Showing His Edge

Liu Suxin rushed forward at once and instantly activated her Healing-type Soul Skill. A gentle light immediately enveloped Xie Yue's entire body.

His partially caved-in chest recovered at an astonishing speed, and his breathing gradually steadied.

Hu Liena followed Liu Suxin onto the arena and rushed straight to Xie Yue. She was nearly frantic with worry!

Fortunately, Liu Suxin's healing ability was no joke, and Xie Yue was quickly out of danger. Hu Liena's worry eased a little.

Although Xie Yue had recovered from his physical injuries, however, his spirits had taken a heavy blow, and his face was as pale as a sheet of paper.

Liu Suxin could tell at a glance that his confidence had been shattered.

"Sigh..."

It was hardly surprising. Anyone would have lost confidence after being utterly beaten by a new student, a Soul Master who had only just reached level eleven, despite being a whole major realm above him.

Hu Liena saw Xie Yue's condition too. Alongside her heartache, her eyes were now filled with deep regret.

Had she known, she would rather have gone against her brother's wishes and fought Zhou You herself.

At that thought, Hu Liena abruptly turned around, only for Liu Suxin to call her to a halt.

"Xiao Na, what are you doing?!"

Hu Liena stopped and turned her head. Her eyes were slightly red and filled with tears, and her face was furious.

"I'm going to challenge him!"

"Nonsense!" Liu Suxin frowned slightly, her tone much sterner. "Isn't looking after your brother the most important thing for you right now?"

She could allow students to spar with one another, but she could not allow them to use the arena as a place to settle personal grudges.

Perhaps moved by Liu Suxin's words, Hu Liena cast Zhou You a resentful glance, the anger in her eyes undiminished. Even so, she turned back and helped Xie Yue up.

"Brother..."

"Nana." Xie Yue seemed to respond after hearing his sister's voice. He looked over with lifeless eyes, a bitter smile on his face.

"I... lost."

"Brother, you didn't lose!" Hu Liena said loudly.

"He beat me head-on twice. I lost miserably when he wasn't using a Soul Skill, and I lost even more miserably when he did."

Xie Yue lowered his head, his face bitter. "I'm a Soul Grandmaster. I was a whole major realm above him, and even after using two Soul Skills, I couldn't overpower him. He beat me. If that's not losing, what is?"

Hu Liena was speechless. She only bit her lower lip tightly, unsure how to comfort him.

Liu Suxin shook her head as well. The match had gone completely beyond her expectations. She had never imagined that, although there was indeed an enormous gap between the two, Xie Yue would be the one at a disadvantage, and by no small margin.

This was hardly an assessment of Zhou You. It was plainly Zhou You reviewing the results of the "old students'" cultivation.

Now that things had come to this, the assessment was naturally over. Zhou You had no intention of going over to rub it in, so he simply dismissed his Martial Soul.

He hadn't deliberately struck so hard. It was just that the Soul Skill could only be used that way: either he didn't release it, or he released it all at once. There was no room to hold back.

To make sure he won in a single strike, he had deliberately let the Heaven- and Earth-Harmonizing Umbrella build up its full strength. After all, his opponent was a major realm above him; that was the least respect he could show.

He simply hadn't expected that one blow to nearly cost his opponent his life. He still wasn't good at judging how much force to use.

At that moment, Yan slipped over and looked at Zhou You with admiration written all over his face.

"Boss, you're amazing! You even managed to knock that stuck-up Xie Yue flat." Then he grinned. "But you beat Xie Yue, and now Nana has her eye on you."

"Nana?" Zhou You asked, despite knowing full well who he meant.

Yan turned his head, his lovestruck gaze following that graceful figure as he murmured, "Hu Liena. Look, isn't she beautiful?"

Zhou You followed his gaze, only to see a pair of resentful, angry phoenix eyes glaring daggers at him.

Just then, Yan seemed to realize something. He suddenly turned and gave Zhou You a highly wary look. "Boss, you don't have designs on Nana, do you? A brother's wife is off-limits!"

"Oh, give me a break!" Zhou You smacked him on the back of the head.

You little squirt, who knows what kind of stuff you've got in your head all day? What, do you have some Evil Fire you need to let out too?

Hu Liena looked only a year older than Zhou You, a genuine elementary schooler. He really had no interest in her; even thinking about it would be a crime.

"Hehe." Yan wasn't angry at being smacked. He held his head and grinned like a fool.

As long as no one tried to steal Nana from him, he didn't care about anything else.

Then he gazed at Hu Liena again with a lovesick, deeply devoted look, almost becoming a wife-watching stone...

Zhou You shook his head. What a fool. You like her, yet at a time like this, you don't even go over and try to win her favor. All you know how to do is stand here looking like a lovesick pig. No wonder that, in the original story, she'd rather stay single her whole life than spare you a glance.

By now, the people below the arena were already buzzing with discussion. Everyone was replaying the assessment they had just witnessed, if it could still be called an assessment.

"Damn! Who on earth is that kid? He's so fierce!"

"I heard he's a new student who only joined yesterday. They say he has Innate Full Soul Power."

"Innate Full Soul Power? Hiss! That really exists? I always thought it was a legend."

"You're showing how little you know. I heard there was another person with Innate Full Soul Power years ago, someone named Qian... something. Someone from the Elder Hall took him away on the spot."

"The Elder Hall? Isn't that a place only Titled Douluo can join?"

"So now you understand how valuable Innate Full Soul Power is, right? They've already got a Douluo lined up!"

"You mean this kid has what it takes to become a Douluo too?"

"Either way, I'd say his chances are better than yours."

"Damn it... so that's how you want to talk?"

The Soul Grandmasters' discussion focused on Zhou You's talent. In particular, they finally had a clear, concrete impression of an aptitude like "Innate Full Soul Power."

The Soul Elders, however, were thinking more deeply. They watched Zhou You with grave expressions, still pondering the moves he had just made.

They weren't particularly difficult moves, just ordinary combinations of punches and kicks, yet they had an entirely natural feel to them.

Every movement was incomparably smooth, flowing seamlessly into the next, to the point that Xie Yue's movements had seemed to be playing along with his.

As they watched from below, their attention had been drawn into the fight, and they hadn't seen the whole picture. Now, looking back, they were startled to realize that Zhou You had held the rhythm of the entire battle firmly in his hands.

His understanding of combat, his control over its rhythm, and the superb skill and confident mindset revealed in his every move all showed how extraordinary he was. He was by no means someone who could be summed up by "Innate Full Soul Power."

When it came to talent in innate soul power, Xie Yue and Yan weren't far behind. They were only a little short of full soul power, and they also had the advantage of an earlier start. Xie Yue was even a whole major realm ahead.

Yet the fight had turned out like this.

The more carefully the Soul Elders considered it, the more they sensed how peculiar Zhou You was. Their gazes began to fill with apprehension, wariness, and a little respect.

As geniuses themselves, they too began to acknowledge Zhou You's talent in combat.

Zhou You, however, paid no attention to what those people thought. He was talking to Liu Suxin.

"Teacher Liu, I went to our academy's library yesterday and found I couldn't get up to the second floor. Why is that?"

"The second floor holds knowledge that only Soul Ancestors and above need to study. Why? Do you want to read it?"

"I do!" Zhou You nodded. He had taken a quick look at the books on the first floor yesterday and found that they mostly contained scattered bits of knowledge that had never been systematically organized.

Quite a few were the personal notes of Rogue Soul Masters, mostly recording their individual insights into cultivation and some techniques for dealing with enemies.

Knowledge of hunting Soul Beasts and surviving in the wild was especially abundant, but the descriptions and understanding of Soul Beasts focused mainly on ten-year and hundred-year beasts, and the types covered were relatively common.

After picking out and reading quite a few books, he had only one impression: the Soul Masters who wrote them kept teaching their readers how to squeeze soft persimmons. What they recorded was highly practical knowledge, but also very dull.

In short, the contents were much the same as knowledge of wilderness survival, with very, very little that truly touched on Martial Souls themselves or the deeper questions of the cultivation system.