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Chapter 25: Shadow Strangulation (3)
🕑 Added 2025-04-21 18:08:45 +0000 UTCThe shadow attacked its master like a living creature. Seeing this scene, the students present were so frightened that they were speechless and their hair stood on end.
The person who was most surprised and frightened was of course Dugu Yan, as she was the one who experienced this strange phenomenon firsthand.
At this moment, Dugu Yan was not only immobilized by her shadow and unable to move, but her own shadow also entangled her body and bound her neck tightly. The strong binding force squeezed her neck, causing her face to suddenly turn red. She could not even speak and could only struggle in the endless feeling of suffocation.
This feeling is like suddenly becoming conscious during sleep, but being unable to speak or move the body.
Dugu Yan struggled in pain. The shadow that bound her neck exerted more and more force. Her breathing became more and more difficult. Veins appeared on her fair and smooth skin. Her vision went black and it seemed that she would die at any time.
Dugu Yan knew that it was already extremely difficult to break free from the shadow, let alone the shadow that was wrapped around her body and strangled her neck. With only a one-level difference in soul power, it was impossible for her to break free from the shadow’s entanglement.
If Lu Buliang had the intention to kill her, she would have been strangled to death by her own shadow long ago.
Thinking of this, Dugu Yan had the idea of admitting defeat, because the feeling of having the shadow entangled around his neck was too uncomfortable. Struggling on the brink of death was a torture more painful than death.
However, she is the granddaughter of Poison Douluo Dugu Bo and the number one female genius in Heaven Dou Royal Academy. How could she be willing to lose, and how could she be willing to lose to the same opponent twice?
If I give up now, wouldn’t it prove that all my efforts over the past ten years have been in vain?
She had her grandfather, a Titled Douluo, to guide her in her training, she had the resources of the Heaven Dou Royal Academy to support her, and she also had such a powerful poison control ability. As a soul master specializing in control, she surrendered to Lu Buliang, an amateur soul master of the control department, and admitted that her control ability was not as good as his?
Dugu Yan is very stubborn. Not only the Zhilin Education Committee, but everyone who has been with her can see that she is obsessed with victory and is proud of being a control-type soul master. Now, how could she surrender to an amateur control-type soul master?
On the continent, soul masters are all unruly. Which soul master can afford to lose?
“Yanzi, admit defeat.” Lu Buliang carefully controlled the strength of the shadow’s entanglement and advised: “If you insist on it, you will only faint, and there will be no turnaround.”
Dugu Yan was still struggling hard. All she could think about was how to break free from the shadow that was strangling her neck. She had no intention of giving in at all.
Yu Tianheng and others in the audience saw Dugu Yan in so much pain and wanted to run onto the stage to stop the fight, but were stopped by Qin Ming because he knew that Lu Buliang knew what to do and that the worst case scenario was that Dugu Yan would faint, not die.
However, if Dugu Bo knew about this spirit fight, Lu Buliang would probably be in danger of death.
Who else in the academy would dare to treat Dugu Yan like this?
Even the three members of the education committee were very careful in their actual combat training with Dugu Yan, fearing that they would hurt Dugu Yan and provoke Dugu Bo.
Of course, Lu Buliang knew that treating Dugu Yan like this would most likely anger Dugu Bo. After beating up Dugu Yan last time, he was scared and nervous when he met Dugu Bo.
Dugu Yan is being tortured like this now. If Dugu Bo knew about it, he would surely be torn into pieces.
However, although he is afraid, Lu Buliang is also a stubborn person. He has his own obsessions and he will never show weakness to anyone. He just wants to do things the way he likes.
Even if he was killed by Dugu Bo, he would not compromise and let Dugu Yan win, or give in to Dugu Yan in every way.
Fighting is fighting, this is a battle of spirits. Lu Buliang’s idea is very simple. If Dugu Yan doesn’t admit defeat, then force her to admit defeat, why should he care whether it will offend Dugu Bo? Why should he let others restrict what he wants to do?
Both Lu Buliang and Dugu Yan were stubborn in their own ways, and due to their obsession with each other, the two sides were deadlocked for three minutes.
Finally, Lu Buliang released the shadow’s restraints on Dugu Yan, and the shadow that was wrapped around Dugu Yan’s body and neck suddenly shrank back to the ground. She was no longer tortured by any restraining force, nor was she affected by the shadow’s immobilization. She knelt weakly on the ground, her face flushed, veins bulging everywhere, and she kept coughing and gasping.
Staring at her own shadow on the ground with trembling eyes, the fear in Dugu Yan’s heart surged into her brain. For a moment, she thought she was really going to be strangled to death by her own shadow.
Lü Buliang took back the three spirit rings, secretly relieved, and then walked towards Dugu Yan, “Yanzi, you lost.”
Hearing this, the fear in Dugu Yan’s heart was replaced by unwillingness. Although she was weak, she stared at Lu Buliang with an extremely firm look, “I haven’t lost yet!”
As she spoke, she was about to stand up, but found that she could only kneel on the ground, unable to move her body, and her shadow was frozen again.
Dugu Yan gritted her teeth and stared at her own shadow with resentment. From today on, she wanted her shadow to disappear forever. She hated shadows the most in her life.
“Isn’t it just that you lost a soul fight? Are you really pushing yourself like this?” When the voice came out, Lü Buliang was already squatting in front of Dugu Yan and asked, “Haven’t you ever lost before?”
Dugu Yan was still panting, with a deep mark on her neck. She calmed down for a while before she responded, “What are you so proud of, Lu Buliang? I will poison you to death next time!”
“Next time? You will lose no matter how many times. Don’t you understand yet? There is a difference between the actual combat class fighting spirit and the fighting spirit in the big fighting spirit arena. The purpose of the actual combat class fighting spirit is to find each other’s shortcomings, not to compete for superiority. Through the fighting spirits these days, I found that my disadvantage is that my talent is not as good as yours. And your disadvantage is that you are not proficient in controlling your soul power.”
Lu Buliang said seriously, “If you are skilled in controlling your soul power and know how to distribute it, you can purposefully increase or weaken the toxicity of a certain area in a large-scale poisonous fog, thereby reducing the consumption of soul power. Haven’t you discovered this flaw of yours until now? You should first master the control of your soul power instead of foolishly competing with others.”
“Lü Buliang, stop preaching in front of me.” Dugu Yan said nonchalantly, “If there is a next time, I will poison your mouth first.”
“Come on, I’m tired of hearing that.” Lu Buliang sneered, “In terms of soul power, you are better than me. But in terms of combat quality, you are not as good as me. In terms of mentality, you are not as good as me. In terms of the use of soul skills and the control of soul power, there is also a big gap between us.”
Lu Buliang smiled and said, “Why? You can’t beat me in anything, so how can you poison my mouth? And how can you beat me?”
Every word was so plain, but to Dugu Yan it sounded like thunder, and every word pierced her heart. The unwillingness and sense of failure stimulated her competitive spirit, and there were more red veins in her eyes.
Dugu Yan wanted to argue and refute, but what Lu Buliang said were all facts and she could not find any reason to refute. She could only listen to the winner talking like a loser.
If I was right, how could I lose? And I lost twice in a row.
There were some tears in Dugu Yan’s eyes. Her life had been almost smooth sailing since she was a child, so the failure was a bigger blow to her than to others.
How could a genius who has never experienced setbacks feel good when she now has to face failures one after another?
Looking at Dugu Yan’s helpless and embarrassed appearance with tears in her eyes, Lu Buliang sighed, “It’s fine to be persistent in winning. But people should face failure bravely. Losing is losing, what does it mean?”
“More practice!”
