Soul Skill Banned

"Match suspended!"

The referee's voice, laced with Soul Power, rang across the arena. Everyone jolted and stopped what they were doing.

Lu Yi swallowed the rest of the Disarming Charm, unsure what had happened.

The freshman assessment was not supposed to be suspended without good reason.

Clearly, something had gone wrong.

The referee flew to Luo Tianba's side at the edge of the arena and began examining his injuries.

Luo Tianlong glared at Lu Yi, then hurried over to his brother.

Everyone else looked toward Luo Tianba as well.

Blood welled from the backs of his wrists, right where the Mantis Blades joined his arms. Threads of red electricity still coiled around the blades.

The color had drained from Luo Tianba's face, and his whole body began to shake violently.

When he had fallen into darkness just now, he had felt a brute force trying to rip the Mantis Blades straight off his arms.

It had come so close!

His Martial Soul had nearly been torn away from him, a fate even worse than having it shattered.

The referee spotted the injury too and hastily called for a healing teacher, one who had been standing by at the edge of the assessment area from the start.

Every year, large numbers of students were injured in assessment matches. This was when the Academy's healing teachers were busiest.

A moment later, Teacher Li, whom Lu Yi had met once before, entered Assessment Area Four.

By then, the red electricity on Luo Tianba's Martial Soul had vanished, but the Mantis Blades had not withdrawn.

Seeing Luo Tianba's pained expression, Li Musheng did not hesitate. He summoned his Tree of Life Martial Soul and administered a full round of healing to stabilize the injury before examining him.

But the moment he probed Luo Tianba's body, Li Musheng's face grew grave. "What happened here? The boy's Martial Soul is unstable!"

"Well—"

The referee did not know what to say.

As both referee and examiner, he was responsible for saving candidates before they suffered serious harm.

But this had been Lu Yi's first attack. He had had no way to judge exactly how powerful that red lightning would be.

And intervening would have meant eliminating a student on the spot.

What was he supposed to do?

While the two teachers spoke, Zhou Sichen and Cao Jinxuan crowded around Lu Yi, their voices low with excitement.

"Holy shit, what did you just do?"

They understood Lu Yi less and less.

They had never seen red lightning like that before, but it had looked like nothing more than an attack that knocked an opponent back.

So why had that Soul Saint teacher said the boy's Martial Soul had been badly damaged?

Lu Yi, meanwhile, was still shaken.

He had cast the Disarming Charm on a weapon by reflex. Wang Dong had taken an enhanced version of it before and recovered quickly.

But the Luo brothers' weapons were unusual. They were joined so closely to their bodies that disarming them was tantamount to ripping their Martial Souls out.

And with his current Soul Power, even without a Soul Skill boosting it, the Disarming Charm was stronger than the one he had used on Wang Dong.

Thank goodness the referee had called a halt in time. Otherwise, his enhanced Disarming Charm might have severed Luo Tianlong from his Martial Soul altogether.

It was not just the teams and teachers in the arena who looked shocked. The other students in the same area did too. Only Dai Huabin's eyes flashed with fascination.

Lu Yi's Soul Ring had appeared for only an instant, but Dai Huabin had noticed it.

"A thousand-year second ring, and one strike cripples a Martial Soul?"

Dai Huabin, who had always revered overwhelming force, looked at Lu Yi with admiration and excitement.

A single Soul Skill that could cripple a Martial Soul—such ruthlessness was exactly to his taste.

The urge to fight surged through him for the first time in ages. Dai Huabin could hardly wait to crush Lu Yi and make him kneel before him, begging for mercy.

The mere thought filled him with satisfaction.

As for Xie Huanyue on the other side of the arena, Dai Huabin had written him off as a useless showpiece after he surrendered yesterday for the sake of the so-called bigger picture.

After another short bout of treatment, Li Musheng confirmed that Luo Tianba's condition was stable. He would not be able to use his Martial Soul for the next two days, though.

That meant Luo Tianba would miss all eight of the remaining group round-robin matches.

Of course, that assumed Xie Huanyue and Luo Tianlong could advance past the first round on their own.

Once the referee announced Luo Tianba's elimination, he had Li Musheng take him away for further treatment.

Then he approached Lu Yi, erected a soundproof barrier, and said with a conflicted expression, "You may not use that Soul Skill again in the remaining matches."

At that, Zhou Sichen and Cao Jinxuan immediately protested on their teammate's behalf. "Referee, we object!"

"Objection denied!"

The referee's answer was firm.

He knew it was unfair to Lu Yi. But if he let this continue, he would have to rescue someone every time Lu Yi used that Soul Skill.

Wouldn't that mean one Soul Skill could eliminate one student?

They might as well stop the matches and declare Lu Yi the winner!

Nor did he want another student seriously injured in the assessment area under his watch. The Academy would surely hold him responsible.

Still, he did not want to take the matter too far. That was why he had told Lu Yi privately, hoping to disrupt the remaining matches as little as possible.

After a moment's thought, he offered another option.

"Either you sit out this match, or you refrain from using that Soul Skill in any match I oversee from now on."

Zhou Sichen relaxed. The referee had given them a way out he could accept, and he was confident he and Cao Jinxuan could beat the remaining two opponents.

He was about to tell Lu Yi to step off and rest, leaving the rest to them, but Lu Yi made the other choice.

"Fine. I won't use it!"

His teammates tried to persuade him otherwise, but Lu Yi raised a hand to stop them. "It's fine!"

Lu Yi was not swallowing the insult. He had simply realized that the referee had badly misunderstood his Disarming Charm. The man seemed to think it was a universal Soul Skill that could severely damage any opponent's Martial Soul on contact.

But the Disarming Charm only worked on weapons. Apart from Luo Tianlong, whose Mantis Blades were like his brother's, not one of his opponents in Assessment Area Four had a weapon-type Martial Soul.

And Lu Yi had not intended to use the Disarming Charm on Luo Tianlong again anyway.

Whether it was banned or not made no difference to him.

The referee nodded slightly. This would make things easier to explain. "Since this was your first time using the Soul Skill, I'll let you off with a warning and no penalty. But if you use it again, I'll remove you from the match immediately!"

The referee turned and asked the two remaining members of Xie Huanyue's team whether they wanted to continue.

"We fight!"

Luo Tianlong looked ready to devour Lu Yi. His own brother had been hurt so badly—how could he swallow his anger?

Xie Huanyue's response, however, was less certain.

He was fat and looked a little dim, but he was no fool.

His earlier clash with Zhou Sichen's two Beast Spirits had already taken a toll on him.

Now that they had lost a teammate, fighting two against three would leave them little chance of winning and drain their strength besides.

He had seen what the other teams in their group could do. Even with just the two of them, winning those matches should not be hard. Why fight Lu Yi to the bitter end?

"Luo Tianlong, shouldn't we save our strength?"

Just as Luo Tianlong had urged him to step down yesterday, Xie Huanyue now tried to persuade him in turn. "Don't let anger cloud your judgment. We still have three matches. Advancing is what matters!"

Luo Tianlong could hardly believe it. His fists clenched. "Captain, Tianba is—"

"No buts!"

Seeing that he could not persuade Luo Tianlong, Xie Huanyue hesitated no longer.

"Referee, as team captain, I surrender!"