Bang!
Xiao Yan and Dugu Yan clashed for the first time.
Soul Power surged, and fire and green poison exploded between their palms. The first exchange came to an end!
Pfft!
The girl went flying sideways, blood spilling from the corner of her mouth.
Xiao Yan was completely unharmed!
The intermediate arena fell deathly silent.
A top student of Heaven Dou Royal Academy, a genius among geniuses.
The vice-captain of the Imperial Fighting Team, a genius girl who had become a Silver Soul Fighter within a year, Poison Douluo's granddaughter, and the possessor of the Jade Phosphorus Snake Martial Soul.
Dugu Yan couldn't even withstand a single palm strike!
Gasp!
Many spectators held their breath, their eyes full of disbelief.
"How is that possible? Goddess Yanyan was driven back by a single palm strike!"
"A full five levels and one Soul Ring apart! Who on earth is this Xiao Yan, to defeat someone stronger than him from below!?"
Someone murmured, "Could he be a prodigy from Spirit City? I heard Spirit Hall recently, recently selected its Golden Generation. Could this Xiao Yan be one of them!?"
"Right, there are three people in the Golden Generation. Aside from a brother and sister, one of them happens to be a fire-attribute Soul Master!"
"That person's name is Yan!"
Yan.
Xiao Yan.
A small number of self-proclaimed experts thought they had already guessed the truth.
On the competition stage,
Dugu Yan steadied herself and wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth.
She frowned. "Are you really one of the three from Spirit Hall's younger generation!?"
Three Soul Rings, two yellow and one purple, circled her. Her presence was steadily rising, noticeably stronger than during their first clash. She was drawing on her true strength.
The Xiao Yan before her left her not daring to be careless in the slightest.
With only level twenty-six Soul Power, he could drive her back in a clash of palms reinforced with Soul Power. What did that mean!?
Either his Soul Power was highly concentrated, or he had cultivated a special palm-technique Soul Skill.
People like that were rarely born into ordinary families.
For that reason,
Even she was beginning to believe that Xiao Yan might really be that fire-attribute Soul Master of the younger generation: Yan.
"No," Xiao Yan answered simply.
"Then who exactly are you!?"
"Didn't I say it when I came out? Xiao Yan!"
A tiny flame sprang up and appeared on Xiao Yan's fingertip.
The eerie three-colored flame contained incomparably powerful strength!
Xiao Yan glanced at the flame and chuckled softly. "Names may be forgotten or remembered wrong, but I believe this flame will stay with you for the rest of your life, forever..."
"Etched into your bones and engraved on your heart!"
Boom!
Dugu Yan attacked again!
"You've only withstood one round of my attacks. Stop talking big!"
Amid a piercing shriek,
Her Third Soul Ring suddenly lit up, shimmering with purple light.
"Third Soul Skill: Jade Phosphor Purple Poison!"
This was a skill from a thousand-year Soul Beast!
Dugu Yan's originally emerald-green eyes abruptly turned purple, and her legs quietly transformed into a serpent's tail covered in emerald-green scales. She looked like a member of the legendary Nüwa Clan, an exceedingly strange sight.
Buzz!
She parted her lips and spat a dense purple mist from her fiery red mouth. In an instant, it spread across more than half the competition stage, gradually expanding as it drifted toward Xiao Yan!
The purple mist was like a great curtain, covering everything!
Black clouds pressed down on the city, threatening to bring it crashing down!
"A wide-area poison attack? No wonder you're a control-type Soul Master," Xiao Yan murmured, unperturbed.
So-called poison was nothing to him.
He had emerged from the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Spring and consumed two whole Immortal Herbs. His body had long since become immune to all poisons.
Besides, poison was yin in nature.
The Ultimate Fire Xiao Yan possessed was the emperor among flames, the utmost limit of fire. It was yang within yang, the fiercest of its kind, and could be said to have a natural suppressive effect on poison!
Flames roared out and burned away every trace of the poisonous mist.
A serpentine stench quietly dissipated.
The crackling of the flames rose and fell, accompanied by Dugu Yan's murderous glare.
"How is that possible?" Dugu Yan was dumbfounded.
It wasn't as though her Third Soul Skill had never met its match, but for a single casual strike to destroy it completely was highly abnormal!
This guy hadn't even used a Soul Ring yet!
Xiao Yan stood with his hands behind his back, his expression indifferent. He had been drawing on the power of his Martial Soul the entire time without summoning his Soul Rings.
"Again!"
"First Soul Skill: Jade Phosphorous Red Poison!"
"Second Soul Skill: Jade Phosphorous Blue Poison!"
Two Hundred-Year Soul Rings erupted with dazzling light.
Both of these hundred-year Soul Skills were amplification skills. For Soul Masters with Beast Martial Souls, they were indispensable, allowing them to bring their Beast Martial Souls to their utmost potential!
Dugu Yan's serpent tail glowed as she launched her attack.
Like a thunderclap startling a bowstring, her serpent tail swept out with a burst of force, gouging a trench across the competition stage wherever it passed.
"Here it comes, Goddess Yanyan's Self-Created Soul Skill! Her serpent tail can unleash her greatest strength!"
"A Beast Martial Soul Master's all-out attack, and there's also a gap of one Soul Ring and six levels of Soul Power. This Xiao Yan is in for a world of hurt!"
By comparison, Xiao Yan's attack seemed far more ordinary. He pushed out a flame-lit palm without any extraordinary display.
But the result took everyone by surprise!
The serpent tail went limp, and a layer of purplish scales fell away, stained with blood.
Dugu Yan was knocked out of her Martial Soul form and returned to human form, screaming as she flew sideways.
"Holy shit!"
Everyone in the stands was utterly dumbfounded!
"I think someone handed us the wrong script, or did the organizers slip a try-not-to-laugh challenge into tonight's event!?"
In the third row of the audience, Dai Mubai sprang to his feet, his eyes full of disbelief. His voice trembled as he said, "How can this guy possibly be so strong!!?"
Across a gap of six levels and one Soul Ring, he had defeated her in an instant!
And his opponent was none other than the genius girl Dugu Yan!
This guy hasn't been popping pills, has he!? Dai Mubai recalled his vigorous encounter with those twin sisters the night before last and wondered whether that miracle drug might also strengthen Soul Power!?
Having defeated his opponent in one move once again, Xiao Yan narrowed his eyes and smiled. "Looks like my fire is too strong. Your yin can't suppress me."
"Fire-attribute Soul Masters do suppress me, that's true, but how can you be so powerful? My Soul Power is so much higher, yet you make me feel like we're not even on the same level!?" Dugu Yan rasped, her body hunched over. Having been defeated in one move twice in a row, she was practically beginning to question her life.
Xiao Yan waved a hand. "Normally speaking, just in terms of how abundant our Soul Power is, your level thirty-one is nowhere near a match for my level twenty-six. After all..."
Boom!
Two Soul Rings slowly rose.
One platinum-white, one purple!
People might have thought the first Soul Ring was a Ten-Year Soul Ring and paid it no mind.
But the second Soul Ring!
The second ring, which should have been a pale yellow Hundred-Year Soul Ring, was unmistakably purple!
A purple surging with violet light!
Even among Thousand-Year Soul Rings, it was a high-grade Soul Ring!
The entire arena had fallen silent for Xiao Yan, who knew how many times now.
Under Dugu Yan's disbelieving gaze, Xiao Yan patted the girl's head and smiled. "That's just the Soul Rings. As for Martial Souls, how could a little Jade Phosphorous Serpent like you, who hasn't even fully developed yet, possibly compare to my Ultimate Fire?"
"Come back and talk when you've become a Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor."
(Everyone, please vote and add this to your collections. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.)
(End of chapter)