Supernova

"Xu Tianzhen, level 41 Power Attack System Soul Ancestor, Sun martial soul, please advise."

In fact, she had originally wanted to challenge Xiao Hongchen more than half a month ago.

However, she had been stuck at the peak of level 39 at the time. To avoid losing too embarrassingly, she held her breath and cultivated for over ten days, only running over to block his door once she successfully broke through to become a Soul Ancestor.

"Xiao Hongchen, level 54, Three-Legged Golden Toad martial soul, please advise."

"That's not fair, that's not fair, you're more than ten levels higher than me."

"Then what would Her Highness the Princess like?"

Xiao Hongchen felt helpless; it wasn't as if he had asked for this duel.

"You aren't allowed to use your fifth soul skill or any Soul Tools. That would be fair."

Xu Tianzhen was a traditionalist. She didn't know how to craft Soul Tools and only knew how to use them, but she generally only used her martial soul to fight.

"As you wish. Let me ask first, Her Highness should have a triggered defensive Soul Tool on you, right? Otherwise, I might not be able to go all out."

"Don't you worry about that, just go all out."

"Then let's begin."

The expression on Xu Tianzhen's face changed the moment she entered combat mode.

She clasped her hands together in front of her chest, flipped them upward, and assumed a posture with her fingers interlaced and palms supporting the sky. Her small, modest chest appeared much more prominent due to this movement.

A blinding red light suddenly erupted from her body. Right above the palms of her hands, a mass of orange-red radiance instantly bloomed.

Two yellow and two purple soul rings, the optimal configuration, rose from beneath her feet. Her third soul ring flashed instantly, and an orange-red beam shot violently toward Xiao Hongchen. Wherever it passed, even the air was burned into a visible, distorted trail.

Xiao Hongchen's first and third soul skills lit up. A large expanse of metal instantly covered his right arm, layering over itself until it formed a massive, thick metal claw.

"Here it comes."

He even had the mood to crack a joke.

The metal claw extending from his right hand caught the orange-red beam.

Xiao Hongchen didn't know the extent of Xu Tianzhen's strength, so he intended to catch the move barehanded to test her, but he still misjudged the temperature of that light.

The surface metal was instantly melted into liquid gold. Although the melting point of the internal metal was high enough, the intense heat conducted through the metal and onto Xiao Hongchen's hand.

Hot, hot, hot. Xiao Hongchen's eye twitched violently.

Almost as a reflex, he quickly deactivated the metal covering and flung the nearly red-hot metal claw away.

I was truly careless. A small blister appeared on his right palm.

As expected of the Sun martial soul. The power of the sun is supreme in its rigidity and strength. It is a top-tier fire-attribute martial soul; while not an ultimate martial soul, it is nearly on par, and it can borrow the power of the sun to bolster itself.

This Xu Tianzhen, she deliberately chose to challenge me at high noon when the sun is at its peak, allowing her to borrow the sun's momentum to exert 120% of her strength. I underestimated her.

"Hahaha, Xiao Hongchen, you have committed the sin of arrogance!"

Watching Xiao Hongchen's disheveled state, Xu Tianzhen laughed without a shred of ladylike decorum, her amethyst-like eyes filled with triumph.

"It's just that your sun fire happens to counter my metal." Xiao Hongchen shook his hand, his tone steady. "It seems I'll have to stand up to fight you."

"Aren't you standing now?"

Xiao Hongchen couldn't be bothered to answer. He pressed his palms together, and a supersonic Gold Piercing shot straight toward Xu Tianzhen's face. The sound of it breaking the air was sharp and piercing, the airflow tearing apart around the metal arrowhead.

Feeling the pressure of this attack, Xu Tianzhen's eyes narrowed: It's far stronger than her third soul skill. Not to be underestimated.

Her first soul ring lit up. An orange-red halo suddenly expanded beneath her feet, and an orange-red light descended diagonally from above her head toward the ground.

The next instant, her figure vanished into thin air. When she reappeared, she was already standing where the light had landed, and the Gold Piercing whistled past the spot where she had been standing, grazing her.

Xu Tianzhen's first soul skill was called Sun Reflection. It released a soft phantom of the sun that could confuse an enemy's senses, create illusory clones, and slightly burn anyone who made contact. It was a basic crowd control and interference skill.

Xu Tianzhen's lips curled up again, and she was just about to make a snide remark.

Then, her smile froze on her face.

The metal arrowhead did not disappear.

The moment the Gold Piercing swept past her, it silently disintegrated, turning into nearly a hundred tiny droplets of liquid metal. They hovered silently around her, each one shimmering with a faint golden luster, like raindrops that had yet to fall.

"Supernova."

Xiao Hongchen's calm voice came from across the field.

The next instant, those metal droplets expanded simultaneously.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

A chain of explosions erupted throughout the training ground. Borrowing the Sacrifice of Gold, Xiao Hongchen pushed the energy contained within the droplets to their breaking point. The moment the energy could no longer be suppressed, the droplets transformed into countless metal spikes, exploding in every direction. They covered Xu Tianzhen's entire body so thoroughly that even Xiao Hongchen himself wouldn't want to take such a hit.

At the center of the explosion, smoke filled the air.

No, that's not smoke.

Xiao Hongchen's eyes flickered. That "smoke" was metal vaporized by the high heat.

He frowned, silently making a mental note: The Gold Piercing prioritizes speed, so I didn't specifically choose high-melting-point metal, and the droplets were too small. Once roasted by Xu Tianzhen's sun fire, they all vaporized.

I'll have to change materials next time.

The smoke cleared, and Xu Tianzhen stood where she was, gently patting her chest with lingering traces of fear in her eyes.

She had not panicked in the instant of the explosion; she first used her second soul skill, Sunlight Barrier, to condense a high-density golden light shield around her body, briefly resisting the first wave of impact from the metal spikes.

Immediately following that, her fourth soul skill, Scorching Sun Heart, was activated. This was a wide-range domain skill that raised a Scorching Sun Domain centered on herself, causing the temperature within the area to soar sharply while suppressing the enemy's Soul Power circulation and weakening the potency of their soul skills.

The metal spikes, temporarily blocked by the barrier, softened one by one in the suddenly rising heat, dissipating and turning into gas that drifted into the surroundings.

Xu Tianzhen looked up at Xiao Hongchen, her eyes growing more serious:

"You held back."

It was not a question.

"Nonsense, this isn't a life-or-death duel. You're a Soul Ancestor; if I had truly detonated it with full force, even with your second soul skill's elemental advantage, you wouldn't have been able to hold out until you activated your fourth soul skill."

Xu Tianzhen fell silent for a moment after hearing this, then the corners of her mouth curled up, and that flamboyant spirit of hers returned:

"Then come at me with full force next time, I'll take it!"

"Your Highness, you'd better stop squandering your life-saving Soul Tools. You are no match for me."

"Again."

Before Xu Tianzhen's voice had even faded, her third soul ring lit up, and a Sun God Light carrying a scorching heatwave surged straight toward Xiao Hongchen.

"Don't think the same trick will work a second time."

Xiao Hongchen did not dodge. He pinched the air, and metal rapidly took shape between his palms, condensing into a canister of the perfect caliber, steadily aimed in the direction of the Sun God Light.

"Absorb!"

The beam of light drilled into the mouth of the canister and was received in its entirety, never making direct contact with his body, and naturally, it could not burn him in the slightest.

He then pressed his palms together again, and the metal flowed and gathered from all sides toward his hands, beginning to charge up for Gold Piercing.

"Stop, stop, stop!" She raised her hand. "I admit defeat, alright!"

Xiao Hongchen ceased his charging and glanced at her.

Xu Tianzhen had activated five soul skills in succession; with her level forty-one Soul Power, she was already struggling to hold on. Her breathing was a bit more rapid than usual, and the stray hairs on her forehead were slightly dampened by sweat.