Every Soul Skill Was Straight Out of Hell, Not One Normal! (Two chapters in one)

Ye Zhiqiu stood behind a jutting rock halfway up the mountain. Gravity Wave spread out silently, clearly revealing every fluctuation of Soul Power, tremor in the ground, and concentration of heat within several hundred meters.

The Fire Meteors were still raining down. He turned to glance at Dong Qianqiu and Lan Mengqin, who were hiding behind another rock beside him. Both had withdrawn their Martial Souls. This was not the time to act.

"How many teams are left?" Dong Qianqiu asked quietly.

Ye Zhiqiu closed his eyes and swept the entire area with Gravity Wave.

"Five, including us," he said, opening his eyes.

Lan Mengqin frowned at that. "There were ten just a moment ago. We're down to five already?"

"The Earthfire Red Dragon's Fire Meteors cover too much ground. Teams without powerful control or defense specialists simply can't withstand them," Ye Zhiqiu said.

He paused, then continued, "But the remaining five teams should have their places secured. Anyone who's survived this far won't have a low Preliminary Selection score."

At this point, he no longer had any intention of going out to rescue people.

He got along well with the other students in Class One. They chatted and laughed during lessons and training, but that was as far as it went.

He was not their babysitter. He had given them the warnings they needed and shown them the way. Anyone who had survived this far had done so through their own ability.

What happened next was up to their own fate.

Dong Qianqiu glanced at him without saying anything. She understood Ye Zhiqiu. He would never refuse to help when he should, but he would not shoulder responsibilities that were not his.

"Anyone who's survived until now should basically be safe. The Preliminary Selection judges survival time and kill scores. They just need to keep lying low," Ye Zhiqiu said.

Nearly another ten minutes passed before a mountain-shaking boom suddenly erupted from the distant cliff.

Over by the cliff, another Earthfire Red Dragon smashed straight through the ridge. An enormous breach burst open, sending rocks and dust flying dozens of meters, before a massive head thrust through the opening.

That Earthfire Red Dragon crossed the ridge outright, clambering over from the valley on the other side.

There had originally been only one Earthfire Red Dragon in this valley. Now there were two.

The sight of two Earthfire Red Dragons appearing in the same valley made every fleeing Class One student instinctively pause for a moment.

Ye Zhiqiu's mind worked a step faster than everyone else's.

Just as the Earthfire Red Dragon crossed the ridge, a layer of golden light suddenly swept across the entire valley floor.

That glow spread from west to east and south to north like an enormous scanning line, covering the whole valley in an instant.

The Preliminary Selection Examination entered its second stage.

The instant the golden glow vanished, both Earthfire Red Dragons changed their behavior.

They no longer lingered along opposite sides of the valley. Instead, both broke into a charge toward the human Soul Masters in its center.

They no longer guarded separate territories, either. They now shared a single objective: attack all humans first, regardless of who they were.

One Earthfire Red Dragon charged southeast, where three student teams were gathered. The other charged toward Ye Zhiqiu and his companions.

Two enormous fireballs, one high and one low, shot simultaneously from the two Earthfire Red Dragons' mouths.

The upper fireball hurtled toward the three teams to the southeast, while the lower one flew straight at Ye Zhiqiu's trio.

Ye Zhiqiu raised his left hand slightly. Absolute Gravity locked precisely onto the lower fireball, forcing it downward in midair until it struck the ground roughly ten meters from the three of them.

The explosion sent a wave of heat rushing into his face, blowing the loose hair over his forehead backward.

The three teams to the southeast were not so fortunate.

Although they avoided the upper fireball's direct impact, its blast covered far too wide an area. One team's three members were hurled away by the shock wave, slammed into the cliff, and dissolved into three streaks of white light.

The other two teams avoided direct hits, but they were forced to retreat toward the valley's edge, their formations completely shattered.

Without control or defense specialists to fall back on, their room to dodge shrank little by little under the Earthfire Red Dragon's relentless ranged bombardment, until they were finally driven into a dead end.

When a fireball landed at their feet, six streaks of white light rose almost simultaneously.

With that, all of Class One except Ye Zhiqiu, Dong Qianqiu, and Lan Mengqin had been wiped out.

Only the three of them remained in the entire valley.

Both Earthfire Red Dragons fixed their gazes on them at once.

Standing behind the rock, Ye Zhiqiu watched the two behemoths bear down on them together, then turned to glance at Dong Qianqiu and Lan Mengqin.

"We can't hide anymore. Let's fight."

Dong Qianqiu drew the Ice Spear from behind her back. Its tip flicked, spreading white frost through the air.

Lan Mengqin took two steps forward and stood to Ye Zhiqiu's left. She gently raised her right hand, and four purple Soul Rings rose simultaneously beneath her feet. Ice-blue mist surged from her body, gathering into a slender humanoid apparition behind her.

The Heavenly Snow Woman.

The apparition wore a long ice-blue dress. Her face was indistinct, but the temperature around her made the air itself warp slightly.

Every contour of her form was condensed from pure freezing power. As she stood there, the surrounding temperature plummeted, and a thin layer of frost rapidly coated the loose stones on the ground.

Lan Mengqin rarely used the Jade Phoenix Zither because the sound she produced with it was genuinely awful. Even she did not particularly want to face it.

The Heavenly Snow Woman was her true combat form.

"I'll hold off the one on the left. You two handle the one on the right," Ye Zhiqiu said.

Dong Qianqiu and Lan Mengqin both nodded without objection.

Seeing that, Ye Zhiqiu hesitated no longer. He stepped forward with his left foot and charged out from behind the rock.

A silver-gray orb appeared in his left palm, the miniature galaxy within it spinning faster as a purple Soul Ring lit up.

Absolute Gravity.

He pressed his left hand down. A section of ground roughly thirty meters ahead suddenly sank. The charging Earthfire Red Dragon planted its foreleg in that area, and its entire leg plunged down. Its enormous body lurched, nearly crashing to the ground.

The Earthfire Red Dragon roared in fury and swept its enormous tail toward him. Ye Zhiqiu leaped sideways, avoiding the bone spikes at its tip. He touched a toe to the cliff and pushed off, flipping his right hand as the Absolute Blade appeared.

His second Soul Ring lit up. Absolute Slash!

The blade traced a faint white arc through the air. It was still more than ten meters from the Earthfire Red Dragon's neck, yet the instant it fell, a bone-deep wound appeared out of nowhere through the scales along the dragon's neck. Dark red blood gushed out, sizzling as it splashed onto the rocks.

The Earthfire Red Dragon roared in pain, shaking the entire valley. But it reacted far faster than the armored dragon he had faced before. It jerked its head around, spewing a pillar of fire much thicker than its previous attack and sweeping it toward him.

Ye Zhiqiu raised his left hand again. Absolute Gravity forcibly pressed the pillar of fire several meters downward. It swept overhead, its heat making his clothes curl slightly.

But he had no intention of dragging this out.

He needed to buy Dong Qianqiu and Lan Mengqin time, and he also needed to finish his own dragon as quickly as possible before going to help them.

With a push of his toes, he shot forward again, skimming close to the ground with the Absolute Blade held diagonally at his side.

The Earthfire Red Dragon turned its head and opened its mouth. A molten core lit up deep in its throat as it prepared to unleash a second pillar of fire.

But the instant it opened its mouth, Ye Zhiqiu's third Soul Ring lit up.

A purple Soul Ring rose beneath his feet, its radiance swirling.

Third Soul Skill, Boundary Severance!

Ye Zhiqiu swept the Absolute Blade upward, leaving an extremely fine silver trail in the air.

The silver trail did not disperse. It hung in midair like a wound in space itself, several branches spreading outward from it.

Then the trail burst open. Space within roughly ten meters instantly fell into chaos. The Earthfire Red Dragon's newly opened mouth suddenly froze, and in that instant, the molten core deep in its throat lost its connection to its body.

The pillar of fire jammed in its throat, unable to erupt. The molten core churned uselessly inside its body, heat accumulating in its chest without an outlet.

The Earthfire Red Dragon let out an exceptionally muffled roar. Its chest swelled, and dark red light seeped through beneath its scales.

The disruption lasted less than two seconds.

But two seconds were enough. Ye Zhiqiu had already reached its side, the Absolute Blade raised high.

His first Soul Ring lit up at the same time. Concept Severance.

The blade sliced across the bleeding wound along its neck. The Earthfire Red Dragon's body stiffened in an instant. Its Soul Power defenses vanished, leaving the muscles beneath its scales completely stripped of their protection!

Then Ye Zhiqiu turned his blade, aimed its tip at the wound along its neck, and thrust it straight in.

The Absolute Blade's sharpness needed little explanation. It cut through scales, pierced muscle, and reached bone with almost no resistance.

The Earthfire Red Dragon let out a defiant, agonized howl. Its enormous body began to tilt, its limbs convulsed, and then it crashed to the ground.

Dead!

Ye Zhiqiu landed, drew a breath, and turned toward Dong Qianqiu and Lan Mengqin.

The battle against the other Earthfire Red Dragon was going somewhat better than he had expected.

Dong Qianqiu's Ice Spear had already pierced the joint of that Earthfire Red Dragon's right foreleg. Freezing power seeped through the wound, freezing the surrounding flesh and meridians.

The Earthfire Red Dragon's movements had slowed as a result. It could barely lift that leg, severely hampering its mobility.

Meanwhile, Lan Mengqin's Heavenly Snow Woman stood in the center of the battlefield, both hands extended as ice-blue mist roiled around her.

Dong Qianqiu and Lan Mengqin worked together seamlessly. Dong Qianqiu handled close-range restraint and breaking its defenses, while Lan Mengqin's Heavenly Snow Woman provided ranged attacks and control.

Dong Qianqiu's ice element had coated the loose stones and dirt in white frost. Lan Mengqin had frozen the ground beneath the Earthfire Red Dragon into a thick sheet of ice, making it slip with every movement and struggle to keep its balance.

Then Lan Mengqin raised her right hand, and her second Soul Ring lit up.

A row of Ice Cones condensed out of thin air above the ground before her. There were a dozen or so, each half a person's height, their points gleaming coldly.

She thrust her right hand forward, and the row of Ice Cones shot out together toward the Earthfire Red Dragon's flank.

A rapid series of metallic clinks rang out as the Ice Cones struck its scales. Most shattered on contact. The Earthfire Red Dragon's defenses were simply too powerful; thousand-year-level Ice Cones could hardly achieve any meaningful penetration.

But several Ice Cones found the wounds Dong Qianqiu had made earlier with her Ice Spear and drove into them, drawing another agonized roar from the Earthfire Red Dragon.

Ye Zhiqiu could see that Dong Qianqiu and Lan Mengqin's combined assault had already left this Earthfire Red Dragon teetering on the brink, but it still needed one final push.

He took a deep breath and raised his left hand.

Gravity Anchor.

He locked onto the ground beneath the Earthfire Red Dragon that Lan Mengqin had frozen, leaving an invisible Gravity Anchor below the ice.

Then he tightened his right hand around the Absolute Blade, stamped down, and charged forward again.

The Earthfire Red Dragon seemed to sense the danger, but it was in terrible shape. Dong Qianqiu's Ice Spear had frozen its right foreleg, Ice Cones had pierced its left hind leg, and the ice beneath its feet kept making it slip.

Ye Zhiqiu reached its front, holding the Absolute Blade horizontally before him.

His fourth Soul Ring lit up.

Ye Zhiqiu's fourth Soul Skill was an ability he rarely used.

Fourth Soul Skill, Realm Descent!

He thrust the blade forward, not at the Earthfire Red Dragon's body, but into the space before it.

An extremely fine crack appeared in that space where the blade struck. It spread outward, expanding in less than half a second into a web of fractures roughly five meters square.

The web of fractures hung before the Earthfire Red Dragon, then tilted toward it as a whole.

The fractures touched the Earthfire Red Dragon's chest.

Then a hole appeared in its chest. The spatial fractures had carved a chunk out of it. Scales, flesh, and bone vanished in the same instant. Only the blood hung briefly in the air before gushing out.

The Earthfire Red Dragon let out one final roar. Its enormous body began collapsing around the hole in its chest. Its limbs gave way, and it crashed to the ground, sending loose stones flying.

Ye Zhiqiu landed, dismissed the Absolute Blade, and let out a breath.

Lan Mengqin looked up at the two Earthfire Red Dragon corpses, then turned to Ye Zhiqiu. "What was that move just now? You carved a hole in its chest."

"My fourth Soul Skill. It's called Realm Descent," Ye Zhiqiu said. He walked over to Lan Mengqin and continued, "It creates a spatial folding field in front of the target. It's a little different from Concept Severance and Absolute Slash. This move acts directly on space itself. Put simply, it makes that patch of space temporarily cease to exist."

"And whatever's inside that patch of space ceases to exist along with it?"

"More or less."

Lan Mengqin fell silent for a moment, then said, "Exactly how many of your Soul Skills are normal?"

"Not a single one."

Lan Mengqin rolled her eyes and said nothing more.

Dong Qianqiu walked over from the side, looked at the two Earthfire Red Dragon corpses, then looked at Ye Zhiqiu, hesitating to speak.

"What is it?" Ye Zhiqiu asked.

"Nothing." Dong Qianqiu turned her face away, then said, "I just thought that move you used was pretty cool."

"Thanks for the compliment."

"I wasn't complimenting you."

"I know. Everything you say sounds like a compliment to me."