Chapter 74: Defeating Long Aotian
As the fourth Soul Ring flared to life, the Soul Power surrounding Liu Yuan began to violently churn, rolling and bubbling like superheated magma. Under the absolute enhancement of Ultimate Sublimation, the layer of ink-green light clinging to his skin rapidly darkened. It condensed, shifting into a deep, heavy dark gold that gleamed with a cold metallic texture. Standing amidst the surging energy, he looked less like a mortal youth and more like an ancient divinity descending upon the mortal plane.
The sheer weight of the aura Liu Yuan now projected had crossed into a genuinely terrifying threshold.
The ordinary disciples gathered around the arena possessed relatively shallow cultivation. They lacked the insight to accurately measure the exact numerical increase in Liu Yuan's physical and spiritual attributes after he activated his fourth Soul Skill. However, they did not need high cultivation to feel the physical pressure crushing down on their chests. The atmosphere had completely changed.
If the previous Liu Yuan was a razor-sharp sword resting quietly in its scabbard, the current Liu Yuan was a dormant volcano that had finally blown its peak.
"Is... is this really an aura that a level forty-four Soul Master can emit?" Chen Lu stammered. He felt the suffocating waves of pressure rolling off the center of the arena and involuntarily took a step back, his face draining of color, his eyes wide with absolute shock.
Beside him, Wang Yanfeng had entirely dropped his usual playful, easygoing smirk. His jaw was locked tight, and his fists were subconsciously clenched at his sides. "I feel like Senior Brother Liu Yuan has become a bottomless abyss," he said, his voice dropping an octave. "Just standing there, he gives off this crushing weight. It actually hurts to breathe."
Gu Tong simply pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, his gaze locked blankly onto the dark golden figure radiating power in the arena.
A short distance away, Vina stared at Liu Yuan, her beautiful eyes practically burning with heat. 'Is this your new power?'she thought, her pulse quickening.'How amazing...'
High above the martial arts field on the viewing platform, Elder Chen's breathing had grown noticeably ragged. As a senior elder of the Body Sect, he had witnessed generations of brilliant geniuses rise and fall. Yet, watching a mere Soul Ancestor erupt with enough raw, oppressive force to visibly shake a Soul King was a spectacle he had never encountered in all his decades of life.
He turned his head toward the utterly unbothered Du Busi. "Sect Master, is this the reason you have always favored Liu Yuan?" Elder Chen asked, his voice tight. "The amplification of this fourth Soul Skill is indeed monstrous. One could easily call it heaven-defying. But even so... wanting to cross an entire major realm to defeat Long Aotian, who possesses a silver-level Secondary Awakening, might not guarantee a victory, right?"
Du Busi merely cast a sidelong, indifferent glance at Elder Chen. A faint, mysterious smirk hung on the corner of the Super Douluo's mouth. "Do not underestimate Ultimate Sublimation," Du Busi replied, his tone steady and brimming with absolute certainty. "And above all else, do not underestimate the foundational terrifying power of the Double Pupils. Just keep your eyes open. The real battle is only just beginning."
Down below, as the crowd continued to whisper in disbelief, the temperature in the center of the arena plummeted to a freezing chill.
Sensing the overwhelming pressure radiating from Liu Yuan, Long Aotian did not show a single trace of fear. Instead, the muscles in his neck bulged, and a wild, feral excitement twisted his features. The battle lust in his eyes ignited into a roaring inferno, and the brilliant silver light of his Secondary Awakening condensed even further around his massive frame.
"You truly live up to your title as my Junior Brother! After activating your fourth Soul Skill, you are a monster!" Long Aotian roared, his voice booming across the stone field. "I have never seen an amplification of this magnitude recorded anywhere in the Sect's ancient texts!"
His blood and Qi surged, roaring through his veins like a caged dragon.
"Since you are bringing out your true strength, I must answer in kind! Anything less would be an insult to you!"
The moment the last word left his mouth, Long Aotian exploded into motion. He stomped his foot down with cataclysmic force. The reinforced granite beneath his boots instantly pulverized into fine dust, and he shot toward Liu Yuan with a speed that bordered on teleportation.
"Fourth Soul Skill: Mad God Slash!"
Fueled by the overwhelming enhancement of his silver-level Secondary Awakening, Long Aotian's right arm violently mutated, expanding into a massive, grotesque scythe that dwarfed his previous attacks. The entire blade shimmered with a lethal, freezing silver light.
This strike was not merely a condensation of his formidable level fifty-two Soul Power. It carried the pure, explosive physical kinetic energy born from the qualitative mutation of his Body Martial Soul. As the massive scythe tore through the space between them, the displaced air shrieked, emitting a series of deafening sonic booms that sounded like rolling thunder.
Yet, facing this apocalyptic, unstoppable blow, Liu Yuan's expression remained perfectly placid.
Under the effects of Ultimate Sublimation, his mental force, Soul Power density, and physical agility had all experienced a minimum of a twofold increase. His visual perception had reached an unmatched world of clarity. To the audience, Long Aotian was a blur of silver lightning. To Liu Yuan's Double Pupils, every twitch of muscle, every shift in momentum, and every flaw in the scythe's trajectory was laid bare in agonizingly slow detail.
"Qilin Precious Technique!"
Instead of retreating from the lethal edge, Liu Yuan stepped directly into the storm.
The freezing ice-blue Qilin Qi erupted from his pores, instantly clashing and merging with the dark golden light of Ultimate Sublimation. The resulting aura mutated into an eerie, highly unstable purple-blue flame.
Liu Yuan executed the Qilin Step. His body flickered, sliding past the lethal core trajectory of the massive silver scythe by a mere fraction of an inch. In the exact microsecond their bodies crossed paths, Liu Yuan abandoned all evasion and engaged Long Aotian in brutal, point-blank close-quarters combat.
Bang!
The sound of fist colliding with flesh and bone echoed across the arena, dull, heavy, and sickeningly loud.
The entire audience gasped as they realized the truth. After activating his enhancement, Liu Yuan's physical bodily strength had undergone a terrifying, leap-like evolution. Standing face-to-face with a Soul King who had already triggered a silver-level Secondary Awakening, Liu Yuan was trading blows head-on without giving a single inch of ground.
Slipping past the residual shockwaves of the Mad God Slash, Liu Yuan contorted his spine in mid-air at an impossible angle. Relying on his doubled mental force, he exerted absolute, microscopic control over every single muscle fiber in his body.
Catching the exact fraction of a second where Long Aotian's momentum overextended, Liu Yuan anchored his footing and threw his right fist. A roaring Qilin phantom materialized over his knuckles, and the heavy blow slammed directly into his opponent's guard.
Crunch.
Long Aotian's metallic, reinforced chest armor buckled. The massive Soul King was physically lifted off his feet and sent flying backward, a deep, perfectly formed fist print caved into the center of his hardened chest plate.
"This is impossible!" a senior disciple screamed from the stands, gripping his hair.
Liu Yuan had no intention of letting his opponent breathe.
Exploiting the brief window where Long Aotian was airborne and completely stripped of his balance, Liu Yuan's left Double Pupil violently contracted. Dense, pale golden light patterns frantically wove together within the depths of his eye, forming a terrifying matrix of spiritual energy.
"Spirit Ray!"
This time, the beams of light that erupted from his eyes were no longer dark red. They had transmuted into a blinding, pure crimson-gold.
Because his mental force density had doubled, the twin crimson-gold rays possessed an armor-piercing quality that defied logic. The moment they struck Long Aotian, they effortlessly punched straight through the thick layer of silver defensive light coating the Soul King's body.
Long Aotian let out a muffled groan, his eyes rolling back for a fraction of a second. It felt as though a massive sledgehammer had been swung directly into his unprotected brain. His massive frame swayed violently in mid-air. When his boots finally slammed back into the granite, he skidded backward, his heels carving deep trenches into the stone for seven or eight steps before he barely managed to stabilize his footing.
When Long Aotian looked up, his gaze was unprecedentedly grave. He stared at Liu Yuan, his eyes swimming with absolute disbelief.
"Has he really improved by this much?" Long Aotian muttered under his breath, wiping a trace of blood from his mouth. "It is not just his physical strength... even his spiritual penetration has reached this monstrous level."
In the stands, the dead silence of the disciples finally shattered, replaced by a tsunami of frantic, deafening cheers.
"Senior Brother Liu Yuan! He is too strong!"
"A Soul Ancestor is physically suppressing a Soul King! And not just any Soul King, a Soul King with a silver-level Body Martial Soul Secondary Awakening! Is he even human?!"
Down in the arena, the battle instantly escalated into a white-hot frenzy.
Liu Yuan held absolutely nothing back. He pushed the enhancement of Ultimate Sublimation to its absolute maximum threshold. His physical body blurred, splitting into countless dark golden afterimages that swarmed the arena. Every punch, every kick, and every technique he threw carried the weight of a collapsing mountain.
Long Aotian fought back like a cornered beast, desperately squeezing every last drop of power from his silver Awakening. But it was useless. In the face of Liu Yuan's all-around, doubled physical and spiritual superiority, the Soul King's absolute defense began to splinter and collapse inch by agonizing inch.
Liu Yuan's relentless, storm-like offensive suffocated Long Aotian, leaving him completely overwhelmed and drowning under the pressure.
Finally, relying on the predictive capabilities of his Double Pupils, Liu Yuan perfectly anticipated Long Aotian's desperate, all-out sweeping kick. He casually sidestepped the lethal blow, brought his palms together, and compressed a massive, highly unstable sphere of mental force and Soul Power between his hands.
Boom!
The explosion of energy erupted point-blank against Long Aotian's chest. The burly Soul King's body could no longer maintain its center of gravity. The immense kinetic shockwave lifted him off his feet, launching him dozens of meters sideways through the air until he crashed heavily into the dirt outside the arena boundaries.
The entire martial arts field plunged into a deathly silence.
The victor had been decided. All ambient noise, all cheering, all breathing seemed to vanish into the void.
The expressions on the faces of Wang Yanfeng, Gu Tong, Chen Lu, and the surrounding disciples froze into masks of pure shock. They all knew Liu Yuan was a monster of a genius. But none of them, not even in their wildest dreams, expected that in a life-or-death spar where Long Aotian revealed his absolute trump card, Liu Yuan would still win. And win with such overwhelming, suffocating dominance.
Standing near the edge of the stage, Vina's beautiful eyes were practically melting with intense infatuation and deep, swelling pride. She pursed her lips tightly, her heart hammering against her ribs. 'He is truly worthy of being the man I have set my eyes on...'
Up on the high platform, Elder Chen slowly released his grip on the stone railing, finally letting go of his previous doubts. He looked down at the dark golden figure standing victorious on the ruined stage and let out a long, heavy sigh. His tone was laced with absolute reverence. "The Sect Master's judgment is truly beyond the world of mortals. This child, Liu Yuan... he is a true monster."
Du Busi threw his head back and laughed toward the sky, his booming voice vibrating with unmatched, arrogant pride. "Hahahaha! He is my disciple! Of course I understand his limits better than anyone!" The Super Douluo slammed a hand down on the railing. "Although Ao Tian is an excellent seedling, Liu Yuan's Double Pupils are the true, undisputed kings among all Body Martial Souls!"
Down below, the dust settled. Long Aotian slowly pushed himself up from the dirt outside the arena.
He did not fly into a humiliated rage, nor did he curse his luck. Instead, he displayed the exact straightforward, unyielding temperament that defined the core of the Body Sect. He dusted off his ruined clothes, walked back up the stairs onto the shattered arena, and offered Liu Yuan a sincere, respectful bow.
"Congratulations on your victory, Junior Brother Liu Yuan," Long Aotian said, his voice carrying no bitterness. "I am completely and utterly convinced of my loss today."
He looked at Liu Yuan's perfectly calm, unbothered expression and could not help but let out a self-deprecating, bitter chuckle. "I originally thought that breaking through to level fifty and unlocking the silver Awakening would at least allow me to claw back some face as your senior. I never expected that even after laying all my cards on the table, I still couldn't force you to take a step back."
Long Aotian shook his head. "If you manage to complete your own Body Martial Soul's Secondary Awakening in the future... I am afraid I will never even be able to see your back again."
Liu Yuan exhaled slowly. He withdrew the state of Ultimate Sublimation, and the terrifying, suffocating dark golden aura bleeding from his pores slowly retracted back into his body. The heavy pressure crushing the arena vanished.
He offered a faint, polite smile and responded in a gentle, measured tone. "Senior Brother, there is no need to say such things. The path of cultivation is long and unpredictable. This was merely a friendly sparring match to test our limits."
Liu Yuan smoothed out his sleeves. "There are decades ahead of us. Senior Brother is blessed with immense talent. Who knows? Perhaps one day you will experience a sudden, major epiphany and leave me in the dust."
Long Aotian blinked, stunned by the humility, before throwing his head back and laughing loudly, his mood instantly clearing into exceptional open-mindedness. "That is true! Hahahaha! I didn't expect that I, the Senior Brother, would be the one receiving a lecture on mindset from my Junior Brother!"
Liu Yuan nodded respectfully, but then his expression shifted, the polite smile fading into a look of serious, pragmatic calculation. "However, Senior Brother Ao Tian, during our exchange just now, I truly felt the sheer, overwhelming power of a Secondary Awakening. That fundamental, qualitative mutation in your basic physical stats... it makes me deeply yearn for it."
Liu Yuan stepped closer, his voice dropping to a more private volume. "Therefore, I would like to ask you for some advice in private. I want to know the specific, granular insights you experienced during your Secondary Awakening, and the exact details of that momentary state of realization. I wonder if Senior Brother would be willing to share that data with me?"
Long Aotian didn't even hesitate. He waved his large hand generously, agreeing on the spot. "Of course! We are fellow disciples of the same Sect! What is there to hide about our cultivation experiences?"
He gestured toward the path leading away from the arena. "Come on, let's go. I will take you to my private practice room right now and break down every single detail of that bloodline awakening. If my experience can help you take that final step sooner, then it is worth it!"
Under the awestruck, reverent gazes of the entire crowd, the two monstrous geniuses turned and walked side by side toward the practice rooms in the back mountain, leaving the disciples of the Body Sect staring at the backs of two living legends.
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