Long Jian walked down from the soul fighting stage and saw Zhu Zhuqing already waiting at the exit.
"How did it go?" A smile appeared in Long Jian's eyes.
"It multiplied tenfold," Zhu Zhuqing said with a radiant smile, though her eyes still retained a lingering trace of shock.
"That's good!" Long Jian smiled and prepared to leave the Great Soul Arena.
Suddenly, a middle-aged man wearing a suit and gold-rimmed glasses blocked the path of Long Jian and Zhu Zhuqing.
"If you two could spare a moment." The middle-aged man wore a smiling expression and bowed respectfully, his manners quite meticulous.
"Something the matter?" Zhu Zhuqing's expression instantly turned cold, her gaze filled with indifference as she looked at the middle-aged man.
At this moment, not a trace of the gentleness she had shown Long Jian remained in her eyes.
Just now, the middle-aged man had seen Zhu Zhuqing and Long Jian conversing. He had originally thought she might be the gentle type, but who could have imagined she would turn into an iceberg in an instant.
The middle-aged man offered an awkward smile.
"My surname is Ao. You may simply call me Manager Ao."
Manager Ao bowed to Long Jian once more.
Long Jian's code name in the Great Soul Arena was "Reincarnation". He had chosen it to commemorate his previous life.
Seeing Manager Ao act like this, Long Jian found it hard to flatly refuse. Treat others with courtesy, and they will return it in kind.
Status aside! Even though he possessed power that surpassed this world, bringing Douluo Continent under his control with his current level of three and a half hetero-energies wouldn't even take three days.
Yet he was not a slave to power. Power was merely his tool! And as for ruling, he had very little interest in it!
Zhu Zhuqing had kept her attention focused on Long Jian the entire time. Seeing the subtle changes in his expression, she instantly understood that Long Jian intended to have a chat with the Manager Ao before them.
"Manager Ao, if you have something to say, feel free to speak directly!" Long Jian said with a light smile, raising a hand to signal that Manager Ao could begin.
However, Manager Ao looked around to the left and right.
"Mr. Reincarnation, and this young lady, why don't we find a quiet place to talk?"
Long Jian stared into Manager Ao's eyes and, seeing no malice there, agreed.
"Alright."
Inside a VIP room of the Great Soul Arena.
"Mr. Reincarnation, please sit!" Manager Ao gestured, yielding the main seat to Long Jian with a beaming smile.
Fragrant tea had already been placed on the table, obviously prepared in advance.
After waiting for both Long Jian and Zhu Zhuqing to take a light sip of the tea, Manager Ao spoke with a smile: "Mr. Reincarnation, I wonder if you have any interest in permanently stationing yourself on the soul fighting stage of our Soto City Great Soul Arena?"
"For every match you win, our Great Soul Arena is willing to pay one thousand Gold Soul Coins as compensation."
Hearing this, Long Jian pondered the implications for a moment. Then he slowly shook his head. "Sorry, I'm just passing by. It just so happened that I ran out of gold coins, which is why I came here in the first place!"
Manager Ao's mouth twitched. He was left speechless that Long Jian had participated in soul fighting with such a motive. A quasi-Spirit Elder challenging a high-level Spirit Ancestor was one thing, but to win so effortlessly was another.
Still, he wasn't too disappointed. Even if business doesn't work out, relations should remain intact. Judging by his age, Long Jian was only around twelve or thirteen. Befriending such a super genius could never be wrong.
Moreover, although Long Jian had won, their Great Soul Arena still made a killing. After all, in that match, almost everyone had placed their bets on the Spirit Ancestor. Only a fat man doing business in Soto City had happened to bet on Long Jian, earning fifty thousand Gold Soul Coins.
"Won't Mr. Reincarnation reconsider?" Manager Ao asked tentatively.
Long Jian shook his head, his attitude resolute.
Manager Ao sighed. "It seems our Soto City Great Soul Arena doesn't have the fortune. Since Mr. Reincarnation is not interested, it would not be proper for me to force the matter!"
"This is a VIP card we wish to present to Mr. Reincarnation. It can be used in any Great Soul Arena other than Spirit City!"
With that, Manager Ao took out a black card printed with seven different family emblems and handed it to Long Jian with both hands.
Long Jian accepted it and nodded with a smile.
"Many thanks, Manager Ao!"
"If there is nothing else, we will be leaving."
"I'll see you out!" Manager Ao immediately stood up to escort them.
After Long Jian left, Manager Ao's expression returned to calm. He summoned an attendant and said indifferently: "Remember every single feature of this person, don't miss the slightest detail."
"In the future, whenever he comes to our Great Soul Arena, set his odds to one-to-one!"
Hearing this, the attendant instinctively asked: "Manager, why don't we just ban this person from gambling altogether?"
Manager Ao looked at the attendant as if he were an idiot.
"Read more books when you have free time!"
"If you speak without using your brain like that again, you can pack your things and leave!"
With that, Manager Ao turned and walked away.
Not long after Long Jian and Zhu Zhuqing left, they bumped into Ning Rongrong on a commercial street—the very same Ning Rongrong they had parted ways with at Shrek Academy that morning.
"Rongrong?"
Through the floor-to-ceiling glass, Zhu Zhuqing locked eyes with Ning Rongrong, who was eating a piece of cake.
Ning Rongrong had just been about to put the cake into her mouth when she saw Zhu Zhuqing and Long Jian walking over. Her movements stopped abruptly, and an unnatural, awkward smile appeared on her face.
Setting the cake down, Ning Rongrong dropped a few Gold Soul Coins and hurried outside.
"What a coincidence! Haha..."
Seeing Ning Rongrong's unnatural smile, Zhu Zhuqing immediately felt suspicious.
"Rongrong, what did the Dean keep you behind for earlier?"
The sun was blazing, and fine sweat began to bead on Ning Rongrong's forehead.
"This... this..."
Ning Rongrong's first instinct was to try and lie her way through it. But seeing that both Zhu Zhuqing and Long Jian wore serious expressions, she sighed.
"That Dean Flender gave me a task. He made me and Oscar run twenty laps around the academy!"
"Twenty laps, do you have any idea what that means?"
"Even Dai Mubai looked like he was about to die from it. How is a support-system Spirit Master like me supposed to handle that?"
"So you snuck out?" Zhu Zhuqing asked with a suspicious look in her eyes.
"I honestly couldn't run anymore!" Ning Rongrong pouted.
As for Ning Rongrong, Long Jian knew a thing or two about her. He offered no comment on the matter. Ning Rongrong and those people from Shrek belonged to two completely different worlds.
Ning Rongrong glanced stealthily at Long Jian. Seeing that he remained silent, she said in a low voice, "Long Jian, do you think I'm in the wrong too?"
"Rongrong, you probably didn't tell Dean Flender when you came out, did you?" Long Jian smiled.
Ning Rongrong nodded.
"Flender vanished in the blink of an eye, and I didn't know where to look for him anyway."
"Besides, if I had told him, he never would have let me out."
"The outside world is dangerous, Rongrong. You can't just ignore these things simply because you belong to the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School." Long Jian warned.
Though Ning Rongrong felt his words were a bit unnecessary, she still took them to heart.