A Sudden Crisis

"Xie Xie! What are you doing here?"

Feigning ignorance, Li Jinsheng said with a regretful look, "But your timing is terrible! I was just about to clear the field!"

Still lying on the ground, Xie Xie waved his hand and tried to ease the awkwardness. "Well... we were just passing by! Just passing by!"

His voice grew softer and softer, his confidence gradually fading. These Demon Wolves might not have been high-level Soul Beasts, but their cultivation was high—and there were so many of them!

"Gulp..."

Zhang Yangzi swallowed hard. Looking at the clearly inhuman figures before him, his body could not stop trembling.

"Wulin, what should we do now?" Wang Jinxi asked Tang Wulin beside him for help.

After staring blankly for a moment, Tang Wulin's gaze swept over the mess on the ground and the wolf pack surrounding them before finally settling on Li Jinsheng's somewhat bewitching appearance. His eyes were filled with complicated emotions.

He rose to his feet. "Prepare for battle. With our strength, there's no way we can escape!"

Xie Xie gripped the Guang Long Dagger and Ying Long Dagger in both hands, wearing a relaxed expression. "Li Jinsheng, let me show you the results of all my hard work these past few years!"

The four of them had already completed their assessment task and even killed that Man Faced Demon Spider, absorbing a great deal of spiritual energy. Every one of their Soul Rings had improved significantly.

"You sure you haven't been slacking off?!" Li Jinsheng asked calmly, striking right at Xie Xie's sore spot.

"How could I?! I would never slack off!" Xie Xie snapped, his face red. For some reason, he felt like Li Jinsheng's tongue had gotten a little sharper!

Was this his true personality?

"Really?" Li Jinsheng looked doubtful.

"Of course it's true!" Xie Xie felt as though he had been seen through completely. Li Jinsheng had been away from East Sea for so long—how did he know Xie Xie liked to slack off?

Watching the exchange between the two, Zhang Yangzi and Wang Jinxi stopped feeling so nervous. Their Soul Ring cultivation had long since been raised to the limit. Even if they were eliminated now, it would still have been well worth it!

Tang Wulin did not know how Xie Xie and Li Jinsheng had met, but one of them possessed a Thousand-Year Soul Ring while the other had a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Ring. Their talent was obvious.

Taking a deep breath, he said, "Those two must both be geniuses among geniuses. Everyone, give it everything you've got! Don't lose too badly!"

Gu Yue had also been watching Tang Wulin for quite some time. That faint Golden Dragon King aura could not possibly have been mistaken.

Nothing had happened yet. It seemed Di Tian and the others had not made their move!

"Charge!"

Tang Wulin intended to strike first. The other side was powerful, but he was not weak either. Taking the lead, he charged straight at them.

Behind him, Wang Jinxi's body swelled several sizes as the Bone Dragon King possessed him, like an enormous skeletal frame wrapped around his body.

Zhang Yangzi released his Martial Soul as well—the Dark Phantom Demon Eagle. A pair of black wings unfolded behind his back.

The two embraced. Wang Jinxi's body expanded further, while Zhang Yangzi silently merged into Wang Jinxi's body.

They transformed into a monster that resembled both dragon and eagle!

Martial Soul Fusion Skill—Dark Eagle Dragon!

Strands of Blue Silver Grass slithered forward, yet when they reached seven steps from Li Jinsheng, they no longer dared advance even an inch, as if facing some overwhelming terror!

Seeing this, Tang Wulin did not slow his charge. Starting from the fingertips of his right arm, a layer of fine golden Dragon Scales spread across it. His entire arm thickened by a full size—it was the Golden Dragon Claw, possessing a shattering effect.

The three revealed their respective trump cards, surrounding Li Jinsheng from both sides to attack him, while Xie Xie went off to receive a beating from Gu Yue!

Li Jinsheng could not help but chuckle. The Golden Dragon King's abilities were crude and simple, possessing the highest base stats on Douluo Continent. He wondered whether his years of training could withstand the power of Tang Wulin's first seal.

His left fist shot out, colliding directly with Tang Wulin's Golden Dragon Claw.

Tang Wulin's expression changed sharply. With his Soul Power at only level fifteen or sixteen, the Golden Dragon Claw had played a huge part in allowing him to gain a foothold in Zero Class.

He had never expected the other party's strength to surpass even his own!

But the Golden Dragon Claw's shattering property was not so easy to endure either!

Tang Wulin was sent flying several meters away, while Li Jinsheng merely took half a step back. His left hand was covered in savage wounds. Before the boy could catch his breath, the Dark Eagle Dragon charged out directly, pressing its advantage!

Li Jinsheng glanced at it before violently throwing a right punch. His strength was even greater than Tang Wulin's with the Golden Dragon Claw; he possessed the highest strength stat present.

The boom of the punch was deep and heavy. A crisp cracking sound rang out as iron-hard bones instantly shifted out of place. The entire creature was sent flying dozens of meters, only barely stopping after smashing through a towering tree.

The Dark Eagle Dragon slid down the trunk. Gravely injured, it released the Martial Soul Fusion Skill, and two heart-wrenching screams rang out from midair.

The stat monster once again displayed its stats.

Inside the observation room of the East Sea Spirit Pagoda, Wu Changkong could not help but stare blankly. Li Jinsheng had actually been able to confront Tang Wulin head-on in a contest of strength!

For a Summoning-type Spirit Master, physical strength was the greatest weakness—yet he had overcome it...

Then Wu Changkong looked toward Xie Xie's battle. That was even more like an old master toying with a child. No matter how fast Xie Xie was, he could not hit Gu Yue, who possessed Spatial Teleportation.

He was also held back by all kinds of Element attacks, with the rhythm of the battle entirely under Gu Yue's control.

Since when had East Sea produced these two geniuses?!

And with Wang Jinxi and Zhang Yangzi out of the fight, Tang Wulin and Li Jinsheng began a one-on-one battle between real men.

Tang Wulin looked at Li Jinsheng's left hand. After that punch just now, the other party's left hand should have been unusable. The advantage was still on his side.

But in the next moment, a flash of emerald light flickered over Li Jinsheng's left hand, and it completely recovered to its original state.

"What! He can heal himself too?" Tang Wulin was dumbfounded. How was he supposed to fight this? The damage he had worked so hard to inflict had just healed like that!

"I'm a Healing-type Spirit Master. Isn't it normal for me to know how to heal?!" Li Jinsheng was speechless. He was, after all, a Life Attribute Spirit Master. If he could not heal, wouldn't that disgrace all Life Attribute Spirit Masters?

Who neglected their actual job just to focus on a side hustle?

"Healing???" Tang Wulin stared at him in bafflement, then glanced at the wolf pack surrounding them. "Aren't you a summoning-type Spirit Master?"

Li Jinsheng did not answer. The Life Element instantly reinforced his left hand, yet his fist still looked utterly ordinary. With a light tap of his toes, the ground cracked in a spiderweb pattern, and he shot forward like an arrow.

Tang Wulin gritted his teeth. Blue Silver Grass coiled around his arm as the Golden Scale Claw met that seemingly ordinary fist head-on.

"Boom!"

Their fists collided once more, sending visible ripples through the air.

This time, the Golden Dragon Claw's Shatter Effect failed to activate, blocked by Li Jinsheng's own strength!

The Blue Silver Grass shattered instantly, while the Golden Dragon Claw let out a mournful groan under the strain. Fine cracks appeared across its hard golden scales, and scales flew everywhere from that single punch.

Tang Wulin staggered back dozens of steps before crashing through a tree behind him. His right arm trembled, and his mind churned unsteadily. There must be a strength-type Soul Skill hidden in his fist. Otherwise, how could his power have surged so drastically?

Li Jinsheng narrowed his eyes. In his estimation, that punch should have been enough to knock Tang Wulin out of the Spirit Ascension Platform.

Yet he was still stubbornly standing there.

I hit him that hard. How is he still alive?!

His gaze fell on Tang Wulin. The exhaustion in the other boy's eyes deepened, and their pure black gradually faded into the color of the sea.

A whisper drifted from Tang Wulin's lips.

"Variable..."