Gu Yue's gaze involuntarily fell on the white-haired youth's black spear. Just sensing the dangerous aura it emitted, her pupils shrank sharply.
Lu Jingming looked at the disheveled, slightly exposed black-haired girl before him and silently repeated "see-no-evil" in his mind, then calmly played the role of "AI projection," studying her closely.
Don't misunderstand—his gaze didn't linger on her bare shoulders or torn stockings; he was just curious about who she was.
He could tell she was young, around his age, but already at Soul Elder level—a talent in itself.
The key was, despite her battered appearance, she wasn't seriously injured.
This was strange. The opponent he set for the five-star trial was a tank-class Honkai Beast—even a Soul King had to be careful, or they'd suffer badly.
Yet this girl not only beat the tank-class Honkai Beast, but wasn't badly hurt herself.
When did such a genius appear in Douluo Dalu during the Tang Sect era? And a wild one at that!
Lu Jingming was baffled. Even Zhang Lexuan and Ma Xiaotao, at her age, would struggle with the five-star trial. How did this black-haired girl do it?
He secretly pulled up her profile to see which family this monster girl belonged to—was she an original character?
So her name's Gu Yue—hmm!? Gu Yue!
Lu Jingming almost lost composure. Even his spiritual data flickered from shock.
Gu Yue noticed this subtle change and frowned, eyeing Lu Jingming suspiciously.
He quickly calmed himself—he was here as an AI projection and couldn't blow his cover.
Despite his shock and racing thoughts, Lu Jingming kept a blank face and slowly raised his black spear.
In an instant, two purple and two black soul rings appeared, radiating power.
Gu Yue tensed instantly, her own soul rings—one yellow, two purple—flaring, lighting up the space.
"Bang—!"
With a soft sound, a breeze swept past, and Lu Jingming's figure vanished, reappearing behind Gu Yue like a ghost.
His black, mist-wreathed spear, like a poisonous snake, stabbed straight at her back.
Gu Yue felt a chill down her spine and shot a blast of wind from her shoulder, propelling herself forward and away from Lu Jingming.
She spun in midair, hands forming seals, and in a blink, fireballs, wind blades, earth spikes, and water bullets—an onslaught of elemental attacks—rushed toward Lu Jingming.
But Lu Jingming calmly raised his spear and pointed it forward.
A miraculous scene unfolded—whether fireballs or wind blades, the instant they touched his spear, they vanished like bubbles, as if they'd never existed.
Seeing her attacks erased by the black spear, Gu Yue's face darkened. She could feel her soul power attached to her attacks being dissolved and destroyed.
Once soul power was broken down, her soul skills lost effect—so that was the black spear's true ability? The power of annihilation.
A sharp light flashed in Gu Yue's eyes. She wanted to probe further, but suddenly realized Lu Jingming's handsome face was already extremely close.
!!!
Gu Yue's body froze, blood spilling from her lips.
She looked down slowly and saw the pitch-black spear had pierced her heart. As she felt her soul power, blood, flesh, spirit, even her soul, being dissolved by a terrifying force, her eyes filled with confusion.
Lu Jingming watched as Gu Yue's body dissolved into points of light, his face full of headache.
He never expected the Silver Dragon King to appear in this era.
According to the original timeline, she shouldn't have recovered enough to take human form for ten thousand years.
And even more troubling, she'd come to St. Freya Academy.
There was no way her target wasn't him.
Though full of doubts, Lu Jingming shook his head and comforted himself: "Forget it. If trouble comes, I'll handle it. It's just a lovesick Silver Dragon princess—I can handle her, right?"
He looked over his painstakingly developed Holographic Strategy system, satisfaction in his eyes.
Shrek Academy had the Golden Tree as its foundation; his St. Freya had Holographic Strategy—just as good, if not better.
The Holographic Strategy was an upgraded peripheral for the simulated universe, powered by the Conquest Gem Lu Jingming provided.
This gem, from the game Honkai Impact 3rd, continually absorbed heaven and earth energy and soul power, converting it into higher-level Honkai energy.
During this process, Berta bound and purified the Honkai energy, stripping its original corrosive nature and turning it into pure high-level energy.
This harmless Honkai energy was a treasure for soul masters—stronger even than the Golden Tree's life energy.
It could boost all aspects of a soul master—soul power, spirit, even body strength.
Even more amazing, it could increase soul ring age and even martial soul quality.
Of course, the amount of Honkai energy required for those feats was enormous.
Lu Jingming didn't want to expose those functions yet.
He'd had Herta create the Holographic Strategy mainly to rival Shrek Academy's Golden Tree, so St. Freya could stand on equal footing—or even take the lead.
That's also why he hadn't rushed to help Zhang Lexuan and Keqing absorb higher-age soul rings. With Honkai energy, raising soul ring age would just be a matter of time.
As long as there was enough, even giving them nine hundred-thousand-year rings each wasn't a fantasy.
But for now, the Conquest Gem's conversion rate was still limited. Just running the Holographic Strategy consumed most of the Honkai energy—those greater goals would need time.