Night Raid on the Heaven Dou Imperial Palace!

The night was thick as ink. After midnight, the lights of Heaven Dou City gradually thinned out, leaving only the soul guide lamps in the direction of the imperial palace shining as brightly as day, outlining the continuous palace roofs against the deep-blue night sky.

Huang Yun hovered high in the air, all Soul Power fluctuations around him restrained, like a light feather blending into the night.

Lightning Falcon Eyes glimmered faintly, a trace of pale purple lightning flashing deep within his pupils as he took in the layout of the imperial palace below.

The Treasury stood on the eastern side of the palace, an independent building with a double-eaved hip roof. Tall palace walls surrounded it, with an everlasting soul guide lamp hanging every few yards along the walls, illuminating the outer perimeter as brightly as day.

Six Imperial Guards in iron armor stood before the vault doors with halberds in hand, their steps orderly and their gazes fixed straight ahead.

Huang Yun observed carefully for the time it took to burn an incense stick, figuring out the guards' patrol routes, shift-change intervals, and all the blind spots between the soul guide lamps.

On the surface, the defenses were tight, but not flawless.

There was a three-breath gap during shift changes, and intersecting shadowed areas lay between the soul guide lamps. As long as he timed it right and teleported through that gap, getting over the outer wall and into the vault grounds should not have been a problem.

He had thought it through well enough.

But the instant he descended soundlessly from the sky and the soles of his feet touched the bluestone pavement outside the Treasury, a piercing alarm suddenly tore through the night.

Woooo! Woooo!! Woooo!!!

"Was I discovered? I was careless."

"Looks like the waters inside the imperial palace run much deeper than I thought."

"I still underestimated the people of this world, especially a place as important as the imperial palace."

Huang Yun's pupils contracted sharply as he realized the problem.

Before he could make a second move, the soul guide lamps around the Treasury abruptly flared in unison, bathing the entire area in daylight-bright radiance.

More than a dozen concealed Soul Power fluctuations lit up at once from the quiet cracks between stones, the shadows of the corridor pillars, and the corners beneath the eaves.

All the figures lying in ambush revealed themselves, each surrounded by visible glimmers of detection-type Soul Power.

Reconnaissance-type Soul Masters.

More than one.

And all of them were specialists skilled in long-range perception and concealing their auras.

They had been hidden in secret sentry posts around the Treasury all along. They were not there to fight, but to catch any abnormal aura trying to approach the vault grounds.

Huang Yun stood on the bluestone pavement, his expression darkening slightly beneath his mask.

He had miscalculated.

He had evaded the Imperial Guards' eyes all the way here through speed and stealth, but he had forgotten that the palace's defenses consisted of more than just the soldiers in plain sight.

The Heaven Dou Empire had stood upon the continent for centuries. How could a place as vital as the Treasury possibly be guarded by only a few squads of Imperial Guards?

Those reconnaissance-type Soul Masters were the true first line of defense.

"Enemy attack!"

"There's an intruder!"

"Surround him! Don't let him escape!"

The Imperial Guards' shouts rose one after another. The clash of iron armor and the pounding of footsteps surged in from every direction, while torches around the vault grounds were lit one after another, completely exposing Huang Yun beneath the lights.

Huang Yun swept his gaze around. More than thirty Imperial Guards had already formed a circular encirclement around him, coordinating seamlessly and sealing off most escape routes.

Yet he did not rush to break out. His gaze passed over those soldiers and settled on a figure striding toward him from behind the crowd.

The man was powerfully built, a full head taller than the surrounding Imperial Guards, with broad shoulders and a thick back. Dark golden iron armor covered his entire body, its surface engraved with savage beast-face patterns that gleamed coldly beneath the firelight.

His stride was steady and forceful. Every step on the stone pavement produced a dull echo, while the Soul Power fluctuations around him felt like a mountain pressing down.

Ge Long.

Huang Yun's gaze paused slightly.

He recognized the man before him.

He had seen him in the animation in his previous life: Heaven Dou Empire's great general and future imperial marshal. His Martial Soul was Yazi, one of the Dragon Clan's Nine Sons, an ancient vicious beast. In the later stages of the original story, he had taken part in the continental war as an Eight-Ring Soul Douluo and had quite a few standout moments. But in Huang Yun's eyes, such an excellent Martial Soul had been developed far too wastefully.

That was also related to how narrow-minded the people of this world were.

Logically speaking, with such a powerful Martial Soul, he should not have been merely a Seven-Ring Soul Sage at his age. An Eight-Ring Soul Douluo should have been the bare minimum. By the later stages, he could even have become a god.

What a waste.

Ge Long stopped ten yards away from Huang Yun. His eagle-like gaze swept over Huang Yun's entire body, and his eyes narrowed slightly when he saw the black half-mask.

"You dare trespass into the imperial palace's forbidden grounds at night. State your name."

His voice was deep and heavy, carrying unquestionable authority.

Huang Yun said nothing.

He was watching Ge Long's Spirit Rings.

Seven of them: yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black, arranged in full. The seventh was indeed a deep-black Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring.

A Seven-Ring Soul Sage, not yet an Eight-Ring Soul Douluo.

Huang Yun had his answer.

A Seven-Ring Soul Sage with the Yazi Martial Soul. Perfect.

He had always been curious about Yazi's Martial Soul in the original story.

Each of the Dragon Clan's Nine Sons possessed its own abilities. Yazi was one of them, bloodthirsty and warlike, fierce and unyielding by nature. It should have been an exceptionally terrifying assault-type beast Martial Soul, yet when Ge Long appeared later in the story, he had never displayed the crushing strength such a Martial Soul ought to have possessed.

Was the Martial Soul itself limited, or had Ge Long simply failed to develop it enough?

Huang Yun wanted to test it himself.

"Not talking?" Ge Long sneered at Huang Yun's silence, raising his right arm sharply and curling his fingers in the air. Blood-red Soul Power surged violently from his body. "Then I'll capture you first and interrogate you slowly afterward."

The seventh Spirit Ring lit up first.

"Seventh Soul Skill: Martial Soul Avatar!"

Blood-red light exploded from Ge Long's body. In an instant, his frame nearly doubled in size. His shoulders and back bulged, dark-red scale-like markings spread across his arms, and the tips of all ten fingers transformed into sharp claws whose edges shone with metallic coldness.

His facial features changed as well. His forehead protruded, and his pupils shifted from ordinary black to vertical gold, carrying a ferociousness that barely restrained a desire for destruction.

A dense scent of blood filled the air.

Yazi Avatar.

The pressure of Dragon Clan bloodline spread outward as though tangible. The surrounding Imperial Guards instinctively retreated several steps, unable to stand steadily beneath the instinctive oppression of an ancient vicious beast.

He would not be careless against an unknown enemy.

That was what made him a qualified great general.

The moment Yazi emerged, Huang Yun truly felt his Martial Soul being suppressed in terms of rank and bloodline.

Yet Huang Yun did not retreat in the slightest. Instead, the corner of his mouth curled upward.

"Good. Let me see just how strong your Yazi is."

He clenched his right hand into a fist, and the Dragon Fang Knuckle Duster slid out soundlessly. The dark golden Dragon Crystal tips glimmered faintly beneath the firelight.

He stepped forward with his left foot, and blue-white arcs of electricity suddenly burst from his body.

First Soul Skill: Lightning.

His speed instantly soared to two thousand four hundred. His figure became a streak of light and shot straight at Ge Long's face.

Raikiri condensed at the tips of the knuckle duster. Milky-white lightning wrapped around the Dragon Crystal thrusts, releasing a sharp explosive crack through the air. It was so fast that not even an afterimage remained.

He put everything into this attack, intending to probe where Ge Long's limits lay.

Ge Long's reaction was astonishingly fast.

His vertical pupils narrowed slightly as he raised his claws across his body. His five fingers spread open, and a blood-red Soul Power shield condensed in his palm to receive Huang Yun's thrust head-on.

Boom!

The instant the two forces collided, a shockwave spread in every direction, directly throwing the two nearest Imperial Guards to the ground.

The bluestone pavement shattered inch by inch, sending broken stones flying.

Huang Yun felt as though he had slammed into a mountain.

The tip of the Dragon Fang Knuckle Duster pierced roughly half an inch into that blood-red shield, then could advance no farther.

Ge Long's right arm tensed straight, his muscles bulging as he forcibly withstood the strike.