The Web and the Void
The observation room was a tableau of stunned silence.
On the large screen, the image was crisp: Yao Xuan, wreathed in a nimbus of nine-colored light, stood firm as the massive, nightmare form of the Human-Faced Demon Spider crashed through the digital undergrowth. The stark contrast between the calm, scaled figure and the flailing horror was jarring.
"He… repelled it? In a direct clash?" a young technician whispered, her voice hushed with disbelief.
"That spider's foreleg is compromised. Look at the fissures!" another pointed, his analytical mind wrestling with the visual data. "The force calculation for that impact doesn't match the participant's known soul power levels. There's a mitigating factor…"
Long Hengxu stroked his chin, his eyes sharp. "Not just force. Look at the spider's movement vectors before the strike. They were erratic. Slowed. It's as if it was… struggling against a heavier atmosphere."
Wu Changkong allowed a faint, proud smile to touch his lips. "Apex predators recognize a higher apex," he said simply, his gaze fixed on Yao Xuan's resolute form. He saw not just power, but the application of profound understanding. The boy wasn't just fighting; he was enforcing a natural law.
Inside the simulation, Yao Xuan felt the truth in his bones. The impact had sung through his arm, a testament to the spider's savage strength even when suppressed. 'The bloodline pressure is effective,' he analyzed, his mind cool amidst the adrenaline. 'It doesn't weaken its body, but it weighs on its spirit, its will to fight. It hesitates. For a predator that relies on flawless, instinctual violence, that hesitation is a fatal flaw.'
He gave the spider no time to recover. The moment it was thrown, Yao Xuan moved. His right foot pushed off, not with a simple leap, but with a burst of dragon-force that cratered the earth beneath him. He became a golden-scaled bolt, closing the distance with terrifying intent. Finish it. Now.
The Human-Faced Demon Spider, struggling to right itself on its damaged legs, was not merely wounded; it was enraged and cunning. Its eight purple eyes, swirling with malign intelligence, tracked Yao Xuan's approach. A trap, not flight, was its response.
Its grotesque maw distended. But instead of venom, it expelled a glob of viscous, shimmering white fluid that ballooned in mid-air, unfurling with impossible speed into a vast, sticky net—a web of pure spiritual energy designed to entangle and paralyze.
Innate Ability: Instantaneous Binding Web.
Yao Xuan's [Eye of Observation] had warned him. He'd seen the data: near-undodgeable at close range, capable of immobilizing a Soul Master for critical seconds. A conventional dodge was futile.
So, he did not dodge.
He unmade the distance.
"Ancestral Dragon Shattering Void Step!"
He didn't just expend a fraction of his qi and blood; he channeled a significant surge, feeling the unique spatial affinity within his draconic heritage resonate. The world around him—the charging spider, the flying net, the trees—seemed to blur into streaks of color. Space itself folded. He didn't move through the air; he stepped out of one point of reality and into another two meters to the side, the afterimage of his charge swallowed by the passing web.
The web settled on empty ground with a soft, sinister hiss, glue-like and glowing.
Yao Xuan reappeared, silver spatial energy flickering around his scales like dying stars. He stood flanking the spider, its primary eyes still focused on where he had been.
A flicker of something akin to primal fear finally entered the spider's compound gaze. Its ultimate trap had failed against an opponent who could cheat space itself.
Yao Xuan capitalized on the moment of stunned disbelief. His right arm, already transformed, drew back. Soul power surged in a torrent, and the majestic form of the Ancestral Dragon spirit behind him threw its head back in a silent, mighty roar.
"First Soul Skill: Ancestral Dragon Sky-Rending Claw!"
The first soul ring blazed with yellow light. The power wasn't just added force; it was a sharpening, a focusing of the dragon's inherent might into a single, devastating point. His claws gleamed with a light that threatened to tear the simulation's resolution.
He struck, not at the heavily armored cephalothorax, but in a ruthless arc toward the pulsating, pale human face on its abdomen—the core of its vile spiritual presence.
The spider reacted with desperate speed, crossing its two remaining good forelegs in a defensive 'X' before its weak point.
CRACK-BOOM!
The sound was of shearing metal and splintering chitin. Yao Xuan's claw, empowered by the soul skill and his bloodline's supreme authority, met the spider's defense and broke it. Deep fissures raced down the spider's forelegs. The immense force drove the creature down, its abdomen slamming into the earth with a ground-shaking thud, cratering the soil.
The spider was pinned, not by web, but by overwhelming force.
Yao Xuan didn't let up. His combat rhythm was merciless. "Again!"
Another surge of soul power. Another flash of the yellow ring. The Ancestral Dragon's phantom roared once more, its power channeling through Yao Xuan's frame. He brought the Sky-Rending Claw down in the same precise, terrible arc.
This time, the damaged forelegs gave way completely, shattering into fragments of dissolving black light. Nothing remained between his claws and the shrieking human face.
THWUNK.
The sound was wet, final, and profoundly satisfying. The Ancestral Dragon's claw sank deep into the spider's abdomen. The human face contorted in a silent scream of digital agony before it, and a large portion of the surrounding carapace, erupted in a spray of acidic, greenish spiritual residue.
The Human-Faced Demon Spider's body convulsed violently, then slumped, a lifeless heap of fading code. Its remaining legs twitched feebly before stilling. The oppressive, fearful aura that had saturated the clearing evaporated like a bad dream.
In her distant part of the forest, Gu Yue let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. The violent spiritual spike of the predator's signature had abruptly flatlined, replaced by the calm, dominant hum of Yao Xuan's draconic aura. The battle was over.
Her silver eyes were deep pools of complex emotion. The sovereign analyzed: 'Spatial teleportation ability confirmed. High-tier soul skill potency confirmed. Most importantly, bloodline suppression effect on high-level soul beasts… confirmed.' Each confirmation was a piece of evidence, meticulously logged.
But her other hand was pressed lightly against her own abdomen, where the Silver Dragon King's core resided. Na'er's memories had tied her stomach in knots during the fight. Now, they flooded her with a relief so potent it felt warm. 'He's safe. He won.' It was a childish thought, but it was hers.
The duality was exhausting. She was both the judge monitoring a candidate and the girl celebrating her protector's victory. She closed her eyes for a second, composing herself. When she opened them, the ice queen was back, but her gaze, when she glanced in the direction of the vanished conflict, held a new, unshakeable certainty.
The observation room was silent for a long moment.
"Brutal efficiency," Long Hengxu finally said, his voice laced with professional awe. "He identified the core weakness and executed a flawless suppression-strike combo. This wasn't a brawl; it was an exorcism."
The staff murmured agreement, the earlier panic replaced by stunned respect.
Wu Changkong nodded slowly. He had seen the flicker of silver light—the spatial hop—that defied the web. He had seen the absolute authority in the final blows. "The fear wasn't just in the spider," he stated, looking at his fellow teacher. "It was in the very nature of the confrontation. Yao Xuan didn't just fight a soul beast. He demonstrated a hierarchy. That is what true power looks like."
He made a mental note. The winter break was coming. This boy needed challenges that matched not just his power, but the staggering depth of his potential. And Wu Changkong had a feeling that challenge might not come from the academy, but from the mysterious family of the silver-haired girl who watched Yao Xuan with such singular, layered intensity.