You Want to Kill Me?

Yu Xiaogang's face twisted viciously. Without the slightest hesitation, he unleashed his first Soul Skill!

A powerful surge of Soul Power gathered around Luo Sanpao's round body.

Luo Sanpao sucked in a sharp breath. Its already round belly instantly swelled like a ball, then it blasted a thick, pungent yellow cloud toward Qian Renxue's back like a cannonball. The cloud carried a potent paralyzing effect!

The attack came out of nowhere!

No one had expected Yu Xiaogang, who called himself a "theoretical master" and usually carried himself like a scholar, to lose control so completely and unleash a Soul Skill against someone he called an "ordinary person"!

"Teacher! Don't!" Tang San cried out in alarm, his expression changing drastically.

He knew how powerful his teacher's move was. Its damage might not be top-tier, but its stench and paralyzing effect could cause immense pain and humiliation to ordinary people and even low-ranking Soul Masters.

He instinctively tried to rush over and stop him, but it had happened too suddenly, and they were too close. There was no time!

Xiao Wu's eyes widened too, her face filled with disbelief and a trace of disgust. "That Grandmaster is shameless!"

The yellow cloud, carrying its pungent stench, instantly engulfed the small area where Qian Renxue stood.

But just as the yellow cloud was about to touch Qian Renxue's back—

A dazzling golden light erupted from within her without warning!

"Vmmm—!"

The golden light formed a tangible barrier, instantly keeping the foul yellow cloud at bay.

The light flashed and vanished, as if it had never appeared.

Qian Renxue didn't even pause in her stride, as though she had merely brushed away a speck of insignificant dust.

She slowly turned around. Her deep, placid eyes were now as cold as ice that had lain for ten thousand years, fixing Yu Xiaogang with a piercing stare.

"An ambush?" Qian Renxue's voice was flat, yet carried a bone-deep chill and undisguised contempt.

"Is this the measure of a 'Grandmaster'? When you can't refute the theory, you resort to such despicable tactics to vent your anger?"

She tilted her head slightly. Her gaze swept over Luo Sanpao in front of Yu Xiaogang and the two yellow Soul Rings, and the faintest, most mocking smile tugged at her lips.

"A level twenty-nine Soul Grandmaster ambushing an 'ordinary person'... Heh. Your Martial Soul Theory and combat skills are truly astonishing."

Yu Xiaogang stood frozen as if struck by lightning, his face turning from ashen to corpse-gray.

His opponent hadn't even summoned a Martial Soul. She had effortlessly neutralized his attack with nothing but released Soul Power! The difference between them... was a chasm!

His opponent was no cripple who couldn't awaken a Martial Soul! He hadn't been able to sense her Soul Power because she had deliberately concealed it! This "Ye Yang"... had hidden her strength so well!

"You... who exactly..." Yu Xiaogang stammered. Shock and confusion overwhelmed his shame and anger, leaving him unable to finish a single sentence.

Tang San and Xiao Wu were utterly dumbfounded too. Tang San stared at the golden light that had dispelled the cloud in an instant, feeling the powerful surge of Light Soul Power that had vanished as quickly as it appeared. A storm raged in his heart. Brother Ye Yang... was a Soul Master?! And his strength... was unfathomable! Tang San hadn't sensed a thing before! This time, his teacher had kicked an iron plate!

Xiao Wu's eyes sparkled as she looked at "Ye Yang," wonder and excitement written all over her face. "Wow! That's amazing! The golden light made that stinky fart disappear in a flash! So cool!"

Qian Renxue regarded the dazed Yu Xiaogang coldly, her eyes utterly impassive.

She slowly raised a hand. "Using a Soul Skill outside the Soul Fighting Arena is tantamount to declaring war. And you ambushed me, at that. So can I assume you were trying to kill me just now?"

As she spoke, a golden dragon, its entire body encased in metal, crashed down around Qian Renxue, guarding her at its center. She looked like a Heavenly Emperor walking among mortals!

An invisible pressure, originating from the soul itself, descended without warning!

The Radiant Emperor War Dragon!

It was no longer the fleeting phantom of a dragon's head that had appeared during the earlier test. It had descended into the world in its complete form!

Its entire body was covered in golden scales that gleamed like the sun itself had been forged into them. The radiance of the Five Elements' origins flowed across every plate of armor.

Metal's stern transformation, wood's growth and flexibility, water's concealment, fire's upward blaze, earth's balance and harmony.

Its long, powerful body coiled around Qian Renxue.

The enormous dragon head rose high. Each time its eyes opened or closed, majestic golden light shot forth, piercing the void.

The moment the Radiant Emperor War Dragon appeared, the little garden at Nuoding Academy seemed to freeze.

The sunlight lost its warmth, the air stopped moving, and every faint sound—insects chirping, wind blowing, students playing in the distance—was utterly crushed by an invisible pressure that came from the soul itself.

It wasn't a deliberate blast of Soul Power. It was the absolute suppression of lesser beings by the innate rank of the Martial Soul itself!

Yu Xiaogang bore the brunt of it.

The instant the Radiant Emperor War Dragon's majestic gaze swept over him, its vast, star-sea-like and imperial pressure crashed down like a tangible mountain—

"Ugh—!"

Yu Xiaogang felt an unimaginable, irresistible force slam into his body and soul!

The level twenty-nine Soul Power he took pride in was as insignificant as dust before this force!

His failed mutant Martial Soul, Luo Sanpao, let out a terrified whimper.

In an instant, it turned into a streak of purple light and fled back into Yu Xiaogang's body, as though it had come face-to-face with its natural enemy. It couldn't even summon the slightest thought of resistance!

"Thud!"

A heavy crash!

Yu Xiaogang's knees were struck by an invisible hammer. His rigid body could no longer hold him up, and he fell heavily to the ground, kneeling without a shred of dignity!

His knees slammed against the garden's stone path with a teeth-grinding crack.

He tried to struggle, to summon his Soul Power and resist, but the Soul Power inside him seemed frozen, utterly beyond his control.

His body shook violently. Every muscle spasmed and groaned beneath that supreme draconic might.

Cold sweat poured from him, soaking his gray robe in an instant and streaming down his paper-white cheeks.

He fought to lift his head and see the figure in the light, but his neck felt as if it had been filled with lead. He could barely hold his head low, his forehead almost touching the cold ground.

Tang San and Xiao Wu nearby weren't entirely spared either.

Tang San felt an indescribable weight press down on his chest, and his breath caught.

Xiao Wu's lovely face turned deathly pale.

As a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast who had taken human form, she was far more sensitive than Tang San to the pressure of a higher bloodline.

She instinctively took a step back and grabbed Tang San's arm, her beautiful eyes filled with shock and disbelief.

This "Brother Ye Yang"... what kind of monster was he?!

The power of this Martial Soul reminded her of the terrifying beings deep within Star Dou Forest!