Douluo: A Person in Peerless, Fake God

Once activated by soul power, it triggers intermittently within a half-meter radius, affecting everyone caught inside.

Although this ability does not distinguish between friend and foe, Wen Qu, as the user, has long since adapted to the added gravity, so the impact on him is negligible.

Conversely, Su Luoheng, caught off guard, is severely affected.

In her view, once shrouded by the heavy sword's force field, Su Luoheng's defeat was only a matter of time; while he possessed excellent talent in soul guidance devices, his combat experience was lacking.

Su Luoheng did not yet understand the nature of his opponent's soul guidance device, and his carelessness naturally allowed him to be easily locked down by the force field.

Perhaps my expectations for him were too high...

Still, he is only nine years old; to have achieved this much is already quite impressive.

Thinking this, she prepared to announce the result.

However.

The countermeasure taken by Su Luoheng—who in her eyes was destined to lose—completely exceeded Ran Ruobing's expectations.

Or rather, it was a surprise!

Su Luoheng suddenly stepped back with his right foot and slightly bent his left knee, while simultaneously flipping his wrist to hold the Ice Rain Sword, now infused with soul power, horizontally across his chest. A cold aura emanated from the blade. Feeling that he held the absolute advantage and seeing victory within reach, Wen Qu did not realize that his own speed was being affected.

With a metallic clang, the Ice Rain Sword collided with the heavy sword once more, sparks erupting from where the blades met.

Normally, Wen Qu should have seized the opportunity to strike down and suppress him.

However, affected by the chill, Wen Qu did not swing his heavy sword down immediately.

It was this delay of a few seconds that allowed Su Luoheng to find a chance to escape.

He saw a cold glint flash in his eyes as he immediately adjusted his stance. The moment the heavy sword finally descended, Su Luoheng had already shed most of the force, and by leveraging the power of that strike, he retreated rapidly. Under Wen Qu's incredulous gaze, Su Luoheng pulled back to a safe distance, breaking free from the constraints of the gravity field.

He broke free??

Ran Ruobing's beautiful eyes were filled with astonishment!

No matter how she had speculated, she had never imagined such a way to break the deadlock.

Yet Su Luoheng had thought of it in just a few seconds and executed it perfectly, without a single flaw!

This was simply... incredible.

She admitted that she could not have done the same.

Looking at Su Luoheng on the arena again, Ran Ruobing's expression shifted to one of admiration.

She then withdrew her gaze.

There was no need to continue watching.

The outcome of this battle was clear, and the winner was Su Luoheng.

In truth, her assessment had been correct, but she had misjudged one thing: Su Luoheng's combat experience was not weak at all!

Although he had never formally sparred with soul masters of his own level, he had fought against century-old soul beasts that were stronger than soul masters, and more than one had died by his hand!

Beyond accumulating experience, combat also sharpened his on-the-spot reactions.

The moment he realized his body was being affected, Su Luoheng had already changed his previous tactics.

Making the perfect response the moment the heavy sword swung down was the greatest gain from his father's two years of training.

Returning his gaze to the arena.

With a dull thud, Wen Qu's heavy sword could only strike the arena floor. The power of the heavy, forceful blow was indeed immense; the surface of the stage, made of second-grade soul guidance material, cracked, with dense fissures spreading outward.

Wen Qu, standing on the arena, did not know what had happened in that split second.

He only saw Su Luoheng, who should have been struck by his blade, disappear from the spot in the next moment, leaving his attack to land on the ground.

"How is this possible?!"

He couldn't help but exclaim, his eyes widening in disbelief.

Never before had a soul master been able to break free from the constraints of his heavy sword's force field and dodge his attack.

Never!

Yet, the scene before his eyes had truly happened.

At this moment, Wen Qu began to panic, to the point where he couldn't even hold his sword steady.

At the same time.

The opponent's reaction was fully taken in by Su Luoheng.

After a few exchanges, he had figured out the general nature of his ability: the soul skill was similar to an enhancement that increased speed, while the soul guidance device exerted a gravitational restriction within a certain range.

The current Wen Qu was like a toothless tiger, a lamb waiting for the slaughter.

Now was the time for his counterattack!

While Wen Qu was stunned, Su Luoheng raised his hand and flicked a cold sword beam forward to restrict his movements.

By the time he shattered the Ice Rain Sword's radiance, Su Luoheng was already upon him, sword in hand, injecting his soul power into the blade as a chilling light erupted from the Ice Rain Sword.

Wen Qu had no room to defend himself and could only raise his heavy sword to block in front of him.

In his haste, he had no time to mobilize his soul power, and the outcome was predictable: without the amplification of soul power, the heavy sword was essentially just metal; how could it withstand such an attack?

A crisp "crack" echoed as the sword shattered.

Wen Qu's first-class soul guidance device could no longer withstand the immense pressure and was cleaved in two by Su Luoheng's Ice Rain Sword!

With one strike, the sword was severed, the two pieces still clinging together.

The dark, heavy sword broke into two segments and fell to the ground.

At the same time, the power of the strike did not end there; the remaining sword beam, meeting no further resistance, slashed toward Wen Qu's chest.

Hum—

Just as the longsword was about to strike, a white light flared—a second-class defensive soul guidance device activated, forming a protective barrier that blocked the attack, the remaining force dissipating as ripples across the white shield.

Meanwhile, Su Luoheng's expression shifted slightly, looking at the broken sword on the ground with a thoughtful gaze.

"You lost."

As soon as the words fell, he turned and left the arena.

He sheathed the Ice Rain Sword while Wen Qu remained standing there blankly, the look of terror still lingering in his eyes.

It was only after Su Luoheng had walked off the arena that he collapsed onto the platform with a thud, gasping for air as he stared at his broken soul guidance device.

It was so close, just a hair's breadth away...

He had felt that chill; he was almost run through!

If not for the defensive soul guidance device triggering in time, he feared he would be a corpse, just like his sword.

"This guy... how terrifying..."

Looking at Su Luoheng's retreating back, he couldn't help but shiver.

His legs trembled, and he dared not move.

The fear of near-death refused to fade; he would likely be unable to shake the influence of that strike for some time, as it had practically become his shadow.

"Arena number nine is concluded. The winner is Su Luoheng."

A hint of admiration flashed through Ran Ruobing's beautiful eyes.

She hadn't expected Su Luoheng to use the properties of the Ice Rain Sword to break through the gravity field; she had to admit that his talent was truly formidable.

Ran Ruobing sighed, recorded their scores, and turned her attention to the other arenas.

A quarter of an hour later.

The remaining arenas also determined their winners one after another.

Although the assessment was over, the freshmen kept their eyes on Ran Ruobing, fearing another additional test.

She first put away her scorebook with an expressionless face.

Then, under the nervous gazes of the crowd, Ran Ruobing smiled brightly and announced, "The freshman promotion assessment is now completely over. Everyone, remember to collect your belongings and follow behind me as we leave the testing area."

"As for your results, they will be posted on the bulletin board tomorrow."

"That's great!"

"It's finally over!"

"Teacher, what about the soul guidance devices we made?"

"You may handle them as you wish."

"..."

As soon as she finished speaking, all the freshmen felt a sense of relief.

They could finally relax completely; this promotion assessment was truly an unforgettable memory.

However, the academy was generous enough to let them keep the soul guidance devices they had crafted.

Of course, that was assuming you had actually managed to craft one.

Only Su Luoheng, following behind, looked thoughtful, occasionally glancing at the Ice Rain Sword in his hand, clearly preoccupied with other matters.

A moment later.

After leading the freshmen out of the testing area, Ran Ruobing left the group.

The assessment for these freshmen was over, and now they only needed to wait for tomorrow's results.

The remaining time was free for them to use as they pleased.

The crowd gathered in small groups, chatting about the events of the assessment just passed.

When people gather, small cliques naturally form. These freshmen were already showing this trend, clustering together based on whether they had passed the soul tool examination or not.

Su Luoheng did not engage them in much conversation; after a brief greeting, he hurried back to the dormitory building.

He appeared to have something very important to attend to.

Back in his room, Su Luoheng shut the door tight and sat cross-legged.

He began to recall every moment of his battle with Wen Qu, especially the instant their weapons collided. Just as the fight had ended, he was astonished to discover that he had somehow grasped the core array structure of that heavy sword soul tool.

Although his first soul skill was Analysis, it was normal to obtain core arrays through it.

But the problem was that throughout the entire battle, he had never once used his soul skill on the opponent's soul tool.

So the question arose: if he hadn't activated his first soul skill, where did this core array come from?

That was why he had been pondering this issue the entire way back from the testing area.

It was the reason he had rushed back to his dormitory in such a hurry, to carefully recall every detail of the battle.

Could it have been triggered during the fight?

Su Luoheng's eyes flickered as this thought suddenly occurred to him.

Upon closer reflection, it was theoretically very possible!

However, whether that was truly the case required experimentation to determine.

He immediately took the Ice Rain Sword from his bracelet, along with an unanalyzed soul tool he had picked up while shopping yesterday—after all, it would have been rude to just look without buying.

Cling—

Cling—cling—