He raised his right arm, opened his palm, and reached into the void with all five fingers.
A ripple spread through the air.
Ji Ye slowly pulled his right hand back.
A sword emerged from the void.
Its blade was translucent, and the light of the void shimmered within it.
The space along its edge warped faintly.
"Void."
Four Soul Rings rose beneath Ji Ye's feet.
Purple, purple, black, black.
The four rings rotated slowly, their purple and black light intertwining.
The square fell silent in an instant.
The maids, who had been chattering away just moments ago, all fell quiet.
A guard dropped the sword in his hand. It clanged against the flagstones, but no one went to pick it up.
"Wait, wait, wait... am I seeing things?"
"Purple, purple, black, black? Four rings? Is the third one a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring?"
"How is that possible? Don't you have to be a Soul King to absorb a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring? And his first two rings are both thousand-year rings!"
"How old is he? Twelve? Thirteen?"
"Which elder's child is he? His talent is incredible!"
"Even the Golden Generation aren't this outrageous..."
The guards all chimed in, their shock turning to envy, then their envy turning to admiration.
One maid suddenly spoke. Her voice was soft, but in the quiet crowd, everyone heard her clearly.
"Have any of you noticed how handsome he is..."
Another maid beside her picked up the conversation.
"His hands, his fingers are so long... I wonder if it would hurt if he curled them up..."
"Pah, you little hussy. He's so young, and you're still not letting him off the hook."
"But his face is so handsome!"
The smile at the corner of Demon Subduing Douluo's mouth froze.
The maids who had just been calling him handsome were now all staring at Ji Ye.
Their eyes shone brighter than one another's.
They were more brazen than one another.
Demon Subduing Douluo curled his lip and muttered under his breath.
"Humph. What good is being handsome?"
He tightened his grip on the Coiling Dragon Staff and raised his chin at Ji Ye.
"Go on, little guy."
Demon Subduing Douluo moved.
He didn't use his full strength, or even a Soul Skill.
He simply thrust the Coiling Dragon Staff forward, using seven-tenths of his strength and keeping its speed at the Soul King level.
Even a Four-Ring Soul Ancestor couldn't withstand this blow head-on.
Ji Ye didn't block it.
He pushed off the ground and retreated half a zhang.
The tip of the Coiling Dragon Staff swept past his chest, missing by two fingers' breadth.
"Pretty quick on your feet." Demon Subduing Douluo grinned and swept his staff sideways.
The blow covered a radius of three zhang. Its whooshing wind made everyone's scalps tingle.
This time, Ji Ye didn't dodge.
The First Soul Ring lit up.
"First Soul Skill."
"Void: Traceless."
A glimmer of ghostly light flashed across the translucent blade.
Ji Ye raised his hand and swung at the Coiling Dragon Staff.
The guards watching from the sidelines sucked in a sharp breath.
A Four-Ring Soul Ancestor was using a sword to meet a Titled Douluo's Coiling Dragon Staff head-on?
Was he asking to die?
Sword met staff.
There was no clang of metal.
The Void Sword passed through the staff as if it were air, meeting no resistance at all.
The tip of the blade continued forward, heading straight for Demon Subduing Douluo's shoulder.
Demon Subduing Douluo's eyes flew wide.
In nearly two hundred years of life, he had never seen anything like this.
The Coiling Dragon Staff couldn't block his opponent's sword?
What the hell was this?
At the last moment, Demon Subduing Douluo leaned sharply backward. The translucent blade scraped past his shoulder.
His clothes split, and a thin line of blood appeared on his shoulder.
The space around the wound warped faintly, as if something invisible were tearing at it.
Demon Subduing Douluo stumbled back three steps, then lowered his head to look at the cut on his shoulder.
The blood wouldn't stop.
And it was healing ten times slower than an ordinary wound.
A strange tearing sensation came from the wound, as if something were preventing the flesh from knitting back together.
"Can your sword... ignore defenses?"
Ji Ye held the sword horizontally in front of him.
"More or less."
Demon Subduing Douluo took a deep breath. His expression shifted from casual to serious.
"Good lad. Then I won't hold back either."
With that, Demon Subduing Douluo sped up.
He raised his speed from the Soul King level to the Soul Emperor level.
The Coiling Dragon Staff moved like a living dragon, leaving afterimages in the air. Every blow carried enough force to smash boulders.
Ji Ye didn't meet him head-on.
The Second Soul Ring lit up.
"Second Soul Skill."
"Void: Inch-Distance."
Ji Ye suddenly disappeared.
The next instant, he appeared three chi behind Demon Subduing Douluo.
The Void Sword soundlessly stabbed toward Demon Subduing Douluo's lower back.
Demon Subduing Douluo felt a chill run down his back. It was a Titled Douluo's instinctive reaction.
He had no time to turn around. He swept the Coiling Dragon Staff behind him and charged forward at the same time.
The sword tip cut a shallow but painful gash across his lower back.
Demon Subduing Douluo turned around and saw Ji Ye had already retreated two zhang. His sword was stained with blood.
"Teleportation?" Demon Subduing Douluo frowned.
"No, it's not teleportation. There was no Soul Power fluctuation when you moved. How did you do it?"
"Space folding," Ji Ye said.
"...What?"
"I fold the space between us together, so I can cross it in a single step."
Demon Subduing Douluo opened his mouth, but no words came out.
He decided not to ask. If he kept asking, he'd only make himself look uneducated.
The Coiling Dragon Staff came crashing down again. This time, he raised his speed to the Soul Saint level.
Staff shadows filled the sky.
Ji Ye repeatedly activated "Inch-Distance," his figure flickering unpredictably around the square.
One moment he was to the east, the next to the west, and a moment later he was already above Demon Subduing Douluo.
Every time, the staff missed him by the tiniest margin.
It looked as if the blow would land, but when the staff swung through, it only struck empty air.
A few times, the staff even brushed Ji Ye's clothes, but his figure vanished in that instant, leaving behind only a faint afterimage that the wind from the staff shredded.
Demon Subduing Douluo grew more and more frustrated.
He was a Titled Douluo, fighting a Four-Ring Soul Ancestor, and after all this time he hadn't even touched the hem of Ji Ye's clothes?
He'd be a laughingstock if anyone heard about it.
"Can't you just stand still and fight?"
"Senior, who stands still and lets their opponent beat them up?"
Demon Subduing Douluo laughed in exasperation.
Fine. If Ji Ye wouldn't stand still, then he wouldn't let him run around either.
He raised his speed to the Soul Douluo level.
The Soul Power surging through the Coiling Dragon Staff soared. Every swing came with a deep rumble, and the wind from the staff sent several flagstones flying across the square.
The pressure on Ji Ye suddenly increased.
Though Inch-Distance could teleport him, it required a brief interval before it could be activated again.
Demon Subduing Douluo's attacks came too fast. The moment Ji Ye appeared somewhere, the staff was already on its way.
The third Soul Ring, a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring, lit up.
"Third Soul Skill."
"Void: Absolute Domain."
With Ji Ye at its center, a spherical space ten meters in diameter warped violently.
The instant Demon Subduing Douluo was pulled into the domain, he sensed something was wrong.
The trajectory of every swing of his Coiling Dragon Staff shifted.
Though he aimed straight for Ji Ye's head, the staff slid past his shoulder instead.
It wasn't that he'd missed. The space within the domain had warped, deflecting the trajectory of his attacks.
Before you continue