The bone dragon's wings beat once, closing the distance on Arthur, its bone-white claws slashing down at him, the wind of the strike wrapped in venom that corroded everything it touched.
The bartender, having recovered himself, was also directing the soul-devouring golem to swing its shattered great scythe, and countless spectral chains shot out again, sealing off every avenue of escape Arthur might have taken.
Arthur's eyes went sharp. He gripped Excalibur in a reverse hold, his fighting spirit blazing.
His body shifted sideways like a phantom, slipping past the bone dragon's claw strike, and in the same motion his blade swept across, cutting through most of the spectral chains.
"Clang!"
Blade met scythe, sparks scattering in every direction.
Arthur used the momentum to flip backward, and at the same time raised his left hand.
His spiritual domain unfurled: Return to the Void.
Both of them stood at the Spirit Abyss Realm, but faced with a soul technique refined from a hundred thousand years of soul bone and the power of the plane itself, the bartender still fell prey to it.
Seizing that instant of blankness in his mind.
What met him next was another of Arthur's spiritual soul techniques.
Star Abyss Shatterworld!
"Crack."
The bartender felt as though he were a mirror, shattered with ease.
In that daze, he was about to sink into darkness and unconsciousness.
"No, wait? You got hit again?"
At the razor's edge of the moment, the bone dragon let out a roar like crashing thunder, dark green venom hurtling forward on a gust of wind, smashing down hard toward Arthur.
Arthur had no choice but to twist aside to dodge, and his offensive momentarily stalled.
"Do that again and I'm not saving you next time!"
It was in that split second of opening that the bartender suddenly spat out a mouthful of black blood, forcibly tearing himself free from the grip of the dual spiritual soul techniques.
"Easy for you to say, he keeps staring right at me, what am I supposed to do about it?"
The bartender's eyes turned blood-red, his expression twisted with something like madness, his hands weaving seals rapidly before his chest. "Ninth Soul Technique: Demon Puppet Sacrifice!"
As the words fell, the already-shattered soul-devouring golem burst suddenly with blinding black light.
It dissolved at a speed visible to the naked eye, turning into torrents of pitch-black soul power that poured wholesale into the bartender's body.
The bartender's aura surged wildly, his once-withered frame snapping instantly upright.
He raised a hand and swept it through the air, and countless spectral chains twisted like living things, coiling toward Arthur, the chains wreathed in an eerie black mist capable of devouring souls.
Meanwhile, the bone dragon seized the opening as well, folding its bone wings and hurling its massive body forward like a cannon shell at Arthur, its bone-white claws glinting cold as they bore down to crush him.
Arthur said nothing, only swung his holy sword again and again. Every strike carried a terrifying force.
"Clang! Clang! Clang!"
The sound of blade meeting claw and chain came thick and fast like drumbeats, sparks flying everywhere.
Arthur's silhouette wove back and forth between the pincer attack of the bone dragon and the bartender.
The spiritual shockwave of Star Abyss Shatterworld erupted again, invisible blades of spirit pouring down like a storm.
The bartender had braced himself this time, but he still let out a muffled grunt, black blood seeping from the corner of his mouth.
The bone dragon's sharp claws tore through Arthur's battle armor, dark green venom staining the silver-white plating, instantly corroding a scatter of tiny holes into it.
Arthur countered with a reverse slash, severing the tip of the bone dragon's claw, and sword intent surged through the wound, exploding into a burst of flame across the dragon's bones.
The three of them fought their way from the ground up into the sky.
From one end of Sun Moon to the other.
Above the city, the sound of collisions kept bursting out everywhere.
The clash of sword against bone, the explosions of soul power, the howls of restless spirits all wove together, shaking the entire city of Sun Moon.
The powerhouses of Sun Moon had long since arrived, but none of them stepped in. They only watched from the sidelines, meanwhile quietly canceling out the shockwaves from the three combatants' clashes to protect the city.
Ordinary Titled Douluo froze where they stood, staring up at the three figures locked in battle in midair, their expressions dazed.
A Soul King wearing a single-piece battle armor, trading blows evenly with two Titled Douluo of the Evil Soul path?!
Damn it, was he dreaming?
The Super Douluo present, meanwhile, had their eyes fixed unblinkingly on Arthur.
"Is that... Arthur?"
Someone muttered under their breath, not even trusting their own words.
"If I remember right, he's what, thirteen at most?"
"Thirteen, my ass?"
The one speaking was a broad, thickset Titled Douluo from the city defense force. He rubbed his eyes without thinking, as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing.
"I know him. Back when he was only a Soul Elder, he beat a single-piece armor master on par with a Soul Sage. It makes sense a Soul King could fight a Titled Douluo, doesn't it?"
"Makes sense my foot! You can't just calculate it like that! The twenty levels between Soul Sage and Titled Douluo, and the twenty levels between Soul Elder and Soul King, you think those are the same thing?! This kid's a monster! An absolute monster!"
Beside him, an elder in an embroidered robe stroked his beard, his expression grave. "Monster doesn't even begin to describe it. Look at the rhythm of his fighting. Every strike he lands, only after the fact do I realize it was the optimal choice. I ask you, who here could match that? And his Spiritual Power alone is enough to suppress an Evil Soul Douluo. It's likely far beyond anything we can imagine."
"I can sense that his soul power right now sits somewhere between Soul Douluo and Titled Douluo at best, and yet he's holding his own against two Titled Douluo, forcibly!"
"The continent of Douluo... things are about to change."
The moment those words left his mouth, everyone around fell silent, each lost in their own thoughts.
At the Sun and Moon Royal Soul Master Academy, the arena had long since been prepared, the stands packed with spectators, murmurs of discussion rising and falling on all sides.
Gu Yue stood at the very front of her team, her light purple fighting attire setting off her straight, proud posture, her cool gaze sweeping over the Sun and Moon Academy students arrayed on the opposite side, poised and ready.
Na'er stood right beside her, her silvery hair tied back in a high ponytail, the usual playful sparkle in her lively eyes dimmed somewhat. She kept feeling an inexplicable unease, as though something momentous were about to happen.
At the edge of the arena, Shen Yi was going over the rules of the friendly match with the lead instructor from Sun and Moon Academy. The students on both sides had already taken their positions, waiting only for the referee's signal to begin the team battle.
Just then, a deafening roar suddenly tore across the distant sky.
The sound was so terrifying it seemed to make even the earth itself tremble. The arena's protective barrier rippled, and gasps of shock erupted instantly through the stands.
Gu Yue's head snapped up, her gaze locking without hesitation onto the direction the sound had come from. There, the sky was drenched in golden light, and immediately after, a pillar of black and crimson light tore across it...
"That's..." Na'er could sense it clearly: that aura belonged to Arthur. Noticing that the dragon scale she had given him showed no sign of distress, she let out a small breath of relief.
Gu Yue felt her heart drop, and instinctively wanted to rush toward it.
"Arthur..." she murmured under her breath, a flicker of anxiety crossing her cool eyes as she stared fixedly at the direction from which the bursts of energy kept erupting. That was power on the level of a Titled Douluo.
It was only after Di Tian's report reached her ear that she managed to calm herself.
The commotion in the sky kept growing louder. The face of Sun and Moon Academy's lead instructor changed drastically. He hurried over to exchange a few words with Shen Yi, then quickly sent someone to find out what was happening.
Shen Yi's brow furrowed as well. She looked up at the sky now swallowed in that light, her heart sinking. That golden glow, she could tell at a glance, belonged to Arthur.
Wu Changkong's figure appeared. "You stay here and watch over the students. I'll go take a look."
A moment later, she was gone.