At the entrance to the East Courtyard's training room, Li Long sat cross-legged beneath the corridor eaves.
He had just completed a cycle of the Soul Power Guidance Method. His thirty-fourth-level Soul Power slowly gathered back into his dantian through his meridians, and the lingering warmth around him was mostly scattered by the morning breeze.
When he opened his eyes, he saw someone approaching from the courtyard gate.
The person was not walking quickly, but every step carried a steady presence.
The newcomer was tall and slender, dressed in light gray casual clothes. There were no badges at his waist, yet he made no attempt to conceal the fluctuations of Soul Power around him.
The aura of a level-sixty Soul Emperor hung around him like a heavy mist.
Li Long rose to his feet.
The other person stopped about five paces away from him in the courtyard. He looked Li Long over from head to toe, his gaze finally settling on the silver-and-gold Holy Son badge at Li Long's waist. After looking at it for a moment, he raised his eyes to meet Li Long's.
"Are you Li Long?" the man asked casually. He did not sound condescending, but neither did he seem restrained.
"I am." Li Long nodded. "And you are?"
"Qian Yaoting, the current Pope's son, and also your senior brother." He introduced himself, then smiled. "I just came down from the mountain. I heard Father had taken in a disciple and even named him the Holy Son. I went into seclusion for three years and came out to find myself with a junior brother. Of course I had to come take a look."
Li Long looked at the youth before him, who stood more than half a head taller than him.
Qian Yaoting bore some resemblance to Qian Shengyuan, but his demeanor was more relaxed, and his eyes held unconcealed curiosity.
Level-sixty Soul Power circulated around him. Though most of it had been restrained, the pressure of that level still washed over Li Long in faint waves.
"I've seen enough," Qian Yaoting said. Then he flexed his wrist. "My hands are itching a little. Want to spar?"
Li Long was not surprised.
A Soul Emperor who had just emerged from seclusion had come to see a newly appointed Holy Son. He claimed he was merely taking a look, yet he had already stepped into the courtyard. It was obvious he wanted a fight. Li Long nodded. "Sure."
Qian Yaoting stepped back a few paces to make room, then added, "Don't worry. I'll only use soul skills up to the third ring. I won't use my fourth or fifth soul skills. I won't bully you."
"No need."
Qian Yaoting froze for a moment.
Li Long looked at him, his tone calm. "Go all out. You don't need to hold back."
The courtyard fell silent for a moment.
Qian Yaoting's gaze rested on Li Long's face for two breaths, as if trying to find some politeness or hesitation in that composed expression. But all he saw was a pair of eyes far steadier than those of someone his age.
"Are you sure?" The curve of Qian Yaoting's lips lessened slightly. "I'm a level-sixty Soul Emperor."
"I know," Li Long said. "The difference in Soul Power is still there. But if you give me three rings, it's no different from giving me two whole major realms. After the fight, I won't know where I actually stand against you. So don't hold back. Go all out, and I'll take it with everything I have. If I can't take it, that means I'm not good enough. If I can, that means I've reached that level."
Qian Yaoting looked at him in silence for three breaths. Then his smile returned, wider than before.
He did not waste any more words. In the next instant, the Six-Winged Angel possessed him, and his entire body rose into the air.
For now, however, he had only two pairs of solid wings. The remaining two pairs were transparent.
Only at level seventy, as a Soul Saint, could one condense the second pair of solid wings and become a Four-Winged Angel. At level ninety, one could condense the third pair and become a Six-Winged Angel.
Qian Yaoting hovered in the air. His two solid pairs of wings gleamed pale gold in the morning light, while two pairs of translucent phantoms fluttered faintly behind him, like projections of power that had yet to fully solidify.
He looked down at Li Long on the ground and loosely clenched his right hand. Golden light gathered in his palm, forming into a sword.
"Let me make this clear first," Qian Yaoting said, his tone more serious than before. "You told me to go all out, so I will. I won't hide any of my five soul skills, and I won't pull my strikes. If you can't take it, call for a stop at any time."
"All right." Li Long tightened his grip on the Iron Rod.
Qian Yaoting's sword moved.
The first strike slashed diagonally down from the sky, so fast that Li Long only had time to raise his rod horizontally to block it.
The instant the blade struck the rod, the impact of level-sixty Soul Power traveled through the Iron Rod and into Li Long's arms. Both his legs sank half an inch into the ground.
The sound of cracking stone was crisp and brief.
The moment Qian Yaoting's sword force was blocked by the Iron Rod, a glimmer flashed through his eyes.
An ordinary strike from a level-sixty Soul Emperor was enough to knock the weapon from the hands of a normal Three-Ring Soul Elder, yet Li Long's legs had only sunk half an inch into the ground, and his grip on the Iron Rod remained utterly steady.
"Such strength!"
"Now this is interesting!"
Before Qian Yaoting had finished speaking, his first soul ring rose.
The golden sword radiance surged, and his descending strike carried an obvious boost from a soul skill.
Li Long raised his rod to block again. This time, he was pushed back one step, plowing a shallow trench beneath his feet, but he still did not lose his grip.
"You took my first soul skill."
Qian Yaoting spoke faster as his body flipped half a turn in the air. His second soul ring lit up immediately afterward.
The sword radiance spread from a single point into a fan-shaped arc, nearly doubling its range.
Li Long stepped back and twisted aside, swinging the Iron Rod in a wide horizontal sweep. Golden and purple light intertwined around the rod as the first soul skill, Mighty Vajra Staff, met the fan-shaped sword radiance head-on.
The sound of metal colliding exploded.
The fan-shaped sword radiance was split down the middle by the rod, and shattered golden sparks scattered in every direction.
Qian Yaoting was briefly stunned as he watched his second soul skill get smashed apart by a single strike.
"It shattered?"
His pupils contracted slightly.
Even if his second soul skill had not been driven at full power, it was still backed by level-sixty Soul Power.
Before entering seclusion, he would never have believed that a Three-Ring Soul Elder could shatter his soul skill head-on.
Qian Yaoting discarded the last trace of his probing mindset.
The instant his third soul ring lit up, he shot several yards higher into the sky. His golden longsword rose over his head, the light gathering upon its blade several times denser than before.
"Third Soul Skill—Angel Judgment."
With one slash, the golden sword radiance transformed into a pillar of light as thick as an arm and crashed straight down.
The might of this attack had already exceeded the scope of an ordinary third-ring soul skill. He had clearly poured more Soul Power into it.
Just before the pillar of light descended, Li Long planted his feet firmly and lit up his second and first soul rings at the same time.
The Iron Rod expanded to two zhang in length. Azure wind pressure wrapped around golden light and covered the rod as he swung upward with all his strength.
The tip of the rod struck the front of the light pillar with perfect precision. The instant they collided, the air tore apart with a shrill explosive roar.
The pillar split down the middle, turning into two slanting streams of golden energy that swept past Li Long's sides and blasted two massive holes into the courtyard wall behind him.
But the core of the light pillar had been split apart by that one strike.
Qian Yaoting watched the scene from high above, utterly silent for three full breaths.
His third soul skill had been split apart head-on by a Three-Ring Soul Elder.
The instant the technique shattered, a shockwave exploded outward and swept every broken stone from the ground into the air.
Qian Yaoting steadied himself in the sky and looked down at the youth below, who carried a two-zhang Iron Rod over his shoulder as Soul Power surged around him. The surprise in Qian Yaoting's eyes could no longer be concealed.
He slowly descended back to the ground. His wings folded halfway in, the longsword in his hand condensed anew, and his fourth soul ring rose.
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