Nine Soul Rings emerged around Tang Hao, the scarlet one among them standing out the most.
The Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring carried tremendous intimidation; merely revealing it was enough to strike fear into people's hearts.
"Ring Detonation? Interesting."
It was the Clear Sky Sect's exclusive secret technique, and the foundation that allowed it to hold its place firmly among the Upper Three Sects.
"Analyze."
His pupils contracted slightly. Everything around Mo Lin vanished from his sight, leaving only tributaries of pure energy flowing before his eyes.
Energy Control, one of the four innate powers from the Wolffy Template bestowed by the system.
It was also the most practical of the four talents.
The Good Side usually used it to assist in crafting Soul Tools, while he used it in battle to analyze his opponents' skills-know yourself and your enemy, and you could fight a hundred battles without defeat.
Of course, if a skill was interesting enough, he might copy it outright, just like this one.
He sensed the Soul Power circulating inside Tang Hao, the energy within his Soul Rings continuously compressing before finally gathering into a single point at the center.
"Compress the Soul Rings' energy, then shatter them with the Clear Sky Hammer, releasing it all at once to gain a temporary boost in strength."
The principle behind Ring Detonation was simple, but there was one prerequisite.
You had to hit hard enough.
That was right. Soul Rings weren't fragile eggs that broke at a touch.
The compressed Soul Power was comparable to pressing coal into diamonds, then smashing those diamonds.
Without absolute strength, it was almost impossible.
And the Clear Sky Hammer's characteristics suited this perfectly.
"A genius-no, a madman."
Anyone who could come up with this move was definitely a madman.
"Tang Chen. Looks like I'll have to change my itinerary."
Just as battle erupted between the two, elsewhere, Ye Lingling, Dugu Yan, and Flender's group, who had come looking for trouble, were all locked inside a special black space.
The space isolated them from everything outside, leaving Ye Lingling and the others completely unaware of what was happening out there.
"Xiao Hei, did you do this?"
Ye Lingling looked at Xiao Hei, who was lying beside her, and asked.
"Yeah. The boss is fighting outside. He was afraid you'd get hurt, so he told me to shut you in here first and let you out once the fight's over."
Xiao Hei spoke, a hint of laziness in her voice.
"Ah! Lingling, why have you shrunk?"
"Ah! I've shrunk too! What's going on?"
Dugu Yan cried out. Looking at her tender little hands and her now-flat chest, she was completely dumbfounded.
"Reverting to childhood? This is a domain!"
Yu Xiaogang exclaimed, staring straight at Xiao Hei.
"A Dark Demon Evil God Tiger! Impossible! How could anyone in this world possess a Dark Demon Evil God Tiger Martial Soul!"
At that moment, Yu Xiaogang was nearly deranged. He could not believe a human could actually withstand the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's supremely evil attribute.
"Xiaogang, what are you talking about? What Dark Demon Evil God Tiger?"
Flender was puzzled. He did not understand why Yu Xiaogang was so agitated.
And just where was this place? Why couldn't he sense the Soul Power inside his body, or even use his Martial Soul?
Zhao Wuji and Qin Ming beside him were in the same situation. Compared to that so-called Dark Demon Evil God Tiger, they were more concerned about where exactly they were.
"This is the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's domain, called the Life and Death Arena."
"Here, all humans and even Soul Beasts are forcibly restricted to their juvenile forms."
"And to get out, one side must die before the Life and Death Arena will dissipate."
Yu Xiaogang clearly knew some information about the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger.
After all, he had been born into the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, one of the Upper Three Sects, which held countless books.
And since he was useless at cultivation, he naturally spent most of his time reading. Otherwise, he would never have come up with those so-called "Ten Core Competitive Theories."
Although most of it was plagiarized from others, he really had read the material.
Otherwise, he would not have recognized what Xiao Hei was.
"Ah, Xiao Hei, is that true?"
Ye Lingling froze at his words.
"Nothing of the sort. Don't listen to that useless idiot's nonsense."
Xiao Hei clearly disliked people spreading stories about her.
Besides, since when had her domain stipulated that she had to kill the other party before anyone could leave?
Wasn't that pure slander? It was her own skill; couldn't she undo it whenever she wanted? What sort of rubbish had humans been recording?
"Oh, then can you let me out?"
Clearly, Ye Lingling trusted Xiao Hei more than Yu Xiaogang.
"No. The boss hasn't given the word. I can't let you out."
What a joke. The fighting outside was so fierce they were practically beating human brains into dog brains. If she let Ye Lingling out and the girl got hurt, her own little life would probably be forfeit.
"It's very dangerous outside right now. Stay here for now. You'll be let out when it's time."
Seemingly afraid Ye Lingling might not understand, Xiao Hei added another sentence.
"Oh, is there a fight outside? Who's he fighting?"
Understanding what Xiao Hei meant, Ye Lingling abandoned her intention of going out, though her hand unconsciously reached for the Necklace hanging around her neck.
"I'm not too sure. Someone called Clear Sky Douluo, I think. Don't worry. He's no match for the boss."
What a joke. It wasn't as though she didn't know how strong Mo Lin was.
Seriously, whose six-year-old child could breathe fire and discharge electricity?
The Life and Death Arena only restricted Soul Power and abilities related to Soul Power.
Tang San's hidden weapons, for instance, did not fall into that category.
Neither did Mo Lin's Talisman Power.
Back when she and Mo Lin first met, he had beaten her miserably.
She had thought she was about to croak, but then he said her fur felt rather nice and would make a perfect mattress.
As for why he hadn't skinned her, in his words:
"How could a dead pelt be as comfortable as a living one? Best of all, it even comes with automatic temperature regulation."
The reason was bizarre, the person was bizarre, and then, bizarrely, she had survived.
"Clear Sky Douluo? A Titled Douluo!"
Only Titled Douluos could use Douluo as the suffix of their titles.
And while the title Clear Sky Douluo might not have been known to absolutely everyone on the Douluo Continent, it was certainly widely circulated.
Rumor had it that the previous Supreme Pontiff had died because of him.
Such a record was enough to prove that his strength was extraordinary.
Yet Mo Lin could actually fight him, and judging by Xiao Hei's tone, the man apparently couldn't even beat Mo Lin.
Did that make any sense? Didn't he only have three rings?!
During his earlier spirit battle, she had seen it perfectly clearly: he had only three rings.
And now she was being told that he could fight a Titled Douluo.
Had she misheard, or had the world gone mad?
"I think so."
Xiao Hei was a Soul Beast and did not know much about how humans divided their ranks.
Tang Hao's aura was very strong, strong enough to rank second among all the humans he had ever seen.
As for first place, that was Mo Lin, of course.
"Um... what rank is he, exactly?"
Although casually prying into someone else's private affairs wasn't very nice, Ye Lingling really was curious.
Especially since this person was connected to Brother Mo Lin, she had all the more reason to get to the bottom of it.
Faced with Ye Lingling's question, Xiao Hei scratched her little head with a paw, a troubled look appearing on her face.
"Oh no, this question's beyond the syllabus. The boss never taught me how to answer something like this."
Before you continue