Two Years Later

Xue Qinghe did not respond.

He lowered his head to look at Li Hanche's smiling face, then raised a hand and pointed to the other side of his desk.

"Sit."

Li Hanche obediently sat down.

Xue Qinghe picked up the teapot and poured him a cup of tea. He pushed the cup in front of Li Hanche and asked a question.

"How do you plan to consolidate your foundation next?"

The moment Li Hanche heard that, he perked up.

He crossed one leg over the other, leaned back in his chair, and instantly changed from the well-behaved child who had just lowered his head and admitted his mistake into someone smugly pleased with himself.

"This is only the Junior Academy. I'm going to an advanced academy and beat up every student there. I guarantee I won't embarrass you, Big Brother."

When he said the words "advanced academy," his eyes lit up with anticipation so intense that the veins at Xue Qinghe's temples began to throb.

He even raised his right hand and gestured through the air.

"As for their teachers—Soul Ancestors, Soul Kings, Soul Emperors, Soul Sages, and all that—I'll pass. Mainly because I'm worried they'll beat me up behind my back."

The sound of Xue Qinghe taking a deep breath echoed through the study.

He lowered his head and looked at the book on the desk that had already been torn in half. Realizing he had already torn it up and had nothing else nearby to throw, he opened a drawer.

He pulled out a new book and hurled it at Li Hanche's face.

The pages fluttered open in midair before smacking flat against Li Hanche's face.

"Enough. Get out. I don't want to see you for the next few days."

Li Hanche took the book off his face, properly set it on the desk, then stood and nodded several times like a pecking chick.

"Oh, okay, Big Brother. See you."

With that, he turned and slipped away, moving so quickly that it seemed he was afraid Xue Qinghe would change his mind and pull out an even thicker book.

Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, council hall.

Bone Douluo sat beside the tea table, the wrinkles on his face squeezed together by his smile.

Ever since receiving news from Heaven Dou City, he had been waiting to see Sword Douluo make a fool of himself.

"Chen Xin, your disciple wants to see whether your sword is still sharp or has gone dull! Hahahahaha!"

He laughed so hard that even his teacup trembled, nearly spilling its contents.

Beside him, Ning Fengzhi did not laugh quite as loudly, but he could not suppress the curve of his lips.

Sword Dao Chen Xin sat opposite them. His white-haired, white-bearded face bore a mixture of helplessness, headache, and a trace of pride.

He lifted his teacup to his lips.

"Having him test his sword against teachers who are Soul Elders or Soul Kings is too embarrassing. At the very least, it should be a Titled Douluo."

Bone Douluo laughed even louder, making the glazed pillars hum.

Ning Fengzhi set down his teacup, took a letter from his sleeve, and pushed it toward Sword Douluo.

"This just arrived from Heaven Dou City. That child caused quite a commotion at the academy and was expelled by His Highness the Crown Prince."

Sword Douluo opened the letter and skimmed it, then folded it and placed it back on the table.

"Then he was expelled. That academy could not have taught him anything anyway."

Bone Douluo leaned closer and lowered his voice.

"I heard His Highness the Crown Prince was so angry that he tore a book in half. It was a rare, solitary copy treasured by the Heaven Dou Imperial Family."

Two years were neither long nor short.

Li Hanche was eight years old.

He had grown much taller than he had been at six, and the contours of his face had shed some of their childishness.

But his eyes had not changed. They were sharply black and white, and the faint icy-blue glimmer deep within his pupils had become far more solid than it had been two years ago.

His Soul Power had long remained at the threshold of Rank Twenty, yet he had not rushed to break through.

Rank Twenty was the threshold for a second soul ring, but he did not want an ordinary thousand-year soul ring.

For his second soul ring, he intended to challenge a ten-thousand-year one.

At the rear mountain of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, Sword Dao Chen Xin stood opposite him with no unnecessary expression on his face.

He raised his right hand and slightly spread his fingers. An invisible pressure descended from the heavens.

It was not a soul skill, but purely the pressure released by a Titled Douluo after suppressing his own aura to the level of a Soul King.

Yet the pressure of a Soul King wielded by a Titled Douluo and the pressure of an ordinary Soul King were entirely different things.

The pressure of an ordinary Soul King was suffocating water—heavy, but not sharp.

Sword Dao Chen Xin's pressure was mercury. Every inch of it sliced at the skin, squeezed the bones, and crushed the internal organs.

Li Hanche stood in the center of the clearing, his martial soul already possessed.

The Dark Nether Ice Soul Spear was clenched in his hand, the icy-blue patterns on its shaft more intricate than they had been two years ago.

The icy-blue pearl at the butt of the spear rotated. The dragon-shaped phantom within was more than twice as clear as before, every dragon scale rendered in perfect detail as it swam through the pearl.

Frost Heaven Record circulated at full force.

This cultivation art had broken through the first level, "Frost Condensation," a year ago and entered the second level, "Flying Snow."

Unlike the first level, which focused on containing cold energy within the body, the second level placed greater emphasis on releasing, spreading, and enveloping the surroundings with the icy power within.

With his feet as the center, a layer of ice formed across the ground within a radius of three zhang.

Tiny snowflakes began to drift through the air. They did not fall from the sky, but condensed from his Soul Power and the moisture in the air.

Snowflakes landed on his shoulders, on the tip of his spear, and on Sword Dao Chen Xin's gray robe.

The spiritual power of Mind-Clarity and Nature-Seeing Art condensed within his Sea of Consciousness into a clear, inviolable barrier that directly met the overwhelming pressure.

After two years of meditative tempering, this spiritual cultivation art had also broken through the first level, "Mind Clarity," and entered the second level, "Nature Seeing."

The dynamic tracking ability of Frost Eyes had also improved significantly.

More importantly, the passive effect of "Mind Clarity" had become stronger.

His spiritual power trembled violently beneath the pressure of a Soul King, like a candle flame in a gale that could be extinguished at any moment, yet it never went out.

Nine-Turn Tyrant Body Art had advanced steadily from the foundation of Copper Skin's completion two years ago.

The second turn, Iron Bones, as its name implied, no longer tempered the skin, but the bones.

Its cultivation method went deeper, wrapping the bones in Soul Power before repeatedly compressing, stretching, and hammering them, gradually increasing their density and resilience through day after day of tempering.

This process was slower and more painful than cultivating Copper Skin.

Tempering the skin caused external injuries, while tempering the bones created a dull ache that radiated from within. Every session felt as though someone were repeatedly scraping a blunt blade across his periosteum.

After two years of relentless effort, Iron Bones had yet to reach completion, but the strength of his bones had long surpassed that of Soul Ancestor-level soul masters.

At this moment, beneath the crushing pressure, he could clearly feel his spine creaking softly, as if an invisible palm were pressing it downward inch by inch.

All his trump cards were revealed as he held on with everything he had.

At the edge of the clearing, Ning Fengzhi and Bone Douluo stood side by side.

Bone Douluo's cloudy yet keen eyes remained fixed without blinking on the child struggling to endure in the middle of the clearing.

Ning Fengzhi stood with his hands behind his back, his moon-white sect master's robe fluttering gently in the mountain wind.

They had lived on Douluo Continent for so many years and had seen countless geniuses.

A first soul ring of two thousand one hundred years was already unprecedented in all they knew.

And now this child, eight years old and Rank Twenty, wanted to challenge a ten-thousand-year second soul ring.

At this very moment, he was using his own body to directly withstand Soul King-level pressure released by a Titled Douluo.

Though that pressure was not Sword Dao Chen Xin's full strength, the oppression it carried was far beyond anything an ordinary Soul King outside could compare to.

The same thought surged through both their hearts: How far could this child ultimately go?