Every feather blade was wrapped in thick, black Evil Fire.
Tie Lei had nowhere to dodge. He could only swing his bear paws and fight for his life.
Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!
The sound of blades piercing flesh rang out again and again.
Dozens of feather blades instantly pierced through his defenses and stabbed into his body.
The moment they struck, Tie Lei let out a scream.
The Evil Fire clinging to the blades brought an agony as sharp as ten thousand ants gnawing at his bones.
As long as the Evil Fire burned, this marrow-deep torment would never subside.
Tie Lei flew into a rage. Gritting his teeth against the pain, he charged at Su Ming, intent on trading wounds with him.
Su Ming stood where he was. He raised his right hand, fingers held together, and sharply flicked it upward, activating the second stage of his second Soul Skill.
"Return!"
The countless black feathers that had missed their targets and stuck into the ground were instantly pulled back, hurtling through the air.
Along their return path, the remaining feather blades struck Tie Lei with pinpoint accuracy once again.
In an instant, a vortex of black feathers locked Tie Lei firmly in place, triggering an absolute immobilization effect.
Tie Lei could not move a muscle. He could only roar in agony as his marrow was gnawed at.
At last, Su Ming looked at the deep purple third Soul Ring around him.
The light of his five-thousand-year Soul Ring blazed, and an aura of Nirvana instantly shrouded the entire arena.
In a single moment, all the energy of the utmost evil compressed into Su Ming's right palm.
"Third Soul Skill, Evil Phoenix God-Slaying Slash!"
Su Ming's expressionless face remained unchanged as he swept his palm down through the air.
A black reaper's blade, condensed entirely from utmost evil energy, shot through the air.
There was no flashy, wide-area blast to this attack. All its destructive power was concentrated along a single line.
The light slash swept through the air, carrying a potent soul-rending effect.
Boom!
The last of the Rock Giant Bear defenses around Tie Lei shattered the instant it touched the light slash.
That black slash, radiating the aura of death, tore through the air and halted just one inch from Tie Lei's throat.
The utmost evil shockwave left in its wake split the hard rocky ground for dozens of meters behind Tie Lei in two, carving a pitch-black ravine with no visible bottom.
Tie Lei's eyes went blank.
Though the slash had stopped, its soul-rending effect had nearly shattered his sea of consciousness completely.
Thud!
Tie Lei collapsed limply onto the arena floor, utterly crushed by fear.
"I... I surrender!" Tie Lei shouted with the last of his strength.
The referee finally snapped out of his shock and raised his right hand. "Su Ming wins!"
The spectators were stunned.
Su Ming's battle had been over far too cleanly and decisively.
It had been so clean that it seemed beyond what someone at his Soul Power Level could possibly manage.
After his first match ended, Su Ming did not linger at the venue or continue competing. He went straight back to Spirit Hall.
In his room, Su Ming sat cross-legged on a soft couch, recovering the Soul Power he had spent while reviewing his battle with Tie Lei in his mind.
Though he had won easily by chaining together his three Soul Skills to keep his opponent suppressed, Su Ming's brow furrowed slightly.
He knew very well that he was indeed unmatched among his peers in terms of actual combat strength. But when facing stronger opponents in battles across ranks, his options were still too limited.
At present, he had only three Soul Skills. His first Soul Skill focused on control and sustained damage, his second was a wide-area attack, and his third was a single-target burst.
If he ran into an enemy whose attributes countered his own, or one whose Soul Skill mechanics countered his, his current rigid fighting style would make it easy for them to find an opening.
Looking at his hands, Su Ming muttered to himself, "I still have too few tricks. I have to add more unpredictability to my attacks."
Without relying on Soul Rings, Soul Bones and Self-Created Soul Skills were the most direct ways to increase his combat strength.
Soul Bones were hard to find, and the drop rate was too low. There was no point considering them.
That left Self-Created Soul Skills. But creating a completely new Soul Skill from scratch was extremely difficult. It would take a great deal of time and a hefty dose of luck.
"Creating a Self-Created Soul Skill is too difficult. Wouldn't it be much easier to make minor adjustments and changes to the Soul Skills I already have?"
He began analyzing his Soul Skills one by one.
First was his first Soul Skill, Evil Fire Chaos Origin.
This Soul Skill released a pure black, intangible Core Flame with a viscous quality. Its fundamental principle lay in its ability to cling to things and devour them over time.
This flame had no fixed physical form by nature, making it extremely difficult to impose rigid changes on its shape or attack trajectory.
If he forcibly changed its form, he would only weaken its existing burning and devouring effects.
Conclusion: not easy to fine-tune.
Next was his second Soul Skill, Evil Phoenix Falling Feather Kill.
When activated, this Soul Skill released thousands of black feather blades in an instant. Each blade contained a complex balance of energy, as well as an incredibly precise mechanism for retrieval and immobilization in its second stage.
It was a wide-area group attack. If he tried to interfere with the blades' trajectories from the outside, he would risk disrupting their energy balance. The blades could easily lose control and explode in midair, rendering the second-stage immobilization effect completely useless.
His second Soul Skill would also be difficult to modify.
Finally, Su Ming fixed his gaze on his third Soul Skill, Evil Phoenix God-Slaying Slash.
Its structure was the simplest of the three.
It was a single-target cutting slash that compressed all the energy of the utmost evil along a single line. It was powerful and extremely fast.
Its method of activation was also simple, without too many complications.
Su Ming sat on the soft couch, deep in thought.
The Evil Phoenix God-Slaying Slash currently travels in a straight line. If I want to make it more lethal, what should I do?
Make the slash bigger?
No. A larger slash means the energy will be spread out, weakening its core cutting power.
What if, without changing its size, I made the slash spin at high speed as it shot forward?
Su Ming's eyes lit up slightly.
An ordinary blade could only cut through an object. But if a blade spun wildly at several thousand revolutions per second, it would become a terrifying saw.
High-speed rotation would not only give it greater penetrating power, but also inflict more devastating physical tearing damage. Its ability to pierce armor would increase severalfold.
Besides rotation, he could also try splitting the slash into multiple blades in an instant, sealing off every escape route his opponent might take.
Su Ming felt that this approach was worth exploring.
He immediately sprang to his feet.
He knew that blindly experimenting on his own could easily lead to problems. He needed theoretical guidance.
Half an hour later, Su Ming arrived in the core area of Spirit Hall's Grand Library Pavilion.
Thanks to the badge identifying him as a disciple personally acknowledged by the Pope, the elder guarding the pavilion did not stop him and allowed him into the floor where advanced Soul Power control techniques were kept.