Half a lingering sun hung low over the western horizon.
Most of the sky had sunk beneath the dark-blue curtain of night.
"Clack..."
"Clack..."
"Clack!"
Amethyst-clawed feet landed on the ground, their abundant force shaking the bedrock and leaving two trails of footprints-charred and cracked.
A purple sun rose beneath the eastern night sky, casting a long, narrow shadow across the ground.
The blazing purple sun hung behind him, the Will of Destruction surging within his purple-gold eyes. The elegant dragon armor covering half his body looked as fearsome as a savage god walking the mortal world.
Xu Zi...
His Martial Soul combined weapon and beast, its second stage-complete form.
Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon possession!
"Roooaaar!!!"
A deep dragon roar exploded beneath the dimming twilight!
Every Beast Martial Soul Master present, even the three Dragon Pattern Staff brothers, abruptly sank at the waist, their knees showing faint signs of bending.
Feeling the purple light and hearing the dragon roar, the fallen Shi Xing stopped straining his neck.
He let all his strength drain away. The back of his head hit the ground with a thunk, and he closed his eyes for a long while before finally exhaling in relief. "Finally... we won."
As purple light washed over their faces, the Heaven Thunder Team snapped out of their stunned state.
Overwhelming draconic might pressed toward them, and the Blue Lightning Twin Stars retreated repeatedly without realizing it.
Yu Tianxin in particular found his arms, covered in blue-purple scales, trembling slightly in terror beneath that roar laden with draconic might.
It was as though his bloodline had been suppressed!
"How could this happen? My Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Martial Soul is actually being suppressed?" Disbelief filled Yu Tianxin's face.
Even his whisper could not conceal his inner panic. Impossible. The Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon is the world's number-one Beast Martial Soul. It can't be suppressed!
"It must be my bloodline mutation weakening my Martial Soul. That must be it! That must be it!"
Compared to Yu Tianxin, who stood on the verge of losing his composure...
Yu Tianheng, with his pure bloodline, appeared much calmer-or rather, far more solemn.
"There really is a third family of dragon Soul Masters on the continent? And one that combines weapon and beast. It truly is..." Yu Tianheng's lightning-filled eyes were grave.
Remembering his opponent's introduction before the match, realization struck him. "The Sun Clan. Incredible."
Xu Zi's roar silenced the entire venue, as though the whole world were listening to his draconic speech.
Every member of the Heaven Thunder Team retreated as their opponent's situation abruptly changed.
The gust unleashed by that roar also swept away every wisp of purple Qi lingering around the Spirit Hall Second Team's five frontliners.
But they were already battered and down one member, so they too had no choice but to withdraw for now.
"C-Captain?" Tuoba She trembled inside his stone armor, whether from excitement or fear.
As the only lesser-dragon Soul Master present, he undoubtedly suffered the greatest pressure from that bloodline and draconic might. Yet as the least injured of the five, he could only voice their question on behalf of the other four, trembling. "Then, what do we do next...?"
"Hah..." Scorching breath escaped between Xu Zi's teeth. He looked fifty meters to his right, where several healing Soul Emperors had surrounded the person he had just severely injured and hurled away.
"The only troublesome one has been dealt with. Stand by and provide support, then clean up what's left."
"If you still have the strength, clear out the small fry."
As he spoke, Xu Zi deliberately glanced at Lei Dong, Dugu Yan, and the Shi Brothers.
"Yes!" The Second Team's five members stood at attention.
Beneath the blazing purple radiance, purple vapor steamed from their bodies-the residue of Dugu Yan's third Soul Skill.
"Clunk, clunk, clunk..."
Bringing the purple sun and searing heat with him, Xu Zi approached the Blue Lightning Twin Stars.
At that moment, purple firelight and blue static intertwined and ate away at one another in the air between them.
Yu Tianheng also withdrew his gaze from fifty meters to the left and asked one final question. "Are you really a rank-37 Support System Soul Elder?"
Xu Zi gave him one final answer. "Forty seconds ago, yes. Not anymore."
"An opening!" Seizing the moment, Lei Dong bounded forward two steps and flung the lightning net in his hands straight over Xu Zi's head and face.
Seeing success within reach, Lei Dong shouted behind him, "Quick! While he's paralyzed!"
The Blue Lightning Twin Stars did not hesitate. Their third Soul Skill, Thunder's Wrath, instantly strengthened them, and they thrust both palms forward, unleashing two blasts of Thunderous Might.
The lightning net shrouded him, and Thunderous Might pierced through his body.
Xu Zi merely stood in place, his fists clenched beside his hips, his purple-gold dragon eyes quietly watching. He seemed to be measuring the strength of his physique.
Three seconds passed. He remained unharmed.
Intense heat surged over his skin, even scorching the lightning net thinner and thinner.
"How?!" The six members of the Heaven Thunder Team widened their eyes.
Suddenly, the sun behind Xu Zi flared, and light and flame erupted between his dragon scales.
The next instant-
The blue lightning net shattered with a crackling barrage, scattering arcs across the ground.
"Look out!" With two more years of Soul Fighting experience, Yu Tianxin shoved his cousin aside on his right and raised his left arm to guard his left side.
Bam-crack!
A single punch drove Yu Tianxin's left elbow inward, embedding the entire bent joint between the ribs on his left side.
He remained rooted in place, his waist twisted to the right. His entire left side, from his leg and foot to his shoulder blade, lost all sensation, as though the force poured into him had destroyed half his nervous system...
His teeth clenched and creaked in pain, and a trickle ran down from the twitching left corner of his mouth.
Yu Tianheng, who had just been pushed into a stumbling retreat, watched with violently trembling pupils.
"D-Dragon Transformation... one punch left him half-paralyzed?"
"What Martial Soul is this?!"
Glancing down at his left side, where all lightning had dissipated, Yu Tianxin stammered, "Just a few purple scales made me so much weaker than Tian Heng, but you... your whole body is covered in purple scales..."
"Heh." Xu Zi flicked the blood from his right knuckles and asked, as though offering charity to an ignorant fool, "Who told you growing purple scales means your bloodline has weakened?"
"Could it be that, like that pig-walking uncle of yours, you've simply trained a treasure into trash?"
The claim that the Light Dragon was a harmful mutation of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon was already a joke he had heard from the Yu family.
And now they had added another: the Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon was a weakened Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon.
Had the Holy Dragon King and the Dragon God's Companion heard that, the two dragons might have been angered back to life on the spot.
When rendered speechless, a person really could laugh.
"Ah, this Yu family. They truly held back two generations of Peerless Douluos."
But the next second, Xu Zi's smile vanished. His foot shattered the ground as he shot forward.
It was Lei Dong. While Xu Zi spoke, he had seized his chance to cast another lightning net.
But now it caught nothing at all!
He had barely uttered "Oh-" before he looked as though a ferocious dragon had pierced straight through him-his eyes bulged.
Blood sprayed from his mouth. He flew twenty meters backward, then hit the ground and rolled amid blue light...
His Thunder Spider Martial Soul possession had been blasted apart on the spot!
Too fast!
So fast that the Heaven Thunder Team's other five members had not even managed to look shocked.
Xu Zi shook the blood droplets from his fist again and snorted heavily. "What I hate most is people interrupting me."
Turning, he saw that Yu Tianheng had already leaped forward to support the swaying Yu Tianxin.
Dugu Yan poured the scant Soul Power she had just recovered into her pain-reducing second Soul Skill, turning it into blue poison and sending it into Yu Tianxin's broken arm.
The Shi Brothers also raised their Black Tortoise Shields to defend.
But before they could plant those heavy shields before the Blue Lightning Twin Stars with two thuds, Xu Zi had already stamped out a trail of blackened footprints...
"Roar!"
A pair of amethyst dragon fists unleashed strength and destruction, sending the Shi Brothers and the two men behind them flying.
Two hard cracks rang out in that instant, making scalps prickle. Those two indestructible Black Tortoise Shields snapped into upper and lower halves, their broken edges tracing pentagonal tortoiseshell patterns...
"Tian Heng!"
Watching the four fly over her headdress, Dugu Yan cried out urgently, looking somewhat at a loss.
But the next second, her jade eyes sharpened, and she sprang up like a snake woman-
As the Imperial Fighting Team's big sister, she knew full well that unless Xu Zi fell, all five remaining members of Heaven Thunder would crumble beneath that purple sun and those dragon fists.
Once her resolve settled, fear vanished from her heart.
Dugu Yan kicked off the two broken Black Tortoise Shields and leaped up, diving at Xu Zi.
She had almost no Soul Power left, so this self-sacrificing strike was not a Soul Skill. She merely gathered a mouthful of her Martial Soul Origin poison, Jade Phosphorus Snake Venom.
Before she landed, one thought repeated in her mind: His eyes! I just need to hit his eyes... just hit his eyes!
She had thrown caution to the wind, willing to suffer severe injuries and elimination if she could land a vicious blow on Xu Zi.
Just as Dugu Yan opened her mouth to spit poison, she suddenly felt something forcibly brace against her chest.
It was Xu Zi. His left hand caught Dugu Yan's right breast, then clenched hard!
Blood burst in his palm. Threads of scarlet seeped through her bodice and trickled between his four fingers.
"Urrgh..." Agony surged like a tsunami. Instead of spraying precisely as she wished, Dugu Yan involuntarily vomited out her Jade Phosphorus Snake Venom, which streamed down her pale chin.
Droplets of green liquid fell, but before they could touch Xu Zi, the light and flame surrounding him scorched them into a bitter smell that dispersed through the air.
"Sister Yanyan!" Ye Lingling cried in anguish below the stage.
"Ah!" Dugu Yan screamed in pain, but the next second, her eyes rolled back, blood streamed from five facial orifices, and she went limp in Xu Zi's hand.
"Yanzi!" Yu Tianheng shoved aside the two Shi Mo brothers pinning him down and sprang from the ground, crackling with lightning.
A ring of yellow light vanished into the sun, and the dragonlike brow beneath Xu Zi's forehead returned to normal.
He had just used Will of Destruction to put Dugu Yan to sleep and temporarily spare her physical suffering. Then he located Ye Lingling outside the square and swung his arm, hurling Dugu Yan toward her.
Xu Zi discarded the limp, flattened piece of flesh wrapped in cloth, his face expressionless.
This was not boys and girls tussling at school, but a grand event for the continent's Soul Masters.
Once they entered the Soul Fighting arena, if they still worried about differences between men and women, they might as well award first, second, and third place directly to the female contestants. Why bother holding a continent-wide Soul Master tournament?
Besides, snake women generally had supple waists; only bracing against her chest could stop her downward pounce. Taking into account the Nine Heart Begonia Soul Master outside the arena, Xu Zi had used this "breast-bursting" move to answer treachery with treachery and eliminate her swiftly.
Yet in the blink of an eye, the raging Yu Tianheng had already reached him.
"Aaaargh!"
Lightning spewed from Yu Tianheng's seven facial orifices as he roared, his eyes nearly splitting with fury, "You despicable bastard! I'll make you pay!"
In an instant, his entire body became a crashing thunderstorm.
This was Dragon Transformation's ultimate move-Dragon's Wrath.
Its counterpart was the Great Sumeru Hammer's ultimate move-Ring Detonation.
Boom!
Like a pillar of lightning descending from the heavens, it stirred waves of dust across the ground.
Xu Zi bathed in densely interwoven lightning serpents, both elbows shielding his face, his amethyst dragon scales struck until they shone translucently.
Yes, innate lightning immunity.
The Dragon God's Companion had hatched from the same egg as the Dragon God. Over the years that followed, it too could cultivate the nine attributes the Dragon God bestowed upon the Nine Great Dragon Kings: earth, water, wind, fire, light, darkness, time, space, and stability.
As the Dragon God's Companion's sole blood descendant, the Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon held a position equivalent to the dragon race's divine crown prince. Its bloodline naturally possessed these nine-colored attributes, though they remained dormant.
But just because I can't use them doesn't mean I don't have them!
Purple-gold dragon eyes stared at the blue dragon claws slashing against the elbows before his face.
Xu Zi strode forward and snapped Yu Tianheng's right shin beneath his foot with a crack, making him bend over and clutch his knee in pain.
But mercilessness flowed through those purple-gold dragon eyes. Another amethyst dragon fist shot straight at Yu Tianheng's jaw, intent on destroying half his face-and knocking him out of the match.
Boom!
At that critical instant, another Dragon's Wrath struck, only this time, the erupting lightning arcs were blue-purple.
Caught completely off guard, Xu Zi was driven several meters back.
Yu Tianxin limped swiftly to Yu Tianheng's right and steadied his half-kneeling cousin, who struggled to rise.
At that moment, his limbs no longer trembled because of his bloodline. His will had suppressed his instincts, and resolve filled his eyes. Yes! Purple isn't necessarily weaker than blue!
The Thunder Team uniform had been twisted into a rope to bind his ruined left arm against his left ribs. Following the same method, Yu Tianxin twisted the Imperial Fighting Team uniform into a rope and secured his cousin's right leg.
Those two unpracticed manipulations ground flesh and bone together in his lower leg, making Yu Tianheng's breathing quicken, as though every inhalation and exhalation... hurt.
Xu Zi did not disturb the two brothers in misfortune, for his purple-gold eyes reflected the scene far behind the Blue Lightning Twin Stars-
The Shi Brothers, whose shields had already been broken, had been subdued by the five recovered members of the Spirit Hall Second Team.
Their plate armor had been battered open, blood bursting through the cracks, while their two Black Tortoise Shields had been smashed into pentagonal fragments strewn across the ground.
At that point, the Heaven Thunder Team's defeat was sealed...
Even if Xu Zi simply stood there and never attacked again.
The Second Team's other five members could still take down these renowned Twin Stars.
Their refusal to surrender now was purely the spirit of Soul Fighting.
With a crack, the broken bone was realigned, returning Yu Tianheng's right shin beneath his knee.
That sound made the atmosphere somewhat heavy.
By then, the head referee had approached them, wishing to urge them to surrender... but hesitating to speak.
Yu Tianxin whispered beside his cousin's ear, "Tian Heng, remember when we were little? That time we fought the Heaven Dou baron."
Yu Tianheng's facial muscles twitched as he answered through gritted teeth, "You... mean... the Hengxin Combination?"
"That's right."
At that moment, the Blue Lightning Twin Stars stood in a two-person, three-legged formation.
Their posture was strange, but they stood steadily in the arena.
Yu Tianheng's broken leg was bound outside Yu Tianxin's left leg, while Yu Tianxin's broken arm rested across Yu Tianheng's shoulders.
At that moment, with the Hengxin Combination.
"Aren't you planning to surrender?" Xu Zi asked at an inopportune moment.
"No!" Both looked ahead at the same time and said, one after the other:
"The Imperial Fighting Team has not lost."
"The Thunder Team is still here, too."
Both suddenly turned toward the head referee, their gazes resolute, and declared in unison, "The Heaven Thunder Team can still fight!"