Six Eyes True Body

The instant the Seventh Soul Ring lit up, the world seemed to be drawn anew.

Tang San could not describe the feeling.

The forest was still the same forest. The damp air, the shadows of the trees, the soil, and the breathing of the Soul Beasts had not changed. Yet with Bai Jin standing there, everything seemed forced to revolve around him.

It was not pressure caused by Soul Power radiating outward.

It was more like control so precise it was terrifying.

Bai Jin's Silver Hair stirred without a breeze. Fine patterns of light appeared in his Azure Blue eyes, and seven Soul Rings circled him in layers. He looked as though he stood at the center of an invisible star chart.

The Titan Giant Ape growled and took half a step back.

It was a small step.

But to everyone watching, it struck like thunder.

It had retreated.

Zhao Wuji's throat went dry.

For the first time, he realized that Bai Jin's usual lazy, infuriating, candy-wrapper-peeling self might simply be what he was like when he could not be bothered to get serious.

Bai Jin raised a hand.

"Careful. Don't blink."

The next instant, he vanished from where he stood.

The Titan Giant Ape threw up an arm.

Boom!

A dark-red beam slammed into its arm, blasting its massive body sideways. Thick trees snapped like stalks of grass.

Bai Jin appeared to its right and closed his left hand.

Azure.

Gravity erupted from the ground. A dozen broken trunks, stones, mud, and even raindrops in the air were dragged toward a single point, forming a warped Azure Blue sphere.

The Titan Giant Ape roared and smashed both fists into the ground, trying to shatter the center of Gravity by brute force.

Bai Jin raised his right hand.

He.

Dark-red repulsion erupted from the other side.

Azure and He did not simply collide. Under Bai Jin's control, they slipped past each other along the Titan Giant Ape's attack like two invisible hands—one pulling its shoulder, the other pushing its waist.

For the first time, the Titan Giant Ape lost its balance.

Its enormous body tilted sideways.

That should not have been possible.

With its strength and size, even mountains collapsing and the earth splitting open should not have let a human Soul Saint shift its center of gravity.

But Bai Jin had done it.

Because he was not matching strength with the Titan Giant Ape.

He was measuring distance, direction, and timing.

To Tang San, every move Bai Jin made looked like an answer written in advance.

The Titan Giant Ape had barely lowered its shoulder before Azure dragged its next punch off course. Its foot had barely crushed the ground before He struck back against the tremor. Whenever it tried to overwhelm him with its size, Shrinking Earth brought Bai Jin out from the least likely position.

This was not mere speed.

Nor was it mere strength.

He had taken a battle that should have been decided by brute force and turned it into calculations precise enough to make the blood run cold.

A chill ran down Tang San's back.

He suddenly felt that if he ever stood against Bai Jin, the other man might see through even the thought of raising his hand before he could act on it.

The Six Eyes saw every current of Soul Power and every tiny change in the ape's muscles an instant before they exerted force. The Titan Giant Ape had only just begun to throw a punch, and Bai Jin already knew where it would come from.

So he did not block the punch.

He changed its path.

Bai Jin tapped a foot against the ground, and his figure flickered again.

The Sixth Soul Ring lit up.

Unlimited Void.

It was not a fully expanded domain.

With his current Soul Power, he could not keep such a force spread across the forest for long. But a single instant was enough.

An invisible ripple spread from beneath his feet.

The Titan Giant Ape's movements suddenly lagged by half a beat.

Its body had not been bound.

Instead, a flood of information had been forced into its senses. The direction of the wind, the positions of the raindrops, the movement of every grain of dust—details it never should have noticed poured into its mind all at once.

For a human Soul Master, that instant might have been enough to break their mind.

For a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast like the Titan Giant Ape, it caused only a brief hesitation.

But that was all Bai Jin needed.

He appeared before the Titan Giant Ape's chest.

An Azure Blue point of light shone in his left hand.

A dark-red point shone in his right.

One pull.

One push.

The two forces converged from opposite directions, forming an impossibly thin purple gleam between his palms.

Tang San took one look, and his heart gave a violent thump.

Danger.

Utter danger.

Bai Jin did not release it at once.

All seven Soul Rings glowed behind him.

In that moment, he was not using any one Soul Skill alone. He twisted every ability into a single thread. Limitless protected him, Azure calibrated the distance, He suppressed the recoil, Shrinking Earth adjusted the angle, Reverse Cursed Technique repaired his torn meridians, and Unlimited Void briefly stole the Titan Giant Ape's judgment.

At last, all that power flowed into the tiny purple gleam.

Soul Power burned.

Mental power burned.

Even Bai Jin's own breath seemed to be swallowed by that point of purple light.

Because Xiao Wu was watching.

Because the Titan Giant Ape had never truly meant to kill them.

Because he had promised only to protect them.

So he forcibly compressed the purple light into a single line, steering it clear of anything vital and aiming it only at the thickest muscle on the Titan Giant Ape's chest.

Hollow Technique.

Purple.

Purple light shot forth.

There was no deafening explosion.

At first, it was as quiet as a thread passing through the curtain of rain.

The next instant, space along the thread's path seemed to have been erased. Raindrops vanished, tree shadows vanished, soil vanished, and even the air was briefly left blank.

The Titan Giant Ape crossed its arms and met the strike head-on with a roar.

Boom!

The delayed blast erupted.

Purple light illuminated the entire forest. A gale rushed in every direction, and a trench a hundred meters long was plowed through the earth. The Titan Giant Ape's enormous body was driven steadily backward, each step stamping a massive pit into the ground.

One step.

Two steps.

Five steps.

Ten steps.

At last, its back struck a rocky hillside, and the rock collapsed with a thunderous crash.

Bai Jin stood where he was, faint white smoke rising from his palm.

His face was a little pale.

For a Soul Saint, clashing head-on with a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast was never easy.

Yet he was still smiling.

His grin was bold and bright.

"Had enough?"

The forest fell deathly silent.

Everyone forgot to breathe.

Zhao Wuji suddenly felt that Bai Jin had been remarkably gentle whenever he had beaten him up before.

At least he had never blasted him with something like that.

The Titan Giant Ape rose from the rubble.

The black fur on its chest was scorched and curled, deep bloody gashes marked its arms, and fury burned in its golden eyes.

It was not gravely wounded.

But it had been driven back.

Driven back head-on by a human who had not even become a Titled Douluo.

Bai Jin raised his hand, and the second purple Soul Ring lit up again.

Azure Blue light danced at his fingertips.

"Again?"

The Titan Giant Ape stared at him.

At that moment, it finally stopped looking only at Xiao Wu.

It began to regard Bai Jin as a true opponent.

Deep in the forest, the Ghost Face Society's Evil Soul Masters knelt in the mud, their teeth chattering.

They had thought the Titan Giant Ape's appearance would throw everyone into chaos.

They could have used the confusion to kill Tang San, take the Blue Silver Emperor Blood, and carry off a few geniuses while they were at it.

Now they only wanted to leave alive.

Bai Jin turned his head toward them.

"Don't be impatient."

He smiled.

"Once I'm done with the big one, I'll deal with the little ones."

He said it as casually as clearing away the dishes after a meal.

But every Evil Soul Master of the Ghost Face Society heard the chill in his words.

One of them, a Soul King-level Evil Soul Master, gritted his teeth and tried to retreat.

He had barely shifted half a step when the mud beneath him sank. An Azure Blue pull dragged his knees into the earth. Bai Jin had not taken time out from the fight to attack him; Soul Power scattered during the earlier exchange still lingered around them, and Six Eyes True Body commanded it like an invisible net.

The man's face went deathly pale.

Only then did he understand that "I'll deal with you later" did not mean they were safe now.

Bai Jin simply could not be bothered to look at them yet.

The Titan Giant Ape growled again, its huge figure blotting out the moonlight. It raised both arms, and black Soul Power surged like a tide. Trees bent under the pressure, and the muddy ground peeled back in layer after layer.

This time, even Zhao Wuji could not help taking half a step back.

Xiao Wu's fingertips trembled slightly.

Tang San noticed but said nothing. He quietly spread Blue Silver Grass beneath everyone's feet. If Bai Jin could not hold the ape back, he could at least pull them clear at once.

That was Tang San all over.

Even when he knew he could do little, he would never do nothing.

Bai Jin saw it, and the corners of his mouth lifted.

"Not bad."

Tang San froze.

"I'm not praising you for being able to save them."

Bai Jin kept his eyes on the Titan Giant Ape, his voice calm.

"I'm praising you for finally understanding that even when you're afraid, you have to act."