The Soul Fighting platform in the small square inside the Supreme Pontiff Palace followed the most standardized specifications on the continent: seven chi and seven cun high, with a radius of five hundred centimeters.
The platforms used during the one-on-one stage of the Soul Master Tournament were built to precisely the same specifications as the one beneath their feet.
The character for "combat" was inlaid in the center of the platform.
Xu Zi had just taken his place on one side of the character when chirping birdsong came from the other. "Huang Ying, level 44 control- and support-type Battle Soul Ancestor. Martial Soul: Golden Bird."
Four rings-yellow, yellow, purple, purple-spiraled upward as Huang Ying studied him with interest.
"Her Majesty thinks very highly of you, junior."
Xu Zi drew a conclusion from her words. "It seems you don't know my identity, senior."
Otherwise, her first words would not have mentioned the Supreme Pontiff's regard for him, but asked about his background and identity in Sun Moon.
Huang Ying smiled. "Your identity? There's no need to ask. Once you reveal your Martial Soul, one look will tell me which secluded clan stands behind you."
"Then I'm afraid I'll disappoint you, senior." Xu Zi widened his stance, planting his feet in an inverted V on the Soul Fighting platform. An imposing presence rose from the ground, causing the expressions of the two women before and behind him to shift slightly.
Scorching heat blazed from behind Xu Zi. Amid light stretching a hundred zhang, a Purple Sun slowly rose.
Two yellow rings of light revolved around Xu Zi's lower legs as his Martial Soul hovered between concealment and revelation.
He lifted his right hand, palm upward, and returned her introduction. "Xu Zi, level 30 Power Attack System Soul Grandmaster. Martial Soul: Purple Sun."
"Purple Sun? A purple-colored sun?" Huang Ying raised an eyebrow across from him, seeing him in a somewhat new light. "You have a Golden Configuration too? And those rings look quite old."
Xu Zi sidestepped the question of his Soul Rings' ages. "Then have you identified the clan behind me, senior?"
"Hmm..." Huang Ying rested the knuckle of her index finger against her chin, pondered for a while, then shook her head.
Only Bibi Dong's eyes lit up. "Is it the same type of Martial Soul as She Long's?" she murmured.
She planted her scepter against the floor tiles and gave the order. "Begin."
A yellow ring of light flashed beside Huang Ying's legs. She held up one finger. "Don't say I didn't warn you, junior. This is the first move."
"Woo-lo!"
A sharply starting and stopping note rang swiftly from Huang Ying's throat, turning piercing under the enhancement of her Soul Skill.
Fortunately, Xu Zi had prepared for it. With his quick reactions, he immediately moved the Purple Sun in front of himself, attempting to take the attack head-on with it.
However...
Although the Purple Sun swallowed the primary note for Xu Zi, Huang Ying abruptly extended a second finger, and her purple third ring lit up right after it!
The primary note had been swallowed, but its echoes spread in every direction. After striking all four walls of the hall, they became wave after wave of her third Soul Skill, "Echo," surging toward Xu Zi like a whirlpool!
Cover his ears? Too late, and it would not stop it.
Sound was a peculiar existence, poised between the intangible and the tangible.
Sound-wave Soul Skills could damage both objects and living bodies, and could also act on the spiritual level. They could be called perfect Soul Skills that attacked on two fronts.
Just as Huang Ying thought, Two moves to take him down. A perfect finish...
A savage dragon's low growl, mingled with a slightly pained hiss, suddenly rang out beneath the Purple Sun's radiance.
It was that Purple Sun, crashing toward its host's body as brilliant purple light sprayed in all directions.
The two Soul Rings beside Xu Zi's feet rapidly changed color. Before the transformation finished, however, the hundred-year first ring beside his legs flashed, and a tremendous surge of spiritual power rose immediately afterward!
The inverted triangle of skin encompassing Xu Zi's eyes and the space between his brows instantly furrowed into a dragon's brow. A spiritual attack Soul Skill thundered forth!
That was right. The hundred-year first ring of his two-as-one Martial Soul-the Purple Sun and the Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon-was actually a spiritual-type Soul Ring?!
It truly made jaws drop.
In the eyes of onlookers, however, faced with sound-wave attacks coming from every direction without a single blind spot, Xu Zi had merely activated Martial Soul Possession for one second, then spent another half-second glaring toward Huang Ying.
But his first Soul Skill had already activated.
What the Fear Demon Dragon's Soul Ring had become: Will of Destruction!
As the second second elapsed, the brilliant purple light dispersed. Xu Zi stood firm where he was, and the second ring beside his lower legs vanished without a trace before it could reveal its purple color.
He had emerged from the sound-wave Soul Skill completely unscathed.
His only strategy had been to enter Martial Soul Possession for a second and a half, then withdraw from it at top speed.
Even Bibi Dong watched with a strange expression.
The odd atmosphere did not last long. As Xu Zi cupped his fist in salute, he broke the silence.
"Sorry for the offense, senior. Thank you for going easy on me."
Yet across the character for "combat," Huang Ying stood frozen on the Soul Fighting platform, her beautiful eyes wide and not a word leaving her lips.
Bibi Dong took in the sight and recognized that something was wrong with her prized student.
Just as Xu Zi finished his salute and turned around, Huang Ying seemed to wake from a daze.
She felt only a rush of heat in the five openings of her eyes, ears, and nose. The next moment, thin streams of blood trickled from all five, and no matter how she wiped, she could not wipe them clean.
With a thud, Huang Ying collapsed to her knees, drained of strength. She extended fingers covered in blood and called helplessly in a low voice, "Y-Your Majesty..."
Xu Zi watched with a calm expression, while a purple figure came streaking toward him from behind...
A Soul Master with the dual attributes of light and strength, whose Martial Soul belonged to the Power Attack System, choosing a spiritual-type Soul Ring for his first Soul Skill-anyone who heard of it would laugh and call him an idiot.
But-
The Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon Martial Soul, a dragon Martial Soul that controlled destruction, had already become a genuine god-level Martial Soul after the Dragon Scale Fruit's medicinal effect brought it "closer to the strongest ancestral bloodline."
Since its quality had already approached that of the Dragon God's companion, it could naturally reproduce a derivative of the Destruction Godhead, an existence above spiritual power: will.
As the Martial Soul's host, every time Xu Zi activated Martial Soul Possession, he had to endure not only the power of destruction coursing through his body, but also the Will of Destruction pouring into his head.
This was also one reason he used Martial Soul Possession for such short periods.
Fortunately, the Sun Martial Soul, that "eggshell," still remained, containing the power of destruction and the Will of Destruction. Otherwise, they would cause extremely severe harm to the host.
Yet a danger was often a sharp weapon pointed in the wrong direction.
So, "to turn harm into personal advantage," Xu Zi broke free of rigid thinking about Soul Ring selection. For the first ring of his Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon Martial Soul, he had not chosen any sort of frenzied power-attack Soul Skill.
Instead, he chose the spiritual-type dragon Soul Beast, the Fear Demon Dragon, as his Soul Ring, successfully turning the Will of Destruction-the guillotine blade hanging over his own head-into a sharp spiritual blade he could wield.
If, when the Purple Sun brought the Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon into possession, the Will of Destruction was an ownerless blade falling freely toward you, then using the first Soul Skill meant gripping that blade of the Will of Destruction... and stabbing it viciously forward!
Thus, when the Golden Bird's third Soul Skill, "Echo Sound Wave," surged toward him, the glare Xu Zi delivered during those two seconds of Martial Soul Possession drove the Will of Destruction through the entire sound wave at a single point, destroying it without a trace.