Light of the Vast Ocean

The two forces did not clash or repel each other; instead, they blended perfectly in a way Mu Chen had never experienced before.

The changes within Wang Dong were equally intense. Flowing through her meridians had been a warm, golden soul power—the origin of the Radiant Goddess Butterfly.

But at this moment, another force surged in: a cold, vast, blue soul power carrying the scent of the Ocean.

That blue was not icy; it was warm, capable of containing all things.

It did not assault Wang Dong's meridians but, with an irresistible gentleness, wrapped her entire being within it.

The consciousness of the two individuals connected at this moment.

It was not a communication of language, but a deeper resonance at the level of the soul.

Mu Chen could feel Wang Dong's nervousness, excitement, and a sense of reliance she desperately tried to hide.

Wang Dong could also feel Mu Chen's composure, focus, and a loneliness she had never touched before—a loneliness that always kept a layer between a transmigrator and this world, never shown to others, and only revealed unguardedly in this state of soul fusion.

Wang Dong's eyes suddenly stung. She did not know why, but she simply wanted to feel that loneliness a little longer, as if to melt it with the warmth of her palms.

"Let's go." Mu Chen opened his eyes, golden light reflected in his blue pupils.

"Where to?"

"Sea God Lake. If the power of this thing is released indoors, it will blow the entire dormitory building apart."

Mu Chen and Wang Dong stood on the open ground by the lake, facing each other, no more than three steps apart.

"Are you ready?" Mu Chen asked.

Wang Dong took a deep breath and nodded.

Then, they released their martial souls simultaneously.

The phantom of the Ocean and the phantom of the Radiant Goddess Butterfly appeared under the moonlight at the same time.

The sound of crashing waves and the beating of butterfly wings intertwined; two vastly different auras collided in the air, testing each other, and then merged into one.

"Martial Soul Fusion Skill."

As Mu Chen spoke these four words, the soul rings at his feet lit up.

Four soul rings—yellow, purple, purple, and black—lit up in sequence, and blue light rose from beneath his feet.

Wang Dong's two yellow soul rings also lit up simultaneously, the golden light reflecting and enhancing the blue glow.

Then, the two beams of light merged.

It was not a simple superposition, but an essential transformation. Mu Chen's long blue hair turned blue-gold, every strand looking as if it had been dyed with molten starlight.

Wang Dong's powder-blue short hair was also plated with a layer of gold, and the patterns on her butterfly wings became more gorgeous and complex, with light spots falling with every beat.

Both of their eyes turned a brilliant gold at the same time.

A massive fluctuation of soul power soared into the sky from the two of them; the surface of Sea God Lake surged violently under this pressure, and the maple trees by the lake were bent by the shockwave.

In the sky, the clouds began to rotate, forming a huge vortex centered on the two of them.

Mu Chen extended his right hand. Wang Dong also extended her right hand. The two hands clasped together under the moonlight, fingers interlocked.

At this very moment, the fusion was complete.

"Radiance, of, the, Vast, Ocean!"

The two shouted the name in unison.

The name was not thought up; it emerged naturally from the depths of their souls the moment the fusion was complete.

Just as one knows their own name, Mu Chen and Wang Dong knew the name of this Martial Soul Fusion Skill at this moment, without any explanation or discussion needed.

A beam of aurora shot out from between their clasped hands.

The color of the aurora was not singular; it shifted constantly between azure and brilliant gold, as if a piece had been torn from the most beautiful aurora in the northern night sky, then infused with the power of the Ocean and the will of light.

The beam of light, over three meters in diameter, swept out. Wherever it passed, the air was ionized into plasma, emitting a sharp, explosive sound.

A trench several meters deep was plowed into the ground; the soil and rock were vaporized the moment they touched the aurora, not even leaving time for smoke to rise.

Several century-old maple trees by the lake were grazed by the edge of the beam; their trunks were severed cleanly, the cross-sections as smooth as mirrors without a trace of scorch marks, because the vaporization happened too quickly for combustion to even occur.

The beam finally struck a small island in the center of the lake.

The island was not large, barely twenty meters in circumference, one of several scenic spots on Sea God Lake.

The moment the aurora landed, the entire island emitted a deafening roar. A deep pit ten meters in diameter was blasted into the ground at the center of the island, the walls of the pit smooth as mirrors, the lake water at the bottom boiling and churning from the high heat, with columns of steam shooting into the sky.

Then, the shockwave arrived.

The surface of Sea God Lake exploded, and ten thousand acres of lake water surged outward from the impact point of the beam, kicking up giant waves several meters high.

The Maple Forest by the lake was swept by the shockwave, and fallen leaves scattered like a rainstorm. The ground beneath Mu Chen and Wang Dong cracked into spiderweb-like fissures, and both of them took two steps back before steadying themselves.

The beam of light slowly dissipated.

Wang Dong's legs went weak, and she knelt on the ground, gasping for air. Her soul power had been completely drained by this strike, leaving her without even the strength to maintain her martial soul; the wings of the Radiant Goddess Butterfly dissolved into specks of light in the night wind. Her face was covered in sweat, but her eyes were brilliantly bright.

"We... we succeeded. Big Brother, we succeeded!" she said, panting, her voice filled with irrepressible excitement.

Mu Chen's condition was slightly better than Wang Dong's; his level forty-five soul power reserve meant he was not completely exhausted, but that strike had still drained most of his soul power.

He reached out to pull Wang Dong up, and just as he was about to speak, he suddenly turned his head toward the other side of the lake shore.

A white figure was tearing through the air at incredible speed, arriving before them in a matter of breaths.

Yan Shaozhe.

The Dean of the Martial Soul Department's face appeared exceptionally grave under the moonlight.

He glanced at the massive crater blasted into the center of Lake Heart Island, then at the hundred-meter-long trench on the ground, before finally fixing his gaze upon Mu Chen and Wang Dong.

His line of sight lingered for a moment on their pupils, which had yet to fully fade from a brilliant gold, before settling on their still-clasped hands.

Silence.

The waves of Sea God Lake continued to lap against the shore, and the pillars of steam slowly dissipated over the island.

Yan Shaozhe stood amidst the wreckage on the lake bank, his white robes snapping in the night wind.

"Martial Soul Fusion Skill. The two of you possess a Martial Soul Fusion Skill." He finally spoke, his voice carrying unconcealable shock.

It was not a question, but a statement. With Yan Shaozhe's discernment and experience, after seeing the extent of the destruction and the residual soul power on the two, it was impossible for him to reach any other conclusion.

He had lived for nearly a century, having seen countless geniuses and numerous Martial Soul Fusion Skills.

Yet, he had never seen two youths with such a vast gap in their Soul Power Level, whose total soul power was nowhere near the level of a Soul King, unleash a Martial Soul Fusion Skill of this magnitude.

The destructive power of that strike just now was already enough to rival the full-force blow of a Soul Saint.

Mu Chen released Wang Dong's hand and stepped forward, placing himself between Yan Shaozhe and Wang Dong.

It was an instinctive action, but Wang Dong noticed it. She looked at Mu Chen's back, her lips pressed tightly together.