Master and Disciple's Battle (Part 2)

After You Chen closed in, Dragon Transformation Wings folded away. After all, it was a massive drain on Soul Power.

His Soul Power was now nearing that of a Soul King, which was sufficient, but at the Soul Elder stage, he still could not afford to squander it.

Yet they appeared once more. As his first soul ring lit up, a layer of cyan energy seemed to cover the dragon wings' surface.

First Soul Skill, Wind Wing Blade!

Colloquially—or rather, as You Chen himself preferred to call it—"wing attack"!

Back when he had possessed the Wind Hatchling Dragon, he had not had the ability to form Dragon Transformation Wings. At the time, this had merely been an ordinary soul skill that condensed wind energy into illusory wings to attack enemies.

It was practically copied from Wang Dong, the former female lead of Douluo 2, and her Wing Guillotine, except for the different name and attribute.

Its power, however, was far inferior.

But after You Chen gained Dragon Transformation Wings, things became completely different.

When Wind Wing Blade was used in this state, both its power and speed reached the level of a thousand-year soul skill!

Yan steadied himself with his arm guards and pulled back. Seeing You Chen's first soul ring light up and dragon wings emerge, his second soul ring lit up as well.

It was not perfectly timed through calculation. It was more like a coincidence—the lava-soil layer rising from the ground happened to collide with You Chen as he charged forward at high speed.

A defensive soul skill turned into an offensive one, sending You Chen flying straight into the air.

Yan stared at the soaring You Chen, inevitably stunned for a moment. But as someone tempered in the Soul Arena, he quickly regained his senses and realized this was an opportunity he absolutely could not miss.

He raised his right arm. The cannon muzzle that had collapsed from disordered Soul Power control during You Chen's first attack condensed once again.

Then his first soul ring lit up, and a perfect Hell Lava Bullet shot forth.

Boom!

A direct hit. Smoke and dust billowed!

A figure fell from the sky.

"Cough, cough."

Brushing aside the dust, You Chen appeared, looking somewhat disheveled.

His face darkened as he stared at Yan, making Yan's scalp tingle. Then he said, "I've been sitting around in classrooms and laboratories for too long. My bones have gotten rusty. I actually forgot you still had a second soul skill..."

As Yan's mastery over Shape Transformation improved, he used Lava Barrier less and less, since its cost-effectiveness was far below that of Yan Armor.

When You Chen tried to recall the last time Yan had used this move during one of their sparring sessions, he had to search through memories from a year ago.

But it was not the same for Yan.

This soul skill had poor Soul Power efficiency, and the ground gave slight warning signs when the lava-soil wall rose, so it could not possibly deceive his own teacher. That was why he almost never used it.

However, when he fought others in soul battles, this move was far from obsolete.

So when You Chen charged in again just now, Yan did not think much about it and reflexively used this seemingly foolish move.

Instead, the fool had defeated the expert, launching You Chen into the air with a single strike.

Because of that, Yan was not proud in the slightest. Instead, he scratched the back of his head rather sheepishly. "I was just lucky."

You Chen raised an eyebrow at that. At least this guy had not said it while rubbing his nose, or he might really have been unable to resist punching his stupid disciple.

With an irritated expression, he said, "Enough. Don't act smug after getting the advantage. You won this round."

"Huh?"

Yan froze and asked in confusion, "But Teacher, don't you still have full fighting capability?"

Yan was confident in the power of that Hell Lava Bullet, but it was still far from enough to directly inflict the amount of damage You Chen had set under their restrictions.

One side had consumed more Soul Power, while the other had theoretically suffered greater injury.

The outcome was far from decided. If anything, the odds were still even.

You Chen said somewhat unhappily, "I accidentally used a bit of power beyond the rules just now. According to our agreement, that naturally means I lost."

When You Chen sparred with Yan at the Soul Elder stage, the restrictions included not only Soul Power Level and third and fourth soul skills, but also a hidden constraint: his martial soul.

Yan had always sparred against him while he used the Stardust Young Dragon martial soul. He could not just use power at the Stardust Dragon level without discussing it first, could he?

But how could it be easy to precisely suppress the martial soul's power to its pre-evolution level? If not for someone as knowledgeable as You Chen, it would have been impossible even to judge how much power should be suppressed.

While being blasted away just now, You Chen had instinctively used more power than he should have. Under those rules, it naturally counted as his defeat.

Yet upon hearing this, Yan felt somewhat uncomfortable.

Over the past several years, this had been the moment when he had felt closest to truly defeating his teacher.

What he wanted was not a victory that seemed to have been handed to him!

But a teacher's command could not be defied. You Chen's authority had long been deeply ingrained in Yan's heart. Yan felt that even if his strength surpassed his teacher's by far in the future, he would probably still not dare resist his teacher's authority.

Watching Yan fall into disappointment over this "bestowed victory," You Chen narrowed his eyes and said in a low voice, "Did winning against me once make you think your wings have hardened? So what if you won? During that battle just now, do you think your performance was perfect? Hm?"

Seeing You Chen enter strict-teacher mode, Yan shuddered. "I wouldn't dare! This disciple would never think such a thing, Teacher!"

Ignoring Yan's bitter expression, You Chen pulled him along and quickly began reviewing the battle.

This had already become a habit cultivated between master and disciple.

Even with Yan's pig brain, years of accumulated experience had taught him some flexibility. Otherwise, this fellow probably would not even have been able to devise his previous tactics.

By now, Yan's combat thinking was incomparable to what it had once been. Among his peers, it could be said that no one surpassed him.

Combined with his proven formidable strength, he had faintly become the leader of the three members of Spirit Hall Golden Generation.

By now, no one questioned You Chen's teaching ability any longer.

Especially since Hu Liena's abilities in every aspect were inferior to Yan's.

With the comparison before them, many Spirit Hall members privately believed that You Chen's teaching ability far surpassed the Pope's.

Normally, however, this would not affect the Pope's authority. After all, the Pope's primary duty was not theory or education, so there was no issue with him being inferior to Spirit Hall's professors and lecturers in those areas.

But everyone with eyes knew what had happened when You Chen was previously ostracized.

It amounted to the Pope failing to recognize talent, then suppressing a capable subordinate, which did damage the Pope's reputation.

Still, Spirit Hall's power struggles had not yet affected this master and disciple pair.

The atmosphere between them remained pure and harmonious, filled only with a pure pursuit of knowledge and wisdom, martial souls and strength.