Boom! Boom! Boom!
Several powerful auras descended with a thunderous crash as three figures shot out of the village like lightning. They were Zhao Wuji, Lu Qibin, and Shao Xin, drawn over by the commotion.
When they saw the scene before them, all three faces changed completely.
Dai Mubai lay unconscious in a muddy pit, his lower body a mangled mess of flesh and blood, his fate unknown.
Li Yusong was in even worse shape, pinned in midair by four invisible long spindles, blood streaming down his entire body!
"Mubai! Teacher Li!"
Zhao Wuji's already ferocious square face instantly darkened like ink. Always hot-tempered, he felt the fury in his chest burst through the defenses of his reason!
"You bastard! You dare destroy Shrek's foundations? I'll tear you apart alive!"
Roar-!
A deafening, savage beast roar shook the heavens!
An intense earthen-yellow radiance soared from Zhao Wuji's body. His figure abruptly swelled and shot upward, mighty muscles bulging inch by inch like the tangled roots of an ancient tree. He transformed into a brutal giant bear that radiated an endlessly heavy, oppressive presence!
His martial soul, the great strength vajra bear!
As his martial soul fully possessed him, yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black!
Seven dazzling soul rings spiraled up from beneath his feet. The mountain-heavy pressure of a Soul Saint surged like furious waves shattering a shore, stripping away an entire layer of earth for dozens of meters around him!
The distant crowd of applicants erupted, cries of alarm rising everywhere:
"Seven... seven soul rings?!"
"He's actually a Soul Saint above rank seventy?!"
At the very back of the crowd, purple light flashed in Tang San's eyes the instant he saw those seven soul rings. Grabbing Xiao Wu's wrist, he swiftly retreated several yards and disappeared behind the others.
Watching the tall, mysterious young man with loose white hair ahead of him, Tang San knitted his brows. The Mysterious Heaven Skill quietly circulated through his body, and apprehension stirred within him:
He gravely injured Dai Mubai and Li Yusong through bizarre methods alone, and now he's grown this arrogant... in the path of soul masters, soul rings and ranks are chasms that cannot be crossed.
A Seven-Ring Soul Sage has arrived in person, his might towering to the heavens. Even if this man has some strange, unfathomable self-created soul skills... he's finally kicked a true iron plate.
Just as Tang San sneered inwardly, certain that this white-haired young man would pay for his recklessness, the situation overturned everyone's understanding in an instant.
Zhao Wuji, charging in with murderous aggression, had not even had time to look triumphant before his body abruptly froze in midair.
Several piercing grunts and screams erupted at once!
An Jing stood unmoving, his expression indifferent. He had not shifted so much as half a step; he merely raised his right hand carelessly and curled it slightly toward empty space.
Hum-!
The air between heaven and earth collapsed with a thunderous surge!
Zhao Wuji, along with Lu Qibin and Shao Xin close behind him, felt as though the space around them had been filled with countless tons of raw iron. Crushing pressure, like Mount Tai bearing down upon them, instantly severed their resonance with their martial souls.
Their massive, powerful bodies hung rigid in the air beyond their control. Then,
Twelve transparent spikes condensed from pure, high-pressure air materialized out of nowhere. They tore through the air and, with a series of dull puncturing sounds, ruthlessly pierced all four limbs of the three powerful men, nailing them fast in midair!
Blood dripped from their dangling toes.
Zhao Wuji, the Immovable Wisdom King, and two Six-Ring Soul Emperors had been reduced to fish on a chopping block in an instant, without even earning the chance to attack!
"Gasp-!"
Sharp intakes of breath rose throughout the crowd. The youths and parents who had come to register were frightened bloodless, their breathing all but stopping.
A Seven-Ring Soul Sage defeated in an instant?!
What world-shaking strength and cultivation could possibly accomplish such a feat?!
Yet An Jing did not spare those three even another half-second's glance.
In his eyes, these clay chickens and pottery dogs had never been the true targets. The heart of today's grand spectacle had been elsewhere from the very beginning.
His gaze passed over the stunned crowd and slowly turned toward the darkest, most inconspicuous corner of the village entrance.
In that corner, every hair on Tang San's body stood on end. An unprecedented sense of mortal danger shot from the soles of his feet straight to the crown of his head!
Sensing that cold, penetrating gaze sweep toward him, Tang San instinctively stepped sideways, firmly shielding Xiao Wu behind his slender body.
"Hide? Where do you think you can hide from me?"
A mocking smile curled An Jing's lips, and his five fingers abruptly closed together.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Teeth-grating bursts of crushing pressure sounded in empty space!
In one ten-millionth of a second, the air within three feet of Tang San and Xiao Wu became an invisible cage, frantically contracting and crushing inward.
Deadly suffocation surged over them like mountains toppling and seas overturning. Xiao Wu's cheeks rapidly turned deathly pale, and she clutched her throat in agony.
Tang San's eyes flooded with blood. Under the extreme pressure, his bones gave brittle cracks as they buckled beneath the burden. The internal energy of his Mysterious Heaven Skill was suppressed almost to a standstill, and the hidden weapon mechanisms in his sleeves never even had a chance to trigger.
Before an absolute chasm in cultivation, every clever trick was no more than an ant or a speck of dust. Neither of them had any room left to struggle!
Am I really going to die like this...?
Dad... and Xiao Wu... The air around him grew ever thinner, until Tang San began seeing his life flash before his eyes.
At the critical instant when their internal organs were about to be completely crushed.
Boom-!!!
A scarlet bolt of lightning abruptly tore open the vault of the heavens!
An enormous, pitch-black iron hammer wreathed in domineering lightning descended from the sky. With savage power that could topple mountains and split the earth, it slammed into the steadily collapsing spatial cage!
With a thunderous crash, a jagged fissure was forcibly smashed through the spatial barrier.
Amid rolling waves of air, a figure clad in a tattered black robe, towering like a demonic god, crashed down from empty space. The ground beneath his feet fractured in spreading layers like a spiderweb!
"A mere Soul Saint brat dares bully my son?!"
Tang Hao's deep, hoarse roar rumbled like thunder from the highest heavens. His savage, chilling killing intent ravaged the world as though it had taken physical form as he looked down upon An Jing.
"Finally willing to crawl out of your mud pit?"
Facing the Clear Sky Douluo whose name shook the continent, An Jing showed no fear. Instead, he looked as though he had expected the man's arrival all along.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Cold, crisp sounds of interlocking metal suddenly rang through empty space. Pieces of dark-gold armor flowing with mysterious runes fitted themselves over his body as smoothly as drifting clouds and flowing water, the pauldrons, breastplate, and armored skirt joining seamlessly,
The Two-Word Battle Armor took shape in an instant, and an overwhelming pressure born of technology and the laws of heaven and earth burst outward, surpassing ordinary soul power!
At the same time, one ring, two rings, three rings... seven dazzling, profound Ten Thousand Year Soul Rings, black enough to make hearts tremble, rose brazenly from beneath his feet!
All black! Seven whole Ten Thousand Year Soul Rings!
"First soul skill, Dust."
An Jing closed his fingers and fiercely clenched his hand toward Tang Hao through the air!
Boom-!
In an instant, all the space and air within a thousand yards of Tang Hao were sucked dry, compressed into particles of ultimate density, then violently detonated!
In Tang Hao's eyes, what came rushing at him was no soul skill or technique,
But an entire inverted sky crashing down with the terrifying weight of countless tons, intent on grinding this god of slaughter into powder and dust!
"A paltry trick! Don't get cocky! Clear Sky Nine Absolutes-Break!"
Tang Hao roared. The Clear Sky Hammer in his hand swept forth with the force to rout a thousand soldiers, its peerlessly domineering raw strength colliding fiercely with the destructive turbulence of compressed space!
Rumble-!
Savage air currents from the shattering space surged wildly around the two of them. Several feet of earth were scraped away across dozens of yards, and smoke and dust blotted out the sun.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
As the furious winds dispersed, Tang Hao, the titled powerhouse who had once defeated Spirit Hall, was actually forced back several steps by that strange, domineering power of annihilation. Each step stamped a deep pit into the scorched earth, while his blood and energy churned uncontrollably!
This brat... is unnervingly strange!
Tang Hao steadied himself and tightened his grip on the hammer's faintly numbing handle, staring in alarm and uncertainty at the white-haired young man clad in battle armor and encircled by black rings.
A Soul Saint so young was unheard of anywhere on the continent.
And that soul ring configuration of seven pure-black, ten-thousand-year rings utterly overturned everything commonly understood about martial souls.
Could this boy have exceedingly rare twin martial souls, just like Little San?!
Over the years, Tang Hao had devoted himself entirely to secretly protecting Tang San as he grew. Living in seclusion, he knew nothing of the recent earthshaking changes in the Soul Master World.
He had no idea that, only a short while ago, this white-haired young man had slain Yu Yuanzhen, a fellow rank ninety-five Super Douluo, on the spot before the people of Heaven Dou City.
"Boy, were you sent by Spirit Hall?"
Tang Hao's voice rumbled low.
Surely only Spirit Hall could nurture a genius like this anywhere on the continent?
If he truly belongs to Spirit Hall, then this boy cannot be allowed to live.
Otherwise, once he grows into his strength, he will surely become Little San's most formidable enemy.
Before you continue