"You don't seem all that impressive." Long Yuan casually flicked his hand. A streak of golden light appeared in his palm, then gradually stretched out and thickened until it became a long spear in his grasp.
The spear was about five meters long, and its entire length gleamed gold. Faintly visible across its surface was a layer of dark patterns shaped like dragons.
It was the Golden Dragon Spear!
Of course, this was definitely not the true divine weapon. It was only a replica Long Yuan had created with his own power.
The genuine Golden Dragon Spear was still inside the sixth seal within Tang Wulin.
Whenever Long Yuan thought about the Golden Dragon Spear's origins, he felt annoyed. When the Golden Dragon King had just been born, he'd fought the gods of the Divine Realm and naturally suffered serious injuries. Even one of his ribs had been broken, and that broken rib had become the gods' spoils of war.
The Golden Dragon Spear had, of course, been transformed from that rib.
"Arrogant! You merely caught me off guard. Today, I'll show you what a Super Douluo is capable of!"
Shi Qian refused to back down. He raised the Ten Thousand Soul Banner and faced Long Yuan.
"Oh? You're confident you can beat me, then?"
Tap—tap—tap—
Holding the spear in one hand, Long Yuan walked forward, one step at a time.
Shi Qian focused all his mental power on Long Yuan. He felt the flow of time around him slow. His opponent's heavy footsteps rang in his heart like the tolling of a death bell. Dragon Might, deep as an abyss and hellish as a prison, bore down on him again. Cold sweat kept welling on his forehead and back, then trickling down.
One step, two steps, three steps...
At last, when Long Yuan was only five steps away, Shi Qian couldn't take it anymore.
At this rate, his mind would collapse first.
"Ahhh—Ghost Domain Torrent!"
Shi Qian roared, summoning a sliver of courage, then swung the Ten Thousand Soul Banner with all his might. His Eighth Soul Ring lit up. Black mist swept countless ghastly white spirits into a boundless storm that surged toward Long Yuan.
This was his strongest attack Soul Skill. The ghostly storm whipped up by those countless spirits was not only devastatingly powerful, but could also instantly assimilate any spirit it touched and grow stronger with each one.
One could say that harvesting easy prey was what Soul Masters of his type did best. In cities without powerful Soul Masters, he could even sweep through the entire city with a single use of his eighth Soul Skill!
"Boring." Long Yuan shook his head. The Golden Dragon Spear in his hand traced an arc, slashing diagonally from upper right to lower left. A golden streak appeared before him, like the slash of a dragon's claw.
A razor-sharp aura burst forth. The golden light instantly tore through the oncoming ghostly storm. Before the spirits inside could even wail, they were ripped to shreds and scattered as ash.
It was Long Yuan's second Soul Skill, and it represented his second special authority: "Tear." This was a conceptual power, and even mysterious things like spirits were no exception.
"How is that possible? You didn't even use a Soul Skill! How could you break through my Ghost Domain Torrent?!"
When his strongest attack proved useless, Shi Qian's mind completely crumbled. He began shouting in panic.
"Hmm? My Soul Rings didn't light up?" Long Yuan spun the spear in his hand. "All right, thanks for reminding me. I'll remember next time."
In truth, his six Soul Rings were manifestations of his own special authorities. They were his abilities, so whether they lit up was entirely up to him. If he wanted to put on a show, he could make them flash a couple of times.
He really hadn't noticed just now.
Seeing Long Yuan calmly continue closing in, Shi Qian panicked. He raised the Ten Thousand Soul Banner. "Stop right there! If you dare come any closer, I'll blow up every spirit in the Blacksmith Association! I haven't refined them yet, so they can still be saved! You don't want them to really die, do you?"
Long Yuan stopped.
Shi Qian thought his threat had worked. He grabbed at the lifeline as if his life depended on it and hurriedly shouted, "You heard me! Now let me go!"
"Hahaha! Ridiculous!" Long Yuan laughed. "Pitiful human. If you want to destroy those spirits, go ahead."
With that, Long Yuan really did stop and made a "please" gesture toward him.
"You—you're really not afraid..."
"Enough blabbering!" Long Yuan's gaze sharpened. The Golden Dragon Spear shot from his hand like a meteor, piercing the Ten Thousand Soul Banner.
The authority of "Shatter" activated. The Ten Thousand Soul Banner, along with the spirits inside and the black mist, instantly turned to dust and ceased to exist.
"Cough, cough—you..." Shi Qian's Martial Soul shattered. He immediately coughed up a mouthful of blood and collapsed to the ground, his aura weakening as his Soul Power began to drain away like air from a punctured balloon.
But the shock in his eyes was even greater. The person before him was actually more ruthless than he was. He'd killed without hesitation despite all those spirits still having a chance to survive!
Shi Qian had planned to make Long Yuan hesitate a little longer. That would have given him a chance to use his ninth Soul Skill, Ten Thousand Souls Possession, absorbing every spirit in the Ten Thousand Soul Banner to strengthen himself. Then, combined with his unique soul-detonation technique, he could have forced his opponent to suffer at least twice as much damage as he did. Long Yuan couldn't possibly have escaped unscathed, and Shi Qian would have had a chance to flee.
"Can't figure it out?" Long Yuan flashed to his side and pulled the Golden Dragon Spear halfway out of the wall. "Then I'll spare you the trouble of thinking about it."
As he spoke, Long Yuan planted the spear on the ground. The blade at its butt end came down on Shi Qian's head, which burst open like a watermelon.
"Threatening me with humans? Heh..."
He was the Golden Dragon King, one of the supreme beings even among the Dragon Clan. Mere humans were no more than ants by the roadside. Would you feel pity when you saw someone burning an anthill as you walked past?
Besides, would releasing the spirits absorbed into the Ten Thousand Soul Banner really save them?
With those Evil Soul Masters around, there was no way these people would be left with intact bodies. So even if Shi Qian had released those spirits, it would have been useless. What would they do then, wander the world as lonely ghosts?
Long Yuan shook his head. He swept the area with his divine sense and immediately located the survivors: some Evil Soul Masters, along with Blacksmith Association blacksmiths and staff members who hadn't been found.
They were only a few low-ranked Evil Soul Masters. Long Yuan merely had to lock onto their positions with his divine sense and crush them with Dragon Might.
Half a minute later, the final Evil Soul Master's head burst apart. The eighty-three Evil Soul Masters who had attacked the Blacksmith Association had been wiped out completely. Not one survived.
"Twenty-three people are still alive. They were pretty quick-witted..."
"Mm, where am I...?"
Long Yuan hurried over. "Wulin, you're awake! How are you feeling?"