If Agravaine's battle armor ended up wrecked, he would certainly make Mu Chen foot the bill for a new set.
His liver was already aching at the thought.
High above, Cai Yue'er had clearly sensed something was wrong. She watched Agravaine's all-or-nothing stance, a flash of fear crossing her eyes, yet she still forced herself to scream: "Agravaine, have you lost your mind? What do you possibly gain from destroying your battle armor?!"
"Think about what happens to Skysea City if this keeps up!"
"So what." Agravaine's voice came through the battle armor, cold and unyielding, brooking no argument.
Arthur was his line in the sand.
"You're going to pay for this, even if I have to sink all of Skysea!"
His wings beat violently. The phantom of the Light Dragon Sparrow let out a cry that shook the heavens, and every speck of light in the surrounding sky vanished, converging into a single point: his ninth soul skill, Dragon Sparrow Sky Strike.
Arthur felt the world around her go dark for an instant, and she grabbed Mu Ye's sleeve with both hands. "Holy crap, Uncle is actually furious! Skysea City is done for!"
"It's fine," Mu Ye said with easy confidence. "I'll step in."
Cai Yue'er's expression shifted violently. She could no longer afford to hold anything back. The lunar power of the Silver Moon Battle Armor erupted in full.
Two extremes of energy, one gold and one silver, crashed together with a thunderous roar. The sky above Skysea City was instantly torn open, a massive void ripping through the air, a black chasm that stared down at the city below like an abyss.
"Energy readings are..." The monitoring personnel at the naval garrison were so terrified they collapsed where they stood. "The barrier is broken! Skysea City is in danger!"
Inside City Hall, the faces of the council members had gone ashen. Someone screamed: "Now! Get the Federal Army to fire the soul guidance cannons and intercept the shockwave! Protect the civilians, no matter what it takes!"
"There's no time..."
In the distance, Ya Li had rushed toward the battle zone the moment the two clashed. Under normal circumstances, she could have been there in under a second.
But she had been intercepted.
A tall, curvaceous figure stepped into her path: Leng Yaozhu.
"Long time no see," Leng Yaozhu said, her smile not quite reaching her eyes as she looked at Ya Li.
She had come to see Na'er and had not expected to stumble into quite this spectacle.
Cai Yue'er... how interesting.
"Indeed, it has been a while. The Heavenly Phoenix Douluo is as striking as ever."
Ya Li's gaze moved past Leng Yaozhu toward the expanding black void above Skysea City, her brow furrowing slightly.
That was the direction of Skysea City's west station. She worked out what had happened in an instant.
"Cai Yue'er was the one in the wrong, but the people of Skysea City are innocent. I ask that you stand aside, Vice-Pagoda Master Leng."
"Still as kindhearted as ever," Leng Yaozhu said, red lips curving into a faint, mocking smile. "Don't worry. Someone's keeping an eye on things over there. Nothing will go wrong."
"That said, anyone who dares lay a hand on our Spirit Pagoda will pay a price for it."
There was another expert?
In an instant, Ya Li found herself worrying about Cai Yue'er's safety instead.
"I still need to go and see for myself." Ya Li tried to go around Leng Yaozhu, only to find a tall, elderly figure had materialized behind her.
Huan Nao Douluo, Han Tianyi!
A ninety-eighth-ranked Super Douluo from the Body Sect, now working at the Spirit Pagoda after the sect's decline.
Mu Ye had talked him into it through sheer shamelessness.
He dipped his head slightly. "Your Holiness, the Holy Spirit Douluo, please wait a moment. Silver Moon will not be in any mortal danger."
They still needed to keep her alive for the ransom, after all.
"Oh, Cai Yue'er," Ya Li murmured. Even she could not help but feel a certain sympathy in that moment. Cai Yue'er's talent for stirring up trouble was truly as legendary as they said.
And above Skysea City, the clash between Agravaine's Dragon Sparrow Sky Strike and Cai Yue'er's Silver Moon power had reached its white-hot peak.
Spatial turbulence poured continuously from the black void. The Federal Army's soul guidance cannons had just been primed to fire when an invisible force bore down and suppressed them.
Mu Ye finally moved.
His figure flickered, and he was already in the sky, clad in his four-word battle armor. His soul power pressed toward the threshold of Limit Douluo.
He raised one hand and pressed down. Every last trace of chaos vanished in an instant, and Skysea City returned to stillness, as though everything that had just happened had been nothing but a collective dream.
"Dragon Sparrow, that's enough. Let it go," Mu Ye said, clapping Agravaine on the shoulder.
He turned to look at Cai Yue'er, and grinned. Agravaine had vented his anger. Now it was their turn.
"Silver Moon, you took it upon yourself to attack my disciple. How exactly are we going to settle that account?"
Cai Yue'er swept her gaze around, taking in the restored surroundings.
She looked back at Mu Ye, her expression caught between shock and disbelief.
"A four-word battle armor?!"
Every hair on her body stood on end. She had barely begun to react when Mu Ye appeared directly in front of her and pressed down lightly.
Cai Yue'er had no time to respond before all her fighting ability left her, and she crumpled to the ground.
Not long after, Leng Yaozhu and Han Tianyi, deciding the situation had settled sufficiently, followed Ya Li over to see what had become of things.
What met their eyes was a scene of baffling absurdity.
Cai Yue'er was curled up in a ball.
Four large men surrounded her, taking turns working her over with fists and feet, while Arthur stood to one side and photographed the proceedings with gleeful enthusiasm.
The damage was minimal. The humiliation was staggering.
Ya Li froze. She stared at Cai Yue'er being ground into the pavement, then glanced over at Arthur, who was holding up her soul communicator and snapping photos with great delight.
A flicker of sheer absurdity passed through her eyes. "This... this is what you meant by 'no mortal danger'?"
Leng Yaozhu and Han Tianyi turned their gazes elsewhere with perfectly blank expressions. They had not anticipated this particular development either.
Ya Li pressed a hand to her forehead and let out a long, helpless sigh.
At least no one was dead.
Feeling the humiliation had gone on long enough, Mu Ye dusted off his hands and gestured for Agravaine and the others to stop. "All right, all right. Don't break her. We still need her in one piece to pay up."
Agravaine withdrew his fist and gave a cold snort. "She's getting off easy."
If not for Shrek's backing, Cai Yue'er would have been dead long ago.
Cai Yue'er dragged herself upright, hair in disarray, a streak of blood at the corner of her mouth.
She looked at the faces around her, burning with shame and fury. "You... you've gone too far!"
Ignoring her impotent outrage, Mu Ye turned back to Ya Li. "Your Holiness, you should head back for now."
"We'll be taking her with us. Once Shrek has the compensation ready, we can sit down and discuss the details at our leisure."
Ya Li studied the battered, disheveled Cai Yue'er, her brow creasing deeper.
After a brief hesitation, she raised her hand and released a gentle current of sacred healing energy, letting it settle over Cai Yue'er to ease the pain of her surface wounds.
"Regarding compensation, I will contact Shrek's Sea God Pavilion immediately. You will have an answer within three days."
"I take the Holy Spirit Douluo at her word," Mu Ye said, beaming. He had been fretting over the rare heavenly materials needed for Arthur to cultivate the innate body arts, and some of those treasures were difficult to track down even for him.
As Ya Li turned to leave, Leng Yaozhu glanced at Cai Yue'er, who was still gritting her teeth in speechless fury, and let out a quiet, melodic laugh. "Ha. How very entertaining."
Cai Yue'er's face flushed scarlet with rage.
Back at the soul guidance rail station, the members of Class Zero had just been boarding the train when the disturbance in the sky disappeared. A collective breath of relief passed through the group.
"That's over, right?" Xu Xiaoyan patted her chest. "That was terrifying. I actually thought the world was ending."
"Yes, it's over." Wu Changkong's cold gaze drifted toward the distance. "A stronger senior intervened and stopped it."
Xie Xie slapped his knee, his face still pale with lingering fright. "So that's what a Titled Douluo looks like. That's absolutely insane."
"Wait, where's Arthur?!" Xu Xiaoyan suddenly cried out. Only now did she realize Arthur had quietly vanished from the group at some point.