Out in the distant brush, Luo Fanchen's aura was detonating upward — and over his sunny, masculine looks now lay something wicked and regal.
The magnetism of him grew more staggering still.
Every inch of exposed skin had been sheathed in crystalline azure scales; blood-essence steamed off his body; his presence had more than doubled.
"No WAY!"
"How is it this FAST???"
Bai Yingyue nearly bit her own tongue mid-gasp. Those were unmistakably the signs of a successful Martial Soul Possession.
But this was absurd.
She'd finished explaining the key points approximately five minutes ago — and he was DONE?
What happened to 'four hours minimum'?!
For a moment the world swam around her.
She was the Temple's Holy Maiden — exalted station, deep learning. She should NOT be losing her composure this many times in one day.
But this man was a world-class monster who refused, every single time, to follow ANY known script.
"BOOM!"
While she stood dazed, the Luo Fanchen reflected in her eyes suddenly came rocketing at her like a cannonball — slammed her clean into the grass, and landed square on top of her.
"AAAH!!!"
"Senior Brother — what do you think you're DOING?!"
Red mist climbed her face in an instant; even as she yelled through gritted teeth, soul power was already surging up inside her.
"Junior Sister — don't misunderstand — it wasn't on purpose!" he blurted.
"You POUNCED on me, and it wasn't on purpose?" Pinned beneath him, Bai Yingyue trembled with rage — and a touch of chill.
She liked her handsome Senior Brother well enough, but wasn't this moving things along a LITTLE fast?
"Hear my excuse — no, wait — hear my EXPLANATION."
Luo Fanchen was as lost as she was, words tumbling out sideways.
He'd only meant to bounce over and have her check his possession state for defects.
Instead, one push of his foot and his body had rocketed forward with no brakes whatsoever.
He'd grabbed for the ground to right himself — and his hand had landed directly on one of those long fair legs above the black leather boot.
His heart sank through the earth.
Done for. No explaining THIS.
"Pinning me wasn't enough — now you're GROPING?"
Her eyes went huge, staring in disbelief at that wickedly regal, handsome face.
The look said everything: you thick-browed, honest-eyed senior brother — such a gentleman to the eye, and your hands don't hesitate AT ALL.
"Get OFF — Teacher could be back any moment!"
She was one breath from detonating her soul power to blast him loose — and went soft at the last instant, settling for frantic, furious squeaking.
"I am back."
The cool royal-elder-sister voice arrived from one side. Both of them went rigid, expressions freezing solid.
"Creak... creak..."
Senior brother and junior sister rotated their heads toward the voice like two wooden puppets.
On a thick bough above, Pontiff Di Weiyang stood with folded arms, gazing down at the two of them stacked in the grass.
No telling how long she'd been watching.
Luo Fanchen died the social death. Master cannot POSSIBLY be concluding I'm some beast in heat—
Bai Yingyue went numb. Teacher can't POSSIBLY think I threw myself at him — resisting with my lips and welcoming with my—
"It's fine. Carry on."
The Pontiff added exactly one more sentence — and drove both their mortifications through the ceiling of heaven.
They flew apart like opposite charges.
Grass still clinging to her fair legs, Yingyue burned scarlet. "Teacher — it was HIM, Senior Brother pounced FIRST—"
"Correct. I pounced first." Luo Fanchen nodded — then shook his head hard. "But not on purpose."
"Understood. No explanation needed," the Pontiff said, unhurried. "Fanchen's first Martial Soul Possession — strength surging beyond control. Entirely normal."
Yingyue blinked — OH. How had she forgotten THAT? She'd nearly concluded her senior brother's beast soul had sent his beast nature rampaging.
Luo Fanchen could have wept with gratitude. One fair sentence from the Pontiff, or his good name died today.
...Hold on. It clicked. The Pontiff had her own streak of mischief — she'd probably been back the WHOLE time, enjoying the show.
He asked, "Teacher — my unity of man and soul. Any problems with it?"
"WHAT problems could there be?"
Yingyue's lip pushed out. She understood the physics of what had happened, fine — but she'd still been pinned AND groped for free, and the injustice burned.
Such a loss.
No. Unacceptable. She would find her moment and take revenge.
Luo Fanchen pressed on, hesitant:
"Junior Sister said mastering it takes most of a day at minimum. I managed on the first try — so I'm worried this rush job might carry some hidden defect."
Bai Yingyue's soul left her body. DOST THOU HEAR A WORD MEN SPEAK?
There are ways to phrase things, and then there's chasing a person down to slap her face on cooldown!!!
Di Weiyang shook her head, confirming: "No defect. Your comprehension is simply that fast."
"She understands geniuses. She does not yet understand YOU."
Yingyue's pretty face fell entirely, eyes going puddle-deep with grievance.
Dearest Teacher.
Was it strictly necessary to lift him up by stepping on ME? Have I lost favor? Boo. Hoo.
Only now did Luo Fanchen have leisure to feel out the changes. Power flooded every fiber of him.
Conservatively, three or four times his base strength — and climbing.
He rapped a knuckle against the crystalline azure scales sheathing his skin: hard as diamond to the touch. His defense had plainly soared.
The soul power banked in his dantian was draining steadily, but not viciously — holding the possession for an hour or more would clearly be no problem at all.
Yingyue came bouncing back over, circling him like a curious child.
"Tsk. Little Senior Brother."
"I've seen other serpent-soul masters after possession — full snake-face, ugly as sin, gloomy as a haunt. You, though... you're different."
"Different like a DEAD haunt?" He rolled his eyes.
"No no no." She shook her head, smiling sunshine. "Handsome! GENUINELY handsome."
He felt a sudden flash of admiration for Bai Yingyue. Two minutes ago she'd been depression incarnate; now she was all giggles again.
Youth in full riot — bright, quick, and lovely.
"Your senior brother's change runs closer to DRAGON-form. There's not one thread of serpent-soul aura on him."
The Pontiff spoke from the side. "Fanchen — your martial soul is far from fully evolved, still in its initial stage, so possession alters your form only slightly."
"As the soul grows mightier, the dragon-transformation will deepen — and the amplification with it."
"Understood, Teacher." He nodded, then couldn't resist: "And your errand just now was...?"
Something moved in Di Weiyang's eyes.
"They should be arriving."
"Eh?"
Bewilderment lasted half a breath — then the brush crackled, and three beast-shapes burst into the open.
Three Diamond Mantises, each half a man tall — the same class as the four-hundred-year one he'd ground down at such cost.
"SKREE! SKREE!"
The mantises shrieked, small eyes glowing scarlet.
Enlightenment dawned. So THAT's what the Pontiff had been doing this whole while — out pulling aggro on minor monsters for him.
"Combat is the truest test of a breakthrough. Go, Fanchen," said the Pontiff.
"SHWICK!"
He didn't even need to close the distance — the three mantises came scything in themselves, folding into a neat triangular pincer.
Their plan was straightforward: dice the eyesore male human first, then butcher the two females at leisure.
"PERFECT timing."
Luo Fanchen's mouth curled up. Since mastering the unity, his whole body had been humming with power and nowhere to spend it.
The Pontiff had just handed him an outlet.
"BOOM!"
He vaulted to meet them, fists swinging.
"CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!"
Scythe-arms raked across his scaled skin — and struck SPARKS. He rolled through the blow and hammered out one punch that burst a mantis's head outright.
"HAAAH — beautiful!"
The punch went through him like cold water on a summer day. The miserly, scraping style he'd been forced into half a day ago against ONE of these things — never again.
Up beside the Pontiff, Bai Yingyue watched and sighed. "The speed he's internalizing a brand-new combat style at is ALSO completely unfair, for the record."
The Pontiff glanced at her. "Still not used to it?"
Yingyue opened her mouth. Is this something one GETS USED TO? She was a one-in-a-generation talent herself, thank you — and she'd never seen a monster like this.
"Your teacher assumed you'd adapted by now."
That one nearly finished her. She sighed, soundless, deep inside. Adapting. She was ADAPTING, okay?!
"THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!"
The fight ended: one fist thrown wide, three mantises buried — all three hammered bodily into the damp soil.
Three bright-yellow soul rings drifted up.
"Whew—"
Luo Fanchen exhaled, loose and satisfied.
Not half a day ago, ONE of these had taken everything he had to grind down. Now he'd flattened three without breaking rhythm.
Progress at a gallop.
The possession released, and the little loach shot gleefully toward its three 'trophies'.
"Whoosh-whoosh!"
Gulp by gulp its body swelled again — one-point-three meters stretching to a full one-point-eight, thick as a sapling now, the azure scales broadening, fine and dense... less and less snake-scale, more and more DRAGON-scale.
The two-colored light around it deepened to saturation.
Watching it swim back, Luo Fanchen could hardly connect it to the stubby black sad-sack of awakening day. Taller, longer, mightier by the hour.
Though his sharp eye caught the other side of it too: same-grade beasts were feeding it less and less with every meal.
"We move," said the Pontiff. "The sun is nearly down."
Luo Fanchen hadn't forgotten the assignment — kill a five-hundred-year soul beast before sunset. This morning it had sounded impossible.
Now? He was brimming.
What he did NOT notice:
Before leaving, Di Weiyang and Bai Yingyue both let their gazes rest — carefully, sidelong — on the three shriveled mantis husks. Grave eyes. Strange lights.
***
"MOOO!"
The jungle shook with a beast's bellow.
A lone, lean young figure was locked in battle with a brute of a bull.
Savagery steamed off the animal; its build was a fortress; and its two horns glinted pure gold in the sunset — as if cast from the metal itself.
A five-hundred-year soul beast. The Golden Brute Bull — matchless in raw strength within its grade.
"THUD-THUD-THUD—"
The bull's eyes went red. Four hooves tore the earth as it charged, golden horns leveled.
"HAH!"
Luo Fanchen barked once, blood-essence boiling, scale-sheathed hands shooting out to seize both horns clean.
"BOOM."
The impact was staggering. His feet plowed twin furrows meters long before he killed its momentum — and the two locked into stalemate.
"MOOOO!!"
The bull bellowed with what could only be mockery: this speck of a human dared contest STRENGTH with a Brute Bull? Strength was its whole existence.
"Little Senior Brother hasn't gotten... over-inflated, has he?"
Up in a tree, Bai Yingyue was strung tight, coiled and ready to dive in at any second. She hadn't dreamed he'd be this reckless.
No angles, no feints — straight into a head-on contest of muscle.
The Pontiff's phoenix eyes were calm, watching with something like relish, and not the faintest intention of rescue.
"Whoosh — whoosh!"
The deadlock ground on.
Then Luo Fanchen's star-bright eyes flared — and in each palm gripping those golden horns, a tiny vortex spun open. Suction bloomed.
Its strength waned. His waxed.
The bull's arrogance died mid-bellow, replaced by a shriek of animal terror as it wrenched and flailed to tear free.
"Only NOW you notice?"
"Too late."
"UP — you — GO!"
Fists locked dead on the horns, he sank into his knees — and heaved the thousand-jin bull bodily over, slamming it flat into the earth.
The ground jumped.
The day's last thread of sunset came off the western sky and lay along the hard line of his profile.
Night fell.
The five-hundred-year Golden Brute Bull: deceased.
Bai Yingyue shook herself — she'd been staring, actually entranced. A Holy Maiden's heart does NOT stir so easily. This man was PURE POISON!!
The possession released; the little loach streaked to the carcass, jaws wide.
"Little Senior Brother — what WAS that technique just now?" She was still seeing the vortexes in his palms.
"Something I noticed mid-fight," he said. "Under possession, the little loach's devouring ability becomes MINE to use."
"Drain the enemy's blood and vigor, feed it into myself. They ebb; I flow."
Luo Fanchen's altered body saw clean through darkness — so he saw it plainly: at the description of that divine trick, Bai Yingyue did not light up at all. She shivered. Her face lost several shades of color. And she glanced — very, very carefully — toward the Pontiff at her side.
This...
A cold premonition slid down his spine.
"Little Senior Brother — quick, look at your martial soul!" She was pointing at the bull's carcass, unable to hold in the cry.