Chen Zhuo had never imagined that his desperate measure would draw these three heavyweights to him.
Xie Yue, Hu Liena, and Yan.
The prodigies hailed as the Spirit Hall Golden Generation!
Now, after the midday classes ended, they had cornered him at the academy gates.
A crowd of onlookers immediately gathered around them, eager for a spectacle and never afraid of making trouble bigger.
"Little brother, are you the one my teacher specifically summoned a few days ago?"
"You don't look all that special."
Hu Liena looked Chen Zhuo up and down, lively and adorable.
The future Holy Maiden of Spirit Hall flicked her chestnut hair and winked at Chen Zhuo.
Without so much as a greeting, she activated her charm ability.
In the soul master world, this could only be called "having no martial honor."
After all, who wouldn't want to stand red-faced and fired up in the arena and shout, "Brothers, unleash your martial souls!"
"Senior, I advise you not to do that."
Her Fox Charm eyes, already veiled in a pink glow, met Chen Zhuo's Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils head-on.
Those emerald eyes easily brought spring to mind.
Rippling water, tender new buds on willow branches-that was the color of life.
But once you tried stepping into that vibrant world, you would discover something.
That was a fucking green pit viper!
Within the spiritual consciousness space, a demonic fox wreathed in flames raised her head toward the sky.
She discovered that the enormous creature before her, with a human face and a serpent's body, was also looking down at her.
Hu Liena shuddered.
Her nose suddenly felt warm, and blood began flowing out.
"Bastard! What did you do to my sister?"
Xie Yue, who had been putting on a cool, aloof act nearby, immediately lost his composure when he saw his sister hurt.
A strangely shaped Moon Blade appeared in his hand, and three soul rings spread out: yellow, yellow, and purple.
"First Soul Skill, Slash!"
Xie Yue activated his first soul skill. The Moon Blade in his hand blazed with light, moving with his steps as he slashed at Chen Zhuo.
Chen Zhuo sidestepped two slashes and yelled, "Holy shit! You're serious?"
For low-level soul masters, weapon martial souls and beast martial souls were downright unfair.
The former effectively came with a built-in weapon, while the latter allowed direct beast-soul possession, instantly raising the body's defense and agility to another level.
He had no weapon in his hands. Only an idiot would take those blows head-on instead of dodging.
Seeing that Xie Yue had no intention of stopping, he acted.
With a thought from Chen Zhuo, the Transforming Serpent's external soul bone appeared in his hand from the Main God Space.
He had named this Tang Hengdao "Water Severer."
In his previous life, he had primarily trained in spear arts and fist arts, never systematically studying saber techniques.
He only knew one or two ring-pommel saber moves: "chop" and "thrust."
Yet even so, he still handled Xie Yue with ease.
Now he finally understood why the techniques and hidden weapons of a third-rate sect from another world, the bottom of the bottom of the barrel, could run rampant through this world.
Apparently, aside from hunting soul beasts and acquiring soul skills, the cultivators of this plane never bothered studying anything else.
"Second Soul Skill, Command!"
Unable to defeat Chen Zhuo in close combat, Xie Yue began to lose face.
He unleashed his second soul skill, sending the Moon Blade out of his hand to cleave straight at Chen Zhuo like a flying sword.
When the strike missed, the Moon Blade hummed and turned back to attack Chen Zhuo again.
Yan watched nervously from the sidelines.
Of course, he wasn't worried about Xie Yue. He was afraid Xie Yue might actually injure Chen Zhuo.
He stood ready to intervene at any moment and intercept the Moon Blade.
Clang!
Chen Zhuo swung his saber and knocked the flying Moon Blade away once again.
Then, right before all three of them, he put Water Severer back into his Storage Ring.
What's that supposed to mean? To Xie Yue, did Chen Zhuo's action mean he was about to surrender?
He was just about to ease off.
Suddenly, his vision blurred. The entire world turned hazy, and waves of dull pain throbbed through his forehead.
"Urgh-"
His Moon Blade martial soul dissipated, and Xie Yue bent over, unable to stop vomiting.
"What's going on? Has he been poisoned?"
Not only was Xie Yue shaken to his core, but the surrounding spectators also erupted into heated discussion.
"I'll do it!"
Yan stepped in, completing his beast martial soul possession within a few breaths.
As soul power surged out around him, the surrounding environment began to transform as well.
"Whoa! Get back!"
"It's the ancient, top-tier fire martial soul, the Flame Lord!"
An upper-year student cried out in alarm, identifying Yan's martial soul.
In terms of martial soul quality alone, Yan's Flame Lord, which possessed both fire and earth elements, ranked highest among the Golden Generation trio.
The blue stone bricks shattered, the ground collapsed, and magma formed from soul power gushed out.
Among the retreating crowd, some were frightened and uneasy, while others wore starry-eyed fangirl expressions, practically drooling.
"Senior Yan is so handsome!"
"Daddy!"
It couldn't be helped.
Yan was exceptionally tall and powerfully built, his body packed with muscles and masculine vigor.
Anyone who liked that type would practically fall captive to him the moment they met him.
"First Soul Skill, Hell Magma Charge!"
Yan stared at Chen Zhuo, guessing that his soul skill required a considerable amount of time between activation and taking effect.
Then he would defeat him as quickly as possible.
Most of his own soul skills were area-of-effect attacks.
That should be enough to leave his opponent scrambling.
What surprised Yan was that, against the siblings Xie Yue and Hu Liena, Chen Zhuo had always waited to counterattack.
Now, he actually changed tactics and attacked him first.
Yan thought nothing of it. When it came to close-quarters brawling, he had never feared anyone.
Bang!
Their fists collided. Yan remained unmoved, while Chen Zhuo was sent flying.
"Hey! Take my Second Soul Skill, Granite Rock!"
Yan predicted where Chen Zhuo would land and turned earth into stone, intending to trap his feet among the obstacles.
Unexpectedly, Chen Zhuo forcibly twisted his body as he landed, changing his trajectory with a movement almost impossible for a human body.
His First-Order Genetic Warrior physique exerted its power fiercely.
Chen Zhuo planted his right foot on a protruding rock and used it to propel himself toward Yan again.
His steps were swift as the wind, weaving and darting through the complex terrain like a serpent.
Every strike targeted a vital point, his moves brutally fierce and vicious.
"Uh..."
Yan was rather speechless. Why did this junior keep using groin-striking palm attacks against him?
This isn't right, is it?
Once Chen Zhuo closed in, every move stayed aimed at the vulnerable spot between his legs.
A greedy little kitty, aren't you?
Chen Zhuo didn't want to fight this way either.
But he had no choice.
He only had this one soul skill, and he couldn't use its full power.
Besides that, in his previous life, he had mainly practiced the Five-Element Fist and the Twelve Animal Forms.
But among the Twelve Animal Forms, only his Snake Form had reached minor mastery.
If he didn't use the Snake Form's rising strikes, what else could he use?
For rapid attacks at close range, Chicken Form was the most suitable.
He simply hadn't had enough time to obtain a chicken-type soul beast or exotic beast.
Otherwise, after drinking one vial of Fowl Mutagen...
His Chicken Form fist art would advance straight from beginner level to minor mastery, saving him years of work.
Yan admitted that he was having trouble holding him off.
If Chen Zhuo really pulled off a "monkey stealing peaches," how could he preserve his dignity as a big brother at the academy?
Those rotten friends of his would bring it up for at least three years.
"Junior, you win."
Yan voluntarily stopped. The Flame Lord withdrew into his body, and the elemental phenomena around them immediately dispersed.
The pits and gouges covering the ground, as though hacked by axes and sabers, all revealed how fierce the battle had been.
"What do you mean, win or lose?"
"You seniors were all going easy on me."
Chen Zhuo's words were half tactful politeness and half the truth.
The Golden Generation trio had all held back while fighting him, never using even one of their thousand-year soul skills.
"Haha, you're pretty interesting."
"I don't dislike you so much now."
Yan laughed. To him, Chen Zhuo's fighting style just now had been thoroughly unmanly, which had displeased him.
But he did appreciate that neither-arrogant-nor-impatient temperament.
"Little brother, can you tell your big sister what that soul skill of yours is?" Hu Liena walked over, pinching her nose.
Xie Yue had finally stopped vomiting too, though his complexion still wasn't good.
"Soul skills are private matters, but I don't mind telling you seniors."
Chen Zhuo still couldn't understand why people in this world liked announcing their own details so much.
Whenever they met someone, they either announced their martial soul or their soul skills.
Perhaps this was a peculiarity of the Douluo Plane.
Utterly brain-dead.
If this happened in the cultivation world, and someone knew the details of your cultivation methods and divine abilities, guess what would happen the next time you met?
They would counter you until you were dead!
"My first soul skill is called Man-Faced Calamity."
"You've already experienced its effects."
"It can make blood flow backward."
What Chen Zhuo didn't say was that the essence of this soul skill was still the Transforming Serpent's ability to "control water."
How could the effects of a soul skill so close to the hundred-thousand-year level be limited to giving enemies nosebleeds, dizziness, and vomiting?
If Chen Zhuo wished, he could cross several major realms and instantly kill this so-called Golden Generation trio upon meeting them.
Forcing blood to flow backward into the head caused blood pressure to rise.
If he increased the force just a little, the skull and tissues of anyone caught in the gaze of his Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils would be unable to withstand the pressure.
The result would be...
Bang-their head would burst like a flower!
As Chen Zhuo grew stronger and his spiritual power increased, Man-Faced Calamity would only become more outrageous.
Besides bursting heads, it could also cause internal bleeding.
It could damage internal organs without leaving any visible wounds, killing without a trace.
It could be said that his first soul skill rivaled a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Skill in both growth potential and killing power!
Before you continue