Huo Yuhao from The Peerless Tang Sect is incredibly talented.

The next day, Gu Tong faced off against Mu Yun.

The two people on stage exchanged a friendly glance, but in reality...

Mu Yun: We must perform well in this battle. If we lose, according to Dean Qian, for every battle we lose, our Soul Guidance Department will receive 10% more of the Martial Soul Department's resources. I'm destined to lose this battle!

Gu Tong: Shrek Academy? Pshaw, a bunch of outdated stuff. If I hadn't been so unlucky and drawn a losing draw, I wouldn't have had to think about how to admit defeat in a reasonable way. Long Aotian and the others lost too fake, too exaggerated.

In short, I'm destined to lose this match.

Referee Yan Shaozhe raised his hand, ready to begin.

Mu Yun took a deep breath, his fingers already touching the soul-guided ray gun at his waist.

After all, even losing is a skill. You can't lose too obviously, or the Spirit System will seize on it and accuse the Soul Guidance System of deliberately throwing the game.

Losing too quickly is uninteresting for the audience, and it won't look good for Dean Qian either. The best way to lose is a back-and-forth battle, where you're just one move behind in the end. Probe with a few shots first, pretend to be forced back by his dodges, then expose an opening for him to hit, then fall to the ground, then admit defeat—perfect.

Gu Tong was also aware of the situation.

The original sect's first few losses were too fake, so they need to lose more realistically to increase credibility.

His strategy was: first, test the waters a few times to observe the opponent's attack patterns, then find a reasonable opening so that the opponent's attack grazed his non-vital parts, and then concede defeat. The strategy was perfect.

Start!

As Yan Shaozhe announced the start of the battle, the two on the stage began their fight, with the loser being the winner.

Mu Yun raised his hand and fired a shot. The soul-guided ray shot out from the muzzle of his gun, and the blazing white beam drew a straight trajectory on the arena.

He deliberately deviated the trajectory by half an inch, causing the beam to graze past Gu Tong's left shoulder.

He missed, but it was a natural miss; after all, some error is normal when shooting at high speed. He silently gave himself an eight out of ten for his acting.

Gu Tong turned to the side, the movement not too big or too small, just enough to let the ray graz her shoulder.

While dodging, Gu Tong had already calculated the trajectory deviation of the bullet that the opponent had deliberately missed. She thought to herself, "This soul master from Shrek Academy is quite conscious; he predicted my movements."

To help others achieve their goals, Gu Tong cooperated by letting herself walk right into the line of fire.

Mu Yun's second shot followed immediately. This time, he aimed at Gu Tong's right leg and hit her.

Gu Tong's serious expression didn't seem fake. Wait, how come this guy kept hitting the target? Oh well, whatever, he'll give up after a few more shots.

Mu Yun fired three shots in quick succession, each hitting its mark.

He was already starting to wonder, how could the people from the Body Sect be so cooperative? Every shot I deliberately missed, but every shot they fired hit, it was as if they had rehearsed it beforehand.

I deliberately missed by half an inch with every shot, and he always hit the target perfectly, without even trying to dodge. His dodging posture was perfectly coordinated with my bullet trajectory.

This isn't right. A disciple of the Body Sect who could fight Ma Xiaotao and Dai Yueheng to that extent couldn't possibly fail to dodge these probing shots. Unless he didn't intend to dodge at all.

Does he want to lose too? No, impossible. He's from the Body Sect; given their nature, even if he loses, he'll have to beat me down first before he'll admit defeat.

Mu Yun kicked this absurd idea out of his mind and decided to adjust his tactics slightly.

He fired another shot, this time deliberately deviating the trajectory by a full two inches, so much so that even the audience could see that the shot was completely off-target.

Then he saw Gu Tong's body make an extremely subtle sideways movement, placing her shoulder directly in front of the ray trajectory.

A beam of blazing white light grazed his shoulder, adding another scorch mark to his clothes.

Mu Yun's eyes widened. Oh no! This guy was a competitor; it was only natural that he wanted to lose this time.

Gu Tong reached the exact same conclusion at the same moment.

His eyes caught the deviation of Mu Yun's fourth shot, which was two inches off.

He could understand the first three shots as being off by half an inch each as normal error in high-speed shooting.

But being two inches off is not an error; it's intentional, and intentional enough to make everyone realize it was intentional.

Furthermore, the other person's expression and mental state at this moment were not tense or excited, but rather a focused state exactly like his own, as if he were calculating how to lose gracefully.

Gu Tong cursed her bad luck inwardly. Not only had she drawn a losing draw, but she also had to run into someone else who wanted to lose.

The atmosphere in the ring became extremely subtle from that moment on.

Mu Yun stopped aiming at Gu Tong's vital points and instead began shooting at those seemingly important but actually easy-to-dodge positions: the flagpole at the edge of the arena, the stone slab at Gu Tong's feet, and the air three feet above Gu Tong's head.

Each shot was fired with tremendous force, the soul-guided rays exploding into bursts of blazing white flames on the arena, creating a visually stunning effect. Gu Tong, indulging his opponent, directly charged into the gun.

From the audience's perspective, Gu Tong is in grave danger.

But in reality, even Gu Tong's protective aura wasn't triggered.

Not to be outdone, Mu Yun released his mental energy, causing his shield to activate automatically twice. Each time, it was just enough to trigger the shield's sensing threshold, and just enough for the shield to flash briefly before going out.

To the audience below the stage, it appeared as if Mu Yun's shield was being repeatedly triggered by Gu Tong's mental attacks, creating a perilous situation.

It was a truly exhilarating battle, thrilling the audience. Shrek Academy was finally able to put up a fight with their opponents.

Long live Shrek Academy!

On the arena, Mu Yun was pretending to check the shield generator on his belt while keeping his head down. He secretly covered his mouth with his sleeve, gave Gu Tong a wink, and his lips moved silently: "Are you going to lose too?"

Gu Tong nodded almost imperceptibly.

Can we make a deal? Let me lose this match.

No, I have to lose too.

Under the cover of the laser lights on stage, the two exchanged messages frantically when no one was looking.

Both fell silent. Two people, neither wanting to win, stood face to face, neither able to find a reasonable solution that would allow the other to lose gracefully while also making their own defeat seem less contrived.

Gu Tong was the first to break the silence.

He looked at Mu Yun and offered a suggestion: "How about this, a reasonable surrender requires a reasonable mistake. I suggest we launch a simultaneous attack, and then both make a mistake on the final move."

"They fell to the ground at the same time?"

"Together, we concede defeat."

Mu Yun's eyes lit up. He went through the plan in his mind, assessing its feasibility, visual effects, and acceptability to both sides, and then nodded.

"make a deal."

A very faint dark red light film appeared on Gu Tong's right fingertip—protective qi gathered and adhered to his fingertip, so thin that it was almost invisible.

Instead of concentrating his inner energy on his fist, he compressed that small ball of energy to its maximum into a small space between his fingertips like a marble, slightly bent his finger, and aimed it at Mu Yun.

Mu Yun also raised his soul-guided ray gun, secretly adjusting the power to the lowest setting, and aimed the muzzle at Gu Tong's left shoulder.

The two stood facing each other at a solemn distance, their postures suggesting a life-or-death duel.

Then the compressed qi shot out from Gu Tong's fingertip, and with a snap, the shield shattered.

Because Mu Yun secretly adjusted the shield's trigger sensitivity to the lowest level, and at the same time detonated the miniature bomb disguised as a protective soul tool.

At the same time, Mu Yun's soul-guided ray struck Gu Tong's left chest. Gu Tong secretly used her strength to injure her left chest.

With a snap, the two fell to the ground simultaneously, and at the same time, the same thought popped into their heads.

That old cunning bastard, in order to lose gracefully and realistically, he's ruthless to himself.

One detonated a bomb at close range, while the other suffered a fatal blow to his own heart.

Huo Yuhao was the first to applaud, and the audience followed suit. It was truly a closely contested and exhilarating battle.

From the perspective of the audience, this battle was evenly matched.

What a perfect pair of brilliant minds! Huo Yuhao, sitting in the audience, saw right through their little scheme.

Huo Yuhao, I am a spirit-type soul master. I have cultivated in the outer heavens for ten thousand years and can read minds. This is perfectly reasonable.