"Come on, man, I don't think I did anything to you, did I?"
Xu Tianyuan put away his smile and looked at Xiao Hongchen, who stood a head shorter than him. The goodwill had vanished from his voice.
"Have I been giving you too much face?"
Xiao Hongchen froze slightly at his words.
His mind went blank for half a second.
He had never expected Xu Tianyuan to dare speak to him like that.
Who was he?
He was an elite of the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy.
He was Jing Hongchen's grandson.
He was a genius standing at the very pinnacle of the Sun Moon Empire.
Yet today, the sixth prince, a good-for-nothing whose reputation spread far and wide, dared provoke him?
"Xu Tianyuan, do you think I can't touch you just because you're the sixth prince?"
Xiao Hongchen had been arrogant since childhood, believing all other geniuses were trash before him. Now that a famously useless fool had provoked him, he simply couldn't stomach it.
To him, this was nothing short of a crushing humiliation.
Boom!
Xiao Hongchen's aura surged. Soul Rings rose beneath his feet, and the phantom of a Three-Legged Golden Toad appeared behind him.
The phantom stood on three legs, its entire body golden. It exuded a heavy, steady aura that made even the surrounding air feel thicker.
Xu Tianyuan, however, didn't panic in the slightest.
It was nighttime, and there was no sun in the sky, but he still had his Martial Soul.
That was more than enough to deal with a Xiao Hongchen who had yet to mature.
Besides, he knew this kid all too well.
In the original story, this fellow had been the mainstay of the Sun Moon Empire's younger generation. His talent was unquestionable, and his Three-Legged Golden Toad Martial Soul was top-tier.
But how old was he now?
Fourteen, apparently, with his cultivation somewhere in the forties, approaching Soul King.
A budding genius fighting a transmigrator with cheats wasn't a battle. It was a lesson.
Xu Tianyuan even felt a little bad for him.
He had finally met an opponent who might be worth watching in the future, only to find that beating him now would be like beating a child.
Oh well.
He would beat him first and worry about the rest later.
Xu Tianyuan asked a very practical question.
"I have just one question."
"If I beat you up right now, will Jing Hongchen expel me?"
Xu Tianyuan cared quite a bit about that.
He had come to the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy precisely because it was safe.
No matter how deranged Xu Tianran was, he wouldn't dare make a move openly inside the academy. Those two guardian gods, Jing Hongchen and Kong Deming, weren't just there for decoration.
If beating up Xiao Hongchen got him expelled, Xu Tianran would probably send someone to kill him at the first opportunity.
That went completely against the Dao of lying low he had followed for sixteen years.
Lying low was all about value for money.
Trading a beating for an expulsion notice would be a disastrous loss.
"Huh?"
Xiao Hongchen was utterly dumbfounded.
He had just worked his fury up to his throat, yet the guy opposite him was asking whether he would be expelled?
What was that supposed to mean?
Then his fury turned into laughter.
"Heh! You actually want to beat me up? You've certainly got a wild imagination!"
Xiao Hongchen's face flushed with anger. "You? A rank twenty-nine Soul Grandmaster?"
Xu Tianyuan rolled his eyes.
"Just tell me whether he will."
Driven mad with anger, Xiao Hongchen made a promise on the spot.
"Fine! We'll have a fair duel. I absolutely won't use my status to pressure you. Even if you really can defeat me, or even beat me up, I won't tell Grandpa!"
That promise was exactly what Xu Tianyuan had wanted.
He nodded in satisfaction, but still felt it wasn't secure enough.
Words alone were no proof.
If Xiao Hongchen went back on his word afterward and ran crying to Jing Hongchen, who could Xu Tianyuan turn to for justice?
He immediately pulled a recording Soul Tool from his pocket, aimed it at Xiao Hongchen, and switched it on.
"Quick, say it again. I'll record it."
At the sight, veins bulged on Xiao Hongchen's forehead.
He had never been treated like this in his life.
Having someone shove a Soul Tool in his face to record him was no different from having his pants pulled down in the middle of the street.
But in the end, he held himself back.
Through gritted teeth, he repeated his promise without leaving out a single word.
Once the recording was done, Xiao Hongchen raised his chin, full of self-importance.
"All right. I won't bully you, either. I'll let you have three moves."
"Come on."
Xiao Hongchen actually had his own calculations.
Giving away three moves sounded generous, but in reality, it was a sure bet.
With his mastery of metal manipulation and endless defensive methods, even if he stood still and let his opponent slash him three times, he might not suffer so much as a scratch.
After those three moves, he would strike, and it would be a one-sided crushing.
Once word spread that Xiao Hongchen had given the useless prince three free moves and still won, wouldn't that sound impressive?
The more he thought about it, the smugger he became.
Xu Tianyuan didn't stand on ceremony at all.
"Oh."
As he answered, a sun appeared behind him.
The golden disk of light hung at his back, slowly rotating and radiating a warm yet weighty aura.
At the same time, an axe appeared in his hand.
It was two meters long, dark gold throughout, with a broad, thick blade and astonishing weight.
Normally, Twin Martial Souls couldn't be used simultaneously.
However, strictly speaking, his Second Martial Soul, Divine Axe Rhitta, was merely a divine weapon bestowed upon him after he bound himself to the Pride Sin Template. It fell outside the conventional Martial Soul system, so that restriction didn't apply.
"Here comes the little flying axe."
The moment Xu Tianyuan finished speaking, his body swelled dramatically.
His bulging muscles burst through his clothes, tearing the fabric of his sleeves, front, and back into strips.
His height shot past two meters. As his whole body rose, his shadow instantly engulfed Xiao Hongchen.
Muscle Mode!
Xiao Hongchen craned his head back, his eyes nearly popping out of their sockets.
"Holy shit!"
He had no time to wonder why Xu Tianyuan had suddenly become like this and immediately put up his defenses.
"Third Soul Skill, Golden Condensation!"
With a wave of his hand, Xiao Hongchen took a large quantity of metal blocks from his Storage Soul Tool.
The blocks tumbled through the air, smelted, stretched, and shaped by his Soul Power. In the blink of an eye, they formed an enormous shield across his front.
The shield was thick and solid, its surface gleaming with a cold, hard metallic sheen.
Bang!
The divine axe cleaved downward.
The instant the axe blade met the shield, Xiao Hongchen felt an irresistible force crash down from above. The webbing between his thumbs and forefingers went numb, and his arms trembled.
The shield didn't even last half a breath.
Crack.
The metal shield split down the middle, breaking into two halves that flew off to either side.
The divine axe continued unchecked, cleaving straight toward Xiao Hongchen's chest.
Xiao Hongchen inwardly cried out in alarm and reacted with lightning speed.
He flung out another batch of metal blocks, then detonated them directly in front of himself.
Boom!
The blast's recoil hurled his body backward, allowing him to evade the axe by the narrowest of margins.
Boom!
The divine axe's edge slammed into the ground.
Its power was astonishing.
Paving tiles flew in every direction, and dust billowed. When the dust cleared, a deep crater remained in the ground, with loose stones still tumbling down its walls.
"How was this possible?!"
Xiao Hongchen stared at the scene, his face deathly pale.
In all his years of cultivation, he had seen plenty of experts in action.
His grandfather Jing Hongchen could collapse half a building with a slap, and the academy's teachers could split the ground when they exerted themselves.
Those people were all Soul Saints, Soul Douluos, or even Titled Douluos.
But this Xu Tianyuan standing before him was clearly only rank twenty-nine!
How could the destruction caused by a single axe strike from a rank twenty-nine Soul Grandmaster look even fiercer than a Soul Saint's?
Before you continue