Three days passed in the blink of an eye.
Today, the central Grand Martial Arena of Spirit Hall Academy was packed so tightly that not even water could pass through.
The selection for the Spirit Hall Team was underway, and every student was going all out for one of those supreme tournament spots.
To ensure fairness, every student in the academy was allowed to sign up!
The selection had always been fierce in previous years, but never before had it drawn this much attention.
Every high-ranking member of Spirit Hall had come, and even several Red-Robed Bishops who usually kept to themselves had quietly appeared and taken seats high in the VIP stands.
Most of them had come for that young man who had recently become the talk of Spirit City—Su Ming.
"First round, match eight: Su Ming versus Li Meng!"
At the referee's loud announcement, Su Ming stepped onto the arena in a black robe, his expression cool and composed.
His first opponent was an elite, level-forty-six Soul Ancestor from the Power Attack System.
Yet the outcome had been decided from the very beginning.
Su Ming didn't even use the highly anticipated fourth Soul Ring. Relying solely on the innate pressure of his Evil Phoenix martial soul, he suppressed his opponent until the man's martial soul trembled.
Then the Second Soul Ring at his feet flashed. With a casual swing, he unleashed a black Evil Fire Meteor and cleanly blasted his opponent off the arena, like autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves.
His robe was unsoiled, his expression unchanged.
In the following warm-up rounds, Su Ming continued to sweep through his opponents with the same simple, brutal style. He easily dispatched several cannon-fodder challengers and advanced to the contest for the main roster spots.
The Spirit Hall officials on the high platform nodded repeatedly, their eyes filled with admiration.
Among the Golden Generation watching below, Yan's expression grew grimmer by the moment, while Hu Liena's beautiful eyes sparkled.
Yan clenched his fists, his face darkening to the extreme.
How had this guy gotten so strong in just a few days?!
"Next match: Su Ming versus—Yan!"
When the two names appeared on the giant Soul Tool screen, the entire arena erupted in thunderous cheers.
A level-forty-four Soul Ancestor from the Power Attack System, against a twelve-year-old monster Soul Ancestor with four ten-thousand-year Soul Rings!
Yan took a deep breath and strode onto the arena.
Before, he'd been one hundred percent sure he could handle Su Ming!
But after Xie Yue told him about Su Ming's astonishing record three days ago, and after seeing Su Ming's performance just now, Yan knew there was a good chance he wasn't a match for this monster.
Still, as a proud member of the Spirit Hall Golden Generation, and as a man deeply in love with Hu Liena, he would never allow himself to back down without a fight!
"Even if I'm destined to lose today, I'll bite off a chunk of you, you monster!"
"I'll show you that I, Yan, am not someone you can push around!"
Yan roared furiously in his heart.
The two took their places in the center of the arena.
At the referee's signal, Yan's Soul Power surged like a volcano.
"Roar—!!"
With a furious roar, Yan's arms swelled instantly. Dark-red granite armor bulged across his skin, while scorching magma coursed through the cracks in the rock like a raging river. His Flame Lord martial soul possessed him!
"Su Ming!"
Yan stamped his feet on the ground, scorched black by the intense heat, and roared at Su Ming, "Today, I'll show you what I'm capable of!!"
Faced with Yan's savage expression, Su Ming remained as still as a pool of dead water.
He couldn't even be bothered to reply. He simply took a quiet step forward.
Boom!
A pitch-black Evil Phoenix phantom, radiating an aura of endless destruction and Nirvana, spread its wings behind Su Ming.
Then yellow, yellow, deep purple... and that pitch-black fourth ten-thousand-year Soul Ring, so oppressive it seemed to choke the air from everyone's lungs, slowly rose beneath his feet.
Even though he had prepared himself, Yan's heart still gave a violent lurch at the sight of that ten-thousand-year fourth ring.
Su Ming raised his eyes impassively. The ten-thousand-year fourth Soul Ring beneath his feet lit up.
"Fourth Soul Skill: Nine-Nether Resentful Phoenix Cry!"
"Creee—!!"
A venomous phoenix cry, sharp enough to tear through the soul, resounded across the entire Grand Martial Arena.
Black, bizarre ripples of law swept across the arena like a tsunami.
Yan, who had been defending with all his might, turned deathly pale in an instant.
Buzz!
To the utter shock of everyone watching, the first four Soul Rings beneath Yan's feet turned a lifeless, deep gray and went completely dark.
But that wasn't all!
The granite-and-magma armor covering his body, sustained by his Soul Skill, immediately crumbled away in great swaths like snow beneath the blazing sun. It melted and scattered into the wind as ash!
It had been forcibly stripped away!
Yan was now left without the slightest bit of defense. Like an ordinary man stripped naked, he stood exposed before Su Ming, his guard completely down.
"No... That's impossible!" Yan's eyes bulged. At last, despair surfaced in them.
In that instant, he finally understood what kind of crushing ordeal those Soul Kings in the Great Soul Arena had faced.
This wasn't a fight at all. It was an unreasonable erasure by the laws of the world!
His determination to teach Su Ming a lesson shattered into pieces.
Three seconds was more than enough time for the Grim Reaper to descend again and again.
Su Ming's icy eyes showed no trace of emotion. "Third Soul Skill: Evil Phoenix God-Slaying Slash!"
Whoosh!
A black streak of light tore through the air with a shrill whine and slammed head-on into Yan's undefended chest.
Rumble—!!
A muffled, thunderous boom exploded in the center of the arena.
Violent flames swallowed Yan's body in an instant.
He couldn't even hold on for a second. With a wretched scream, he flew hundreds of meters through the air like a cannonball.
Thud!
Dust billowed across the arena.
One move. Instant defeat.
The entire Grand Martial Arena fell into a deathly silence.
The Red-Robed Bishops on the high platform were so shocked that they sprang to their feet.
Who could have imagined that even Yan, powerful as he was and a member of the Golden Generation, would be no different from an ordinary student before Su Ming—still taken down in a single move!
"Cough... Cough—ack!"
In the distant rubble, the clouds of dust slowly dispersed.
Covered in blood and in a wretched state, Yan struggled to his feet from the pile of broken stone.
Su Ming had held back. Without any Soul Power to defend himself, Yan would have been dead after taking that blow.
Even so, his chest was already a bloody mess, and the excruciating pain of the Evil Phoenix's extreme corruption kept assaulting his nerves.
Yet the pain in his body was nothing compared to the devastating blow his heart had just suffered.
Yan sat dazed among the ruins, staring at his trembling hands, smeared with blood.
He had thought that even if he lost, he could still show the Golden Generation's backbone. He could still display his unyielding manliness before Hu Liena and at least give Su Ming some trouble.
But reality had slapped him hard across the face.
The gap was too vast...
So vast that he wasn't even worthy of touching the hem of Su Ming's robe!