Slaves.
The word slammed into the six men's seas of consciousness like a piece of red-hot iron dropped into cold water.
Tang Hua'an's expression changed.
Not with shock, but fury.
He had been called trash in his life, and a drunkard, but no one had ever dared call him a slave to his face.
The Spear Champion's right hand instinctively tightened around his spear shaft.
Guo Kai stepped straight forward. Sky-Supporting Force burst into an ocher membrane over his fist, and every vein in his neck bulged.
"Who's your slave..."
No sooner had the words left his mouth than an invisible force rammed them back down his throat.
On the face formed across the azure orb's surface, the eyes made of two points of azure light shifted slightly, as though casting Guo Kai a glance.
Just that single glance.
The mineral rock beneath Guo Kai's feet cracked in a ring. An irresistible power of rules bore down on him, buckling his knees and nearly forcing him to kneel.
"Guo Kai!" Tang Hua'an thrust his spear shaft across to brace him.
Guo Kai clenched his back teeth, his face turning liver-purple. Only by exhausting every ounce of his Sky-Supporting Force did he barely hold himself up without actually kneeling.
Li Xiang's gaze stayed nailed to the orb, his mind racing.
The Azure Dragon Soul had coalesced for a thousand years. Its possessing an independent consciousness did not surprise him.
Guan Yue had said it had its own criteria for choosing.
But Guan Yue had never said it could speak.
Much less that it was looking for slaves.
It's testing us.
Li Xiang reached that conclusion inwardly.
A will of rules coalesced over a thousand years could not be some hotheaded brute. It had used the word "slaves" to provoke them and