The Shock of an Effortless Kill

"Re... reforged?"

Huo Wu muttered the term, her mind in complete chaos. She looked at the crimson firefly-like particles of incomparably pure Fire Attribute energy drifting slowly through the air, then at Zhang Bufan beside her, who wore an expression that said, "I just did something minor," before glancing around at her brother, teachers, and friends, all frozen as though struck by a paralysis spell...

An absurd yet incomparably real thought exploded in her mind like thunder—

That Six-Thousand-Year Lava Lizard that had driven her, her brother, and the two Soul Emperor teachers into despair... Zhang Bufan had... casually... erased it?!

Not defeated. Not killed. It had been completely... erased from existence?!

How... how was that possible?!

How could a human Soul Master possess such power?! This had utterly surpassed her understanding of what it meant to be "powerful"! Could a Titled Douluo do this? Probably... not so effortlessly, right?!

"Y-you... who exactly are you?!" Huo Wushuang struggled to lean against the rock wall, his voice hoarse and filled with undisguised horror as he asked the question on everyone's mind. He had known Zhang Bufan was strong before, but he had assumed he was at most Soul Douluo-level, perhaps capable of contending against a Titled Douluo through some secret technique or unusual Martial Soul. But what he had just witnessed had completely shattered his worldview!

Zhang Bufan turned to look at the uncertain Huo Wushuang, as well as the two teachers and Team Members staring intensely at him. He rubbed his chin, seemingly troubled. "Me? I'm Zhang Bufan, an ordinary student of Heaven Dou Royal Academy. Oh, I guess now I'm... an ordinary student who can fight a little better?"

An ordinary student? A little better at fighting?

Everyone looked at him, their eyes seemingly saying, "Do we look like idiots to you?"

Teacher Chen took several deep breaths before barely suppressing the storm raging within him. He walked up to Zhang Bufan and solemnly bowed, his tone carrying unprecedented reverence. "Z-Zhang... Senior... thank you for saving our lives just now!" He had directly changed the way he addressed him to "Senior."

Teacher Li and the other Team Members came to their senses as well and quickly bowed. Their gazes toward Zhang Bufan were filled with gratitude and lingering fear. If Zhang Bufan had not intervened just now, Huo Wu would certainly have died, and their entire team likely would have faced disaster.

Zhang Bufan casually waved a hand. "Ah, Teacher Chen, you're too polite. It was nothing more than a small effort. Besides, protecting Wu'er is my responsibility." He naturally tried to establish a connection again.

Huo Wu finally recovered from her overwhelming shock and the relief of surviving a disaster. She looked at Zhang Bufan, her emotions incomparably complicated. There was gratitude, shock, curiosity, and also a... difficult-to-describe sense of security. It felt as though, as long as he was by her side, she would not need to be afraid even if the sky came crashing down.

"Th-thank you," she said softly, her voice still trembling slightly.

Zhang Bufan grinned at her. "Why are you being polite with me?" His gaze shifted to the pure energy in the air. "Stop spacing out and absorb it already. There isn't much of this energy, at least in terms of Soul Ring age, but the quality's decent. Don't waste it."

Only then did Huo Wu remember the important matter at hand. She hurriedly calmed herself, sat cross-legged, and began guiding the ownerless, pure Fire Attribute Soul Power Essence in the air into her body.

Because this Soul Power Essence had been directly "purified" by Zhang Bufan, it contained no lingering will or impurities. Absorbing it went extraordinarily smoothly, even more easily than absorbing an ordinary thousand-year Soul Ring. Vast energy poured into her body, pushing her Soul Power Level rapidly upward toward the level-forty bottleneck!

The others gathered around her, guarding her vigilantly while still unable to resist stealing glances at the young man who had returned to sit on a boulder and was once again staring boredly at the sky.

The atmosphere remained strangely quiet.

Everyone's hearts were filled with countless questions and shocks.

Huo Wushuang looked at his sister absorbing Soul Power, then at Zhang Bufan, his gaze incredibly complicated. He finally understood why Zhang Bufan had been so arrogant earlier and why he had dared call him "Brother-in-law." He had not been boasting at all. He truly possessed the strength to regard them as nothing!

His previous vigilance, warnings, and even hostility must have seemed as laughable as a child's babbling in the other man's eyes, right?

A profound sense of helplessness and... a trace of inexplicable relief welled up in his heart. He was helpless before the chasm-like gap between them; relieved because... at least Zhang Bufan seemed to genuinely care for Wu'er?

The two teachers were equally unsettled. They had lived for most of their lives and considered themselves well-traveled. They had even seen several Titled Douluo from afar. Yet they had never heard of anyone like Zhang Bufan, whose methods were so inconceivable and whose level of power so far beyond comprehension!

"Senior..." Teacher Chen hesitated, but he could not help asking, "That Lava Lizard just now..."

Zhang Bufan seemed to know what he wanted to ask and lazily interrupted, "Oh, that thing? Nothing special. It was just a little strong and thick-skinned. I recently learned a move called Space Compression, so I used it to test it out. The result wasn't bad." He casually made something up, attributing the effects of Nine Cauldrons Power to some kind of spatial Soul Skill.

Space Compression?!

Everyone sucked in a cold breath! Power involving space was one of the legendary supreme Rules! No wonder it had been so terrifying!

Although this explanation was still astonishing, it at least gave them something within the bounds of their understanding—or so they thought. The shock in their hearts eased ever so slightly... as if! They were still completely stunned! What kind of concept was a Soul Master capable of wielding spatial power?!

Seeing their expressions of "so that's how it is, but he's still incredible," Zhang Bufan laughed inwardly. He could not be bothered to explain further and yawned. "Alright, stop overthinking it. Once Huo Wu finishes absorbing it, we'll head back. This place... well, something seems a little off."

He had sensed that obscure yet immense scorching energy underground long ago. After the Lava Lizard had been erased, that energy seemed to have stirred.

However, his warning had still come a step too late.

Or rather, the existence underground had already been thoroughly enraged by the repeated disturbances!

Just as Huo Wu was about to complete her absorption, successfully break through to level forty, and begin condensing a Purple Soul Ring—

"Rumble—!!!"

The entire Rocky Beach—no, the ground throughout the whole area—suddenly shook and collapsed violently! It was ten times, a hundred times more intense than the tremors caused by the Lava Lizard!

It was as though some colossal creature was about to burst out from beneath the earth!

"What's happening?!"

"An earthquake?!"

"No! Something's coming out!"

The faces of everyone from Blazing Fire Academy changed drastically, and the fear they had only just suppressed rose into their throats again! They barely steadied themselves and stared at the ground in terror.

The ground a hundred meters ahead cracked apart inch by inch like a fragile eggshell. A suffocating heatwave and a pressure countless times more terrifying than that of the Lava Lizard surged skyward like an erupting volcano!

Rocks flew everywhere, and magma roared forth!

Before everyone's horrified eyes, an incomparably massive and savage head, covered in dark golden scales and burning with raging hellfire, suddenly thrust out from the shattered earth! That head alone was even larger than the entire body of the previous Lava Lizard!

Its enormous eyes, like lakes of molten lava, swept over the people on the ground as if they were ants, filled with endless violence and destruction. At last, its gaze settled upon Huo Wu, who had just condensed her Purple Soul Ring and whose aura had yet to stabilize completely.

Clearly, the pure Fire Attribute energy stirred by Huo Wu's breakthrough had attracted this terrifying existence slumbering deep underground!

"Roar—!!!!!"

A roar that seemed to come from the depths of hell made everyone's eardrums bleed and their souls tremble!

Teacher Chen's face went bloodless. His voice warped from extreme fear as he screamed:

"A... a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast! It's the Earth Fire Dragon King!! It has at least twenty thousand years of cultivation! Run!!!"

Despair swallowed everyone in an instant like an icy tide.

Before a top-tier twenty-thousand-year Soul Beast comparable to a human Soul Douluo or even an ordinary Titled Douluo, they could not summon even the slightest thought of resistance!

The Soul Ring Huo Wu had just condensed became unstable beneath the terrifying pressure. Her face turned pale as she looked at the hellfire dragon head pressing down like a mountain. She could not even move a step.

Huo Wushuang's eyes nearly split apart as he tried to rush forward and protect his sister, but the overwhelming pressure pinned him firmly in place, leaving him unable to move.

At this even more perilous moment of absolute desperation!

That lazy voice, carrying a trace of impatience, rang clearly in everyone's ears once again. It seemed to hold some strange magic, instantly dispersing part of their fear.

"Tch, does this never end? I can't even take a nap in peace."

Everyone followed the sound.

At some point, Zhang Bufan had already risen to his feet, a trace of displeasure on his face at having been disturbed. With a light leap, he landed in front of Huo Wu, completely shielding her behind his back—a back that was not particularly broad, yet at that moment seemed capable of holding up the entire sky.

Facing the Earth Fire Dragon King rushing at him with a World-destroying aura, he did not even summon his Martial Soul.

He merely raised his right hand as though swatting away a fly and casually waved it toward that enormous dragon head brimming with terrifying energy.

It was the same motion he had used to erase the Lava Lizard before.

But this time, the result was even more soul-shaking!

The Earth Fire Dragon King, which had lunged into midair with boundless ferocity, suddenly halted as though it had slammed into an invisible, absolutely impassable barrier!

Its destructive breath had yet to be unleashed, and its claws, capable of ripping mountains apart, had yet to descend.

Yet beneath Zhang Bufan's seemingly weightless wave, its indestructible dark golden scales began to melt and disintegrate inch by inch, starting from its head, like snow and ice beneath sunlight!

There was no explosion, no deafening roar.

There was only absolute erasure on the level of Rules.

The Earth Fire Dragon King—a top-tier Soul Beast with twenty thousand years of cultivation and strength comparable to a Titled Douluo—vanished before everyone's eyes from head to tail, more completely and silently than the Lava Lizard had.

Not even a speck of dust remained.

It was as though its earth-shaking entrance had been nothing more than a dream.

Between heaven and earth, only that unimaginably pure and ocean-like torrent of Fire Attribute energy essence flowed silently, proving that everything which had just happened was not an illusion.

Zhang Bufan withdrew his hand, patted away dust that did not exist, then turned toward the crowd, who had been completely petrified and whose thoughts had utterly stopped. He revealed a slightly apologetic smile.

"Sorry, my hand slipped."

"..."

"..."

"..."

The entire area sank into an even deeper, deathlier silence than before.

Everyone's minds had completely crashed.

The way they looked at Zhang Bufan had changed from gazing upon a god... to looking upon...

Some kind of... incomprehensible, indescribable... supreme existence!

He... he had just... casually... waved away... a twenty-thousand-year... Earth Fire Dragon King?!

And his hand had... slipped?!