Douluo Dalu 2: You are an Evil Soul Master, but also a good person ?

The entire competition venue reacted differently.

But it wasn't just the various teams who were shocked—even the members of the Sun Moon Empire team, including Ma Rulong, were dumbfounded.

Bro... you never pulled this move out during the trials?!

During the selection trials, everyone knew that Xu Cheng had twin martial souls. However, aside from his Sun Martial Soul, his Blood Pupil Martial Soul had only been used for spiritual sharing and had a relatively low presence. Because of this, everyone subconsciously assumed that his primary martial soul was the Sun, while the Blood Pupil was merely auxiliary.

It wasn't until now that Ma Rulong's mouth twitched hard.

Maybe… against them, he never even needed to use this move.

After all, just spiritual sharing alone allowed him to coast along in the matches, relying on his teammates to win. There had never been a need to use his trump card…

"Let's go."

Xu Cheng waved his hand.

The rest of the reserve team slowly came back to their senses and followed him off the stage.

Tang Ya quietly approached and hummed near his ear, "You better not use that trick on girls—mind manipulation and all that..."

Although Xu Cheng had protected her from ever setting foot in the true headquarters of the Holy Spirit Cult, she had still heard some rumors from Wu Yun and Zhang Peng. Many evil soul masters would capture beautiful girls, drug them, and then turn them into...

"Hmm?"

Xu Cheng raised an eyebrow.

"Don't flatter yourself. Even if you were going to control someone, it'd definitely be Nan Nan. She's way prettier than you..."

Tang Ya: "..."

The visible flames of anger flared up, teetering on the edge of explosion.

She gritted her teeth. "Xu Cheng, just you wait~!"

Their voices were small.

But everyone around them heard everything crystal clear.

Jiang Nannan's face flushed slightly. She turned her head away, pretending not to care.

Meng Hongchen, on the other hand, was full of jealousy and leaned in as well.

"Ah Cheng, do you think I'm pretty?"

"And me?" Nana eagerly followed up.

Xu Cheng: "…"

I'm doomed.

I should've just kept my mouth shut.

Meanwhile, Xiao Hongchen smirked mischievously. Damn it. Wooing my sister is one thing (even though she was the one who clung to him first), but where's the justice in enjoying the attention of multiple women without any trouble?

Then again, this kid's going to be the emperor in the future…

Shit!

All the good things go to him!

On the way back to the hotel, Tang Ya couldn't hold back and quietly asked Meng Hongchen, "Between Jiang Nannan and me, who's prettier?"

Her best friend hesitated for a moment. "You are."

Then she countered, "What about me?"

...

Star Luo Empire Grand Hotel

Second Floor.

The Sun Moon Empire team was in high spirits.

With Brother Cheng leading us, this championship is in the bag!

Inside the meeting room, Elder Ma clapped the table, finally bringing everyone to silence.

"There's an auction at the Starlight Auction House later. We might as well check out what rare items the Star Luo Empire has. Everyone can also take a break. But don't get too arrogant…"

"…"

Xu Cheng sat in the center, surrounded by admiration.

Yet, he quietly pondered.

By logic, the biggest gain from this trip to Star Luo should be Snow Empress. Then there was the Soul-Devouring Carving Knife. After that, an Ice Jade Scorpion's arm soul bone.

As for everything else…

Even if there were some Grade 8 or 9 soul tools, weren't they just things the Sun Moon Empire had played around with long ago?

In the original story, these soul tools were just experience points for the protagonist, Hao Hang. Not too high-end, not too low-end, but extremely useful for him at that stage.

Thinking this, Xu Cheng glanced at Hao Hang and found the boy staring at him blankly, his pale blue eyes filled with admiration.

Clearly, the scene earlier had left an indelible mark on the young man's heart.

He was probably setting Xu Cheng as his role model now…

Xu Cheng rubbed his nose. As for this kid, since he had lost all his other cheats, would it be better for him to focus on soul tools or his Body Martial Soul? Xu Cheng wasn't sure. It was better to let him choose for himself.

If nothing else, when the Body Sect eventually came knocking, he could just throw Hao Hang over to them.

In a decade or so, if Hao Hang ended up leading the Body Sect, wouldn't that be interesting…?

"Forget it, I'll wait and see."

Xu Cheng murmured to himself.

"Alright, that's all. Everyone, get ready to go."

Elder Ma clapped his hands.

The crowd dispersed in a lively commotion, heading downstairs.

At the Same Time

In the stairwell, they unexpectedly ran into the Shrek Academy team, who were also heading to the Starlight Auction House. Ma Xiaotao and Dai Yueheng were among them.

As the two teams met, many other teams coming downstairs cast their gazes over.

One was the eternal Number One, but now on the verge of collapse.

The other was the eternal Number Two, yet today had demonstrated terrifying dominance.

What kind of sparks would fly when the two clashed?

But to many people's surprise—

The Shrek Academy reserve team, upon glimpsing Xu Cheng's eyes, hurriedly averted their gazes, either looking down or turning away.

Meanwhile, Xu Cheng walked forward indifferently, his gaze steady and unreadable.

But regardless, this subtle interaction left many stunned.

It seemed that Shrek Academy had been completely overshadowed by the Sun Moon Empire. No—by Xu Cheng alone...

"Despicable scum, hmph!"

Ma Xiaotao snorted coldly.

She wished she could rush over and punch Xu Cheng twice.

From the very start, he had schemed against Shrek Academy, causing their main team members to suffer severe injuries—one dead, one missing—leaving them in this miserable state.

Otherwise, with Shrek Academy's strength, how could they have fallen so low?!

"And who might you be?"

Xu Cheng glanced at her leisurely.

"Don't play dumb, Xu Cheng! You and your band of sewer rats plotted against us! When I recover, I'll turn you into charcoal!" Ma Xiaotao gritted her teeth.

If not for Wang Yan's repeated warnings, as well as a letter from their teacher Yan Shaozhe instructing her to follow Wang Yan's lead, she would have lost control long ago.

"Plotted? So you guys actually figured it out?" Xu Cheng put on a surprised expression.

"Then our Supreme Elder of the Holy Spirit Cult wasn't harmed, was he? Did you capture him and force him to confess?"

"Supreme Elder?" Ma Xiaotao was stunned.

"Sigh, since you already found out, I won't pretend anymore. Xuanzi, the Supreme Elder of our Holy Spirit Cult, was sent to infiltrate Shrek Academy by our previous leader a hundred years ago. For a century, he worked diligently as an undercover agent. Ten years ago, after earning Shrek's trust, he led a group of inner court elites to lure out a hundred-thousand-year soul beast and conveniently vanished. When they suffered heavy casualties, he finally reappeared. His remarkable performance even left our leader in awe."

Xu Cheng sighed in admiration.

"This glorious feat has been sung throughout the Holy Spirit Cult. And now, he has once again completed his mission flawlessly—cooperating with a mere Soul King-level evil soul master to lure you Shrek geniuses into a cave, leading to an explosion that killed you all. His performance was flawless, absolutely brilliant. I actually advised him not to expose himself, but alas, the Elder was too eager to earn merits."

Xu Cheng then sighed in regret. "Looks like he's been caught by you guys. Alright then, let's move to the hostage exchange scene. Tell me, what do you want in exchange for our Supreme Elder?"

"That old man has given too much to our Holy Spirit Cult. If we don't bring him back for his final years, how could we possibly live with ourselves?"

(End of Chapter)