Douluo Continent: Thunder Roar

"Is Shrek Academy aiming to cultivate sensible, principled, and responsible Soul Masters, or merely 'monsters' who can fight and cause trouble?"

"Today, I accepted your challenge in my own way, within the rules of 'strength' that you acknowledge, and I survived for the time it takes for an incense stick to burn."

"I hope this makes you rethink what you are here to do as a teacher. If you can only establish authority by insults and intimidation at the beginning of a class, then that cannot be called authority, it can only be called terror."

"A person raised with a terrifying education, no matter how strong, will have limited capacity."

After saying that, Ling Yu stopped looking at Zhou Yi on the ground, turned around, and walked towards the edge of the open space with slightly heavy but still steady steps.

The entire venue was deathly silent.

The only sounds were the rustling of the wind through the grass and the fluttering of birds startled and flying away from the treetops in the distance.

The trainees held their breath, their eyes shifting between Ling Yu's back and the trembling red figure on the ground, not daring to even breathe loudly.

"Cough...ho...ho..."

Painful, suppressed gasps escaped Zhou Yi's throat once more, breaking the suffocating silence.

Zhou Yi's body began to tremble violently.

It wasn't a weak tremor, but rather an instinctive reaction of all the muscles in the body as they fought against the excruciating pain and the backlash of soul power.

humiliation.

The word gnawed at her heart like a venomous snake.

She was publicly defeated by a freshman, her teaching methods were publicly questioned, and she was taught a lesson using her most cherished principle of "meritocracy"...

And those words.

"Understanding principles and guarding one's heart... terrifying education..."

Every word felt like a needle piercing her heart.

She eliminated countless students, but also cultivated countless strong individuals.

She never doubted her methods—harsh, cruel, but effective.

But now, this boy is telling her that her method is merely "horror," and that she is only cultivating monsters with "limited potential."

Feeling lost?

some.

In that instant, her belief was indeed shaken.

But the next moment——

"Heh...heh heh..."

A low laugh escaped her throat, tinged with the metallic smell of blood.

shake?

Admit defeat?

Are you kidding me!

These two words never existed in Zhou Yi's dictionary!

"Ughhhhhh!!!"

A hoarse, distorted roar suddenly erupted! She abruptly raised her head, her gray hair disheveled and plastered to her forehead. All the confusion and pain in her vertical pupils had been burned away, leaving only an almost insane stubbornness!

Her right and left hands simultaneously unleashed astonishing power, muscles bulging, and broken dragon scales scraping against the ground.

She first arched her upper body with difficulty. The excruciating pain in her abdomen made her vision go black, but she clenched her teeth tightly, even biting her lip until blood dripped down her chin.

Then, the knees.

Little by little, she pulled herself up from the ground.

The dirt fell from her body in a soft rustling sound.

She steadied herself, her legs trembling violently, her body slightly hunched over from the pain.

His face was ashen, sweat soaked his temples, and he looked extremely disheveled.

But her gaze, like a quenched blade, was fixed on Ling Yu's back, which had already walked more than twenty steps away.

"stop."

Her voice was hoarse, yet carried an undeniable ruthlessness.

Ling Yu stopped at the edge of the open space.

But he didn't turn around.

"Ling Yu..." Zhou Yi gasped, her chest heaving. "I saw your 'strength.' I heard your 'reasoning' too."

She twitched the corners of her mouth, revealing a twisted smile.

"That sounds so convincing...you almost convinced me."

"In all the years I've taught at Shrek Academy, I've seen more geniuses and failures than you've eaten meals!" Her voice suddenly rose, hoarse yet full of power. "My method—kick out the unqualified and grind down the promising ones to death! This method is simple, brutal, and unpleasant to hear!"

She straightened her back, which had been hunched over in pain, though the movement made her groan and her face turn even paler, but her eyes shone even brighter:

"But it works! In the class I teach, the number of students who passed the freshman assessment was the highest. Don't get me wrong, it's not about eliminating the weak to increase the pass rate, but rather, out of all the freshman classes with the same number of students enrolling at the same time, the number of students who successfully passed the freshman assessment was the highest."

"You say your method is better? More 'correct'? More capable of cultivating 'reasonable' Soul Masters?"

The fourth spirit ring beneath her feet suddenly shone with a dazzling light!

A powerful surge of soul energy erupted like a tidal wave, and the intense heat distorted the surrounding air.

"Then prove it to me!!"

She made a gesture of embracing with her hands in front of her, and a massive amount of soul power gathered wildly. A huge fireball with a diameter of more than half a meter, flowing with dark red magma-like energy and radiating a suffocating destructive aura, condensed and took shape at an astonishing speed.

The air around the fireball hummed under the strain, and the temperature inside the classroom rose sharply.

"Take this final blow!"

Her voice was almost a scream, echoing across the open space:

"Let me see it with my own eyes—!!"

"Does your seemingly rosy 'future' actually have a strong enough 'fist' to smash my 'present,' which you look down upon but which has undeniably cultivated strong individuals?"

"Fourth Soul Skill - Exploding Dragon Flame Bullet!"

"call out--!!!"

The massive, dark red fireball, imbued with terrifying soul power and carrying an aura of destruction capable of crushing everything, pressed down on Ling Yu!

Just as the fireball was about to strike Ling Yu's back—

He turned around.

Under the moonlight, the contours of his profile were clearly visible.

"Stubborn and obstinate."

The moment he finished speaking, his eyes suddenly turned as sharp as knives!

His hands swiftly formed a hand seal in front of his chest!

"Lightning Release: Chakra Mode!"

"Sizzle—BOOM!!!"

More explosive and condensed silver lightning than before erupted from his body!

This time, the lightning no longer scattered wildly, but instead enveloped his entire body like a living silver stream. Electric snakes moved in an orderly and rapid manner on his body, emitting a low and continuous buzzing sound!

His hair stood on end, with tiny sparks flying at the tips, and his aura suddenly surged, like a Thor's sword about to be drawn!

A dark red fireball is upon me!

A wave of scorching heat hit him, blowing his black hair wildly backward!

"drink!"

With a low shout, Ling Yu caused the ground beneath his feet to explode with a "bang," creating a spiderweb-like network of cracks!

Just before the fireball was about to hit him, he transformed into a streak of silver lightning that sped along the ground, narrowly missing the violent fireball like a fish!

"BOOM—!!!"

The fireball grazed past his afterimage and struck the ground not far behind him, exploding violently!

Dark red flames, mixed with soil and gravel, shot into the sky, forming a fire wave several meters high!

The scorching heatwave spread outwards like a solid wall!

Ling Yu's figure, however, suddenly turned back and accelerated like a ghost at the edge of the explosion's flames and shockwaves!

The silver lightning streaked across the billowing smoke and fire, leaving a dazzling yet deadly trail. Ignoring the violent explosion behind it, its target was singular—Zhou Yi!

Sprint!

Push the speed brought by Lightning Release to its limit!

During the sprint, his hands began forming hand seals again.

Ugly - Mao -

A piercing cry, like the simultaneous screeching of hundreds of forest birds, suddenly exploded from his palm!

Sign

The last print is complete.

"Chidori!"

The dazzling silver-blue lightning, so bright it was almost blinding, erupted and condensed wildly from his tightly clenched palm, like a long-suppressed volcanic eruption!

Zhou Yi's pupils suddenly contracted to the size of pinpoints!

She hadn't expected Ling Yu to dodge the Exploding Dragon Flame Bullet so quickly and accurately under those circumstances, and she hadn't expected his counterattack to come so fast.

As she watched the silver-blue lightning rapidly approach amidst the smoke and fire, carrying unparalleled penetrating and cutting power, and felt its sharp aura that made her soul tremble slightly, a trace of instinctive horror flashed in her eyes.

But the next moment, this sense of horror was overwhelmed by an even more turbulent and frantic determination!

"Come on!!!"

She screamed, her voice completely off-key due to excitement and injury, yet carrying a hysterical excitement!

Instead of retreating, she staggered forward and took a step, as if she were to actively meet the deadly lightning!

At this moment, the black fifth spirit ring burst forth with dazzling light!

The surrounding air emitted a mournful sound as if it were being sliced ​​by an invisible blade!

"You think dodging the Exploding Dragon Flame Bullet means you've won?!" Zhou Yi's face revealed a near-manic smile, a mixture of pain and extreme excitement. She poured her unwavering belief in never giving up, which burned even more fiercely at this moment, into her fifth soul ring without reservation and with madness!

"The real battle—is about to begin!!"

She suddenly raised her right hand, her index finger pointing straight at Ling Yu!

At the fingertip, a point of intensely dark red light, so bright it seemed to distort and collapse even the surrounding light, began to condense and compress at an astonishing speed!

"Fifth Soul Skill—"

Her voice became low and dangerous, like an echo from the abyss, each syllable carrying a heavy weight:

"Red Dragon Piercing Heart Strike!!"

Before the words had even finished—

"call out--!!!"

That point of intensely dark red light had transformed into a ray as thin as a hair, yet it sent chills down the spines of everyone present. With a speed beyond the limits of visual perception, it struck Ling Yu directly.

You need to force him to dodge or take the hit head-on, interrupting his advance!

Just as the dark red ray was about to pierce Ling Yu's chest—

Ling Yu's crimson Sharingan spun wildly!

He did not choose to dodge, nor did he back down!

Instead of slowing down, its sprinting speed increased, and it charged straight at the deadly dark red ray!

At the same time, the hissing lightning in his right palm, along with the fierce forward swing of his arm, slashed fiercely at the ray!

"Your path is predictable, just like your straightforward attacks."

Ling Yu's low shout mingled with the shrieks of a thousand birds, echoing across the battlefield!

"Raikiri—!!"

"Buzz—Sizzle!!!"

A piercing, sharp screech, the sound of intense friction and annihilation of high-frequency energy that makes one's scalp tingle and teeth ache, suddenly exploded!

"Absurd!" Zhou Yi's face contorted with rage as she hissed, pushing her soul power to its limit. "My path has forged the iron will of Shrek Academy! Your lukewarm reasoning is utterly worthless in the face of true life and death! Break—"

She hadn't even fully uttered the last word, "broken"—

The next moment!

"Boom! Zzzzzzzzz—!!!!!!!!!"

The silver-blue lightning and the dark red death ray collided solidly and without any frills in mid-air, less than five meters apart between the two!

Time seemed to stretch out infinitely at this moment.

Immediately following was a terrifying shriek, loud enough to tear eardrums apart, as if thousands of high-speed chainsaws were simultaneously cutting through diamond!

Silver blue and dark red, two energies representing different ideologies, collided in the most direct and violent point-to-point manner, frantically eroding, annihilating, and exploding against each other!

The blinding light instantly engulfed that space, leaving all onlookers in a whiteout. The scorching shockwave spread out in a ring, tearing up layers of grass and scorched earth!

There was no earth-shattering explosion or mushroom cloud, only the purest annihilation of energy and clash of wills!

"Your 'Iron Backbone' is built on the dreams and possibilities of countless students whom you contemptuously call 'trash' and 'waste'!" Ling Yu gritted his teeth, activated his Lightning Release Chakra Mode at full power, and silver snakes danced wildly on his body to resist the enormous pressure brought by the terrifying penetrating force. The muscles in his right arm trembled violently due to the clash of the two enormous forces, and the blood vessels under his skin bulged out!

"Without elimination, where do the elites come from?! Shrek Academy doesn't need mediocre people! My method is the fastest way to select the strong!" Zhou Yi roared, his dark red rays shining even brighter, trying to overpower Lei Qie!

"Stronger?!" Ling Yu's eyes widened, the tomoe in his Sharingan almost forming a single line. "The 'stronger' you define are merely survivors who have adapted to your cruel rules! You're not cultivating 'stronger' individuals; you're using molds to mass-produce the 'weapons' you desire!"

"True glory should not be forged in this way!!"

The light of the Lightning Blade in his palm seemed to be enhanced by some kind of will, and the silver-blue lightning suddenly became violent and condensed. The S-rank Lightning Release ninjutsu, which was said to be able to cut through lightning, was pushed to its limit under the enhancement of the ultimate lightning of the demigod Volibear!

"Open it!"

"Sizzle sizzle sizzle—!!!!!!!!!"

A deafening roar, as if the world had just been created and cloth had been ripped apart, drowned out all the hissing of energy!

In the reflection of Zhou Yi's suddenly contracted, horrified pupils, the silver-blue lightning blade actually cut into the thick ice layer like a red-hot iron, and began to advance inch by inch against the direction of the dark red ray's impact, unstoppable!

The dark red condensed energy was forcefully cleaved and disintegrated from the center by Raikiri's relentless, all-encompassing blade! The dissipating energy flow, like severed blood vessels, sprayed and dissipated wildly to both sides!

"No...impossible! My Crimson Dragon Piercing Heart Strike...how could it...!" Zhou Yi's voice trembled with extreme shock and the backlash of her soul power. This was the fifth soul skill produced by a ten-thousand-year soul ring, and it was actually cleaved in two by a freshman in such a head-on collision...?!

"Do you see that, Teacher Zhou Yi!" Ling Yu's voice carried a soul-piercing power, moving forward with Rai Che. "This is the possibility 'besides your path'!"

"Your 'only truth' has been shattered by me today!!"

"Whoosh—!!!"

With a final soft sound, the silver-blue lightning completely pierced through the entire dark red ray, splitting it in two from beginning to end and utterly destroying it!

The dissipating red light, like a flickering candle in the wind, vanished instantly into the air.

Ling Yu's figure, along with the Thunder Cutter in his hand, whose light was dim but whose sharpness was not diminished in the slightest, was like a thunder spear that split the chaos. Propelled by the residual force of defeating the strongest spear, the speed soared to the limit, instantly crossing the last short distance and stabbing in front of Zhou Yi, whose mind had been lost and whose defenses were exposed due to the breaking of her ultimate technique!

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