He strolled back to Spirit Hall Academy.
Night had only just fallen.
The premium residential district was already shrouded in stillness.
Before he reached the courtyard gate, a streak of brilliant flame plunged from the low clouds and flew soundlessly through a third-floor window of the villa before him.
Xu Zi smiled, shook his head, and quickly pushed the door open.
He switched on a dim yellow lamp in the small sitting room and began his daily routine:
Steep the tea, mix the milk, dissolve the sugar...
Drinking milk tea regularly in the real world was not only unhealthy, but also caused excessive fat accumulation.
But not on the Douluo Continent.
Because calories were also a form of energy, and for light and fire Soul Masters, they became a cultivation resource when put to good use.
Of course, for someone like Ma Hongjun, plagued by Evil Fire and fire poison, getting out of shape from excessive eating and drinking was perfectly normal. After all, he could not burn it off.
Just as Xu Zi quietly concentrated on adjusting the proportions...
A warm breeze suddenly swept against his back.
"I was wondering why you were taking so long to come upstairs. So our great imperial prince Xu was personally tending the cooking again."
Ling Yuan leaned her head down beside his left shoulder.
She wore loose lounge clothes and shorts, clearly having gotten ready upstairs long ago.
Xu Zi handed her a cup and countered, "I'm just an ordinary member of the imperial family. My eldest imperial brother is the crown prince regent, someone who awakened Twin Martial Souls-a talent seen only once in a thousand years."
"Beside him, I'm a firefly peering up at the brilliant moon, not worth mentioning."
"Twin Martial Souls?" Something occurred to Ling Yuan, and she said in surprise, "Just like Her Majesty."
She could not help asking, "Which two Martial Souls? What level is he now?"
"Sun and Silver Moon." Surprisingly, Xu Zi did not conceal it. "He's ten years older than me. With support from the Sun Imperial Family and Silver Moon Douluo, he practically has half a continent's resources gathered around him, with everything going his way."
"When I escaped, he was already a high-level Soul Emperor. Three years have passed now. I reckon he's even cultivated his Silver Moon Martial Soul Avatar..."
"Huh? Sun and Silver Moon, sun and moon..." Ling Yuan murmured.
Then she shook her head. "Well, no wonder he's the crown prince."
"Exactly. I ran away because I was afraid of being made to pay." Xu Zi sipped his milk tea, appearing quite carefree, as though he had never cared about the past.
"Oh, right..." Ling Yuan seemed to remember something.
She pressed further. "Didn't you say before that the Sun Martial Soul had a chance of mutating into the Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon?"
"Do you think that eldest imperial brother of yours might also...?"
"Mm." Xu Zi swallowed a mouthful and nodded in agreement. "It's very possible. After all, he has Innate Full Soul Power. His talent goes without saying."
"For members of our Sun Imperial Family, only after forming a Martial Soul Avatar do we possess the physical and mental strength to bear the descent of the Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon."
"And only the Sun Martial Soul Avatar can serve as the vessel to nurture a Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon."
"Hmm?" Ling Yuan frowned, picking out the crucial point. "Then where did your Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon Martial Soul come from, if you don't have a vessel?"
"Hahaha."
Xu Zi laughed at himself and replied, "Eating random fruit and swallowing random medicine, of course. After all, this Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon of mine is, at most... a half-finished product. How could it compare to a genuine, fully mutated form?"
When discussing one's greatest secrets, a person always had to keep something back.
Thus, Xu Zi did not mention that his Martial Soul was undergoing atavism toward the Dragon God's Companion.
"Even a half-finished product is this powerful..."
Recalling the supreme might of the Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon Martial Soul tonight and yesterday, Ling Yuan could not help imagining it. "Wouldn't a finished, complete form be a god-level Martial Soul?"
"Who knows? There are some rough accounts in the ancestral records, but I've never actually seen one." Xu Zi shook his head and drained the last mouthful.
Only then did Ling Yuan realize-she had not taken a single sip.
She lifted her teacup while it was still warm and spread two documents across the white marble table.
"Here, these are the arrangements for tomorrow's semifinals. I specifically arranged a suitable opponent for you."
Xu Zi picked them up, his first glance falling on the first line of the front page:
Godwind Academy, Wind Fire Team.
He could not help raising an eyebrow and silently nodding. Mm, indeed.
The Wind Fire Team: three wind, four fire, with wind fanning the flames.
In the upcoming plot, this team's strength would rank among the top three in the tournament.
Looking back at the Heaven Dou Division, before the Godwind Academy Team upgraded into the Wind Fire Team.
Under Feng Xiaotian's leadership alone, they had not only won match after match, but also defeated two powerful teams in succession: Skywater and Thunderclap.
Had his simp mentality not acted up, making him deliberately surrender to Blazing Fire Academy...
The Divine Wind Team might truly have had a chance to become the strongest team in the Heaven Dou Division.
And now they had even incorporated the Blazing Fire Team's core members.
But assigning them to Xu Zi as opponents...
Looking at the four core Blazing Fire members among the Wind Fire Team's seven starters on the roster-
Xu Zi immediately revealed the same barely suppressed smile he had worn while watching the Heaven Thunder Team.
Even without using his Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon Martial Soul, his purple sun alone had nothing to fear from this "wind fanning the flames."
One could even say that all light-attribute and fire-attribute energy would serve as nourishment for his second Soul Skill, "Devour the Sun."
Thus, Ling Yuan's behind-the-scenes manipulation had made things much easier for Xu Zi. She had certainly put thought into it.
After all, the Heaven Thunder Team still had one way to break the deadlock: Ye Lingling.
The Wind Fire Team had nothing at all. They were simply countered by the Purple Sun.
Of course, although Xu Zi's second Soul Skill could devour anything, it could not absorb everything.
Because the essence of "Purple Dragon Devours the Sun" was "Devour the Sun," not "Purple Dragon Devours."
The Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon was merely the vessel after the "sun" finished devouring, while the purplish-black "dragon pearl" in its mouth was actually another form of the Sun Martial Soul: a dead star.
In other words, a black hole formed from a collapsed sun.
Thus, his second Soul Skill was actually a two-in-one Soul Skill, with the Sun Martial Soul as the primary component and the Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon as the secondary.
Therefore, when the Purple Sun devoured energy or matter that was neither light nor fire, not only could it not absorb it, but it would also have some of its light and fire "extinguished."
The light and fire within the Purple Sun were, plainly speaking, Xu Zi's Soul Power as a Soul Master.
For example, when he ambushed the Ice Phoenix yesterday and swallowed it in two bites, Xu Zi had expended a considerable amount of Soul Power to neutralize its ice-and-snow-attribute energy.
Fortunately, the Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon had come through and chewed it up anyway.
However, his inability to absorb the ice and snow attribute at this stage was only temporary.
If Xu Zi chose the Dragon God's path in the future, branching into varied studies and delving into the ice and snow attribute, he could also use ice and snow as nourishment.
After all, the ancestor of the Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon and the Dragon God were born of the same mother.
The nine attributes that the Dragon God had painstakingly studied could likewise be developed by the Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon. It was simply a question of whether Xu Zi was willing to spend the time and Soul Ring slots on that path.
But Xu Zi had long since made his decision on this matter-
He would neither follow the Nine-Colored Dragon God's path of varied studies nor the path of destruction taken by the ancestor of the Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon.
He would persist along the strength-attribute path. Comprehending the Law of Strength and becoming a god was the true path of the strength dragon lineage.
He wanted to discover the truth about that mother dragon who could pass Ultimate Strength and the Power of Destruction to her descendants simply by giving birth.
Just how mighty and powerful was the birth mother shared by the ancestor of the Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon and the Dragon God?