Night fell, and only the lightning in the Blue Lightning Twin Stars' eyes remained unextinguished-two glimmers of unyielding will.
They were facing a purple sun head-on.
At that moment, the Blue Lightning Twin Stars stood with two bodies and three legs.
Shoulder to shoulder, they looked strange, yet remained firmly upright in the arena.
Yu Tianheng's broken leg was bound to the outside of Yu Tianxin's left leg, while Yu Tianxin's broken arm rested across Yu Tianheng's shoulder and back.
At that moment-the Hengxin Combination.
"Still not planning to surrender?" Xu Zi asked at an inopportune moment.
For the Heaven Thunder Team was already a spent arrow at the end of its flight.
"No!" They both looked ahead, speaking one after the other:
"The Imperial Fighting Team hasn't lost."
"The Thunder Team is still here, too."
They suddenly turned toward the head referee, their gazes resolute, and declared in unison, "The Heaven Thunder Team still has the strength to fight!"
"Good!"
Xu Zi suddenly took out a badge. "As a Gold Soul Fighting competitor, by all rights and reason, I have to commend that spirit."
A pure gold medal gleamed particularly brightly between his amethyst dragon claws beneath the night sky.
At the sight, Yu Tianheng's face immediately darkened.
For no other reason than that his path toward earning a Gold Soul Fighting Badge had been interrupted before the new year by an obscure team calling themselves monsters...
Thus, Xu Zi's act of "flashing his badge" was no different from killing a man and striking at his heart.
"In that case, the match continues," the head referee said.
He waved, signaling the two assistant referees to lift the injured competitors from the ground and swiftly withdraw from the arena with him.
"Does anyone want to experience the Blue Lightning Twin Stars' moves?"
Xu Zi abruptly addressed his five teammates.
All five looked eager to try, yet hesitant as well.
Xu Zi simply called one out by name. "Huang Su, I've heard that the Golden Crocodile King, the Golden Crocodile's next advancement, has a Martial Soul strength equal to a Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon that has grown dragon wings."
"Is that true or not?"
"It is." Huang Su did not deny it. "What you said is exactly what my maternal great-grandfather told me, Captain."
Xu Zi asked again, "Then why not step forward, knock these Twin Stars down, and raise yourself into a new star of the younger generation?"
"Well..." Huang Su hesitated.
Xu Zi did not wait. Instead, he called another name. "Tuoba She."
"Here," Tuoba She immediately answered.
Xu Zi asked, "Your Holy Dragon Sect's White Armored Earth Dragon Martial Soul has been suppressed by the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon for more than a dozen generations. Of everyone here, you know that generational resentment best."
"Well? The Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect's young sect master is right here. Aren't you going to vent some anger for the past generations of your Tuoba clan?"
"I..." Tuoba She was immediately tempted and was just about to step forward.
But at the sight of the Blue Lightning Twin Stars' wretched condition, he settled back into place and lowered his head.
Finally, Xu Zi looked at the three brothers.
But all he received was a single reply from the eldest. "Three against two, picking on the injured-that's too unfair."
An awkward silence followed.
Under those bright purple dragon eyes, none of the five dared look directly at the figure before that purple sun.
They knew Xu Zi was giving young masters like them an opportunity-an opportunity to make a name for themselves within their families, an opportunity to win a brighter future.
It would have been fine under the banner of a team match, but the scene before them had already gone beyond the competition itself and reached the level of the spirit of Soul Fighting.
Taking advantage of others' peril would make for a dishonorable victory and give others something to gossip about.
They would become officials and administrators in the future, and Spirit Hall, as the model for Soul Masters throughout the world, had to take such public talk seriously.
Those were the complicated reasons they were unwilling to take advantage of others' peril.
Unexpectedly, Xu Zi was not annoyed by this sight. Instead, he nodded in praise. "Worthy indeed of a tool Soul Master family favored by the Break Evil Dragon's soul. Good."
He looked around at his five teammates and made an unexpected suggestion. "Since you all uphold fairness and refuse to take advantage of others' peril, I won't force you."
"Leave the arena of your own accord. Next, I'll personally-see the Blue Lightning Twin Stars off."
"Yes, Captain." The five gave a church salute, then walked out of the Soul Fighting Plaza one after another.
There was no hesitation whatsoever. This was absolute trust.
Without Xu Zi holding the field, they would never even have made it past the Thunder Spider's electrified web and the Jade Phosphorus Snake Venom barrier. How could they have achieved their current result?
Watching the five leave, Xu Zi nodded inwardly. It seems this team of young masters will make good supporters for establishing a firm foundation for me in Douluo.
His bright purple dragon eyes turned back to the Blue Lightning Twin Stars.
At that moment, they still maintained their Dragon Transformation, in its most economical state.
For Dragon Transformation could suppress their injuries to a certain extent, and Xu Zi had just given them so much time to catch their breath.
Even meditating in secret would let them recover some Soul Power and stamina, however little.
"Well?" Xu Zi asked out of nowhere.
"You've done right by us," Yu Tianxin answered first.
If Spirit Hall Second Team defeated all seven of them with one member, their combined Imperial Fight and Thunder Team would become a joke, and the title of Blue Lightning Twin Stars would be reduced to a laughingstock.
But if the only people left standing in the arena at the end were the Blue Lightning Twin Stars and one member of Spirit Hall Second Team, then their Heaven Thunder Team... even in defeat, would lose splendidly.
With their minds now clear, they would hold nothing back.
"No matter which of us wins or loses next, as Heaven Thunder's captain, I'll concede defeat and withdraw," Yu Tianheng said, pride in his heart.
Even if they won two against one next, he would still count it as his loss.
"Good." Xu Zi clenched his amethyst dragon fist. "Come, Blue Lightning... no! It should be-"
"The Hengxin Combination."
At that moment, the final trace of sunset faded, and heaven and earth became one color.
A wisp of evening breeze swept through the night.
In the judges' seats, the high-ranking Soul Masters' eyes reflected the light.
Crackle!
They moved!
It was the lightning-wreathed side, charging.
Strengthened by Thunder's Wrath, both used their fourth Soul Skill at once: Blue Lightning Flying Dragon Rush.
At that moment, the Twin Stars no longer distinguished between themselves, intertwining into a single bolt of lightning that surged forward.
Two bodies, three legs-their three intact legs pushed off, unleashing one and a half times the speed, further enhanced by Dragon Transformation...
At that moment, in a posture almost bizarre yet incomparably coordinated, the two became lightning and tore through the night-
Xu Zi's bright purple slit pupils sharpened, and he abruptly whipped a punch outward.
An earthly fighting technique: tuck the right fist beneath the left ribs, then whip it outward, striking horizontally at the enemy's throat with the back of the hand and the four knuckles.
Bang! Crack!
The dragon fist squarely smashed a shield of lightning to pieces-Yu Tianxin's third Soul Skill, "Light Defense."
Just as it was about to hit Yu Tianxin's right cheek, Yu Tianheng's right hand, positioned between the two of them, pressed against it and blocked it.
Xu Zi had shattered a defensive Soul Skill barehanded. That was enough to shake people's hearts, but it could not shake the Twin Stars' conviction in the slightest.
At the same time, Yu Tianxin slashed a dragon claw down with his right hand, catching the crook of Xu Zi's blocking left arm, while raising his left foot high-the one with Yu Tianheng's broken leg bound to it.
A straight kick struck Xu Zi in the chest.
With the other two legs forming a triangular support, the kick carried tremendous force.
Yet it only made Xu Zi lean back slightly, failing to drive him back even half a step.
As Xu Zi drew back his right fist, his brows knitted into an inverted triangle. Yellow light burst from the outer ring of the sun behind him, and he was about to unleash "Will of Destruction."
But in the next instant, surging lightning erupted against his chest, blasting him backward and sending him toppling.
"Fuck!"
"You can release Dragon's Wrath with your foot, too?"