“Okay… I’m ready...”

Shin’s sudden change of tone stunned the Spirit Saint for a moment, and she was brought back to the time where Shin fought on the main stage in the Summit. Those very eyes were the same ones that defeated Lukman, the person everyone thought was the dominant cultivator of his generation.

Still, it wasn’t the time nor the place to be enthralled by the youth. Longyu Tian snapped her fingers, and a young thirty-year-old man heeded her call. “Good… Your first opponent is Dingxuan.” Just like any other member of the Longyu Clan’s main bloodline, the Longyu Dingxuan had pale azure eyes and vibrant jet-black hair. Compared to Shin, he was a little more masculine, and his skin was much more coarse, perhaps due to the wear and tear of a thousand battles.

The Longyu Clan members from the stands all watched on with intrigued eyes and captivated smiles. They have heard of Shin Iofiel, the man nicknamed the Prince of Water for almost four years now. Shin’s battle powers may be well-known throughout the world, but not many got to see it in person. So, it was good that Longyu Dingxuan was the first to take the field.

Dingxuan wasn’t a Luminary, but no one could question his talent. He reached the Spirit Spectre realm at twenty-eight-years-old, a phenomenal feat in its own right. Specialising in the phantom arts and neutralising his opponents, Longyu Dingxuan was among the few Spirit Spectres in the Longyu Clan that could give Shin a run for his money. Or so they thought…

“Why is Uncle Dingxuan fighting that random young man?” A chirpy voice, one no older than ten, sounded out from the side of the Longyu Clan Master.

Longyu Dao looked down at the pretty young girl, who boasted one of the most inquisitive eyes that he had ever seen and smiled. “That’s not a random young man, Hai’er. He’s your cousin. Brother Shin.” The Clan Master corrected his granddaughter’s misunderstanding.

“My cousin? Brother Shin?” Longyu Hai snapped her head back, swaying the ponytail she had back and forth. With her petite size and cuteness, Longyu Dao couldn’t help but feel that the girl was a plush toy that somehow got brought to life. “If he’s my cousin, how come I’ve never seen him before?”

“He was out doing some errands.” There was no need to explain complicated matters to an eight-year-old. Throwing in some white lies, Longyu Dao continued to answer his granddaughter’s queries, brainwashing her a little as well. “He had been gone from the Longyu Clan for a long time… But what’s important is that he’s back, and we have to make him feel like it’s home.”

“If that’s the case, why is Uncle Dingxuan going to bully him? Isn’t he super strong?” Longyu Hai started to feel for Shin right there and then. Her eyes sparkled, and her chubby little cheeks inflated. The young girl was feeling bad that Shin had to fight Longyu Dingxuan, someone she deemed as invincible at her young age, after finally returning back to the Longyu Clan.

“You’re right! But we have to test your cousin’s abilities, right? Otherwise, how would we understand how much he's grown?”

“Ah! That’s right!” Longyu Hai tapped her right fist on her left palm as if having a flash of enlightenment. However, after a while, her dejected mood soon came back. “But Uncle Dingxuan is very strong! Do you really think it’s unfair for Brother Shin to fight him? What if he gets injured?!”

“Hai’er is really kind… You don’t have to worry about your elder cousin...” Longyu Dao watched in earnest as Longyu Tian got to her referee position. The bout was commencing soon, and the man didn’t want to miss a single second of it. “If anything… The person you should be worried about is your Uncle Dingxuan...”

“Hmmm?” The girl was confused. Wasn’t Uncle Dingxuan invincible? Nonetheless, she kept quiet and glanced back into the arena, as did many of her fellow clan members.

“Summon out your Spirits!!!” Longyu Tian commanded.

Shin’s opponent was the first to introduce himself. “Longyu Dingxuan. Spirit, the Sovereign Koi. Rank 42. Please advise me.” There was no malice in his tone. Shin could tell that Dingxuan had a certain amount of respect towards him and wasn’t going out for the kill.

‘Looks like this is going to be a genuine sparring session...’ Shin chuckled inwardly. “Shin Iofiel. Spirit, the Sovereign Koi. Rank 40. Please advise me.”

They both summoned out the same adorable little Sovereign Koi, though Shin’s had a slight gold and azure aura to it, unlike the typical cerulean light that a normal Sovereign Koi had. It was the first time that Shin and his Spirit saw another cultivator with the same Spirit. The Sovereign Koi in Shin’s palms twirled around in joy and tried to greet its compatriot. However, all it got was a peaceful expression. The Sovereign Koi in Longyu Dingxuan’s palms was indifferent to the one in Shin’s.

‘Weird, I would have thought that other Sovereign Kois would behave as mischievously as my own...’ Shin pondered while catching small glances of his Spirit that still behaved like a child. ‘Whatever, that’s not important now… Let’s focus on the match!’

Even if Shin was considered the Prince of Water, he didn’t dare to look down on the Spirit Users in the Longyu Clan, particularly those from the main bloodline. They were all trained in the ‘legitimate’ system, passed down for generations. Also, if the stories he’d heard from Meijing Bingying were true, all of them had been training for combat since they were in their mother’s belly.

At five, they would be given daily martial arts practice. At eight, they would go on their first mission out of the Clan Headquarters. At ten, after undergoing the Spirit Awakening Ceremony, they would be trained according to their talents and affinities. At thirteen, the promising members of the Longyu Clan would be enlisted into the Clan’s personal navy, taking on Spirit Beasts and pirates to sharpen their swords. At fifteen, their training intensified tenfold. After getting baptised by the Celestial River, they would be filtered according to their talents once again, where they would join either the government, military or auxiliary tracks. At twenty, their ‘training’ is complete, and they would be free to tackle the world as adults, potent in their cultivations and respective fields.

It was a gruelling system for young kids to go through, but it was well worth it, based on the results that the Longyu Clan historically had.

“Let the match begin!!!” Longyu Tian dropped her raised hand, and the two men instantly jumped into action.

Longyu Dingxuan summoned out a phantom of the Sovereign Koi, enveloping his entire body in the same way that Danroy would. He took to the skies as well, making the phantom look like an actual fish in the water.

‘He must be a defensive-oriented cultivator...’ Shin theorised. ‘Against him, I can’t use my traditional martial arts or water attacks… They’ll all be countered.’

Shin had fought this battle before. He couldn’t break Danroy back then, no matter how many fists he threw at the man. Adding to the fact that Dingxuan was a Spirit Spectre, there was no questioning that he had a more robust defence. Shin couldn’t use his Shape-Style, Flow-Style or hand-to-hand combat skills that he was so used to.

‘Right… I haven’t used this ability on an opponent yet… Maybe I can try to see if it’s good against someone with a phantom defence.’

Shin had practised with this ability many times but had never fired it against a real Spirit Spectre. Luckily for him, there was one flying right above him right now.

He started by waving his arms, giving his soul a radiant azure hue. Then, all of a sudden, an entire nebula of stars flowed out of his body, filling the arena with solid mana particles. The ability drew gasps, but not that much. The Longyu Clan was used to seeing cultivators with domains. As spectacular as Shin’s domain was, it was still a Rank 40 Spirit Spectre’s domain.

However, Shin wasn’t done with surprising the audience just yet. He raised his hand and then…

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!

A sharp resonant cry, resembling that of a siren’s wail, burst through the air, rupturing many eardrums who stood too close to Shin. So what if a Spirit Spectre was immune to the Domain of Dreams? None of them was capable of handling the Shard of the Azure Dragon. The white thorn emerged out of Shin’s back and levitated just half a metre away from his body. Unlike before, the Shard wasn’t sending white lightning flying all over the place and the ground that the youth stood one remained completely intact.

The power that once burnt Shin’s mana circuits destroyed his organs and crippled him for weeks, was now… Under Shin’s full control.

Dingxuan didn’t know what the shard could do. He couldn’t comprehend it. Despite that, the Spirit Spectre felt fear. Almost instinctively, Dingxuan leapt to the ground and pumped all of his mana into his defences. He didn’t care about beating Shin or chasing glory now. His primal nerves were tingling. They were warning him not to step even one step closer to the dangerous youth.

‘He can now control the Shard?’ Longyu Tian raised her eyebrows, fascinated by Shin’s capabilities. They did predict that he was able to ignite the shard safely after he crossed the first barrier of mortality, but they didn’t think that he was able to control it fully. ‘Still, isn’t using the shard against an opponent he just met a little overkill? Didn’t he say he wanted to train? Why is he trying to take Dingxuan out in one shot?’

Longyu Tian was right. It was overkill to use the shard against Dingxuan. However, she was misunderstanding Shin’s intentions altogether.

Shin created a rapidly swirling ball of water, one faster than any tempest that the Longyu Clan could ever imagine. Then, a small amount of spiritual energy flowed out from the Shard in the form of a lightning bolt and entered the spherical planet of water that continued to grow above Shin’s head. After the partial ignition, the Shard returned back to its calm and tranquil state, as if unperturbed by the environment that surrounded it.

“He mastered partial ignition?!” This time, it was Longyu Dao’s turn to scream out in shock.

Shin knows that the Shard possessed overwhelming power. He used it to destroy the Paradise Heart, after all. However, there were times where the full might of the Shard wasn’t needed. Else, Shin would be spawning crater after crater with every battle he fought. So, the Prince of Water developed a new technique. Partially igniting the Shard, Shin would borrow a small amount of the Shard’s destructive capabilities and funnel it to one of his created abilities. In this case, it would be the hydro pump he was about to unleash on Dingxuan.

“Senior Dingxuan, I’m attacking...” Shin warned his opponent, all while his eyes glowed with an intimidating azure hue.

Shin’s five fingers spread out, unleashing the full might of the destructive sphere he created. It rushed straight at the Sovereign Koi phantom. From the viewpoint of Longyu Dingxuan, it looked like there was a water hurricane, laced with some of the deadliest mana he had ever felt, was now gushing straight at him. There was no escape. He had to face the strike head-on.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!

Longyu Dingxuan did the right thing. Stand his ground and enforce his phantom to the maximum degree. However, that defence that had bailed him out from so many tough situations, the protection he was so proud of… Had failed him on this day.

The water tempest ripped through Dingxuan’s phantom as if it was made out of paper. Flung around the water tornado, Dingxuan was slammed hard onto the wall and was knocked out cold completely. His eyeballs had retracted back into his skull, and his body fell onto the floor, moving about as if it was boneless.

“...”

The stadium was silent.

Everyone from the main bloodline knew how powerful Longyu Dingxuan was. Heck, the other talents in the Lantis Republic all recognised the man’s power as a Spirit Spectre. However, Shin just defeated that talent… In one strike.

It was utterly ludicrous and truth to be told, the one who was most stunned by the results were Shin himself. He wore a blank expression with a hanging jaw. However, after five seconds, Shin’s healer instincts immediately kicked in as he flew straight to the fallen comrade and covered him with his healing water.

“Crap… I used too much power…” Shin mindlessly mumbled to himself.

Admittedly, the Shard was powerful and igniting it, partially or not, was a hard feat to accomplish. Shin just happened to misjudge the amount of power needed to take down the defences of the phantom and knocked Dingxuan unconscious accidentally. It was purely unintentional. However, no one in the audience thought that that was the case.

“...”

The stares of the Longyu Family were piercing. They all stared at Shin as if he were a freak of nature. Though the youth didn’t know it since he was still in the midst of healing up Longyu Dingxuan...