Chapter 90 Time and Seed
In the semifinals there was no longer room for defeat. Losing one match meant losing the right to continue, so even knowing Lin Yun was the strongest of the freshmen, Zhou Sicheng and his teammates could only grit their teeth and face him.
"Freshman Class Nine, Zhou Sicheng." Zhou stretched out his right hand, and a tome manifested before him. Two hundred-year soul rings lit up beneath his feet.
Lin Yun's sharp eyes caught every detail. When Zhou unleashed his soul skill, the tome opened two pages, each depicting a golden bear and a flaming tiger.
From the glowing pages, the two beasts stepped forth, standing guard at Zhou's side.
"Freshman Class Nine, Cao Jinxuan." Above his head appeared an arched clock, with two hundred-year rings gleaming around him.
"Freshman Class Nine, Long Xiangyue." This handsome youth produced a massive boomerang, his body likewise surrounded by two hundred-year rings.
Lin Yun couldn't help but wonder if, once thrown, that boomerang might not come back and instead crack Long Xiangyue between the eyes.
Three Great Soul Masters with all hundred-year rings, and with decent martial soul configurations at that.
Yet Lin Yun glanced only briefly at Cao Jinxuan and Long Xiangyue before dismissing them. The Time-Passing Clock sounded impressive, but its actual performance was terrible. Cao Jinxuan could not endure the backlash of manipulating time.
His skill merely slowed an opponent's time flow, and even then left him bleeding from nose and mouth. If he tried it on Lin Yun, he'd probably collapse before Lin Yun even felt the effect.
As for Long Xiangyue's boomerang, there was simply no need to care.
Lin Yun focused on Zhou Sicheng and suddenly chuckled. "So you can command soul beasts in battle too? What a coincidence, I can as well. Want to compare?"
Saying this, he slipped a hand into his robes. Under Zhou's dumbfounded gaze, he drew forth a jade-green scorpion.
The moment Qing'er appeared, Zhou's summoned beasts immediately wilted.
The golden bear shrank in size and cowered on the ground, trembling. The flaming tiger fared even worse—its fire extinguished completely, leaving it like a sickly housecat compared to its earlier majesty.
The backlash even struck Zhou himself. His knees nearly buckled, and if not for quickly clutching Cao Jinxuan's shoulder, he might have collapsed on the spot.
"A r… real soul beast?" Zhou's eyes nearly bulged out.
That oppressive aura, that suffocating sense of facing death itself—any soul master who had ever stood before a true beast could never mistake it.
Only, Qing'er's aura was magnitudes stronger.
"Of course. She's my little treasure. Her name is Qing'er." Lin Yun stroked the armored shell affectionately, and Qing'er clicked her pincers back at him.
Zhou's team turned to stone.
The referee turned to stone.
Even Yan Shaozhe, watching from the shadows, shook his head with helpless silence.
"Teacher, is… is this kind of thing really allowed?" Cao Jinxuan supported his weakened teammate Zhou, then pointed at Qing'er and questioned the referee.
"Ah? Uh… well…" The referee broke into a cold sweat, stammering, unable to form a proper answer.
Fortunately Yan Shaozhe's voice came through in secret transmission, relieving him even as his scalp tingled.
"Ahem. Just as your martial soul can summon soul beasts to fight, the freshman assessment only forbids the use of soul tools. A case like his—where a martial soul tames a soul beast to assist in battle—is not a violation." The referee repeated Yan Shaozhe's words with some polish.
"Any other questions?"
"N-no… none at all…" Zhou and his teammates stiffly turned their heads toward Lin Yun, who was smiling with a disarmingly kind expression.
"Then that's fine. Match, continue!" The referee teacher fled at lightning speed.
"Qing'er, use Ice King's Wrath!" Lin Yun said with a smile.
As a bright cyan glow erupted from the Ice Jade Scorpion Qing'er, Zhou Sicheng yanked at Cao Jinxuan in panic.
"Old Cao! It's critical now—quick, use your invincible Time-Passing Clock and think of something!"
"?"
Cao Jinxuan rolled his eyes bitterly, his expression turning grim. The arched clock that had hovered above his head dropped into his palm. The two hundred-year rings spun around it, glowing simultaneously.
"Time, stagnate—"
Za, Warudo!!!
Ding!
The pendulum of the Time-Passing Clock froze, and a strange ripple fell upon Lin Yun.
Yet Qing'er only flicked her tail lightly, and the effect of the time control shattered instantly. The backlash struck Cao Jinxuan hard, blood spraying from his nose and mouth.
Then his eyes widened, locking onto Lin Yun as he raised a trembling finger to point.
"You…"
Crack… crack…
A fissure split across the Time-Passing Clock, and the two hundred-year rings bound to it shattered in an instant. The soul power aura that belonged to Cao Jinxuan as a soul master vanished completely. His eyelids rolled back, and he fainted on the spot.
"Old Cao!!!" Zhou Sicheng panicked, clutching his teammate's body and crying out in fear.
On the other side—
Lin Yun could have shrugged off the so-called time stagnation as easily as Qing'er. But that peculiar ripple of time seemed to awaken a hidden power within him. In an instant, he entered a state of enlightenment.
He had no memory of how long it lasted.
He only recalled swimming freely through a radiant long river, its waters welcoming him intimately. Beyond that, he knew nothing.
This enlightenment exceeded the limits of Lin Yun's current strength. It was power tied to time itself, far beyond what a mere Soul Elder could digest. But it granted him enormous benefits—greater than enormous.
It was a seed, one destined to grow into a towering tree in the future.
When Lin Yun slowly opened his eyes again, only three seconds had passed outside as he stood motionless with eyes closed. Yet within his inner time, he had wandered the long river endlessly.
Qing'er, sensing Lin Yun's special state, halted the Ice King's Wrath and instead stood guard at his side.
"…What happened to him?" Lin Yun asked blankly, staring at the unconscious Cao Jinxuan.
(End of chapter)
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