Xiling vs. Gu Yue

Xiling stood where he was, calm and composed, with no intention of making a move. He was giving Gu Yue a chance to show what she could do.

Gu Yue seemed to understand this as well. She pressed her left hand downward through the air, and the earth element erupted once more. Broken stones and sand churned through the sky as dense stone spikes shot toward Xiling from every direction, sealing off all possible retreats.

Immediately afterward, flames ignited the raging wind, and scorching waves of fire spread wildly with the gale. Unlike the previous fire tornado, this was a wide-area bombardment that left no blind spots.

Yet faster than the stone spikes and fire waves was a dazzling white orb of light. In an instant, it rushed to within a few meters of Xiling and exploded!

Xiling narrowed his eyes, seeing nothing but blinding whiteness around him. However, the interference lasted only an instant.

Wind fueled the flames, earth blocked the retreat, and brilliant light stole the eye. The three attacks connected flawlessly.

The students outside the arena were already dumbstruck. Everyone stopped running and stared at the battle with shock written across their faces.

Wu Zhangkong's eyes shone with amazement as well. Gu Yue and Xiling had already displayed five abilities in battle: wind, fire, water, earth, and light.

But Wu Zhangkong could not understand where these soul skills had come from. Still, for Gu Yue to achieve five-element attacks and coordination like this with just one Soul Ring undoubtedly meant she possessed an extraordinary Martial Soul!

Faced with this airtight assault, Xiling's expression remained unchanged. But this time, he moved.

In an instant, countless spatial rifts appeared around him.

The stone spikes filling the sky and the surging waves of fire vanished into them without resistance.

As Gu Yue stared in shock, identical spatial rifts suddenly appeared around her without warning. The stone spikes and flames that had just been swallowed suddenly burst from the rifts behind her, their momentum entirely undiminished!

Gu Yue's pupils contracted sharply, the shock in her heart reaching its peak. Without time to think, she moved her feet and instantly appeared dozens of meters away, barely evading the attack.

The stone spikes and flames crashed onto the open ground and exploded. Dust flew everywhere, leaving the ground riddled with craters.

But before she could fully steady herself, an icy presence had already locked onto the center of her brow.

At some unknown moment, the Subspace Spear behind Xiling had already torn through the air. Its tip gleamed with cold light, only a few centimeters from her forehead.

If it moved even slightly farther forward, it would pierce straight through her skull.

Gu Yue froze in place, every hair on her body standing on end. She stared fixedly at the Subspace Spear before her, so close she could touch it. The shock in her heart had reached its limit.

The outcome had already been decided.

"Alright, we'll stop here," Wu Zhangkong's voice sounded at that moment.

As his words fell, the Subspace Spear floating before Gu Yue instantly withdrew all its sharpness and vanished into the void.

Gu Yue came back to her senses and gave Xiling a complicated look. He really hadn't held back at all.

Then she turned to Wu Zhangkong. "Teacher, I lost. Can I still enroll?"

Wu Zhangkong nodded. "You can. But first, you need to tell me your background and exactly what your Martial Soul is."

Gu Yue took a letter from her clothes. "This is my recommendation letter from my junior academy. As for my Martial Soul, it is the Elementalist."

"Elementalist?" Wu Zhangkong raised a brow. This was the first time he had heard of such a Martial Soul. After all, possessing even one element among Martial Souls was already considered top-tier. For someone like Gu Yue to possess six elements at once was simply unimaginable.

Gu Yue saw the surprise in his eyes and did not hide anything. "My Martial Soul can control six elements, but my Soul Ring cannot be attached to any one of them."

"Therefore, I can control elemental changes, but it is difficult for me to make them stronger."

Only then did Wu Zhangkong finally understand. "Alright, I understand. You are now a member of our class, Class Five, First Grade."

"Thank you, Teacher."

After questioning Gu Yue, Wu Zhangkong looked at Xiling. "Xiling, what about you? What was the deal with that spear of yours? Was it your Martial Soul, the Void Core?"

Xiling walked over to the two of them and rolled his eyes at Wu Zhangkong. "Teacher Wu, what I used just now was a spear! How did it look anything like a core?"

"But wasn't there something like a crystal embedded in that spear?" Gu Yue added.

"Uh..." Xiling scratched his head. "That is a weapon granted to me by my Martial Soul. It is not my Martial Soul itself."

"This is my Martial Soul." As he spoke, a dark golden gemstone appeared in his right hand, emitting faint spatial fluctuations.

Compared to Wu Zhangkong's curiosity, Gu Yue's pupils suddenly shrank the instant the Void Core appeared.

Unlike Wu Zhangkong, she was the Silver Dragon King, a powerhouse half a step into the God King realm. Her horizons were far broader, so she could better understand that the spatial power contained within this gemstone was of an extremely high level!

What alarmed her even more was that after the Void Core revealed itself, her affinity and control over the space element had directly increased by a full fifty percent!

This enhancement affected only the space element. It felt completely different from when she had fought Xiling earlier.

Although Wu Zhangkong could not see anything special, that did not stop him from recognizing the power of this Martial Soul.

"Your Martial Soul has probably reached the legendary God Level Martial Soul tier," Wu Zhangkong said slowly, a trace of barely perceptible amazement in his voice.

Xiling chuckled. With a thought, he recalled the Void Core into his body, and the enhancement on Gu Yue disappeared along with it.

This made Gu Yue, who had not yet had enough, shoot him a resentful look.

"It is just a little special. Nothing impressive," Xiling said with a shrug, looking utterly nonchalant.

Those words made the corner of Wu Zhangkong's eye twitch.

Across the entire Douluo Continent, there probably was not a second Martial Soul as heaven-defying as this one. Yet in this brat's mouth, it was merely a little special?

If other soul masters heard that, they would probably be angered into coughing blood on the spot.

However, Wu Zhangkong said nothing more. Instead, he turned toward Gu Yue, his expression turning cold. "Now that we understand everything, go run with them. This is mandatory physical training."

The speed at which he changed expressions made Xiling raise a thumbs-up beside him.

Gu Yue did not mind. She smiled faintly, did not refuse, and ran directly to the edge of the field to join the other Class Five students.

Xiling, meanwhile, returned to his little reclining chair and picked up a drink.

As Wu Zhangkong watched them, a rare hint of a smile appeared on his cold face. Then he turned and headed toward the main teaching building.

When Wu Zhangkong returned, the tasks he had assigned Class Five had all been completed.

"That's enough for this morning. Dismissed. Gu Yue, stay behind."

Hearing this, all the students breathed sighs of relief and rushed toward the dormitories.

"My name is Wu Zhangkong. I am your homeroom teacher. Here are your dormitory key, school uniform, and textbooks. Keep them safe."

Gu Yue accepted the items Wu Zhangkong handed over and nodded. "Thank you, Teacher Wu."

"Mm. Go rest. Classes begin this afternoon."

After Wu Zhangkong left, Gu Yue looked around. When she saw that Xiling was still lying in his reclining chair, she let out a sigh of relief and hurried over.

She had not had a chance to speak with him all morning.