Your Excellency? Your Eminence!

In short, he could "see" a person's thread of fate. What had happened in the past and where the future would lead were all presented to his senses as an abstract stream of information.

It was not merely seeing.

He could alter it.

Of course, altering it came at a cost.

At his current level, using Great Luo Insight at full power to interfere with the thread of fate of someone on his own level would probably consume more than half of his usual mental energy and soul power.

But with the inexhaustible soul power of the Qi Body Origin Stream as support and the recovery provided by Twin Complete Hands as assurance, that expenditure became almost negligible.

In fact, if he pushed Great Luo Insight to its limit, he could theoretically travel along the timeline into the past and future.

The Eight Extraordinary Skills.

Eight abilities.

Each one, taken alone, had obvious shortcomings. The Qi Body Origin Stream could deconstruct energy but could not defend against physical attacks. Spirit Binding and Command could control souls but had no offensive power of its own. Great Luo Insight could alter fate, but its consumption was immense...

Yet once the eight abilities complemented one another and covered each other's weaknesses, the resulting effect rose geometrically.

Like a precision machine, every part was already formidable on its own, but once assembled together, it became a nuclear reactor.

Yang Xing assessed his current overall combat strength.

He had the baseline strength of a normal Rank 90 Titled Douluo, along with the all-around enhancement of the Eight Extraordinary Skills. He might not necessarily be able to defeat his Rank 99 self without the Eight Extraordinary Skills—that was the ultimate state the system only unsealed for one minute each month. But...

He had the strength to fight.

He could survive and contend with them.

For Yang Xing, who had been a rank-zero good-for-nothing for eighteen years, that conclusion alone was enough to make his scalp tingle with exhilaration.

He wanted to point at the sky and shout, "Invincible among equals, and above my level, I'll take on a whole group!"

More than two hours of testing came to an end.

The central area of Soul Hunting Forest, spanning more than ten li in every direction, had already been reduced to ruins by him. Scorched earth, deep craters, solidified lava, bizarre vegetation that had been partially reversed through time, and translucent spirit-beast souls wandering among them.

The entire area gave off a terrifying aura that made every living creature instinctively want to stay away.

In fact, from the very moment Yang Xing began his tests, the soul masters hunting throughout Soul Hunting Forest had noticed something was wrong. The pillars of energy shooting into the sky, the ceaseless explosions, and the suffocating soul power fluctuations coming from the central area led everyone to the same conclusion.

A terrifying high-level spirit beast had emerged.

Run.

Run out of the forest.

Yang Xing had long noticed the activity around him.

After the tests ended, his Great Luo Insight remained in a passive sensing state. The positions and movements of every living thing within several li were completely within his grasp.

He ignored the fleeing soul masters.

But one group was coming toward him instead.

They stopped at the edge of his testing range and watched from afar.

The soul power fluctuations of the man at their head were stable and heavy, above Rank 60. More than a dozen guards radiating a metallic aura surrounded him.

Yang Xing drew in the soul power fluctuations that had leaked out during his testing and smoothed his wind-tousled hair.

He took a step.

The spatial displacement of Wind Empress Qimen came without any warning. One second, he had been in the middle of the ruins a thousand meters away; the next, he was already five meters in front of the group.

"Whoosh!"

The air blast accompanying his appearance kicked up a fierce gust, making the black-armored guards' garments flap loudly.

All the guards drew their weapons at the same instant.

Sabers, swords, spears—more than a dozen weapons pointed at Yang Xing in unison. The scraping of metal was especially piercing in the night. Soul rings appeared beneath the guards' feet: two-ringed, three-ringed, and the strongest among them had only four rings.

But their hands were trembling.

Because the pressure emanating from the young man before them, who appeared to be no more than seventeen or eighteen, made even breathing difficult.

That feeling could not be described by rank. It was the instinctive fear of a living creature facing its natural predator.

The middle-aged man at the head did not draw a weapon.

He wore magnificent robes patterned with dark designs. His face was square, his temples lightly streaked with gray, and a neatly trimmed short beard hung beneath his chin. His eyes looked especially sharp in the moonlight, but that sharpness was now mixed with deep gravity.

He looked at Yang Xing.

Young.

Far too young.

But he had lived for over fifty years and had seen quite a few powerful figures who preserved their youth. A young appearance did not necessarily mean genuine youth; it could also belong to some ancient monster who had retained their looks, and the more terrifying their strength, the more likely that was.

He could fly.

At least a Soul Sage.

That completely unheralded spatial displacement just now.

And that pressure, which made even him, a Rank 69 Soul Emperor, feel unable to breathe.

Could he possibly be a Soul Douluo, someone even higher than a Soul Sage?

The middle-aged man took a deep breath and raised a hand, pressing it downward.

"Put away your weapons."

The guards hesitated for a moment, but they still obeyed, slowly lowering their weapons.

The middle-aged man took a step forward, cupped his fists, and bent at the waist by fifteen degrees. His manner was respectful without being servile, the standard etiquette of a person of status when facing someone of a higher standing.

"I am the Lord of Soto City, Barak Horn. A Rank 69 Soul Emperor, with the Lion-Pattern War Shield martial soul."

He raised his head and looked sincerely at Yang Xing.

"May I ask Your Excellency's name? Is there some important matter that has brought you to Soto City? Should you have any need, Horn is willing to serve Your Excellency."

Yang Xing looked at the city lord before him.

To be honest, he had only wanted to find someone to ask where Spirit Hall in Soto City was, then go show his status and borrow some money to spend. Yet someone had delivered himself right to his door.

That saved him the trouble.

The corners of Yang Xing's lips curled up.

He did not waste words. He raised his right hand, palm facing upward.

Nine soul rings emerged beneath his feet.

Two yellow, two purple, four black, and one red.

All nine rings appeared at once, blooming with a brilliance so dazzling it was almost blinding in the night. That light illuminated every expression on the faces around them.

Barak Horn's face went pale.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.

Nine.

Nine soul rings.

A Titled Douluo.

And a terrifying Titled Douluo with four ten-thousand-year soul rings and one hundred-thousand-year soul ring.

A dry swallowing sound came from his throat. It was as though all strength had been drained from his legs, and his knees slammed heavily into the ground.

The dozen or so black-armored guards behind him reacted even faster. The sound of weapons falling from their hands merged together, followed by the dull, unified thud of knees striking the ground.

"Your Eminence, Titled Douluo!" Barak pressed his forehead to the ground, unable to suppress the tremor in his voice. "F-forgive Horn for being blind and failing to recognize Your Eminence's arrival in Soto City. I failed to welcome you from afar. I beg Your Eminence for forgiveness!"

Yang Xing looked at the people prostrating themselves before him.

Honestly, the feeling was indeed quite satisfying.

But he merely waved a hand indifferently.

"Get up. There's no need for such ceremony."

Barak rose shakily. His knees were covered in mud, but he did not spare it a glance. His posture was even more lowered than before, his back bent, his eyes not daring to meet Yang Xing's. He only looked at Yang Xing's chin.

Yang Xing withdrew his soul rings.

"Lord Barak, right?" His tone was as casual as if he were chatting with a neighbor. "Here's the thing: I've just arrived in Soto City, and something happened on the way. I lost the soul coins I had on me."

He spread his hands.

"Could you arrange a place for me to stay? And lend me some soul coins?"

Barak's mind turned twice.

A Titled Douluo. No money on him. Asking to borrow from him.

What kind of concept was that? It was equivalent to a humanoid nuclear bomb capable of leveling all of Soto City at any time politely saying to you, hey, lend me some pocket money.

Would you dare refuse?

"Your Eminence jests!" Barak's face piled into a smile even uglier than crying, and he bent even deeper. "Your Eminence's arrival in Soto City is an immense honor for Soto City! Lodging, wealth—so long as Your Eminence speaks, Horn will spare no expense, even if it means exhausting everything I possess!"

Yang Xing nodded in satisfaction.

"Then I'll have to trouble Lord Barak."