Heaven Dou Royal Academy, Martial Arts Arena.
Yesterday's "Huo Wu weeping after her defeat" incident had yet to die down, and today an unwelcome guest had arrived outside the Martial Arts Arena.
The visitor was a boy of twelve or thirteen, dressed in the signature blue uniform of Godwind Academy. At that moment, though, his face was filled with unmistakable fury and heartache.
Godwind Academy's top genius, and the most lovesick simp on the entire Douluo Continent—Feng Xiaotian!
When Feng Xiaotian heard that his "little sister Huo Wu," whom he couldn't bear to say a single harsh word to, had been bullied into tears at Heaven Dou Royal Academy by a six-year-old brat who'd sicced a bird on her, his eyes instantly turned red.
"Xue Yao! Get out here!"
Feng Xiaotian strode into the Martial Arts Arena and fixed his eyes on Xue Yao, who was sitting in the shade of a tree, grooming Little Griffin's feathers.
The Heaven Dou students nearby saw what was happening and immediately began whispering excitedly.
"Look! It's that weirdo Feng Xiaotian from Godwind Academy!"
"Damn, they beat the little one, so now the big one's here! Feng Xiaotian's a level twenty-five Soul Grandmaster!"
"Hmph, what good is a high level? He's got 'Feng Xiaotian Syndrome.' His strength has been stuck for ages!"
Hearing the chatter around him, Xue Yao stopped what he was doing and sighed helplessly.
He'd beaten the proud little hot pepper, and now the ultimate simp had come running.
The plot of this Douluo Continent really was clichéd beyond all originality.
"You're that brat called Xue Yao?" Feng Xiaotian pointed at him, gritting his teeth in rage. "Little Sister Huo Wu is so kind and adorable, and you actually sent a feathered beast to bully her?"
Looking at Feng Xiaotian's indignant expression, Xue Yao shook his head slightly.
Putting aside his outrageous simp tendencies, Xue Yao couldn't help feeling a little sorry for the "tragic genius from the original story" standing before him.
Feng Xiaotian was a genuine genius, perhaps even more so than Tang San.
He'd figured out how to create his own Soul Skill through sheer effort, and had managed to bridge the gap between Innate Full Soul Power and a cheat-like advantage. Unfortunately, he'd taken the wrong path and wasted too much precious time in the early years.
"Since you've come all this way to get yourself killed... no, to give me experience, I'll do you the kindness of teaching you a lesson."
"Arrogant!"
Feng Xiaotian laughed in fury. He was, after all, Godwind Academy's number one, and being looked down on by a six-year-old instantly set his pride ablaze.
"Roar—!"
A deafening wolf howl rang out as the phantom of a majestic Two-Headed Gale Demon Wolf appeared behind Feng Xiaotian! Two yellow Soul Rings rose from beneath his feet!
"I heard you've been holed up in the library for the past three months. People laugh at you and say you've got 'Feng Xiaotian Syndrome.'" Feng Xiaotian's arms transformed into sharp wolf claws as he slowly rose into the air.
A flash of pride and stubbornness crossed his eyes. "Today, I'll show you the invincible divine skill I came up with after countless sleepless nights, enduring the world's ridicule and racking my brains!"
"Watch closely! This is the ultimate secret of a wind-type Soul Master!"
"Gale Demon Wolf—Chain Slash!!"
Feng Xiaotian spun rapidly in midair, his wings and arms turning into a terrifying spinning wheel of wind blades. Though the move was still far from polished, the force of his rotation combined with gravity gave it astonishing cutting power!
Watching Feng Xiaotian spin in midair like a giant top as he built up power, Xue Yao couldn't help covering his face.
How tragic.
To Xue Yao, with his modern systems-thinking mindset, this so-called "divine skill"—which relied entirely on physical inertia and gravity to build up damage—was like watching primitive people start a fire by rubbing sticks together!
"That's not a chain slash. That's a hand-cranked generator."
Xue Yao sighed and stamped his foot.
"Buzz!"
A bright Hundred-Year Soul Ring rose from beneath Xue Yao's feet!
"Let me show you what a real combo mechanic looks like."
"First Soul Skill: Wind-Riding Combo!"
At Xue Yao's low shout, the yellow Soul Ring around him shone brilliantly and turned into a stream of green wind that instantly poured into Little Griffin beside him!
[Wind-Riding Combo]: Xue Yao had set it up as an overwhelmingly powerful passive mechanic! While the effect was active, every attack that hit an enemy instantly stacked one layer of "Steel-Cutting" wind energy, increasing the damage and penetration of the next attack. The effect flowed seamlessly, endlessly building!
"Xiao Bai, teach him how to use the wind."
"Shriek—!"
Little Griffin let out an excited eagle's cry as the Soul Skill empowered her!
Facing Feng Xiaotian's first slash as it came hurtling down, Little Griffin didn't dodge. Instead, she beat her wings fiercely!
[Feather Acceleration]!
Little Griffin became a green blur, breaking the sound barrier in an instant. She moved faster than Feng Xiaotian's attack and charged straight into his wind blade!
"Fool!" Feng Xiaotian roared, bringing his wind blade down with a vicious slash!
But at the moment of impact, Little Griffin's steel-like beak darted forward!
[Peck]!
As a wind-type spirit beast, Little Griffin's "Peck" naturally came with two extremely rapid attack checks!
"Clang! Clang!"
Two crisp crashes rang out in midair!
Little Griffin's beak struck the weakest point of Feng Xiaotian's wind blade twice in succession at an almost unbelievable speed!
In an instant!
Both attacks landed!
The Wind-Riding Combo mechanic Xue Yao had bestowed on Little Griffin triggered two layers at once!
There was no need to awkwardly spin around and build momentum like Feng Xiaotian. There was no need to borrow gravity! The wind's furious damage and armor-piercing properties stacked automatically and smoothly onto the second strike the moment the first hit!
"Crack!"
Feng Xiaotian's first Chain Slash wind blade, which he'd spent ages charging up, shattered under the Peck, now carrying two stacked layers of damage!
"What?!" Feng Xiaotian's eyes nearly bulged from their sockets.
How was that possible?! No charge-up, no movement windup—how could its power instantly double?!
But Xue Yao's combo wasn't over yet.
Once the two layers of "Wind-Riding Combo" had stacked, the wind element in Little Griffin's beak had compressed to a terrifying density.
It was on the verge of a qualitative transformation!
"It's over." Xue Yao snapped his fingers calmly.
The instant Little Griffin shattered the wind blade, she opened her beak and blasted out the wind pressure she'd built up to its limit as a green beam!
[Wind Arrow]!
"Boom—!!!"
If Feng Xiaotian's Chain Slash was a dull knife slowly cutting into flesh, then Little Griffin's Wind Arrow, stacked with a passive, was a heavy laser cannon!
The green beam swept through all the defensive gales surrounding Feng Xiaotian and slammed squarely into his chest!
"Pfft—!"
Feng Xiaotian spat out a mouthful of blood. Like a kite with its string cut, he was blasted out of the air and slammed into the Martial Arts Arena floor with a crash. He slid more than ten meters, carving a deep furrow into the ground.
Instant kill!
A level twenty-five Soul Grandmaster had been utterly defeated in one move by a six-year-old boy and a newly tamed Soul Beast!
Dead silence fell over the arena. Everyone was stunned by the flawless combo and its terrifying power.
On the Martial Arts Arena floor, Feng Xiaotian lay sprawled at the bottom of the crater.
He hadn't been injured badly enough to die. The Wind Arrow had eased up at the last moment, but his current state was worse than death.
He stared blankly at the sky, his eyes unfocused.
As a genius who'd devoted his life to pursuing "combos," he understood better than anyone what had just happened.
There had been no complicated movements, no delayed buildup.
In that instant, the wind element had stacked automatically according to some unreasonable rule, the damage building layer by layer until the full power of the combo poured out perfectly!
It was a mechanism on a higher dimension, far beyond his understanding!
"Tap, tap, tap."
Xue Yao walked over to Feng Xiaotian and looked down at the dazed boy.
"Feel it?" Xue Yao's voice was calm and merciless, every word striking home.
"No spinning, no borrowing force. As long as your attacks keep landing, the wind currents automatically stack damage and armor penetration."
"That's my first Soul Skill—[Wind-Riding Combo]."
At those words, Feng Xiaotian trembled violently, tears slipping uncontrollably from the corners of his eyes.
His lips quivered as he murmured in a hoarse voice, his words edged with despair:
"I... I spent six years... enduring the world's cold looks and ridicule..."
"I racked my brains, thinking I could create the ultimate Chain Slash divine skill that would shock the continent..."
Feng Xiaotian closed his eyes in pain. At that moment, his Dao heart shattered into smithereens.
"But... it was just a passive built into your first Soul Skill?!"
Xue Yao turned and led Little Griffin toward the arena exit, leaving behind only a deeply wounding remark that drifted on the wind:
"Old man, times have changed. Stop spinning that stupid wheel of yours. You're embarrassing yourself."
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