Chapter 13: Storm (1/1)
"Too slow. You still need more training~"
In the courtyard, Jiang Li smiled calmly.
In front of him, Wu Feng was attacking him relentlessly.
After a while, Wu Feng was completely exhausted, lying flat on the ground, gasping for air, her whole body soaked in sweat.
Seeing her like this, Jiang Li, still reclining in the wooden chair, smiled.
"You don't need to focus so much on close combat. After all, you're different from me—you can reinforce yourself with soul power."
Wu Feng sat up and said unhappily, "As if anyone else on this continent doesn't use soul power to enhance themselves. If everyone uses soul power reinforcement, the gap won't be that big."
She paused, then grinned.
"If both sides are at the same level and using soul power enhancement, then whoever has better close combat skills wins, right? That's obviously an advantage for me!"
Jiang Li, eyes closed, chuckled softly.
"Fair enough."
He said nothing more.
Wu Feng stood up, stretched slightly, and asked, "Jiang Li, the freshman assessment is coming soon. Do you think we can win the championship?"
Jiang Li opened one eye.
"I have a way to guarantee you and Miss Ning win 100%."
Wu Feng immediately became interested.
"What way?"
"Simple." Jiang Li smiled and pointed at himself. "Just hire me to eliminate anyone who might stop you from winning."
Not far away, Ning Tian froze completely upon hearing this.
Wu Feng quickly shook her hands.
"No way! That kind of victory has no meaning. I won't accept it."
"True," Jiang Li nodded lightly, closing his eyes again. "You do have the pride of a soul master."
Wu Feng didn't notice anything strange and felt pleased by the word "pride."
But Ning Tian was different.
She had been raised in a sect and was extremely perceptive.
She sensed something deeper in Jiang Li's words.
It wasn't self-mockery about having no soul power—it was contempt. A subtle disdain for soul masters themselves.
Like how soul masters viewed ordinary people without soul power.
Thinking of this, Ning Tian fell silent, her thoughts complicated.
She wasn't sure if she could truly bind Jiang Li with money.
After all, in the bounty hunter world, Jiang Li was known as—
"Heavenly Tyrant."
A name associated with "tyrant" was never a good sign.
She had originally only intended to recruit him into her sect to serve its interests.
Nothing more.
As for why she never considered forming a marriage alliance—very simple.
Soul masters believed bloodlines of soul masters were superior to ordinary humans.
A union with someone without soul power would only weaken future generations.
Because of this, Wu Feng never treated Jiang Li as a rival in that sense either.
Time passed. Evening arrived.
Ning Tian and Wu Feng said goodbye and left the courtyard.
After they left, Jiang Li stood up and looked toward a shadowed corner.
Smiling, he said, "I wonder which guest from Shrek Academy has arrived this time?"
A messy old man chewing a chicken leg slowly walked out of the shadows.
It was Xuanzi.
Indeed, it was Xuanzi.
He had actually planned to come earlier, but had been too busy eating and drinking every day, and had almost forgotten.
That was why it took nearly a month for him to arrive.
Jiang Li immediately recognized him.
Xuanzi laughed casually, "I heard there's a guy with no soul power who killed a Soul Emperor, so I came to take a look."
"Just a look?" Jiang Li smiled faintly.
Xuanzi took another bite of chicken leg. Greasy juice dripped from the corner of his mouth, but he didn't care, casually wiping it off.
"I've lived nearly two hundred years. Would I lie to you?"
With a laugh, he tossed the chicken bone behind him and instantly appeared beside the stone table in front of Jiang Li.
Jiang Li's expression remained unchanged, not even lifting his eyelids, as if the man in front of him was just an ordinary passerby.
He lightly tapped the rim of his teacup.
"If you only wanted to look, you could have stood farther away. Why hide in my courtyard?
If word got out, people might think Shrek has learned to sneak around like thieves."
Xuanzi narrowed his eyes.
"Trying to provoke me, kid?"
A terrifying pressure erupted instantly.
The soul power of a Level 98 Super Douluo surged like a tidal wave.
The surrounding plants bent under the pressure, and cracks spread across the ground.
After releasing a bit of pressure, Xuanzi spoke again.
"But you're right. I did come to 'inspect the goods.'
Du Weilun's report sounded suspicious. But seeing you now… no soul power, yet this aura—it really does look like someone who can threaten a Soul Douluo."
Hearing this, Jiang Li slowly stood up.
His lazy demeanor vanished instantly.
No soul power emerged—because he had none—but his body felt like a sword that had slept for a thousand years and was finally unsheathed.
"Inspect the goods?"
He repeated softly, a mocking smile forming.
"Do I look like something to be inspected?"
Xuanzi laughed loudly.
"Not exactly goods. I just want to see if your body can take one punch from me."
The air tightened instantly.
Wu Feng's small creature, Xiao You, coiled silently around Jiang Li.
The courtyard fell into absolute silence.
Only the wind rustling leaves could be heard.
Then Xuanzi's earth-yellow soul power surged like a dormant volcano.
"Kid, I won't use my martial soul. If you can injure me even slightly, I'll grant you one request."