stonecrandall Chapter 42 Establishing Authority and Deterrence
Chapter 42 Establishing Authority and Deterrence
Cain's gaze sharpened. Kong Tianxu remained silent, but based on their years of tacit understanding, she knew this meant she was to handle it herself. Facing the attack, clearly enhanced by a soul skill, she neither dodged nor evaded, but instead lightly probed with her hand—
A streak of dark golden light flashed past! Even the air itself seemed to hiss and crackle slightly.
Zhao Gou felt an unparalleled sharpness rushing towards him. His once invincible Golden Body Soul Skill was instantly broken, and his proud Golden Bear Martial Soul seemed to have been pierced by some sharp weapon and immediately became weak.
He groaned and collapsed to the ground. With a "rip," his excellent new school uniform ripped in the middle. A line of blood could be clearly seen slowly seeping out from between a thick layer of golden hair running from his chest to his abdomen.
"You're actually a Soul Master!" Seeing the three soul rings—two yellow and one purple—below Cainian, he disregarded his injuries and exclaimed.
"This is just a lesson. Watch your mouth, and it won't happen again."
Cain's dark gold bat claw flashed and disappeared, his voice icy. Although the Violent Golden Bear Martial Soul was considered quite good in the Sun Moon Empire, approaching the level of a top-tier Martial Soul, and even possessing a trace of the bloodline of the super soul beast Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear.
However, as the owner of the top-tier gold-type martial soul, the Dark Gold Three-Headed Bat King, she not only completely suppressed her opponent in terms of attributes, but also had a cultivation level that was a whole rank higher. Zhao Gou had already been defeated by her without even needing the martial soul to possess him.
She might not attract much attention because she always followed behind Kong Tianxu, but in fact, she was also a top-level genius Soul Master with a powerful Martial Soul and a level nine innate talent.
It's much quieter now. Kong Tianxu stood up, intending to leave with Cain.
Suddenly, a woman's voice rang out from behind him:
"Relying on others doesn't count as your own ability. So what if you're a Soul Master? What's so great about that? Kong Tianxu, I challenge you."
Xu Tianzhen, who had been observing coldly, finally spoke. Although she hadn't recognized Cain's martial spirit and was shocked by the speed and attack power Cain had unleashed in that instant, she didn't think she was inferior to him.
Unlike her intensive study of soul tools, she devoted a great deal of effort to cultivating her martial soul. Losing in the area of soul tools, which she wasn't particularly skilled at, was one thing, but she was determined to seize this opportunity to get her revenge in the area of martial soul masters.
Even if the opponent is already a Soul Master, even if it is the legendary Silver Dragon Martial Soul, she believes that with her Sun Inheritance, she is not without the power to fight back.
She hadn't forgotten that one of her purposes in coming to the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy was to surpass this unparalleled genius boy that her father had spoken of.
"This girl's still not convinced?" Kong Tianxu thought helplessly.
"Are you sure?" He turned around, smiled at her, and then scanned the entire room.
"Anyone else want to join?"
Several students immediately wanted to step forward. Xu Tianzhen was the strongest among them in terms of cultivation, martial spirit, and physical assessment, and was extremely popular among the boys. How dare Kong Tianxu claim to take on multiple opponents at once? That's utterly arrogant!
"No need, I can do it." Xu Tianzhen stopped the eager group and said in a deep voice, "To the Soul Tool Trial Grounds?"
She didn't notice the hint of pity in Cain's eyes.
"No need, it's fine here." Kong Tianxu took a step forward.
Purple, breathtaking purple.
His first spirit ring is a thousand years old? Is his spirit ring glowing upside down? Amidst the gasps of astonishment around him, Xu Tianzhen was deeply shocked, his thoughts even momentarily drifting.
An oppressive feeling instantly surged over her, and she released her martial soul: an orange-yellow sun leaped into her hand, and three perfectly matched soul rings, two yellow and one purple, appeared one by one at her feet.
And then, it was still purple.
The classroom erupted in a screeching sound of desks and chairs scraping against each other. All the students snapped out of their daze, stood up, and stared in disbelief at this unprecedented sight.
Unlike the original three great empires of Douluo, the spirit masters of Sun Moon Soul Masters generally have weaker martial spirit foundations, and medicines are relatively abundant. Even the best ratio of spirit rings is actually quite rare, let alone surpassing the best or surpassing so many spirit ring ratios. This simply overturned their worldview.
It's still purple! Although this purple is thick and almost inky, clearly far surpassing the thousand-year soul rings that everyone had shown before, the students felt a numb sense of indifference, as if they were used to it.
A Soul Master with three purple soul rings—is this even human? Their brains began to process everything they were seeing.
But Xu Tianzhen knew that this was far from over. His third spirit ring already possessed the luster of over nine thousand years; so close, the next one would only be—
Black, as black as ink, even more so as black as the abyss.
The terrifying power of the spirit ring, over 30,000 years old, erupted suddenly, instantly filling the entire classroom with a terrifying sense of oppression. Within this confined space, the pressure crushed upon everyone as if it were a tangible force.
Several students with weaker cultivation levels uncontrollably unleashed their spirit rings, and their faces turned pale.
Of all those present, only Cain remained calm.
Kong Tianxu approached Xu Tianzhen. Although he was not possessed by the silver dragon, a faint, ancient dragon aura still emanated from him.
Affected by the fluctuation of his aura, the small sun in Xu Tianzhen's hand, which was originally bright, dimmed instantly, flickering like a candle flame that could be extinguished at any moment.
He snapped his fingers.
The last glimmer of orange light vanished instantly, and Xu Tianzhen's face turned deathly pale.
You lost.
Kong Tianxu withdrew his martial spirit, and the oppressive feeling that was like the sky collapsing instantly dissipated. Many students collapsed onto their chairs as if exhausted, panting heavily and sweating profusely.
"Now, are there any more questions?" He looked around.
A silence.
"See you this afternoon then."
Under the watchful eyes of the thirty-seven students, Cain walked away with eyes full of admiration.
"I remember, the admission age for our academy shouldn't be older than twelve, right?" After a long while, a student murmured, "What was the record for Senior Brother Xiao Hongchen, the Empire's number one genius, when he became a Soul Master?"
Thirteen years old.
Xu Tianzhen's lips trembled slightly, and some color finally returned to her face. Three purple and one black rings, a ten-thousand-year soul ring, a Soul Sect, so this is what a Soul Sect is like.
Before the martial spirit was even fully released, it rendered my solar martial spirit powerless to resist. The silver dragon, it really is such a silver dragon.
Her heart was in turmoil, her mindset underwent a subtle shift, and she felt a curiosity unlike anything she had experienced before—
What kind of person is he?
"So what if his martial spirit is powerful? This is a Soul Master Academy! I don't believe his Soul Master abilities alone can command respect!"
Zhao Gou, who was slumped on the ground, was the one who suffered the least pressure because he had fallen down at the beginning. He was the first to recover from the oppression and shouted.
"If you had looked at these things first, you wouldn't have said such stupid things."
Ye Nongfeng appeared on the podium at some point, spoke coldly, and inserted the recording medium left by Xuan Ziwen into the classroom's video soul guide device—
Seven extremely clear images appeared directly in front of the classroom. On the huge soul-guided screen, six techniques that tormented the freshmen to the point of ecstasy were perfectly presented.
In the largest image in the middle, the scores of all forty people are arranged in order.
Of the nine truly qualified trainees, Xu Tianzhen ranked second, although her accuracy was somewhat lacking, she achieved an astonishing five skills. Ye Nongfeng was also impressive, ranking third with two skills of 100% accuracy. Cain followed in a respectable fifth place. As for Zhao Gou, true to his family's ranking, he barely met the passing mark, placing ninth.
But above all that, there was a line of bold, striking text that caught everyone's attention—
First place in the freshman assessment: Kong Tianxu, number of completed tasks: six, accuracy: 100%, time: one minute
Zhao Gou lay down completely.