Feeling the hand pressed against his head, Vulcan Brand felt humiliated. With one low roar after another, he used all his strength to break free from the pressure of that palm.
But reality went against him. Vulcan Brand could feel the area of contact between his forehead and the ground growing larger. It was as if the harder he struggled, the more intimate his head became with the earth.
"No!"
All of a sudden, Vulcan Brand realized the problem was not with him. The problem was Wu Ling. Compared to Wu Ling's strength, his own strength was like a mayfly trying to shake a tree.
"Second Spirit Skill, Granite Rock!"
Pinned to the ground, Vulcan Brand raised his right arm again. His rock fist, enlarged several times over, hammered madly toward the arm pressing down on his head.
It was clearly fist against arm, but the sound they produced was like two chunks of hard stone smashing together.
"How is this guy's body so hard?"
Vulcan Brand cursed inwardly. Regret was beginning to rise inside him, but the moment he thought of Serena Ivory watching from the side, that tiny bit of regret turned back into fury.
"This guy made me lose face in front of Nana. Unforgivable!"
In his anger, Vulcan Brand did not realize that his current misery was entirely self-inflicted.
"I cannot use my first Spirit Skill. My third Spirit Skill will hurt me too. Then I will keep using my second Spirit Skill. I refuse to believe one arm can hold out this long!"
With that thought, Vulcan Brand prepared to use his second Spirit Skill again and strengthen his left hand as well. But just then, he suddenly felt the hand pressing on his head tighten.
"Ngh!"
The pain from his head interrupted his Spirit Skill. Then Vulcan Brand felt his body leave the ground. Wu Ling had actually lifted him by the head.
Suspended in midair, Vulcan Brand clenched his fist and swung at Wu Ling, but before he could touch him, Wu Ling smashed him back into the ground with one palm.
Then Wu Ling lifted Vulcan Brand again. Vulcan Brand tried to counterattack, and Wu Ling smashed him down again.
Again and again, three times in a row. Whether because he had been beaten into fear or had simply blacked out, Vulcan Brand finally stopped fighting.
At that point, Serena Ivory, who had been watching, could not bear it and stepped forward.
"Senior Brother Wu, Vulcan Brand knows he was wrong. Please spare him this time."
Vulcan Brand interrupting her had truly made her unhappy, but seeing him in such a miserable state had cooled most of her anger. For Teacher's sake, Wu Ling should give her some face, right?
Wu Ling only glanced at Serena Ivory with disdain. Then his wrist exerted force, and Vulcan Brand flew straight toward her.
Serena Ivory reached out and caught the incoming Vulcan Brand. She was just about to thank him when Wu Ling's next words stopped her at the edge of her lips.
"The three of you, come at me together."
Serena Ivory pressed her lips together. She had seen Vulcan Brand's miserable state. Her strength and Cassian Glaive's were about the same as Vulcan Brand's. Since even Vulcan Brand had been beaten so easily, the result would be obvious even if she and Cassian Glaive attacked together.
She hated losing, yes, but she was not so overconfident that she would challenge an opponent with absolutely no hope of victory. Most importantly, even if there was only a one percent chance, she did not want her face ground into the dirt by someone she had no grudge against.
Serena Ivory wanted to refuse. But after she met Wu Ling's eyes for a few seconds, she understood. This fight could no longer be avoided.
So she exchanged a glance with Cassian Glaive, who had already stepped to her side, then gently set Vulcan Brand down.
"Demon Fox, possess me!"
As Serena Ivory's Martial Soul possessed her, Cassian Glaive also summoned his Martial Soul, the Moon Blades. The two siblings did not need to speak. With perfect tacit understanding, they charged at Wu Ling.
Five minutes later, Serena Ivory and Cassian Glaive returned to Vulcan Brand's side, panting hard.
Only heaven knew what they had experienced in those short five minutes.
Their attacks were completely useless. As for Charm, once it entered Wu Ling's consciousness, it was like a stone sinking into the sea, unable to stir even a ripple.
The reason the three of them had stood out from the crowd was their extraordinary strength. Every one of them had once defeated a Spirit Meister while still at the Spirit Elite level, and this was also one of the reasons Vulcan Brand had dared challenge Wu Ling, a Spirit Leader.
After all, Wu Ling had no public combat record. His true strength was unknown. To talented people like them, if they could manage a draw or even fall only slightly behind a Spirit Leader who spent every day researching, that alone would be enough to boast about.
But reality was completely different from what they had imagined. Even their all-out attacks could not make Wu Ling move.
"Cassian Glaive, Nana, Martial Soul fusion skill."
Just as Cassian Glaive and Serena Ivory were wondering what to do, Vulcan Brand, who had been playing dead, slowly climbed up and spoke their final trump card.
And because Vulcan Brand called out to both of them at the same time, they understood. What Vulcan Brand wanted was not his two-person Martial Soul fusion skill with Cassian Glaive, but the three-person Martial Soul fusion skill of all three of them.
Even an ordinary two-person Martial Soul fusion skill was rare and powerful, let alone one involving three people. This was their greatest confidence in daring to fight Wu Ling, because they had once used this move to defeat a Spirit Leader who had just advanced.
Serena Ivory and Cassian Glaive nodded at the same time. Then the three joined hands. Amid a burst of light, their bodies gradually fused together.
In the distance, Wu Ling simply watched them power up. He could not even be bothered to interrupt.
When the light faded, a young woman wearing a fox mask and asymmetrical clothing appeared before Wu Ling.
She was the product of the three-person Martial Soul fusion skill, Demon Charm.
"Take this! Purple Flame Barrage!"
The young woman raised one hand. A crescent blade wreathed in purple flame appeared above her head. Then the blade copied itself again and again, forming a continuous line of countless blades that flew toward Wu Ling.
Originally, this move was a group attack. To deal with Wu Ling, however, Serena Ivory had changed it into a single-target assault. In her heart, she no longer planned to defeat Wu Ling. If she could wound him or force him to move a few steps, that would be enough to satisfy her.
But in the next second, Wu Ling shattered that hope by force.
Even the unbroken barrage of attacks could not make Wu Ling move by the slightest amount, nor could it injure him at all.
The assault continued for a full minute. Seeing Wu Ling still unharmed, she gathered power for three whole minutes and launched her strongest attack.
Three minutes later, a massive flame blade over three meters long chopped toward Wu Ling. Wu Ling still neither dodged nor blocked. He took the attack head-on.
When the smoke cleared, Wu Ling's figure slowly emerged. The moment Serena Ivory saw him, despair rose in her heart.
Wu Ling was still completely unharmed. More importantly, in her perception, he had not even used Spirit Power. In other words, he had taken the attack entirely with his body.
With that level of physical strength, even a Titled Sage might not compare.
"Are you a monster?"
The moment Serena Ivory finished speaking, she saw Wu Ling vanish. A huge force seized her ankle, and Wu Ling lifted her entire body upside down.
"A monster? I am not something that ugly. I am only a human blessed by Heroic Spirits."
Serena Ivory heard Wu Ling's words, but before she could think about them, she felt weightlessness. Then came impact after impact.
Wu Ling gripped her ankle and slammed her into the ground again and again. Serena Ivory wanted to break free, but the repeated impacts scattered even her mind.
Finally, on Wu Ling's ninth slam, Serena Ivory and the other two separated from the fusion.
Wu Ling looked at Serena Ivory, whom he was still holding. Her perfect figure was displayed completely before his eyes.
But Wu Ling only glanced once before throwing her without lingering, sending her crashing onto Cassian Glaive and Vulcan Brand.
At the end, he did not forget to mock them.
"What a weak Martial Soul fusion skill."