After Xiao Mu finished speaking, two boys and a girl emerged from the shadows of the trees.
He didn't know the two boys, who looked fifteen or sixteen, but he recognized the girl. Her long golden hair was tied in a ponytail, her figure was slender, and there was an air of pride about her eyes and brows.
As it happened, the girl was Mu Xi.
He hadn't run into Tang Wulin, but had bumped into them instead.
At that moment, a fireball like a miniature sun floated above Mu Xi's head. The red light from before had clearly been her doing.
There was no denying that Mu Xi's Blazing Sun Martial Soul was incredibly powerful, practically like a long-range cannon. She no longer had two Soul Rings, but three.
A three-ring Soul Elder!
"Xiao Mu?" Mu Xi stared at him in surprise. The fireball above her head trembled slightly. "What are you doing here?"
"I should be asking you that." Xiao Mu flipped a coin between his fingers. "You're a fifth-year student, and you came to the Riot Spirit Ascension Platform? Aren't you afraid of getting kicked out early?"
Mu Xi's mouth twitched. "What have I got to be afraid of? I can come to the Spirit Ascension Platform this year, and I can come again next year."
She sneered. "You're the one I've wanted to beat up for ages!"
"Is that so?" Xiao Mu found her words unimpressive. "There are plenty of people who want to beat me up. You're not special. Do you even think you can take me?"
"And have you become a Level Three Blacksmith yet?"
Mu Xi froze at his words. Was this guy even speaking human language?
"What?"
"I asked if you'd broken through to Level Three Blacksmith."
Mu Xi's expression changed. The fireball trembled violently in her palm, like a sun about to erupt.
"Could you stop bringing that up?"
The fireball suddenly swelled, then shot from above her head like a real sun crashing toward Xiao Mu.
Xiao Mu didn't panic in the slightest. This level of heat wouldn't even come close to hurting him.
A force field spread around him like an invisible film, abruptly slowing the fireball. It stripped away the heat and absorbed the kinetic energy. The flames warped and dimmed inside the field, then quickly died out.
"That attack won't cut it."
Mu Xi's pupils contracted sharply. A second fireball shot out, then a third. Her two companions attacked at the same time. One was an earth-attribute Soul Master, and ochre-colored rock spikes burst from the ground. The other had a Wind Wolf Martial Soul, and blue-green blades of wind wove into a net in the air.
The force field swallowed them all.
"Mu Xi, if this is all you've got, don't waste your energy." Xiao Mu looked at her and suddenly sighed.
He didn't flick the coin. He might as well not use it.
He asked inwardly, "True Monarch, lend me some of your power."
A lazy voice replied, "Go ahead. Take as much as you like."
Xiao Mu raised his head, and golden light suddenly flared in his eyes.
Flames surged from within him, wrapping his whole body in gold. The air around him twisted in an instant, and the heat soared, as if a blazing sun had crashed down onto the earth.
The next fireball Mu Xi launched had barely made it halfway when it was swallowed by the True Fire before it could get close.
Fire against fire—the difference was clear as day.
Xiao Mu stood amid the golden light without moving an inch.
"Xiao Mu, you can control fire?" Gu Yue looked at his golden eyes and the golden flames surrounding him, unable to help asking.
"I can. I always could." Xiao Mu looked at Gu Yue. "I just couldn't be bothered to use it before."
Looking at his opponents, he continued, "Na'er, take the one on the left."
"Got it."
Na'er answered and charged straight forward. She spun the Silver Dragon Spear halfway around in her palm. Its tip drew a silver arc as she thrust it toward the boy with the Wind Wolf Martial Soul.
The boy's figure blurred where he stood, and blue-green wind blades gathered in his palm as he tried to win with speed—
But Na'er's spear was faster.
A flash of silver. The spear tip slipped through a gap between the wind blades and pierced his shoulder. Blood gushed out. His pupils contracted, and the pain locked his body in place.
Na'er pulled the spear free, then swept its butt across his temple.
"Bang—"
After a loud crash, the boy was sent flying. His body warped in midair and vanished—knocked out of the Spirit Ascension Platform.
"So weak!" Na'er said with a look of disdain.
Gu Yue attacked at the same time. Several elements converged in her palm. Wind bindings, rock spikes, and water tendrils—three elements struck at once, trapping the earth-attribute Soul Master in place.
The boy roared, ochre light swelling in his palm as rock spikes burst from the ground in an attempt to break free.
But what right did he have to compete in the elements with the Silver Dragon King?
"Fire!"
A crimson flame surged from Gu Yue's palm. It wasn't meant to attack, but to heat things up.
The rock spikes exploded in the intense heat, sending fragments flying like bullets. The earth-attribute Soul Master screamed as they pierced him. His body warped in midair and vanished.
"It's over!" The elements in Gu Yue's palm gradually settled as she turned her gaze toward the last one.
Mu Xi stood rooted to the spot, staring as her two companions were knocked out of the Spirit Ascension Platform in an instant. Looking at the golden flames surrounding Xiao Mu, she could clearly feel the suppression of her Martial Soul.
"Is this Class Zero's strength?" She couldn't help sucking in a sharp breath. The gap in their strength was far too great.
"Now it's your turn!" Xiao Mu said calmly.
He raised a hand, and golden flames gathered in his palm, forming a miniature sun. Mu Xi instinctively stepped back. Her Martial Soul trembled, and she couldn't summon a fireball no matter how hard she tried.
"See you at the academy, Senior Mu Xi."
The flames shot out. Golden-red light tore through the forest, vaporizing every tree in its path. The ground melted in an instant, leaving a scorching trench behind.
Mu Xi only had time to cross her arms in front of herself before the heat wave swallowed her. By the time the light of the flames faded, she was gone.
She had disappeared from the Spirit Ascension Platform.
Elsewhere in the forest, Tang Wulin and the others had just finished another fight.
Xie Xie flipped the Light Dragon Dagger between his fingers. Zhang Yangzi's Martial Soul gradually faded around him, and the Bone Dragon skeleton around Wang Jinxi slowly withdrew into his body.
"That light just now was..." Tang Wulin suddenly said.
"It had to be Xiao Mu! He's the only one who could make that much of a commotion." Xie Xie sounded excited, as if they'd found a safe zone.
"Let's hurry." Tang Wulin turned and ran toward the direction the light had risen from.
"That looks like a battle. Won't we just get in the way if we go over there?" Zhang Yangzi asked.
"What's there to be afraid of? By the time we get there, the fight will already be over!" Xie Xie said.
"True. Xiao Mu's strength isn't even on the same level as ours," Zhang Yangzi said.
His strength was in a league of its own.
He had powerful means of self-defense, powerful offensive abilities, and incredible speed.
He even had support abilities. All he lacked was healing, and he'd be a perfect all-rounder.
Xie Xie was about to say more when he suddenly stopped in his tracks.
In the bushes ahead, a pair of orange-yellow eyes stared at him.
Then came a second pair, a third, a fourth. A pack of Flame Lions slowly emerged from the shadows between the trees. Dark red sparks danced in their manes, and a low rumble rose from their throats.
The air fell silent for a second.
"Run!" Tang Wulin barked.
All four of them spun around and sprinted toward Xiao Mu. Behind them, the lions' roar erupted, and flames surged through the forest.