it... why did it turn out like this?"
Elder Xuan rasped, his voice cracking. He violently grabbed the edge of a marble pillar. His trembling fingers dug into the solid stone, the sheer, uncontrollable force of his grip leaving deep, jagged gouges in the pristine architecture. A bottomless abyss of regret and primal fear threatened to swallow his heart whole.
"What do I do now? Heavens above, what have I actually done?" he muttered to the empty hall, his voice trembling so violently his teeth chattered. "Does this mean... does this mean that I, Elder Xuan, have truly become the absolute greatest sinner in the entire ten-thousand-year history of Shrek Academy?"
"I personally drove away a peerless genius. A monster who rightfully belonged to Shrek! A child who possesses the absolute, heaven-defying potential to become a Limit Douluo!"
Every time Elder Xuan squeezed his eyes shut, the image of Elder Mu burned into his retinas. That ancient, weathered face, possessing eyes that were always so piercingly clear and bright, haunted his every thought.
"How am I supposed to explain this when I return to the Sea God Pavilion? If Elder Mu discovers the truth... if he finds out that this heaven-defying Qilin child of the Body Sect is the very same Liu Yuan I threw out onto the streets like garbage... how thoroughly disappointed will he be in me?" He gasped for air, clutching his chest. "Shrek... ten thousand years of supreme honor..."
Like a man who had aged a hundred years in a single night, Elder Xuan stumbled out of the grand hall, his boots dragging heavily against the deserted, moonlit streets of the imperial city. The biting midnight wind whipped through his coarse cloak, but it was nothing compared to the absolute, freezing despair taking root in his soul.
He knew the horrifying truth. From this night forward, his name would no longer be revered as a steadfast guardian of Shrek Academy. Instead, he would be remembered in the annals of history as the sole catalyst for Shrek's ultimate decline.
He had to do something. Even if it meant shattering his lifelong pride. Even if it meant throwing away his dignity as a Super Douluo. Even if he had to get on his hands and knees and beg like a dog, he had to find a way to redeem this catastrophic blunder.
But as the memory of Liu Yuan's cold, abyssal gaze on that stage flashed through his mind, Elder Xuan's steps faltered. A bitter, pathetic realization washed over him. He was terrifyingly close to losing even the basic courage required to stand before that boy again.
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