One Finger Blocks Them All

He showed no intention of even releasing his martial soul. He merely looked past them at the referee, who had gone completely slack-jawed in midair.

"Begin."

Yu Chen's voice was not loud, yet it carried with unusual clarity through the silent Soul Arena, tinged with a bored sort of laziness.

He turned his gaze back to Huo Yuhao's face, twisted with jealousy. The smile at the corner of his lips grew a little colder as he lightly spoke the rest of his sentence.

"Let me see just how much the 'glory' you carry on your backs is worth."

"Beep—"

A shrill whistle, cracked with panic, tore through the silence of the arena.

"Attack!"

Bei Bei forced out a beastlike roar through clenched teeth.

The refined air around him had long since shattered to pieces. The sleeve on his right arm exploded into fingernail-sized scraps, while dense blue-violet scales unfurled like blades. Thick lightning surged wildly along his arm, and the air was immediately filled with the pungent stench of scorched hair.

The expensive leather shoe on his foot stomped down hard on the granite floor tiles.

Bang.

The hard tiles were crushed into a pit half a foot deep, shattered stones blasting outward like bullets. Bei Bei turned into a streak of blue lightning, charging straight at Yu Chen with all his humiliation and jealousy.

At that moment, the other members of the Shrek Preparatory Team displayed unprecedented coordination.

Xu Sanshi's eyes were bloodshot as the several-hundred-pound black Xuanming Turtle Shell Shield appeared in his hand. The shield he normally used to save his life was now wielded like a battering ram. Hunched over like a maddened rhinoceros, he sprinted forward close along Bei Bei's flank, the shield's edge slicing through the air with a deep, droning howl.

Jiang Nannan said nothing, merely biting down on her lower lip. Golden light flashed explosively around her long legs. Her first soul skill activated instantly, leaving an afterimage where she stood as she cut directly into Yu Chen's blind spot.

"Die!"

Xiao Xiao's eyes were red as she fiercely pressed both hands downward.

Three enormous black Three-Life Soul-Calming Cauldrons descended from above with piercing whistles. The massive cauldrons scraped violently through the air, producing a teeth-grating hum. Rings of visible black soundwaves rippled outward, compressing and warping the air above the arena.

The attacks of all four sealed off every possible route of escape—front, back, left, right, and even above.

Several veteran soul masters in the stands could not help but rise to their feet. With such nearly perfect coordination and utterly unrestrained killing intent, they could instantly tear an opponent to pieces—not just someone their own age, but even an experienced fighter two major realms above them.

Multicolored soul light flickered across Yu Chen's calm face.

A violent gale mixed with fragments of lightning rushed toward him, making the hem of his white clothes snap loudly.

Yu Chen stood where he was without moving even the tip of his foot half an inch.

He looked at the four faces opposite him, warped by the sheer force they exerted, and not a single ripple stirred in his eyes.

Too slow.

And too weak.

He could not even be bothered to take his left hand out of his pocket. He simply raised his right arm slowly and held up one index finger toward the air.

The gesture was as casual as an old man at a roadside market pointing out rotten cabbage at a stall.

The instant that long index finger extended.

Bei Bei, charging at the front, brought down his dragon claw—larger than a millstone and wrapped in violent lightning—with all his might.

It was less than a meter from Yu Chen's face.

There was no earth-shattering explosion.

No blinding flash.

There was nothing.

The savage expression on Bei Bei's face froze instantly.

He felt that his all-out claw strike had hit neither flesh nor a soul power barrier. Instead, it had struck an utterly invisible, absolutely immovable city wall of divine metal.

The sensation was bizarre beyond belief.

The violent blue lightning, still a meter away from Yu Chen's fingertip, seemed to crash against a pane of transparent glass, instantly scattering and sliding away in every direction like splashing water.

A series of teeth-grating cracks rang from Bei Bei's arm bones. The rebounding force surged from his wrist straight into his shoulder, numbing half his body in an instant. He was like a specimen pinned in midair, unable to advance or retreat.

Xu Sanshi came next.

He slammed forward with the Xuanming Turtle Shell Shield raised before him.

Thud—

An incomparably heavy muffled impact.

Xu Sanshi felt as though he had rammed headfirst into a speeding soul-engine train. The enormous shield locked in place a meter away from Yu Chen. His leather boots plowed two deep trenches through the arena floor, sparks flying from the soles, yet he could not push forward another half millimeter.

Jiang Nannan's Waist-Bow Strangulation kick from the rear flank struck the invisible barrier and was instantly flung back by an overwhelmingly brutal force. She let out a muffled groan and flew backward like a kite with its string cut, crashing heavily onto the ground over ten meters away. She could not get back up for a long while.

Xiao Xiao had it worst.

The three Soul-Calming Cauldrons, carrying the force of ten thousand pounds, smashed into the invisible wall without even stirring a ripple. The cauldrons shook violently, and the backlash sent sweetness flooding up Xiao Xiao's throat.

"Pfft!"

Xiao Xiao spat out a mouthful of blood. Her legs gave out, and she dropped to her knees, her face pale as paper.

Every attack.

Lightning, heavy shield, strangulation, soundwaves.

All of them were blocked a meter away.

At the center of the arena, multicolored soul power flashed and compressed madly, yet it could not so much as stir a single strand of Yu Chen's hair.

Yu Chen simply stood there casually, one index finger pressed against that patch of emptiness.

The Great Soul Arena was so silent it made people's skin crawl.

Even the gamblers in the stands, their eyes red from losing, forgot to curse. Someone's half-smoked cigarette burned down to his fingers, making him tremble from the pain, yet he even forgot to scream.

The commentator stood with his mouth wide open, his Adam's apple bobbing, but not a single sound came out.

What the hell was this monster?

There was no martial soul possession, no soul rings released, and even his soul power fluctuations were pitifully faint.

Yet with a single finger.

He had forcibly withstood the Shrek Preparatory Team's all-out killing strikes?!

On the arena.

Bei Bei panted heavily, sweat mixed with blood at the corners of his eyes streaming down his face. His pupils trembled violently.

The Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon martial soul he was so proud of, the Shrek glory he was so proud of.

Before this white-clothed youth, they were nothing more than a clumsy joke.

Why?

He looked at Yu Chen's face, so close and yet seemingly separated from him by two worlds, and his mind went completely blank.

Yu Chen finally moved.

He lightly flicked that index finger.

Bang.

An invisible blast of air exploded outward.

Bei Bei and Xu Sanshi groaned at the same time, as though massive hammers had struck their chests. Both were launched off the ground, tumbling several times through the air before crashing miserably at the edge of the arena.