First and Second Soul Skills

Eastsea Academy, Class Zero training grounds.

Practical combat class. The six Class Zero students stood in two rows facing each other. Zhang Yangzi and Wang Jinxi exchanged a glance—those two nine-year-old Soul Ancestors from the opening ceremony were going to fight each of them today?

Wu Changkong stood at the edge of the field, dressed in white like snow and holding a training clipboard. "Today's practical combat class will be a gauntlet. Tang Wulin and Gu Yue, you two will fight the other four one at a time. Gu Yue—"

Gu Yue lifted her eyelids slightly. "I'm not fighting. Let him do it."

A flash of anger instantly crossed Zhang Yangzi's face—what did she mean? One person against all of them?

Gu Yue slipped both hands into her school uniform pockets, walked to the bench at the edge of the field, and sat down. Her few words were as cold as if someone had tossed a block of ice into the training grounds. "None of you are worth my time."

That sentence choked back Zhang Yangzi's "What do you mean?" before he could say it.

Tang Wulin stood where Gu Yue had just been, rolled his shoulders twice, and called to her, "Then I'll take them all."

Xie Xie whistled from the side. "Just you? You're not even using a weapon?"

"You'll see in a moment." Tang Wulin waved at him and walked to the center of the training grounds. Sunlight slanted through the high windows, falling across the boy's straight shoulders and stretching his shadow long behind him. He openly asked everyone, "Who's first?"

There was a trace of casual confidence in his steady tone. It was not the affected swagger of someone deliberately lowering his voice, but the natural bearing of someone accustomed to taking responsibility.

Zhang Yangzi stepped forward first. He was one of the highest-ranked students in this year's entrance examination, a two-ringed Grand Soul Master with the Dark Phantom Eagle martial soul. His martial soul excelled at speed and aerial restraint, and few at the same level could match him.

"I'll go first." Zhang Yangzi stood opposite Tang Wulin, his tone still fairly polite. "Show me what you've got."

The moment he finished speaking, the Dark Phantom Eagle martial soul was unleashed. A pair of pitch-black eagle wings spread from his back. With a tap of his toes, he soared into the air, tracing a fierce arc through the sky. At the same time, his first Soul Ring lit up—Dark Dive! The black eagle plunged straight at Tang Wulin with the sound of tearing wind.

Tang Wulin raised his right hand, golden light suddenly flashing in his palm.

The movement was too fast, yet too composed, like muscle memory forged through countless repetitions. His right arm bent slightly, his five fingers spread, palm facing the sky—then he clenched it sharply. Golden light erupted.

"Golden Dragon Head."

A thick pillar of golden light surged up from the ground, instantly taking the phantom form of an enormous dragon head. Its horns were imposing, its eyes blazed brightly, and its gaping jaws roared toward the heavens. This was not an ordinary manifestation of soul power. Every scale on the dragon head was clearly visible, every fang gleaming with sharp, icy light. Amid the Dragon Roar, the ground shuddered in a ripple—not something heard with the ears, but something felt in the bones, in the bloodline, in the most primal instinct buried deep within one's martial soul.

Zhang Yangzi was still in midair. The trajectory of his Dark Dive was knocked off course by the Dragon Roar. He desperately beat his wings, trying to steady himself, but his martial soul was instinctively trembling before the golden dragon's roar.

He wanted to retreat. But he had already lost the chance.

Tang Wulin stepped forward with his right foot. His right hand shifted from a fist into an open palm, and the golden dragon phantom behind him spread its wings. In that instant, his eyes turned an exceedingly pure gold—not the dark green variation of his bloodline, but the burnished gold unique to the Golden Dragon King.

A bolt of golden lightning slashed down diagonally, and the training grounds' protective barrier let out a piercing hum. Zhang Yangzi was smashed out of the air by the strike, crashing into the ground and sliding four or five meters before stopping. He was not injured, but the tips of his hair were still faintly smoking.

The entire field fell silent.

"...Golden Dragon Skybreak." Tang Wulin lowered his hand and casually announced the name of the move.

At the edge of the field, Xie Xie was the first to rise. "That just now—that dragon head—" He was an agility-attack Soul Master, and his judgment of speed was far more precise than anyone else present. He had seen the path of that attack clearly, and he had also seen Tang Wulin's breathing remain steady from beginning to end—such calm meant he was on an entirely different level from them.

Tang Wulin grinned. "My first Soul Skill, Golden Dragon Head—used to open the fight. My second Soul Skill, Golden Dragon Skybreak—used to finish it. The Golden Dragon King and I came up with both names together. He said the two of us are one of a kind, so our Soul Skills had to be one of a kind too."

First Soul Skill, Golden Dragon Head. Golden scales formed a dragon head, whose roar shook the enemy. It used the power of the Golden Dragon King's bloodline to condense a phantom golden dragon head, unleashing a dragon roar shockwave that interrupted skills currently being cast and caused brief dizziness. It had an exceptionally strong restraining effect against flying targets and ranged attacks. Its inspiration came from the dragon might of the first layer of the Golden Dragon King Seal and the protection of dragon scales—the Golden Dragon King had said dragon might could not be used merely to scare people; it had to make their martial souls tremble too.

Second Soul Skill, Golden Dragon Skybreak. Dragon claws pierced the clouds, killing with a single strike. Golden scales covered the right arm, transforming it into a dragon claw that condensed soul power into golden lightning to strike the target. A single-target burst attack; the longer it charged, the stronger it became, with exceptionally powerful penetration against defensive martial souls. Its inspiration came from the Golden Dragon King's right-hand golden dragon claw in the first layer of the Golden Dragon King Seal and the piercing properties of the Golden Dragon Spear—the Golden Dragon King had said claws were not just for tearing; they could strike too.

The two Soul Skills consisted of one area-control move and one single-target burst. One interrupted, the other finished. Used together, they could force an opponent back ten steps in less than two breaths.

Lu Menge had said that Soul Skills could be named however one wished. Later, Tang Wulin had spent three full nights discussing the matter with the Golden Dragon King in his sea of consciousness.

On the first night, the Golden Dragon King suggested "Dragon Roar" and "Dragon Claw," only for Tang Wulin to reject them outright as "too ordinary." On the second night, the Golden Dragon King came up with "Golden Dragonhead Cry" and "Golden Claw Rends the Sky"—both were rejected for not being imposing enough. By the third night, the Golden Dragon King had completely lost his temper. Lying sprawled over the seal pedestal, he muttered, "If it weren't for the fact that you're close with the Silver Dragon King... how about 'golden'? Add gold to it. It shines, it's bright enough." Tang Wulin thought for a moment, then nodded. "Fine. You're the one-of-a-kind Golden Dragon King, so the prefix has to use your title. The first Soul Skill will be called Golden Dragon Head. Simple—once it appears, it's enough to intimidate people. The second will end with 'break': Golden Dragon Skybreak. Break, as in shattering all things; sky, as in the heavens." The Golden Dragon King was silent for a moment before resting his head on his claws. "...That works, I suppose. After all, the palm strike you use takes the shape of a dragon, while my famous dragon roar shakes gods and demons. When the heavens split, we both have a share in it. We'll call that name half yours and half mine."

The next two matches, Wei Xiaofeng and Zhang Yangzi both went down quickly.

Wei Xiaofeng's agility could not even hold up against the dragon might—Golden Dragon Head disrupted the rhythm linking his Soul Skills, while Golden Dragon Skybreak struck directly along his retreat path. Wang Jinxi's Bone Dragon martial soul leaned toward defense. With his shield armor fully activated, he held for three seconds. In the fourth second, the dragon claw's penetration came through, sending both him and his shield armor reeling backward. Tang Wulin had not crushed them outright—he had suppressed his cultivation to three rings, but the raw strength of his Soul Skills, the dragon might's suppression of dragon-type martial souls, and his innate judgment of when to attack and when to wait were things no suppression of cultivation could make up for.

When he finally faced Xie Xie, Xie Xie did hold out for several exchanges with the speed of the Light Dragon Dagger. He even forced Tang Wulin to use Golden Dragon Body to deal with his explosive speed. But in the end, the golden lightning of Golden Dragon Skybreak struck the edge of the Light Dragon Dagger. Xie Xie was knocked back several steps, yet he laughed. "I give up, completely. Your cage is too big—I can't slip out of it. Next time, Gu Yue will have to take my place if anyone wants to withstand that attack."

After all the matches, Tang Wulin had won all four battles. He had barely even moved from his position—from beginning to end, he stood on that patch of sunlight in the center of the training grounds.

Gu Yue sat on the bench at the edge of the field, watching from the first match to the fourth. She had not made a move once, and had barely changed her posture. After Xie Xie conceded, she rose and walked to Tang Wulin's side. "Next group. I don't need to switch in—he alone is enough."

Wu Changkong watched Tang Wulin's breathing slowly settle, then wrote only two lines on his clipboard.

First line: The suppression of dragon-type martial souls by a Golden Dragon-type martial soul was nearly a dimensional strike against opponents of the same level.

Second line: No need for class placement matches. One of them does not need to fight; the other cannot be beaten.

Tang Wulin walked to the edge of the training grounds, pulled his thermos from a storage box, twisted open the lid, and took a gulp. Gu Yue stood beside him and blew out the last lingering golden arc at the tip of his hair. "The roar range of Golden Dragon Head can expand another half meter to the left—Wang Jinxi retreated to the left at the time. He was already pulling back the moment your first Soul Skill activated. Faster would be better."

Tang Wulin pressed his fingertips against the dragon-patterned rune on his body, thinking that he could adjust the angle of the dragon head's shockwave next time he sparred with Xie Xie. Then he looked up and smiled at Gu Yue. "Next time, help me block the left side. I'll handle the right alone—even if the rest of Class Zero attacks together, I'm not afraid."

Gu Yue did not respond to that invitation to fight, but she reached out and gently brushed the bits of debris kicked up in battle from his collar. Sunlight refracted through the high windows and fell upon the ginkgo leaves on their shoulders. The two stood side by side in Class Zero's training grounds, like the divided forms of the Dragon God standing together again after countless years.

At the edge of the field, Xie Xie fastened his wristband and lowered his voice as he spoke to Zhang Yangzi. "Did you see those two moves? Two self-created Soul Skills—Golden Dragon Head and Golden Dragon Skybreak. One controls, one bursts. Linked together, they take less than two breaths. I couldn't even find a chance to get close. And he still hasn't used a weapon."

Zhang Yangzi withdrew his martial soul, and the black wings slowly dissipated behind him. He looked at the back of Tang Wulin speaking with Gu Yue at the center of the field. After a few moments of silence, his tone became much more serious. "His martial soul... really does suppress dragon-type martial souls."

Xie Xie waved a hand and said it was the Golden Dragon King bloodline's additional suppression over dragon-type martial souls. Then he shoved his dagger into the strap around his calf and ran toward Tang Wulin in large strides. "Wulin—how did that golden lightning from your second Soul Skill strike down from beneath the dragon head? Show me again! I was too busy dodging to see it clearly!"