Xu Xiaoyu regretted it.
He had only taken one look.
Truly, just one look.
Then he lost consciousness, his younger sister's startled scream ringing in his ears.
The yellow globes of light above his head, which he had yet to finish absorbing, drifted up into the mass of yellow clouds in the sky.
At death's door, Xu Xiaoyu got a clear look at that group.
The group that had slaughtered both siblings without bothering to distinguish right from wrong.
The youth leading them spoke indifferently. "None of those who come near have pure intentions. Killing them won't wrong anyone."
Xu Xiaoyu and Xu Xiaoyan firmly committed the youth's voice to memory.
The Spirit Ascension Platform's riot period lasted a full seven days.
All of Class Zero gathered together, and with Jiang Xia's Spirit Detection, they could anticipate their enemies' moves almost at any time.
Even when Jiang Xia exhausted his Soul Power and was recovering, Gu Yue, Tang Wulin, and Wang Jinxi and Zhang Yangzi, who possessed a Martial Soul Fusion Skill, could fend off any attacking soul beasts.
Within the Spirit Ascension Platform during its riot period, they were absolute tyrants.
Of course, they were tyrants in theory. In reality, unexpected things could still happen.
Through repeated cycles, Jiang Xia recovered his Soul Power again and again. When he exhausted it for the tenth time, he focused on meditating to recover while Gu Yue and the others guarded him.
What followed, however, were three waves of soul beast attacks.
After those three waves came a team of four three-ring Soul Elders.
Without a doubt, those four Soul Elders had driven the preceding three waves of soul beasts toward them.
Jiang Xia and the others had helped those four kill quite a few soul beasts. Although they were absorbing spiritual power too, they were eliminated by the four before they could absorb much.
Jiang Xia gave the four a long, searching look.
The four Soul Elders' gazes flickered, and they lowered their heads, not daring to meet his eyes.
"What's wrong?"
After they emerged from their pods and followed Wu Zhangkong out of the Spirit Pagoda, Gu Yue noticed Jiang Xia thinking alone at the back and could not help asking.
When they were eliminated, she had already noticed that Jiang Xia seemed to have discovered something.
"Nothing. Those four just looked a little familiar."
Familiar?
Gu Yue knitted her brows.
"Are you saying they're from the Spirit Pagoda?"
Jiang Xia immediately waved his hand. "I never said that."
Gu Yue pursed her lips.
Up ahead, Tang Wulin seemed to think of something.
"Right, Teacher Wu, don't we still have a second part to our assessment?"
"Yeah, can you tell us about the second stage now?" Xie Xie hurriedly asked as well.
Wu Zhangkong continued speaking in riddles.
He merely told everyone to rest well and recover, then hailed a taxi and took them toward the outskirts.
They finally arrived at the Tang Sect's branch.
After going through various verification procedures, Wu Zhangkong led everyone into the Tang Sect.
They reached the Hall of Heroes.
"Your next assessment is to last inside. The longer you last, the better."
Without giving anyone a chance to ask questions, Wu Zhangkong opened the Hall of Heroes.
They entered the Hall of Heroes' space.
Jiang Xia immediately tried connecting to this space through Broken Dream.
Finding that he could use his abilities without any trouble, he breathed a sigh of relief.
It was not for the sake of any assessment. He simply did not want to get thrashed in this Hall of Heroes.
After all, he knew what sorts of damned characters were inside.
If he randomly got matched against someone like Bei Bei or Xu Sanshi and got thrashed by them at the same level, that would be far too embarrassing.
After all, whether it was Bei Bei, Xu Sanshi, or the other Shrek Seven Monsters, they were actually pretty trash.
It was just that this shameless Hall of Heroes deified them, granting them absurdly high stats and mechanics while pushing their Martial Souls and Soul Skill mechanics to their limits.
In plain language, the fourth Soul Skill Xu Sanshi had after reaching nine rings and fully awakening his Black Tortoise might be slapped onto a four-ring Xu Sanshi.
The highest-level Controlling Crane Capturing Dragon techniques theoretically possible for a three-ring Soul Elder would also be given to Xu Sanshi, Jiang Nannan, and others who had not joined the Tang Sect at three rings.
Yes, it was that ridiculous.
Jiang Xia's opponent was...
Huo Yuhao!
"Sure enough, it's him."
Jiang Xia was speechless. He knew this Huo Yuhao's spiritual power stats had definitely been cranked up.
Of course, compared with the real Huo Yuhao at three rings, the Huo Yuhao inside the Hall of Heroes should have been somewhat weaker.
At least Tianmeng would not fight for him, nor would the Ice Empress.
There was even less chance of Electrolux fighting for him.
Without those stand-ins fighting for him, Huo Yuhao, with his three-ring setup, could not possibly slaughter Jiang Xia even with his stats, mechanics, and techniques all maxed out.
Let's give it a try and see if I can defeat him.
Jiang Xia thought to himself.
Yet the next moment, Huo Yuhao directly revealed his Ice Jade Empress Scorpion Martial Soul.
He opened with ultimate ice straight away.
Beneath his feet were three Soul Rings—red, Orange Gold, and Orange Gold—which nearly blinded Jiang Xia.
In an instant, the entire Hall of Heroes space turned bitterly cold.
A terrifying current of air swept past, bringing stinging pain like slashing ice blades.
Jiang Xia took a deep breath, and fire elements rapidly gathered around his body.
He condensed these fire elements by imitating Gu Yue's techniques.
But they were still far from the ultimate level.
They could not withstand the terrifyingly low temperature of ultimate ice at all.
"This thing really is a pain to deal with."
Huo Yuhao's ultimate attribute left Jiang Xia speechless too.
Ultimate ice really was overpowered.
Of course, the freezing chill of this world of ice and snow only affected him. It had not completely stripped him of his ability to fight.
He used wind elements, even drawing on the frosty chill here to mobilize ice elements.
Wind and ice combined, perfectly forming a blizzard.
The blizzard was immense and took shape extremely quickly.
As the blizzard formed, Jiang Xia kept dodging.
He rode the wind elements, refusing to clash head-on with Huo Yuhao.
Even with his three overpowered Soul Rings—red, Orange Gold, and Orange Gold—Huo Yuhao could do nothing to Jiang Xia at that moment, because he could not even touch him.
Of course, as time passed, dodging became increasingly strenuous for Jiang Xia.
Huo Yuhao unleashed the soul bone Soul Skill bestowed on him by the Ice Empress: Domain of Perpetual Ice.
At once, a thick layer of ice coated the entire arena.
Jiang Xia sighed.
He simulated a pair of wings on his back and soared into the sky.
At the same time, he traced out one formation after another. These were core formations.
Besides cultivating as a soul master, he also studied mecha design and mecha manufacturing.
Ten thousand years ago, he would have been at least the equivalent of a rank-four soul engineer.
That was merely the foundation.
Besides those two secondary professions, he also had the secondary profession of blacksmith.
Constantly communicating with spirituality and swinging his hammer countless times, his understanding of rare metals could well be imagined.
In this illusory space, Jiang Xia could simulate some rare metals!
He could simulate rare metals and inscribe core formations instantly.
That meant he could obtain whatever soul tool he wanted at any time within this virtual world.
As long as he could make it, he could get it!
Of course, it was not that overpowered yet. Jiang Xia was only one person, after all, and his time and effort were limited.
Manifesting rare metals and core formations were merely abilities he had supplemented his control over the four elements of water, fire, earth, and wind with.
After all, Elemental Control also had many weaknesses.