Heaven Dou Academy 2

On the arena.

More than a dozen Battle Soul Elders unleashed their soul skills in a crushing barrage.

Flames, gales, and beastly phantoms intertwined into an impenetrable killing net.

Su Chen didn't retreat.

He didn't even summon the Purple Thunder Spirit Sword.

He raised his right hand, pressing two fingers together like a sword.

An invisible Sword Intent burst from his fingertips and swept outward.

A willow tree nearby shook violently. A slender dead branch snapped off and flew back into his palm.

"One branch is enough to deal with this scrap metal."

He flicked his wrist.

The dead branch became an afterimage as it met the sky-filling soul skills.

No Soul Rings shone.

There was only the pure law of the sword.

The gales, flames, and beastly phantoms shattered one after another like fragile bubbles the instant they touched the branch.

The sword qi continued unabated, striking the chests of more than a dozen elite students.

Bang!

More than a dozen figures flew backward in unison, tumbling off the arena and slamming into the hard ground.

Blood sprayed wildly, and cries of pain merged into one.

Heaven Dou-level elites had been wiped out in a single exchange.

The entire venue fell silent.

The hundreds of watching students stared wide-eyed, their breathing halted.

The academy's geniuses had been defeated in one move like chickens and dogs.

Su Chen stood in the center of the ruined arena, holding the dead branch.

"Who else wants to offer guidance?"

"Is Heaven Dou Royal Academy full of nothing but trash who know how to throw their weight around?"

A commotion rose from the crowd.

A trace of violent lightning aura suddenly filled the air.

Blue-purple arcs of electricity danced behind the crowd, crackling sharply.

"Insulting the academy and severely injuring its students. You must answer for what happened today."

The crowd parted to either side.

A tall young man strode out.

He had blue hair and sharp eyes.

Visible waves of lightning surrounded his body.

"It's Yu Tianheng!"

"The heir of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Lineage!"

"The captain's stepping in!"

The students below the arena seemed to have grasped a lifeline, and hope reignited in their eyes.

Yu Tianheng stepped onto the arena. With every step, the lightning beneath his feet grew denser.

His gaze locked onto the boy in green ahead of him.

"Someone brought by His Highness the Crown Prince is being rather presumptuous. The academy's honor and the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Lineage's honor cannot be trampled by an outsider."

Su Chen examined the jumping blue-purple lightning arcs.

"Blue Lightning Tyrannosaurus?"

"It's called the continent's number one beast martial soul. Quite an impressive reputation. I wonder if your skills are as tough as your mouth."

Yu Tianheng's gaze turned cold.

"You'll know once you've tried."

Two yellow and one purple Soul Rings rose from beneath his feet.

Soul power at rank thirty-nine erupted.

The muscles in his right arm suddenly expanded, bursting through his sleeve.

Blue-purple dragon scales spread across his skin, and his hand transformed into a savage dragon claw.

Lightning raced wildly between the scales.

Dragon Transformation!

The exclusive ability the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Lineage took such pride in.

"Third soul skill, Thunderous Fury!"

The purple Soul Ring blazed brightly.

The lightning aura around Yu Tianheng instantly doubled.

His eyes filled with lightning.

Without any probing, he turned into a streak of blue lightning and charged straight toward the center of the arena.

His dragon claw carried destructive lightning as it shot for Su Chen's throat.

Su Chen remained where he stood.

He used the Sword Control Art with nothing but a branch.

The Violet Firmament Thunder-Attracting Art within him circulated slightly.

A thread of nearly imperceptible spiritual energy entered the dead branch.

The frail branch instantly straightened, releasing a crisp sword hum.

He thrust it forward.

It struck the center of the dragon claw's palm without the slightest deviation.

Violent blue lightning spread along the branch, trying to reduce it to ash.

The moment the lightning touched the branch, it vanished without a trace like a mud ox entering the sea.

Yu Tianheng's expression changed drastically.

He felt his proud lightning power being forcibly suppressed by a law of a higher order.

"Break."

Su Chen lightly shook his wrist.

A tyrannical Thunder Sword Intent erupted from the dead branch.

Crack!

A sharp sound rang out.

The supposedly indestructible dragon scales instantly shattered.

The dragon claw was knocked aside by the Sword Intent.

Sword qi surged up his right arm, tearing through the lightning defense with devastating force.

The Blue Lightning Dragon Transformation state was broken with a casual strike.

Yu Tianheng let out a muffled groan. As if struck by a heavy blow, he staggered back more than ten steps before barely steadying himself.

The dragon scales covering his right arm fell away like shattered glass.

His Dragon Transformation state collapsed instantly.

He clutched his trembling right arm, his face filled with disbelief.

"Impossible... How could Dragon Transformation..."

Su Chen casually tossed the dead branch at his feet.

"Nothing's impossible."

"You dare flaunt such an incomplete technique?"

Yu Tianheng clenched his teeth.

"Shut up! How dare you slander the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Lineage's inheritance!"

Su Chen sneered.

"Inheritance?"

"You forcibly graft beast bloodlines onto human bodies and call it Dragon Transformation. You borrow lightning power to forcibly stimulate the muscles and unleash potential."

"Go inspect the meridians in your right arm."

"Every time you use Thunderous Fury, violent lightning-attributed soul power burns those meridians once. It might seem powerful, but it's actually draining your life force."

"On rainy days, don't the joints in your right arm feel as though ten thousand ants are biting them? After using your full strength, don't you feel numb for a short while?"

Yu Tianheng looked as if he'd been struck by lightning.

His pupils suddenly contracted.

Every symptom was correct.

He had always believed it was the normal backlash of cultivating a lightning-attributed martial soul. That was what the elders of the lineage had said too.

Endure it, and you would become strong.

Su Chen took a step forward.

Before everyone, he exposed the flaws in the Blue Lightning Tyrannosaurus technique.

"Lightning governs destruction, but it also governs rebirth. The laws of lightning should be nurtured in the dantian, with the meridians serving as bridges as yin and yang converge."

"But you use lightning as a tool for tempering the body, forcing it into place. Without a matching body-tempering technique, you rely on human flesh alone to bear the violent lightning of the dragon race."

"The deeper you cultivate, the faster you die."

"Your bones are forcibly reshaped, and your cartilage wears away. The higher your soul power, the faster your meridians die. Before you even become a Title Douluo, your body will be roasted dry by lightning."

"You take drinking poison to quench thirst as some supreme secret art. Is this the so-called number one beast martial soul on the continent?"

"Is this what you're so proud of?"

Every word was like a blade.

They tore away the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Lineage's last veil of shame.

Yu Tianheng's face turned deathly pale.

His lips trembled, yet he couldn't utter a single rebuttal for a long time.

As the lineage's heir, he knew better than anyone how the elders suffered from illness and pain in their later years.

Could the path his lineage had always been proud of truly be wrong?

At that moment, his conviction wavered.

The entire Heaven Dou Academy fell deathly silent!

Hundreds of students held their breath.

They looked at the more than a dozen elites lying on the ground and howling in pain.

They looked at the dazed Yu Tianheng.

Then they looked at the boy in green standing with his hands behind his back.

Even Yu Tianheng, the strongest among them, had been utterly crushed in the field he excelled at most.

He hadn't even released his martial soul.

This kind of overwhelming superiority surpassed everyone's understanding.

Fear, shock, confusion.

All kinds of emotions spread through the students of Heaven Dou Academy.

Xue Qinghe stood at the edge of the arena.

He quietly watched Su Chen on the stage.

A trace of fascination flickered in his golden eyes.

Last night, on the boat by the moat, he had thought that line about "defying the gods" was merely a young man's boast.

Only today did he understand what true dominance meant.

There was no need for schemes or tricks.

He simply crushed all opposition openly and directly.

This power and bearing, capable of crushing everything, were exactly the key Xue Qinghe had desperately sought in Heaven Dou City to break the deadlock.

Su Chen turned around, his gaze sweeping over the aristocratic youths below the arena whose legs had gone weak.

"Now, who still has objections?"

No one dared respond.

Even the most arrogant dandies from before now wished they could bury their heads in the ground.

"I came to Heaven Dou Academy today only to deliver a message."

"The resources Xue Xing gives you, the Crown Prince's Residence can provide as well. What Xue Xing can't give you, the Crown Prince's Residence can still provide."

"But the prerequisite is that you put away that ridiculous pride of yours."

"The Crown Prince's Residence doesn't need trash, and neither does the Heaven Dou Empire."

Su Chen walked down from the arena.

The crowd automatically parted to form a path.

No one even dared breathe loudly.

Xue Qinghe stepped forward to meet him.

His gaze held undisguised approval.

"Today's performance was quite grand."

"If it isn't grand enough, how will we force Xue Xing out?"

"Next, it's time for that old fox to jump the wall."