NOVEL WEB Chapter 25: Chapter 25: Snow Jade Lion Emperor
Eastsea Academy had a total of six classes this year, including Class Zero. The Ascension Tournament had already proven that Class Zero was undoubtedly the strongest.
However, the fact that someone passed Wu Zhangkong's Class Zero assessment but still chose to join Class One piqued the interest of the other class advisors.
Before long, all the advisors had gathered, including Wu Zhangkong himself. Beside him were Xie Xie and Xu Xiaoyan from Class Zero. Even the Holy Spirit Douluo Yali and Na'er were present. Initially, they had been preparing to leave Eastsea Academy, but Yali had decided to stay temporarily upon hearing that Xia Yi would be challenging a Rank 20 Soul Master.
She wanted to see Xia Yi's combat potential firsthand, especially since he was so determined to avoid playing a support role.
Wrapped in a faint golden glow, Yali and Na'er stood at the edge of the training field. The golden light concealed their presence, making them invisible to others. Even when Class Three's advisor Ye Yingrong walked right through them, she noticed nothing.
"Isn't he a healing-type soul master? Why is he going out to fight someone?" Yali frowned. In her opinion, Xia Yi should have waited until he obtained his second soul skill before attempting such challenges. With just his Star Shifting Technique, how did he expect to take on a Rank 20 Soul Master?
"Ridiculous. Xia Yi's relying on his ten-thousand-year combat experience to bully someone weaker again," Na'er muttered disdainfully. In her view, if Xia Yi could last a full minute against her, defeating any Rank 20 Soul Master would be a walk in the park.
On the training field, under the watchful eyes of the crowd, Wu Jin raised his head for the first time to scrutinize Xia Yi. His gaze was icy and sharp, and just one glance made Xia Yi feel as though he were being sliced apart by blades.
"So strong!" Xia Yi thought. Perhaps it was the sheer difference in soul power, but Wu Jin's mere presence gave Xia Yi a suffocating sense of pressure.
"Could he actually be stronger than Na'er or Gu Yue?" Xia Yi frowned. Both Na'er and Gu Yue were Rank 20 Soul Masters, yet neither had ever given him such an overwhelming sense of oppression.
"Begin!" At Ye Yingluo's command, Xia Yi and Wu Jin activated their martial souls simultaneously. Xia Yi's transformation was subtle—besides two tails extending behind him, his appearance remained largely unchanged.
Wu Jin, however, was a different story. As two purple soul rings rose beneath his feet, white fur sprouted around his neck, forming a majestic mane over a foot long. Each strand gleamed like crystal, exuding an extraordinary aura.
Under the mane's backdrop, Wu Jin's already imposing frame appeared even more powerful. His body emitted a series of cracking sounds as his muscles swelled, stretching his clothes taut. His fingers flexed, and razor-sharp claws, shimmering with a cold metallic sheen, emerged and retracted at will.
"Thousand-year soul rings!" Gu Yue's eyes widened. Though Wu Jin was forbidden from using his soul skills, the physical enhancement provided by his thousand-year soul rings was immense.
"Sister, you've been hiding something from me, haven't you?" Class Three's advisor, Ye Yingrong, gave Ye Yingluo a resentful look. Even as sisters, Ye Yingrong hadn't known that Class One harbored such a monstrous talent.
Having both soul rings at the thousand-year level was a rarity. Even at Shrek Academy, only a handful of students could boast such an achievement. The fact that Wu Jin's spiritual power had to be extraordinary to raise his soul spirits to that level only made it more remarkable.
Ye Yingluo smirked and turned to glance at Wu Zhangkong, relishing the shock on his usually cold face. It was a rare sight to see the aloof "Ice God" so visibly shaken.
"A Snow Jade Lion! And two purple soul rings!" Wu Zhangkong muttered. As a former student of Shrek Academy's inner court, he recognized the martial soul at a glance.
The Snow Jade Lion was no ordinary martial soul. It originated from the Snow Jade Lion beast species, a line of powerful soul beasts that had once ruled the Endless Mountain Range on the Sun Moon Continent over ten thousand years ago. When the Sun Moon and Douluo Continents collided, the Snow Jade Lion had arrived as part of the migration.
Once, the Endless Mountain Range was home to numerous ten-thousand-year Snow Jade Lion Kings and even a beast king-level Snow Jade Lion Emperor. However, thousands of years ago, a rift to the Abyss Plane opened in the Endless Mountain Range. By the time humanity intervened, the entire region had been slaughtered.
It wasn't that the mountain range was weak; the Abyss Plane was simply too strong. At the time, the Abyss Plane's passage was unsealed, and all 108 Abyssal Monarchs could freely traverse between the two worlds. Not even the mighty Snow Jade Lion Emperor could withstand such overwhelming power.
"This isn't an ordinary Snow Jade Lion. At the very least, it's a Snow Jade Lion King—perhaps even a Snow Jade Lion Emperor!" Gu Yue and Na'er stared intently at Wu Jin. Their knowledge of soul beasts far exceeded Wu Zhangkong's, and they could sense that Wu Jin's aura was anything but ordinary.
The gap between a regular Snow Jade Lion and a Snow Jade Lion Emperor wasn't as vast as the difference between Blue Silver Grass and Blue Silver Emperor, but it was still immense.
As the crowd marveled, Wu Jin made his move. Once his martial soul was activated, it was as if he had transformed into another being. His white hair fluttered as his muscular body exploded forward, closing the distance between him and Xia Yi in an instant.
His claws extended, slashing toward Xia Yi with deadly precision.
Xia Yi's right foot slid back as his body tilted left, reaching out to grab Wu Jin's arm. Against Wu Jin, Xia Yi knew his only chance lay in leveraging his greatest strength: raw physical power.
Despite the Snow Jade Lion Emperor's strength, Xia Yi's immense physical prowess—far surpassing even that of the Golden Dragon King—gave him an advantage.
Wu Jin had no idea Xia Yi's strength was monstrous. Seeing Xia Yi reach for his arm, Wu Jin didn't dodge. Instead, he lashed out like a steel whip, fully intending to overpower Xia Yi and throw him off.
However, the moment Xia Yi's hand closed around his arm, Wu Jin realized how wrong he had been. The iron grip clamped down like a vice, cutting off the blood flow to his arm and rendering it limp in an instant.
Without hesitation, Xia Yi lifted Wu Jin off the ground and slammed him forcefully into the ground, creating a loud boom and a cloud of dust.
Just as Xia Yi prepared to slam him down a second time, Wu Jin's trapped arm suddenly turned slippery and boneless, sliding free like a snake. In the same instant, his free arm curled into a fist and shot toward Xia Yi.
Stunned, Xia Yi quickly realized that Wu Jin was far more dangerous than he had anticipated. If Wu Jin had known about Xia Yi's strength from the start, he would never have allowed himself to be caught in the first place.