Third Soul Skill, Buddha Lotus Heart! Thunder Fire Phoenix Tree, I Hope You Can Entertain Me!

The tempering of the Mystic Jade Body did not rely on peaceful cultivation, but on repeated destruction and rebirth. He had previously tempered his body with Whale Dragon medicinal fluid. Though its medicinal potency was fierce, it was ultimately a liquid, and its stimulation of his bones and meridians had gradually become insufficient.

This Thunder Fire Phoenix Tree before him could perfectly replace the medicinal fluid with its Thunder-Fire Power, allowing his body to keep breaking through its limits amid repeated scorching and paralysis.

"Very good, Thunder Fire Phoenix Tree. I hope you won't disappoint me!" Gu Qing said excitedly.

As soon as he finished speaking, he extended his right hand. A gentle mystic-jade-colored glow lit up in his palm as the Buddha Wrath Tang Lotus bloomed in its entirety before everyone for the first time. Its dark-gold petals overlapped one another, each edge gleaming with a cold metallic luster, while the faint purplish-gold light at its heart flickered like breathing.

Three Soul Rings rose in succession from beneath the lotus platform. The first was purple-black, a thousand-year ring; the second was black as ink, a ten-thousand-year ring; the third was so black it seemed capable of devouring light itself. This pure black Soul Ring, condensed from more than fifty thousand years of cultivation, made the surrounding air feel several degrees thicker merely by hovering there.

Dugu Bo's hand froze halfway through stroking his beard, and his fingers nearly tore it out. His emerald snake eyes widened as he stared fixedly at the slowly revolving dark-gold lotus in Gu Qing's palm. "A plant-type tool Martial Soul? This brat actually isn't a top-tier beast-type assault Martial Soul master?! First ring, thousand years; second ring, ten thousand years; third ring, fifty thousand years—what kind of heaven-defying setup is that?!"

Dugu Yan was completely dumbfounded. She had personally watched Gu Qing smash the Purple Mist Scorpion King's massive pincer with a single punch. That kind of unreasonable, tyrannical close-combat ability looked exactly like the path of a top-tier beast Martial Soul.

Yet the thing this Senior Gu held in his hand was clearly an exquisitely beautiful lotus! A youth with monstrous close-combat power had a flower as his Martial Soul?

The dark-gold lotus slowly turning was reflected in her dark-green snake eyes. She could not help muttering, "Senior Gu's Martial Soul is a lotus? Such a beautiful Martial Soul, yet he hits people so fiercely..."

Liu Erlong crossed her arms over her chest. Seeing the grandfather and granddaughter from the Dugu family looking as though their understanding of the world had been overturned, the corners of her lips curved upward slightly. So this was how satisfying it felt to watch others be shocked!

Gu Qing ignored their astonishment and activated the Buddha Wrath Tang Lotus's third Soul Ring. Pure black light surged from the depths of the lotus heart.

Third Soul Skill—Buddha Lotus Heart!

The purplish-gold glow at the center of the lotus platform slowly condensed into a lotus heart seed the size of a longan. It was translucent throughout, its surface flowing with patterns like molten gold, while a thread of purplish-gold liquid could vaguely be seen slowly circulating within.

The life energy contained in this seed was so intense that even Dugu Yan, standing at the edge of the basin, felt a wave of vitality rush toward her.

Gu Qing placed the seed into his mouth and swallowed it. A gentle yet vast life force exploded from his abdomen and surged through his meridians toward every part of his body.

The red marks scorched onto his skin by thunder and fire healed at a visible rate, and the Soul Power within him also recovered faster. More importantly, while Buddha Lotus Heart continuously restored his life force and Soul Power, it could also greatly enhance his body's efficiency in absorbing all forms of energy, including the energy from enemy attacks.

This was Gu Qing's true trump card, the reason he dared to face an eighty-thousand-year Thunder Fire Phoenix Tree head-on with the body of a level thirty-nine Soul Elder.

"Again! Thunder Fire Phoenix Tree, you'd better entertain me!"

Gu Qing pushed off the ground, transforming into a mystic-jade-colored bolt of lightning as he charged toward the canopy.

The Thunder Fire Phoenix Tree seemed to have been thoroughly enraged by Gu Qing's direct provocation. Countless burning leaves across its canopy erupted with blinding light at once. More than a hundred bolts of lightning, mixed with crimson-gold fireballs, poured down like a torrential storm, illuminating the entire basin as brightly as day.

Gu Qing weaved through gaps between lightning and fireballs, driving Sky-Vaulting Void Step to its utmost limit. He moved so quickly that Dugu Yan could only catch blurred afterimages.

Yet Gu Qing did not evade every attack. He deliberately allowed some of the thunder-fire energy to strike his shoulders, arms, and back.

Every bolt of lightning blasted a charred mark onto his skin, and every fireball left a burning red imprint. But under the continuous healing of the lotus heart seed, those injuries rapidly closed. The healed skin became slightly tougher than before, while his muscle fibers grew denser and denser through repeated destruction and repair.

The Thunder Fire Phoenix Tree's offensive became increasingly intense. Dozens of burning vines burst from the ground, each wrapped in silver arcs of electricity, lashing at Gu Qing from all directions at once.

Gu Qing twisted aside to evade most of them and smashed several apart with repeated punches from his right fist, but one vine still struck his back solidly.

A dull smack rang out!

The immense force slammed Gu Qing into the ground, plowing a deep trench more than ten meters long through the dirt. He pushed himself up with one hand and flipped to his feet. His shirt had been lashed open by the vine, leaving a charred tear across his back and exposing the mystic-jade glow of the skin beneath. A red mark that was already healing remained on it.

He glanced at the tear, then simply raised a hand, grabbed his collar, and ripped off the entire ruined shirt, tossing it aside.

Bare-chested, Gu Qing stood where he was as a mystic-jade radiance flowed across his skin. The outlines of his chest and abdominal muscles were sharply defined under the thunder-fire glow. Every muscle looked like carefully carved jade, solid without being bulky.

Dugu Yan's eyes widened at once. Watching Gu Qing's bare upper body standing amid the thunder-fire light, her face instantly flushed all the way to her ears. She reflexively covered her eyes with a hand, but could not stop herself from leaving a gap between her fingers.

Her gaze slid from Gu Qing's broad shoulders to his firm chest, then traveled down the lines of his abs before stopping at the faintly visible V-line around his waist and abdomen.

Dugu Yan felt her heart beating so fast it seemed ready to leap out of her throat. Only one thought remained in her mind: Senior Gu really was the same age as her... not some senior who had regained his youth. At this age, with this body, with this strength, how could someone like him exist in this world?

Liu Erlong's reaction was much more restrained, though not by much. Her arms remained crossed over her chest, but her fingers had unconsciously dug into her arms. She had lived for over thirty years and seen countless male Soul Masters, yet she had never seen a single one with this level of physical strength at the age of twelve!

Tang San's gaze was the calmest, yet also the most focused. The aura erupting from Gu Qing's Mystic Jade Body, pushed to its limit, deeply entwined itself around Tang San's nose and mind! Her body trembled slightly, her fingers suddenly clenched her clothes, and pink hearts naturally lit up in her eyes!

Gu Qing had no idea what kind of psychological impact his shirt-ripping act had caused the three female spectators.

All of his attention was focused on the battle before him. The Buddha Wrath Tang Lotus's second Soul Ring lit up!

Second Soul Skill, Heavenly Heart Lotus!

Comprehension, thinking speed, spiritual perception, focus, insight, deduction ability, and memory recall ability were all tripled.

The entire world became clearer than ever before in Gu Qing's eyes. He could sense every current of thunder-fire energy flowing within the Thunder Fire Phoenix Tree's trunk, calculate the trajectory and timing of every descending bolt of lightning, and perceive the rhythm of every contraction and expansion of that mass of thunder-fire origin at the core of the canopy.