Rong Taotao’s Weibo post... yeah, it really had a "me against the world" vibe.

What was completely unexpected was that Gao Lingwei had even fanned the flames. Beneath his Weibo post, she had actually replied...

And her reply was just a small "finger heart" emoji.

Instantly, the people who had been drawn over by her were wailing in despair! The replies in her comment thread shot up to several thousand in a single night...

Another official account also had thousands of replies in its thread—it was actually "Songjiang Soul Martial University."

The university’s comment was: "Well-deserved! Student Rong Taotao, don’t get complacent, and keep up the great work! (fist)"

Rong Taotao’s popularity was entirely propped up by Gao Lingwei and Pine Soul Soul Martial!

The next day at breakfast, Rong Taotao took one look at Weibo on his phone and was genuinely startled...

Rong Taotao could understand the university’s reply as them being "eager to protect their own," but they had commented in the wrong place! Rong Taotao’s post was meant to call people out!

One could only imagine how intense the crossfire was in Songjiang Soul Martial’s comment thread...

’Oh well, at least it helped take some of the pressure off me.’

What caught Rong Taotao completely off guard was that, without anyone notifying him, he had been verified. His identity was authenticated as: Student of the Songjiang Soul Martial Junior Class.

"Student of the Junior Class? Is that really something worth verifying?" Rong Taotao’s expression was strange as he looked at his new status. "Is this even worth mentioning?"

Across the dining table, Gao Lingwei leaned over to look, then said, "They probably couldn’t assign you any other title.

A Pine Soul student is pretty good. Do you know how many people study for years and still can’t get into Pine Soul Soul Martial? This is one of the top universities in the country."

"It’d be so much cooler if they gave me a ’Scholar’ title," Rong Taotao said with a grin. "By the way, does my Soul Skill have a copyright?"

Gao Lingwei just laughed. "You’ve learned so many self-taught Soul Skills. Did you ever pay a fee to their creators?"

Rong Taotao chuckled. "What if it was included in the tuition?"

Gao Lingwei shot him an annoyed glare and took a bite of a soup dumpling. The golden broth trickled down the corner of her mouth, making Rong Taotao’s mouth water.

’Those soup dumplings must be delicious...’

The two of them quickly finished breakfast and hurried to the stadium in the northeast section of the campus.

Today was the quarter-finals, the main event. The stadium was buzzing with the roar of the crowd, a scene of total pandemonium.

In the bitterly cold Snow Realm, such a lively and extraordinary scene was probably only witnessed in Songbai Town during the New Year.

"There are way more people here than yesterday, huh?" Rong Taotao whispered as he followed Gao Lingwei into the stadium.

After entering the quarter-finals, the contestants were assigned fixed seats. The university had sectioned off an area on the north side of the stands, and quite a few people were already seated there.

"You’re partly to blame," Gao Lingwei said with a smile. "The Soul Martial community hasn’t had a major event in a long time. I bet a lot of students are here to see you."

"Hmm... I should probably practice my handwriting. For signing autographs and stuff later," Rong Taotao said, bumping Gao Lingwei with his shoulder and chuckling. "Didn’t you say you were going to teach me calligraphy before?"

"Hah," Gao Lingwei shot Rong Taotao a cold glance. "Weren’t you too lazy to learn?"

"Hey, but didn’t we agree later that you’d teach me to write in the snow with the Heaven-piercing Halberd?" Rong Taotao said quickly.

Only then did Gao Lingwei nod in satisfaction. "If you want to learn, I’ll teach you. We’ll start the first lesson tonight. Since we have to participate in the selection tournament these next few days, Coach Xia doesn’t recommend we do anything too strenuous on our own time."

Rong Taotao: "Oh... Well, look who it is. A familiar face."

Rong Taotao walked into the contestant seating area and, among a crowd of students, found a familiar figure—Zonglu!

Zonglu acted as if he hadn’t seen Rong Taotao arrive. He sat with his girlfriend, pretending to whisper intimately, but his darting eyes gave him away.

In fact, Zonglu was feeling awful. Before the selection tournament, he had specifically sought out Rong Taotao and Gao Lingwei to "talk." At the time, he thought he was on a higher pedestal, looking down on the two underclassmen, and had advised them to wait a couple of years before competing, otherwise they would be targeted in this tournament.

And the result?

The result... The result was that those two underclassmen were simply inhuman! They displayed astonishing combat prowess, not only clearing out an entire front but also revitalizing the other seeded teams.

Zonglu wished he had never answered that damn call from Ji Qingmei!

If only he had treated Rong Taotao and Gao Lingwei as a third-tier team. If he had, the Qi Brothers and the Bai Brothers might have been eliminated by focused fire...

Zonglu’s guts were twisting with regret. It was a complete double loss. He had thought that since he was about to graduate, he could snag a spot to represent the university, mix in some rewards, and apply for some Soul Pearls. But now...

His threats had become a joke. Everything was gone. He had nothing left.

If he drew one of his other second-tier allies in the lottery later, Zonglu would put up a fight to save some face in front of the entire university. But if he ran into the Qi Brothers or the Bai Brothers, Zonglu was already planning to withdraw.

"Rong Taotao?" a voice called out. It was a raspy, cracking voice that reminded Rong Taotao of Li Ziyi back when his voice was changing.

Rong Taotao, still looking for his seat, turned to see the Qi Brothers. He just didn’t know if it was the older or younger one who had spoken.

Both brothers had somewhat long hair, almost covering their ears, in a very 80s/90s Hong Kong hairstyle.

Rong Taotao gave a friendly nod. "Hello."

"Look at you, little junior!" The younger brother, Qi Tian, stepped forward, grabbing Rong Taotao’s hand in a firm grip and shaking it up and down. "Did you get the inspiration to create a Soul Skill from being ganged up on by all us seniors yesterday?"

"Pfft..."

"Hahahaha." For a moment, waves of laughter erupted from the contestant area.

All the students in the quarter-finals for the solo and trio events were enjoying the show. As for the duo event quarter-finalists, half of them were red-faced with embarrassment.

"It’s a shame I’m graduating soon. I saw the school announcement yesterday. I’m afraid I won’t be able to learn the Soul Skill you created in the two weeks I have left here." Qi Tian patted Rong Taotao’s shoulder. "I’ll have to wait until after graduation to come back and ask a teacher for lessons~"

From behind, the older brother came up, put his arm around his younger brother’s shoulder, and looked at Rong Taotao. "Little junior, we’re about to graduate. This is our last time competing. How about you let us win?"

Rong Taotao ruffled his naturally curly hair and said, "Senior Zonglu told me the same thing. But you need to wake up! This is the quarter-finals! Even if I don’t agree, you can’t gang up on me anymore!"

"Hahaha!"

"Hahahahaha..." The contestant area absolutely erupted. The Qi Brothers, in particular, couldn’t stop laughing. They had just been joking around and hadn’t actually wanted Rong Taotao to withdraw.

Behind them, Gao Lingwei suppressed a laugh, pulled Rong Taotao away from Qi Tian’s grasp, and led him toward the seats further back.

Today, she once again witnessed just how wicked Rong Taotao’s sharp tongue could be!

Gao Lingwei was even a little worried that Zonglu over there wouldn’t be able to take it and would fly into a rage...

"Settle down!" a stern shout echoed, and the contestant area immediately fell silent.

Rong Taotao had just sat down when he heard a familiar voice. He looked over and was surprised to see it was Jiu of the Pine Soul Four Rites.

Li Lie was standing below the spectator stands, at the edge of the field. He didn’t look like he had been drinking; he seemed perfectly sober. "How can you be joking around at a time that will decide your fate?"

As he spoke, he placed the box he was carrying on the ground, set it up, and said, "Quarter-finalists for the solo event, come down and draw lots first."

Eight people quickly stood up and headed down.

Rong Taotao stood up, watching curiously, and quickly understood the rules.

There were eight small balls in the box, numbered 1 through 4, with two of each number. Those who drew the same number would compete against each other, and the number also determined the match order.

When it was time for the duo event’s lottery, Rong Taotao held Gao Lingwei’s hands in his and rubbed them gently back and forth. "Let me get some of your good luck!"

Gao Lingwei tilted her head to look at Rong Taotao, letting him gently knead her hands. "I can just go down and draw myself."

Rong Taotao: "..."

’Right!’

Rong Taotao blinked. "Then you go."

Gao Lingwei gave an indifferent nod, stood up, and walked down.

The students in the duo event were all tense. No one wanted to draw the Qi Brothers or the Bai Brothers, and even those two pairs didn’t want to draw each other.

If only two seeded teams had made it to the quarter-finals, it would have been fine. They would have to fight each other sooner or later, so the order wouldn’t matter. The key issue was that Gao Lingwei and Rong Taotao had shot up out of nowhere with an extremely dominant performance, disrupting the order of the quarter-finals.

"4... Hmph, the last match." The younger brother, Qi Tian, looked displeased, but his eyes were fixed on Bai Xiweng.

Bai Xiweng took out a ball and twisted it open. 2!

Instantly, both of them breathed a sigh of relief, but everyone else tensed up.

Zonglu gritted his teeth, steeled himself, and stomped forward. He reached into the box, grabbed a ball, and viciously twisted it open with a ferocious expression: 1!

Zonglu’s expression changed to one of delight. He looked toward his girlfriend in the stands, held up the ball, and showed her the "1"!

At Li Lie’s signal, Gao Lingwei stepped forward, rummaged around in the box, and pulled out a ball.

Her fingers gently twisted it open. Inside the small ball was the number "1".

Gao Lingwei raised an eyebrow slightly, holding the ball up for Li Lie to see.

In that instant, Zonglu’s face froze, and the joy on it vanished without a trace.

"Pfft... HAHAHAHAHAHA!" At the side, Qi Tian couldn’t hold it in any longer and burst out laughing. "Rivals are truly fated to meet, hahahahahaha..."

Following his lead, Bai Xiweng also put a hand to his forehead and looked at Zonglu, a sad smile on his face.

Gao Lingwei turned to leave, but as she passed by Zonglu, she suddenly paused.

She tilted her head, the corners of her mouth lifting into a slightly wild smile, and threw Zonglu’s own words right back at him: "Don’t hold a grudge against the contestants. If you have to blame something, blame the rules."

...