Soul Beasts Are Not Super Beasts

Gu Yue immediately mimicked Lan Kai's movements, pressing her hands together and extending them forward, launching attacks of various elements from her fingertips, aiming precisely for the back of the Millennium Crystal Bear's neck.

The Millennium Crystal Bear possessed skin as tough as copper and bones as hard as iron; its nape was the most vulnerable and accessible spot on its body, which was why Gu Yue's attacks were directed there.

Of course, if Gu Yue were to use earth elements to tunnel through the ground, emerge beneath the Millennium Crystal Bear, and unleash the Leaf Village secret technique—the Thousand Years of Death—the results would likely be even better.

The problem, however, was that earth element control on the Douluo Continent rarely included abilities similar to Earth Style ninjutsu. Aside from the time twenty thousand years ago when Tang San used a similar ability to escape from the newly ascended Qian Renxue, few earth-attribute spirit masters had ever displayed such a technique.

It seemed the entire Douluo Continent had little defense against subterranean infiltration, which was no wonder the Body Sect of ten thousand years ago could use tunnels to wreak havoc in Ming Capital twice.

However, although Gu Yue had changed her pre-attack stance, the power of her moves did not increase significantly, nor did she succeed in breaking the Crystal Bear's defenses.

The Crystal Bear merely paused, briefly contemplating who to deal with first, before ignoring Gu Yue and continuing to walk toward Lan Kai.

"Cutting Ray!"

Lan Kai raised his right hand, aiming at the Crystal Bear's face, and launched beams of light that felt like sharp blades toward its visage.

Before the Crystal Bear could use its other hand to block, its face was streaming with blood, and one of its eyes was blinded, causing it to let out an even more agonizing wail.

"Sigh, spirit beasts are truly not Super Beasts; I'd better just finish this quickly."

Lan Kai sighed, raised his hand, and threw an Ultra Slash at the Crystal Bear, precisely severing its head.

The Crystal Bear's body immediately erupted with a layer of intense radiance, covering everything within a three-meter radius, instantly leaving a large patch of crystals in its wake.

Shortly after, the Crystal Bear's body vanished, transforming into a large mass of warm spiritual energy; most of it drifted toward Lan Kai, with only a small portion floating toward Gu Yue.

After the Crystal Bear disappeared, Lan Kai noticed the look of unwillingness on Gu Yue's face.

"...I think, rather than imitating my posture, you should spend more time thinking about how to improve your control over the elements."

Lan Kai quickly absorbed the spiritual energy and, while reminding Gu Yue, continued to advance in another direction.

Gu Yue followed, looking displeased and glaring at Lan Kai's back with unconcealed resentment. She seemed tempted to land a punch on him with her small fist, but after raising it, she hesitated and ultimately lowered her hand.

"Then what about those poses of yours? It's obvious you need to strike those poses to activate your Self-Created Soul Skill, right?"

"Why is it that only you can use specific poses to amplify the power of a spirit skill, while I can't study them?"

"Besides, I truly felt..."

"That is because your imagination is not rich enough."

Faced with Gu Yue's questioning, Lan Kai slowed his pace and explained to her.

Although Ultraman characters—especially those from the Heisei era and beyond—required complex preparation movements to launch powerful beams, the most classic example being the finale of the Orb TV series where the borrowed powers of the original Ultraman and Jack were used, they only fired the Specium Ray after a long, flashy sequence of poses.

But that was more for the sake of performance, using complex movements to render the power of the final attack and stir the audience's emotions, while also padding the runtime and increasing the recognizability of the corresponding Ultra Warrior.

If one truly needed to fire a beam in a tight battle, those movements could be simplified, or even fired instantly upon raising a hand.

Those movements at most served to help channel power, but truly powerful Ultra Warriors could launch their trump-card beam skills even without those gestures.

On the Douluo Continent, the movements Lan Kai performed were also intended to better guide the light energy within his body.

As a Warrior of Light who had not received much training, Lan Kai was naturally not as strong as his predecessors, so he could not yet abandon these steps.

But if Gu Yue became obsessed with studying poses, she would only go astray. Although his relationship with Gu Yue was not good, for the sake of Juggler and Leng Yaozhu, he decided to offer a reminder.

"The reason you felt your attack power increased when using that pose is because the shape of the pose you struck was more aggressive, so the elements naturally condensed into a more aggressive form when you launched your attack."

"However, rather than striking those poses full of openings in exchange for a negligible increase in power, you would be better off strengthening your control over the elements. That way, no matter what you use the elements for, you will achieve twice the result with half the effort."

Not long after, both of them felt the ground tremble, as if something massive was approaching.

Soon, as the trees ahead were knocked down one after another, a spirit beast even larger than the Millennium Crystal Bear appeared in their field of vision.

It was a spirit beast resembling a dinosaur, ten meters long and over five meters tall, covered from head to toe in iron-gray scales. Most striking of all was the single horn growing from the center of its forehead.

The Millennium Unicorn Dragon, a type of earth-dragon spirit beast, was among the best of its kind due to its formidable physical strength and the powerful defense provided by its scales.

Although it lacked long-range attack capabilities, its mobility was exceptional. Even in complex terrain, it could charge relentlessly; once it locked onto a target, it would rely on its powerful mobility to pursue them until it smashed its opponent to pieces with its body.

Even when facing flying spirit masters or spirit beasts, it could use its explosive power to leap into the sky. Unless the opponent's flight altitude exceeded the Unicorn Dragon's jump height, they could not solo the beast without taking damage.

According to some irresponsible rumors, a ten-thousand-year Unicorn Dragon could fire its horn like a cannonball with considerable power, though whether this was true remained unknown.

In terms of pure physical defense, this Unicorn Dragon was even superior to that Crystal Bear.

Gu Yue made a prompt decision, predicting where the Unicorn Dragon was about to step, and activated her first spirit skill, turning the ground into a patch of mud.

The charging Unicorn Dragon did not notice in time and stepped directly into the mud, its massive body slipping and sliding toward the front-left.