Within the tribulation clouds, Li Chen watched the four Titled Douluo retreat before turning his gaze deeper into the region.
A faint presence lingered there, elusive and wavering, yet its strength clearly far surpassed that of a Titled Douluo, reaching god level.
Li Chen narrowed his eyes. Powerful though that presence was, it carried an indescribable weakness, as though something had suddenly startled it awake after a long slumber.
Ignoring the lightning tribulation surging around him, Li Chen charged toward the world consciousness. Several tentacles stretched out from the void, only to be blocked by an invisible barrier.
"Outsider, wait." The figure spoke in a childlike voice.
Li Chen stopped, quietly gazing toward the source of the voice through the churning lightning.
He neither attacked nor rushed to speak, mainly because his opponent could not hurt him at present, while he could do nothing to it either.
Since that was the case, he might as well hear what this apparent world consciousness had to say.
"Outsider, your power does not belong to this world. It can forcibly alter the world's rules. I would like to make a deal with you."
"A deal? Let's hear it."
"Help me escape the Divine Realm's control, and I will lift every restriction on your martial soul's abilities."
The world consciousness had actually been secretly observing Li Chen for a long time. It had discovered that every soul skill of this martial soul, which did not belong to the Douluo Continent, operated on the level of rules.
Yet it seemed to have been restricted all along, and those restrictions came from the portion of authority controlled by the Divine Realm.
"If you died, wouldn't there be nothing left that could restrict my martial soul?"
"Outsider, even killing me now would be useless. It would only allow the Divine Realm to take complete control of Douluo Star. When that happens, the gods of the Divine Realm will face no restrictions when they descend."
"Not enough." Li Chen shook his head, dissatisfied with the world consciousness's terms. "Fuse with my martial soul and take the Heavenly Dao's place."
"Outsider, are you certain?"
"Yes."
"Very well. Once you reach level 99, I will come to you."
With those words, the world consciousness vanished, and the tribulation clouds began to disperse.
Li Chen withdrew his martial soul and returned to the little courtyard below. "I've fulfilled my promise to you."
Ye Shutong studied Li Chen for a long while, her gaze complicated. The thunderclouds looming overhead just now had left even her shaken. Resistance truly would have been meaningless.
In the end, she simply nodded and said solemnly, "From this day onward, the Ye family will join Heaven Beyond Heaven."
"The commotion just now was too great. I'll have Liu Liujiao accompany you to the Ye family and help you relocate to Origin. Any objections?"
Liu Liujiao stepped forward and bowed slightly to Ye Shutong. "Family Head Ye, please."
The two left the courtyard one after the other, their footsteps gradually fading along the flagstone path.
Li Chen withdrew his gaze and looked at the remaining three. "Let's go too. We'll head back to the academy first."
Dugu Yan immediately perked up. "Let's go, let's go! I've been wanting to see what your academy looks like for ages."
Ye Lingling said nothing, but she stepped forward to follow them. Dugu Bo brought up the rear with his hands behind his back. He gave a snort, but offered no objection.
They reached the Teleportation Stele behind the courtyard. Li Chen stepped forward, activated it, and selected a destination. White light flashed past, and when solid ground returned beneath their feet, they were already standing in the academy's conference room.
Although Ye Lingling remained silent, she could not hide the shock in her eyes.
"Follow me. Actually, I've been away from the academy for a while too. Let's first find out how things are going here."
Leaving the conference room, he headed straight for the vice principal's office. When he pushed open the door, Zhong Yiheng almost failed to recognize him.
"Principal Zhong, have we selected our team members for this year's Soul Master Tournament?"
Upon hearing Li Chen's voice, Zhong Yiheng finally came to his senses and took out a list. "These are the members chosen through the selection process."
Li Chen took it and glanced over it. They were essentially the top ten students on the academy's level rankings. "Handle their enrollment, then add their names to the main team members."
"Wouldn't that be unfair to those students?"
"This is Dugu Yan, the Poison Douluo's granddaughter. She's currently a level 42 Soul Ancestor." Having introduced her, Li Chen turned to the girl beside her. "Ye Lingling, Nine Heart Begonia martial soul."
After hearing this, Zhong Yiheng immediately handled their enrollment himself and moved one control system member and one support system member on the list to the alternate team members.
"On second thought, gather all the selected team members."
A short while later, Li Chen stood in the academy's Soul Fighting Arena, looking over the selected team members.
Seven students stood in formation. Most were in their twenties; a few more years, and they would no longer be eligible for the Soul Master Tournament.
Li Chen did not beat around the bush. He pointed directly at Dugu Yan and Ye Lingling beside him. "These two are new students. I've familiarized myself with the team selection rules, so in the interest of fairness, they'll follow those same rules to replace one of you each."
"Anyone who loses will also get one chance to challenge someone else..."
After finishing, Li Chen turned to Dugu Yan. "You can choose your opponent now."
She stepped forward and chose the strongest of the seven outright. But one was a Soul Elder and the other a Soul Ancestor. With both a level advantage and martial soul suppression, she defeated her opponent in fewer than three exchanges.
The defeated student sat at the edge of the arena to recover for a while, wiped the corner of his mouth, and stood again.
He said nothing more, sweeping his gaze over the seven people opposite him. After a brief silence, he pointed directly at the fifth-ranked member of the original team. "Number Five, come down and fight me."
The one he called out was a stocky young man standing at the end of the line with his arms folded. At those words, he raised his eyebrows and strode onto the fighting platform without hesitation. "Sure."
The two took their positions on the platform and began fighting without wasting any words.
Number Five was a level 32 power attack system soul master whose martial soul was the Iron-Armed Bear. His approach was to let sheer strength overcome ten kinds of finesse.
Although the challenger had looked thoroughly battered when he lost to Dugu Yan, he now fought with everything he had and managed to trade blows evenly.
However, Number Five's martial soul had something of an advantage over his. After several exchanges, Number Five seized an opening and sent him flying off the platform with a heavy punch.
"What's your name?" Li Chen asked the eliminated student.
The young man had just climbed to his feet. Brushing the dust off himself, he looked up at Li Chen. "Zhou Yang. Power attack system, level 35. My martial soul is the Blue-Steel Sword."
"Fighting shouldn't be limited to clashing head-on. Think carefully about where your advantages lie. Play to your strengths and avoid your weaknesses. No martial soul is absolutely perfect," Li Chen offered a few brief pointers.
Ye Lingling went up next. Since she belonged to the support system, the rules were changed to a contest of support abilities. With her top-tier martial soul, she naturally outperformed the other support system soul master.
"All right. First, congratulations on becoming the first students to represent Cloudtop Academy in the Continental Soul Master Tournament. As a reward for making the team, each of you will receive one Enchanted Golden Apple, which can raise your innate soul power by one level, and two stacks of Bottles o' Enchanting, which can directly increase your soul power level."
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