"Two Million-Year Soul Rings!"
Even Qian Daoliu, whose heart was as steadfast as a rock, had to draw in a sharp breath.
Huo Yuhao's awakened Martial Soul held an incredibly high status among the dragon race!
Even as a descendant of that bloodline, he had been deemed worthy of such resources by the entire Soul Beast Clan.
That was a million-year Soul Beast, and they'd offered it up as a sacrifice just like that.
"Yuhao, what are your Soul Skills?"
After patching up his shaken composure, Qian Xunji turned back to him.
A million-year Soul Skill ought to be incredibly powerful.
But the more powerful a Soul Skill was, the more Soul Power it consumed. Would that leave Huo Yuhao unable to fight for long while he was still weak in the early stages?
Huo Yuhao didn't answer directly. "Teacher, Senior Brother, don't resist my spiritual power."
A glint flashed in Huo Yuhao's eyes. Qian Xunji and Qian Daoliu were still watching him curiously when they suddenly felt something enter their minds.
They could see everything around them with perfect clarity: the space above their heads, the ground beneath their feet, even the blind spots behind obstacles.
They could even make out the slightest movements of the Spirit Masters on guard outside the Pope's Palace.
Huo Yuhao's voice rang out in their minds at just the right moment.
"These are the two most practical Soul Skills from my First Soul Ring: Spirit Detection and Spirit Sharing. I can send everything my spiritual power scans to my teammates, and I can also catch and predict my opponents' slightest movements."
"Spirit Sharing is like an unrestricted chatroom. With me guiding it, we can communicate freely through our spiritual power."
"The Ice Silkworm Clan doesn't have much fighting power, so for now, I'm only a support-type Spirit Master."
Qian Xunji seized on the key point. "So there are more?"
"There's also Spirit Interference. It can make an opponent misjudge things and cause them to make mistakes."
Qian Xunji nodded. He understood.
"Father, if you'd had Yuhao supporting you back then, you wouldn't have lost to that hammer-swinging fellow from the Clear Sky Sect."
Being able to see even the tiniest movements was no small thing. For high-level Spirit Masters, a little foresight could affect the entire battle.
Qian Daoliu's face darkened. "Nonsense. How can you let a third person interfere in a fight between two people?"
Huo Yuhao seemed intrigued and turned to his senior brother.
"Senior Brother, did Teacher really lose to someone before?"
The brute swinging that hammer was probably Tang Chen.
Judging by the timeline, Qian Xunji shouldn't have even been born when the two of them fought.
And Qian Daoliu wasn't the sort to talk behind someone's back, so how had he found out?
"About forty years ago, Father, who was hailed as the strongest in the sky, fought Tang Chen, the former Clear Sky Sect Master, who was hailed as the strongest on land. They fought atop the Clear Sky Sect's mountain for three days and three nights, and in the end, Father suffered a crushing defeat."
Qian Daoliu gave his son a helpless look. "Tang Chen and I were only one move apart."
Qian Xunji smiled politely. "But that's not what the Clear Sky Sect people say. According to them, you suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of their former sect master and swore that the Spirit Hall would never set foot in their sect again."
It wasn't as if Qian Xunji had never traveled the continent.
Clear Sky Sect disciples often went out to travel too. Whenever those people saw members of the Spirit Hall, they looked at them with haughty disdain.
There was only one reason: their old sect master had beaten Qian Daoliu, the strongest Pope of the Spirit Hall!
The so-called strongest Spirit Hall? Bah!
Qian Xunji had learned about it from those disciples' boasts.
But his father had been made to sound so disgraceful that, after giving those loose-tongued disciples a beating, Qian Xunji hadn't told Qian Daoliu about it. He didn't want to upset him.
But now that his junior brother had asked about his father's embarrassing past, of course he had to tell him!
"Huh?" Huo Yuhao put on a surprised look and asked Qian Daoliu, "Teacher, you were the strongest in the sky. How did you fight the strongest on land? Did you stand on the ground and fight him? Wouldn't that mean giving up your advantage?"
Qian Daoliu was at a loss for words. "If we were going to settle things, naturally I had to face him head-on."
"Then as a spirit-type support Spirit Master, will I have to wrestle people for strength in the future too?"
Huo Yuhao's question made Qian Xunji see the point as well.
"Exactly, Father! Why did you accommodate Tang Chen and come down to the ground to fight a brute who swung a hammer and relied on strength? Why didn't he figure out how to fly up and fight you in the sky?"
"Senior Brother, I know!" Huo Yuhao's eyes sparkled. "Teacher's move was called 'capsizing in the gutter'!"
"Teacher had so much confidence in his strength that he thought he could give up his advantage and still beat that big hammer. The fact that they could fight for three days and three nights outside Teacher's own domain shows that the big hammer really wasn't someone Teacher needed to take seriously. He just miscalculated by one move, and the tide of battle turned!"
Qian Xunji thought his junior brother made a lot of sense!
"Exactly! You're right, Junior Brother!"
"Father gave up his advantage in the sky and still fought Tang Chen for three days. What right do those hammer-swingers have to look down on him?"
His junior brother was a true angel with a clear head!
He'd solved a question that had troubled him for years!
Huo Yuhao wore a look of distaste. "They won unfairly, and then they badmouthed Teacher behind his back. Those people are awful."
Qian Daoliu stood there in silence, the corner of his mouth twitching.
Doesn't the way you're putting it make me sound like an idiot?
"Tang Chen was incredibly talented. The Clear Sky Sect's inherited Disorder Splitting Wind Hammer technique could stack power, making each swing stronger than the last. After eighty-one swings, the power it unleashed surpassed level ninety-nine."
"Then why not just dodge it?"
The Clear Sky Sect knew that no one would be stupid enough to stay put and take their long-charged ultimate attack, so they'd invented the Seal Art to restrict their opponent's movements.
But there were still plenty of ways to break through that restriction.
Qian Daoliu could have broken through it easily, but he was too much of a gentleman and insisted on matching strength with a brute.
By now, Qian Xunji had practically become his junior brother's echo. "Exactly. If you know it's hard to block, why block it at all?"
"Now that you mention it, their Martial Soul really doesn't seem all that impressive. It's just a little tougher."
Huo Yuhao and Qian Xunji traded remarks, every word a blade, every blade stabbing straight into Qian Daoliu's heart.
It even made Qian Daoliu question himself.
Had he really been a little foolish to give up his advantage in the sky and choose to take that attack head-on when he fought Tang Chen?
Little did he know that Huo Yuhao, who had steered the conversation in this direction, had verbally beaten him up—and Qian Xunji too.
But after this in-depth discussion, Qian Xunji probably wouldn't try to clash head-on with Tang Hao anymore, right?
Before you continue