The Elephant Armor Soul Douluo on the other side saw Yun Ming heading toward him and became extremely vigilant, his eighth soul ring lighting up beneath his feet.
"Diamond Shattering Quake!!"
The towering Mammoth Giant Elephant roared at the sky, lifted its front legs, and slammed them down violently.
"BOOM—"
In an instant, the ground within a hundred-meter radius collapsed, the space itself shuddered, and a terrifying, bright yellow shockwave carrying the force of a landslide swept outward in a three-hundred-sixty-degree radius. Everything in the path of the shockwave was shattered.
The power of a single stomp from a Soul Douluo was so immense that even the thousand-meter-tall Pope Mountain trembled and began to sway slightly. This was no simple feat!
Sensing the disturbance, Chrysanthemum and Ghost Douluo unleashed their golden and black soul power. The two elders' soul power resonated rapidly, creating a strange energy field that enveloped the ten-kilometer-wide plaza, suppressing all combat shockwaves that spilled beyond its borders. This was a rudimentary application of their Martial Soul Fusion Skill, perfect for controlling the aftermath of the battle without affecting the match or the spectators!
Huo Bao, who was standing closer, saw the old man from the Elephant Armor Sect react so intensely—launching a major move without a word—and hurriedly retreated. If he were actually hit by that attack, his agility-focused physique wouldn't be able to withstand it.
It wasn't just him; Hu Yanzhen and others within the attack range also scrambled to retreat and avoid the brunt of the force. An eighth soul skill from an eighty-ninth-rank peak Soul Douluo was not something to be taken lightly.
This man was Hu Yan Jie, the First Elder of the Elephant Armor Sect and the only peak Soul Douluo in the four sects besides the sect master. He was the key figure who allowed the Elephant Armor Sect to claim the title of New Number One Sect Under Heaven in the original timeline.
The entire plaza in front of the Pope Palace began to shift irregularly under the influence of his seismic wave, with the ground rising and falling at random. The closer one was to Hu Yan Jie, the more violent the tremors became. Even with Yun Ming at the epicenter, he felt slightly unsteady, and an even more powerful and chaotic shockwave was rapidly closing in on him.
Seeing this, Hu Yanzhen breathed a sigh of relief; they had finally blocked Yun Ming's offensive.
Watching the rapidly approaching attack, a smile appeared on Yun Ming's face. The opponent's counterattack was good—decisive and powerful. An ordinary person might have retreated, and even Yun Ming wouldn't usually choose to take it head-on; it would be easier to dodge and find an opening for a spear strike later. However, Yun Ming would not retreat today. Since he had chosen the path of suppressing everyone to reach the summit, how could he turn back?
Looking at the cracks spreading toward the edge of the plaza beneath his feet, Yun Ming planted his Atlas Divine Spear into the ground. Soul power flames began to burn across his body, and a pair of Sun Moon Phantoms rose into the air behind him. As the phantoms ascended, the brilliance of the Red Gold Sun and the Purple Gold Moon grew brighter, seemingly suppressing the radiance of the real sun in the sky.
The onlookers were captivated by Yun Ming's display, eager to see how he would handle the incoming attack.
On Yun Ming's side, once the light of the Sun Moon Phantoms reached its limit, the dual-colored glow transformed into a blazing white. Countless white flowing flames descended from the phantoms, manifesting as forty-nine Blazing Fire White Dragons, each over two meters in diameter and ten meters long.
Huo Bao, who was well-versed in fire, found it strange; he felt no scorching heat from them, only a suffocating pressure that made his chest feel tight.
The forty-nine white dragons circled and danced around Hu Yan Jie, enveloping him and his soul skill.
Yun Ming looked through the bright yellow shockwave at Hu Yan Jie inside and said in a low voice.
"White Dragon Sealing Demons!"
As the words fell, the circling white dragons seemed to hear their master's command. Their roars shook the heavens as they began to unleash their power. The forty-nine white dragons accelerated around Hu Yan Jie, and white runes—obscure and difficult to understand, yet seemingly containing the ultimate truths of the void—detached from their bodies and rained down from the sky.
Every time a rune touched the rapidly expanding yellow shockwave, its expansion slowed, and its intensity diminished. By the time the white dragons had shrunk to a third of their original size from dispersing the runes, Hu Yan Jie and his eighth soul skill had come to a complete standstill.
Yes, Hu Yan Jie's attack had merely stopped, not vanished. His shockwave had been frozen into a tangible state, and Hu Yan Jie, trapped within the range of the soul skill, was equally motionless.
Hu Yanzhen saw the attack frozen in front of Yun Ming and didn't understand what was happening. But looking through the crystalline barrier at Hu Yan Jie, who stood as still as a piece of amber in a collection, he shouted at Yun Ming in terror.
"Brat, what have you done to our sect's First Elder?!!"
It wasn't just Hu Yanzhen; the others were also chilled by Yun Ming's ability to turn people into specimens. In this era, people didn't understand Spiritual Power well, let alone mysterious space-time abilities, so it was natural for panic to set in.
Yun Ming remained indifferent to Hu Yanzhen's "fuss," saying calmly.
"Why don't you try it yourself and find out?"
As he spoke, a white light flashed in Yun Ming's eyes, and three of the white dragons dancing in the sky broke away and headed straight for Hu Yanzhen.
Seeing the fiery white dragons approaching rapidly, Hu Yanzhen's expression changed drastically, and he hurriedly retreated. His sect's "big brother" had been incapacitated in a single exchange; how could he dare to touch them?
But just because he didn't want to touch them didn't mean he could avoid them. Hu Yanzhen was not known for his speed, so how could he dodge the rapid assault of the energy dragons? No matter how far he fled, the three dragons, under Yun Ming's precise control, sealed off all his escape routes and closed in rapidly.
Seeing the escape routes closing and the dragons drawing nearer, Hu Yanzhen hurriedly activated his sixth soul skill.
"Ice Prism Elephant Armor!"
He dared not be careless. With the situation unknown and evasion impossible, he had to use his strongest defensive soul skill to try and block them for a moment.
A layer of hideous, dark blue ice armor covered in sharp spikes manifested instantly over his keratin layer, its deep luster showcasing its formidable defensive power. Of course, defense wasn't the main point—Hu Yan Jie hadn't been defeated due to a lack of defense. The key was that the armor was saturated with his massive soul power; regardless of the ability, soul power itself provided a certain level of resistance.
However, Yun Ming ignored this and commanded the white dragons to spew a breath of runic dragon fire directly at Hu Yanzhen.
Under Hu Yanzhen's anxious gaze, the runic dragon breath struck the ice armor. In an instant, his wishful thinking was shattered.
Hu Yanzhen's soul power ice armor did indeed have some resistance, but it was only a little, and it ultimately failed to stop the intrusion of the white runes. Not only was his soul power suppressed, but the runes also invaded his body, beginning to seal his movements.
Bibi Dong sensed the fluctuations of Yun Ming's soul-flame white dragons and fell into deep thought. Why did this move feel so familiar? It was somewhat similar to the move Yun Ming had used to briefly stop her earlier!
As the person closest to godhood in the world today, Bibi Dong's insight was indeed extraordinary. The truth was exactly as she suspected: this "White Dragon Sealing Demons" was related to his sixth soul skill, "Eternity." It was a move Yun Ming had developed to compensate for the flaws of "Eternity" after grasping the essence of absolute stability.
The advantages of "Eternity" were obvious: its sealing power and destructive force were immense, strong enough to seal a demigod holding a divine artifact. However, it had drawbacks: it was too costly and lacked flexibility—inflexible in every sense, from the trajectory of the skill to the way it destroyed enemies, which required waiting for a collapse.
Therefore, by borrowing the principles of his sixth soul skill, Yun Ming created "White Dragon Sealing Demons." Its practicality increased significantly, and the consumption was reduced. While the intensity was slightly weaker, it was enough; after all, not everyone was Bibi Dong, just like the person currently in front of him.
Hu Yanzhen looked at Yun Ming with unwillingness, and while he hadn't yet completely lost the ability to move, he shouted.
"Old man, I am not reconciled!"
He had thought that with Bibi Dong's bias, his Elephant Armor Sect might have a chance to see the scenery of the Upper Three Sects. He never expected that three of his sect's Soul Douluo would be defeated by a junior in just a few moves.
Yun Ming slowed the "freezing" speed of Hu Yanzhen and asked.
"So, do you concede? Your companion won't last much longer."
Hu Yanzhen: "Do you dare to kill?"
Yun Ming: "That is up to you. If this goes on, he will surely die."
Hearing this, Hu Yanzhen glared at Yun Ming, but he dared not gamble with Hu Yan Jie's life. Finally, he gritted his teeth and said.
"My Elephant Armor Sect, admits. defeat."
After the last two words were squeezed out of Hu Yanzhen's mouth, it was as if he had exhausted all his strength; his spirit and energy were visibly diminished.
Seeing Hu Yanzhen concede, Yun Ming glanced in the direction of Yang Wudi, signaling that the mission was accomplished.
Yang Wudi also offered a faint smile.
"Click—"
After a crisp sound, Hu Yan Jie and Hu Yanzhen were released by Yun Ming and left the arena in low spirits. With this, the Elephant Armor Sect, formerly the head of the Lower Four Sects, concluded their tournament run perfectly as the new seventh-ranked sect in the world.
The audience and contestants who witnessed the entire process of this battle gasped. Strong! Too strong! Looking at the young man standing in the plaza with his spear, they completely realized one fact: this junior, Yun Ming, was a top-tier powerhouse far beyond their imagination!
Xuan Ye, the sect master of the Black Tiger Sect, swallowed hard and said with a trembling voice.
"Can we really defeat him?"
Although it was only a few moves, Yun Ming's indestructible Spear Art, the soul skill that dodged Huo Bao's attack, and the Blazing Fire White Dragon that they couldn't even touch—they couldn't resolve any of it. How were they supposed to win?!
Huo Bao and Tuoba Xi also wore grave expressions; if Xuan Ye had no solution, they were in the same boat.
Dugu Bo's previous assessment was correct: the twelve Soul Douluo of the Lower Four Sects, if coordinated properly, indeed had the capital to contend with two Super Douluo. But the Super Douluo here specifically referred to those at the very bottom of the rank (level 95), like Yu Yuanzhen, who, despite having powerful martial souls, possessed abilities relatively similar to ordinary beast spirit Soul Douluo. Try having them fight Chen Xin? They would absolutely be hacked to pieces. If they couldn't beat Chen Xin, there was naturally no possibility of beating Yun Ming!
However, in the end, Tuoba Xi still stepped forward. He said in a deep voice.
"Even if the final result is failure, we have to fight before we can say anything. We carry the hopes of our families on our shoulders!"
Hearing this, Huo Bao glanced at his clansmen on the stage and steadied his mind. Driven by the wildness of his martial soul, Huo Bao roared.
"Then let's do it!!"
Without waiting for the other two to reply, he launched a charge toward Yun Ming once again.
Seeing that the other two had already said as much, how could Xuan Ye retreat? His martial soul was a Black Tiger, after all! He looked at Tuoba Xi and invited him.
"Brother Tuoba, shall we go together?"
Tuoba Xi's scales stretched, and a touch of madness appeared in his eyes as he said.
"Let's go!"
"Boom—boom—"
As the words fell, the two, having already activated their Martial Soul Avatar, stomped hard on the ground, creating two ten-meter-deep craters, and charged at Yun Ming from two different directions.
Since the bosses had made their move, the second and third-in-commands naturally wouldn't be slow. They were all seasoned Soul Master veterans, and even if it was their first time coordinating, they had basic teamwork. They attacked from all angles and quickly surrounded Yun Ming.
Yun Ming was speechless looking at this group of hot-blooded seniors. How did he end up becoming the cute and charming villain? Knowing he was hard to deal with, why didn't they go and attack Yu Yuanzhen instead? His abilities were so simple—just striking with lightning from various angles and intensities—why did they have to fixate on him!
It was fortunate for them that Tuoba Xi and the others couldn't hear Yun Ming's inner thoughts; otherwise, they would have immediately turned their focus. They had no other reason for targeting Yun Ming other than the fact that they had forgotten. Yun Ming's brief display of skill had made them forget that there were four other "melon-eating" spectators on the sidelines.
Thoughts aside, looking at the pile of dragons, tigers, and leopards charging at him again, Yun Ming had no intention of avoiding the fight. If he wasn't afraid of being hit, why would he, the one doing the hitting, be afraid?
The first to attack was still Huo Bao. Watching Yun Ming standing in place, he lit up his Fifth Soul Ring, and two blood-red fire lotuses, each about a foot in diameter, rose on his leopard claws.
"Blood Fire Demon Lotus Break!"
With the shout of the name, Huo Bao's hands moved like lightning, violently throwing the two blood lotuses at Yun Ming. His previous attacks had already proven that melee claw strikes were likely ineffective, so he had to think of other methods.
Watching the two fire lotuses filled with the aura of destruction, Yun Ming didn't even move. Nine white dragons flew in from the sky, transforming into a bell to protect him inside.
"Boom—"
Seeing Yun Ming receive the move like this, Huo Bao didn't wait for the fire lotuses to make contact with the white dragons and detonated them immediately, fearing he wouldn't be able to trigger them later.
Following closely behind, Tuoba Xi and Xuan Ye seized the opportunity to act. Xuan Ye's sixth soul ring lit up, and endless black soul light gathered in his mouth, while his entire aura became dark and inscrutable.
Once the charge was complete, Xuan Ye spat a pitch-black light sphere toward where Yun Ming was.
"Black Tiger Shadow Calamity!"
His move was somewhat special; it wasn't pure darkness, but "shadow." Compared to the corrosive nature of darkness, his move leaned more toward a special physical attack. It was somewhat like wind—omnipresent and even more subtle and difficult to defend against.
Compared to the two of them, Tuoba Xi was even more ruthless. His Eighth Soul Ring lit up directly, and a hundred-meter-tall phantom of a White Armor Earth Dragon appeared above his head. While the shadow was illusory, the attack was not. A mass of golden-yellow earth dragon flame condensed in the dragon's mouth, and as the dragon flame grew brighter, the phantom became increasingly translucent.
After only a moment, Tuoba Xi's eyes lit up, and he roared.
"Dragon Flame Break!"
The White Armor Earth Dragon phantom also roared at the sky, and the dragon flame in its mouth surged toward Yun Ming.
"Bang—"
"Boom—"
The shadow sphere and the dragon flame struck Yun Ming's location one after another, emitting a deafening roar.
First the fire lotuses, then the shadow sphere, and finally the dragon flame. Dust, debris, soul light pollution, and chaotic soul power waves enveloped a large area of the plaza; no one knew whether Yun Ming had managed to block it or not.
It was just that, at some unknown moment, the remaining Blazing Fire White Dragons dancing in the sky had also disappeared without a trace.
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Translated by: randomtranslator.com
Proofread by: DaoistReader