After explaining her Soul Skills to her grandfather and Meng Hongchen, Ye Guyi also successfully absorbed the Sky Dragon Horse's Soul Ring, raising her Soul Power to level forty-two.
Her fourth Soul Skill was called Radiant Holy Body. It was an exceptionally powerful self-enhancement skill. While it was active, it increased the power of her light attribute and her physical strength by one hundred percent, while also greatly accelerating her Soul Power recovery.
The first thing she did after waking up was challenge Xiao Hongchen.
"Let's settle this once and for all, Xiao Hongchen!"
The golden-haired girl was brimming with fighting spirit, two rare flames dancing in her blue eyes.
"You still remember?" Xiao Hongchen scratched his head.
"It's only been a few days! How forgetful would I have to be to forget?"
"Fight, fight!"
Meng Hongchen bounced around, egging them on from the sidelines.
"Bring it on." Xiao Hongchen rolled his wrist. "Guyi, you'd better think of your exit line first."
He'd had the same idea. It was a good chance to check on Ye Guyi's development—no, to check whether her strength was progressing normally.
They released their Martial Souls at the same time.
Xiao Hongchen didn't use his Soul Cannon formation or Metal Torrent. Instead, he strode straight toward Ye Guyi.
He planned to use the sparring match to test his close-combat abilities.
Ye Guyi frowned. She hadn't expected Xiao Hongchen to try fighting her at close range. Although they were seven levels apart, wasn't he underestimating her a little too much? After all, Ye Guyi wasn't just the owner of the Holy Angel Martial Soul. With her cultivation, she was also a level-four close-combat Soul Engineer.
She charged at Xiao Hongchen, thrusting a Soul Tool longsword straight at a vital point.
With Spiritual Power several grades above Ye Guyi's blanketing the area, Xiao Hongchen easily predicted the sword's trajectory.
He tilted his head slightly. Golden metal elements gathered directly around his right fist. He had fused Soul Power with Spiritual Power to imitate Reign Over the World for the first time, sending his fist straight toward Ye Guyi's abdomen.
Ye Guyi didn't dodge. Instead, she swept her longsword toward Xiao Hongchen's neck, forcing him to defend himself.
Their attacks landed at the same time. Xiao Hongchen felt as if he'd punched solid bedrock. The rebound sent pain shooting through his palm.
Ye Guyi had indeed kept something in reserve. Her third Soul Ring lit up—Holy Hymn. Her angel wings spread, and a wall of light appeared out of thin air. Xiao Hongchen's punch slammed into it, causing no damage whatsoever.
But Ye Guyi's longsword didn't draw blood either. Xiao Hongchen had already formed a layer of flexible metal around his neck. When the sword fell, it spread the force evenly. By the time the impact reached him, he could withstand it with ease.
"Not bad." Xiao Hongchen retreated. "Give it a little more effort."
Ye Guyi's wall of light was still there. Xiao Hongchen couldn't break through it with bare fists alone without showing his real strength, so he planned to wait for it to fade before attacking.
But Ye Guyi wasn't about to let this opportunity pass. She released her first and fourth enhancement Soul Skills at the same time, and her aura surged. The sacred wings on her back unfurled completely, radiating a gentle golden light.
What powerful holy light!
Xiao Hongchen was secretly alarmed. The holy aura radiating from Ye Guyi made him feel as though he were bathing in warmth, but that warmth seeped into him through every pore, and his Soul Power was constantly dissipating.
Ye Guyi pointed her longsword forward. Countless sword beams shot toward Xiao Hongchen.
Facing Ye Guyi at full strength, Xiao Hongchen didn't dare to be careless. He released his first and third Soul Skills at the same time, strengthening his Metal Control.
He twisted and dodged the sword beams. Any he couldn't evade were blocked by the metal swirling around him.
On the surface, Ye Guyi had the upper hand, her attacks as relentless as a rising tide. But momentum surged once, waned a second time, and was spent by the third. After failing to break through his defenses with her assault, her breathing had already grown less steady, while Xiao Hongchen remained completely at ease, even tossing out the occasional comment.
"That sword was angled wrong."
"You put too much force into that one too early."
A cold glint flashed in Ye Guyi's eyes.
"This move will decide the winner! Take this, Holy Spirit Slash!"
She raised the Seven Star Longsword above her head with both hands, and the second Soul Ring on her body lit up.
Xiao Hongchen showed no sign of dodging or defending. He simply stood there, smiling as he watched Ye Guyi gather her strength.
"Don't underestimate me."
Ye Guyi poured Soul Power into the Soul Tool longsword in her hands and, with the help of her second Soul Skill, brought it down hard toward Xiao Hongchen.
The mighty sword beam that should have erupted never appeared. She looked down and only then noticed that the Core Array in her Soul Tool longsword had been damaged. The Soul Power she'd poured into it had long since dissipated, so naturally, it couldn't release a sword wave.
"When did you...?"
Ye Guyi knew this hadn't been natural damage. Xiao Hongchen had to be responsible.
"I absolutely won't tell you that every time your sword was blocked by my metal, I controlled some of the metal dust and stuck it to your blade. And I definitely won't tell you that I had the dust find a tiny opening and slip inside to wreck the Core Array."
Xiao Hongchen said it all in one breath.
Ye Guyi gripped the ruined Soul Tool longsword and fixed her pale-blue eyes on him. The wall of light slowly faded around her as Holy Hymn's duration ran out.
She was silent for quite some time before finally speaking.
"You were dismantling my sword from the start."
"Not from the very start. More like... the third strike?"
"Compensate me."
Ye Guyi put the ruined longsword away in her Storage Soul Tool and held out her hand. Her expression was calm, as if she were stating an obvious fact.
Xiao Hongchen's mouth twitched.
"...You challenged me, lost, and now you want me to pay for your sword?"
"You're the one who broke it."
He couldn't argue with that.
"Fine," he sighed. "I'll make you one when we get back."
"And I want a level-five Soul Tool sword that I can use. With a holy attribute." She paused. "You're such a genius. You can do that, right?"
"No problem. Do you even know who I am?"
"The hilt should be gold, and the scabbard white."
Xiao Hongchen paused, said nothing, and nodded before turning to walk on.
Behind him, Meng Hongchen quietly linked arms with Ye Guyi and lowered her voice.
"Guyi, my brother never pays attention to the colors when he makes Soul Tools. Last time he made me a dagger, I asked for ice blue, and he made it silver-gray. He said that was the only color the materials came in." She nodded toward him.
Ye Guyi didn't reply. She only gazed quietly at the silver-haired figure up ahead.
"Guyi, do you think he—"
Ye Guyi gave her palm a light squeeze.
The touch was gentle, like a cat resting a paw on her.
Meng Hongchen obediently closed her mouth, but the corners of her lips rose so high she couldn't suppress them.
Xiao Hongchen caught her grin out of the corner of his eye and immediately turned to Jing Hongchen.
"Grandpa, let's go."
"Mm. Let's go."
Jing Hongchen patted Xiao Hongchen on the shoulder.
"A man has to take the initiative."
Jing Hongchen seemed to be plotting something obvious. He was still hoping Ye Guyi's Holy Angel Martial Soul would be passed down, giving the Hongchen Family a third inherited Martial Soul—and one that might be stronger than the first two.
Xiao Hongchen knew exactly what the old man was scheming.
But that didn't stop him from having ideas of his own.
Take the initiative?
He turned the phrase over in his mind.
He'd crossed into another world, and he had a face like this. If he still had to chase after someone, wouldn't that be beneath him?
Besides, in romance, the one who confesses first is the loser. That's a universal truth.
Ye Guyi, just wait patiently until one evening, with the sun setting, and confess to me with your ears turning red.
When that day came, he'd put away his usual frivolous air, dip his head slightly, and say in just the right tone, neither too softly nor too boldly:
"So you really want to go out with me? I guess I can't say no to you."
Then he'd accept, and add one final line:
"You're so cute~"
Just imagining the scene made Xiao Hongchen's carefully controlled expression start to crumble.
Don't laugh yet... Just hold it in a little longer...
"Brother's acting up again. I feel like he's about to start cackling any second."
Meng Hongchen couldn't bear to watch and covered half her face with her hand.
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