Seeing his teacher so utterly slighted, Qian Renxue could no longer hold back.
"Dugu Bo!"
She stepped forward, unleashing the full force of a Soul Emperor without reservation.
"My teacher is a rare genius of this age. His words are the truth! You will show him respect!"
Though she knew full well that her opponent was a Titled Douluo, her resolve to defend her teacher left no room for retreat.
Dugu Bo glanced at her and let out a cackling laugh.
"Your Highness, I've been courteous because I respect you as the empire's heir apparent."
"But in the Soul Master World, strength is what matters in the end."
He looked at Chen Xuan, challenge filling his emerald-green eyes.
"If you want me to believe you, it's simple."
"Beat me."
"If you can defeat me, then forget the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well—even my life would be yours for the taking!"
At those words, Qian Renxue's expression immediately turned troubled.
"This..."
Anxiety churned in her heart.
She had no doubt that her teacher's strength was unfathomable.
But Dugu Bo's Martial Soul was the Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor, a top-tier Beast Martial Soul—and one steeped in deadly poison.
Her teacher's Martial Soul, on the other hand, was Blue Silver Grass.
Plant-type Martial Souls were naturally countered by serpent-type Beast Martial Souls, and that was before accounting for the added poison attribute.
This contest was far too unfair to her teacher!
Yet before she could speak, Chen Xuan's calm voice rang out once more.
"Very well."
Just two words, yet they landed with the weight of a stone.
Dugu Bo was taken aback, then shook his head with a laugh.
"Heh... You've got guts."
"Young people these days really don't know the height of the heavens or the depth of the earth."
He looked at Chen Xuan as if he were an overconfident man already doomed to die.
So be it. Since the boy was asking for death, he would grant it.
It would also teach this inscrutable Crown Prince a lesson.
With that thought, Dugu Bo said no more.
Boom—!
A terrifying aura erupted from his tall, gaunt frame!
Dark-green waves of Soul Power surged like a breached floodgate, sweeping through the entire valley!
The pressure of a ninety-second-level Titled Douluo weighed down like a mountain. The air itself seemed to freeze; every blade of grass and tree bowed low, and broken stones trembled and rattled!
Beneath that pressure, Qian Renxue's breath caught. It felt as if a ten-thousand-catty boulder had been dropped on her chest. She had to circulate her Soul Power and stagger back several steps before she could just barely steady herself.
Her pretty face had gone pale, her eyes wide with shock.
So this was the true power of a Titled Douluo?
His aura alone made her, a sixty-eighth-level Soul Emperor, feel utterly powerless to resist!
"Roar!"
A shriek that shook the soul rang out, and the phantom of a colossal serpent, emerald from head to tail, rose and coiled behind Dugu Bo.
The serpent stretched dozens of meters long. Its lantern-sized eyes gleamed with cruel light, its scarlet tongue flicked in and out, and foul poisonous fumes billowed in every direction.
The Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor Martial Soul!
Qian Renxue's heart leapt into her throat as she stared anxiously at Chen Xuan in the heart of the storm.
Yet Chen Xuan's expression had not changed in the slightest.
He still stood where he was, hands clasped behind his back. His robes snapped in the raging gale, but he remained as immovable as a mountain.
His unruffled calm stood in stark contrast to the world-shattering aura around him.
Dugu Bo frowned at the sight. For some reason, his contempt began to ebb.
Putting on a show!
He snorted and decided to stop testing the waters.
"First Soul Skill, Jade Phosphorous Poison Fire!"
He raised a finger. Behind him, the enormous Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor opened its cavernous jaws.
Whoosh—!
A torrent of dark-green flames, carrying a sinister aura that could burn the soul, swept toward Chen Xuan like a landslide!
Wherever the poison fire passed, the ground sizzled and corroded, instantly turning into a charred, sunken pit and releasing a nauseating stench.
In the blink of an eye, Chen Xuan was completely swallowed by the surging poison fire.
Qian Renxue's pupils contracted. Her heart seemed ready to leap right out of her chest.
Teacher... was he planning to withstand a Titled Douluo's first Soul Skill with his bare body?!
How could that be possible?!
Dugu Bo was stunned too.
He had thought his opponent would at least summon his Martial Soul to defend himself.
But even as the poison fire struck him, that boy had made no move at all.
Was he trying to get himself killed?
The next instant—
Everything changed!
Rumble!!
The entire valley—no, the entire mountain range—began to tremble violently!
A deep roar, like a dragon's rumble, rose from the depths of the earth.
Under Dugu Bo and Qian Renxue's horrified gazes, the ground engulfed by the poison fire suddenly split apart!
One enormous, bottomless crack after another spread wildly across the land like a spiderweb!
Then, a Blue Silver Grass of unimaginable size burst from the earth!
It wasn't grass. It was an azure dragon ripping the earth apart!
Its vines were as thick as thousand-year-old trees, and its broad leaves blotted out the sky!
Its entire body shimmered a crystalline blue, covered in sacred, profound golden patterns. What radiated from it was not a plant's gentle softness, but the domineering majesty of a sovereign—and the boundless might of life itself!
Qian Renxue stared blankly at the towering "Blue Silver Grass," completely dumbfounded.
So this was... her teacher's true power?
She had no doubt that this single stalk of Blue Silver Grass was enough to raze all of Heaven Dou City to the ground!
Dugu Bo was even more terrified, the blood draining from his face in an instant.
Horrifying!
Utterly horrifying!
This was Blue Silver Grass? This was a damn miracle!
The gigantic Blue Silver Grass gave the Jade Phosphorous Poison Fire raging in the sky nothing more than a light inhale.
Like a whale sucking in water, the fierce flames—powerful enough to poison a Soul Douluo to death—vanished without even a ripple, swallowed whole and turned into nourishment.
Once it was done, the giant Blue Silver Grass vine swung around and lashed down at Dugu Bo like a whip of divine punishment!
Dugu Bo's soul nearly fled his body. Without thinking, he tried to summon his Soul Power to defend himself.
But to his horror, he found he couldn't move—his body, his Soul Power, even the Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor Martial Soul behind him were all immobilized beneath the opponent's absolute suppression, a force rooted in the very source of life!
He was like an ant caught in the gaze of its natural predator, utterly powerless to fight back!
Worse still, as the Blue Silver Grass drew near, he could clearly feel the life force within him being ruthlessly ripped away by an irresistible power!
The chill of death, clearer than ever before, enveloped his entire body.
He was going to die!
He really was going to die!
All his pride, all his dignity, was ground to dust in that instant.
Despair and terror drowned the mind of this Titled Douluo.
Summoning every last bit of strength, he let out a hoarse, strangled scream.
"I surrender!"
His desperate cry of "I surrender!" echoed through the valley.
The colossal Blue Silver Grass that had torn the earth apart—and the vine imbued with the might of divine punishment—halted abruptly less than three inches from Dugu Bo's face.
The gale whipped up by the vine sent his dark-green hair flying wildly and stung his cheeks.
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