Aurora!

The space around Gu Sheng twisted violently in an instant, torn asunder by a profound and mysterious force.

His body became blurred and translucent where he stood, much like a reflection in water.

The next second, Qian Renxue's strike, carrying formidable soul power, slammed down.

Yet, there was no sensation of hitting a solid object.

The golden palm wind passed through Gu Sheng's phantom without the slightest obstruction, crashing heavily into the obsidian floor behind him.

With a thunderous boom!

The hard ground was blasted into a deep crater, sending stone shards dancing wildly.

A flash of shock crossed Qian Renxue's exquisite face.

She whipped her head around, stunned to discover that the absolute lock-on ability granted by her Six-Winged Angel martial soul had completely failed at this moment!

It was as if the youth before her had suddenly evaporated from this world, leaving not even a hair's breadth of aura to track.

"How is this possible?!"

Qian Renxue's heart was in a state of frantic upheaval, churning with massive waves.

She knew full well the speed and locking intensity of her previous strike; even a Soul Saint of the same level would find it difficult to dodge so nonchalantly.

Is this truly the capability of a Soul Grand Master who has just awakened his martial soul and is only at level twenty?

This is simply too outrageous!

However, as the Saintess of Martial Soul Hall, Qian Renxue possessed extremely high combat proficiency.

After a brief moment of astonishment, she quickly steadied her mind.

Since I cannot lock onto him, I will use range and intensity to cover the area!

Qian Renxue thought to herself, the phantom of the Six-Winged Angel behind her erupting with even more dazzling radiance.

She took a deep breath and quickly formed seals with her hands in front of her chest.

The golden holy flames drifting in the surroundings began to converge and compress frantically toward her palms.

In the blink of an eye, an Angel Sword burning with raging holy flames took shape in her hands.

The blade shimmered with blinding golden light, radiating a high temperature capable of melting everything.

Qian Renxue flicked her wrist, the sword tip pointing directly at Gu Sheng, who had just emerged from his void state and was solidifying once more.

She held nothing back for this strike, channeling a full seventy percent of her soul power.

Vast energy flickered at the tip of the sword, scorching even the surrounding space into fine, black cracks.

Let alone a Soul Grand Master, any opponent below the level of a Soul Ancestor standing here would surely lose all combat capability instantly under this pressure and be forced to surrender.

Facing the scorching gale rushing toward him.

Gu Sheng stood his ground without retreating a single step.

His eyes turned sharp, his pupils reflecting the burning Angel Sword.

"My turn."

Gu Sheng uttered these two words softly.

The next moment, the soul power within his body surged frantically without reservation.

The Holy Spectrum Puni martial soul, which had been dormant within him, awakened like an ancient deity, instantly blooming with a dazzling light too bright to look at directly.

A holy, vast, and supreme aura exploded outward with Gu Sheng at its center.

Seven mysterious halos manifested behind him, rotating slowly and emitting a deafening hum.

His second, pitch-black ten-thousand-year soul ring shone brilliantly.

Ten-thousand-year soul skill, Aurora!

Gu Sheng slowly raised his right hand, his palm aimed at the oncoming Qian Renxue.

A magnificent beam of light erupted from his palm.

The light was pure to the extreme, nearly transparent, yet it contained the most pristine holy energy in the world.

As soon as the Aurora appeared, the energy of the surrounding heaven and earth let out a groan of being overwhelmed.

That overbearing and peerless sense of oppression caused even Qian Renxue's prideful Angelic Golden Light to tremble violently.

It was as if a subject had encountered a monarch, instinctively wanting to submit!

In an instant, the Aurora and the Angel Sword burning with holy flames collided head-on in mid-air.

There was no earth-shattering explosion as one might have imagined.

Nor was there a storm of rampaging energy.

Under the absolute, pure radiance of the Aurora, Qian Renxue's Angel Sword, which contained seventy percent of her soul power, melted away like snow meeting the scorching sun!

The holy flames burning on the blade were extinguished in an instant.

Following that, the entire broad sword began to dissolve and disintegrate without a sound.

It transformed into tiny golden specks of light, dissipating into the air.

The remaining power of the Aurora did not diminish; it tore straight through Qian Renxue's soul power defense, grazed her cheek, and shot off toward the distant horizon.

Qian Renxue stood frozen in place.

Her forward momentum came to an abrupt halt, and her golden pupils contracted to the size of pinpricks.

This was no mere trick or clever maneuver.

This was a genuine, absolute crushing of energy levels!

Her own Angel soul power had not even possessed the qualifications to resist Gu Sheng's Aurora; it had been erased instantly!

And this was a soul power gap spanning a full fifty levels!

Above the clouds.

There was a deathly silence.

All the watching titled elders widened their eyes, the sound of sharp intakes of breath rising one after another.

Golden Crocodile Douluo stood with his mouth agape, unable to utter a single word for a long time.

The contempt and judgments they had previously held toward Gu Sheng were, in this moment, overturned and ground to dust by that beam of Aurora!

With the cultivation of a level 20 Soul Grand Master, he had met a 70% power strike from a level 72 Soul Saint head-on, and had crushed it with overwhelming force.

Such a feat could not be found a second time, even if one were to scour every ancient text in the entire Douluo Continent!

Bibi Dong, hidden in the shadows in the distance, was likewise frozen in place.

Her fingers, tightly gripping her scepter, turned pale from the force.

Her bewitching purple eyes were filled with shock and horror.

She had never imagined that the youth who dared to openly defy her in the great hall to protect Qian Renxue actually possessed such terrifying hidden strength!

This completely defied her common sense.

"Incredible... truly incredible."

Qian Daoliu took a deep breath of the frigid high-altitude air, then slowly exhaled.

His gaze burned as he stared at the youth below who was retracting his palm.

At this very moment, the Great Elder's evaluation of the Holy Spectrum Puni martial soul climbed to a frantic new height.

The potential of this martial soul was simply unfathomable!

Heaven bless Martial Soul Hall!

This stirring thought surfaced in Qian Daoliu's mind once again, impossible to suppress.

As long as this boy could grow up smoothly, let alone sweeping across the continent, even leading Martial Soul Hall to rule over the God Realm was not out of the question!

On the training grounds below, the gale gradually subsided.

Qian Renxue slowly recovered from her extreme shock.

The phantom of the Six-Winged Angel behind her slowly retracted, turning into golden light that dissipated back into her body.

Qian Renxue raised her head to look at Gu Sheng, who stood ten zhang away with a calm expression.

Her gaze became complex in that moment.

There was astonishment and frustration, but more than that, there was a sense of relief and deep emotion.

Having reached this point, Qian Renxue finally understood completely.

This man who stood by her side, who dared to face the Pope's pressure and swore to accompany her even unto death, was by no means a burden needing to be protected under her wings.

He had long since possessed the formidable qualifications to fight side-by-side with her and face every storm together.