Ning Fengzhi's voice suddenly grew deeper and slower, as if every word carried the weight of a thousand catties.
"And if we are talking about his true talent..."
He paused intentionally, his gaze locking tightly onto Xue Qinghe.
"According to my various observations and verifications, his current soul power has probably already reached--"
"The realm of an eighty-ninth rank Soul Douluo!"
"What?!"
Even with Xue Qinghe's (Qian Renxue's) deep composure, she could not help but feel her mind tremble violently at this moment, a loud roaring echoing in her head!
She was twenty-three years old this year. Relying on the absolute advantage of an innate twentieth rank soul power and the Spirit Hall's full investment of resources to cultivate her, her soul power was currently at the sixty-second rank.
Although her progress had been greatly delayed because she was undercover in the Heaven Dou Empire and much of her cultivation had to be moved underground, she had calculated that even if she went all out, she would at most be around the seventy-fifth rank by now. Breaking through the eightieth rank threshold by the age of twenty-six would already be no easy feat.
Yet this Fu Shiyan, who had appeared out of thin air, was actually approaching the threshold of a Titled Douluo?!
His cultivation speed was actually terrifying to such an extent!
However, Ning Fengzhi's words did not stop, striking against her mental defenses one after another like a heavy hammer.
"But this is merely the manifestation of his talent in terms of cultivation speed. What truly makes people feel terror is his near-monstrous ability to develop and control his martial soul."
Sinking into his memories, Ning Fengzhi spoke slowly.
"Previously, Tang San fell into a crisis because Titan of the Power Clan stood up for his grandson, Tai Long. I originally intended to ask Uncle Gu to step in and resolve the situation. Unexpectedly, before Uncle Gu could even show himself, that Fu Shiyan used an unheard-of self-created soul skill--the 'Wood Dragon Technique'--to casually and instantly suppress Titan, who is renowned for his strength!"
"Afterward, although Titan recognized Tang San's Clear Sky Hammer martial soul and swore allegiance on the spot, Gu Rong briefly revealed a trace of killing intent after learning that Tang San was the son of Tang Hao. At that time, Fu Shiyan seemed completely unresponsive, and we all thought he hadn't noticed."
Ning Fengzhi's tone took on an unprecedented solemnity.
"Until we were on our journey back, he actually blocked the road ahead of us alone! Without any superfluous words, he directly challenged Gu Rong. Qinghe, I will never forget that scene--"
"A young man who looked to be only in his twenties, with eight soul rings slowly emerging around him. And the configuration of those soul rings..."
Ning Fengzhi took a deep breath, as if he still found it hard to believe what he had seen that day.
"It was an unprecedented yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black, red, red!"
"That's impossible!!!"
Xue Qinghe could no longer maintain his composure. He abruptly stood up from his seat, and the chair beneath him let out a harsh scraping sound due to this sudden movement and the out-of-control fluctuations of his soul power.
His pupils contracted sharply as he looked at Ning Fengzhi in absolute shock, his voice raised slightly due to extreme disbelief.
"Teacher! Do you know what you are saying?! A Soul Douluo in his twenties is already shocking enough! A thousand-year second ring, a ten-thousand-year fourth ring... this completely violates the common sense of the soul master world! Let alone... two hundred-thousand-year soul rings?! This is absolutely impossible! Looking across the entire history of the continent, such an absurd thing has never occurred!"
Ning Fengzhi was not surprised at all by Xue Qinghe's severe loss of composure. He shook his head heavily, a trace of bitterness and lingering fear on his face.
"Qinghe, I understand your shock. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, and if Uncle Gu hadn't experienced it firsthand, I would never believe that such an... unreasonable genius existed in this world."
He paused, throwing out the final and most impactful fact.
"And the most unacceptable thing is that... at that time, with the posture of an eighty-eighth rank Soul Douluo, he completely defeated Uncle Gu, who was going all out, in a mere single minute!"
The tea room fell into a deathly silence.
Ning Fengzhi's voice carried a trace of barely perceptible trembling as he continued.
"Thinking back to it now, the scene of that battle still makes my spine go cold. I keep thinking, if it weren't for Rongrong's relationship with Tang San that made him ultimately show mercy... I'm afraid you and I would no longer have the chance to sit here and talk."
Qian Renxue only felt a chill surge up her spine. No matter what, she could not accept this fact--an eighty-something rank Soul Douluo could actually defeat a ninety-fifth rank Titled Douluo like Gu Rong, who was renowned for his bizarre defense, within a single minute!
This had completely overturned her perception of the power levels of soul masters.
"How... how is this possible?"
There was a slight tremor in her voice that she herself hadn't even noticed.
"The level gap is so vast, and Senior Gu Rong is famous for his defense. How could he fail to last even a minute? Just how did he do it?"
Hearing this question, the bitterness on Ning Fengzhi's face grew even stronger, as if he had returned to that scene he would never forget for the rest of his life.
He slowly closed his eyes, then opened them again, a trace of panic remaining in his eyes.
"How did he do it?"
He repeated Qian Renxue's question, his voice low.
"In fact, rather than saying he defeated him in a minute, it would be better to say... he only used one move."
"One move?!"
Qian Renxue cried out in dismay. This answer was even harder for her to accept than a one-minute defeat.
"That's right, just one move."
Ning Fengzhi took a deep breath, as if it required immense courage just to recall and describe the next image.
"I still clearly remember that he simply stood in place calmly and formed a strange hand seal--with his ten fingers interlaced and clenched tightly. Immediately after, the vast soul power around his body poured frantically into the ground beneath his feet like a bursting torrent!"
His speaking speed accelerated unconsciously, carrying the urgency of narrating a terrifying past event.
"In an instant, the ground shook violently, and countless incredibly thick, giant wooden pillars--shimmering with an eerie blue luster and covered in strange patterns--broke through the soil! They grew, intertwined, and coalesced frantically at a speed hard to catch with the naked eye! In just a few breaths, they... they actually condensed into a giant wooden giant that connected heaven and earth!"
Ning Fengzhi's voice rose slightly with excitement.
"That wooden giant was a hundred meters tall, majestic as a mountain, and its entire body displayed the color and texture unique to Blue Silver Grass. What made the heart race the most was that it had four arms growing from its shoulders, and every single arm contained a terrifying power sufficient to shake mountains! He called this technique--Blue Silver: Four-Handed Vajra!"
He looked at Qian Renxue, whose face was deathly pale, and said word by word.
"The most terrifying part is that, although it was a creation formed from the wood of Blue Silver Grass, its defensive power and offensive power both reached an unimaginable realm. Uncle Gu's fully unleashed ninth soul skill--a soul skill sufficient to tear through space... that four-armed wooden giant simply raised one of its arms, and... and casually blocked it!"
By the end, Ning Fengzhi's voice carried a shudder that even he himself could not control.
"So, that was not some one-minute duel at all... That was clearly a full minute of absolute... crushing and devastation!"
He almost forced out the last few words through gritted teeth, as if he could still feel that bone-deep helplessness and shock from that day.