"You..." Yan Feng skidded to a stop, and Lin Yuan stopped beside him.
Yan Feng looked troubled. He knew all too well how much of a difference Soul Rings could make. It was his three-hundred-year Soul Ring that had set him apart from his peers.
The fellow standing before him, looking so relaxed, wasn't putting on an act. Yan Feng would have a hard time escaping him.
"Since you feel that way, why not leave me alone and let me go back to leading these street kids?" Yan Feng asked, his expression uneasy.
He knew he couldn't stay here any longer.
He was only stalling. As soon as Lin Yuan, this unexpected nuisance, left, he would get out of the area.
"No way. I think you're interesting. How did someone with talent like yours end up among street kids?" Lin Yuan asked, looking thoroughly intrigued.
Yan Feng understood that there was no way out of this without beating Lin Yuan.
Even with a Thousand-Year Soul Ring as his first, that didn't necessarily mean his combat strength was much greater than Yan Feng's.
During his life on the run, Yan Feng had relied on his combat experience to defeat several Soul Masters, and even a Soul Grandmaster with a Soul Ring Configuration of one white and one yellow.
He only wanted to survive. He had never hurt anyone.
A deep, dark aura surged around Yan Feng. As his Yellow Soul Ring rose into the air, the Bone Dragon Martial Soul instantly possessed him.
"Wait, that's a Bone Dragon Martial Soul?" Lin Yuan looked astonished.
He had already more or less guessed who Yan Feng was. Wasn't he the captain of the Holy Spirit Cult's team in the second Soul Master Elite Tournament?
By rights, Yan Feng should have been Zhongli Wu's disciple. Why was he near Nine Treasures City now?
Bone Douluo was just as stunned as Lin Yuan, though he was watching from the shadows.
As the Nine Treasures Glazed Sect's rising star, how could Lin Yuan travel without a powerful protector?
Bone Douluo was now frantically leafing through his family tree, his heart filled with anxious hope.
If Yan Feng really was a clansman he had yet to discover, then the greatest knot in his heart would finally be untied!
Yan Feng moved, charging straight at Lin Yuan.
The Yellow Soul Ring on his body changed along with him.
As the Soul Ring lit up, Yan Feng's arm began to transform into a Bone Dragon's.
This was Yan Feng's first Soul Skill, Dragon Transformation.
"A rare dragon-transformation Soul Skill, too?" Yan Feng kept surprising him, one thing after another.
But judging by the pressure his Martial Soul exerted on Lin Yuan, the dragon-blood purity of Yan Feng's Martial Soul was far below Wu Feng's and Nan Qiuqiu's.
This was the first dragon-type Martial Soul he'd encountered that didn't suppress him through bloodline. For some reason, Lin Yuan felt a little touched.
Yan Feng, who was relentlessly attacking him, felt nothing of the sort.
Lin Yuan dodged every attack with ease, weaving and slipping aside. Yan Feng couldn't touch him even once.
His original plan had been to knock Lin Yuan unconscious and escape as quickly as possible, but Lin Yuan's attitude infuriated him.
"What's with that slightly smug look? Are you looking down on me?" Yan Feng demanded angrily, speeding up his claw strikes.
"It's not that I don't want to take you seriously." Lin Yuan frowned, looking a little troubled.
"You're just too weak right now. Your attacks have no form—you're relying on brute force alone. I don't even feel like releasing my Martial Soul."
Lin Yuan was telling the truth. Apart from his strength, Yan Feng was slower than Nan Qiuqiu had been six months ago.
His Martial Soul was decent enough, and such wild attacks could certainly beat plenty of Soul Masters at the same level.
But against anyone with even a little skill, he couldn't so much as touch the hem of their clothes.
One reason was that he hadn't had several good teachers like Lin Yuan. Another was that playing as a stat monster for too long had made him abandon his brain.
Even compared to a true stat-monster Martial Soul, the Bone Dragon's current numbers weren't impressive.
Maybe it wouldn't deserve to be called a "wheelchair" until the Bone Dragon Martial Soul became a true Evil Martial Soul and rose by a whole tier in quality.
But now that Lin Yuan had run into Yan Feng, he wouldn't get the chance to become an Evil Martial Soul.
Lin Yuan's taunts only made Yan Feng angrier. His pride as a genius was stung.
"Damn it, how dare you look down on me? If I catch you, do you think I can't punch you into a meat pie?" Yan Feng shouted furiously.
"I believe it. If I hadn't activated my Martial Soul, it would be possible." Lin Yuan smiled faintly and took a training wooden sword from his Soul Tool.
Smack!
A horizontal slash struck Yan Feng under the chin, nearly knocking him off his feet.
"But you're not likely to flatten me with one punch."
Smack, smack, smack!
Lin Yuan charged in and relentlessly struck the parts of Yan Feng's body not covered by his Martial Soul.
He also used the Body Sect's combat technique he had learned from Du Busi: Unity of Heaven and Man.
He briefly fused his soul, spirit, and body. Even an ordinary wooden sword had formidable power in Lin Yuan's hands.
Before long, Yan Feng was covered in injuries from Lin Yuan's wooden sword. He braced his hands on his knees, panting heavily.
"Looks like it's over." Lin Yuan twirled the sword, then put it back into his Soul Tool.
Yan Feng's gaze grew terribly complicated, filled with resentment, fear, and disbelief.
He hadn't expected the gap between himself and a freak with a Thousand-Year Soul Ring as his first to be so vast. Lin Yuan had defeated him without even using his Martial Soul.
It looked like Lin Yuan planned to take him back and find out what was going on. If this young master's family had connections to Shrek, then Yan Feng would be trapped with nowhere to run.
"All right. I think you can come back with me. We'll see what happens after that." Lin Yuan stood before Yan Feng.
He wasn't afraid Yan Feng would suddenly lash out. That was the confidence absolute strength gave him.
So far, no one his age had forced him to fight at full power.
Even in a private spar with Long Aotian, Long Aotian had only just forced him to stack his Will of the Dragon to its current limit.
Five layers, boosting his own attributes by 468 percent.
Long Aotian had held back in that match, but Lin Yuan could have ended it outright by bringing out his Destruction or Life attributes.
The gap was far too great for Yan Feng, who was still malnourished, to challenge.
Suddenly.
Lin Yuan spun around and punched behind him, knocking away a pebble someone had thrown at him.
The street kids had caught up. They stared at Lin Yuan and Yan Feng, their faces filled with fear and indignation.
"What are you doing?" Yan Feng asked, unable to believe his eyes.
At Yan Feng's words, the children stopped hesitating.
Some gritted their teeth; others charged at the two of them, yelling at the top of their lungs.
Lin Yuan's expression turned rather amused as he let the filthy little kids climb all over him.
"Boss, run! We'll protect you!" shouted the little runt who had clashed with Lin Yuan earlier.
"I didn't realize you were so popular with these kids." Lin Yuan smiled and shook his head.