Xiao Yan stood on the arena with his eyes half closed and his hands behind his back, his black robes stirring without a breeze. Though he had yet to reach the two-ring cultivation level, he still made all the youths present feel a faint pressure.
This youth was definitely no ordinary person.
"Brat, don't be so arrogant!" A surge of Soul Power suddenly erupted, forming a powerful line of fire that swept toward Xiao Yan. At the same time, a massive black shadow appeared behind him and slammed down at him!
Boom!
A cloud of black smoke completely obscured the spectators' view, and silence fell. Suddenly, a flame rose from the smoke and shot toward the edge of the arena. In an instant, it struck a youth squarely in the chest, sending him flying several meters.
As the smoke and dust gradually cleared, everyone saw that the huge shadow was a Soul Master with a bear-type Martial Soul. His arms had swollen to an astonishing size, as though they held boundless strength, yet Xiao Yan held him up with one hand as if it were nothing. Xiao Yan gave him a gentle push, and the Soul Master was unable to resist, toppling backward. Before he could fall, however, a kick sent him flying. He landed on top of the youth struck down by the flames earlier and lost consciousness.
The battle had ended in the blink of an eye.
Anyone with a discerning eye could see that Xiao Yan had seized control of the flames sent against him and turned them back on his enemy. The bear-type Soul Master's strength was nothing to scoff at either, yet Xiao Yan had stopped him with one hand. Those two were among the finest young Soul Masters in Spirit Hall, yet neither had lasted two exchanges against Xiao Yan before being defeated.
"Now, does anyone else want to challenge me?" Xiao Yan asked calmly. The crowd around him was silent as a graveyard; no one dared to cross this fearsome god again.
Xiao Yan looked at the silent crowd and nodded slightly, as though he were quite pleased. In truth, he breathed a heavy sigh of relief.
"You were scared to death, so why go looking for trouble?" Yan Xiao asked with a laugh. He didn't know why Xiao Yan had declared war on the entire younger generation of Spirit Hall the moment he left the Pope's Palace.
"I'm not stupid. Of course I know doing this would make people hate me." Xiao Yan smiled helplessly and said, "I'm not a fool who goes looking for trouble for no reason. Now that I've become Teacher's student, even though I trust in Teacher's status and strength, there are bound to be plenty of ignorant people who envy my position and come looking for trouble later." He spread his hands. "I don't have time to waste on them. I might as well show them an invincible bearing from the start and prove that Teacher's judgment wasn't wrong and that they aren't qualified to question it."
"You may be young, but your thinking is mature," Yan Xiao said. He knew that Xiao Yan had once been a great expert from another world, but part of his spiritual power had been split off to become Yan Xiao, and his mind and body had been suppressed to an infant's from the very beginning. The Xiao Yan of now was in fact only a six-year-old boy, so having such scheming ability was no small feat.
He had achieved his goal of proving himself and suppressing the petty schemers. Xiao Yan smiled in satisfaction and turned to leave, only to feel a scorching, weighty pressure bearing down on him.
Xiao Yan was delighted. An unexpected bonus?
He turned to see a sturdily built youth walking toward him with heavy steps. The youth had long, fiery red hair and flame patterns covering his entire body. He grinned at Xiao Yan.
"Little Brother Xiao, how about the two of us have a spar?"
With that, he slammed his right foot into the ground, and the force of the impact caved in the center of the arena, leaving a huge crater. Three Soul Rings rose one after another from beneath his feet: yellow, yellow, purple. It was unmistakably the perfect configuration, showing that he too was someone Spirit Hall had singled out for special training.
"Yan, Martial Soul: Flame Lord, level thirty-six Battle Soul Elder. Please enlighten me!"