Want to See Me? Let the Pope Come Herself!

The noon sunlight fell at an angle across the domed building on the west side of Nuoding City. Two Spirit Hall guards in heavy armor stood with hands on their swords before White Jade pillars more than twenty meters tall.

Most visitors here were commoner Soul Masters collecting their monthly stipends or low-ranking apprentices. Rarely did such a heavy, oppressive atmosphere hang over the place.

In the steward's hall on the second floor, an old man with white hair and beard sat behind a heavy rosewood desk.

He wore a neat white Soul Master robe and a three-sword badge marking his rank as a Soul Grandmaster. He was Ma Xiunuo, the head of the Nuoding branch hall.

At that moment, Ma Xiunuo held a Junior Awakening Document stamped with vermilion ink, his brows tightly furrowed.

Su Yuntao stood before him with his head lowered, a sheen of sweat on his brow.

"Yuntao, you've served this branch hall for years. How could you act so rashly?" Ma Xiunuo laid the parchment gently on the desk, his aged voice grave.

"Innate Full Soul Power at level twenty? An unknown top-tier Martial Soul? Even a specially made Soul-Inducing Crystal shattered trying to contain it? Do you realize that if you put such claims in a report to the main hall and they prove baseless, hall regulations say you'll be punished for deceiving the Pope's Hall?!"

Su Yuntao cupped his fists and bowed. "Lord Ma Xiunuo, I swear on my life and my Martial Soul! I personally conducted the awakening ceremony in Holy Soul Village three days ago. The phenomenon that boy stirred in heaven and earth was no illusion. My Lone Wolf Martial Soul couldn't even maintain its form before him. If a single word of mine is false, I'll submit to Sacred Fire Judgment!"

Seeing Su Yuntao's bloodshot eyes, Ma Xiunuo felt his doubts waver, but reason still made the account hard to accept.

Innate Full Soul Power at level twenty... In thousands of years of history across the continent, when has there been another case beyond the Holy Angel bloodline passed down through generations in Spirit City's Worship Hall? How could a backwater like Holy Soul Village produce such a Martial Soul?

As Ma Xiunuo pondered, footsteps suddenly sounded beyond the half-closed carved wooden door.

Sunlight poured through the corridor's floor-to-ceiling windows, outlining the tall, straight figure of a young boy.

His white clothes were spotless as snow, his black hair stirred slightly in the breeze, and his eyes were as still as an ancient pool. Every movement carried a calm and noble bearing far beyond his years.

"Holy Soul Village may be a humble place, but it still has room for the vastness of heaven and earth. If you have doubts, Head Steward Ma Xiunuo, why not test me yourself?"

Su Chen walked slowly into the hall.

"Su Chen!" Su Yuntao spun around, his face alight with joy and awe.

Ma Xiunuo's gaze sharpened and locked onto the six-year-old boy. He might be old, but as a level-twenty-nine Soul Grandmaster, his eye for such things remained keen.

The instant the boy stepped into the hall, the Soul Power within Ma Xiunuo rippled faintly for no apparent reason.

"You're Su Chen?" Ma Xiunuo rose slowly, his expression solemn. "What brings you here today?"

"I obtained a Soul Ring in the Soul Hunting Forest yesterday. Today I came to register my Soul Master record, confirm my Soul Grandmaster rank, and collect the corresponding badge and stipend."

Su Chen's tone was unruffled.

"A Soul Grandmaster?!"

Ma Xiunuo's heart lurched, doubt filling his aged face. "You awakened your Martial Soul only three days ago, and you've already passed level twenty and obtained a Second Soul Ring? That's impossible!"

Before his words had faded, Su Chen flipped his right hand slightly at his side without another word.

Boom!

In an instant, the light throughout the steward's hall dimmed!

Pure Yang Dragon Emperor Aura, pure and blindingly radiant, swept out of Su Chen like a mountain flood, its Dragon Might tyrannical beyond compare!

Roar!

A faint Primordial Dragon Roar shook their souls through the air.

Ma Xiunuo and Su Yuntao stared wide-eyed as two precious, crystalline divine rings radiating dazzling purple light slowly rose from beneath Su Chen's feet!

First Soul Ring: deep purple!

Violent Primordial Thunderflame coursed through it like a golden dragon, radiating a destructive force that could crush all before it!

Second Soul Ring: deep purple!

Layer upon layer of dark Supreme Dragon Aura spread outward. Its pressure, condensed almost to substance, gripped the entire hall!

Two purple rings!

A Soul Grandmaster with two Thousand-Year Soul Rings!

"T-two thousand-year Soul Rings?!"

Ma Xiunuo staggered back. His aged body slammed into the rosewood chair behind him, his eyes bulging.

His weathered face was etched with bone-deep horror and disbelief. The understanding of Martial Souls he had held for decades was crushed beneath that brilliant deep purple!

The Limit Law of four hundred and twenty-three years for a First Soul Ring and seven hundred and sixty-four for a Second Soul Ring seemed laughably fragile before those two purple divine rings and their terrifying pressure!

Thud!

Unable to withstand the superior dragon's pressure striking straight at his soul, Su Yuntao dropped uncontrollably to one knee again. Cold sweat dripped from his chin onto the carpet, while the Lone Wolf Martial Soul within him whimpered and begged for mercy.

Ma Xiunuo pressed both hands hard against the desk. Only by circulating every bit of his Soul Power could he barely hold off the encroaching Pure Yang Dragon Emperor Aura.

"Head Steward Ma Xiunuo, does my Soul Grandmaster certification still stand?" Su Chen drew in the dragon radiance around him and looked down at the old man.

Ma Xiunuo straightened. His gaze toward Su Chen had changed entirely, from scrutiny to reverence like that of a pilgrim at a sacred site.

He knew full well that the potential and background of this six-year-old boy had far surpassed what Fasinuo Province—or even the entire Heaven Dou Empire—could contain!

"It stands... Of course it stands!" Ma Xiunuo did not even stop to straighten his wind-tossed robe. He hurried to a hidden compartment and took out a fine-gold Soul Grandmaster badge engraved with two crossed swords, along with two weighty Hundred-Gold-Soul-Coin Cards. Holding them out in both hands, he presented them respectfully.

"Lord Su Chen, here are your junior Soul Grandmaster badge and this month's stipend. From today onward, you're a core Soul Grandmaster registered with Spirit Hall."

Su Chen casually took the badge and coin cards, tucked them into his robes, and turned to leave.

"Lord Su Chen, please wait!" Ma Xiunuo called out at once, unable to hide the urgency and earnestness in his voice.

"You possess a godlike gift unseen in ten thousand years. Keeping you in a little city like Nuoding would be casting pearls before swine. I'm willing to summon this hall's highest-grade escort immediately and personally accompany you to Spirit City's headquarters! If His Holiness the Pope and the elders of the Worship Hall saw you, they would surely—"

"No need." Su Chen paused and glanced back, a faint light moving through his Purple-Gold Double Pupils. "My life at Nuoding Academy has only just begun. If the Pope is truly interested in me, she can send someone to see me herself."

With that, Su Chen's white robe fluttered as he pushed open the door. A moment later, he had vanished down the corridor.

The steward's hall remained silent for a long while.

"My lord... What should we do now?" Su Yuntao struggled up from the floor, his face deathly pale.

Ma Xiunuo suddenly came to himself, a feverish flush spreading across his aged face.

He rushed to the desk, yanked open its lowest hidden compartment, and pulled out a black-iron message cylinder. Its entire surface gleamed dark gold and bore runes exclusive to the Pope's Hall!

"Bring me a Red-Gold Special-Grade Sealed Letter!" Ma Xiunuo's fingers trembled as he ground the specially prepared Mithril Ink, his voice grave with every word.

"This is beyond the main hall in Heaven Dou City. A six-year-old Soul Grandmaster with two thousand-year Soul Rings has appeared. A god-tier Martial Soul has descended upon Fasinuo... Use a Cloud-Piercing Falcon. Bypass every branch hall and provincial checkpoint, and send it straight to the Pope's Hall in Spirit City, for Pope Bibi Dong herself!"