"Next, Dai Youheng. Enter the arena."
Just as he was weighing his future plans, the examiner Gong Changlong's voice rang out, calling his name.
Although the wager between Huo Yuhao and Dai Huabin had drawn all the attention during this advancement assessment, the other students were being assessed at the same time. Dai Youheng was among those who had to take part.
For a moment, he had considered deliberately failing so the academy would expel him, giving him the freedom to leave.
But on second thought, he still publicly bore the Dai Family's name.
His occasional friction with Dai Huabin and Dai Yueheng could be explained as the usual rivalry between legitimate and illegitimate sons in a noble household. But deliberately failing the assessment and slapping the Dai Family in the face would openly challenge the family's authority, and the consequences could be troublesome. As he was now, he lacked the strength to confront the entire White Tiger Duke's Mansion head-on.
To be safe, he should pass the assessment without incident, cultivate to level forty, and obtain the thing the Snow Empress had mentioned. Once he had enough trump cards, he could consider leaving.
He made his decision in an instant.
Dai Youheng calmly walked to the center of the Soul Fighting Arena.
"Dai Youheng, what age of soul beast will you choose?" Gong Changlong asked as usual.
"A thousand-year soul beast," Dai Youheng answered evenly.
Since he had decided to fight, he would not go through the motions. He also happened to lack practical experience fighting this world's soul beasts. An assessment with a Titled Douluo at the sidelines ensuring his safety was the perfect opportunity to practice against a thousand-year soul beast.
No one was surprised by his choice. Even the original lovesick fool Youheng had been far from weak. His soul power level had been only a few levels below Dai Huabin's, and his martial soul was the top-tier Evil Shadow Demon Tiger!
His earlier defeat at Xu Jiujiu's hands in three palm strikes had simply been because she was a Soul King. The gap had been too great.
Soon, an enormous rhinoceros-type soul beast with thick hide and a stout horn on its nose was released into the arena. Its skin had a metallic, gray-black sheen, and it radiated a heavy sense of pressure.
"Another Ironclad Rhino?" Xiao Xiao exclaimed softly from the sidelines. "Its defense is too strong! I couldn't even break through the eight-hundred-year one's hide earlier. This one is a thousand years old. Can Youheng handle it?"
Beside her, Huo Yuhao nodded, though his voice held a trace of uncertainty. "It should... be fine, right? My brother is actually pretty strong in a fight."
Though he was grateful for Dai Youheng's support, he knew little about his brother's actual combat abilities.
In the arena, Dai Youheng faced the slowly approaching thousand-year Ironclad Rhino, which let out low, threatening growls, and willed his martial soul into action.
Martial Soul Possession.
A low, sinister tiger's roar seemed to sound from the void. Dai Youheng's muscles swelled slightly, his nails sharpened, and a bloodthirsty crimson glint flashed through his eyes. Faint black shadow-mist spread around him, vaguely forming the outline of a fierce tiger.
The standard three soul rings-two yellow and one purple-rose from beneath his feet, his soul power fluctuations holding steady at level thirty-two.
The cultivation method that the person who had sent him here had implanted in his mind could conceal his soul power. That was quite a useful ability.
What he displayed now was exactly the level expected of the original lovesick fool Youheng. As for his second martial soul, the Fate-Reversing Heavenly Demon Pill, and that terrifying Seven Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring, there was no way he would expose them on an occasion like this.
Dai Youheng stood in the center of the arena, faint black shadow-mist swirling around him as the strength granted by his Evil Shadow Demon Tiger martial soul possession filled his body.
He watched the thick-skinned thousand-year Ironclad Rhino opposite him, a beast like a moving fortress, with calm, unruffled eyes.
"Roar!" The Ironclad Rhino bellowed, its thick hooves scraping the ground. Then it lowered its head, aimed the black horn capable of piercing metal and stone at Dai Youheng, and charged! Its enormous body thundered forward, making the ground tremble with its imposing momentum!
Faced with that unstoppable charge, Dai Youheng neither dodged nor retreated.
First soul skill, Demon Tiger Body!
He shouted inwardly, and the yellow hundred-year soul ring around him lit up. In an instant, the shadowy markings around his body grew more distinct, his muscles bulged slightly, and powerful strength coursed through every limb and bone. His strength, speed, defense, and reflexes all increased by fifty percent!
He lowered his stance slightly, seemingly preparing to take the charge head-on.
Then, in the instant before the Ironclad Rhino struck him!
Dai Youheng moved. Boosted by Demon Tiger Body, he was so fast that he left only an afterimage. His body twisted with uncanny suppleness as he slid like a phantom along the side of the Ironclad Rhino's thick neck, narrowly avoiding its lethal horn!
At the same time, his right palm silently pressed toward the thick hide where the Ironclad Rhino's neck met its shoulder! It was not the hardest armor on its back, but it was still thick and tough.
Just before his palm made contact, a dark gleam flashed in his eyes!
Evil Shadow Soul-Rending Claw!
His second soul ring flashed. Dense dark energy and a rending aura of destruction instantly gathered in his right palm. His fingers curled slightly, as though transforming into invisible tiger claws. This time, however, he did not use them to tear. Instead, he held that power within his palm and struck!
Psh!
A muffled sound rang out, so faint it was almost inaudible. His palm strike left little trace on the Ironclad Rhino's tough hide. It had not even fully breached the outermost layer of its defenses.
Youheng had not used his full strength, because his aim had never been the claw, but the palm.
As he struck, he deftly incorporated a trace of the force-delivery technique the Snow Empress had taught him over the past few days through Emperor Palm: Great Cold Without Snow. He concentrated his power to an extreme degree, piercing the surface to strike directly at the internal organs!
However, the Snow Empress's Emperor's Palm relied on the freezing power of ultimate ice to destroy from within, while his Evil Shadow Demon Tiger martial soul possessed the evil attribute!
The concentrated palm force, carrying the corrosive properties unique to Evil Shadow Soul-Rending Claw, passed like an invisible poison through the Ironclad Rhino's solid layers of muscle and fat, blasting straight into its vulnerable organs!
"Urrgh!" Still charging forward, the Ironclad Rhino suddenly gave an agonized cry. Its enormous body stiffened, then its legs buckled, and it crashed to the ground!
Outwardly, it appeared completely unharmed, but inside, evil-attribute soul power was furiously corroding and rotting its organs! Excruciating pain made its entire body convulse, and foul-smelling black blood even began seeping from its mouth and nose!
From beginning to end, everything had happened in a flash of lightning. There seemed to have been only two movements-a dodge and a palm strike-but they had actually contained three shifts in force. Within three moves, the outcome had been decided!
"What a vicious technique!" On the raised platform, Beast King Gong Changlong's expression changed
As a Titled Douluo, he naturally saw at a glance that the Ironclad Rhino's true injuries were internal!
Distressed for the soul beast, he appeared beside the convulsing Ironclad Rhino in a flash and pressed a palm against its back. Vast, powerful soul power surged into it, swiftly dispersing and expelling the palm force that was eating away at its organs.
"You little rascal, what exquisite penetrating force! You nearly crippled another of my thousand-year soul beasts!" Only after examining the Ironclad Rhino and confirming that its life was no longer in danger did Gong Changlong breathe a sigh of relief. He could not help glaring at Dai Youheng, though his eyes held a trace of surprise and admiration.
Within the Sea of Consciousness, the Snow Empress's cool voice carried a rare note of praise. "I never expected you to incorporate some of the essence of the Emperor's Palm's force delivery into your own attacks in just a few days. Though it lacks the freezing cold, it is even more corrosive and destructive. Very good."
In the main seat of the stands, Dean Yan Shaozhe's eyes gleamed, and he nodded slightly.
With his discerning eye, he naturally recognized what made Dai Youheng's final palm strike extraordinary. It was far more than a simple application of a soul skill. It contained an exceptionally sophisticated force-delivery technique capable of penetrating defenses and striking directly inside. It could be considered a very fine self-created soul skill.
"Clear combat judgment, decisive responses, and skillful use of soul skills. Rarer still is your mastery of such an exquisite technique for delivering penetrating force." Yan Shaozhe spoke slowly, his voice carrying throughout the arena. "Dai Youheng, you pass. Outstanding technique and a remarkable self-created fighting method. Your score: 150 points. Full marks."
Full marks!
The entire arena fell silent for a moment, then erupted into a low buzz!
No one had expected another perfect score after Huo Yuhao's! And this one had been earned in such a clean, decisive, even eerily ruthless fashion.
Dai Huabin's expression grew even uglier. Zhu Lu and Cui Yajie also looked astonished. Even Huo Yuhao, Wang Dong, Xiao Xiao, and the others were utterly shocked.
Dai Youheng calmly withdrew his martial soul, bowed slightly toward Yan Shaozhe and Gong Changlong, then turned and left the arena.
At that moment, no one dared look down on him anymore because of his earlier behavior as a lovesick fool.
With one clean, decisive victory, he had truly made everyone see him in a new light.
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