Douluo: Emerald Poison Emperor

Flander distanced himself as his first soul skill was temporarily on cooldown. He then used his second soul skill.

Flander's first soul skill creates a strong gust of wind, while his second soul skill manifests as sharp, invisible wind blades.

Individually, these wind blades may not be particularly powerful, but they are extremely stealthy and numerous, making them very difficult to evade.

Even Chen Ming, without activating his Poison Emperor Possession (External Soul Bone Skill) to enhance his attributes, could not avoid these wind blades. Instead of dodging, he simply condensed his soul power around his body, forming a layer of soul power armor.

"Clang, clang, clang, clang—"

Flander's second soul skill struck Chen Ming, producing a sound reminiscent of hammering iron.

Despite the stealth and sheer quantity of the wind blades, Chen Ming's soul power armor completely absorbed the attacks, leaving even his clothes unharmed.

Chen Ming's soul power armor was equivalent to the sixth soul skill of a defense-type soul saint. To Flander, this level of defense was akin to an impenetrable wall.

The Four-Eyed Owl was a high-level martial soul with wind attributes, excelling in speed. However, in terms of quality, it lagged far behind top-tier martial souls and was two whole tiers below Chen Ming's Emerald Scorpion Emperor, a super-tier martial soul.

Flander's development path was quite orthodox, focusing on speed and wind attributes. Most of his skills were common wind-based ones that increased speed or provided area-of-effect attacks.

Even among soul sages, Flander was not considered particularly strong. Otherwise, his reputation wouldn't have been limited to being one of the Golden Iron Triangle. Compared to Zhao Wuji, the Unmoving Bright King and vice dean of the academy, Flander was almost the complete opposite.

If categorized, Flander would fall into the average soul sage or even the slightly weaker soul sage category. He belonged to the type who, despite having a soul power advantage, could still be countered and defeated by a soul emperor with a top-tier martial soul.

His only noteworthy trait was his flying ability.

In his current state, the first six of his soul skills were hardly enough to even scratch Chen Ming. Only by activating his seventh soul ring and using his Martial Soul Avatar could he hope to break through Chen Ming's soul power armor.

However, Flander had yet to realize what he was up against.

Upon seeing the defensive armor on Chen Ming's body, Flander naturally assumed it was one of Chen Ming's soul skills.

Although Chen Ming had neither called out the name of skill nor had his soul rings lit up, Flander didn't consider this to be anything too unusual.

"Light beams, plus a high-quality or even top-tier scorpion martial soul with armor… Is there a clan on the continent known for this?" Flander pondered as he continued his attacks.

He manipulated the wind elements in the air, moving swiftly while sticking close to Chen Ming. He alternated between cautiously probing with soul skills and thinking about how to injure Chen Ming without killing him.

Although Flander moved closer, he maintained a safe altitude. Even Chen Ming couldn't guarantee that he could pull Flander down from the sky before Flander had time to react.

In this era, flight was still a rare and noble ability, far less common than in later generations.

Aside from flying-type soul masters and soul skills, only title douluo-level soul masters could achieve short-distance levitation using their immense soul power and spiritual power.

At this time, flying-type soul masters were still a highly esteemed group. In most cases, even if they couldn't win a fight, they could escape with ease.

At this moment, Chen Ming found himself longing for flight-related soul skills. He also began to feel greater anticipation regarding Tang San's mother's soul bone.

If not for fear that Tang Hao was still guarding Ah Yin, Chen Ming would have already taken Dugu Bo with him to steal Tang San's mother's soul bones. If Chen Ming were a bit more ruthless, he could have used his Poison Cloud Technique to spread poison clouds and then detonated them with his Poison Explosion Technique. This strategy could have severely injured Flander to the point where he couldn't fly anymore.

However, using such large-scale destructive skills in a city?

While Chen Ming admitted that his moral baseline had lowered significantly since being reborn, he still couldn't bring himself to do such a thing.

As for using his domain…

If Flander didn't try to escape, Chen Ming could certainly finish him off with it. The problem was that the indiscriminate lethality of this domain far exceeded that of the Poison Explosion Technique. Releasing it would kill everyone in the surrounding streets.

Even if Chen Ming used the Poison Explosion Technique, he couldn't activate his domain within the city.

Moreover, since the beginning of the battle, Dugu Yan, who had been hiding nearby, had already started using pre-prepared methods to contact Dugu Bo. It was estimated that Dugu Bo would arrive shortly.

If Chen Ming wanted to eliminate Flander, he could simply let Dugu Bo handle it.

Although Flander could fly, Dugu Bo's two control-type skills completely countered any flashy techniques. Their effects were only slightly weaker than the Seagod's Thirteen Halberds' Unfixed Storm.

On the other hand, Flander also had his concerns and dared not use large-scale destructive soul skills, fearing collateral damage.

Despite having seven soul rings, he resorted to small-scale skills like wind blades in the air, attempting to incapacitate Chen Ming without killing him.

Chen Ming made several attempts to pounce on Flander or shoot beams from his tail to knock him out of the sky, but Flander easily dodged each time.

Movement on the ground was limited to two-dimensional coordinates, while in the air, positioning involved three dimensions.

Many attacks that seemed unavoidable on the ground were easily evaded in the sky.

Furthermore, Flander deliberately maintained his distance, focusing on long-range attacks and ensuring Chen Ming couldn't knock him out of the sky.

The two stared each other down, both unable to decisively strike.

Chen Ming realized that he lacked concentrated burst damage and control skills, as well as the ability to fly.

Although his advantage lay in overwhelming area-of-effect (AOE) attacks, these powerful AOE skills were not always suitable in certain situations.

Meanwhile, Flander felt that the young man before him was incredibly strange.

The soul power armor was already impressive enough to withstand a soul saint's attacks, but the key issue was that it showed no signs of cooling down or running out of soul power after so long.

During their brief exchange, Ma Hongjun and Dai Mubai, who had been lying on the ground, managed to get back up.

Seeing Chen Ming clad in his soul power armor, Ma Hongjun and Dai Mubai prepared to launch a sneak attack, but Flander casually swept them aside with a burst of wind-attributed soul power before they could act.

Flander was a walking contradiction, sometimes making one wonder if he had some sort of mental issue.

Here he was, blatantly bullying a junior soul master as a soul sage, yet he disdained underhanded methods like sneak attacks.

It could only be said that it was no wonder he was once able to perform a martial soul fusion skill with people like Yu Xiaogang. His way of thinking was incomprehensible to ordinary people.