The Soul Power within Xiao Yan surged forth in an instant. Using Swift Step, he rapidly closed the distance between himself and the Jia Lie Family guard.
"How arrogant!"
Seeing Xiao Yan advance instead of retreating, his opponent's eyes filled with a trace of mockery.
He admitted that Xiao Yan's talent surpassed everyone else's, but for now, he was nothing more than a greenhorn who still smelled of his mother's milk.
Daring to fight him now was like lighting a lantern in a latrine-looking for death.
"Whoosh!"
Xiao Yan's hands formed claws and struck for the young man's throat, only to meet a pair of iron fists halfway there.
"Bang!"
"Xiao Yan, arrogance comes at a price!"
The young man easily blocked Xiao Yan's attack and advanced with steady steps. His strength had already reached that of a Three-Star Dou Zhe, so he was naturally full of confidence against Xiao Yan.
"Swish!"
A sound of rushing wind rang out. From that exchange, Xiao Yan had already felt the pressure: his opponent could easily block his Dou Technique.
The combat strength of the two worlds seems a little off...
Xiao Yan focused. With his current strength as a level twenty-one Soul Grandmaster, even an ordinary level twenty-five Soul Grandmaster could not have blocked the Dou Technique he had just unleashed at full power so effortlessly.
Sensing the surging presence of the young man, Xiao Yan narrowed his eyes slightly. A Yellow Soul Ring suddenly appeared beneath his feet.
"Cold Fire, Condensed Soul Stab!"
The Bone Spirit Cold Flame Martial Soul emerged from Xiao Yan's palm and, under the effect of his first Soul Skill, condensed into an ice-crystal spear roughly two meters long.
"What the hell is that?"
The young man opposite him looked at the Yellow Soul Ring beneath Xiao Yan's feet, a trace of confusion flashing in his eyes.
Then he saw the ice-crystal spear that had suddenly appeared in Xiao Yan's hand.
"A storage ring?"
Narrowing his eyes slightly, the young man fixed his gaze on the ice-crystal spear in Xiao Yan's hand. Waves of cold air radiated from it, making him uncomfortable.
Behind Xiao Yan, Xun'er's previously calm expression broke the instant he revealed his Bone Spirit Cold Flame Martial Soul, and a trace of astonishment appeared on her face.
"Is that... Bone Spirit Cold Flame?"
Xun'er tilted her head slightly, confusion flashing in her eyes. Then she shook her head. "Not quite. It doesn't have the violent, destructive presence of a Heavenly Flame..."
"Brother Xiao Yan, you really have given Xun'er so many surprises..."
"Swish!"
Spear in hand, Xiao Yan thrust at the young man, his ten-year-old body wielding a spear some two meters long.
The strange sight also caught the attention of the people in the marketplace.
"Damn it, the Ao Ba Family is involved too!"
A Xiao Clan guard spotted members of the Ao Ba Family hidden among the Jia Lie Family's men and attacked in fury.
The young man facing Xiao Yan saw him attack with the spear, and disdain flashed in his eyes. He reached for the front half of the ice-crystal spear, mocking him as he did so:
"A little brat who hasn't even grown all his hair yet, and you're putting on a show with a spear..."
As he taunted Xiao Yan, the young man's hand closed around the spear.
Cold!
The moment his palm touched the spear, the young man felt a chill strike his hand and invade his body through it.
The Dou Qi within him seemed to freeze under the chill.
Even his thoughts grew a little sluggish because of the cold.
"Whoosh!"
That was the opportunity Xiao Yan had been waiting for. The instant his opponent was distracted, he swept his spear sideways at the young man's neck.
"Whoosh!"
The young man, however, was extremely experienced in battle. Though he had grown a little sluggish, a fighter's instincts made him recoil at the critical moment.
The spear tip grazed his neck, leaving a bloody cut that immediately froze over as the chill continued to invade his body.
Even so, it had fallen just short of killing him.
Having snatched his life back from the gates of hell, the young man's lingering fear and joy at escaping death ultimately turned into extreme rage.
He stared at Xiao Yan with blood-red eyes, pulled a jade bottle from his robes, and swallowed a pockmarked pill from inside it.
"Xiao Yan!"
Boom!
After he swallowed the pill, the Bloodline Power within him surged dramatically. His eyes turned blood-red from the congestion, and his entire being now seemed incomparably frenzied.
Xiao Yan could feel the presence radiating from the young man growing more powerful and violent.
Even the ice crystals formed by Bone Spirit Cold Flame on his neck showed signs of melting. After all, this was only the first Soul Skill of the Martial Soul Xiao Yan currently possessed.
"Bloodburst Pill! For the time it takes an incense stick to burn after swallowing it, it can stimulate a person's full potential and unleash strength beyond their peak. But once that time is up, they'll fall into a state of utter weakness, helpless before anyone who wants to slaughter them."
Xun'er's timely explanation came from behind Xiao Yan, though her tone had grown somewhat serious.
After all, even she had never seen these things on her Brother Xiao Yan before today.
What was that yellow ring?
And that Bone Spirit Cold Flame, and the ice-crystal spear it had formed...
"Bloodburst Pill..."
Xiao Yan's gaze settled on the young man, his eyes narrowing slightly.
"Second Soul Skill, Cold Flame · Soul Armor!"
As Xiao Yan's voice fell, another Yellow Soul Ring rose from beneath his feet. The Soul Power within him surged, then transformed into a layer of translucent, pale ice-crystal armor that enveloped his body.
Cold Flame · Soul Armor!
It was the second Soul Skill Xiao Yan had acquired after breaking through to the Soul Grandmaster realm.
He had obtained the Soul Skill after hunting down a six-hundred-year-old, fire-attribute Back Flame Turtle Soul Beast.
Effect: Bone Spirit Cold Flame covered the entire body, forming a layer of translucent, pale ice-crystal armor.
It provided excellent defense, and attackers who touched the armor would feel a bone-piercing chill. It could effectively weaken mental impacts and soul attacks, and had a purifying and burning effect on evil thoughts.
But on the Dou Qi Continent, there had never been such a thing as a Soul Skill.
The Soul Skill that appeared over Xiao Yan's body left the young man rooted to the spot.
"Dou Qi Armor?!"
He could not understand why Dou Qi Armor, which only a Da Dou Shi could form on the surface of the body from Dou Qi, had appeared on Xiao Yan, who was only six years old.
Even Xun'er, behind Xiao Yan, now had a grave look in her eyes, her beautiful eyes tightly knitted together.
Xiao Yan, however, would not give the young man a chance to have his questions answered.
With Soul Armor covering his body and the spear in his hand, Xiao Yan leaped high and brought the weapon crashing down on the young man's head.
The young man had been stunned for an instant, and it was already too late to dodge. He could only raise both hands over his head, a trace of madness flashing in his eyes.
"I don't believe it! It has to be a trick."
He had swallowed the Bloodburst Pill for Xiao Yan. As long as he succeeded, the weakness afterward would be insignificant compared to the reward from his family.
But if he failed to kill Xiao Yan, the road ahead for him, having taken the Bloodburst Pill, would also come to an end.
"Bang!"
The ice-crystal spear crashed onto the young man's forearms, and a series of cracking sounds rang out. The spear in Xiao Yan's hand had already taken a direct hit from the young man, and under this blow, it finally shattered.
"Crack..."
The young man's left arm visibly bent and broke, while his right palm struck toward Xiao Yan's chest.
"Bang!"
His palm collided with the Soul Armor on Xiao Yan's chest. Though it injured Xiao Yan, the blow was not fatal. When his palm touched the Soul Armor, the chill enveloped him, and the young man's thoughts and movements began to falter.
"Cold Fire, Condensed Soul Stab!"
Xiao Yan used the force of the young man's palm strike to drift backward and unleashed his first Soul Skill again. Ice crystals took shape one after another behind him, then pierced the young man's body as his face filled with unwillingness.
"Puchi!"
A succession of sounds rang out as they pierced his flesh. As the chill of Condensed Soul Stab spread, the young man's corpse became covered in white frost, resembling an ice sculpture.