Martial Sovereign of the Turbulent World

Chapter 178: Chapter 176: Dual Soul Unity! The First One

"BANG!"

Luo Chengying kicked away the servant waiting on him and leaned forward. Once he got a clear look at the person taking the stage, he suddenly burst out laughing before lazily leaning back into his chair.

"Bring me my telescope."

He waved a hand, his eyes glinting with a strange excitement. "And tell those reporters that in a little while... they’re to photograph him for all they’re worth! If they do a good job, this Young Master will reward them handsomely."

Chai Xiong, the Gang Leader of the Woodcutter Gang, agreed with a smile and turned to quickly relay the orders.

...

"And here I thought he’d keep cowering and not dare to show his face. Heh heh..."

In the crowd, Tang Jing watched a certain figure ascend the stage step by step, a cold sneer on his face. He crossed his arms, settling in to watch the show.

The man in the trench coat beside him, however, had his gaze fixed on the Qinglian Gang’s seating area in the distance. His eyes scanned back and forth, his brow furrowing from time to time as if he were deep in thought.

...

"The message I gave you, did you deliver it or not?"

Su Hui lightly tapped her maid Suisui on her full forehead. The latter cried out in pain, rubbing her forehead and muttering with a wronged expression, "I did.

But he just ignored it... How is that my fault?"

Su Hui pressed her lips together, her eyes glued to the figure on the Xuanwu Platform. A moment later, she suddenly turned her head, leaned close to the hunchbacked old man beside her, and whispered a few quick instructions.

The old man’s cloudy eyes narrowed slightly, and he slowly nodded.

...

Fu Juemin climbed the stone steps, making his way toward the Xuanwu Platform one step at a time.

Countless gazes were fixed on him. Beneath his suit, his Qi Blood surged, bringing with it a faint heat.

He raised a hand and gently loosened his tie.

The Martial Arts practitioners lining both sides cast cold, venomous glares his way, but Fu Juemin seemed not to notice, simply continuing his slow ascent.

After an unknown number of mottled, ancient steps, a pair of large feet suddenly blocked his path.

He stopped and slowly looked up.

A shadow fell across his face.

In his field of vision was an exceptionally tall and burly figure.

A deep red martial arts uniform was casually open, revealing a wide expanse of knotted muscle and a savage growth of pale gold chest hair. Black Finger Tigers were clasped tightly over his knuckles, and a headband was cinched tight on his forehead. On a hard face that blended Eastern and Western features, a mocking, cold sneer was on full display.

"What are you laughing at?"

Fu Juemin tilted his head back slightly, his tone flat.

The man started at his words, then lowered his crossed arms. A domineering, brutish aura immediately erupted from him, locking firmly onto Fu Juemin.

"I’m laughing at you..."

The man’s lips curled back, revealing beast-like, stark white teeth. A cold light glinted in his eyes, finally settling into a savage grin. "Hiding here, hiding there... in the end, didn’t you still have to crawl up here to die!"

The man cracked his thick, vein-popping neck, producing a series of sickening CRACKS. He then raised a fist, a furious aura raging forth like a tornado, as if ready to tear the person before him to shreds at any moment.

Faced with the powerful aura radiating from the man, Fu Juemin appeared exceptionally calm.

"You’re wrong."

He shook his head. "I wasn’t hiding. I was just waiting."

"Waiting for what?"

The man’s grin grew even wilder.

"Waiting for you to bring out something genuinely interesting. For this trial to become a little less boring..."

As Fu Juemin spoke slowly, an invisible, dark aura, like a miasma rising from the earth, began to silently spread from him.

The man’s brows knitted slightly, a trace of doubt flashing in his eyes.

"But I waited and waited, and waited and waited..."

As the tone of Fu Juemin’s words grew heavier and colder, a series of pops like firecrackers erupted from his body.

"CRACK, CRACK, CRACK—"

His expensive, well-fitted, handmade suit, along with the hard stone steps beneath his feet, began to groan and crack as if under an unbearable weight!

A fine mesh of web-like cracks suddenly spread out like mad from the center of his feet!

The man froze instinctively, and in the next second, he felt a dense shadow rise rapidly before his eyes.

An indescribably terrifying aura erupted like a volcano, instantly crushing and shredding his own.

In a daze, for just a moment, the man felt as if he had returned to the first time he ever stepped into the ring of an underground boxing match in the Westerners’ district, facing an opponent who far surpassed him in both size and strength.

That long-forgotten tension, terror, and trembling buried deep within his heart; the deafening roars and bellows from below the ring...

All these fragmented memories finally converged into a suppressed, hoarse, yet bone-chilling voice—

"...I was waiting so long I almost fell asleep, and in the end, all I get is a few clowns like you!"

The man snapped back to his senses, but his pupils only had time to reflect a massive, all-encompassing phantom image that was suddenly magnifying before him—

"BOOM!"

A visible, violent shockwave of air exploded across the Xuanwu Platform.

Billowing dust and smoke surged across the steps like a tidal wave. On and off the stage, there was a sudden silence.

When the dust settled, everyone saw—

Fu Juemin, now standing nearly two meters tall, stood steadily on the steps. His entire body had expanded outward by a full circle, and his previously calm and restrained demeanor had been replaced by an incomparably fierce and wild arrogance!

Beneath his feet, a large crater had appeared out of nowhere.

Chen Qigong, a man of mixed Chinese and Western heritage known as the "Overlord" in the Shenghai Martial Realm, was face down, pinned to the bottom of the crater by one of his hands.

Fu Juemin casually ripped off his suit—which had been stretched and torn to the point of being mere strips of cloth—and slowly lifted the hand that had been pinning Chen Qigong.

Between his five fingers, a crystal-clear Purple Jade Token had appeared.

Fu Juemin held up the Jade Token, casually waving it before his eyes. He gently blew away a few drops of blood from its surface, then turned his gaze toward the higher, deeper parts of the Xuanwu Platform.

"The first one..."

His eyes, which looked as if a drop of ink were slowly spreading through his pupils, appeared rather demonic. Fu Juemin narrowed his eyes, put away the Jade Token, and continued on his way up.

At this moment, both on and off the stage, there was dead silence.

.......

Luo Chengying’s hand, holding the monocular telescope, was frozen in mid-air.

In the crowd of onlookers, the cold sneer of Tang Jing, who had been waiting to enjoy the show, was also frozen on his face.

Su Hui was blinking hard, again and again, as if trying to reconfirm the identity of the person on the stage.

In the Qinglian Gang’s seats, the old man surnamed Feng, who had been leisurely and pompously sipping his tea, suddenly choked. In the next instant, he erupted with an agility and speed completely belying his decrepit appearance, darting to the very front of the crowd. An unparalleled light burst forth from his two cloudy eyes.

"Interesting! Truly interesting! And at such a young age..."

Elder Feng suddenly turned his head and, laughing heartily, said to Madam Ding, "This kid really is something else.

Miss Ding, I’ve changed my mind.

In a bit, I’ll step in myself. Working with this kid, I’ll make sure Zhao Jigang...."

Before he could finish, Madam Ding raised a hand, cutting him off.

She was in the process of gently tossing a snow-white carrier pigeon into the air. The pigeon flapped its wings, and in an instant, it became a tiny dot on the horizon and disappeared.

After doing all this, Madam Ding slowly turned around, her face placid and her voice calm. "Elder... you should just continue resting."

With that, she ignored the frozen expression on the old man surnamed Feng and found a seat for herself, her gaze returning to the stage, as tranquil as a deep pool.

.....

Fu Juemin walked upward, unconcerned.

He was currently in a state of "Dual Soul Unity"—having activated two great Talents, [Meat Mountain] and [Soft Bone], at the same time.

Compared to the perfect [Demon Body] of the Three Souls in One Body, this form was naturally lacking by more than a little.

If the perfect Demon Body was the earth’s crust shattering and lava erupting, then the Dual Soul Unity was like molten magma flowing silently beneath a thick layer of ice.

Without the restriction, compression, and guidance of [Copper Hide], it lacked a great deal of explosive power. He also needed to be more careful in controlling the force of each strike, lest the power explode uncontrollably within his own "muscles" first.

Of course, Dual Soul Unity had its own advantages.

Namely—at least he looked more human than he did in his [Demon Body] form!

Right now, although Fu Juemin’s body had swelled and his height had shot up, he still largely maintained his original, well-proportioned silhouette and handsome features.

It was just that his still-handsome face was now constantly shrouded in a unique, lingering, almost demonic aura.

Zhou Feibai and Qin Suyi, who were old acquaintances of his, recovered from their brief shock and stupor. Their eyes turned cold in unison, and completely disregarding the so-called rules of the trial, they charged at Fu Juemin at the same time, radiating killing intent.

A corner of Fu Juemin’s mouth quirked up. In his ink-black eyes, a spectral light, like that of a predator locking onto its prey, flashed through.

"The second, and the third..."

...