At that moment, in Wu Changkong's office.
His pen had just touched his lesson plan when it stopped.
Wu Changkong stared at the line before him, his eyes slowly losing focus.
His fingers froze around the pen, suspended in midair as if someone had pressed pause.
He looked out the window, toward the East Sea. Suddenly, he stood, his chair scraping across the floor with a piercing screech.
He looked in that direction.
His pupils shrank to pinpoints.
That presence.
He could never mistake it.
Even if he burned himself to ashes in this lifetime, he would never mistake that scent.
That person had pierced Long Bing's heart from behind.
And it was that same presence that had pinned him to Shrek's wall, leaving him with a horrific old injury.
Dark Hummingbird.
The father of the woman he loved. His enemy.
A barely audible laugh squeezed its way out of Wu Changkong's throat.
Terrifying ice-element Soul Power erupted in every direction without warning.
The lesson plan on his desk instantly froze into a solid block of ice, and the pen resting on it cracked.
Cracks spread outward from the center of the windowpane, and within three seconds, a layer of white frost covered the entire office.
The look in Wu Changkong's eyes was no longer one of anger.
There was nothing in them, only a frightening emptiness, with a speck of blue-white light burning in their depths.
"Heavenly Ice."
The two words came through clenched teeth.
Two-Word Battle Armor formed around him inch by inch, ice-blue plates climbing over his skin, covering his shoulders, arms and chest before finally closing over his face.
He turned his right hand, and the Heavenly Frost Sword appeared in his grip. The chill from its blade froze the surrounding air until it crackled.
Six Soul Rings lit up beneath his feet in succession. Two yellow, two purple and two black.
He stamped his foot.
The floor tiles shattered. He had already burst through the window, shooting toward the East Sea like lightning. A second after he left, the pothos he had tended for three years on the windowsill froze into a green ice sculpture, pot and all.
Above the East Sea.
The wind howled. Waves surged one after another.
Qing Linyun stood in midair, the wind billowing his school uniform jacket behind him. Several hundred meters away, Dark Hummingbird hovered opposite him, his gray-green windbreaker already swollen like a sail.
Neither of them moved first.
Behind Qing Linyun, the phantom of the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger had emerged.
Seven Soul Rings pulsed slowly beneath his feet, four black below and three red above. The three red rings flooded the entire sea surface with scarlet.
Dark Hummingbird narrowed his eyes.
His Martial Soul also appeared behind him: Wind Tail Spike, an inky-green spike over two meters long, its tip glimmering with an eerie green light.
Nine Soul Rings rose beneath his feet: two purple, six black and one red.
The pressure of a Level 98 Super Douluo swept across the sea, pressing the water down a layer.
"Wuji."
Qing Linyun spoke the name calmly.
Two-Word Battle Armor instantly enveloped him.
Black-and-gold plates fitted themselves to the back of his neck, spreading down his spine and over his limbs before tightening around his wrists and ankles.
His presence surged upward with a hum. The face that had still borne a trace of boyishness turned utterly cold.
He even tilted his head, as if examining some rare curiosity.
The sight sent a chill down the back of Dark Hummingbird's neck.
Something was wrong.
This brat was a little too composed.
So composed that something was off.
He was a mere teenage brat. Facing a Level 98 like him, even if he were confident of victory, he shouldn't have looked like that.
And hadn't the brat looked ready to die just moments ago? How was he so confident now? Could it be a trap?
Better be careful, Dark Hummingbird thought. Three-Word Battle Armor immediately enveloped him, its dark green plates wrapping him up like a zongzi.
He had only just secured his Battle Armor when the person before him vanished.
It wasn't speed. He had vanished into thin air.
Even the faint fluctuations of Soul Power in the air disappeared with him, as if the figure standing there a moment ago had been an illusion.
First Soul Skill, Eternal Night.
A half-domain skill.
Qing Linyun silently recited the words, and the first black Soul Ring beneath his feet began to pulse.
The entire world went dark in an instant.
It wasn't nightfall, but a darkness that devoured even light. Across several hundred meters of sea, above, below and on every side, was ink so thick it would not disperse.
It made no difference whether Dark Hummingbird opened or closed his eyes.
He couldn't see a thing, plain and simple.
He didn't panic.
He was, after all, an old monster who had run rampant across the continent for decades. What hadn't he seen? It was just a domain-type Soul Skill. If his eyes wouldn't work, he simply wouldn't rely on them.
His spiritual power spread out in a flash, casting itself in every direction like a great net.
As soon as he cast the net, he couldn't help clicking his tongue inwardly.
The solidity of this domain, its range-this brat's talent was frighteningly good.
With talent like that, any major power would have treasured him.
Unfortunately, he had been born on the wrong side.
Today, he is destined to be slain here by my hand.
At the same time, the first purple Soul Ring beneath his feet flashed.
First Soul Skill, Bee Sting. An inky-green spike shot soundlessly through the darkness, heading straight for the faint Soul Power fluctuation caught in his spiritual power net.
Qing Linyun merely shifted slightly to one side.
The Bee Sting flew past the hem of his clothes without touching a hair on his head.
He even smiled.
That's it?
The second black Soul Ring beneath his feet flashed in turn.
"Evil God's Eye."
The Second Soul Skill activated.
Under the cover of Eternal Night, an invisible spiritual ray pierced straight into Dark Hummingbird's Sea of Consciousness.
Dark Hummingbird's spiritual power net didn't last even a second before a hole was torn in it.
A cold, sinister will slipped through the opening, coiling around his soul like a venomous snake.
His whole body abruptly stiffened.
It felt as though someone had swung an iron hammer through his brain, smashing from the back of his head to his forehead.
His ears rang, stars burst before his eyes, and he nearly forgot who he was.
At that moment, Dark Hummingbird might not even have recognized his own mother.
Worse still, an inexplicable chill welled up inside him. His Soul Power circulation slowed by half a beat, and his limbs and bones felt as though they had been filled with lead, so heavy he couldn't move at all.
In that half-second opening.
The Soul Ring in the fifth position beneath Qing Linyun's feet-his first red ring-blazed to life.
"Hell of Finality."
Fifth Soul Skill.
A dark purple storm erupted in the darkness, its winds carrying the Evil God's presence as they slammed into Dark Hummingbird. The demonic winds kept turning into the hardest blades, slashing and gouging him.
Dark Hummingbird took the storm head-on, and a crack appeared in the chest of his Three-Word Battle Armor.
Immediately afterward.
The third black Soul Ring beneath Qing Linyun's feet flashed again.
"Evil God Claw."
Third Soul Skill.
A massive dark purple claw, formed from pure void power, came crashing down over Dark Hummingbird's head.
The claw ignored all defenses. When it struck his Battle Armor, the left shoulder of his Three-Word Battle Armor shattered into shards of metal.
True damage seeped through the gaps in the armor, and a sweet taste rose in his throat.
The blow sent Dark Hummingbird plummeting more than ten meters, and he sprayed a mouthful of blood across his Battle Armor's faceplate.
His presence visibly weakened.
But the strike also allowed him to pinpoint Qing Linyun's position.
The black Soul Ring in the seventh position beneath his feet blazed.
Seventh Soul Skill, Martial Soul Avatar.
A cloud of inky-green light rose from Dark Hummingbird, and his body swelled.
Using the recoil from the blows he had just taken, he kicked off and closed in like an inky-green cannonball.
The speed of an agility-type Super Douluo reached its limit at that moment.
The red Soul Ring at the very top lit up in turn.
Ninth Soul Skill, Death God's Blade.
A blade appeared in his right hand.
It was dark purple from end to end, and power that made the scalp tingle churned along its edge.
He held nothing back in that slash.
He knew his spirit had been wounded and his Battle Armor damaged. If this dragged on, he would surely die. This slash had to cleave the brat before him in two.
"Die, brat!"