The Unspeakable Power of Wind Empress Qimen

Ning Rongrong delivered her verdict with absolute certainty.

"On Douluo Continent, you get by on strength and backing. So what if you can turn into a bird, a snake, or a rabbit? Are you going to perform tricks for people? Train monkeys in a circus?"

She gave a scornful laugh.

"I, the young lady of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, taking a street performer as my master? Wouldn't people laugh their teeth out if they heard that?"

There was a moment of silence behind the table.

Then Yang Xing stood up.

In human form.

A complete human form, that of an eighteen-year-old youth. At some point, he had already changed back from a rabbit. His clothes and hair were utterly undisturbed, as though he had not been chased, slammed into walls, or smashed against a chopping block just moments ago.

He said nothing.

He merely spread his hands.

Palms facing upward.

Ning Rongrong instinctively looked over.

Then her pupils contracted.

In Yang Xing's left palm, a ball of orange-red flame danced. It was no illusion; she could feel the heat washing over her face. The flames flickered twice before abruptly extinguishing, replaced by a fist-sized droplet of water floating above his palm, smooth as a mirror.

The droplet shattered.

It turned into a sharply edged crystal of ice.

The ice melted.

A clump of yellow-brown earth condensed out of thin air.

The earth scattered.

A cluster of blinding blue-white arcs burst from his fingertips, crackling sharply.

His right hand moved in tandem.

A visible ball of wind swirled in his right palm, lifting the surrounding dust and debris.

The wind dispersed.

A ball of pure white light emerged, gentle as a tiny sun.

The light vanished.

Finally, a pitch-black orb that swallowed all light appeared, silently hovering above his palm.

The entire process took less than ten seconds.

Fire, water, ice, earth, lightning, wind, light, darkness.

Eight completely different elements took turns appearing between his palms, as smoothly and naturally as breathing.

Ning Rongrong's lips parted slightly.

Watching her expression, Yang Xing spoke unhurriedly.

"This soul skill is called Wind Empress Qimen."

He lowered his hands, his tone calm, as if he were talking about something utterly ordinary.

"It is the ultimate form of Qimen."

Ning Rongrong might not have known what Qimen was. Yang Xing had no intention of pretending to be profound, so he explained it in the simplest terms.

"Simply put, I can establish a formation beneath my feet. Within the area it covers, I decide all changes in everything. The generation and restraint of the five elements, the speed of time, spatial positions, the forms of matter—everything obeys me."

He looked at Ning Rongrong.

"Earlier, I could turn into a bird, a snake, and a rabbit because within this space, I can even alter the form of my own body at will."

Ning Rongrong's brows were tightly furrowed. Her gaze shifted repeatedly between Yang Xing's face and the hands that had just transformed the elements, her expression plainly spelling out two words: disbelief.

"How could there be such an absurd soul skill?"

Yang Xing smiled.

The next moment, his body turned into a mass of flame.

Not a tiny fist-sized flame in his palm. His entire body, from head to toe, became a dancing, humanoid blaze. Heat billowed outward, forcing Ning Rongrong to take a step back.

The flames went out.

A humanoid body of water appeared in the same spot, the outline of the transparent water figure clearly visible as its surface refracted the dim light inside the room.

The water collapsed.

Yang Xing returned to human form, but it lasted only half a second. His body changed again, bones stretching and wings spreading as a massive bird-type soul beast appeared in the center of the room.

Its beak opened.

With a whoosh, a sharp wind blade shot from its mouth, flying straight upward and piercing through the wooden roof.

Crash!

Splintered wood scattered everywhere. A beam of light poured through the hole, illuminating Yang Xing as he changed back into human form.

He stood there, a hole cut open by the wind blade above his head while wood chips continued drifting down. The hem of his clothes fluttered gently in the airflow.

His expression remained calm.

As if nothing had happened.

Wind Empress Qimen.

The enlightenment Zhou Sheng of Under One Person had exhausted his entire life to attain.

All the myriad forms of the world could not escape the word "change." Whoever could control change could control everything.

Set the Central Palace within the heart, use innate qi to command the seventy-two seasonal phases of the heavenly cycle, and transform oneself into the king of phases.

Turn the Four Plates at will, and all phenomena within the formation would follow one's heart.

After this power had been transformed into a soul skill on Douluo Continent, it still retained its most essential nature.

Doing as one pleased.

And the system had automatically granted him the temperament needed to resist the price of Wind Empress Qimen.

Though he himself did not feel much difference from it.

Ning Rongrong's mouth was hanging open.

She looked at the hole in the roof, then at Yang Xing, then at the puddles and scorch marks left on the floor. In ten seconds, her expression completed a triple leap from "I don't believe it," to "I half believe it," to "I'm completely dumbfounded."

"Th-this..." Her voice drifted. "This is one soul skill?"

She shook her head, as though denying what she had just heard.

"How can one soul skill possibly have so many abilities? Transformation, controlling fire, water, lightning, wind blades... all of that is one soul skill?"

Yang Xing nodded.

Utterly matter-of-factly.

"One soul skill." He raised a finger. "Just one."

Ning Rongrong stared at him, her expression incomparably complicated.

Shock, confusion, disbelief, and the blank daze of a mind that had crashed after being bombarded repeatedly.

Seeing her like this, Yang Xing felt the time was ripe.

He lowered his finger, and his tone suddenly changed. The calmness from when he had been demonstrating gave way to a casual air tinged with self-mockery.

"But no matter how powerful this soul skill is, it has nothing to do with you."

Ning Rongrong's dazed expression froze for a moment.

"What do you mean?"

Yang Xing tilted his head and spread his hands, putting on an expression that said, It means exactly what it says.

"I mean, no matter how much my soul skill can change the heavens and earth, it's still my soul skill. Young Lady Ning, you can't use it, so there's no point in knowing about it, right? Just treat it as watching a little street performance."

After saying that, he even sighed.

A remarkably deliberate sigh.

Ning Rongrong stared at him.

The emotions in her almond-shaped eyes changed rapidly. Confusion turned into doubt, and doubt turned into vigilance.

She had begun to see through the tricks of the fraud before her.

First, he showed you something good, then told you it had nothing to do with you. Wasn't he obviously trying to whet her appetite?

But she did not say it aloud.

Because a thought truly had been stirred within her heart.

A soul skill that could transform, control the five elements, and manipulate space. If she could learn something like that too...

No.

Calm down.

She could not follow this fraud's train of thought.

"What exactly are you trying to say?" Ning Rongrong folded her arms tightly, her tone cold. "Say it plainly."

Yang Xing glanced at her.

Then he delivered the most important line of today's performance.

"What I mean is..."

He spoke very slowly, enunciating every word clearly.

"I can pass this soul skill on to you, my disciple, as your master."