Soul Emperor Awakening

"Who dares touch my master!" Lin Xuan’s familiar figure appeared before them, his eyes glinting coldly.

He stood atop a colossal Phoenix, which sent waves of intense heat rolling out in all directions. In his hand, he held the Chi Dragon Heavens Rod—the very weapon that had just pierced clean through his opponent. Combined with the Phoenix’s ultimate speed, it was an instant kill!

Lin Xuan’s arrival stunned everyone. When Hai Qingdong saw him, he was startled for a moment before bursting into laughter. "So, you’ve finally shown yourself! Get him! Capture him alive! Forget the others!"

If he weren’t otherwise engaged, Hai Qingdong would have personally rushed over to capture Lin Xuan himself.

"You want to capture me?" Lin Xuan sneered. "Let’s see if you have what it takes. Go!" He leapt down from the Phoenix and commanded it to charge forward at top speed. A torrent of extreme Flame swept out, incinerating anyone it touched into a pile of ash!

These Spirit Pill Stage experts were not weak, but the Phoenix was at the Peak of the Spirit Pill Stage. It could easily kill those with relatively lower Cultivation in a single blow.

As the Phoenix carried out its massacre, Lin Xuan joined the fray. He spun the Chi Dragon Heavens Rod in his hand, and with a flash of red light, he thrust forward.

It transformed into a streak of red light, moving so fast that his opponent had no time to react. In the blink of an eye, the Chi Dragon Heavens Rod slammed into his chest. THUD! A terrifyingly immense power surged into his body, shattering his internal organs to pieces!

Blood streamed from the Spirit Pill Stage expert’s seven orifices as he died on the spot, utterly unable to put up any resistance.

Just then, a sinister gust of wind came from behind him. A Spirit Pill Stage expert was swinging a great saber down at his back. Qing Piaoyun, who was standing nearby, was just about to help when Lin Xuan suddenly spun around. He thrust out a palm, and his left hand instantly erupted with an aura of extreme cold.

"Yulan’s Ultimate Skill, First Form: Dark Blue Palm!"

The Yulan Pearl in his body surged wildly. With a wave of his hand, a massive palm of ice descended. The extreme cold froze the very air, and a thick layer of frost instantly coated the ground!

Facing the oncoming Dark Blue Palm, the attacker could only brace himself and bring his saber down with all his might. He refused to believe he couldn’t cleave through this palm strike; after all, his Cultivation was at the Third Layer of the Spirit Pill Stage, three full levels higher than Lin Xuan’s.

BOOM!

An explosion erupted as the two attacks collided. But when the blast cleared, the Spirit Pill Stage expert was frozen solid in mid-air, a human-sized ice sculpture. He then plummeted from the sky and crashed to the ground below.

CRASH! He shattered like a fragile sculpture, and red liquid trickled out from the icy fragments. He was, without a doubt, dead!

But it wasn’t over. Following Hai Qingdong’s command to capture Lin Xuan, the majority of the experts began to encircle him, hoping to take him down in a single coordinated effort. The true objective of this battle was to capture Lin Xuan and take his Bloodline Power. Everyone else was secondary, merely targets to be eliminated along the way.

Another Spirit Pill Stage expert charged, swinging his weapon at Lin Xuan’s back from the side. Acting as if he hadn’t noticed, Lin Xuan simply waved a hand toward the expert in front of him and made a crushing gesture, coldly announcing, "Yulan’s Ultimate Skill, Second Form: Dark Blue Cage!"

A giant hand suddenly erupted from the ground beneath that Spirit Pill Stage expert, closing around him in a vicelike grip. It was said to be a cage, but it was less about imprisoning and more about crushing its victim to smithereens!

BOOM!

A massive explosion echoed out. Amidst the shower of icy shards, not a single trace of life remained. The expert had likely been reduced to frozen dust, scattered across the ground.

"Lin Xuan, watch out!" Qing Piaoyun cried out urgently.

Lin Xuan seemed to turn a deaf ear. Only after he calmly finished off the enemy in front of him did he spin around, raising a hand to intercept the attack.

CLANG!

A crisp ring echoed out, as if two hard weapons had clashed. But it was Lin Xuan’s bare hand, now covered in a golden Dragon Scale, that had firmly caught the descending saber. He had snatched the weapon out of the air with ease. It all happened in a flash, as if he had anticipated every move.

"A Spiritual Artifact? You dare act so brazenly before me with a mere Spiritual Artifact? Come back when you have a Divine Artifact!"

Before the attacker’s horrified eyes, Lin Xuan squeezed his hand. CRUNCH! The Spiritual Artifact shattered into countless pieces that rained down onto the ground.

A rather valuable Spiritual Artifact had been effortlessly crushed. This proved that the strength of Lin Xuan’s grip far surpassed the durability of a Spiritual Artifact; it might even be comparable to the hardness of a Divine Artifact!

In fact, given the toughness of his Physique, it truly could rival a Divine Artifact. The Coiling Dragon Ginseng had not been absorbed for nothing, nor had the power of the Martial God. With these powers madly stacked on top of each other, his Physique had been enhanced to an astonishing level. His Defense Power was on par with the hardness of a Divine Artifact, rendering him practically invulnerable.

Of course, "invulnerable" didn’t mean he couldn’t be injured. Elemental Power could still be forced into his body to cause internal damage. But that would require a much higher level of Cultivation; this person before him was certainly not qualified!

"Die!"

Lin Xuan threw a punch. He didn’t even need a weapon. BAM! His fist struck his opponent’s chest, causing it to explode in a shower of blood and gore.

In a flash, four Spirit Pill Stage experts had been utterly annihilated. A quadra-kill in the blink of an eye. His dominance was absolute!

Lin Xuan exuded the aura of a King, towering over these so-called experts. With a mere First Layer Spirit Pill Stage Cultivation, he was able to fight and defeat opponents three or four Layers above him. It was simply Heaven-Defying.

Fighting above one’s level wasn’t unheard of at the Essence Pill Stage, but it was exceedingly rare at the Spirit Pill Stage. Yet Lin Xuan was shattering their every conception. Both his physical power and his attack speed far surpassed theirs.

It was as if Lin Xuan was the true Spirit Pill Stage expert, while they were so weak they might as well have been at the Essence Pill Stage. Otherwise, how could they be obliterated by a single punch?

But it was only natural for Lin Xuan to possess such might. Otherwise, why would he have faced a tribulation cloud during his breakthrough?

This scene left Qing Piaoxue and Qing Piaoyun, who were watching from behind, utterly dumbfounded. ’He’s too strong... just too strong.’ They were witnessing the birth of a miracle. From the time he first entered the Inner Hall, to his promotion to the Core Hall, and now to this moment—his strength had already surpassed that of his two masters.

The memory was still vivid in Qing Piaoxue’s mind: back then, Lin Xuan had struggled just to withstand her attacks. Now, he was shielding her from all harm. In the span of just a few short years, the world had been turned completely upside down.

"Who else wants some!" Lin Xuan stared at them coldly, standing protectively in front of Qing Piaoyun and Qing Piaoxue.

"Brother, Xue’Er really didn’t choose the wrong person... He can truly protect me. He won’t abandon me like that heartless man from my past did..." Tears streamed down Qing Piaoxue’s face. It wasn’t because she was afraid to die—she had long since lost her will to live. If not for her sense of belonging to the Qingcheng Mansion, she would have taken her own life long ago.

She had spent her days training her disciples, fiercely protective and not allowing any other men near them. It was all because a man had once wronged her, causing her to lose all trust in them.

But now, Lin Xuan’s appearance had shattered her convictions. ’This,’ she thought, ’is what it means to be a true man, a pillar between heaven and earth!’