Songjiang Soul Martial University, inside the cafeteria.

Having won the quarter-finals, Rong Taotao once again brought Gao Lingwei to the Teacher’s Cafeteria to feast heartily.

However, as Gao Lingwei watched Rong Taotao silently wolfing down his food, she noticed something was off. The Hu Bugui inside her was a little restless, so she ventured a guess, "Are you converting your Soul Power?"

"Mhm," Rong Taotao replied, taking a bite of a fried chicken leg. "The semifinals are this afternoon, aren’t they? I’m racing against time to convert my Starfield Soul Power. The process is really draining."

"Oh."

Rong Taotao’s expression was a little strange as he said, "I think I’m about to advance my Soul Power rank, too."

Gao Lingwei’s eyes lit up. "Mid-tier Soul Warrior?"

Rong Taotao nodded. "Yeah, I can feel it. I’ve reached the tipping point within this Minor Rank. It should happen in the next day or two."

Gao Lingwei said, "Then let’s eat quickly and go back to the Martial Arts Hall. It’s quieter there."

"Mhm."

After clearing the table and packing four fried chicken legs to go, they hurried back to the Martial Arts Hall.

’You could say I’m quite the provider. Day in and day out, nourishing my classmates with Lotus Petals and a female tyrant with chicken legs...’

Arriving on the second floor of the Martial Arts Hall, Rong Taotao opened the door to their dorm room. This time, however, he didn’t see Si Huan Nian training diligently. She was sitting at her desk, flipping through a magazine.

’Is that the Songjiang Soul Martial Arts Journal?’

Seeing this, Rong Taotao couldn’t help but chuckle. "What’s this, Coach Si? Are you trying to create a Soul Skill too?"

"You’re the one with extraordinary Talent, Little Taotao. I could never," Si Huan Nian praised him softly, putting down the book. "’All things in the world have their own shape’... Tsk... quite interesting. Creating a Soul Skill from a single sentence."

As she spoke, Si Huan Nian saw Rong Taotao unzip his down jacket and pull out a takeout box from inside.

Rong Taotao placed the container on her desk with a sly grin. "Aren’t you being a little too humble? Who in this Martial Arts Hall hasn’t been molded into your shape?"

Si Huan Nian hurriedly opened the container, and her beautiful eyes instantly lit up. Wow! Fried chicken legs!

She had just picked up a warm fried chicken leg when she heard Rong Taotao’s words and froze. "Hmm?"

Rong Taotao pouted and hung his coat on the rack. "What time to wake up, what time to sleep, the volume of our voices, the sound from our phones... My goodness, everything has to follow the rules of you, the campus bully. I heard that one night last month, Jiao Tengda got up to use the restroom, and you made him stand at attention for an hour?"

"Mhm." Si Huan Nian took a big bite of the chicken leg, her eyes closing in blissful satisfaction. "I’d let it slide if he were older, but he’s just a kid, only 16 or 17. Why is he getting up in the middle of the night? He must have been targeting me, trying to wake me up on purpose."

Rong Taotao was speechless. "..."

Si Huan Nian added, "And that wretched little cat of Gao Lingwei’s. Remember to talk to her about it in private. I’ve already put up with it two or three times. For your sake, I haven’t gone and banged on their dorm room door."

Rong Taotao said with a pained expression, "Can you please act like a human being?"

Si Huan Nian’s eyebrow shot up. "If you don’t want to live here, go back to the student dorms. If you want to freeload on the benefits here, then you better keep quiet. By the way, you won, right?"

Rong Taotao replied, "What a question. If I didn’t win, would I have the face to walk through this door?"

Si Huan Nian glanced at Rong Taotao with a smile. "The quarter-finals are different. Who are you fighting this afternoon?"

Rong Taotao nodded. "The pairings are 1 vs. 4 and 2 vs. 3. I’m Seed 1, so I’ll automatically be fighting the winners from the Seed 4 matchup. If nothing unexpected happens, it should be the two brothers, Qi Dao and Qi Tian."

"Oh-ho!" Si Huan Nian chirped, holding the chicken leg with two fingers and bouncing it gleefully. "The good times are over, eh? Don’t be too embarrassed to come in tonight. It’s no disgrace to lose to those two. I’ll allow you back in."

Rong Taotao snorted. "If you don’t let me in, I’ll just go across the hall. The men’s dorm has an empty bed."

Si Huan Nian, however, replied nonchalantly, "Heh, fine by me. But make sure you look carefully before you go in. Don’t walk into the women’s dorm by mistake."

Hearing this, Rong Taotao’s eyes lit up. "Thank you for the suggestion, Coach Si!"

Si Huan Nian: ???

Rong Taotao sat cross-legged on his bed and continued converting his Snow Realm Soul Power into Starfield Attribute Soul Power through his Starfield Heart.

Si Huan Nian watched Rong Taotao, not knowing whether to be angry or amused. In the end, she couldn’t help but add, "Those two brothers are rare contestants who don’t use weapons. They rely solely on their fists and feet, and their Martial Arts are outstanding. It would be best for you to tank in the front and let Gao Lingwei deal damage from the back. Her archery skills are decent."

Rong Taotao, his eyes closed as he frantically converted his Soul Power, said, "An inch longer is an inch stronger. Against two short-range fighters, you just watch and see how strong I am."

Si Huan Nian snorted coldly. "Hmph."

...

At 1:30 in the afternoon, Rong Taotao and Gao Lingwei left on time and hurried to the stadium.

In just a few short hours, the amount of Starfield Soul Power Rong Taotao had replenished was pitifully small. Fortunately, he already had a decent amount saved up.

But this also served as a reminder: in the future, he couldn’t just spam Nine Stars Linked Pearls like that anymore. It was definitely satisfying, but the problem was that his Starfield Soul Power couldn’t be replenished quickly enough.

Thinking of this, Rong Taotao grew a little worried about the future. The Outer League was going to be held in Fengtian City, which was Starfield territory, not Snow Realm territory.

’Hmm... I hope the ranking tournament gives the contestants plenty of time to rest. But since it’s an officially organized competition, they should have thought of this already, right?’

In the bustling stadium, Rong Taotao and Gao Lingwei quickly walked to the waiting area. With half the people from the morning gone, it felt much more spacious.

The first event to start was still the semifinals of the singles competition.

Rong Taotao seized the time to convert and replenish his Starfield Soul Power. Once you started cultivating, time really did fly by.

Especially when you were about to enter an exam room, frantically cramming facts from a book. Time flew by at lightning speed then...

He didn’t know how much time had passed before Gao Lingwei’s soft voice sounded in his ear.

"It’s our turn, Taotao." Gao Lingwei put a hand on Rong Taotao’s shoulder and turned to look at his profile. "Don’t push yourself too hard. If you disrupt the flow of Soul Power in your body, it won’t be worth the trouble."

"Mhm, I’ll listen to my dear Wei." Rong Taotao opened his eyes, only to find himself sitting in the "center seat."

Although the waiting area was spacious, there had been people in front of, behind, and next to Rong Taotao before he closed his eyes. But now...

Aside from Gao Lingwei, everyone else was sitting far away, forming a circle along the edge of the waiting area.

Rong Taotao was baffled. "What’s going on?"

Gao Lingwei smiled. "When you were converting your Soul Power, the fluctuations of your Starfield Soul Power were quite strong. Everyone here is a Snow Realm Soul Martial Artist, and their Lifebound Soul Beasts are all Snow Realm Soul Beasts. No one wants to sit next to you."

"Oh..." Rong Taotao felt a little embarrassed. He was a Cloud Peak Soul Martial Artist, and his Lifebound Soul Beast was a Cloud Dog, so he hadn’t felt any discomfort when he went to the Starfield Vortex before. He really hadn’t known about this issue.

He gave an awkward smile, stood up, and cupped his fists toward the upperclassmen. "My apologies, my apologies. It won’t happen again."

The upperclassmen were magnanimous and didn’t say anything, simply watching as Rong Taotao and Gao Lingwei headed toward the arena.

Rong Taotao took Gao Lingwei’s hand and said apologetically, "You must have been uncomfortable just now. Why didn’t you sit further away?"

"It’s fine." Gao Lingwei shook her head with a smile. "Hu Bugui understands you and likes you a lot, so it was willing to endure it."

"Oh?" Rong Taotao laughed. "Bugui likes me? How come I never felt it?"

Gao Lingwei replied, "It can’t talk."

"Case closed!" Rong Taotao snapped his fingers. "It must be ’love me, love my dog’!"

Gao Lingwei shot Rong Taotao a smiling glare. If they weren’t in an arena with thousands of people watching, she would have already kicked him.

"Hey, you two!" From a distance, the voice of the younger twin, Qi Tian, called out.

Rong Taotao turned to look and saw the two brothers with their Hong Kong-style haircuts. They were both quite handsome; from a distance, they bore a striking resemblance to the Four Heavenly Kings of old.

Qi Tian was seen smacking his lips. "Are you really not taking us seriously? You’re about to go into battle, so why are you still flirting over there?"

Rong Taotao scratched his head. "This is a new Soul Skill I developed over lunch."

Qi Dao and Qi Tian’s faces went blank. In unison, they asked, "What?"

Rong Taotao held Gao Lingwei’s hand. "Potential Value: 7 stars! Snow Realm Soul Skill: Dog Torturing Technique! Inflicts 10,000 points of Mental Damage on single dogs!"

Qi Dao and Qi Tian: "I..."

Rong Taotao nodded immediately. "Yes! It’s working! You two are feeling pretty terrible right now, aren’t you?"

Qi Dao and Qi Tian: "What the f..."

"TWEET~!" Li Lie blew his whistle. "Give me a signal when both sides are ready."

Rong Taotao looked at Gao Lingwei. "Stick to the plan?"

"Mhm." Gao Lingwei nodded lightly. "The underdogs toppling the favorites. You take command."

In fact, it was only at this moment that Gao Lingwei truly revealed that she hadn’t taken the couple, Zonglu and his partner, seriously at all that morning...

Rong Taotao nodded and raised his hand to signal Li Lie in the center circle.

"TWEET~!" The small flag in Li Lie’s hand waved. The match began!

Qi Tian charged forward, shouting, "Alright, kid! I was planning on just giving you a light injury, keeping it restrained, but it looks like you’re really asking for it, huh?"

"Heheh?" Rong Taotao directly drew his Heaven-piercing Halberd, holding it horizontally before him. He stepped in front of Gao Lingwei, standing his ground firmly. "Is that your trash talk? Give me more!"

Gao Lingwei also drew her Heaven-piercing Halberd, her expression turning serious.

A real spark of anger ignited in Qi Tian’s heart. As he charged forward, he yelled, "I’ll beat you so bad you’ll lose your armor and flee! You’ll be pissing your pants in terror!"

Rong Taotao blinked. "Ooh~ You even know how to use idioms~"

The fire in Qi Tian’s heart, which had been a small flame before, now WHOOSHED into a blaze. His face turned bright red!

Rong Taotao’s simple eight-word sentence, however, was the absolute pinnacle of passive-aggression!

It was a pity the school tournament didn’t equip the contestants with tiny microphones, otherwise the audience would have gone wild...

Gao Lingwei silently tightened her grip on the long shaft of her weapon. She wasn’t sure if Rong Taotao was playing with fire, but unsettling the enemy’s mind was never a bad move. It would undoubtedly give them more opportunities to topple the favorites.

"AHHH!" The younger brother, Qi Tian, was so angry he started stomping his feet. He was hopping up and down as he ran, a bizarre sight that left the audience completely baffled. What on earth was happening on the field?

"Qi Tian!" the older brother, Qi Dao, roared, instantly snapping Qi Tian out of it.

However, Rong Taotao’s voice drifted over from not far away, another simple five-word taunt: "Ooh~ Hopping while you run~"

Qi Tian: "WAAAAAGGGHH!!!"

...