"Buzz-!"
Feeling the terrifying pressure, Qian Renxue unleashed her full strength. Her Six-Winged Holy Angel shone even brighter than before as she tried her hardest to push back against it.
But she was still only a little girl. No matter how gifted she was, she had yet to grow into her potential.
Under the sustained pressure of a Soul King's Soul Power, Qian Renxue could not move so much as half a step. An unnatural flush gradually spread across her stubborn little face, and pain slowly crept into her expression.
Even so, Qian Renxue still refused to give in. They had done something wrong, so they had to apologize!
Have you reached your limit?
Just as Qian Renxue was about to buckle, Chen Qianqiu quietly opened his eyes from where he nestled in her arms.
An inferior dragon.
Chen Qianqiu focused, draconic might slowly flowing through his dark-gold slit pupils. Although he had yet to fully awaken his bloodline, dealing with a mongrel dragon was more than within his capabilities.
Yu Hengyun, who had been preparing to crush their resistance in one final push, suddenly turned pale.
To his horror, he realized that the space around him seemed to have been sucked into a vacuum by a pair of invisible hands! His Soul King pressure evaporated into thin air like lingering snow beneath a blazing sun.
What's going on?! Has an expert from Spirit Hall intervened?! Damn it! How could they get here so quickly?
Yu Hengyun's heart shook violently, and he tried to look around in horror, searching for that unknown, powerful foe.
Yet, as though guided by some unseen force, the moment he lowered his gaze, it collided without warning with Chen Qianqiu's slit pupils.
The instant their eyes met, Yu Hengyun's mind exploded with a boom!
What kind of eyes were those?
In those dark-gold slit pupils, Yu Hengyun saw not himself, but a vast abyss steeped in the blood of gods!
At the far end of his vision, he seemed to hear the piercing wails of falling gods and see a world-destroying black dragon blotting out the sun and sky. It bit through the heavens in the twilight and gazed coldly at him as it trampled the corpses of gods and Buddhas strewn across the sky!
"Whimper..."
The Rock-Armored Earth Dragon Martial Soul he took such pride in let out an utterly abject whine. As though it had developed a consciousness of its own, his Martial Soul was actually afraid! Then, unable to hold out for even a single breath, it dispersed on its own!
What frightened Yu Hengyun out of his wits even more was the sensation that a black hole had opened in his body. His Soul Power and the very essence of his vitality were leaving his flesh uncontrollably, being sucked away in a frenzy!
What ability was this? What kind of power was this?
Yu Hengyun considered himself widely experienced. He had even met more than one of the legendary Titled Douluo, yet none of them had ever made him feel this way.
This was not merely a gap in strength, but a fear carved into his instincts.
Just as Yu Hengyun was about to sink into it completely,
"Uncle Hengyun! What are you standing there for?! Hurry up and attack! Get revenge for me!"
An impatient shout suddenly came from beside him.
Yu Tianming was reaching out and shaking the motionless Yu Hengyun hard, utterly unaware of what his uncle had experienced.
By sheer chance, that shaking saved his life, forcibly dragging Yu Hengyun straight out of that endless hell!
"Hah! Hah!!"
Yu Hengyun snapped awake, his pupils contracting violently as he gulped down air in frantic, greedy breaths.
Only then did he realize that his robes were already soaked through with cold sweat, with water dripping steadily from them!
Everything that had just happened was absolutely, absolutely no illusion. It had all been real!
Just what kind of monster was this? Was that really power a little beast could possess?
Looking at Yu Tianming, who was still clamoring and urging him on beside him, Yu Hengyun, who had only just barely escaped with his life, felt as though his scalp would explode on the spot.
Without the slightest hesitation, under everyone's stunned gazes.
Bang!
Yu Hengyun's hand clamped down like an iron vise on Yu Tianming's head. Aiming it at the hard bluestone paving, he smashed it down mercilessly!
"Aah!! Uncle Hengyun, have you gone mad? What are you do-"
Before Yu Tianming could finish screaming, Yu Hengyun's own knees buckled, and he dropped heavily to the ground with a thud. Even that did not seem enough for him. As he held Yu Tianming's head down and made him kowtow frantically, he began smashing his own forehead against the ground as well!
What he had just experienced had utterly shattered this Soul King's courage. Tears and snot even came streaming out uncontrollably. Blood immediately poured from his forehead as it struck the paving, and his voice took on a sobbing edge:
"That's what you get for misbehaving! That's what you get!! That'll teach you not to know the height of the heavens or the depth of the earth!"
"We're sorry! We were wrong! We're so sorry!!"
"We shouldn't have disrupted the market! I apologize to everyone!!!"
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The dull thuds of kowtowing echoed through the utterly silent marketplace.
Qian Renxue, who had been struggling to hold out against the pressure, suddenly felt her whole body relax. Then she saw the Soul King who had looked so ferocious a second ago now kowtowing frantically, his face streaming with tears and snot.
This time, the little girl was completely bewildered.
What's going on? Has he suddenly suffered Qi deviation and gone mad?!
His attitude was so sincere that even Qian Renxue felt a little embarrassed.
"Hmph, in that case, I won't pursue the matter today!"
Qian Renxue rubbed her slightly aching wrists and tightened her hold on Chen Qianqiu, who was watching the show in her arms. Unwilling to stay there a second longer, she set her little legs moving and darted out of the crowd like a fleeing rabbit, disappearing into the street.
Even after confirming that Qian Renxue had run far away, Yu Hengyun, his face covered in blood, did not stop. Instead, his movements grew even more frantic. Yu Tianming beside him had even passed out. Only after quite a while, when most of the crowd had dispersed, did he cautiously raise his head.
Finding no further frightening disturbances around him, he felt as though he had been granted amnesty. He scrambled up from the ground, grabbed Yu Tianming, and burst into the fastest sprint of his life, fleeing desperately toward Spirit City's outer city gate without looking back.
Meanwhile, Qian Renxue left the outer city and climbed the stairs she had come down. The air around her gradually regained Spirit Hall's distinctive quiet solemnity.
At that moment, Chen Qianqiu lay utterly without dignity in Qian Renxue's arms, all four feet in the air, comfortably rubbing his round little belly with his two short black claws.
Now, even a burp from Chen Qianqiu could send a little white mist rich in energy spilling from his mouth.
He had eaten himself into a stupor.
Back in the marketplace, not only had he absorbed a great deal of emotional energy, but at the end, he had forcibly sucked away an entire level's worth of a Soul King's essence Soul Power from a distance!
For Chen Qianqiu, who had hatched only a day ago, this infusion of energy was like an incredibly lavish, unbeatable buffet. The whole dragon was dazed, feeling only that his dragon life was complete and his gains abundant.
Unexpectedly, just as he was about to close his eyes and properly digest that enormous amount of energy, the arms holding him involuntarily tightened a little.