The Soul-Breaking Spear Demanded Answers for an Old Debt

The Soul-Breaking Spear came fast.

Black Flame stretched ahead of the spearpoint, its cutting force splitting the stone slabs in its path. Yang Wudi did not test the waters. He used a Piercing Soul Skill with his first thrust.

Yuan Yu raised his right hand, and the Four-Sided Rock Aspect dropped into place before him.

The spearpoint struck its center, driving the heavy stone seal back half a yard. Yang Wudi twisted his wrist. Black Flame bored into a crack, and the Rock Aspect burst apart from within.

"First strike," Yuan Yu said.

Yang Wudi did not ask why he had not struck back. His second thrust went straight for Yuan Yu's chest. Seven afterimages shivered along the spear, each carrying enough cutting force to pierce the protective Soul Power of a Soul Sage.

The Wheel Wind Banner unfurled behind Yuan Yu's shoulder.

The airflow parted to either side, turning six afterimages aside, but the Soul-Breaking Spear itself drove straight down the center. The Sun-Aspect Mirror flashed for an instant, revealing the flow of Soul Power through the shaft on its surface.

Yuan Yu shifted half a step sideways. The spearpoint skimmed his white-and-gold robe and opened a cut across his shoulder.

Yang Wudi said coldly, "A genius raised by the Worship Hall, and all you can do is dodge?"

"You attacked the moment we met, Senior. I thought I should let you vent your anger."

"More than three hundred people of my Breaking Clan died. Three strikes won't be enough!"

His Eighth Soul Ring lit up. All the Black Flame on the Soul-Breaking Spear withdrew into its shaft. Yang Wudi and his spear became one; the sounds of the training ground seemed to fall silent beneath its point. Niu Gao and Tai Tan's expressions changed at once.

This strike