The True Power of Blue Silver Grass! Tang San Doubts Himself!

At the center of the battlefield, Kong Lin, who had been full of vigor and still in the prime of life, aged before everyone's eyes.

His temples turned white first. Then strand after strand of black hair faded and withered. His firm skin rapidly sagged into wrinkles, pain replaced the steady weight in his gaze, and the vitality in his body ebbed away.

In just a few breaths, it was as though decades of his life had been drained away in an instant!

"No... my body... my life force!"

Kong Lin's pupils contracted sharply. Terror was all that remained in his eyes.

His Xuanming Turtle Martial Soul was a truly versatile one. After mutating, it was no longer purely defensive; it also possessed a measure of offensive power. That was why he could handle most Soul Masters' attacks.

But against Ye Qingqiu's method, he had no defense!

He could clearly sense his lifespan, vitality, and very essence slipping away. If this stalemate continued much longer, he might die of old age right there in the arena!

The Xuanming Turtle's defenses were no more than a hollow shell before this power over life itself!

"I concede!!"

Kong Lin did not dare hold out another moment. It would accomplish nothing. With his current abilities, he could not reach Ye Qingqiu quickly enough to attack, leaving him a living target.

There was no point in enduring.

So he gave up.

Heaven Dragon Douluo frowned slightly. He had known Ye Qingqiu might have something to offer; matters of state and war were no place for games.

But he had never imagined the Ninth Princess possessed such an uncanny ability.

Kong Lin truly had met his match.

The Sun Moon Empire had lost this round fair and square.

"The first Soul Saint duel!

Blue Silver Empire—Ye Qingqiu wins!"

Ye Qingqiu raised a finger slightly, and the Emperor Vine beneath her lifted her like a dragon, carrying her over to Kong Lin.

By then, Kong Lin's hair had turned completely white, his face was lined with wrinkles, and his whole body radiated the frailty of old age. He looked forty or fifty years older than before the fight. Sensing the weakness in his very essence, he collapsed to the ground with a thud.

The battle had been brief, but he had no strength left.

Suddenly, he felt a shadow fall over him.

He looked up and saw the enormous vine.

Ye Qingqiu walked up to him and swept a slender hand through the air. A vast surge of life force poured from the Emperor Vine into Kong Lin's body.

His condition rapidly recovered. His white hair turned black, the skin of his face grew firm again, and even the strength of his very essence rose considerably!

Ye Qingqiu had returned all the life force she had absorbed.

Kong Lin stared in a daze as the graceful young woman dusted off her hands in front of him, then turned to leave.

"Done."

"Wait!"

Ye Qingqiu looked back at Kong Lin on the ground, puzzled as to why he had called out to her.

"May I ask how old Your Highness is?"

Ye Qingqiu's cheeks flushed. She was about to speak when a man's voice cut her off.

"What's it to you?"

Ye Gucheng rushed to Ye Qingqiu's side, took her hand, and led her away, watching Kong Lin warily.

He was old enough to be her grandfather, and here he was asking her age~!

Shock him!

Shock him for me!!

The Blue Silver Empire had taken the first round!

Ye Qingqiu followed Ye Gucheng back to the shore. Not a speck of dust stained her dress, and her expression was as calm as before.

As a level seventy-one Soul Saint, she had easily defeated Kong Lin, a peak level seventy-nine Soul Saint with a Xuanming Turtle Martial Soul. To her, it was hardly a feat worth boasting about.

In the Ye family's internal Soul Fighting matches, she had lost only twice to opponents of the same rank.

Once was to her elder brother, the Fourth Prince Ye Jian—the same Ye Jian who had concealed his origins to teach at Heaven Dou Imperial Academy, and whom Ma Hongjun had mocked earlier in the comments.

The other time was to the First Prince Ye Mingshen, the imperial family's foremost genius. Merely mentioning his name was enough to make the empire's younger generation lose all desire to catch up to that peerless prodigy.

Even so, the sheer speed and ease of the first duel left the viewers watching the heavenly screen stunned.

Across the sea on Douluo Continent, Tang San stood in Shrek Academy, staring fixedly at the images on the heavenly screen. His eyes flickered, and turmoil surged within him.

He had cultivated Blue Silver Grass since childhood and believed he had long since mastered every aspect of the Blue Silver Martial Soul: control, binding, Entanglement, parasitism. Step by careful step, he had built what he considered the orthodox path of Blue Silver control.

But after seeing Ye Qingqiu fight with her Blue Silver Emperor, he suddenly realized that her path was entirely different from the one he had labored over for more than ten years!

She made it look so effortless, like a poet at work.

She's showing off way too much!

Ye Qingqiu's Blue Silver Power relied on none of that binding, control, or parasitism.

She stood on an entirely higher plane. He and Ye Qingqiu might as well have belonged to different eras.

She had brought out the very life-giving trait his own Blue Silver Grass had cast aside.

And the facts had proved it: pursuing the power of life was damn powerful!

Jealousy and anger filled Tang San's heart. Unable to suppress the thought growing ever stronger within him, he sent a comment to the heavenly screen.

[Douluo Continent · Thousand-Hand Buddha Tang San]:

"Your... Your Highness, your Blue Silver Emperor Martial Soul does not look like ordinary Blue Silver Grass, but the aura it revealed in battle seems to share its origins. Does that mean your Blue Silver Emperor still descends from Blue Silver Grass?"

Ye Qingqiu noticed Tang San's question on the heavenly screen. His title, after all, was rather interesting.

She answered aloud, her voice carried by the heavenly screen to every corner of the world.

"My Blue Silver Empire was founded upon Blue Silver Power, and what we have inherited is Blue Silver Power in its purest form."

"We call it Blue Silver Power because our Ye family ancestor, Ye Qing, was nothing more than an ordinary stalk of Blue Silver Grass at the beginning.

Through constant cultivation and evolution, he transformed his original body into its ultimate form: the Blue Silver Emperor.

So you are correct. The source of the Ye family's Blue Silver Emperor is Blue Silver Grass."

[Douluo Continent · Thousand-Hand Buddha Tang San]:

"Then since it is Blue Silver Grass, Ninth Princess, why did you not pursue Blue Silver control? Why study these sinister methods of absorbing life force instead?

Is that not rather evil?

Shouldn't the heart of the Blue Silver Martial Soul be absolute control?"

Ye Qingqiu laughed softly.

"Blue Silver Grass is like a weed. It grows in the wilderness, on barren plains, and on snowy mountains. No matter how harsh the conditions, it grows with stubborn tenacity.

From the moment it sprouts, it puts down roots in the earth, draws in life, and nurtures all things. What is the defining trait of Blue Silver Grass?"

"Its tenacious vitality!"

"Boundless life force is Blue Silver Grass's greatest strength. As for those control methods you mentioned, aren't they merely abilities Blue Silver Grass gains naturally as it grows?"

"Where does this talk of absolute control come from? Or do you think one lousy stalk of Blue Silver Grass can control better than Martial Souls that specialize in it?"

Hearing his little sister run her mouth, Ye Gucheng hurriedly muttered under his breath to smooth things over:

"Ancestor, please don't be angry. Little Nine didn't mean it!"

"Blue Silver Grass isn't lousy~"

"I take it back, I take it back~"

But Ye Qingqiu did not stop. She kept going.

"And you called absorbing life force evil?

That's even more laughable. Controlling life force is my ability. If I use it for good, then it is good.

How can Soul Skills and abilities be good or evil in themselves?"