Silence.
Then the dark figure moved, launching itself at Arthur with everything it had.
The being hovering in the sky above was too terrifying to ignore.
There was no escaping it. The figure knew that much.
Given everything it had just witnessed, the conclusion was obvious: this existence was here to protect the boy's path forward. The only play left was to grab Arthur and use him as a shield.
The enormous eye blinked, revealing itself in full: the eye of a Dragon Sparrow, vast enough to swallow the sky.
A long, piercing cry rang out.
Light rippled outward in waves, smooth as flowing water, then snapped inward to a single point and erupted forward in an instant.
A massive beam of light came crashing down from the heavens.
Across East Sea City, countless people looked up, catching sight of a blazing radiance in the distance, a towering pillar of light stretching from the earth all the way to the sky.
A few of the more informed citizens glanced up briefly, then went back to whatever they were doing.
Those with the right connections already knew that for the past several years, the Dragon Sparrow Douluo had been drifting from city to city, haunting the skies above and hunting down members of the Holy Spirit Cult.
By the looks of it, he had caught another one.
It all happened in the blink of an eye. The moment the dark figure lunged, the beam fired by the Dragon Sparrow caught it head-on and reduced it to ash.
Afterward, the Dragon Sparrow slowly faded from the sky. Specks of starlight drifted down beside Arthur and pulled together into a familiar shape: Su Wuyan.
"I figured there was only one Spirit King, but it turned out there was a bonus hiding in the shadows. He was tucked right inside them. I almost missed him."
"So? Pretty impressive, right? Your uncle still has it." Su Wuyan grinned and ruffled Arthur's golden hair.
The Dragon Sparrow that had loomed over the world from the heavens just moments ago was none other than his true martial soul form.
"Very impressive," Arthur said, though his tone made it clear he was only half convinced. "Why didn't you leave him alive?"
"No point," Su Wuyan said, shaking his head. "I've brought plenty of Holy Spirit Cult members in alive before, some of them pretty high up."
"You never get anything useful out of them."
"But enough about that." He clapped his nephew on the shoulder, eyes bright. "Nice work, kid. I thought it was going to be a rough fight. I had no idea you'd gotten this strong without me noticing."
My nephew Arthur, destined to be untouchable.
Arthur spread his hands. "Honestly, I thought it was going to be rough too. I just didn't expect him to go down that easy."
"Dragon Sparrow! How many of them did you take out this time? You're grinning like you won something." A booming voice cut through the air.
Before the words had even faded, a stocky figure was already closing the distance. "I caught that strike from way off. Figured you'd bagged a few of them, so I came to see for myself."
"Mu Ye?" Su Wuyan looked up, surprised. "What are you doing out here?"
He turned to Arthur. "Arthur, this is Mu Ye, the current Sect Master of the Body Sect."
"Mu Ye, this is my nephew, Arthur."
Mu Ye was the kind of man who kept a low profile. Most people in the Federation had no idea just how powerful he really was, but Su Wuyan did, and the two had known each other long enough to be comfortable.
Mu Ye.
The name landed with weight. Arthur knew exactly who this man was.
A Titled Douluo at the ninety-fourth rank, with four-character battle armor and a red-class mech to his name. Not someone to take lightly, not even close. And that was before counting the full arsenal of Body Sect techniques he had at his disposal.
"Good to meet you, sir." Arthur dipped his head in greeting.
"Arthur..." A distant look crossed Mu Ye's face. He remembered that stunning couple, who had moved through the world like something out of a legend. It was a tragedy what the Holy Spirit Cult had done to them.
"Their kid's already this tall..." Mu Ye said quietly, more to himself than anyone else. Then he answered Su Wuyan's earlier question. "I came out here to dive for ingredients. Was just about to head back when I spotted you, so I figured I'd stop and say hello."
Su Wuyan nodded. That tracked perfectly. He knew Mu Ye well enough to know that beyond the mech he treated like a priceless heirloom, the man's greatest passion in life was food. Heading out to sea himself to pull ingredients straight from the deep was exactly the kind of thing Mu Ye would do.
The two caught up briefly and were just about to go their separate ways when something occurred to Su Wuyan. He called out after Mu Ye before he could leave.
"Mu Ye, you want to take a look at this nephew of mine?"
"Hm?" Mu Ye stopped, not sure what he meant at first. Then something clicked. "You mean...?"
"Exactly." Su Wuyan steered the thoroughly confused Arthur in front of Mu Ye.
"All right, then."
Mu Ye nodded and reached out, gripping Arthur by the arm.
The moment he made contact, something shifted in his eyes. "What incredible blood and physical condition!"
"How is this even possible?"
Like a man who had been starving suddenly finding a meal, Mu Ye ran his hands across Arthur's body, channeling his soul power inward to take a closer look.
The deeper he pushed, the wider his eyes got. "How can anyone have a body this perfect?"
He snapped his gaze to Su Wuyan. "Is this boy a body-type martial soul user?"
"Not even close." Su Wuyan laughed, clearly enjoying himself. "Arthur has twin martial souls, but neither one has anything to do with the body. It's a lance and a sword."
"That's impossible." Mu Ye refused to accept it.
He wrapped his fingertips in a steady flow of soul power and guided it carefully through Arthur's meridians, combing through every inch of blood and flesh without leaving anything unchecked.
"His constitution is surging like a dragon, his meridians clear as glass." Mu Ye's voice had taken on a tremor he could barely contain.
His other hand came to rest on Arthur's back, a net of soul power expanding outward in an instant to cover him completely. "And the physical coordination on top of that, I can't believe it."
"Every bit of muscle, every bone, feels like it's been hammered and hardened a thousand times over, and yet none of the flexibility has been lost."
"No." Mu Ye's voice climbed higher, taut with disbelief. "Dragon Sparrow, how did this kid train his body?"
"Ha, he hasn't specifically trained his body at all." Su Wuyan watched Mu Ye's eyes go red and kept his voice low. "It's just... natural, as far as I can tell."
"Natural? Natural?"
Mu Ye let out a short, strained laugh. "Even someone whose martial soul covers their entire body couldn't reach something like this."
"And you're telling me it just came naturally to him?"
"He doesn't even have a body-type martial soul!"
"Wait." Mu Ye turned to Arthur, his voice gentler than before, but his eyes full of something urgent and searching. "Son, tell me straight: are you really not a body-type martial soul user?"
Something about the way Mu Ye was looking at him made Arthur's skin crawl.
He called up Excalibur and Holy Lance, letting them drift to either side of him, and shook his head. "I'm sorry, sir."
"I'm really not."
"Not a body type... not a body type..." Mu Ye stared at the lance and the sword, and whatever faint hope he had been holding onto drained right out of him. He could feel clearly enough that these were Arthur's real martial souls, no question about it.
His eyes went glassy. He started pacing, unable to stop, muttering under his breath in a loop. "How can it not be the body type? How does this make any sense..."
"A talent like this has never existed before. Not once in all of history."
Su Wuyan watched the whole thing with genuine surprise. He had known Arthur's physical gifts were exceptional, but he had never studied the body seriously enough to grasp the full extent of it. He had only suggested Mu Ye take a look because the man happened to be standing right there.
He had not expected anything like this.
Arthur's reaction was much the same. He had always known his body was in a different class from other soul masters at his level, and had even been thinking lately that he should find a way to train under Mu Ye at some point.
But he had not seen this coming.
After a long moment, Mu Ye went still. He fixed Arthur with a sharp, burning stare.