Imperial Palace,
At the entrance where lesser nobles and knights gathered, drinking and chatting.
The crowd looked at the young man on the ground and the Little Dragon that whipped him to the ground in disbelief.
The little dragon glared at him with mock pity. Though hardly hurt, the young man felt deeply insulted and humiliated, stared at the dragon in confusion.
'What the hell is this thing?' he thought.
Hanrui sighed, shaking his head at the garbage of a man who tried to steal his fiancée, right in front of him.
'Maybe using Xiao Long was too much. He looks like he'd fall over from a poke from me,' Hanrui mused.
"Are you okay? Need help standing up?" Hanrui asked, watching the dazed young man who was staring at his Xiao Long.
"You—you, do you know who I am? Do you know who my grandfather is?" the young man stammered, angry and embarrassed.
Hanrui, bewildered at the young man's sudden outburst got confused at his words and glanced at Xiao Long, then realization dawned on him.
'wait is this the famous my grandfather is some so so sect elder crap that i read about? Hehehe let's see how I play with you.' Hanrui thought.
"You rascal, I told you to go easy—now he can't even remember who he is, or who his grandfather is!
Hm, wait why only grandfather? Did he lose his father early? Is he an orphan?" Hanrui chided Xiao Long at first but fell into doubt as he wondered aloud.
His words, while not loud, overheard by everyone as almost everyone here is a soul master, drew laughter for their innocence and honesty.
'This little guy is really good' The crowd thought as they liked the boy at first glance.
The young man's face purpled with rage.
Hanrui, noticing the change in the young man's face, quickly spoke up again.
"You, did you eat a purple potato? Your face is all purple. I heard that eating purple potatoes while buff's your muscles turns you ugly.
Like your head turning bald, your face resembling a potato while your body beefs up with extra muscle that looks unnatural.
While you are not particularly handsome you look decent enough, don't throw away your appearance for some muscle you can get with training." Hanrui advised the young man while laughing inside his head.
'You can only blame yourself for being weak, I don't want to bully the weak, so you can only endure the humiliation I dish out.' Hanrui thought.
The young man stood up abruptly as his face contorted in rage. While all the people there couldn't stop laughing, including Hanrui's family who took a back seat to let him handle the situation.
He glared at everyone, making some of them flinch while others ignored him. He looked at Hanrui again and spoke with gritted teeth. "Since you are soul master too, let's settle this with a fight, I challenge you."
Hanrui just shook his head at him. "Big brother, you are weak, i don't want to bully you"
The young man was even more angry and speechless. "You, who are you calling weak? I'm not weak. Fight me."
Hanrui seeing the man refuse his warning could only explain patiently, "That little dragon is my martial soul in shrunken form. It barely touched you, and you couldn't handle it. Why do you think you're a match for me?"
The young man, stunned, turned his head stiffly to the dragon that was flying in the air freely and playfully around Hanrui.
The same dragon that hit him to the ground with just a single whiplash.
'Since when did the mainland have a Martial Soul like this, and how did it manage to whip me to the ground?
No, no i was just careless, it might've used some leveraging technique. I'm not weak. I must defeat him and get back my dignity, my family dignity.' the young man thought inwardly.
"I don't care if it's your Martial Soul or not, I can definitely beat you, or are you afraid your girl will lose faith in you if you lose?" The young man mocked.
"Well since you insist on self humiliation, let's get this over with."Hanrui's face suddenly turned serious and cold.
Just then Xue Qinghe who came back with the Emperor Xue Ye, his teacher Ning Fengzhi, Sword Douluo Chenxin and Bone Douluo Gu rong, Thunder Douluo Yu Yuanzhen and his brother Yu Loumain and saw everything spoke up.
"I'll be the referee for the match"
Hearing that everyone looked at Xue Qinghe the Crown Prince and then at the emperor beside him and bowed in respect except for Hanrui's family.
The young man seeing the emperor also bowed to the emperor like everyone else.
Then he noticed his grandfather's disappointed look got confused for a second before realising they witnessed everything and clenched his fists in frustration.
Just then a voice cut through the silence.
"Are you the little brother, Nainai talked about?" Hanrui asked as he looked directly at Xue Ye.
Hearing the boy speak, the young man thought 'Is this guy nuts? Instead of bowing like everyone, he addresses the Emperor like an old friend? And what does he mean by grandmother's brother?
Whatever,Well if he died from this, saves me the trouble.'
"Um, you have Nainai's good looks," he said as Emperor Xue Ye started laughing.
"Good, Grand-niece come here, let this grand uncle have a good look at you" Xue Ye smiled as he extended his hands in a gesture to come over.
The young man hearing the emperor started sweating, 'what? Is he really related to the Emperor?'
'NO, NO I shouldn't panic, my grandfather is Thunder Douluo. He wouldn't let anything happen to me.' he thought as he tried to calm down.
Hanrui walked over to the Emperor Xue Ye with a smile and let the Emperor hug him as he thought. 'The things I do to save face for this old man'
Emperor Xue Ye hugged Hanrui for a while and ruffled his hair. "Good child. We can talk later, don't you have a fight to finish"
Seeing the Emperor like this everyone there were dumbfounded. After all, even the prince and princess didn't get this public show of affection from the Emperor before.
Ning Fengzhi meanwhile felt puzzled as he stared at Hanrui. "Uncle Sword, Uncle Bone, do you feel anything weird about that boy?" He asked.
Chenxin stared at Hanrui as he spoke with a tremor of excitement in his voice as he transmitted it to Ning Fengzhi. "If I'm not mistaken, you might've felt the sharp sword intent the boy is exuding. If I didn't know better I would've called him an old monster."
Gu Rong on the other hand felt suffocated looking at him and the silver haired girl beside him. "I think his dragon bloodline is purer than that old electric eel Yu Yuanzhen.
The boy and even the girl beside him can suppress me effortlessly with bloodline alone" He admitted to Ning Fengzhi in his voice transmission while still disbelief and helplessness etched in his tone.
Ning Fengzhi hearing the two of them speak so highly of the boy,it finally dawned on him.
"That's right, the boy, makes me recall the 2 of you at the same time. That's why I felt puzzled looking at him." He said in shock to the 2 of them.
But after all he is Ning Fengzhi the sect leader of one of the 3 strongest sects and also the wealthiest clan. He quickly calmed down and started calculating in his head.
Off to the side Yu Yuanzhen and Yu Loumain's faces looked ugly as they felt the full weight of the bloodline suppression from Gu Yuena and Hanrui.
The knowledge of not being able to move a single muscle without the permission of the other party stung both of them, so they kept silent.
While Yu Loumain thought 'I was gone for just 1 second and you create this much trouble for me? You brat, if you survive this I'll deal with you myself.' as he looked at the young man.
. . .
Xue Qinghe made space for the two and spoke while Hanrui and the young man took opposite positions.
"The winner is decided, either by one of the parties admitting defeat or knockout.
If there are any objections you can speak"
Hanrui looked bored while the young man gritted his teeth at the infuriating behaviour of his opponent.
Xue Qinghe, seeing no objection from either party, nodded to both of them.
"On the count of 3 introduce yourself and your Martial soul"
Hanrui kept silent as he let the youngman go first as Xue Qinghe started counting.
"3,2…1"
"Yu Tianheng, Age -13, Level 25, Martial Soul - Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon." The young man introduced himself.
He released his martial soul and 2 yellow soul rings and looked smugly at Hanrui.
Hanrui looked at him with the same boring eyes infuriating him.
"Sigh, Wu Hanrui, Age -6, Level 29, Martial Soul - Azure Dragon" Hanrui introduced himself and let his Xiao Long grow in size.
The Azure Dragon grew in size from less than 3feet to near 30 meter Giant and sprouted 2 wings one fire the other ice.
The dragon roared at Yu Tianheng, making him freeze in place.
'Is this, Bloodline Pressure,Grandfather talked about in his stories?' He thought as his Martial Soul dissipated on its own.
"So, you still want to fight?" Hanrui asked as he looked casually at him.
'I didn't think I would meet this guy this soon. Then again he is one of the candidates for the patriarch position of his clan, so I guess it's natural he would appear here.
But it's truly eye opening. Unlike his older and more steady self I'm familiar with. This version of him is even more reckless.
Or to put it another way. It's only because of Dugu Yan he endured and suppressed his original character.' Hanrui thought as he looked at the frozen Yu Tianheng.
The audience who heard him mention his age and level are stunned in disbelief but the moment they saw that majestic Dragon they had to believe it.
Even though they don't have a dragon bloodline the crowd felt suppressed just looking at it.
Ning Fengzhi had this sudden urge to take him away and tie him to his clan but the moment he thought of this he felt a cold chill on his back.
Searching for the source he found the famed Warrior Princess giving him an impassive stare.
He could only laugh awkwardly as his thoughts were seen through by this mother hen, who is known to be protective and fierce.
. . .
'You are right jiějie(elder sister) Li, your grandson really gave me a surprise and with this I doubt anyone will have the guts to oppose our decision.
It's just a pitythe blue lightning tyrant dragon fish has to suffer a little.' Emperor Xue Ye thought amused.
Xue Qinghe's eyes widened in shock as he looked at Hanrui in shock and disbelief.
'This,. . . Is this guy born with level 20 soul power like me?' Qian Renxue thought in disbelief.
'NO, even then his level 29 soul power doesn't make sense' her thoughts spiralled.
Yu Tianheng came back to his senses shortly after, but still refused to give up.
"If your dragon doesn't suppress my bloodline and push my martial soul back I could definitely defeat you." He said making a gamble.
Hanrui raising an eyebrow at him gave a look to his dragon, which instantly understood him and turned back into Xiao Long then flew to a nearby tree and snapped a branch and bright it back to him.
Hanrui taking the branch made a dummy sword shape with it and pointed it towards Yu Tianheng. Instantly his aura turned sharp, like a blade about to get unleashed.
"Whenever you are ready." Hanrui said in an impassive and cold voice, a sharp look in his eyes.
Off to the side, Sword Douluo grew excited looking at Hanrui.
The crowd gasped at the display of calmness and decisiveness shown by a 6 year old at the unfolding situation and looked on with interest.
Yu Tianheng with no way out, gritted his teeth and summoned his Martial Soul again.
"Martial Soul possession" he said, instantly his right arm dragonified.
Without taking a breath he unleashed his first soul skill—Thunder Dragon Claw and second soul skill— Thunder Crash and did his best directing both at Hanrui.
Hanrui looked at the ongoing Thunder Dragon Claw and Lightning snakes and covered the branch with his sword qi, lifted his hand and without any flourish swung downwards.
Everything returned to calm the next second as the lighting snakes and the Thunder Dragon Claw disappeared.
While Yu Tianheng who was about to move forward with the thunder dragon claw was thrown backward, as a bone deep gash appeared on his arm.
Even the blood took its time noticing the gap before seeping out of the wound.
"Ahhhhh" a blood curling scream was heard right after as the pain registered in Yu Tianheng's mind, before he fainted.
While the crowd was stunned in disbelief, Sword Douluo looked at Hanrui with Stars in his eyes.
After all, he noticed the mastery of the sword art shown by Hanrui unlike most people here.
This is a feat even he couldn't replicate. After all, the other party could do it with a snapped off branch at his disposal.While he is too reliant on his sword.
This one display opened his eyes to a new realm and his soul power stirred about to break through. Noticing his own situation, he postponed the urge to take a disciple and prepared to leave.
"Fengzhi, I'm about to breakthrough, I'll be right back," he said before disappearing.
Bone douluo who overheard it felt happy for his rival but also felt frustrated at his own bottleneck and sighed.
Ning Fengzhi on the other hand felt ecstatic hearing the Good news and smiled like a baby.
Xue Qinghe who witnessed everything started questioning her life but the show must go on, so with the tug of her subordinate, she came back to her senses and announced Hanrui's Victory.
Everyone in the crowd cheered for him as Hanrui gave them a polite smile.