“Seniors, forgive me for my rudeness. But may I have the next match?” An ordinary looking youth dressed in plain brown robes spoke up. This seemingly ordinary youth was of course Li Huo the young man with Crimson Grade talent.

“You are Li Huo?” Lady Feng turned to look towards the young man with a raised eyebrow “yes you may”. She turned back to towards Lord Hei and Shi Xuegang. “Brother Hainan, disciple Xuegang is very much drained after our previous bout. Can you escort him back and give him a Qi restoration pill?”

“Very well” Lord Hei supported Shi Xuegang “that was a great performance”. He then carried the prince off stage. “This is a Qi restoration pill” Lord Hei handed bright green pill to Shi Xuegang. “Many thanks senior” Shi Xuegang thanked Lord Hei and consumed the pill. The pill immediately took affect restoring his body.

“Father” Xuegang greeted Shi Wan as he walked passed “Your son has tried his best”. “Haha Xuegang, you were amazing out there, achieving sword intent so young, the other powers will tear their hair out in frustration” Shi Wan was truely happy, his kingdom’s next generation truely have not produced a single bad seed “To think all my children would be high level geniuses”. Every single one of Shi Wan’s sons and daughter were monsters and now Shi Xuegang can truely stand alongside them.

Back on the stage Li Huo faced Lady Feng “This Li would like to thank senior Feng for allowing me to show my skills”. Li Huo raised both hands, a fiery aura bursted forth from his body “please be careful senior, my flames are quite dangerous”.

“We’ll see about that” Lady Feng wasn’t quite sure what to make of this fellow. While he did posses Crimson Grade Talent, he was absolutely ordinary in every other category. Lady Feng made several other observations on Li Huo’s fire clocked arms.

‘These fires looks ordinary if above average in mortal realms. Hm the Qi concentration is abnormally low though, like he ignited it without expending any energy. Wait a minute…….. Ah I see, this fire really is special’ reaching her conclusion Lady Feng too ignited her arms in flames “I too specialise in fire, I am interesting to see this flame of yours in action”.

Li Huo narrowed his eyes in concentration, the fire in his arms brightened before he charged toward Lady Feng. He released a such directly at Lady Feng’s abdomen.

“FUWAH” surprisingly his punch passed right through her as Lady Feng’s entire body broke away into fire. The fire floated and reformed into Lady Feng behind Li Huo. “Impressive punch, but lets not beat around the bush shall we, that flame is much more special then that. Show me its true power”

“Very well, senior be careful” not hesitating one bit Li Huo’s fames changed colour becoming azure blue. “YAH” he then rushed forward and released a flurry of kicks and punches. Lady Feng smiled at this display ‘soul fire huh, looks like he invented it himself’ she too threw her own punches to counter Li Huo’s blows.

Pah, Pah, Pah, Pah, Pah, Pah, Pah, Pah,

Fists met fists and kicks as Lady Feng countered every single one of Li Huo’s blows. Seeing his punches and kicks not working Li Huo jumped into the air. “HAH” he pointed his palms down and sent a concentrated fire blast at Lady Feng. This display of power astonished the officials ‘was this really a Nascent Soul stage expert?’ This was the common though in all their heads.

In truth Li Huo’s attacks were nowhere near as powerful as Da Chang or Shi Xuegang’s had been. However both Da Chang and Shi Xuegang have long since transcended mortality and arrived at Xiantian while Li Huo is still in the mortal stages. A cultivator of lower realms attacking with force equivalent to higher realms was not exactly uncommon but the gap between large realms like Mortal/Houtian and Transcending Mortality/Xiantian was simply too big. So seeing this display of power from a Nascent Soul shocked many. Normal Nascent Soul experts generally can’t even scratch the weakest Spirit Severing expert, while its true some can the power Li Huo is exhibiting was equivalent to a Late Heavenly Sage. Li Huo’s attack not just crossed a large realm gap but also crossed another stage. Its like another Da Chang but on a smaller scale.

“Crackle” the fire blazed down at Lady Feng who simply held out her hands. “Come” she began absorbing or the flames changing its colour to normal fire colours and squished it down until it was merely a condensed ball of fire in her hand. Li Huo landed a good 15 metres away. “Your fire is quite good, have it back” Lady Feng then fired the ball back as a similar blast of fire. Because of its previous squished state, the fire fired back with much higher force.

“Senior truely is strong” Li Huo had no choice but to fire his own beam of fire. The two fire blasts clashed in red vs blue. “GRRR” Li Huo put in all his effort but his fire was loosing out. ‘He is quite determined’ Lady Feng let loose a little more of her energy and her fire blast easily broke through Li Huo’s, red cutting into blue and hitting its target.

“GRRR” Li Huo withstood the burning pain. He felt as though all his skin was coming off ‘No, I promised mother I would get in’. “YAH” light poured forth from his roasted body. In his soul realm an image of himself appeared, this was his spirit tied to his physical body. “Yah” Li Huo’s spirit roared then with great force ripped itself from its bindings ‘mother, your son will succeed, your death won’t be in vain’.

“No way he’s breaking through” Shi Wan and the rest of the officials couldn’t help but gasp at this, a normal expert would have died.

“BOOOM” Li Huo’s body was now fine, all his injuries healed however he could still feel the fatigue from not just the battle but the breakthrough as well.

“Congratulation on reaching Spirit Severing Li Huo” Lady Feng had released her assault just as Li Huo started his breakthrough. “Seeing this impressive performance I have no choice but to pass you”.

Hearing this Li Huo starting tearing up a bit ‘mother, your son haven’t failed you’. “Many thanks to senior” Li Huo’s smile was genuine.

“Very well, you are the third disciple our Sacred Beast Sect will take today. Go join big brother Hainan, that is to say Lord Hei…..God damn it I am not good at this formal stuff” the last part was muttered. ‘Ai sis be careful of your words’ Lord Hei of course heard this so he silently blocked sound around her temporarily ‘still to see soul fire is truely a surprise, it seems us Grand Elders choosing to supervise this years exam was worth it after all, wonder if the others have found the same kind of talents we have’.

As he passed Zi Cheng and Wan Kun both had a though. Zi Cheng was not pleased ‘SHIT, first that Da Chang from nowhere and now this commoner?’ Zi Cheng just couldn’t believe these 2 would have so much talent, how was he supposed to compete.

‘This Li Huo fellow actually had soul fire, haha what a surprise’ Wan Kun’s master truely admired this fellow who could produce soul fire or at least a variant of it. ‘Master, what is this Soul Fire?’ Wan Kun had never heard of this term before, knowing this Wan Kun’s master answered him ‘well Soul Fire is literally that, fire from the soul, its really rare and powerful but not because of its heat but because of its ability to harm and burn souls’. ‘Burn souls!’ Wan Kun was once again astounded, first Da Chang’s innate strength, then Shi Xuegang’s Sword Force and now Soul Fire, these talents from Holy Grounds territories truely are monsters.