Four Years, Rapidly Rising Strength

After Qin Ming left, Ning Chen resumed cultivating the Thousand Mountains Formula.

There was nothing particularly outstanding about this Soul Master Tournament. Especially in the early matches, Ning Chen saw it as nothing more than weaklings pecking at each other.

Although Heaven Dou Imperial Academy had been granted a direct berth in the final, the champion of this Continental Elite Soul Master Tournament was bound to be Martial Soul Hall. There was no suspense in that.

The Heaven Dou Imperial Academy Team had practically come to represent the finest young Soul Master team in the Heaven Dou Empire.

Yet even so, only three of its members had reached the Soul Ancestor realm.

Meanwhile, Martial Soul Hall's Martial Soul Hall Academy Team had long since become a team composed entirely of Soul Ancestors.

Though they did not possess Soul King-level powerhouses like the next Golden Generation, they were still more than capable of crushing every other team.

Even the Heaven Dou Imperial Academy Team had long assumed that Martial Soul Hall would win this Continental Elite Soul Master Tournament.

Their goal was to snatch second place from the Star Luo Empire.

While Ning Chen immersed himself in cultivation, the days passed one after another. After several months of competition, the Continental Soul Master Tournament finally came to an end.

Just as Ning Chen had predicted, the champions of this Continental Elite Soul Master Tournament were the Martial Soul Hall Academy Team.

After so many years, the result remained the same. Soul Masters across the continent had long grown accustomed to it.

The Heaven Dou Imperial Academy Team also ended in defeat against the Star Luo Imperial Academy Team, ultimately taking third place.

Although the Star Luo Empire was not as prosperous as the Heaven Dou Empire, its military strength far surpassed that of Heaven Dou.

This was related to the ruling methods of the imperial families of the Two Great Empires.

The Heaven Dou imperial family possessed the light-attributed Swan Martial Soul, which carried some holy attributes. Although it was a high-grade Martial Soul, it did not rank among the top-tier Martial Souls.

Their personal combat power was already rather average, and imperial family members rarely produced Title Douluo-level powerhouses. Thus, the Heaven Dou imperial family mostly ruled the empire through conciliatory means.

They had more political maneuvering than iron-blooded resolve, and this extended to the empire's army, leaving its combat power fairly ordinary.

The Star Luo Empire was different. The White Tiger Martial Soul was inherently a top-tier Martial Soul, and coupled with its cruel succession system, the empire's heirs were often Title Douluo-level powerhouses.

Combined with their martial soul fusion skills with their partners, their individual combat power was extraordinarily formidable. Thus, they ruled their nation with iron-blooded, uncompromising methods.

Their army was likewise renowned for its iron-blooded nature and overwhelming combat strength.

It was even widely acknowledged across the continent that if Martial Soul Hall had not stood between the borders of the Two Great Empires, the Star Luo Empire would have swallowed the Heaven Dou Empire long ago.

For that reason, even in the Continental Elite Soul Master Tournament, the Heaven Dou Empire's representative team was often no match for the Star Luo Empire's representative team.

The Upper Three Sects, famous throughout the Soul Master World, were all clearly located within the Heaven Dou Empire. Yet whether in military strength or Soul Master power, the Heaven Dou Empire was always suppressed by the Star Luo Empire.

In truth, this was also because the three great sects rarely involved themselves in imperial affairs.

Although two of the Upper Three Sects now cooperated closely with the Heaven Dou imperial family,

the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School's sect master was the teacher of the empire's current crown prince, Xue Qinghe, while the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect had placed its direct-line heir at Heaven Dou Imperial Academy.

All of this was due to the great upheaval Tang Hao had caused back then.

The final result was that the Clear Sky School secluded itself from the world, while the remaining two great sects lost much of their former prestige. In order to recover their strength, and also to jointly resist Martial Soul Hall,

the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School and the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect deepened their cooperation with the Heaven Dou imperial family.

In the next Continental Soul Master Tournament, with Yu Tianheng present, the Heaven Dou imperial family had already placed great importance on the Heaven Dou Imperial Academy Team. Now, Cao Benqi, whose talent was even greater, had arrived.

This also completely gave the Heaven Dou Empire confidence that it could defeat the Star Luo Empire in the Soul Master Tournament.

Time flew by, and four years passed in the blink of an eye.

Ning Chen was already fourteen years old.

Four years had left distinct marks upon him.

The youth's once somewhat slender frame had now grown much taller. His shoulders and back were broad, his waist straight, and he stood like a long spear driven into the earth.

The childishness had faded from his features, leaving his lines sharper and more resolute. His eyes were deep and calm, and the occasional gleam that flickered within them made people hesitate to meet his gaze.

His bearing was also completely different from what it had been four years ago.

If the Ning Chen of four years ago had been like a sharp sword sheathed in its scabbard, its edge concealed yet still faintly threatening,

then the Ning Chen of today was like a silent mountain: utterly still when unmoving, but once he moved, it would be Thunderous Might and mountains collapsing.

Four years of unceasing refinement through the Thousand Mountains Formula had naturally given his aura a steady, heavy pressure. Even when he deliberately restrained it, he could not completely conceal it.

His cultivation had reached a level sufficient to shock the entire continent.

Level eighty-three.

A fourteen-year-old Soul Douluo.

If this news got out, even the Pope of Martial Soul Hall would likely be unable to sit still.

Throughout the history of Douluo Continent, no one had ever reached such heights at such an age.

Even Tang Hao, the Clear Sky Douluo of that era, hailed as a genius seen only once in a century, had only broken through to the Soul Douluo level after turning thirty.

Yet Ning Chen had forcefully advanced that record by more than a decade.

Over these four years, he had never relaxed in his cultivation for even a moment.

His cultivation of the Thousand Mountains Formula had never ceased, and he could now condense the phantom images of ten mountain peaks.

The fusion between the Nine Yang Divine Skill and the Thousand Mountains Formula had also grown increasingly profound, and the quality of his Soul Power far surpassed that of Soul Masters at the same level.

If he unleashed it at full power, the enhancement brought by the ten mountain phantoms would ensure that his combat power was absolutely no weaker than that of any assault-type Soul Douluo.

Even against a Title Douluo above level ninety, so long as they were not a Super Douluo, he was confident he could contend with them without falling into disadvantage.

Of course, all of this was concealed beneath the identity of "Cao Benqi."

In the eyes of outsiders, Cao Benqi was now seventeen years old and had a cultivation level of around forty-seven. Even so, he was already a young Soul Ancestor regarded as a top-tier genius.

Although such progress was enough to draw attention, compared to his true cultivation, it was already extremely low-profile.

Yu Tianheng and the others had also made considerable breakthroughs.

Yu Tianheng's Soul Power had reached level thirty-nine, leaving him only one step away from becoming a Soul Ancestor.

As the direct-line heir of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect, the quality of his Martial Soul had always been top-tier. Coupled with his diligent cultivation under Qin Ming's strict instruction these past few years, his rate of improvement had not been slow in the slightest.

Dugu Yan's cultivation had also reached level thirty-eight.

Under Dugu Bo's guidance, her Jade Phosphor Snake Martial Soul had grown increasingly refined in the art of poison.

Combined with her already exceptional talent for controlling poison, even opponents with cultivation far above hers did not dare casually touch her poisonous mist.

Shi Mo and Shi Mo, the two brothers, had both reached level thirty-eight in Soul Power.

Their Black Tortoise Martial Souls were inherently top-tier defensive Martial Souls. The defensive line the brothers formed together would still require considerable effort to break through head-on, even for Soul Ancestor-level powerhouses.