The next morning, when Huo Yu Hao saw Lin Yuan and Wang Dong, a hint of confusion appeared on his face. "What happened to you two? That Inner Court senior sister didn't do anything to you yesterday, did she?"
Lin Yuan smiled and waved his hand, his tone relaxed. "Nothing much. We just had a simple chat. She didn't make things too difficult for us."
Wang Dong added from the side, deliberately stressing her words, "Mostly because Lin Yuan is too good at making things up. He made it sound so real that even I almost believed him."
Lin Yuan raised an eyebrow slightly and flicked Wang Dong's forehead. "What? You've learned to undermine me now?"
"Who's undermining you?!" Wang Dong rubbed her forehead and took half a step back, her pink-blue eyes wide open. Yet she did not argue further, only muttering softly, "It was true."
The three of them walked shoulder to shoulder toward the assessment area, encountering quite a few students from other teams along the way. After the first five rounds, they had achieved the best results, so they remained in Area Thirty-Three. Once the teams were redrawn, five groups of freshmen would continue the assessment with them.
Teacher Wang Yan gave Lin Yuan's trio a meaningful look before announcing, "Alright, everyone is here. Since Class One Freshman's Lin Yuan team achieved the best results in this area during the first five rounds, they will become this area's seeded team. According to the schedule, they will be the first to compete. First match of the sixth round in Area Thirty-Three: Class One Freshman's Lin Yuan team versus Class Seven Freshman's Huang Chu Tian team. The assessment begins."
Both sides entered the field at the same time. Huo Yu Hao and Wang Dong were surprised to discover that the opposing team had two female students who looked exactly alike.
Both girls had long blue hair, and their delicate little faces were rosy and adorable. They even seemed slightly younger than Lin Yuan's group. Standing before them was a tall, burly male student, clearly the team captain, Huang Chu Tian.
"My name is Huang Chu Tian. On the left is Lan Su Su, and on the right is Lan Luo Luo. Please go easy on us."
"Lin Yuan, Wang Dong, Huo Yu Hao. Please go easy on us as well," Lin Yuan replied.
"Abyss God!" Lan Luo Luo's eyes lit up. Her voice was as crisp as a wind chime as she pulled her sister Lan Su Su forward. Her blue eyes were filled with sparkling admiration. "It really is you! We're your fans!"
Lan Su Su nodded with a blush as well. She took an exquisite silver badge from her Soul Tool. A simplified dragon pattern was engraved upon it—the emblem of Lin Yuan's fan support club. "We joined your support club. We watch you train every day!"
Huang Chu Tian stood at the side and helplessly covered his forehead. He had long known that the twin sisters were Lin Yuan's diehard fans. Before the match, he had worried that they would lose their composure upon meeting their idol. Sure enough, he had been right.
Lin Yuan looked at the two excited little girls before him and smiled helplessly. "The match comes first. We can talk about meeting fans after it's over."
"Mhm, mhm!" Lan Luo Luo nodded vigorously, then secretly tugged at her sister's sleeve. The two exchanged a look that said, Got it.
Wang Yan coughed lightly. "Both sides, fall back and take your positions."
Both teams stood ready. Lin Yuan's trio remained in their original formation: Wang Dong in front, Lin Yuan in the middle, and Huo Yu Hao in the rear corner.
On the other side, Huang Chu Tian stood at the very front, with Lan Su Su and Lan Luo Luo positioned behind him.
Teacher Wang Yan shouted in a deep voice, "Assessment begins!"
Both sides swiftly released their Martial Souls. Huang Chu Tian let out an angry roar and slammed his fists hard against his chest. The instant his Martial Soul was released, his original height of around one and a half meters abruptly surged past one point eight meters. His bulging muscles tore through his school uniform, while his exposed skin turned iron-black. His eyes changed from black to yellow, and two canine teeth protruded slightly beneath his thickened lips. His limbs became exceptionally thick, and two yellow Soul Rings rose beneath his feet at the same time.
The twins behind Huang Chu Tian released their Martial Souls simultaneously as well, each with two yellow Soul Rings appearing beneath her feet. They flicked their heads, sending their blue hair flying behind them. It rapidly unfurled through the air, becoming strands of blue hair over ten meters long in the blink of an eye. They drifted in the air without touching the ground.
At the same time, Wang Dong released her Light Goddess Butterfly Martial Soul. The instant her wings spread open, she shot forward.
Huang Chu Tian let out a low growl and strode toward Wang Dong. When he was still three meters away from her, he suddenly leaped up and smashed both fists directly at her.
Wang Dong's wings abruptly snapped together behind her, taking Huang Chu Tian's attack head-on. With a deafening boom, she was forcibly smashed from the air. After landing, she staggered back several steps before steadying herself.
At that moment, Lan Su Su and Lan Luo Luo withdrew their gazes from Lin Yuan and turned to face each other. Their four hands clasped tightly together. A Soul Power fluctuation several times stronger than before burst from their bodies. Their blue hair, which had previously stretched over ten meters, instantly rose into the air and wove itself into a massive net that lunged straight toward Wang Dong.
Huang Chu Tian swiftly retreated into the range of the hair net. Yet the blue hair seemed to have eyes, parting around him without touching his body.
Faced with the hair net that blanketed the sky, Wang Dong fully displayed the formidable power of her Winged Scythe. As her wings swung, their razor-sharp edges unleashed devastating force, directly cutting a gap through the massive net. At the same time, guided by Huo Yu Hao's shared Spiritual Detection, she charged straight at Huang Chu Tian.
Seeing this, Huang Chu Tian roared. His first Soul Ring instantly lit up, and his fists abruptly swelled by a full circle, gleaming with a dense metallic luster as they met Wang Dong's Winged Scythe head-on. Meanwhile, the twins' hair net swept in from behind, attempting to bind Wang Dong.
Clang—
A metallic hum rang out as the Winged Scythe struck the iron fists. Huang Chu Tian stumbled, blood dripping from both fists, each of which had been cut open.
After knocking Huang Chu Tian back, Wang Dong suddenly turned around and spun rapidly with her Winged Scythe, shredding the incoming hair net behind her into fragments.
After his brief shock, Huang Chu Tian exerted himself again. He clasped his hands together and raised them above his head as his second Soul Ring lit up. A layer of yellow light spread across his entire body, flowing along his arms before finally gathering at his fists.
"Cannon Hammer of Strength!" As soon as Huang Chu Tian spoke, a solid yellow sphere of light blasted from his fists, hurtling directly toward Wang Dong.
The sphere also had a locking effect. Even after dodging three times in succession, Wang Dong could not evade it. Just as she prepared to block it head-on with her Winged Scythe, a smile suddenly appeared on her face. She gave up resisting it and ignored the incoming sphere, instead flipping downward and charging at Lan Su Su and Lan Luo Luo while shredding the remaining hair net.
The instant the yellow sphere was about to strike Wang Dong, Lin Yuan's gaze sharpened slightly, and silver-white patterns quietly appeared across his body. He raised a hand and gave a light wave. Ripples abruptly spread through the space his fingertips touched, and a Space Rift about a foot long opened out of thin air.
"Space Power!" Wang Yan's pupils contracted sharply as he cried out in shock.
Black mist churned within the rift. Lin Yuan reached inside, his five fingers accurately closing around the whistling yellow sphere. The violent power contained within it crashed wildly against his palm, yet Space Power held it firmly imprisoned. He twisted his wrist slightly, then clenched his fingers tight.
Bang!
The solid yellow sphere shattered in response, turning into countless fine points of energy that were instantly swallowed by the Space Rift. The entire process flowed as naturally as water, from tearing open space to crushing the sphere occurring in but an instant. Not even a trace of residual energy leaked out. At that moment, Wang Dong had already closed in on the twin sisters and launched her full-force attack.
Lan Su Su and Lan Luo Luo were clearly caught off guard. By the time Wang Dong shredded the hair net and charged toward them, it was already too late for them to use their second soul skill. The sisters exchanged a glance, and their Soul Rings vanished at the same time. They released each other's clasped hands and spread their arms wide, tightly embracing one another in the middle of battle.
Wang Dong froze as well. What were they doing?
The next second, the Lan sisters gave her the answer. An enormous Soul Power fluctuation far greater than before erupted instantly. The moment they embraced, deep-blue halos radiated from their bodies simultaneously, enveloping their figures and making it impossible to see what was happening within.
At the same time, the hair behind their heads rose once more, all of it turning crystalline blue. The strands remained slender, but when they enveloped Wang Dong again, they gave her a completely different feeling. Her Winged Scythe struck the hair net head-on, yet failed to cut through it as easily as before. Wang Dong felt as though she had crashed into a massive net filled with elasticity and toughness. No matter how she struggled, the net only tightened further. Even stranger, the instant the net enveloped her, Huo Yu Hao's shared Spiritual Detection was cut off as well.
In the blink of an eye, Wang Dong was tightly bound within the net, surrounded by crystalline blue strands of hair. Yet the hair that filled the sky did not stop. It rapidly spread toward Lin Yuan and Huo Yu Hao.
"Tsk, Little Dong'er, how could you be so foolish?" Lin Yuan teased as he reached into the Space Rift again, his fingers accurately grabbing the back of Wang Dong's collar.
Space Power surged forth. Wang Dong felt the restraints around her body suddenly loosen, and she was pulled free from the hair net by a gentle yet irresistible force. The next second, she landed steadily beside Lin Yuan. She straightened her wrinkled collar and glared at him indignantly. "That was a Martial Soul Fusion Skill! Anyone else would have gotten trapped too!"
"Train more if you're weak." Lin Yuan raised an eyebrow. "Now let me take over!" Before his words had even faded, the silver-white patterns across his body flared violently as he activated his Space Authority at full power.
Lin Yuan raised a hand and clenched it toward the air. The hair net formed by the Lan sisters instantly froze, as though gripped by an invisible giant hand.
"Space Folding!" Lin Yuan shouted softly, his fingertip slicing through the void. Layers of ripples spread through the area occupied by the hair net. The blue strands that had covered the sky were forcibly compressed into a single mass, curling up like folded silk.
Lan Su Su and Lan Luo Luo's expressions changed drastically. The connection of their Martial Soul Fusion Skill instantly fell into chaos, and both girls groaned at once, thin threads of blood spilling from the corners of their mouths. Immediately afterward, the Heaven and Earthly Web that had blanketed the sky collapsed and vanished like a receding tide.
At the edge of the field, Wang Yan stared wide-eyed, his face filled with disbelief at the scene before him.
When the Lan sisters had unleashed their Martial Soul Fusion Skill, Heavenly Net and Earthly Web, Wang Yan had already been overwhelmed with shock. He had originally thought Lin Yuan's team was doomed to lose, but he never expected such a dramatic reversal. Lin Yuan had actually dismantled a fully formed Martial Soul Fusion Skill by himself. Such exquisite control over Space Authority was beyond the reach of not only freshmen, but even many veteran Soul Masters.
Before you continue