"Sweep Across a Thousand Armies!"
While Xie Guhong and Bi Shuo were still exchanging names, observing the etiquette of Soul Masters, Dugu Feng, who had grown up in the wild, had already charged over with his sword raised, unleashing a Self-Created Soul Skill.
The two purple Soul Rings around Dugu Feng blazed together, clearly pushing his enhancements to their limit.
Soul Power enveloped the longsword in his hand, as though a larger, illusory sword had encased it.
Dugu Feng's aura climbed another level, and he leaped high into the air. The sword in his hand had now expanded several times over, and he brought it crashing down at Xie Guhong.
"Watch out! This fellow's Martial Soul seems to have a Space Ability!"
Watching Dugu Feng charge in with a leaping slash, Hu Liena paled and hastily called out a warning.
A Soul Elder actually dared to launch a leaping slash at a Soul Emperor?
He was practically courting death!
And he was only an eight-year-old child, at that. Was this truly a newborn calf unafraid of the tiger?
Hu Liena truly did not want this child, who claimed to belong to Spirit Hall, to die here just like that.
After all, the child could have stayed out of this.
"That aura is already a match for most Soul Ancestors."
Xie Guhong watched Dugu Feng and voiced his praise, yet merely raised his left hand, without even using a Soul Skill.
"Space-Shifting Hand."
Meeting Dugu Feng's all-out attack barehanded, Xie Guhong spread his left hand. The instant it touched the attack, an aqua-blue spatial vortex appeared in his palm.
The enormous sword blade Dugu Feng swung was absorbed completely in an instant, leaving only Frost-Cold Nine Provinces in his hand.
"Shift!"
Boom!
A powerful slash shot from Xie Guhong's right palm, flying straight toward Dugu Feng high in the air.
"Hundred-Step Flying Sword!"
His First Soul Ring flashed. At the same time, an eerie trace of blood-red appeared in Dugu Feng's eyes. Frost-Cold Nine Provinces flew straight from his hand, becoming a streak of cold light that sliced through the attack rushing toward him before continuing toward Xie Guhong.
"Third Soul Skill: Death Spider Stinger!"
Seeing even Dugu Feng, the youngest and weakest in Soul Power, fight so fiercely, Bi Shuo naturally would not sit and wait for death. His third Soul Ring activated instantly.
Countless sharp spider-leg spikes, densely packed and wreathed in dark purple poisonous fumes, shot from the phantom beneath Bi Shuo's feet toward Xie Guhong.
"First Soul Skill: Death Spider Scythe!"
"Second Soul Skill: Spider Emperor Poison Fangs!"
Bi Shuo himself activated two Soul Skills in succession, holding a scythe in his left hand while his right transformed into sharp spider fangs. Two different Soul Skill toxins alternated, coating the Soul Skills on his left and right respectively, while the eight spider legs of his lower body maneuvered, trying to close in on Xie Guhong.
"First Soul Skill: Myriad Streams Return!"
Xie Guhong's gaze sharpened. His ten-thousand-year first ring flashed, and his hands formed an enormous spatial vortex that enveloped his entire body.
The vortex forcibly sucked the flying sword aimed at his throat into his palm, then frantically absorbed the poisonous spider spikes hurtling in from all around like a whirlpool in the ocean.
The spatial vortex spun, drawing every attack into Xie Guhong's left hand.
Despite absorbing two successive assaults, Xie Guhong was in no hurry to transfer them away.
"Fourth Soul Skill: Overlapping Shifts Echo!"
As his fourth Soul Skill activated, Xie Guhong slapped the attacks stored in his left hand into his right, then slapped his right hand back toward his left.
Each time his palms alternated, the power of the attacks stored by Space-Shifting Hand visibly quadrupled.
Only after two successive exchanges, just as Bi Shuo was about to close in, did Xie Guhong suddenly thrust out his palm.
The enormous palm imprint carried the swiftness of Dugu Feng's Hundred-Step Flying Sword and the toxins of Bi Shuo's third Soul Skill as it smashed toward Bi Shuo.
"Back to you!"
"Fifth Soul Skill: Undying Armor!"
Watching the enormous palm imprint Xie Guhong hurled at him, Bi Shuo activated his only defensive Soul Skill without the slightest hesitation.
Eight enormous spider legs abruptly sprouted from his back, shielding Bi Shuo tightly like a bird's wings sheltering its young. At the same time, black Soul Power formed an impenetrable shield, raising another defense.
Clang!!
The mighty palm imprint slammed into Bi Shuo's Soul Skill, instantly blasting apart the Soul Power shield and shattering three of his spider legs, sending him flying.
Xie Guhong did not stop his offensive there, instead glancing at the "brute" Dugu Feng, who still intended to charge.
His empty left hand slapped toward his right for no apparent reason, then his right slapped back toward his left. What had been an ordinary gust from his palm actually grew immensely more powerful along with his Soul Skill after several such spatial shifts.
"Hm?"
Xie Guhong, who had intended to casually kill Dugu Feng with this move, suddenly paused. He carelessly flung the attack gathering in his hand into a patch of dense forest, pulverizing a vast swath of trees along with the ground.
Dugu Feng paid no attention to any of that. Red light merely flashed in his eyes, and Frost-Cold Nine Provinces in his hand took on a faint bloody hue as he launched another leaping slash at Xie Guhong with his Self-Created Soul Skill, Sweep Across a Thousand Armies.
"First Soul Skill: Myriad Streams Return!"
Once again, he absorbed Dugu Feng's attack in full, shifted it away, then sent Dugu Feng flying with a slap.
Xie Guhong looked up into the sky. A middle-aged man draped in golden wings was quietly looking down at him, his bearing radiating an unprovoked wrath.
Thud!
The fat Soul Master who had previously accompanied Xie Guhong also descended from the sky. It was hard to imagine that such an obese body could land on the ground like a feather.
"Are you Senior Qian Daoliu, Spirit Hall's Great Enshrined, the Judgment Elder who passed judgment for Spirit Hall fifty years ago, invincible in the skies?"
After glancing at his companion beside him, Xie Guhong cupped his fist in salute to show his respect for the senior.
"..."
High in the air, Qian Daoliu, draped in the wings of the Six-Winged Angel and maintaining the bearing of an aloof master, watched his disciple, red light radiating around him as though he still intended to launch another attack. The corner of his mouth twitched.
He instantly appeared behind Dugu Feng, grabbed him by the back of his collar, and tossed him behind himself.
Dugu Feng had instinctively wanted to swing his sword, but when he saw that it was his teacher, he stopped.
The red light dispersed. Following Qian Daoliu's motion, he withdrew his Martial Soul and stood quietly behind him.
"Great Enshrined?"
Hu Liena, who had finally managed to haul her older brother out of the dirt, stared at Qian Daoliu in astonishment.
Far too much had happened in these few short minutes.
First, they had inexplicably been targeted and attacked by a Titled Douluo.
Then, inexplicably, a Soul Emperor with six Ten Thousand Year Soul Rings had shattered Ghost Douluo's Soul Skill protecting them with a single slap.
Then, inexplicably, a little boy and a young man who looked very much like her teacher had appeared to protect her.
And now Spirit Hall's Great Enshrined had arrived, someone she had essentially only heard of and never met in person.
Was the Star Dou Great Forest really this lively today?
Before you continue