Chapter 150: The Final Battle Begins!
Thank you to our new Patrons: P Tydd, joao goncalves and William Ngo! Your support means the world to me <3 We are up to Chapter 190: Sky Tiger on Patreon!
There's something for free patrons too! Free Patrons receive 1 chapter in advance :)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Three purple soul rings, a long spear, and a young man.
The overwhelming sense of oppression seemed to blend into the very fabric of heaven and earth, leaving those who felt it weighed down and uneasy.
Such immense presence.
Without even unleashing the spear's power, he was already influencing the surrounding ambient energy?
A flicker of surprise flashed in Ya Li's eyes.
He had already reached the second stage of mastering the grand momentum of heaven and earth.
Spear momentum was a technique for harnessing the grand momentum of heaven and earth. The first step was mastering spear momentum itself. The second step was achieving mastery to such an extent that one didn't need to actively release spear momentum—every movement could naturally draw in ambient energy, forming a powerful aura.
The third step, naturally, was returning to simplicity—possessing no outward signs of power but controlling everything with complete mastery.
Xu Yuan had clearly reached the second stage.
Under the pointed tip of Xu Yuan's Heaven Origin Five Elements Spear, the core members of the third-year team wore grim expressions.
The third-year team consisted of seven members, led by their class monitor, Li Qiankun. His martial soul, the Qiankun Sphere, was an extremely rare variant tool-type martial soul specializing in defense. His soul power was at Level 49!
Aside from Li Qiankun, the team included Mo Jue, Wu Rui, Ye Wu, Yuan Hua, and the siblings Li Mengyang and Li Mengtian.
Ye Wu, who had fought in the third individual match, was a sleazy-looking youth. His martial soul was the Flame Body. In its awakened state, his body possessed semi-elemental properties, allowing him to resist most physical attacks.
The Li siblings had also appeared in the two-on-two battle. Li Mengyang's martial soul was the Flame Demon Lion, while Li Mengtian's was the Flame Demon Tiger. Both were at Level 45 and possessed three pieces of battle armor.
This wasn't the key point, though. Their ability to defeat Tang Wulin and Le Zhengyu stemmed not only from their tacit cooperation but also from their true trump card—their martial soul fusion technique.
The siblings had mastered a martial soul fusion skill!
With the advancement of the times, techniques for using large-scale, high-consumption abilities like martial soul fusions and true martial soul forms had been passed down.
While martial soul true forms still consumed vast amounts of energy, they no longer required excessively long cooldown periods. By mastering the proper use of their true martial soul forms and employing certain soul power circulation techniques, soul masters could activate their true forms without damaging their core essence.
This meant that as long as their soul power and martial soul states recovered, they could use their true martial soul forms repeatedly.
The same applied to martial soul fusion techniques.
Through extensive practice and conscious control over their energy expenditure to avoid overexertion, soul masters could reuse their fusion techniques after recovering their soul power and martial soul states.
This was the very essence of cultivation—mastering greater power, normalizing it, and then striving for even greater strength in an endless cycle.
Of the seven members on the third-year team, all except Yuan Hua had already appeared in the previous four matches. Xu Yuan and his team had a basic understanding of their capabilities and strengths.
Similarly, the opposing side had a general grasp of Xu Yuan's team.
Among the seven members of Xu Yuan's team—Wu Siduo, Yuanen Yehui, Fang Yuan, Le Zhengyu, Gu Yue, Ye Xinglan, and Xu Yuan himself—the abilities of the first four were mostly known to the third-years.
However, the full strength of Gu Yue, Ye Xinglan, and Xu Yuan remained largely unknown to them.
The match began.
Li Qiankun and Mo Jue charged forward without hesitation, heading straight for Xu Yuan.
Their objective was clear.
Though they hadn't personally witnessed it, they had heard rumors of how Xu Yuan had defeated Wu Siduo and the other four prodigies on the youth genius list. They knew Xu Yuan was no ordinary opponent and wouldn't underestimate him. According to their pre-battle strategy, they would first test Xu Yuan's strength before adapting their formation accordingly.
Li Qiankun summoned a metallic sphere adorned with dazzling patterns. Streams of radiant light flickered across its surface.
He hurled the metallic sphere toward Xu Yuan, swift as a meteor.
Xu Yuan flicked his spear, concentrating his blood and qi at the tip, and deflected the sphere.
The sphere soared upward and exploded with a thunderous boom, dispersing into streams of light that merged into the surrounding space.
Spatial lockdown!
Similar to Fang Yuan's second soul skill.
Space attribute?
But isn't this supposed to be a defensive-type martial soul?
Xu Yuan wondered what combination of the other three soul skills allowed Li Qiankun to develop such a defensive system.
---
As the Qiankun Sphere exploded, creating a spatial lockdown, the black skull summoned by Mo Jue's first soul skill rapidly approached.
Xu Yuan let out a cold snort. His spear intent condensed, and with a sweep of his spiritual force, the skull vanished into thin air.
Mo Jue's expression shifted dramatically, her eyes betraying shock as she looked at Xu Yuan.
How strong must his willpower be to directly disperse her weakening curse skull with sheer counter-pressure?
At their level, the spear or sword intent of a soul master couldn't be completely negated.
Of this, Mo Jue was certain.
So, had Xu Yuan's spear intent already reached such a concentrated state?
Or had he relied on his spiritual force just now?
Had his spiritual force merged with his will?
Numerous guesses raced through Mo Jue's mind, but her hands didn't stop moving. She quickly summoned another black skull, directing it toward Wu Siduo.
She changed her target and issued a command.
"Wu Rui, coordinate with Li Qiankun!"
"Got it!"
Wu Rui immediately responded. The dense vines surging from his *Book of Heaven* shifted course, bypassing the central area and converging directly toward the center of the arena.
Mo Jue waved her hands, and two masses of energy coalesced in front of her. A dark green skull formed and shot toward Wu Siduo.
Since Xu Yuan was proving difficult to handle, they decided to focus on Wu Siduo instead.
At the very least, they needed to suppress one of them.
Ye Wu's expression grew heavy. Originally, Wu Rui was supposed to assist him in countering Yuan'en Yehui's offensive. Now, he had to face her alone. Fortunately, his semi-elemental Flame Body could hold out for a while.
The Li siblings activated their martial souls. With a lion's roar and a tiger's growl, a mighty lion and a ferocious tiger charged toward Ye Xinglan and Le Zhengyu.
Five of Xu Yuan's frontline fighters were now entangled by the third-year team.
Only Gu Yue and Fang Yuan, both control-type soul masters, remained in the backline to provide support.
On the opposing side, only Yuan Hua of the third-year team was left unoccupied.
The young man named Yuan Hua raised his hand, and the entire arena's atmosphere shifted instantly.
"First soul skill, Snowflakes Fluttering!"
"Second soul skill, Northern Winds Howling!"
(T/N: The names are actually lyrics from a Chinese song 'Yi Jian Mei'. Very poetic lyrically.)
With the simultaneous activation of these two soul skills, the entire arena was engulfed in a blizzard.
The snowstorm descended, restoring the stamina of his teammates while gradually sapping the opponents' soul power.
He was a support-type soul master!
Support-type, yet also a combat soul master!
While the snowflakes amplified his allies and weakened his enemies, the winds he manipulated formed devastating snow tornadoes.
His third and fourth soul rings flashed in succession.
With his intervention, the entire arena seemed to become the third-years' home turf. His six teammates surged with newfound strength, while Xu Yuan's team found their soul power suppressed.
Gu Yue frowned and gestured with her right hand. Four elemental forces—water, fire, earth, and wind—formed a vortex, which she hurled into the air. The elemental vortex exploded, clearing away all traces of elemental energy.
However, the snowstorm did not dissipate.
Frowning, she carefully sensed the surrounding snow and wind.
"This isn't substantial elemental energy. Is it emotional manifestation or spiritual imagery?"
What an extraordinary martial soul.
------------------------------------------------------
Support my writing journey: patreon.com/EphemeralShadow
40+ Chapters Ahead Guaranteed.