A Pitying Look

No sooner had he finished speaking than Dugu Yan beside him spoke first, without waiting for Duan Yu to respond.

"Tiangheng, he's only nine! You're level twenty-nine, fighting someone at level thirty-one—aren't you ashamed?"

"..."

Yu Tianheng's mouth twitched. "Yan, you got it backward. He's level thirty-one. I'm level twenty-nine."

Dugu Yan froze for a moment before finally realizing it.

Right, this little brother was a Three-Ring Soul Venerable, four levels higher than Yu Tianheng.

But even so, he was only nine!

What kind of real combat experience could a nine-year-old possibly have?

Dugu Yan looked at Yu Tianheng, then at Duan Yu. No matter how she thought about it, she could not understand how Duan Yu had reached three rings at the age of nine.

It was not as though there had never been prodigies with Innate Full Soul Power throughout history, but none of those geniuses had reached three rings at nine.

Duan Yu grew somewhat interested when he heard Yu Tianheng's challenge.

The Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon, the number one beast martial soul on the continent.

Though it was certainly inferior to the Spatial Dragon King among the Dragon God's nine sons, Duan Yu still wanted to see just how powerful the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon was.

"Sure."

Duan Yu nodded and said calmly, "Should we fight now?"

"Yes." Yu Tianheng nodded. "We'll go straight to the private Soul Arena on the fourth floor."

Qin Ming looked at the two of them, both brimming with fighting spirit. He had initially wanted to stop them, but on second thought, it would be good to let Duan Yu fight Yu Tianheng and see what his actual combat ability was like.

Thus, the group headed grandly toward the training grounds.

Along the way.

Dugu Yan kept nagging without pause, telling Duan Yu to be careful of Yu Tianheng while also telling Yu Tianheng to go easy on him and not hit too hard.

Yu Tianheng's head began to ache from listening to her. Helplessly, he said, "Yan, whose side are you on? Which one of us is the Three-Ring Soul Venerable?"

"I'm on Duan Yu's side!" Dugu Yan replied without hesitation.

Yu Tianheng: "..."

Fine, then. Before they had even fought, she had already defected.

When they arrived at the Soul Arena, the two stood together on the stage.

Yu Tianheng looked seriously at the nine-year-old child before him.

Though his opponent was young, anyone who could break through to level thirty-one at nine could hardly be worthless.

At Qin Ming's shout of "The soul battle begins!"

Yu Tianheng stepped forward and possessed his martial soul. A dazzling blue light lit up between his brows. Accompanied by a dragon's roar, his entire arm swelled in size and became covered in blue-violet scales, with faint arcs of lightning coiling around it.

First Soul Skill—Thunderclap Dragon Claw!

Amid intense Soul Power fluctuations, countless bolts of lightning gathered into a blue-violet dragon claw and slammed toward Duan Yu.

Duan Yu chuckled. Rather than hurriedly releasing his martial soul, he simply pushed off the ground and charged forward in an utterly ordinary manner.

He wasn't releasing his martial soul?

Yu Tianheng watched Duan Yu rush at him without releasing his martial soul.

Though he could not make sense of Duan Yu's tactics, out of respect for the match, Yu Tianheng sped up and sent his claw strike forward.

Yet as the distance between them narrowed, Yu Tianheng noticed that something was off.

He found the look in Duan Yu's eyes strange. It was a look of... pity.

I'm practically in front of you, and you haven't even released your martial soul. What are you pitying me for?!

As they drew closer and closer, Duan Yu finally released his martial soul. One yellow and two purple soul rings rose beneath his feet.

But what truly made Yu Tianheng feel a trace of fear was the dragon roar of the Spatial Dragon King when Duan Yu released his martial soul.

Under that roar, he could clearly feel his Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon trembling in fear.

This was... martial soul suppression!

How was that possible? The Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon was the number one beast martial soul on the continent. How could another beast martial soul possibly suppress it?

Yet no matter how unwilling Yu Tianheng was to believe it, when the power of the Thunderclap Dragon Claw on his arm dropped by more than half, he had no choice but to accept this cruel fact.

There was no time for shock. Seeing his martial soul being suppressed, Yu Tianheng erupted with all his strength, and the second soul ring beneath his feet lit up as well.

"Second Soul Skill, Thunderous Lightning!"

Countless lightning serpents burst forth from every direction, transforming into a web of lightning that tightly restricted Duan Yu's range of movement.

Duan Yu shook his head at the sight. What a pity. If it had been another martial soul, he might truly have stumbled under this attack.

But my martial soul was the Spatial Dragon King!

"First Soul Skill, Spatial Rift."

The phantom of a Spatial Dragon appeared behind Duan Yu. Countless spatial cracks unfolded before him, instantly swallowing Yu Tianheng's attack in its entirety.

At the same time, Duan Yu flashed with silver light and appeared behind Yu Tianheng. His right hand was covered in silver-white dragon scales as it struck toward Yu Tianheng.

"Alright, the victor has been decided."

Qin Ming appeared on the arena floor in time and blocked Duan Yu's strike.

Qin Ming glanced at Duan Yu and declared, "Duan Yu wins this match!"

Yu Tianheng had not lost unfairly. His Soul Power had been suppressed, and so had his martial soul. Even if they had been at the same level, he likely still would not have been able to win.

Yu Tianheng looked at the nine-year-old child before him, who was even a head shorter than he was, and his feelings were indescribably complicated.

Yet he had to admit that the gap was simply too great. Duan Yu had used only one soul skill throughout the entire battle to end it.

Before this, he had never imagined that the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon martial soul could be directly suppressed by another dragon-type martial soul.

Yu Tianheng let out a soft sigh. In the end, he had merely been a frog at the bottom of a well.

Just then, the doors to the Soul Arena were pushed open.

An elderly man in white robes slowly walked inside.

"I heard our academy got a nine-year-old three-ring brat. This old man came to see whether Old Meng was bluffing—"

The white-robed elder stopped halfway through his words, his gaze landing on Duan Yu.

He stared at Duan Yu for quite a while before stepping closer and checking his bone age.

Then his eyes immediately lit up.

"Damn, Old Meng was telling the truth! He really is three-ring, and he really is nine?"

Qin Ming recognized at a glance that this was Chief Zhilin, one of the three chiefs of Heaven Dou Royal Academy.

He hurriedly stepped forward and saluted. "Chief Zhilin."

Duan Yu raised an eyebrow at that.

Zhilin, one of the three chiefs of Heaven Dou Royal Academy, an eighty-third-level control-type Soul Douluo whose martial soul was the Azure Vine.

Was he, like Meng Shenji, setting his sights on him now?

Zhilin smiled as he sized Duan Yu up and down, becoming more satisfied the longer he looked.

"Little fellow, your name is Duan Yu?"

"Yes." Duan Yu nodded.

"Then would you be willing to take this old man as your master?"

Before Duan Yu could speak, Qin Ming anxiously cut in, "Chief Zhilin, Chief Meng has already—"

"What does Old Meng know?"

Zhilin waved a hand, his face full of disdain. "A peerless genius like this should be placed with this old man. Only by personally teaching him can I avoid wasting this little fellow's talent."

"Little fellow, will you think about it?"

Duan Yu looked at the overly familiar little old man before him, the corner of his mouth twitching.

Good grief. He had just turned down Meng Shenji, and now Zhilin had come along.

Were the chiefs of Heaven Dou Royal Academy all this idle? Did they not have any proper work to do? Why were they all so busy taking disciples?

If Zhilin and Meng Shenji had known what Duan Yu was thinking, they would surely have cried out that they had been wronged.

They did not accept just anyone as disciples. It was simply that a genius with three rings at nine was someone they had only ever encountered once in their lives—Duan Yu.

However, Duan Yu still had no intention of taking a master. No matter who came, he refused them all.

Meng Shenji, Zhilin, and even Bai Baoshan, who came looking for him afterward, were all rejected by him.

Seeing that there was no hope of taking him as a disciple, the three chiefs did not force the issue and merely told Duan Yu to cultivate diligently.