Young man, don't move

"Take a guess."

At those words, Bing Tianliang's gaze instantly turned cold!

"Not talking, huh? Then I'll beat you until you do." Bing Tianliang turned his right hand over, and the lightning sphere in his palm suddenly swelled, purple electricity crackling between his fingers.

The four Sky-Rending Academy students behind him advanced together, their formation tighter than before.

Ye Zhiqiu tilted his head to glance at Liu Feng, who was hugging the distant tree shadows, and raised his chin slightly.

Liu Feng froze for a moment, then understood his meaning. Keeping to the shadows, he circled half a step to the side, holding the White Dragon Spear across his body as he waited for an opening.

Ye Zhiqiu withdrew his gaze and stepped half a pace forward with his right foot.

At the same time, three purple soul rings and one black soul ring rose from beneath his feet in succession.

Purple, purple, purple, black!

The four soul rings hovered behind him, slowly revolving. That black Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring was especially striking in the forest's dim light.

Even the air seemed to freeze for an instant.

Bing Tianliang stared at the black soul ring, his pupils contracting sharply.

Four rings.

And his fourth ring was a ten-thousand-year one!

He instinctively glanced down at the four purple soul rings beneath his own feet. Purple all the way through, without a single black ring.

His fourth soul ring was a top-tier thousand-year ring. He had always believed that was already the pinnacle for anyone his age.

Yet the boy before him had a ten-thousand-year fourth soul ring.

What did that mean?

It meant that when this person absorbed his fourth soul ring, his capacity to withstand soul power had already far surpassed the limits of his peers.

Bing Tianliang's mind raced, and then his expression darkened.

"You aren't a candidate from Tianluo Star." His voice was even colder than before, his tone certain as he continued, "I've read the profiles of every seeded candidate on Tianluo Star. There's no one like you."

Ye Zhiqiu smiled and spun the Absolute Blade in his palm.

"You guessed right. I'm not from Tianluo Star. I was summoned here, so you could say I'm a helper they brought in."

"An interstellar summoning?" Behind Bing Tianliang, the tall Yu Tian couldn't help speaking up. He held his four-meter-long Mo Dao across his body, its blade gleaming coldly. His gaze carried obvious skepticism as he looked at Ye Zhiqiu.

Who the hell was badass enough to pull off an interstellar summoning?!

Ye Zhiqiu tilted his head to glance at Yu Tian, his gaze lingering on the Mo Dao for an instant.

Twelve years old, one hundred seventy centimeters tall, powerfully built. His martial soul was a Mo Dao, and he was a pure offense-type Battle Soul Master.

But Ye Zhiqiu didn't answer Yu Tian. Instead, he looked at Bing Tianliang and said, "Are you going to fight or not? Or are you just going to stand there chatting?"

Bing Tianliang's expression chilled for an instant, and then all four purple soul rings around him lit up together.

His second soul ring blazed with light, and his entire body lengthened, his height swelling from one hundred sixty centimeters to roughly two meters. A layer of pale purple light covered him, his silhouette twisting slightly as though wreathed in electrical arcs.

His first soul ring lit up immediately afterward.

Bing Tianliang turned into a streak of purple lightning and charged straight at Ye Zhiqiu.

He was extremely fast, more than a whole tier faster than the older student Ye Zhiqiu had encountered at school.

But that was all.

Ye Zhiqiu narrowed his eyes slightly, holding the Absolute Blade across his body in his right hand.

Bing Tianliang rushed within reach and clawed toward Ye Zhiqiu's chest with his right hand, purple electricity crackling around it.

Ye Zhiqiu turned aside to evade him. At the same time, the Absolute Blade cut in from the side, its edge heading straight for Bing Tianliang's outstretched right arm.

Bing Tianliang's reaction was swift as well. He flipped his left hand over, and a purple lightning sphere exploded in his palm, sending a shock wave spreading outward.

The shock wave pushed Ye Zhiqiu half a step back, shifting his blade a few inches off course. It skimmed past the outside of Bing Tianliang's arm, only slicing a slit in his sleeve.

But the slash also forced Bing Tianliang back a step, leaving a faint white mark on his arm.

He glanced down at the white mark, then at the Absolute Blade in Ye Zhiqiu's hand, his expression growing grave.

That slash had cut through his protective soul power.

There had been no sound, no warning. Just one slash, and his defense was broken.

"That blade of yours..." Before Bing Tianliang could finish, Ye Zhiqiu had already pressed forward again.

This time, Ye Zhiqiu gave him no time to react. The Absolute Blade delivered three consecutive slashes, each aimed at Bing Tianliang's joints and vital points.

Bing Tianliang retreated two steps, twisting his body to evade. Purple electricity surged across his skin, neutralizing some of the slashes' force, but the rest still left several shallow wounds on him.

"Yu Tian! Lin Donghui! Attack together!" Bing Tianliang roared.

The Mo Dao and Blazing Sun moved at the same time.

Yu Tian charged first, raising his four-meter-long Mo Dao as his first soul ring flared. The air around Ye Zhiqiu's feet suddenly grew thick and heavy, as though something were squeezing it from both sides.

The blade cleaved downward with unstoppable momentum.

Ye Zhiqiu raised his left hand.

A silver-gray sphere of light appeared, and his first soul ring lit up.

Absolute Gravity.

Gravity beneath Yu Tian's feet suddenly intensified. His body sank under the pressure, and the descending Mo Dao veered a few inches off course, sliding past Ye Zhiqiu's side and hacking into the ground, throwing up a great spray of dirt.

Ye Zhiqiu seized the momentum, planting a foot on the flat of the Mo Dao and springing upward. He turned in midair and slashed the Absolute Blade toward Yu Tian's shoulder.

At the same time, Lin Donghui's Blazing Sun martial soul had finished charging.

A golden-red fireball shot from the sphere of light above his head, tracing an arc through the air straight toward Ye Zhiqiu's back.

Ye Zhiqiu didn't turn around.

He flipped his left hand over, and the silver-gray sphere flashed.

Absolute Traction.

The fireball abruptly changed direction in midair, forcibly dragged sideways by an invisible force. It skimmed past Ye Zhiqiu's shoulder, struck a distant tree, and exploded with a thunderous boom.

The trunk was blasted apart, and the crown toppled, raising a cloud of dust.

Yu Tian took advantage of that brief opening to retreat a step, holding his Mo Dao across his body as he panted heavily.

Lin Donghui's expression changed as well. His fireball had clearly been aimed at Ye Zhiqiu's back, so why had it suddenly veered off course?

"A control type?" Bing Tianliang stared at the silver-gray sphere in Ye Zhiqiu's left hand, his expression growing darker.

He had realized that Ye Zhiqiu wasn't using just one martial soul.

The white blade in his right hand was an offense-type tool martial soul, while the sphere in his left hand possessed control-type abilities.

Twin martial souls!

The thought flashed through Bing Tianliang's mind, making him even more certain of his judgment. This boy definitely wasn't from Tianluo Star. He had gone through the profiles of every seeded candidate there. Aside from Lan Xuanyu, who had already been defeated, not one of them had twin martial souls.

"Take out his left hand first!" Bing Tianliang shouted, leading the charge himself.

He was even faster than before. Purple electricity surged around him as his entire body became a twisting streak of lightning, aimed directly at Ye Zhiqiu's left hand.

Yu Tian pressed in from the side, sweeping his Mo Dao horizontally.

From a distance, Lin Donghui fired a steady stream of fireballs, restricting Ye Zhiqiu's room to maneuver.

An attack from three sides.

Ye Zhiqiu stood in the middle, the Absolute Blade hovering quietly beside his right palm.

Just as Bing Tianliang reached him, he thrust his left hand forward, and the silver-gray sphere suddenly blazed with light.

His second soul ring flared. Gravity Anchor.

He left an invisible anchor on Bing Tianliang's chest, then activated it immediately.

At the very instant Bing Tianliang reached Ye Zhiqiu, something seemed to wrench his body backward. His forward momentum abruptly stalled, and his entire body was dragged back a step.

Bing Tianliang froze for a moment. He was clearly charging forward, so why was his body retreating?

In that half second of distraction, Ye Zhiqiu's Absolute Blade had already arrived.

His first soul ring lit up. Concept Severance.

The blade sliced through the space beside Bing Tianliang. It didn't cut at his body, merely passing through a patch of air.

Bing Tianliang's body went rigid in an instant.

He felt the soul power within him vanish completely in a single instant, as though it had never existed.

The sensation made his scalp prickle. Soul power was the foundation of a Soul Master. Without it, he couldn't even maintain his Lightning God Demon Puppet form, and his two-meter-tall body shrank back to one hundred sixty centimeters in that instant.

And just then, Ye Zhiqiu's blade was already resting against his neck.

"Young man, don't move."