Xie Yue walked down from the Soul Fighting stage. "Yan, learn your lesson. Nana's second Soul Skill packs a punch. If you keep acting like before, you'll probably end up lying in the treatment room."
Although Yan was at a disadvantage against Hu Liena, he was not completely unable to fight back. The main problem was that the guy never learned.
"Nana, how about we have a match too?" Yan said.
"I definitely won't act like before this time!"
"Heh!" Hu Liena could not help rolling her eyes.
"Oh, please. Who knows how many times you've said that."
Every time, he said he would not be careless, yet every time, he fell for it!
Sometimes, she even suspected Yan did it on purpose. He was a masochist!
Giving this guy a beating was practically rewarding him!
"How about you two give it a try?" Xie Yue looked at Yan, then at Xuan Ming.
"You haven't done any Soul Fighting yet, have you?"
"No," Xuan Ming said.
"Brother." Hu Liena frowned.
"Xuan Ming is only six. He just obtained his Soul Ring and probably doesn't even know how to fight. How is he supposed to fight Yan?"
"It's not like you don't know this guy has no sense of restraint once he starts fighting. What if he hurts Xuan Ming?"
"Since when did I have no restraint?" Yan looked bewildered.
Seriously, why are they making it sound like I'm completely useless?
"But Yan has thick skin and tough flesh. He's quite suitable as a punching bag," Xie Yue said.
"A punching bag?" The corners of Yan's eyes twitched furiously.
Seriously, you too?
Xie Yue patted Yan's shoulder. "Just let Xuan Ming experience what Soul Fighting feels like. Besides, don't you want to see his Martial Soul?"
"Well..." Yan thought for a moment, then nodded.
"Fine, I'll have a match with him."
"What about you?" Xie Yue looked at Xuan Ming.
"Mm." Xuan Ming nodded.
He had never fought anyone before. Of the two times he had killed someone, the first had been a sneak attack, taking advantage of someone in distress. The second had also more or less been a sneak attack from behind. Besides, Baers had already been scared out of his wits and had been killed before he even released his Martial Soul.
"Be careful." Hu Liena looked at Yan.
Yan froze, feeling rather overwhelmed by her unexpected concern. "Nana, I'll be fine. Don't wor-"
"I meant be careful not to hurt Xuan Ming," Hu Liena said.
"Oh..." Yan wilted again.
After a brief explanation of the Soul Fighting rules, Yan and Xuan Ming stepped onto the stage.
When one side fell off the stage or voluntarily conceded, the match ended immediately, and the other side could no longer attack.
During the match, heavy blows, attacks on vital points, and attacks intended to damage the opponent's Martial Soul were strictly forbidden.
They were to stop short of causing harm.
"Don't be nervous. You're just getting a feel for it," Yan said.
"Mm." Xuan Ming raised his right hand, and a pitch-black spear with a dim, blood-red glow flickering at its tip appeared in his grasp.
Unlike before, however, faint flashes of black lightning flickered within that dim, blood-red glow.
"Xuan Ming. Martial Soul: Blood Spear. Rank thirteen."
"??!"
Yan looked utterly dumbfounded.
Wait, buddy, twin Martial Souls?!
Aren't you only six? How are you already rank thirteen?
Are you kidding me?!
"Is that... another Martial Soul?"
As they watched the blood-colored spear appear in Xuan Ming's hand, the dozens of spectators below the stage immediately began discussing it.
Anyone with functioning eyes could tell that Xuan Ming was a Soul Master with a mutated beast Martial Soul. The spear that had now appeared in his right hand was no ordinary weapon either. It was a Martial Soul!
Twin Martial Souls, just like the Pope?
"Nana, didn't you tell him he can't make things up when announcing his Soul Power Level?" Xie Yue said.
"I did." Hu Liena was rather bewildered too.
"Then why did he say he was rank thirteen?" Xie Yue asked in confusion.
"Isn't he only six and just got his Soul Ring?"
He should have been rank eleven after just obtaining his Soul Ring. How could he be rank thirteen?
"I don't know either. Grandpa Chrysanthemum told me," Hu Liena said.
"Besides, the color of his Soul Ring... is a little dark."
"..."
"Yan. Martial Soul: Flame Lord. Rank twenty-one."
After that brief moment of bewilderment, Yan quickly recovered and announced his Martial Soul and rank.
"Please show me what you've got."
"First Soul Skill: Thunderstorm!"
Xuan Ming chanted the soul incantation. His yellow Soul Ring flashed, and fierce black lightning erupted from the spear tip like little snakes.
The corners of Yan's eyes twitched slightly. "Next time you fight, test your opponent first. Don't unleash a Soul Skill right away."
"Soul Skills are for crucial moments, not for throwing out the instant you start."
"Mm," Xuan Ming answered, indicating that he had taken note.
Yan took a deep breath. "Come on, let me see your..."
"Second Soul Skill: Granite Rock!"
Before he could finish his pleasantries, Xuan Ming rapidly closed in with the Blood Spear in hand. Yan instantly felt the terrifying threat posed by that black lightning and hurriedly released his second Soul Skill, creating a block of granite coursing with scorching magma to shield himself.
Xuan Ming tightened his grip on the Blood Spear and swung hard, smashing the spear tip, wreathed in black lightning, into the Granite Rock.
Bang!
The black lightning exploded, shattering the Granite Rock outright as the spear continued slashing toward Yan behind it.
Yan's expression changed drastically, and he hurriedly raised his arms to block.
With most of its power weakened by the Granite Rock, the Blood Spear struck Yan's arm. Although it did not inflict much damage, the lightning that burst apart still spread over him, enveloping half his body.
Seeing that his attack had failed, Xuan Ming hurriedly retreated to put some distance between them.
"What the hell kind of Soul Skill is that?!"
Yan looked deeply unsettled. His arms still would not quite obey him, and he could barely even bend his fingers.
It blasted straight through my second Soul Skill, and this is his fucking first Soul Skill?!
He could understand lightning exploding, but the scattered lightning could actually "bite"!
Even stranger, the moment he touched that bizarre blood-colored spear, he had actually felt his Soul Power and stamina being drained away!
What the hell is that thing?!
The author is writing two works at once. Extra updates are really difficult, so I can only keep up regular updates...
But if I can write more, I'll do my best...
Chapter 41: Favoritism
"The power of his Soul Skill is a little beyond the norm."
As he looked at the shattered Granite Rock, Xie Yue's gaze changed.
The Granite Rock that even he could not cut through had been shattered in one blow?
"Killing aura..."
An elder who looked to be in his seventies or eighties approached, dressed in black robes.
"Headmaster Aola."
The students all bowed their heads in greeting.
"Mm." Headmaster Aola nodded and looked at Hu Liena.
"Was this child sent here by His Holiness the Pope?"
Twin Martial Souls, innate full Soul Power, and Hu Liena had personally taken him to register. There was no possibility other than his being one of the Pope's people.
"Mm." Hu Liena nodded.
"Headmaster Aola, can you tell what's going on with his Soul Skill?"
"There should be two main reasons," Headmaster Aola said.
"First, his first Soul Ring is at least eight hundred years old."
"Eight hundred?!" Hu Liena looked dumbfounded.
Wouldn't that make it older than even our second Soul Rings?
"This is my first time seeing such a situation too," Headmaster Aola said.
Spirit Hall had collected the most comprehensive and detailed records on the entire continent. Having taught here for decades, he already knew records of this kind by heart. Yet he could say with certainty that, at least in Spirit Hall's records, there had never been a first Soul Ring of such a high age.
"But even if his Soul Ring is that old, it shouldn't be so powerful," Xie Yue said.
The defense of Yan's Flame Lord Martial Soul was already particularly outrageous. Even some thousand-year power attack system Soul Skills could not break his second Soul Skill, Granite Rock!
Yet Xuan Ming had actually blasted that thing apart!
"So, the second point is that his Martial Soul itself possesses tremendous destructive power," Headmaster Aola said.
"Judging by destructive power alone, his Blood Spear... is probably no weaker than the Clear Sky Hammer."
Xie Yue's gaze changed. "The Clear Sky Hammer?"
The strongest tool Martial Soul on the Douluo Continent, renowned as number one in strength and the pinnacle of power among tool Martial Souls, it was the inherited Martial Soul of the Clear Sky Sect, the foremost of the Upper Three Sects and the number one sect under heaven.
Although his Moon Blade Martial Soul was also a top-tier tool Martial Soul, there was still a considerable gap between it and the Clear Sky Hammer in power.
"Besides, his Martial Soul seems capable of accumulating killing aura," Headmaster Aola said.
"Accumulating killing aura? What does that mean?" Xie Yue asked in confusion.
"Killing aura is a special kind of presence a person develops after excessive slaughter," Headmaster Aola said.
"Some Soul Masters with powerful spiritual strength can strengthen their killing aura by banishing distracting thoughts and maintaining pure killing intent. However, an ordinary person's killing aura can only act as a form of spiritual intimidation. Put plainly, it can frighten people, but it has no practical effect."
"But certain special tool Martial Souls can accumulate killing aura through slaughter. That kind of killing aura does more than frighten people. Not only can it break through many spiritual abilities, but it also holds a tremendous advantage in clashes of presence."
In battle, clashes of presence were extremely important. If Soul Masters were overwhelmed in presence alone, their confidence would inevitably be shaken.
If they lost their nerve before the battle even began, they would be unable to bring their full strength to bear.
Even if their chances had originally been fifty-fifty, once they were overwhelmed in presence, those odds could become forty-sixty, or even thirty-seventy.
"However, this kind of killing aura is also highly dangerous. One careless mistake can cause a backlash," Headmaster Aola said.
"A backlash?" Hu Liena froze.
"Why?"