Zhao Tieshan felt an immense force slam into him. His feet slid half a step backward, but he steadied himself.
"That all you've got?"
He was just about to taunt him.
Then he saw the golden figure emerge from the dust and appear right in front of him.
Dai Mubai was still in the air when his third Spirit Ring suddenly lit up.
Third Spirit Skill, White Tiger Vajra Transformation!
His already muscular frame swelled even further, but he didn't become bulky. Instead, every muscle was defined with explosive power.
The most terrifying thing was his hands.
Ten razor-sharp claws shot out, each more than a foot long, gleaming like daggers forged from pure gold.
That was the ultimate Geng Metal Qi!
Unstoppable, able to pierce anything!
"Shatter...!"
Dai Mubai roared.
His claws crossed, then slashed down with a shriek that seemed to tear through space.
There was no complicated technique.
Just a head-on clash!
He was using the purest attack to crush the strongest defense!
Screech—!
The teeth-grating sound of metal scraping against metal rang across the battlefield.
As everyone watched in utter horror,
Zhao Tieshan's vaunted Immovable as a Mountain shield was torn apart with ease by those golden claws, like it was nothing but fragile tofu.
"No... That's impossible!"
Zhao Tieshan's pupils contracted to pinpricks as he let out a terrified scream.
He could feel death closing in.
After tearing through the shield, the golden claws continued without slowing, slicing straight into his petrified skin.
They cut through flesh as easily as mud.
Splatter!
Blood sprayed everywhere.
The iron-tower-sized man and the Heavy Shield Martial Soul in his hands were sent flying by that single swipe.
Ten deep gashes, reaching almost to the bone, nearly split his chest open.
Zhao Tieshan crashed heavily to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.
He twitched twice, then the light quickly faded from his eyes.
One strike.
Just one strike.
A Level 45 defensive Soul Ancestor had been defeated!
The battlefield fell utterly silent.
The Star Luo soldiers and the Heaven Dou reinforcements alike stood there like ducks with their necks squeezed, unable to make a sound.
Only the golden figure remained, standing proudly between the two armies.
Dai Mubai flicked the blood from his claws, his expression indifferent.
"Next."
At that moment,
the people in both the Black and White Worlds were completely dumbfounded.
Was this really a Level 37 fighter taking down someone at Level 45?
And a defensive fighter, no less—the hardest kind to deal with?
He made it look as easy as drinking water!
Black World, Star Luo Square.
The people who'd been shouting that "Soul Power Level is all that matters" now gaped, their jaws practically hitting the ground.
"Th-this is the White Emperor's strength?"
"I've heard of Zhao Tieshan. He was a fierce general! He killed plenty of our men on the border back in the day, and now he's just... been taken down in an instant?"
"He's too strong. This makes no sense at all!"
Someone swallowed, their eyes full of awe.
"He treats level differences as meaningless and takes down stronger opponents as easily as reaching into a bag."
"Now that's a true White Tiger Martial Soul!"
In a corner of the crowd,
Black World's Dai Mubai sat slumped on the ground, clutching a bottle of liquor.
He looked at his own glorious, awe-inspiring image on the Sky Screen, then down at his hands, which were trembling slightly.
A profound sense of helplessness washed over him.
"Fake..."
"It has to be fake..."
He muttered to himself, his voice so hoarse it sounded like he was crying.
"He must've taken some kind of banned drug!"
"Or the rules in that world are different!"
"How can someone at Level 37 take down someone at Level 45 in one hit? When I was Level 37..."
He trailed off and fell silent.
Because he remembered what he'd been doing at Level 37: trying to feel important by beating up rookies in Suotuo City's Great Soul Arena.
If he'd run into a Level 45 Soul Ancestor, he probably wouldn't even have had the courage to fight. He would've just thought about how to escape.
"Why...?"
Dai Mubai suddenly raised the bottle and smashed it against the wall.
Glass shards flew everywhere, slicing his cheek, but he didn't even notice.
Jealousy gnawed at his heart like a venomous snake.
They were both Dai Mubai.
In that world, he was heaven's favored son, commander of three armies, and an invincible War God.
But he...
was just a rat hiding in a dark corner, too afraid to even say his own name out loud.
Shrek Academy.
An almost deathly silence settled over the training ground.
Tang San stared at the Sky Screen, his Purple Demon Eye unconsciously working at full capacity as he tried to discern the secret behind that attack.
"He didn't use Hidden Weapons."
"And he didn't use poison."
Tang San's heart was in turmoil.
As a control-type Soul Master well-versed in Hidden Weapons, he understood better than anyone how difficult it was to challenge someone of a higher level.
Without using powerful mechanical Hidden Weapons, even he wouldn't have had more than a thirty percent chance of defeating a Level 45 defensive Soul Ancestor at Level 37.
And he certainly couldn't have matched Dai Mubai's feat: meeting the opponent head-on and killing him in a single strike.
"His Soul Power... is strange."
Tang San furrowed his brow, his fingers lightly tapping the Twenty-Four Moonlit Bridges at his waist.
"That golden, razor-sharp energy seems to come from more than just his Martial Soul."
"It's too pure."
"So pure that it can ignore even the defenses formed by Soul Power."
A strange sense of danger suddenly rose within Tang San.
If he had to face the Dai Mubai from the White World,
would his Blue Silver Grass be able to withstand that claw?
The answer was no.
Even the Eight Spider Lances would probably be chopped to pieces by that ultimate Geng Metal Qi.
"Unless..."
A cold glint flashed through Tang San's eyes.
"Unless I use a few of the Tang Sect's top-ranked Hidden Weapons."
"Or... the Clear Sky Hammer."
But he knew full well that Dai Mubai on the Sky Screen hadn't shown his full strength.
That composure, that contempt—it couldn't have been an act.
Beside him, Yu Xiaogang looked utterly grim.
His stiff face was now black as the bottom of a pot.
His theories as the "Grandmaster" had just taken an unprecedented blow.
"Impossible... Absolutely impossible..."
Yu Xiaogang clasped his hands behind his back and paced back and forth, muttering nonstop.
"There's an insurmountable gap between Level 30 and Level 40."
"The amount of Soul Power and the strength of the Soul Skills—they're on completely different levels."
"On top of that, the opponent was a defensive fighter empowered by his Fourth Spirit Skill."
"How could a Third Spirit Skill possibly break through it?"
The students around him all watched with doubt in their eyes.
Hadn't the Grandmaster always said that there were no useless Martial Souls, only useless Soul Masters?
Then why hadn't the Dai Mubai in the original world managed it, while the Dai Mubai in the White World had?
Feeling the strange looks around him, Yu Xiaogang abruptly stopped and said loudly:
"He must have relied on an outside force!"
"Exactly! It had to be an outside force!"
It was as if he'd grabbed hold of his last lifeline. He analyzed the situation with absolute certainty:
"That Dai Mubai from the White World must have an incredibly powerful Spirit Bone!"
Before you continue