Unrivaled Tang Sect Volume 13

Book 13: Life Gold

Chapter 105: Purifying the Ominous Soul Devouring Knife

Huo Yuhao’s pupils had become ﬁlled with golden light and translucent; it was as if they were 2 golden crystals.

“What’s wrong? Who dares attempt to snatch my territory?” The Skydream Iceworm asked furiously.

After being provoked by the Ominous Soul-Devouring Knife, the Ice Empress’ mind also cleared up. A streak of azure light ﬂashed across Huo Yuhao’s golden pupils, and an aura that was

100 times more ferocious than that of the Ominous Soul-

Devouring Knife’s was unleashed. It viciously slammed into the Ominous Soul-Devouring Knife.

This time, the knife cried out in sorrow and the green gaseous light it was emanating was dispersed.

The Skydream Iceworm and Ice Jade Empress Scorpion were both partially fused with Huo Yuhao’s body, thus their own true powers were sealed as well. However, their spiritual origins were both in Huo Yuhao’s spiritual sea. Even though

Huo Yuhao couldn’t unleash their power, they could still deﬁnitely protect Huo Yuhao’s spiritual sea!

What kind of temper did the Ice Empress have? If the Ice Empress and Skydream Iceworm could be described as a married couple, then the Skydream Iceworm was the henpecked one, while she was the tigress in the family…

The Skydream Iceworm had gone into defense mode the moment he felt that he was being attacked, but she had immediately counterattacked.

Huo Yuhao mind immediately cleared up. The combined spiritual powers of the Skydream Iceworm and the Ice Empress gave him the feeling that they could devour a person forcefully. It was only at this point that Electrolux ﬁnally woke up.

“Oh? It's Life Gold. Little worm and scorpion, both of you quiet down please.”

Even though Electrolux, the self-proclaimed ‘Calamity Necromancer’ who followed the Divine Law of Necromancy, only had a shred of divine sense left, the Skydream Iceworm

and Ice Empress were still afraid of him. They were also clearly aware that Electrolux didn’t harbor any ill intentions towards Huo Yuhao; his spiritual sea was a common interest that all three of them shared.

Wang Yan noticed that the ferocious gaze in Huo Yuhao’s pupils changed once again: His azure-golden eyes rapidly turned grey, while his aura seemed to greatly transform.

The ﬁrst time that Wang Yan had seen Huo Yuhao’s eyes turn grey was back when his soul power had only been Rank 17 and he’d been ﬁghting Wu Feng. Even with all of his special powers, Huo Yuhao had only managed to win once his eyes turned grey.

However, he’d been quite far away back then, and hadn’t been able to sense things clearly. However, right now, Wang Yan was very close to Huo Yuhao. The only thing he felt was that Huo Yuhao’s grey eyes were ﬁlled with a boundless mysteriousness. But within this mysteriousness, he could sense an unprecedented divinity. It was even more divine than the Angel he’d once seen before.

Huo Yuhao’s youthful face even exuded a tinge of holiness when the layer of grey appeared in his eyes.

Suddenly, Huo Yuhao turned to look at Wang Yan. Wang Yan had never felt that he needed to be cautious against him before, but the moment he saw the boundless grey in the depths of Huo Yuhao’s eyes, his mind became blurry. No matter what he did, he couldn’t bring himself to resist it.

If anyone else were present, they would see that Wang Yan’s eyes had become ﬁlled with emptiness the moment Huo Yuhao looked at him; he was akin to a walking zombie.

Once this was done, Huo Yuhao then turned back to the Ominous Soul-Devouring Knife, and focused his attention on it. The dim greyish radiance from his eyes seemed to become an entity with form as it shot out and landed on the knife.

After a moment, Huo Yuhao’s consciousness retreated to his spiritual sea, and Electrolux took back control of his body. From his own perspective, Huo Yuhao was helpless. Who’d asked him to be so weak? Regardless of if it was the Skydream Iceworm, the Ice Empress, or Electrolux, Huo Yuhao was quite a lot weaker than all of them by a signiﬁcant amount. How else could his body be controlled by them at any time? However, this thought only ﬂashed across his mind. After all, Electrolux was doing everything for him.

The Ominous Soul-Devouring Knife shook violently and released a mournful groan the instant that the greyish spiritual power Electrolux released struck it. If someone wasn’t resolute enough, his emotions would be greatly affected by this groan.

Electrolux’s thoughts then echoed through Huo Yuhao’s spiritual sea, “Injecting evil thoughts and curses into the Life Gold is only something that an evil creator could think of. He simply sensed the immense strength that this Life Gold has, but he didn’t know how to let it unleash its truly miraculous effects. Life Gold, cleanse yourself! I’ll let you return to your original state, and shall remove all the stains on you. Your purest life aura can be unleashed once again.”

Huo Yuhao’s pupils experienced a change once again. His previously grey pupils suddenly turned white—a white that was as ﬂawless and pure as jade. It was as white as snow. The greyish spiritual power also turned into a white, Purifying Light instantaneously.

This time, the Ominous Soul-Devouring Knife had stopped shaking. As it resisted, an intense green light was suddenly released from it’s blade. The green light formed a ferocious-

looking face and roared madly. It seemed to want to devour the white light that Electrolux was emitting.

However, even though the Purifying Light seemed extremely thin, it was akin to boiling oil being poured onto a pile of snow when it struck the Ominous Soul-Devouring Knife: The green light from the ﬁerce-looking face was blurred by half in an instant. The originally ferocious look that the face had also turned blurry. However, the green light revolving around it was still very strong, but gust after gust of black gas was evaporating and dissipating beneath the effect of the Purifying Light. The green light that the Ominous Soul-Devouring Knife was emitting began to become both purer and gentler as this continued.

The entire cleansing process was very short and quick. The moment that the last streak of black gas dissipated, the green light that the knife’s blade was emitting became as clean as spring water. There were no longer any impurities on it, thus the originally black blade also turned into a greenish crystal- like entity.

Electrolux sighed heavily. “I didn’t realize I’d become so weak. I feel so tired and weak despite just using a bit of the Purifying Light. Alright, you’ll have to tell your teacher that

you need to keep the knife on you. I’ll need some time to fuse the two of you together.”

Once he’d ﬁnished speaking he made Huo Yuhao look at Wang Yan. After that, the whiteness in Huo Yuhao’s eyes disappeared. Huo Yuhao regained control of his own body, while Wang Yan’s empty eyes regained their focus.

“What?” Wang Yan immediately noticed the obvious change in the Ominous Soul-Devouring Knife once he’d regained focus. The originally-deadly sense of ferocity that it had possessed had ceased to exist. Currently, the crystal-like knife gave him a burning feeling of life.

Wang Yan was very confused; he didn’t even remember Huo Yuhao turning to look at him. He was quite shocked by what had happened. “This… this is? Yuhao, how did you do this?”

Huo Yuhao only choice was to make up a lie. “Teacher Wang, I felt spiritual ﬂuctuations coming from this knife the moment that I saw it. They weren’t very strong, and were only based on the strength contained within the knife’s blade. From the perspective of us soul engineers, this is known as a sealing of one’s soul. In other words, a shred of evil will from an evil soul

master had been sealed inside of this carving knife, which is why it was so ferocious. I simply used my spiritual power to open the seal, which wasn’t very powerful, and remove the shred of evil will from the knife. This has allowed the knife to return to its normal state. It shouldn’t pose a threat anymore. As for whether it’s ready to use, we can only bring it back to try.”

Wang Yan was very knowledgeable in regards to the research into soul masters, but he wasn’t very clear about soul engineers. He could only nod when he heard Huo Yuhao’s words. He then tried to pick up the knife.

Indeed, the knife had lost all traces of its ferocious aura. Instead, the knife felt very smooth in his hand. In fact, it didn’t seem to have an aura at all. It seemed like had been carved from some sort of crystal. If not for the unchanged, simple patterns on the knife, he would’ve thought that Huo Yuhao had switched it out.

He lifted the knife and handed it to Huo Yuhao, then said, “Keep it then. We’ll let Fan Yu take a look at it when we return to the academy. I’m not very knowledgeable when it comes to soul tools.”

“Thanks, Teacher Wang.” Huo Yuhao felt elated when he received the knife. He had the same feeling as Wang Yan when he held the knife: It seemed like the knife was made of ordinary crystal—that was it.

After obtaining the knife as he wished, Huo Yuhao was extremely delighted. However, he also knew that he owed the academy a lot. The academy had nurtured him, thus he would need to repay their contributions in the future.

After returning to his room, he relayed everything to Wang Dong. Of course, he only told him the same version of what had happened as what he’d told Wang Yan; he couldn’t let anyone know about the secret in his spiritual sea.

Wang Dong was also awed when he saw the knife. “Is it really that good? It’s a pity that there’s not a suitable environment around. If there was, you could try to create a soul tool with it.”

Huo Yuhao replied, “There’s no rush. Come, let’s continue cultivating together.” He’d already leapt out of bed by the time he’d ﬁnished speaking.

Wang Dong was annoyed and replied, “You aren’t human! Don’t you ever feel bored or fatigued? Why not go out and play? I’m gonna die of boredom!”

Huo Yuhao chuckled and said, “If you’re not talented, you have to be one step ahead of others. My cultivation is the weakest of everyone present; if I don’t work harder than everyone, how will I live up to the academy’s expectations?”

Wang Dong snorted and said, “Fine, cultivate by yourself ﬁrst. I’m heading back to my room and shower ﬁrst. You have to achieve balance in your cultivation; you can’t always be so tense.”

Huo Yuhao was delighted when Wang Dong left. He was still waiting for Electrolux to tell him how miraculous the Ominous Soul-Devouring Knife was.

After Wang Dong left, Huo Yuhao immediately pulled the green, crystal-like knife out.

Electrolux’s slightly weak voice rang out, “Press it against your forehead. Yuhao, remember not to panic no matter what

happens. Remain calm and leave everything to me. Do you understand?”

“Alright.” Huo Yuhao acknowledged, then pressed the knife to his forehead.

When the knife came into contact with his skin, he felt a surge of warm energy. Immediately afterwards, a strange aura streaked from his spiritual sea into the knife.

In an instant, the knife shone with green light, and a stream of vigorous life aura surged into Huo Yuhao’s body through the center of his forehead.

In that instant, Huo Yuhao’s body turned the same color as the knife. Even his spiritual sea was no exception. As the intense green light spread, the spiritual origins of the Skydream Iceworm and the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion were temporarily suppressed.

An unprecedented comfort ﬂowed throughout his body, causing Huo Yuhao to feel as if every minute area of his body

was moaning in happiness. His body greedily sucked at the vigorous life energy being released by the knife.

He seemed to be able to see everything inside his body: Everything turned green and were ﬁlled with the same life aura. His passageways became more ﬂexible, his organs became tougher, his bones were strengthened... His entire body seemed to its quality raised.

The most obvious change he sensed was in his passageways. Even though they hadn’t dilated, Huo Yuhao was sure that his passageways could deﬁnitely withstand a greater ﬂood of soul power due to their increased resilience.

As the green light cleansed his entire body, all of the impurities within his body were rapidly expelled through his pores.

Huo Yuhao had once consumed pills and medicine that had solidiﬁed his foundations. In the process, they had cleansed his body from the inside out after as he digested it. However, it was different this time. The strong powerful aura contained within the Ominous Soul-Devouring Knife was like the water of life; it cleansed every single corner of his body.

This didn’t increase his cultivation, but Huo Yuhao was able to sense that his body had become as transparent as the Ominous Soul-Devouring Knife. All of the cultivation that he’d accumulated over the past few years was also cleansed under the nourishment of this wave of vigorous life aura. He felt that his body had ﬁnally become whole; even things that he hadn’t understood in the past became clear to him as his mind cleared up.

Was this the miraculous effect of the Life Gold? Huo Yuhao was astonished. He’d been exposed to many things as he cultivated and learned: Even though his abilities hadn’t been increased, he was well-aware of what this change meant to him.

The beneﬁts he’d received from body being cleansed were immediately apparent. His state of weakness had turned into strength, and his cultivation speed had been greatly increased. Only a tough body could accommodate an abundance of soul power, which in turn would allow him to better absorb it and increase his cultivation faster.

Chapter 106: The Eye of Life

The Life Gold before his eyes only nourished his body for an extremely short period of time, but he could clearly feel that the sum of every herbal medicine and tonic he had eaten before were not as effective as that moment he had just experienced. The feeling of sudden and smooth circulation was unprecedented. He was positive that, after this transformation, his cultivation speed would be greatly improved, and his body’s endurance would be boosted as well. His capacity for higher- ranked soul rings would be raised by at least a thousand years, and this meant the power of his soul skills would be raised at the same time.

Just when Huo Yuhao was at the climax of his exhilaration, the vast aura of life paused as the sensation of comfort and pleasure receded in just a matter of seconds.

Huo Yuhao was still relishing in his comfort before his entire body started to feel empty. However, his unnaturally sensitive perception immediately told him that something was wrong – he realized, to his shock, that the Soul-Devouring Carving Knife had departed from between his eyebrows. What was more frightening was the fact that the sharp end of the blade was pointed right at his forehead, above his eyebrows.

Before he could even react, the Soul-Devouring Carving Knife stabbed down ferociously, and the entire blade sunk deep into his skull. Huo Yuhao wanted to scream and struggle under the agonizing pain, but he quickly realized that, to his intense dismay, there was nothing he could do.

Tremendous volumes of life energy instantly ﬂooded in once the blade entered his skull. His current experience was similar to that of someone who had just eaten a strike of his Spiritual Shock – it felt like he had just been hammered on the head, and his mind was a complete blank.

It was too late for the Skydream Iceworm and the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion to save him once they felt everything. The extensive energies of life surged into Huo Yuhao’s spiritual sea from his forehead and gave them an inexplicably comfortable sensation as their spiritual origins were rinsed.

Huo Yuhao’s spiritual sea had turned into a green-colored ocean at this point. Dense and thick mists of life energy gradually started to condense, while his spiritual sea began to expand outwards with bedazzling speed.

Two shadows materialized in his spiritual sea – the Skydream Iceworm and the Ice Empress.

They glanced at each other, and immediately detected the shock in each other’s eyes. They had been alive for hundreds of thousands of years, and even though Huo Yuhao’s head had just been pierced by the Soul-Devouring Carving Knife, they could feel that Electrolux didn’t harbor evil intentions. Furthermore, that vast pool of life energy that had just poured into Huo Yuhao’s spiritual sea, and the process of expansion that was triggered, was greatly beneﬁcial to them.

The life energy nourished the spiritual sea, and this was equivalent to nourishing their spiritual origins. Therefore, they resolved to calm themselves as they focused on protecting Huo Yuhao’s spiritual origin while paying attention to the changes around them.

A frail old man clad in white appeared inside Huo Yuhao’s spiritual sea between shimmering grey lights.

He glanced at the Skydream Iceworm and the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion and smiled as he said, “Big bug, small scorpion – I will not ﬁght with you for territory any longer. You

can release a little bit of your sealing power to boost Yuhao’s spiritual sea and raise his spiritual power. His body can be considered pristine and impeccable after this transformation. However, don’t infuse your powers into him too quickly – it’s better to wait for his mastery of soul power to break rank 30 before you two continue fusing with him.”

Skydream watched him with astonished eyes as he asked, “You’re Electrolux?”

The old man nodded and replied, “My thread of divine sense had no foundation. It was empty and weak, which meant that it could have dissipated at any moment. However, things are a lot different with this miraculous Life Gold – it can provide me with a vector, and I will be able to sustain myself inside, and this is bound to stabilize my divine sense a little more. However, much of my memory has been lost – too much – and I can only rediscover these memories if my divine sense gets stronger, and so I need Yuhao’s help. You guys can relax – we all share the same goal, and that’s to make him stronger. When the power of his divine sense reaches the level I possessed back in the day, everything I’ve lost will return. Furthermore, I am starting to ﬁnd this world a lot more interesting ever since fusing myself with his body. I need to be on my way, and you guys can communicate with me through our spiritual origins.”

Electrolux’s right hand swiped across the air as he spoke, and a green door made of light appeared before him. He waved back at the Skydream Iceworm and the Ice Empress before his shadow vanished into the door.

The Ice Empress couldn’t help but give praise as she watched Electrolux’s departure. “Such powerful control of his divine sense. This is humankind’s innate talent! I have cultivated for four hundred thousand years, but I don’t think I can condense my spiritual origin enough for it to evolve into divine sense.”

The Skydream Iceworm wriggled his body and said, “Don’t worry. We are integrated with Yuhao in order to draw upon his innate talents now. If he can succeed in the future, then we will surely succeed as well.”

They were still engaged in casual conversation when something insidious started happening to Huo Yuhao’s body.

The green Soul-Devouring Carving Knife inside his forehead was trembling faintly. However, the gash that was opened by the blade didn’t gush with blood – instead, the Soul-Devouring Carving Knife started to soften, and eventually melted into a

green liquid that ﬂowed into Huo Yuhao’s head through the opening.

Huo Yuhao’s entire being was tainted with a thick layer of green as the large volumes of life energy started to wash his body continuously, with his forehead as the central point.

The wound slashed open by the blade didn’t close up following the fusion of the carving knife. Instead, it began to open even wider under the effects of a circle of green-gold light, much like the mouth of an infant – it also seemed like a single eye.

His wound quivered, while his muscles and his bones were all being continuously distorted during the process. Huo Yuhao’s body trembled from the effects of the transformation, and that was an excruciating pain that ordinary people wouldn’t be able to tolerate.

Huo Yuhao’s mind had been awake this whole time. He could even hear the conversation between the two powerful soul beasts and Electrolux inside his spiritual sea. However, there was nothing he could do to interrupt the process, or truly understand what was happening to him at this moment.

The green-gold light gradually stabilized. A single tiny grey pearl materialized at the gash on his forehead and began to fuse intricately with the broken ﬂesh, tendons and bones around the hole.

The harrowing pain pierced Huo Yuhao’s nerves like countless numbers of needles. The pain he was feeling now was perhaps ten times greater than what he had experienced during his fusion with the bones of the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion.

Huo Yuhao’s soul and spiritual origin were screaming incessantly as he felt as if his spiritual origin was being torn apart. One could also say that his spiritual origin was being ripped to shreds before it was pieced back together. That kind of pain was truly indescribable. No matter how vast the pools of life energy were, Huo Yuhao couldn’t feel a single ounce of comfort at this particular moment. The pain he was feeling seemed to drag him into the deepest and darkest abyss, and he was just sinking ever deeper.

Terrifying ripples of soul power erupted at this moment. Huo Yuhao’s Mysterious Heaven Technique soul power instinctively

tried to protect his body, but that soul power had no way of entering this particular region of his spiritual sea.

An unknown duration of time passed, and just when he was becoming numb to the agonizing pain, and his spiritual origin already felt like it had been torn to pieces, he suddenly felt a trace of light.

It was a dull, gentle and tender golden color.

His shattered spiritual origin was seamlessly covered and enveloped by this all-encompassing golden light. That feeling was strange, as if he was thrown into a warm lake, and his fractured spiritual origin was progressively softened and agglutinating within.

The lake was golden, and glued his spiritual origin back together while it injected a mysterious kind of energy inside.

The numbness slowly became warmth. Huo Yuhao’s mind was also recuperating along with the convalescence of his spiritual origin.

He reached out with his senses at once. The ﬁrst thing he saw was that he was sitting by his bed, cross-legged, and his waist was erect while his entire body was extremely silent. There was suddenly an extra eye on his forehead.

This eye didn’t radiate with green light, and the socket was a little smaller than his original eyes. There appeared to be faint and pale ﬂickers of green light around the socket.

The pupil itself was grey. However, there was a subtle ﬂicker of golden light deep within the patches of grey. His strange third eye moved a little, and Huo Yuhao instantly realized that he was staring at himself – he saw the vicissitudes, the abstruseness, and a life and purity that was difﬁcult to describe.

Huo Yuhao’s spiritual power returned to his body with a whistle. This time, the things he was looking at started to change – he could see his bones, his muscles, and his veins and capillaries.

The circulation of blood was like a ﬂowing river as it trickled along, and the dense essence of blood was permeated with vigorous life energies. His skeleton, his muscles, his veins and

his organs were all covered by strange layers of green, and this layer was currently fusing with his body while its color gradually receded.

Huo Yuhao couldn’t wait as he directed his spiritual energy back into his brain and back into his spiritual sea, as he wanted to see what was different about it.

The changes in his spiritual sea fell into his eyes very swiftly.

Describing it as world-changing was as suitable as it could get.

His spiritual sea was drastically different from before. If one could say that his original spiritual sea was a patch of nothingness, his current spiritual sea was now transformed into a patch of real space.

This space was white, with no end in sight. The ﬁrst thing he saw the moment he entered it was a large green lake. This lake was ﬁlled with vitality and vigor, and its surface was calm and gentle like a mirror. Dense auras of life energy nourished his spiritual sea.

Such a vast space! Huo Yuhao perceived the boundlessness of his spiritual sea in shock. His spiritual sea was at least three times larger than before, and it was hard to say how much more stable it had become.

He refocused his eyes, and noticed a single pearl drifting on the surface of the azure lake – it could also be said to be the Sun of the spiritual sea.

This pearl was also jade-green in color. It was totally transparent, crystal-like and radiated a gente light, much like that of the Soul-Devouring Carving Knife. It changed when Huo Yuhao cast his gaze upon it, transforming into an eye that gradually opened and looked back at Yuhao with a tender gaze.

Lights ﬂickered as Huo Yuhao discovered, to his intense shock, that he suddenly had a body. His spiritual power created a ﬁgure that was identical to himself in the blink of an eye, and he was just standing there by the lake.

It wasn’t just him. The plump and robust white bug, the Skydream Iceworm, and the enchantingly beautiful Ice Jade Empress Scorpion appeared beside him as well.

“This… What’s all this? What just happened?” Huo Yuhao was clueless about everything before his eyes. However, there

was a feeling tingling at the bottom of his heart that told him he was in control of everything here. This kind of change that he had never experienced before gave him a strange and incomprehensible sensation.

The giant eye in midair stared at him, and Electrolux’s decrepit voice rang out, “This are the effects of the Life Gold. Don’t worry, for I will explain everything to you slowly.”

“Let’s talk about what Life Gold is. Life is as the name suggests. All beings have life, and can called living beings. It’s the same whether it was me in the olden days or you guys. Every living being is separated by intelligence, and the original force of all living beings is life energy, or vitality.”

“Life Gold is the material representation of life energy. Put more simply, it’s the product of condensing copious amounts of life energy, and a treasure of the world that only can come about after many years of gestation and incubation. I was not originally from your world, but from another parallel dimension – however, Life Gold shares the same existence no matter which world you’re in. The vast amounts of life energy contained within Life Gold are extremely beneﬁcial to any living being. Every living being represents a life, but every piece of Life Gold represents an entire world.”

Huo Yuhao became more perplexed as he listened on, and a look of confusion came over his eyes. He still didn’t really understand the existence of this Life Gold.

At this moment, the Skydream Iceworm asked, “Old man, you still haven’t mentioned how Life Gold came about. And what does it mean by gestating copious amounts of life energy over many years? Don’t make it so abstract and get to the point.”

Electrolux replied plainly, “It’s easy to be direct. Even though your origins are nothing impressive, it’s a rare sight for someone like you to live for so long, and you’ve been alive for a million years. Put simply, the sum of your million years of age is about the size of a teardrop of Life Gold.”

“You can’t be serious!” The Skydream Iceworm and the Ice Empress exclaimed at the same time. Even though the Ice Empress didn’t think too highly of the Skydream Iceworm, she knew that she was ultimately inferior to him in terms of life energy, as the Skydream Iceworm had been alive for over a million years.

Electrolux continued, “This is already holding him in high regard. You guys have to know that Life Gold exists initially in a gaseous form, and following the passage of time, gradually transforms into a liquid – much like the one Huo Yuhao has obtained, except it had already become a solid. You guys will understand as I explain. Big bug, do you remember the forest in which we fused together with Huo Yuhao?”

The Skydream Iceworm muttered through his teeth, “Of course. The Great Star Dou Forest. I was tortured by those bastards in that cursed place!”

Electrolux said, “That forest is host to a plentitude of lives. When my divine sense descended, I could feel the intense vigor and vitality of the giant forest. If we used that to measure Life Gold, forming a lump of solid Life Gold about the size of a carving knife would require about twenty thousand years – and that is already under the assumption that nothing is damaged or interrupted. Furthermore, you guys need to understand that the formation of Life Gold requires a great many objective conditions. For example, for the forest to produce a piece of Life Gold, there has to be a place inside that is dense and concentrated with life energy.”

Huo Yuhao nodded and said, “I think I roughly understand. You’re trying to say that this carving knife was made entirely from Life Gold.”

Electrolux replied, “Yes, that is correct. Life energy is beneﬁcial to any force of existence; evil beings can also enjoy the beneﬁts of vast amounts of life energy. My divine sense is too dilapidated – therefore, I had no choice but to take the majority of its power when we obtained this piece of Life Gold. I used its power as the foundation to open a third eye for you, which is the same one you saw with your consciousness. My consciousness is contained within this third eye. Under the nourishment of this Life Gold, I don’t think my divine sense will ever run the risk of dissipating anymore.”

“With the nourishment from this enormous pool of life energy, my divine sense will be healed continuously, and I will also be able to manipulate some of its power. You’re too weak at the moment – when you’re stronger, I will give you a choice, and you can decide whether you want to inherit my powers.”

“I can still remember three different powers from the remnants of my broken memory. Two of them were passed down to the people from my original plane, but my last inheritance – also my highest one – is still being withheld.

When you reach the ﬁfth ring, you should have the ability to attempt this inheritance. Of course, you have to be willing.”

The Skydream Iceworm snorted and said, “So you are taking the lion’s share of the beneﬁts of this whatever Life Gold?”

Electrolux couldn’t help but laugh and answered, “Are you blind, you bug? I have even transformed his spiritual sea into such a beautiful place. I dare say that there will never be such a beautiful spiritual sea inside this plane ever again. I have just said that every single piece of Life Gold is an entire world, and I used the power of this Life Gold to seal its original life energy into this spiritual sea. After today, the growth of Yuhao’s spiritual power will be at least three times faster than before, and his spiritual sea will be as good as eternal. Even his physical body has been inﬂuenced by this Life Gold – whatever his injury is, as long as his mind is still functional, it will regenerate on its own. It won’t be so easy for him to die anymore.”

“You have to remember a few things, Yuhao. Firstly, that carving knife hasn’t disappeared. Your third eye, and also the Eye Of Life that I just spoke of, is its current metaphysical existence. When you’re in need, you just have to focus your consciousness into the Eye of Life, and you will be bestowed

with the power of the carving knife. However, this carving knife will possess certain qualities of the Life Gold and a portion of my own qualities as well. You’ll have to try it out to know exactly what those are.”

“Secondly, my existence from now on can be counted as one of your martial souls – a very special martial soul. However, this martial soul cannot be fused with soul rings. You have to be clear that my strength comes from you, only my control is probably superior to yours. The most I can give you is intelligence and wisdom – therefore, you can’t have too high hopes of me.”

“Thirdly, I hope you will shut yourself in for a while after you’ve ﬁnished with the things you have at hand. You should attempt to experience and understand the profundities this Life Gold has brought to you, and truly integrate with the life energy inside of you. You have to allow it to become a part of you like your ﬁnger or your arm, and this will be extremely beneﬁcial for your future development.”

“Lastly, following the transformations made by the Life Gold, both the strength and ﬂexibility of your body has been greatly improved – do make use of that. Oh, and you have to try your best to control it however you can. Your spiritual sea can now

contain a greater volume of spiritual power. However, no matter how powerful your spiritual powers are, it’s all wasted if you don’t know how to control them. This is also one of the reasons why I wish for you to shut yourself in to cultivate and meditate in silence.”

“Alright, that’s all I have to say. I have to integrate with the Eye of Life as soon as possible. You will also regain command of your consciousness very soon. After this episode, your consciousness, your body and your spiritual sea will be ﬂawlessly integrated. It will be very difﬁcult for us to take over your bodies after this – all we can do is help you in your growth.”

The eye closed, and Electrolux’s aura swiftly vanished. In the next moment, Huo Yuhao felt his world spinning like a top around him, and he fell into a daze. When he opened his eyes in the next moment, he was back on his bed.

He ﬁrst action was to reach up to touch his forehead subconsciously. What caught him off guard was that his forehead was smooth – where was the third eye?

Perhaps all this was due to the unbearable intensity of pain that he had just experienced, but his mind ended up in a trance

– could everything that had just happened be nothing but a hallucination?

He tossed his head from side to side as he attempted to reorient himself before he focused and looked inwards once again.

It wasn’t a hallucination after all. At this point, his spiritual power enabled him to see every corner of his body when he looked inwards, to the point where he could see the circulation of the pure white color of the Mysterious Heaven Technique’s soul power. Every detail within his body fell into his perception

– the life energy that belonged to the piece of Life Gold was currently being fully absorbed by his body.

Huo Yuhao stood up and stretched a little. He immediately discovered, to his amazement, that every single joint in his body felt incredibly ﬂexible. He turned his head, and found that his neck could almost rotate a full hundred and eighty degrees. He lifted his right leg backwards; it didn’t take much effort at all to touch his head.

What stunned him the most was the circumstance of the Mysterious Heaven Technique’s circulation. He no longer needed to engage in meditation – its circulation had practically become a part of his breathing process, and followed the huff and puff of his every breath. The Mysterious Heaven Technique was actually following the paths of cultivation and circulating automatically. His own blood essence was ﬂowing vigorously, and was integrated impeccably with his soul power, as if they were being boosted with every second that passed.

Huo Yuhao watched the rays of sunlight coming in through the window. He immediately felt as if his mood was overcome with an incredible sensation of optimism and cheerfulness, as if his entire being was immersed and integrated with nature.

The Life Gold was so powerful! His body seemed to have risen to another level under its effects.

He concentrated on his spiritual sea. Everything that he saw before was still there – the serene Lake of Life, the dense essence of life energy, and the Pearl of Life hovering in the sky could all be seen with great clarity.

Both the Skydream Iceworm and the Ice Empress remained at the lake, as if they had felt the probing from Huo Yuhao’s spiritual power. They turned their gazes into the sky, and Huo Yuhao immediately sensed that they were watching him.

At this moment, these two powerful soul beasts started to radiate with pale brilliance. Especially the Skyream Iceworm, who was a emanating tender golden light that ﬂooded his spiritual sea. It looked like he was fusing his vast pools of soul power with himself to boost his expanded spiritual sea.

The Ice Empress was emitting layers of light that were a mix of icy-white and green. These layers of light were ﬁrst infused into the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion’s skeleton before they were spread all around Huo Yuhao’s body.

Neither the Skydream Iceworm’s nor the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion’s power could increase Huo Yuhao’s soul power, as they had already become Huo Yuhao’s martial souls, but the Mysterious Heaven Technique’s soul power had also taken two different forms of existence. There was no question that the changes they were currently undergoing were meant to boost

Huo Yuhao’s spiritual sea, his physical strength and the power of every one of his soul rings.

Huo Yuhao could still use his spiritual detection to perceive his surroundings before his absorption of the Life Gold. However, there was no way he could be clairvoyant, and his personal senses were only slightly superior to those of normal people. The Life Gold had triggered an almost sublime transformation in his body, but his powers didn’t appear vastly improved, as the effects worked to develop his potential while giving him a boost to his senses.

Huo Yuhao rushed into the bathroom to cleanse his body and changed into a set of clean clothes the moment he witnessed the changes that were happening to the Skydream Iceworm and the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion. He checked himself in the mirror and made sure that there wasn’t a third eye on his forehead, as if that eye had only existed in his sensations – but the feeling of its existence was just too real.

He refused to mull over it too much, and returned to his bed. He started to channel the Mysterious Heaven Technique and activated his soul power to begin his cultivation, as he had a faint feeling that cultivating at this time would be most beneﬁcial to himself.

All Wang Dong saw when he slunk back into the room was Huo Yuhao, who was deep in meditation.

Wang Dong was a little surprised as he watched him. Even though Huo Yuhao didn’t seem any different on the surface, Wang Dong had a feeling that there was something different about his friend, and it felt like his temperament was different. Huo Yuhao’s physical appearance was originally slightly above average, but he suddenly seemed to have a new and unique kind of charm.

Self-conﬁdence, steadiness and a few measures of depth – yet, he was still ﬁlled with liveliness and brimmed with vitality.

“This guy is just too hardworking. He can still be so involved even when he’s cultivating alone – he can even enter deep meditation.”

Soul masters generally experienced two different states during their cultivation – meditation and deep meditation. Standard meditation could typically be interrupted, and the soul master would wake up naturally when there was external

stimulus, or if the soul master detected any change in his physical surroundings, so any adverse effects would be highly limited. Therefore, this form of meditation was also referred to as light cultivation.

This was the state that they would typically enter when Wang Dong and Huo Yuhao teamed up to concentrate the Haodong power. After all, they had to pass the Haodong power around, and thus they couldn’t let their soul power course around freely.

On the other hand, deep meditation was a serendipitous occurrence that only came about when one had an epiphany in the process of normal meditation. The meditator’s consciousness would sink deep into his or her cultivation, and their entire being would be ﬁxated – one would no longer be able to experience any changes in the outside world and, would only wake when it was time.

The soul master’s soul power would be circulating automatically during deep meditation, and at a speed that was much faster than during normal meditation. At the same time, the soul master would experience a higher level of absorption and perception during deep meditation. Many things that were

typically perplexing or difﬁcult to fathom would become a lot more transparent and understandable during deep meditation.

Any soul master would wish that he or she could enter deep meditation during cultivation, especially when they were breaking through a bottleneck. If the soul master was lucky enough to encounter deep meditation, he or she would experience a success rate of higher than eighty percent.

Because of the very reason that deep meditation encompassed a profound level of comprehension and cultivation, soul masters in deep meditation were most afraid of being interrupted. They ran the risk of going insane if they were interrupted, and it could even be reﬂected in real and severe bodily harm.

It was easy to differentiate between normal and deep meditation. There was no change in physical state or appearance during normal cultivation, as soul power was only circulating inside the soul master’s body. There would only be a slight external aura or release when there was a special or esoteric technique in play, or if the soul master was breaking through a bottleneck – for instance, when Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong were cultivating with Haodong power, Huo

Yuhao’s body would radiating with golden light under the effects of the Golden Light Left Arm Bone.

Due to the need for personal protection, the soul master’s soul power would be automatically released to protect himself or herself during deep cultivation, and mask his or her aura at the same time.

Huo Yuhao was currently in this exact state. There were layers of white light shimmering outside his body, as if his entire body were a jewel that sparkled with plain rays of light.

It was natural for other people to develop some sense of envy or jealousy when they witnessed others in deep meditation. However, Wang Dong was different, and he only felt glad for Huo Yuhao. He made a few mischievous expressions before he took a chair, discreetly departed the room and took his place outside to protect his friend and prevent Huo Yuhao from being affected by anybody from Shrek who came around looking for him.

Huo Yuhao felt a wave of warmth course through his body the moment he woke up from his deep meditation. The green colors in his body had vanished completely, and his soul power

was vastly improved. He had just reached Rank 28, but he was now clear of a third of his journey into Rank 29. Besides cultivating with Haodong power in his daily activities, this episode of deep meditation proved to be of great help.

His speed of cultivation during deep cultivation was higher than when he channeled Haodong power with Wang Dong. However, this was only a state that came around solely by chance.

Huo Yuhao leapt down from the bed, and he felt light as a feather. There was an inexplicable feeling of comfort, as if his entire body was a lot lighter than before – this was a feeling that couldn’t even be fully described with the word “beautiful”.

Everything seemed to be different, and his self-conﬁdence returned – was he ﬁnally getting closer to greatness?

Huo Yuhao clenched his ﬁsts tightly together as he glanced outward. It looked like it was still midday, but he felt as he if he had been renewed, and the ﬂames relit inside him.

“Why hasn’t Wang Dong returned? He’s taking too long to bathe,” Huo Yuhao didn’t feel that he had taken a long time to cultivate, and distinctly remembered that they had been cultivating together in the morning before he took back the Soul-Devouring Carving Knife. Afterwards, Wang Dong went ahead to take a shower while he continued to cultivate – he should be back by now!

He walked out as these thoughts turned in his head. The moment he pulled the door toward him, he felt a pushing force coming from the other side.

Huo Yuhao was caught off-guard, and subconsciously reacted as he leapt backwards and quickly released his martial soul – but what came next left his mouth agape.

“Bam-”

“Ouch.”

Wang Dong fell backwards along with his chair, and Huo Yuhao immediately hurried forward to help him up. “What are

you doing? Why are you waiting outside? Why didn’t you come in?”

Wang Dong had been sitting outside this whole time, and his body had been leaning against the door. He was already starting to doze off, and when the door opened, Wang Dong fell backwards onto the ground with his chair.

Wang Dong was furious. “You’re terribly ungrateful! I was protecting you, and all you do when you wake up is let me fall back onto the ground. Are you going to take care of me if I cripple myself because of this?”

Huo Yuhao chuckled and said, “Have I not been taking care of you in the dorm? When have you cleaned up the dorm? Or swept the ﬂoor? Or mopped the ﬂoor? When have you even done anything at all? Even your wardrobe is cleaned by me. You’re like a big boss ﬁgure every day.”

“I…” Wang Dong wanted to retort, but he couldn’t ﬁnd a suitable argument to make. He scowled and said, “Stop with your loud rhetoric and your fallacious arguments. I’ll let you off the hook this time. You seemed to be having a good time

with all that deep meditation, while my ass was about to break into several pieces.”

Huo Yuhao reached out and pressed against Wang Dong’s butt cheeks. “It’s all good. Let me massage you.”

Wang Dong was still young, but his little butt cheeks were ﬁrm and springy. Huo Yuhao squeezed a few times, and immediately realized that the feeling in his hands was pretty good.

Huo Yuhao was quick. Before he even ﬁnished his sentence, his hands were already in action, and Wang Dong’s entire body froze. He even felt a little immobilized.

Huo Yuhao squeezed a few more times, but faintly realized that something was amiss. He glanced at Wang Dong out of the corners of his eyes – Wang Dong was glaring at him, and his face was black while his eyes were spitting ﬂames.

“Does it feel good?” A chilly voice ﬂoated out from between the gaps in his teeth.

“Oh, it’s not so bad.” Huo Yuhao’s answer was almost subconscious.

“Go to hell.” Wang Dong tossed his head and raised his left leg for a high kick that was aimed straight at Huo Yuhao’s forehead.

Huo Yuhao tilted his head backwards hurriedly and dodged his kick. However, Wang Dong’s body was extremely nimble, and his right foot, which was supporting his body, rotated like a fulcrum, and his left foot returned once again – and swept across Huo Yuhao’s body at once.

Huo Yuhao didn’t even need to see with his eyes as he swung his body backwards and avoided Wang Dong’s kick once more while his entire body became like a plank.

Wang Dong’s sweeping left leg paused in the air and slammed downwards at Huo Yuhao’s abdomen. Huo Yuhao spun around in midair as he dragged his right leg upwards and pressed his kneecap against the calf of Wang Dong’s left leg to stop its movement. At the same time, his right leg sprung up and back down again and wrapped around Wang Dong’s right leg like a whip. He pushed against the ground with both hands and

pulled backwards – instantly, both of them fell down together with their legs still intertwined.

It was clear that Wang Dong had never expected Huo Yuhao to be so adaptable. He watched Huo Yuhao with an astonished look and said, “When did you become so agile and ﬂexible?”

“I’ve always been ﬂexible,” Huo Yuhao answered proudly, “and a gentleman uses his mouth, not his ﬁsts.”

Chapter 107: The Semiﬁnals Lineup!

Huo Yuhao, utilizing the strength in his legs, quickly stood up from the ground, then reached out and grabbed Wang Dong’s ankles.

Wang Dong’s body bent forwards as he pointed his downwards-facing legs forwards in order to wrap them around Huo Yuhao’s neck and trap his head between his legs.

Huo Yuhao immediately retracted both of his arms to beside his neck, then reached out and grabbed Wang Dong’s ankled again.

“Your arms can’t twist my thighs.” Wang Dong snorted. He didn’t dodge Huo Yuhao’s strike, instead leaning his upper body backwards and supporting his body with both hands on the ﬂoor. At the same time, he tried to encircle Huo Yuhao’s neck with renewed vigor.

However, Huo Yuhao had an iron grip on Wang Dong’s ankles; no matter how much Wang Dong struggled, he couldn’t move his legs forwards even an inch.

Huo Yuhao laughed and said, “You’re still too weak. You call these matchstick-thin legs thighs?”

Wang Dong continued to exert his strength in disbelief, but Huo Yuhao’s grip remained ﬁrm. Huo Yuhao was even slowly prying Wang Dong’s legs apart.

“That’s impossible! You only have two soul rings, how could you be stronger than me?” Wang Dong said, unconvinced.

Huo Yuhao laughed again. “I have a soul bone.”

“So do I!” Wang Dong rebutted, refusing to yield to Huo Yuhao.

Huo Yuhao became speechless when he heard this, and thought about telling Wang Dong about the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion’s trunk bones. He’d also felt his strength increase palpably once he’d absorbed the Life Gold energy. If it hadn’t been for that, he wouldn’t have been able to resist Wang Dong’s legs so easily.

Don’t think that Wang Dong, who possessed the Radiant Butterﬂy Goddess, was weak. On the contrary, his abilities were much greater than his slender frame suggested, due to his second martial soul being one of the strongest strength type martial souls on the continent, which once belonged to the continent’s ﬁrst hereditary martial soul of the sect—Hao Tianchui!

To think that Huo Yuhao could defeat Wang Dong when he had not cultivated as much power as Wang Dong, it must have been a victory purely in terms of an increase in his physical body. Of course, neither of them had used their soul power either.

Wang Dong had already used all his strength, yet he still wasn’t able to clamp his legs around Huo Yuhao’s neck. Instead, his legs were being pulled further and further apart, causing the both of them to look rather comical. One was standing there with his hands apart beside his head, while the other was doing a handstand with his legs apart. Furthermore, half of Wang Dong’s body was outside of their room.

“Wow, what’re you guys doing? Do you need to be so affectionate?” Xu Sanshi’s voice could be heard as he, Bei Bei, and Ma Xiaotao emerged from the room. All of them could tell

with one look that Wang Dong’s body was the one sticking out of the room.

Wang Dong was both ashamed and annoyed as he said, “Let go of me.”

Huo Yuhao ﬁnally let go, then immediately took a few steps backwards as Wang Dong ﬂipped backwards and stood upright, glaring at Huo Yuhao. Wang Dong then turned to face Xu Sanshi and the rest and said, “We’re just practising our fusion skills, is there anything wrong with that?”

He deﬁnitely couldn’t say that they were ﬁghting because Huo Yuhao had touched his butt.

Huo Yuhao touched his nose with a smile.

Ma Xiaotao burst out laughing, then said, “Go on, young people should be lively.”

Wang Dong humphed, then said, “You aren’t so old yourself, Ms. Tao!”

Ma Xiaotao replied, “Alright, let’s go. Teacher Wang has called for a pre-battle meeting. We’ll have to compete tomorrow, so we need to make our ﬁnal preparations now. ” After being lectured by Wang Yan the other day, Ma Xiaotao’s temper was much more restrained. She had become less of a

maniac, and was acting more calm; she was ﬁnally showing some semblance of a team leader’s qualities.

“Tomorrow?” Huo Yuhao gasped, surprised. “You must mean the day after. We just competed yesterday, so the other teams should still be competing in the quarter-ﬁnals today. We should get a day’s rest after the end of the competition, right? Ms Tao, you must have remembered the dates wrongly.”

Wang Dong snapped, “Ms Tao didn’t make a mistake, it’s you who got confused. You were in deep meditation for an entire day and night, and I’m dead tired from trying to protect you, yet you still bullied me.”

“Er…” Huo Yuhao didn’t expect that a day and a night had already passed. In light of this revelation, he noticed the dark bags under Wang Dong’s eyes and felt deeply touched.

Bei Bei gave Huo Yuhao a thumbs up, then said, “My Little Junior is amazing. Let’s go.”

Wang Dong said, “Senior, you’re being biased. I’m obviously the youngest one; shouldn’t you be calling me your Junior?”

Bei Bei gave him a strange look and said, “Really? Are you certain that you want to be my Little Junior?”

Wang Dong felt rather sheepish after getting stared at like that, so he stuck out his tongue and said, “Who cares, let’s go.” He then rushed out of the meeting room before the others.

Huo Yuhao followed, rather confused as he asked, “Big Senior, what’s gotten into him? Why’d he just let it go?”

Bei Bei chuckled and said, “Don’t ask so many questions, it’s ﬁne like that for now. Let’s go, we have a meeting to attend. Tomorrow’s competition is no joke.”

Huo Yuhao was still in shock about how he’d managed to stay in deep meditation for a full day and night. Previously, he

thought that he had only mediated for a very short while—only a few minutes. Now, he realized ﬁrst-hand how amazing the results of deep meditation were. Besides, it was also a great way to evade monotonous training. No wonder every soul master yearned for such an opportunity.

As these thoughts ran through his mind, Huo Yuhao followed the others into the meeting room.

Wang Yan was clearly the ﬁrst to reach the room, and had been waiting for everyone. Seeing that everyone had arrived, he said, in a deep voice, “Alright, let’s begin the meeting.”

“Now that the quarter-ﬁnals have ﬁnished, the semiﬁnals will start tomorrow. We will undoubtedly be in the ﬁrst match. Another round will take place tomorrow. After the semiﬁnals, there will be 3 days till the ﬁnal.

“Teacher Wang, who’s our opponent in the semi-ﬁnals?” Xiao Xiao asked curiously.

Wang Yan replied, “I’m still unsure. For fairness’ sake, the semi-ﬁnals pairings are to be decided through lot drawings. As

the reigning champions of the tournament, we’ll deﬁnitely compete tomorrow. Thus, we can’t make any speciﬁc preparations to target our opponent. Our only option is to consider everyone in our preparations. Even though this is a drawback, all of our opponents have to face the same situation as us. They’re also not sure whether or not they’ll meet us.”

“The remaining 4 teams are us, the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy, the Star Luo National Academy, and the Imperial Mystical Academy.”

“It’s fair to say that the other 3 academies are all old rivals of our academy. They’re all very powerful, with our strongest rival undoubtedly being the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy. Even if we don’t meet them in the semiﬁnals, we’ll meet them in the ﬁnals. Thus, we need to aim our strategies at them.”

“Let me brief you all on these 3 teams, as well as what we’ll have to take notice of when we compete, and the speciﬁc strategies against them.”

“The Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy is deﬁnitely our strongest opponent out of these 3 teams. Their

team leader, Ma Rulong, hasn’t appeared yet. However, based on previous tournaments, Ma Rulong should be a soul emperor. Luckily, he’s the only soul emperor from the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy.”

“Of the 14 people in the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy’s ofﬁcial and preparatory teams, only Ma Rulong, Xiao Hongchen and Meng Hongchen haven’t competed yet. Both Xiao Hongchen and Meng Hongchen are from the preparatory team. For reference, Meng Hongchen is that young lady that Wang Dong tried to pick up back then.” Wang Yan couldn’t help but grin and look at Wang Dong as he said this.

Wang Dong did not seem to take this awkwardly at all.

Wang Yan continued, “The rest of their ofﬁcial team are all soul kings, but only 2 of them are above Rank 55. The rest of them are below Rank 55 but above Rank 50. They’ve also all inherited martial souls with some useful characteristics to soul engineers, that not ones that are too outstanding. They’re main strongpoint is their soul tools. As for the 5 preparatory team members who’ve already competed, 2 are soul ancestors and 3 are soul elders. However, we shouldn’t see these preparatory team members at all.”

“The Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy isn’t our strongest rival because they have nurtured students that can match us, but due to the countless changes in their soul tools. Without a doubt, they must have many soul tools that they haven’t used in this tournament, and they have kept these soul tools to use them against us. This has always been the case in previous tournaments. Over these past few decades, the Sun Moon Empire’s soul tools have been changing at a faster rate, and are becoming increasingly difﬁcult to handle. That’s why our strategies have to be able to adapt against them. In the team round, we’ll likely be at a disadvantage because of the group advantage of their soul tools. But in the individual round or the 2-2-3 ﬁght, we won’t be at a disadvantage. We’ll have our chance their.”

Huo Yuhao asked, “Teacher Wang, are there any more changes in the rules for the ﬁnals?”

Wang Yan nodded and said, “A team round will be organized, along with an individual round and a 2-2-3 ﬁght. Furthermore, these 3 competition segments will be completed in one go after both teams have chosen all 7 competing members. There will be no intermission. The eventual champion will be the one that wins 2 out of the 3 segments.”

Huo Yuhao was stunned when he heard his words. It wasn’t easy to become the champion of the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Soul Dueling Tournament!

Wang Yan said, “However, the Imperial Mystical Academy from the Heavenly Soul Empire is also our rival. Only us, the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy, and the Imperial Mystical Academy have soul emperors amongst everyone in the tournament. The Imperial Mystical Academy is the royal academy of the Heavenly Soul Empire. All the royal members of the empire will enter the academy to learn. Their lineup for this tournament is very strong: 1 soul emperor and 6 soul kings. However, soul masters are their main force. Their soul engineers will provide support to their soul masters. Among their 7 ofﬁcial team members, 2 of their soul kings are soul engineers. From my observations, they shouldn’t even be Class 5 soul engineers, and are instead most likely Class 4 like He Caitou.”

“Our last opponent is the Star Luo National Academy from the Star Luo Empire. Among these 3 rivals, the Star Luo National Academy is the weakest. But this doesn’t necessarily mean that they are the easiest to deal with. This is the Star Luo Empire, their home turf. Furthermore, the overall power of the Star Luo National Academy isn’t that weak either. Although they don’t have a soul emperor to hold down the fort, they still have up to 6 soul kings. Things have gone

smoothly for them so far, or at least, they’re ﬁnding it smoother than us.”

“The last 2 rounds will be very tedious for us. Even though we have two soul emperors—Xiaotao and Yueheng—our rivals still possess a greater overall strength in numbers. Their overall abilities aren’t inferior to ours. The Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy and Imperial Mystical Academy are even somewhat superior to us in terms of overall abilities. The only we’ll become champions is by giving it our all. It’s like the ﬁrst time we faced Justsky Academy.”

Wang Yan didn’t sound relaxed at all. Everyone from Shrek Academy also felt heavy in their hearts.

Indeed! Even though they had two soul emperors and Ling Luochen, who was a control-type soul king, their preparatory team members were still much weaker than their rivals.

Among their 4 soul ancestors, Xu Sanshi’s soul power was only Rank 47. The rest were even worse. As for the last 3, Wang Dong was only a soul elder, Xiao Xiao had barely become a soul elder, and Huo Yuhao was only a soul grandmaster. While they all had twin martial souls, their cultivations were still very

weak! How much could they truly contribute in the top-ranked team competition of the tournament?

According to Wang Yan’s arrangements in the previous round, it was more likely that Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong wouldn’t participate in the team battle. Even if the two of them were sent out together, it would still pull Shrek Academy’s overall power down. Although Huo Yuhao’s soul skill was very practical, and the Golden Road was a rather decent crowd- control skill, could their powers be fully unleashed against tough opponents? This was also under the circumstance that their opponents were entirely unaware of their capabilities.

Wang Yan swept his gaze from left to right. He naturally realized that not everyone was fully conﬁdent. He gently said, “I didn’t expect us to become the champions ever since the day we came to Star Luo City, as we’re not champion material. I’m already extremely satisﬁed that we’ve made it this far. All of your hard work is clear for everyone to see. All of you have already preserved Shrek’s glory, thus I hope that all of you won’t be pressured in the upcoming competition. Whatever the result, I will ask for all of you to receive merits when we return.”

Wang Yan’s words sounded normal to Huo Yuhao and the rest of the preparatory team members, as they had indeed sacriﬁced quite a lot. However, his words sounded a bit piercing to Ma Xiaotao, Dai Yueheng, and Ling Luochen.

As ofﬁcial team members, they faced a worse predicament than the preparatory team members in this tournament. Even though Wang Yan’s words had pricked them, they didn’t know how to reply.

Wang Yan seemed relaxed as he spoke; it was as if he didn’t notice the burning radiance in Ma Xiaotao and the other two’s eyes. “Our mission has already been completed. I shall describe our opponents now. We’ll analyze the capabilities of each team member before deciding our strategies. We’ll adjust who competes accordingly.”

This pre-competition meeting went on for nearly 6 hours, all the way from lunch through dinner until the sun set.

Shrek Academy wasn’t the only anxious one. The other 3 were also anxious. The overall victor of the tournament was about to be decided. This wasn’t only a battle of glory between

these 4 top-ranked academies, but was also the most crucial battle for the competing team members.

It must be known that the members of the top teams would receive the most distinguished treatment no matter which power they joined. If they were to assume positions in an empire, they would be conferred titles, and this glory would accompany them throughout their entire lives! It was fair to say that the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Soul Dueling Tournament had become a platform for the various empires in the continent to pick and ﬁght for the best talents.

If not for the prestigious status that Shrek Academy held, many powers, families, and even sects would have poached their students already.

Huo Yuhao felt that his body was extremely stiff as he walked out of the meeting room. Spending the entire afternoon memorizing the capabilities and strategies of his opponents was indeed very dull and boring. He would rather run in metal clothing than do this.

After stretching his lazy body, Huo Yuhao felt much better. As his blood began to circulate more smoothly throughout his

body, the fatigue he’d felt earlier disappeared. The prosperous life power in his body seemed to have been awakened by this simple action.

“Junior brother, go and get some food.” Bei Bei patted him on the shoulder.

“Okay.” Huo Yuhao answered hurriedly.

“Eldest senior brother, do you think we can become the champions in the end?” Huo Yuhao asked softly. While Ma Xiaotao and Dai Yueheng appeared to be the most powerful among them, Huo Yuhao was the most convinced by his gentle- looking and reﬁned, yet intelligent and approachable eldest senior brother.

Bei Bei smiled and said, “What? Are you unconﬁdent?”

Huo Yuhao shook his head and said, “It’s not that I’m not conﬁdent. I just think that our opponents are extremely strong now that I’ve heard Teacher Wang Yan’s analysis!”

Bei Bei laughed. “That’s right, our opponents are very strong. Their teams are almost entirely made up of at least soul kings. But I’m conﬁdent that we’ll be the champions in the end.”

“Eh?” Huo Yuhao was a little stunned as he looked at him.

Bei Bei retracted his smile a little and said gently, “Conﬁdence stems from one’s own abilities. Shrek Academy was able to become the best academy on the continent because the academy has never once been hasty. Every single person that was sent to participate in this tournament has achieved our skills through our own hard work. That’s why Shrek Academy’s soul elders and soul ancestors are different from those of other academies. Our soul kings are even more different. At the soul emperor level, the gap is even larger. Maybe our opponents can use soul tools or some strategies and tactics to close this gap, but if our true abilities can be sparked by our ﬁghting will, and if we can light the ﬁre of glory for Shrek, we’ll win for sure.”

Everyone was walking out of the meeting room sequentially when Bei Bei said this, and as he didn’t lower his voice, they all heard what he’d said.

Ma Xiaotao, Dai Yueheng, and Ling Luochen’s expressions changed. The look in their eyes as they watched Bei Bei also changed slightly.

Huo Yuhao nodded, then asked curiously, “Eldest senior brother, what do you mean by destructive enthusiasm?”

Bei Bei chuckled and replied, “Do you think there are really so many talents in the world that are able to become a soul king before they’re 20 years old? Our Shrek Academy nurtures such students through a teaching model that has been built up over tens of thousands of years, as well as the extremely hard work of the talented students. Perhaps other academies can nurture a few such students, but have you ever wondered how those soul engineers with ordinary martial souls are able to do it?”

“I dare say that those from Shrek Academy will all have the ability to become a Titled Douluo so long as they’re able to survive in the outside world. However, it’s much less likely for people from other academies who’ve competed against them in the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Soul Dueling Tournament. That’s because a lot of the increase in their powers isn’t attributed to their own hard work.”

“Haven’t you ever realized that the most outstanding teams all come from the royal families of various empires, or are the best academies of the different empires? I’m sure that at least half of those who are competing used different types of pills and treasures to increase their cultivation. Especially the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy from the Sun Moon Empire, which is very wealthy! You’ve also seen the soul tools from the Illustrious Virtue Hall before.”

Huo Yuhao immediately understood. “So their powers were enhanced through medicine.”

Bei Bei nodded his head and said, “It’s undeniable that several medicines are beneﬁcial to soul masters. However, moderation is key. A lot of medicines possess poisonous components too. Apart from a select few medicines that can solidify one’s foundations, it’s best to consume medicine that increases one’s soul power as little as possible. Ask Senior Ma and Senior Dai; they’ll tell you that Shrek Academy has banned our students from consuming such medicine. That’s because this form of cultivation method has no future. If one over- consumes these medicines, even by just a little bit, it can make it so that one will never be able to become a Titled Douluo.”

Ma Xiaotao’s voice suddenly rang out, “Junior Bei Bei, you know quite a bit. How do you know so much about the inner courtyard even though you’re from the outer courtyard?”

Bei Bei turned around and smiled at Ma Xiaotao, “Senior, I can’t tell you.”

Ma Xiaotao was stunned for a moment. “Why can’t you tell me? Tell me.”

Bei Bei shook his head and said, “Saying it would offend someone.”

Everyone knew Ma Xiaotao’s temper. She slapped her chest and said, “So what if you offend someone? I’ll protect you.”

An uncomfortable expression appeared on Bei Bei’s face as he said, “Alright, Sister Xiaotao. You must live up to your side of the bargain and protect me!”

Ma Xiaotao was impatient and said, “Why are you dilly- dallying like a woman? Quickly, just say it!”

Bei Bei smiled and revealed a mouthful of white teeth as he said, “You might have never eaten pork before, but you’ve surely seen a pig run.”

The moment he said that, he violently pulled the door next to him open. Whoosh! He immediately dashed inside. It

appeared that, unknowingly, he’d already arrived outside of his own room.

Ma Xiaotao was stunned when she heard this. She quickly reacted and cursed, “The nerve of you, Bei Bei! You dare to call me a pig.” With that, she attempted to rush into Bei Bei’s room.

Ling Luochen quickly pulled her back as she tried to stiﬂe a laugh and said, “Don’t run. If you run, you’ll have fallen for his ploy. Remember, he did talk about a running pig.”

Ma Xiaotao looked at her, and a chortle suddenly escaped her mouth. She couldn’t help but laugh too.

After this bout of tomfoolery, the somber atmosphere from the meeting before was greatly lightened.

As Wang Yan stood in the doorway of the conference room, he couldn’t help but sigh in admiration after seeing what had just happened. Bei Bei indeed possessed extraordinary leadership capabilities! As for the preparatory team, they appeared to be getting better and better.

Five years later, when the children from the preparatory team grew up, they’d probably be the most powerful team Shrek Academy had had in a long while. They would probably become the most powerful Shrek’s Seven Monsters in a long while too.

“Are you going to train tonight or not?” Wang Dong nudged Huo Yuhao with his shoulder.

Huo Yuhao nodded and said, “Of course we have to train. Last-minute training has its uses too. You’ll see the results of my deep meditation once you’ve ﬁnished eating.”

Wang Dong’s mouth twitched involuntarily as he said, “You’ve only cultivated for a single day. Do you expect some sort of earth-shattering change?”

Yet, reality proved that he had experienced an earth- shattering change.

After dinner, the two of them began to cultivate together using their Haodong Power. However, Wang Dong opened his eyes and stopped his cultivation after only a single revolution.

“How… how can this possible?” Wang Dong looked at Huo Yuhao in shock.

Huo Yuhao beamed as he opened his eyes and said, “How could it not be possible?”

Wang Dong said, “Your circulation speed of the Haodong Power has doubled.!It’s even faster than me, a Soul Elder. My god! What did you do? If not for the fact that I’ve been following you all this time, I would’ve thought that you’d taken some sort of precious elixir.”

Huo Yuhao chuckled. “I didn’t eat anything. But you’d still be shocked if I told you.”

Actually, right after the two of them linked arms to cultivate, their Haodong Power circulated much faster after it entered Huo Yuhao’s body. Its speed had indeed almost doubled. It appeared to be ﬁlled with a vibrant life force when it re- entered Wang Dong’s body. After their soul power had completed a full revolution, Wang Dong’s body became much more comfortable and relaxed. His energy rose in all aspects, and the effects of his cultivation were greatly enhanced too.

While he didn’t know it was from the vast life energy that the remnants of the Life Gold had left in Huo Yuhao’s body, he’d still felt an obvious change!

Wang Dong looked suspiciously at Huo Yuhao and said, “Are the effects of deep meditation really so good? Next time, I’ll calm myself down too, and try to achieve it.”

Huo Yuhao smiled and said, “It’s ﬁne. Come on, let’s start cultivating. Deep meditation is the best way to restore one’s energy. I feel that my soul power has undergone a special kind of change. Let’s not waste this opportunity; it will beneﬁt you too.”

While the vast life energy from the Life Gold would continue to congregate inside of his body, it would gradually be absorbed by his body. It wouldn’t attach itself to his soul power for long, otherwise it would be draining on his soul power. Huo Yuhao wanted Wang Dong to train with him right now so that he could pass some of the life energy to him while he still had it. In doing so, they could share in its beneﬁts.

The two of them started to use their Haodong Power once more. This night could be said to be their most productive joint

cultivation session.

After that night, more than half of the vast life energy in Huo Yuhao’s soul power was absorbed by Wang Dong. The ﬁnished cultivating at dawn, and as Huo Yuhao cultivated his Purple Demons Eyes at the window, Wang Dong’s entire frame appeared to be bursting with energy. His skin shone with light, and his eyes were much brighter. His handsome face was reddish, and was indescribably adorable. He appeared well- rested and energetic. After an entire night of cultivation, their cultivation speed had more than tripled. Furthermore, after they’d connected and cultivated that vast energy, they were even more in-sync with each other. It was as if they were a single person.

Now that it was dawn, it would be time for the semiﬁnals once they’d brushed up and eaten breakfast!

The team from Shrek Academy, clad in ink-green attire, was met with thunderous applause when they appeared in Star Luo Plaza.

There had been more than a hundred teams at the start of the competition, but there were now only four teams left vying

for the top spot. The competition had taken over a month at this point, during which Xiao Xiao, Wang Dong, and Huo Yuhao had all experienced breakthroughs in terms of their soul power.

Of the four remaining teams, every single one of them had at least two major ﬁghts left. The decisive moment had come, and they would be battling with all their strength.

After some renovations, there were now only four zones left in the participants’ resting area. Every single team was spread quite a distance from each other.

There was still an hour until the commencement of the competition, but all four squads were already present.

Occasionally, they would cross gazes. When that happened, sparks appeared to ﬂy from their eyes. A powerful battling aura could be felt, and the atmosphere in the resting area became harsh and tense, some traces of killing intent even present.

The sun slowly rose through the sky, the temperature today not bad. As sunlight cascaded over the vast Star Luo Plaza, it appeared to be cloaked with a layer of light gold. However, in the eyes of the four teams, it wasn’t just sunlight, but the honor of a victory that they had to stake their all for.

The ﬁrst day of the semiﬁnals would be composed of the team battles.

What no one expected was to see a red carpet, about ten meters wide, stretching from the gates of the palace all the way to the front of the arena. Tten minutes before the teams were to draw lots, the gates of the palace swung open and the Star Luo Emperor, surrounded by his guards, strode out from it and headed towards the arena.

“Long live the Emperor! Long live the Emperor! Long live the Emperor!” Every single soldier who was responsible for maintaining order cheered and waved their weapons in the air.

When the crowd noticed the appearance of the emperor, they burst into cheers.

The four teams stood up as well, and gazed at the emperor with respect.

Huo Yuhao noticed that there were four old men next to the Star Luo Emperor. They’d formed a square around the emperor. Behind them, there were no more than 20 guards. Hence, it didn’t appear to be overkill.

However, every single person there clearly knew that the squad of guards there was nothing to scoff at. Those four old men were likely the Titled Douluo of the Star Luo Empire.

Ten thousand years ago, after the Martial Soul Hall—which had possessed the most powerful soul masters on the continent

—had disintegrated, the many powerful soul masters within had pledged their allegiance to various states. As soul masters began to understand more about their martial souls, more and more Titled Douluo started to appear. However, some of them had relied on medicine to achieve their breakthroughs. Hence,

they were comparatively weaker.

Of course, even if there were more Titled Douluo than ten thousand years ago, they were still scarce. Furthermore, different Titled Douluo had different martial souls, different

ways of cultivation, different soul rings, different soul bones, and different amounts of soul bones. Thus, their individual powers varied greatly.

However, Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong couldn’t ﬁnd the person who’d threatened them among the four Titled Douluo below.

The 108 soul masters responsible for security all bowed to the emperor. However, they didn’t kneel.

According to the rules of the Star Luo Empire, soul masters that had more than four rings and were under the employ of the empire didn’t have to kneel to the emperor.

The emperor ascended the arena under the protection of the four Titled Douluo. He then faced the Star Luo Plaza, smiled, and said, “Please rise my subjects.”

“Long live the emperor! Long live the emperor! Long live the emperor!”

Cheers erupted from all sides of the Star Luo Plaza.

Evidently, the emperor was well-loved by his subjects.

The Star Luo Emperor didn’t try to stop their cheers. Instead, his gaze was calm, and he had a smile on his face as he looked at his subjects from afar. Once the plaza had quietened down, he smiled and said, “The Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Soul Dueling Tournament is a major event for the Douluo Continent that takes place once every ﬁve years. It’s an honor for us to host the competition this time. I’d like to thank these representatives from over a hundred schools. Thanks to them, we’ve been able to witness many exciting rounds, as well as the ever-changing developments among the soul masters and soul engineers of the continent. This pleases both me and the general populace.”

“The semiﬁnals will commence in a moment. In turn, the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Soul Dueling Tournament will soon come to an end. There will be no more lot drawing after the top four teams draw their lots, thus I will personally supervise the lot drawing this time. I hope that Shrek Academy, the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy, the Imperial Profound Academy, and our own Star Luo National Academy will put on a grand, exciting show for all of us.”

“I know that everyone is dying to watch the show. I’m very excited too. Without further ado, let the drawing commence. I wish to partake in the joy with my people, and I hope that our Star Luo Empire will prosper for generations to come.”

The Star Luo Emperor’s words were majestic, humorous, and not too long. The moment he ﬁnished, the crowd began to cheer once more.

Among the four old men who’d gone up with him, the front- left one took two steps forward as he faced the resting area and said in a low voice, “Will the team leaders of the four teams come up to the stage now and draw lots.”

A hard-to-describe powerful energy could be felt from the body of this old man. The power that this energy held made everyone in the Star Luo Plaza feel as if the sky had darkened.

Chapter 108: The Princess

The Star Luo Emperor smiled faintly and said, “In order to ensure the safety of the semi-ﬁnalists and the ﬁnalists, I have decided that the Empire’s Protector Douluo will be the judges for the subsequent rounds, and be hosts to the contest. Senior Huang Jinxu shall be the host for today’s balloting and the ﬁrst round. His title is the Heavenﬁend Lonestar.”

The emperor’s introduction stirred up a wave of applause from the citizens in the audience. However, the participating teams were all slightly taken aback.

Wang Yan was surprised and remarked, “Huang Jinxu, the Heavenﬁend Douluo. I thought he was long dead – who knew that he joined the Star Luo Empire instead.”

Ma Xiaotao was already walking up to the stage. Huo Yuhao whispered to Bei Bei beside him, “Senior brother, what’s the deal with this Heavenﬁend Douluo? Is he very powerful?”

Bei Bei nodded his head without hesitation and said, “Yes, very powerful. The Star Luo Empire is trying to assert their

dominance and ﬂaunt their national strength. The Heavenﬁend Douluo’s martial soul is extremely special – he uses the stars in the skies above as his own martial soul. Legend has it that there was a star that was especially bright on the day he was born. His martial soul was automatically awakened after his birth. On the same night, his mother died from losing too much blood, and his father passed away when he was eight years old. After this, his friends also died one by one. It was later discovered that his martial soul was the

Heavenﬁend Lonestar that targeted his family and friends. Because of this, he is destined to be alone for the rest of his life.”

Huo Yuhao’s mouth hung open in shock. “There can be martial souls like this?”

Bei Bei smiled and replied, “Soul masters can have any kind of martial soul; what isn’t possible? This elder’s Heavenﬁend Lonestar martial soul caused him to lose his family, but at the same time, it gave him great power. It’s been claimed that he cultivated without a master, and that everything he knows is self-taught. He has continued his journey alone over the years, and eventually attained the title of Heavenﬁend. He’s around sixty years old this year, and he is around Rank 91 or 92. However, it’s been said that star power of the Heavenﬁend

Lonestar enables him to hold his own against a Rank 95 Transcendent Douluo.”

“He has had to rely on himself for everything, since he lost all his family and friends at a very young age. Perhaps this explains why the Heavenﬁend Douluo is a very capricious person with a ﬁckle nature, becoming extremely cruel and brutal at times. However, rumor has it that he picked a ﬁght with several powerful sects some time ago, and they chased him down like a dog.”

Just as Bei Bei was introducing the Heavenﬁend Douluo’s background to Huo Yuhao, the respective team leaders of the ﬁnal four teams arrived on stage.

Ma Xiaotao represented Shrek Academy, while Ma Rulong represented the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy. The team leader of the Imperial Mystical Academy was a youth with broad shoulders and an average build; he had a calm disposition, and looked as ﬁrm as a rock. The representative from the Star Luo National Academy was a young girl. A female team leader was a rare sight. Huo Yuhao and the others from Shrek Academy had seen this girl before – she was the chief auctioneer from the Star Luo Auction, Princess Jiu Jiu.

It wasn’t just the company from Shrek Academy who were astonished. The participants from the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy were equally surprised as their eyes widened – they had also been there during the top-ranked auction!

The Star Luo National Academy’s uniform was a pale-yellow warrior robe. The princess was a lot different compared to her digniﬁed and elegant look during the auction that day. Donning a warrior robe changed her aura, and now she seemed to emanate a rippling heroic spirit. Her ﬂowing blonde hair was tied up in a ponytail, and she wore a faint smile on her pretty face. The yellow warrior robe was tailored to her body, and it brought out the distinct features of her perfect and alluring ﬁgure.

Even though Ma Xiaotao’s aura wasn’t inferior to hers- in fact, Ma Xiaotao’s ﬁgure was even slightly better- there was a still a feeling that she was outdone by this princess on the whole.

Ma Rulong only glanced at the princess once, and his eyes betrayed a tinge of astonishment before he turned his gaze

elsewhere. The team leader from Imperial Mystical Academy stared at Jiu Jiu for a long time before he shifted his eyes away.

Wang Yan furrowed his brows as he watched the princess on stage. She hadn’t appeared in the Star Luo National Academy’s lineup before today. However, according to what he knew, the Star Luo National Academy’s reserve team had a single vacancy.

Whether it was him or the other three academies, nobody knew anything regarding this princess.

Suddenly, Wang Yan’s eyes ﬂickered as a trace of bewilderment ﬂowed out from within. “I remember now. Yueheng, the Star Luo royal family’s martial souls should be…”

Dai Yueheng arrived next to Wang Yan and nodded. “Your guess is correct, Teacher Wang. My father has evaluated the emperor’s martial soul before, but he only said a few words – enigmatic and impossible to predict. My father also said that the emperor is the most talented and prodigious individual in the past three hundred years. However, I have never heard of the princess…”

Wang Yan took a deep breath and said, “Let’s watch the lots ﬁrst.”

The four representatives from the ﬁnal four academies were already on stage, and the lot drawing had begun.

The four team leaders arrived before the Star Luo Emperor under the watchful eyes of four Titled Douluos. The Star Luo Emperor smiled and said, “It’s a pleasure to meet such outstanding youths such as yourselves. Before the competition begins, I’d like to remind all of you that friendship takes priority over anything. I hope you can ﬁnish the competition with that in mind. I will toss four inscribed balls after this, and you guys will vie for them at the same time. Are you ready?”

Ma Xiaotao narrowed her eyes slightly as she stole a glance at Princess Jiu Jiu beside her. “Ready.”

Princess Jiu Jiu smiled and nodded her head as Ma Rulong and the Imperial Mystical Academy’s team leader tilted their heads in response as well.

“Pay attention.” The Star Luo Emperor squinted his eyes. Immediately after – and nobody saw how he did it – the four golden balls were tossed into the air at the same time.

Ma Xiaotao was already lying in wait. She shot into the air the moment the Star Luo Emperor made his move. Releasing her martial soul and using soul skills wouldn’t affect her speed at such a short distance. Her choice was the same as Ma Rulong and Imperial Mystical Academy’s team leader, as all of them leapt into the air towards the four golden balls in the sky as fast as they could.

Princess Jiu Jiu was the only one that didn’t move an inch – she just stood there with a grin on her face.

Ma Xiaotao lived up to her status as Shrek Academy’s team leader. One shouldn’t underestimate her just because she was a girl– her enchanting ﬁgure was like a spring as she shot up into the air. She caught the tiny ball in an instant before she drifted back down. As she was descending, the Imperial Mystical Academy’s team leader and Ma Rulong caught theirs respectively, while Princess Jiu Jiu casually reached out to catch the last remaining golden ball as it dropped down.

A faint smile appeared on her face. She glanced at the tiny ball in her hands. Even though she was the last one to catch the ball, she was the ﬁrst to report.

“One.”

Ma Rulong said, “Two.”

Ma Xiaotao stared straight at Princess Jiu Jiu’s face. “One.”

Even though the Imperial Mystical Academy had yet to report their number, the results of the ballot were decided. Shrek Academy would face off against the Star Luo National Academy today, while the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy would go against the Imperial Mystical Academy.

After the Star Luo Emperor personally checked the lot numbers, he announced the results to the audience. The audience roared with a mix of excitement and surprise the moment they heard their home team was up against Shrek Academy.

On the surface, it appeared as if Ma Xiaotao drew the better number for Shrek Academy. According to Wang Yan’s analysis the previous day, the team from Star Luo National Academy was the weakest one amongst the ﬁnal four teams.

The semiﬁnals and the ﬁnals followed the same rules as the previous elimination rounds and were carried out over two days, with both group elimination rounds and single elimination rounds. The only difference was that both rounds had to be won before they could advance. If both parties won one round each, the format would be changed to a 2-2-3 round. This meant that winning the group battle no longer gave a team any advantage.

While the semi-ﬁnals were held throughout the course of a day with breaks in the middle, the ﬁnals’ group elimination, single elimination and 2-2-3 rounds were to be completed in one go. In the end, it wouldn’t just be a battle of strength – it would become a battle of attrition, endurance and determination.

The Star Luo Emperor smiled and said, “I hope all four teams will give their best in the subsequent rounds of the competition. The balloting has been concluded, so make your preparations. Shrek Academy and the Star Luo National

Academy will start off today’s group battles, and the second match will be between the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy and the Imperial Mystical Academy.”

Ma Xiaotao returned to the resting area. Wang Yan was the ﬁrst to step up as he lowered his voice and said, “Xiaotao – what do you feel about the princess from the Star Luo Empire?”

Ma Xiaotao shook her head and replied, “I can’t see through her. She’s very complicated. I had hoped to gauge her mastery through her physical strength during the lot drawing, but she didn’t move at all. She didn’t activate any soul power either, and there was no way I could discern her abilities. Yuhao, try using Spiritual Detection.”

Huo Yuhao’s eyebrows creased as he said, “I’ve already tried. However, the princess seems to be carrying some sort of special item. When my Spiritual Detection landed on her body, there was a mysterious layer that blocked me. I couldn’t detect her soul power’s circulation or predict her actions. My Spiritual Detection is also affected when the gap in mastery is too great.”

At this point, everybody circled around as the semi-ﬁnals were about to begin. There was a sudden and unforeseen change in circumstances with their opponents, and this wasn’t good news at all for Shrek Academy. They weren’t even all from the ofﬁcial team.

Wang Yan’s expression was solemn as he said, “We will follow the original plan. Don’t think too much about this, and trust your own abilities. Ma Xiaotao and Yueheng will anchor the single elimination rounds. Even if Princess Jiu Jiu is a powerful Soul Emperor, we must not let our self-conﬁdence fall. Since this is the case, winning the group battle is a must. I will announce the order of battle for the group elimination round.”

“Ma Xiaotao, Dai Yueheng, Ling Luochen, Bei Bei, Xu Sanshi, Huo Yuhao, and Wang Dong. The seven of you will start the battle. We can’t let anything go wrong in the group battle. I have a feeling that Star Luo National Academy will have some sort of advantage in the 2-2-3 battle. If we lose the group battle, the competition may slip out of our control.”

Everybody nodded their heads as He Caitou and Jiang Nannan exchanged a look. They both saw the surprise in each other’s eyes; they had assumed that they would be part of the lineup for the group battle. He Caitou’s battle prowess with his soul tools was already proven in the previous rounds, while Jiang Nannan’s close-combat abilities were incredible as well. Even Soul Kings would ﬁnd it hard to ﬁght her if they let her get close. However, Wang Yan choosing Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong to ﬁght in this crucial group battle was unexpected for everyone.

Wang Yan stepped in front of Huo Yuhao and lowered his voice. “It’s ﬁne if you don’t ﬁght, but the moment you make a move, you have to be conﬁdent of victory. I trust you know what I’m trying to say.”

“Yes.” Huo Yuhao nodded curtly.

Wang Yan took a deep breath as he reached out his right hand, palm face down. “I’ve said this before, kids. You guys have already exceeded all expectations, and fought in all the previous rounds successfully. Whether our glory will continue today in today’s battle is entirely up to you. I have done all I can as the teacher in charge. Now, I can only pray for everyone from the side of the stage. You guys will be the heroes of Shrek regardless of whether we win or lose. Do watch out for Princess Jiu Jiu– if I’m not wrong, her martial soul should be the Starcrown.”

Hand after hand was stacked on top of Wang Yan’s, one after another. Ma Xiaotao was the last to extend her right hand. She glanced at Wang Yan with a serious look and said, “Teacher Wang Yan, I know you are trying to bolster our ﬁghting spirit. Don’t worry– as members of Shrek Academy, our determination to guard our academy’s glory is no less than the others. Even if we have to use our lives to fuel the ﬂames of Shrek’s glory, we will never let it burn out.”

“To victory!” Everybody roared out in unison. The ﬂames of their ﬁghting spirits erupted in an instant.

Compared to Shrek Academy’s energetic aura, the Star Luo National Academy appeared to be a lot quieter and calmer. The participants of this round stepped up one after another. Princess Jiu Jiu, who was standing at the forefront, glanced at Shrek Academy casually. The ﬁrst person that she searched for wasn’t Shrek’s team leader, Ma Xiaotao. Instead, she was looking for Huo Yuhao.

Huo Yuhao was glancing over towards their camp at the same time, and their eyes met at that very instant. Huo Yuhao was slightly taken aback as he realized, to his astonishment, that the digniﬁed princess’ eyes betrayed a provocative undertone.

“Why is she trying to provoke me? I don’t think I’ll be the one ﬁghting her.”

Huo Yuhao was a little bafﬂed. His eyes squinted a little as they sparkled with a green light. The two parties may have been a world apart in mastery, but that single ﬂash of light in his eyes sent a chill up Princess Jiu Jiu’s spine.

“Participants from Shrek Academy, Star Luo National Academy, please step on stage.” The judge responsible for today’s group battle was the Heavenﬁend Douluo from before.

The Star Luo Emperor had already returned to the imperial palace under the protection of the other three Titled Douluo, and was watching the stage from the top of the city wall.

Ma Xiaotao walked in front with Dai Yueheng, Ling Luochen, Bei Bei, Xu Sanshi, Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong following closely behind as both parties stepped onto the competition stage at the same time.

The semi-ﬁnals had yet to begin, but the sharp smell of ﬁreworks drifted through the air as both parties eyed each other.

Princess Jiu Jiu’s eyes changed as well. Her originally bright blue eyes began to emanate a pale golden radiance. Her gaze felt as vast as the ocean.

On the other side, Ma Xiaotao’s eyes were like two raging ﬂames, and the scorching aura that she let off gave her opponents an intense pressure.

The Heavenﬁend Doulou’s swept his eyes across Ma Xiaotao’s body, and betrayed a single trace of astonishment before his expression quickly returned to normal. His face was cold as he said, “Step back. Before I announce the beginning of the contest, nobody is allowed to release their martial souls.”

Both parties stepped up to their respective corners, but their eyes had never left each other since the start. While retreating, both teams’ formations swiftly changed.

Shrek Academy took up a different formation than the one they had always used. Dai Yueheng and Ma Xiaotao took the lead as per usual, but Xu Sanshi stood behind them guarding Ling Luochen, who stood behind him. Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong stood side by side behind Ling Luochen. Bei Bei was up at the front beside Ma Xiaotao and Dai Yueheng, establishing a three-pronged powerful attack force.

The Star Luo National Academy also had a unique formation. Six people formed a triangle, with one person in front and two members behind them, followed by three more members standing behind them. Princess Jiu Jiu stood behind this triangle formed by these six people. The golden ﬂashes in her eyes grew stronger, as if she were the general of the company.

Xu Sanshi watched the princess with a grin. His eyes darted back and forth from her as a mischievous smile snuck up on his face.

People were already familiar with the powerful effects of his Mysterious Underworld Displacement. Still, being familiar didn’t mean that they wouldn’t fall for the same trick– just like when Shrek Academy faced off against Justsky Academy in the previous round.

Everybody thought that Shrek Academy wouldn’t use the same tactics again. However, the moment he stepped up, Xu Sanshi played the same trick without hesitation, and forcefully swapped Ye Wuqing into his own formation.

Ye Wuqing wasn’t given a chance at all before he was trampled over. Not every participating party had an expensive disposable soul tool like the Invincible Barrier. Xu Sanshi, that indecent fellow, triggered the Mysterious Underworld Quake after swapping with his opponent to slow the others down. He had then leapt off the stage before his opponents could surround him.

Justsky Academy didn’t stand a chance without Ye Wuqing, and the remainder of the contest became a walk in the park.

Princess Jiu Jiu’s brows creased as she watched the eager look on Xu Sanshi’s face. It was clear that she was wary of soul skills that were hard to handle like the Mysterious Netherworld Displacement.

“Begin.” Just as both parties were closely observing each other, the Heavenﬁend Douluo announced the start of the competition as a single ray of golden light shot across the center of the stage. In just a split second, the powerful Titled Douluo disappeared without a trace.

The reactions of both parties were extremely quick, and everyone released their martial souls at the ﬁrst possible instant.

Huo Yuhao unleashed his Spiritual Detection at once, and cast his gaze towards Princess Jiu Jiu. He was very curious– what was her martial soul, exactly? Wang Yan didn’t have enough time to explain it to them in detail, and all he said was that the Princess was an auxiliary-type battle soul master.

“Doesn’t that mean that she’s a tool soul master?” Huo Yuhao already had his doubts back then, but he didn’t have time to think too much before he had to get on stage.

A single ray of golden light lit up on Princess Jiu Jiu’s forehead. It was a golden, diamond-shaped jewel. Huo Yuhao immediately thought about his Eye of Life the moment he noticed the position of that jewel – wasn’t it oddly similar to the position of his Eye of Life?

However, Princess Jiu Jiu didn’t have a third eye. The golden diamond-shaped jewel started to radiate brilliant golden light the moment it appeared before proceeding to leave her forehead and drift upwards with rays of golden light encircling it. A magniﬁcent crown glimmered above her head just like that before it descended and landed gently on her head.

This crown seemed to have been formed by countless stars, with all the stars shimmering with a golden hue. With the diamond-shaped stone at the front of the formation, the stars swiftly retreated as eighteen relatively bigger stars on the crown ﬂew up to form an exquisite tip.

The Starcrown. This was Princess Jiu Jiu’s martial soul.

Two yellow, two purple and single black soul ring appeared around the princess’ body– she was a powerful Soul King.

The six others in front of Princess Jiu Jiu were all the same opponents that Wang Yan had previously explained to the members of Shrek Academy in detail. They released their martial souls one by one; they too were all Soul Kings.

Surprisingly, the lineup from the Star Luo National Academy was comprised entirely of Soul Kings.

Xu Sanshi’s martial soul was already unleashed. As if he was afraid of others not knowing, he roared into the sky, “Mysterious Netherworld Displacement!”

The Shield of the Xuanwu Turtle erupted with black light – and the rays of light were pointing right toward Princess Jiu Jiu.

At this moment, the Starcrown on Princess Jiu Jiu’s head burst with light as well. The third ring on her body lit up as a ﬂaring pillar of golden light shot up into the sky.

The inner regions of the golden pillar of light was ﬁlled with a golden-colored mist with specks of starlight spiraling up towards the sky– it was mystical sight. It was impossible to fathom what the effects of this soul skill were from its appearance.

The Shrek Academy team charged forward at once. Ma Xiaotao took the lead, while Dai Yueheng and Bei Bei followed closely behind. Ling Luochen’s Icy Staff was once again in her hands as she raised it high over her head. A dense and chilly mist permeated their surroundings and enveloped Xu Sanshi, Huo Yuhao, Wang Dong and herself. This patch of icy mist began to spread towards both ends of the arena with dazzling speed, and formed a gigantic shroud that slowly clamped down on their opponents. All four of them were completely hidden within this icy mist.

This was Ling Luochen’s fourth soul skill, and she had never used it before until now.

“Just kidding.” Before he was swallowed by the icy mist, Xu Sanshi waved at the princess, as he never intended to use the Mysterious Underworld Displacement.

Princess Jiu Jiu’s face froze as she shot a cold look at him. The golden light mist that was rising into the air started to spread in all directions and blanketed her six teammates.

In the next instant, every member from the Star Luo National Academy was covered with a layer of golden light. The golden radiance around Princess Jiu Jiu’s body hadn’t dissipated yet as starlight continued to surge out of her Starcrown.

Ma Xiaotao was lightning fast, and shot to the front of her opponents’ formation in the blink of an eye. Blazing phoenix ﬂames surged into the sky as she extended her enormous phoenix wings and blasted her Phoenix Fireline towards the Soul King right in front of her.

This Soul King’s name was Huang Heyun. The fact that he was standing in front naturally meant that he was an assault- type soul master. Before Princess Jiu Jiu’s appearance, he had been the Star Luo National Academy’s team leader.

Huang Heyun’s martial soul was also extremely fearsome. Following the release of his martial soul, dense black energy started swirling around his body, and his body suddenly erupted in size. His muscles grew and became more deﬁned, while a “King” character appeared on his head, similar to Dai Yueheng. The difference between the two of them was that the hair all over Huang Heyun’s body wasn’t white or a yellow- chalk color. Instead, it was black, just pure black.

His martial soul was the Darkdemon Tiger. It was a rare darkness-type martial soul, but he wasn’t an evil soul master.

The fearsome power of darkness imbued him with natural prowess that was not much inferior to Dai Yueheng’s White Tiger.

At this moment, a mist of golden light diffused from behind his back, fusing together with his black soul power. The light didn’t clash with the darkness – instead, it painted his soul power a dull golden hue that ﬂickered with specs of starlight, causing his body to no longer be just pure black. It was peculiar.

Huang Heyun howled into the sky as he faced Ma Xiaotao’s Phoenix Fireline. He rushed forward without hesitation and punched out with his ﬁst. His ﬁrst soul ring radiated with yellow light, and a dull-golden arc of light with a diameter of over one meter instantly burst out into the sky.

Sparks crackled and ﬂew, but the Phoenix Fireline was surprisingly not able to pierce even a single inch through that arc of light before it was stopped in its tracks. It was the Darkdemon Tiger’s ﬁrst soul skill – Aphotic Darkwave.

Ma Xiaotao was still a little bewildered by what had just taken place before the Aphotic Darkwave, which now ﬂared

with a ﬁery red color due to the Phoenix Fireline, arrived before her.

Even though the Phoenix Fireline under the Soaring Phoenix’s ampliﬁcation was only Ma Xiaotao’s ﬁrst soul skill, she was a powerful Soul Emperor with extremely solid foundations. How could her opponent even compare to her? Nonetheless, her opponent still managed to fend off her Phoenix Fireline with just his own ﬁrst soul skill.

However, the Aphotic Darkwave was right before her eyes, and she no longer had time to contemplate. Ma Xiaotao held out her right palm out against the Aphotic Darkwave, and it shattered into pieces in an instant with a “puff” sound. Ma Xiaotao’s right hand ﬂared with raging ﬂames once more as abundant phoenix ﬂames poured out and surged towards her opponent – this was her second soul skill, the Phoenix Baptism.

Faced with Ma Xiaotao’s ferocious onslaught, Huang Heyun made a retreating motion as his body appeared to sit down. His third soul ring lit up, and his soul power, which sparkled with dull-golden starlight, accompanied a bright tiger roar as it surged out as well and transformed into the form of a tiger while it crashed towards Ma Xiaotao’s phoenix ﬂames.

This was the thousand-year soul skill of his third soul ring– the Demontiger’s Heavenshock.

Ma Xiaotao’s sensations were much more acute as they clashed once more at close quarters. She discovered that when her opponent’s soul skills collided with her phoenix ﬂames, the golden starlight in her opponent’s soul skills would break out ﬁrst. Those tiny specks of starlight were like miniature bombs that continuously detonated inside her phoenix ﬂames, and these unassuming explosiveness actually grinded down Ma Xiaotao’s offensive power. The full force of Huang Heyun’s soul skills clashed with Ma Xiaotao’s phoenix ﬂames only after the dampening of the golden starlight.

This shocking realization caused Ma Xiaotao to cast an astonished look at Princess Jiu Jiu behind her opponent. What kind of martial soul was that? She could actually provide such powerful group auxiliary support for her entire team. This rivalled the effects of even the Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda, which was widely claimed to be the most powerful auxiliary- type martial soul.

Ma Xiaotao concentrated as she searched her mind for a suitable answer to the Starcrown. As a student from Shrek

Academy, Ma Xiaotao’s knowledge was especially abundant, and she ﬁnally recalled what the Starcrown martial soul was.

This martial soul was simply too rare in the continent, even though it had existed for a long time. The number of times it had appeared in the past thousand years was just too few, and thus it was forgotten. Still, one of the lessons she had once taken in Shrek Academy had introduced the Starcrown before. Huo Yuhao, Wang Dong and Xiao Xiao had spent too little time in the academy, and had yet to reach that level.

The Starcrown martial soul used to be held in high regard within the Douluo Continent. It had been around since more than ten thousand years ago, and could be considered the most ancient amongst the top-ranked martial souls.

Over ten thousand years ago, the entity that handled soul masters was an organization called the Soul Hall. Back then, the Star Luo Empire and the Heaven Dou Empire, the only two most powerful empires at that time, had to pander to them. The Soul Hall once possessed six especially powerful martial souls, and each one of them respectively represented the most powerful entities in the world at that time. One of them was the Starcrown.

The Heaven Dou Empire and the Star Luo Empire had three seats each back then, and the Star Luo Empire’s royal family was still the White Tiger Duke’s bloodline. However, the White Tiger martial soul wasn’t one of the six great martial souls. Instead, the Starcrown martial soul was the strongest of the three seats that belonged to the Star Luo Empire.

The only problem was that the Starcrown bloodline’s inheritance was thin, and thus it was rarely seen on the continent. It was similar to a hidden sect. Over four thousand years ago, the Sun Moon Continent collided and merged with the Douluo Continent, eventually instigating the conﬂict between the Sun Moon Empire and the empires that resided within the Douluo Continent. The Star Luo Empire took the lead and absorbed most of the external pressure, causing the White Tiger Duke bloodline and the royal family to almost be driven to extinction. During this period, the Starcrown sect stepped out of reclusion to unify and lead the Star Luo Empire’s armies in a valiant effort against their enemies. After intense and fearsome battles did they manage to defend the Star Luo Empire and consolidate the Star Luo Empire’s position as the leading sovereignty amongst the three nations within the original Douluo Continent. The White Tiger Duke bloodline waned, and was left with a meager lineage. The position of the royal family was passed on, and the Starcrown bloodline took over as the new leaders of Star Luo Empire. Of course, the new royalty did not choose to employ any

underhanded tactics against the White Tiger Duke bloodline. They won over their citizens’ hearts and minds and succeeded the throne via proper means, which caused the empire to ﬂourish for over a thousand years.

Even if the Dou Ling Empire and the Heavenly Soul Empire formed a coalition, their combined power would still not be enough to compare with the Star Luo Empire.

The Starcrown bloodline managed to turn the tide all those years ago, and this went to show their extraordinary power. In terms of pure auxiliary capabilities, the Starcrown was probably inferior to the Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda. However, the Starcrown wasn’t just about support– it possessed incredible ﬁghting power, and even its auxiliary capabilities leaned entirely towards boosting ﬁghting power. This was vastly different from the Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda’s overall capabilities. It could be said that the Starcrown martial soul existed purely for battle.

Ever since the Starcrown sect took over Star Luo Empire, they became low-proﬁle once more. The passage of a few thousand years caused people to forget that the Star Luo Empire’s royal family was one of the more powerful soul

master sects in the past, and the Starcrown martial soul was never seen again in the outside world for many years.

Even though Ma Xiaotao was recalling this information regarding the Starcrown martial soul, her movements did not slow down at all. Her opponent’s Demontiger’s Heavenshock that was ampliﬁed by Princess Jiu Jiu’s third soul skill, the Starglory Spell, ultimately broke through the Phoenix Baptism’s ﬂames and reached Ma Xiaotao.

Ma Xiaotao grunted coldly. Instead of retreating, she chose to advance, and rushed toward the Darkdemon Tiger’s light shadow. She roared into the sky as she extended her ﬁery wings. In this moment, Ma Xiaotao’s entire being appeared to transform into a real ﬁre phoenix. The phoenix ﬂames’ searing red colors were raised to a white incandescence, and the instant outburst of heat caused even Dai Yueheng and Bei Bei to distance themselves from Ma Xiaotao. The blistering ﬂames scorched the Darkdemon Tiger’s light shadow in an instant. Ma Xiaotao’s body ﬂashed once more, and she closed in on her opponent while launching another stream of Phoenix Fireline. This time, the phoenix ﬂames had the same white incandescent hue.

Normally, she wouldn’t dare to raise her phoenix ﬂames’ powers to such a level like she did just now. The reason for that was because unleashing the phoenix ﬂames like this made her highly susceptible to a backlash from the evil ﬁre within her body. If she didn’t handle it correctly, she had a high chance of losing her mind again.

Ma Xiaotao wasn’t afraid this time, as she had an Ultimate Ice martial soul master beside her. With Huo Yuhao around, she was no longer fearful of suffering the pain from the evil ﬁre’s backlash. In fact, she hadn’t had any problems at all since the last time she had received help.

The reason why Ma Xiaotao could become a team leader and repress Dai Yueheng was entirely due to her prowess. How could Shrek Academy’s teachers not know that she possessed a very impatient and short-tempered nature? However, she was one of the most powerful ones amongst her age. Dai Yueheng was actually inferior to her by an entire class, and Ma Xiaotao could only be described as terrifying when she was in full eruption mode.

Wang Yan had been riling their ﬁghting spirit over the past few days. Even though she didn’t express it, how could she not be affected? All the energy, vigor, and overﬂowing belligerence

that she had been suppressing were on full display today as she faced off against a powerful opponent.

Huang Heyun was shocked as the sweltering ﬂames blazed before him. He discovered, to his intense fear, that he seemed to be completely unable to defend himself. The white-hot phoenix ﬂames surrounded him, and all the air within a few meters of him was completely distorted. The sky-high temperature of the white circle of ﬁre triggered and detonated the Starglory Spell’s energy in the sky, perfectly blocking off the Starglory Spell’s effects. This meant that the Starglory Spell was no longer able to provide support for him.

Just as Huang Heyun was in an incredibly dangerous situation, he felt the pressure lift from his body as Ma Xiaotao’s white-hot ﬂames started to tilt towards the side before they began to drift up into the sky.

A girl appeared not far behind Huang Heyun. Her looks were average, and she looked like a simple and normal girl. She had long dark-purple hair behind her back, and had freckles on her face. Her most deﬁning feature was her eyes– it seemed as if her eyes were blazing with ﬁre. All ﬁve of her soul rings were undulating on her body as her right hand reached out toward

Ma Xiaotao’s phoenix ﬂames in the distance. She was the one that had drawn Ma Xiaotao’s Phoenix Fireline away.

Fire control type. An explanation instantly rang out in Ma Xiaotao’s head.

Wang Yan had reminded Shrek Academy’s students of this purple-haired young girl speciﬁcally. Before Princess Jiu Jiu appeared in the Star Luo National Academy’s team, the two individuals that Wang Yan was most wary of were two control- type soul masters.

Chapter 109: The Absolute Defense and the Star Protection

Wang Yan referred to them as the Windﬁre Duo. They both were female soul masters with elemental martial souls: one was ﬁre-type while the other was wind-type.

At this moment, Yi Chen, the rank 51 ﬁre control-type Soul King, pressed her right hand down towards Ma Xiaotao. A blazing circle of light instantly appeared below Ma Xiaotao’s feet, generating an intense vacuum underneath her. Ma Xiaotao suddenly felt her phoenix ﬂames draining out from below her with unstoppable momentum; they were being frantically absorbed by the red circle of light.

The weaknesses of Huo Yuhao’s Spiritual Detection Sharing started to show at this point. The Starglory Spell unleashed by Princess Jiu Jiu’s Star Crown interfered with Huo Yuhao’s Spiritual Detection, rendering him to be unable to support his teammates. Otherwise, how could Ma Xiaotao’s battle be so passive?

Huo Yuhao was despondent. Princess Jiu Jiu’s Star Crown seemed to counter his Spirit Eyes. Of course, he wouldn’t have

been afraid if they were both at the same level of mastery. However, his level of mastery was greatly inferior at the moment, so the gap in power was simply too great for him to overcome. Furthermore, this was the case even after Huo Yuhao’s spiritual sea received a considerable boost– all this

served to prove the power of the Star Crown martial soul.

While Ma Xiaotao was being held back by Huang Heyun and Yi Chen, the battle had simultaneously begun on the other side of the arena.

Dai Yueheng was faced with a tall, lanky youth. His martial soul was a lion – the Netherworld Crazed Lion. He was the second-ranked assault-type Soul King from the Star Luo camp, and his name was Dugu Shangshan.

The Netherworld Crazed Lion martial soul gave Dai Yueheng a hard time as it made him unable to fully unleash his strength. Once the Netherworld Crazed Lion was attached to his body, Dugu Shangshan let off an illusory feeling. While Dai Yueheng’s White Tiger martial soul was powerful, his forte was physical assault. Faced with an opponent that was hard to hit with physical attacks, much of his strength was being negated. With the support of the Starglory Spell, Dugu Shangshan was able to hold off Dai Yueheng.

It would have been a lot easier for Dai Yueheng if he was against just the Netherworld Crazed Lion Soul King; he would even probably win if he put in a little more effort. The problem was that there was another control-type battle Soul King behind him – the person that represented Wind in the

Windﬁre Duo.

Just as Dai Yueheng unleashed his White Tiger’s Vajra Transformation, he felt his body suddenly freeze in place as a green circle of light rose up from beneath his feet. The green circle of light instantly transformed into a miniature tornado that trapped him within. Even though it didn’t knock him off his feet and throw him around, his subsequent assault was countered just like that.

The two Soul Emperors were the most powerful strike force on the Shrek Academy’s team, but they were forcibly held back by the combined efforts of four Soul Kings from the Star Luo National Academy with the support of the Starglory Spell.

Bei Bei was also being obstructed. The opponent he was facing was an agility-type Soul King whose speed was something that Bei Bei had never encountered before.

He hadn’t been able to see his opponent clearly since the beginning of the battle. If Ma Xiaotao hadn’t been so close, his opponent wouldn’t have dared to defend against the attack. Furthermore, Huo Yuhao wasn’t able to properly utilize his Spiritual Detection Sharing. If Huo Yuhao’s Spiritual Detection was directed towards him, he would probably be in deep

trouble.

In the eyes of the audience, Bei Bei appeared to be surrounded by a bolt of lightning that ﬂickered incessantly. This bolt of lightning was yellow, which was in stark contrast to bluish-purple lighting on his body. Every time the yellow bolt of lightning charged over, it erupted with a ferocious assault. Bei Bei seemed a little hard-pressed as he tried his best to defend. Bei Bei was only able to barely hold on with the Blue Tyrant Lightning Dragon’s immense power.

His opponent was the only agility-type soul master in the Star Lou National Academy’s team. His name was Chen Xiaojie who possessed the Lightning Warfalcon martial soul. When Wang Yan was evaluating this Soul King, he had described him with just a few words – tough and annoying to handle.

Not only was the Lightning Warfalcon extremely fast, it also possessed powerful offensive capabilities. A lapse in

concentration was simply not allowed when engaging this fellow in battle. Bei Bei already had more than ten wounds on his body by this time. Even though they weren’t serious, the wounds continually weakened his ﬁghting strength.

Princess Jiu Jiu’s eyes did not linger at the battle occurring before her. Instead, her eyes were directed at the thick white mist that was swiftly rolling towards them.

The current situation was that the Star Luo National Academy used ﬁve people to hold back three assault-type soul masters from Shrek Academy’s lineup. In reality, they weren’t really at a disadvantage, as one could say that Ma Xiaotao, Dai Yueheng and Bei Bei made up seventy percent of Shrek Academy’s ﬁghting strength.

Both parties had yet to give their all as the battle continued to unfold. The most frightening aspect of group battles was the sudden appearance of harmonious teamwork. With such team ﬁghts, either party would be able to tip the scale and emerge victorious with a single eruption of explosive power.

Princess Jiu Jiu squinted her eyes a little as she gradually pointed her right hand into the sky. A single golden speck of

light sparkled on her ﬁngertip as the brilliance of the Star Crown above her head ﬂickered once more. This time, a streak of golden light shot up into the sky. However, this wasn’t the same light pillar as before but a thin golden thread. Her ﬁrst soul ring sparkled on while she continued to maintain her

third soul ring, which powered the Starglory Spell.

The ray of golden light paused as it approached the protective dome around the competition stage. Immediately afterwards, a single brilliant star appeared above Princess Jiu Jiu’s head. This star wasn’t big, but it exuded a vigorous radiance.

Princess Jiu Jiu closed her eyes momentarily as she pointed towards the rolling Icemist. The patch of starlight transformed into uncountable rays of light in the next moment as they surged towards the patch of Icemist.

Surprisingly, these thin streaks of light weren’t impeded by the Icemist at all. They entered it with extreme ease, as they were just pure rays of light, without a trace of offensive power.

The threads of light glimmered as a vast majority of them vanished into thin air. Only four streaks of light remained as they guided Princess Jiu Jiu like a bridge. These four rays of

light shimmered within the Icemist while they phased in and out of sight.

This was the Starguiding Technique, her ﬁrst soul skill. She successfully located her four opponents hidden within the Icemist with the help of the star’s guidance.

Within the Icemist, the four people maintained their positions. The only difference was that they were closer to the center of the competition stage than before. The patch of Icemist continued to close in from both ends towards the center of the stage as well.

Ma Xiaotao released a shrill phoenix cry into the sky as her blazing wings forcefully ﬂapped downwards, and a streak of red light surged into the sky. The pillar of red light was took the form of a ﬁery phoenix as scorching phoenix ﬂames erupted. The control spell that Yi Chen directed towards her was immediately broken as the Darkdemon Tiger Soul King, Huang Heyun, was forcibly pushed away.

The dense Icemist riled up at this point and lunged towards the center like a tsunami. A single ray of black light ﬂickered within, and it was targeted straight at Princess Jiu Jiu. Xu

Sanshi who had been holding back the Mysterious Netherworld Displacement for a long time, ﬁnally unleashed it. Even though he knew that it was almost impossible for him to succeed, he still had to use it. The purpose of this move was just to occupy the the princess’ attention.

Dai Yueheng unleashed his White Tiger’s Devilgod Transformation in an instant, and pounced towards his opponent. On the other side, Bei Bei exploded with innumerable streaks of lightning and forced back the Lightning Warfalcon Soul King. Besides Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong, almost every member from Shrek Academy was erupting all around.

However, just at this moment, a faint smile appeared on Princess Jiu Jiu’s face. It felt as if she had been waiting for this the whole time, as if she had been looking forward to this moment since the very beginning.

She suddenly tossed out a sphere of golden light from her hands. It wasn’t a soul skill. The golden light ﬂashed once before smashing against Ma Xiaotao’s frightening phoenix ﬂames that were soaring into the air.

The strangest of scenes happened. A layer of golden light descended from the sky and enveloped Ma Xiaotao’s sixth soul skill, the Phoenix Meteor Shower, which had already been unleashed. It crashed downwards with lightning speed as it applied pressure on Ma Xiaotao herself – her most powerful soul skill was negated just like that.

Ma Xiaotao felt a stiﬂing pressing weigh down on her from the sky. She wanted to dodge, but the patch of golden light bore down on her in an instant, and trapped her within.

There was a single sphere with a hundred and eight cross- sectional areas that sparkled with brilliant light above the layer of golden light. This sphere was about the size of a ﬁst, and spiraled with intense speed as it ﬂickered with blinding light. Ma Xiaotao, who was trapped inside, immediately launched a hysterical assault against the layer of light, but was only able to create ripples along its surface. Her efforts proved futile.

This sudden change shocked the entire team from Shrek Academy. They had chose to explode with the tactic that Wang Yan called the Dual Sky Of Ice And Fire. The Icemist unleashed by Huo Yuhao and Ling Luochen provided all-round control and pressure, but the move that would have claimed victory for them was Ma Xiaotao’s Phoenix Meteor Shower! Who

would have thought that Ma Xiaotao would be so easily locked down by their opponents?

He Caitou stood up abruptly below the competition stage. Intense disbelief ﬁlled his eyes as he said, “That… That’s an absolute defense soul tool! How can that be? That Absolute Defense Barrier soul tool is at least Class 7! They actually have a Class 7 soul tool! The Absolute Defense Barrier can only be used once, but its value…”

Wang Yan’s eyes were wide open as he reacted with an equal amount of surprise. He asked hurriedly, “What is the Absolute Defense Barrier?”

He Caitou answered, “It’s similar to the Invincible Barrier. Once it’s deployed, anybody under the Absolute Defense Barrier’s seal will have to face the protection of a defense-type soul master similar to the power of a stage 8 Soul Douluo for ﬁfteen minutes. However, this is a special soul tool that also works in reverse. The Absolute Defense Barrier has the same effects internally and externally. Even if one wants to forcibly break out of the pearl, one has to be at least a Class 7 Soul Sage. This soul tool can only be manufactured by the Sun Moon Empire, and its formation arrays are extremely mysterious. It’s impossible for us to produce anything similar. To think it

would appear in this competition! It’s been said that the Absolute Defense Barrier is worth several million gold soul coins. Having this item during a dangerous moments is equivalent to having another life! This is so much more powerful than the Invincible Barrier, which is only effective

for three seconds. Fifteen minutes is enough to accomplish many things. ”

He Caitou continued, “In terms of abilities, we may be at an advantage. However, how can our ﬁnancial power match up to such dominant powers like the Star Luo Empire? To them, even such an expensive soul tool is expendable.”

Ma Xiaotao, the most powerful member, was trapped. This was a disaster for Shrek Academy’s team.

Princess Jiu Jiu had obviously planned out her strategy well. With Ma Xiaotao out of the way, her fourth soul ring lit up. A ball of thick, intense starlight was unleashed. This time, the starlight was as bright as the sun. This ball expanded into a barrier of light, it forcefully expelling the Icemist outside. Only the seven members on her side, including Dai Yueheng, Bei Bei and the trapped Ma Xiaotao, were covered within this layer of light.

On the surface of the layer of the light barrier, 18 stars appeared and ﬂashed with a bright glow.

Huang Heyun and Yi Chen, who were both ﬁghting Ma Xiaotao initially, changed their target to Dai Yueheng without any hesitation. The four Soul Kings encircled him. Bei Bei continued to suffer from the relentless attacks of the Lightning Warfalcon, and he could not even ensure his own safety.

Princess Jiu Jiu appeared indifferent as she looked at the Icemist outside the layer of light, and she curled her lips up slightly. There was yet another soul master in front of her who, till this point, had not joined in the battle at all.

“Not good.” Inside the Icemist, Ling Luochen’s face grew solemn. She quickly forced an wave with the Icemist. However, the light barrier that ﬂashed with starlight continued to resist the Icemist. It was unable to gain any ground. There was a ﬂickering radiance that shone from the 18 stars. It was obvious that unless the light from all 18 stars dimmed, this light barrier would not be broken.

No one would have expected such a situation before the competition. Princess Jiu Jiu had divided the seven members of the Shrek Academy in half. Furthermore, Ling Luochen had discovered this problem far too late. Amongst her own team, those who were offensively inclined were covered by the light

barrier, while everyone else left outside of it were not skilled in attacking.

Wang Dong and Huo Yuhao could mount an offense, but their cultivations were simply too weak.

The Ultimate Ice could only enhance Ling Luochen’s soul skill, but not change it. Unfortunately, Ling Luochen was a control-type soul master, not an assault-type soul master. She only had the Icemist at her disposal for attacking.

On top of the city wall, the Star Luo Emperor revealed a gentle smile on his face, “To Shrek, it’s not an entirely bad thing to lose. The Star Barrier of our Star Luo bloodline hasn’t appeared in the continent for a very long time. I’m afraid the world of soul masters has already forgotten our powerful defense-type soul skill that’s known for being able to isolate all other elements. It’s rather useful while facing off against Huo Yuhao’s Ultimate Ice. My younger sister has been unconvinced by my appraisal of that little fellow because of this. When that little fellow grows up, I would really like to see the result of a ﬁght between the Star Barrier and his Ultimate element.”

At this moment, Dai Yueheng was the one who was in the most danger.

The attacking force of Star Luo Academy’s Windﬁre duo had increased after they teamed up. Without the suppression of the phoenix ﬂames, Yi Chen looped her hands in front of her, causing a bright ﬂaming ring to loom over Dai Yueheng.

Dai Yueheng couldn’t avoid this ﬂaming halo. This was because the light ring ﬁrst expanded to cover the entire area of the Star Barrier before it retracted towards the center.

The wind control-type Soul King, Wang Shiying, also unleashed a similar halo of light. One red and one green light ring overlapped each other and exploded at the same time.

As the saying went, wind aided the strength of ﬁre. The instant that the two light rings ascended, a series of howls and booms resonated in the air. With Dai Yueheng’s body as the center, a huge pillar of wind and ﬁre rose into the sky. With the power of wind supplementing it, the burning ﬂames became extremely deadly; they were like a huge meat grinder that was wildly crushing everything within them.

After unleashing the combination of Wind and Fire, Huang Heyun, Dugu Shangshan, Yi Chen and Wang Shiying did not exploit the opportunity to attack. Rather, they gathered together rapidly and stood in a row.

The abilities of the Shrek Academy’s Soul Emperors were displayed right now. Even while Ma Xiaotao was suppressed heavily, Dai Yueheng didn’t panic at all. As the pillar of Wind and Fire was unleashed, Huang Heyun and Dugu Shangshan were not able to force him back by even half a step. Instead, they caused him to become even ﬁercer.

As the pillar of Wind and Fire was unleashed, the immense pressure caused his hairs to curl up. However, Dai Yueheng faced the sky and released a roar. He thumped his ﬁsts against his chest, and blazing golden lights were suddenly released from his body. The character ‘王’ on his forehead even ﬂashed with a bright radiance. Behind him, a huge illusory ﬁgure of a white tiger ﬂashed. Suddenly, he bent his back and slammed his ﬁst down on the ground beneath his feet.

When this ﬁst struck the solid competition stage, everything seemed to go still in the Star Barrier Domain. Following silence, a booming sound like thunder rang out. Debris ﬂew

and blew apart the pillar of Wind and Fire, scattering fragments in various directions.

It should be noted that the two control-type Soul Kings fought with the support of Princess Jiu Jiu’s Starglory Spell. According to their original estimates, a Soul Emperor could only defend passively if the two of them teamed up together to control him. But who knew that Dai Yueheng would managed to overcome them using his tough strength and soul power. Not only did he not defend, but he used his immense strength to break apart the wind and ﬁre elements using the earth element.

Princess Jiu Jiu focused her gaze. When the red and green light rings exploded, Dai Yueheng also lifted his head and looked in the direction of Princess Jiu Jiu.

As their gazes met, Princess Jiu Jiu’s expression turned cold. Dai Yueheng’s eyes ﬂashed with a strange glint. As he bellowed, his body bent forward a little. In the next instant, he had already leapt out like lightning, and his target was Princess Jiu Jiu. It was best to go for the leader to root out the problem.

However, four ﬁgures formed a quaternity in front of her and blocked his path. Dai Yueheng couldn’t see anything strange from the front, but the back of four members of the Star Luo Academy emitted dim white radiances.

The white radiances formed a dome-like shape, just like the shell on the back of a turtle. These radiances shone through the uniforms they wore.

Yi Chen, who stood the furthest back, pressed on Wang Shiyin’s back. Wang Shiying did the same towards Dugu Shangshan. Similarly, Dugu Shangshan’s palms also pressed on Huang Heyun’s back. Right now, they seemed like one entity now.

Huang Heyun’s size seemed to have ballooned from earlier causing blood vessels squirming under the fur of the Darkdemon Tiger’s Possession to be visible. As Dai Yueheng leapt forward, Huang Heyun suddenly struck his palms forward. As they struck, Huang Heyun let loose a deep growl. This growl carried an extremely concentrated aura of darkness and collided with Dai Yueheng.

“Boom------” Dai Yueheng felt as if he had collided with a sheet of iron. He was sent ﬂying and was knocked violently against the light barrier of the Star Barrier. His organs felt as if they were on ﬁre. As he tried to get up, he vomited fresh blood.

Impossible! This was the ﬁrst thought that he had in his mind after he was sent ﬂying.

The opponent was only a Soul King! How could his soul power be so great? Even if the opponent was a seven-ringed Soul Sage, he would still be unable to unleash such power without using his Martial Soul True Body!

Below the competition stage, Wang Yan was a little anxious. He grabbed He Caitou beside him and asked, “What, what soul tool is this?”

He Caitou laughed bitterly. “This is a rare soul tool called the Nine Transformations Soulrite. The core formation that’s used to produce it requires a special metal called Chaos Silver. The greatest strength of this Nine Transformations Soulrite is that it can change soul power types. No matter what type of soul power is injected into it, the type of soul power that comes out is the most balanced chaos-type that can be absorbed by

anyone of any type. Through this Nine Transformations Soulrite, soul masters can inject their soul power into one another for a short period of time. But a portion of the soul power injected into them has to be released quickly. After all, soul power beyond what a soul master can handle will lead to damage in his passageways. Furthermore, chaos-type soul power can only be used temporarily, and can’t be fused with

one’s own soul power. I didn’t expect them to use this. The

Nine Transformations Soulrite is a Class 5 soul tool, and can be used by soul masters with less than seven rings. If the person it’s used by is a seven-ringed Soul Sage or stronger, the core formation of the Chaos Silver can’t handle the surge of soul power unless it’s an extremely large Nine Transformations Soulrite.”

As he struck his palms towards Dai Yueheng, Huang Heyun’s face surged with a tinge of red. He shouldered the greatest pressure, as he helmed the tip of the Nine Transformations Soulrite. After this competition, he would have to rest for up to a month to heal his passageways. However, he would not hold back here. Ampliﬁed by Princess Jiu Jiu’s Starglory Spell, the combined power of 5 soul kings had hurt Dai Yueheng. However, Ma Xiaotao couldn’t be restrained forever. To win, they had to end everything before Ma Xiaotao escaped, and gather the powers of all seven of them to deal with the strongest Soul Emperor.

Hence, Huang Heyun followed up with another attack immediately. A huge ﬁgure of a black tiger leapt out from his body. It was the Demontiger’s Heavenshock that he had used against Ma Xiaotao before.

The difference this time was that, under the support of the frightening soul power, this illusory ﬁgure of the Darkdemon Tiger seemed like a real entity. In just a moment, it was already in front of Dai Yueheng. They were planning to incapacitate Dai Yueheng in this next strike.

The situation in the Star Barrier was very dangerous.

However, what about the situation outside the Star Barrier?

When Huo Yuhao and the rest saw that Dai Yueheng was being attacked by the Windﬁre duo, they realized that things were going to be bad. However, they had no chance if they did not overcome the barrier of light in front of them. But, how could they have the power to do so?

Xu Sanshi really wanted to enter the state of the Xuanwu turtle. However, he couldn’t just summon it at any time he wished. If Jiang Nannan was the one who was trapped, it

might have been a different story. But without her, he couldn’t unleash it.

Ling Luochen’s Icemist constantly engulfed the entire Star Barrier, and the 18 stars above the Star Barrier were slowly dimming. But if things were dragged on at this pace, they might not get in before the seal trapping Ma Xiaotao was released.

“What do we do?” Wang Dong asked Huo Yuhao anxiously.

Huo Yuhao did not have a clue either. As the effect of his Spiritual Detection Sharing was crippled, he had fallen into a bewildered state. Hearing Wang Dong’s anxious voice only increased his depression. A competition of this level was out of his control! He wanted to sweep aside this sense of helplessness, but the gap in cultivation rendered him unable to do so.

“Do you know why you are so helpless?” An old voice rang in his head clearly.

“Elder Yi.” Huo Yuhao responded in his consciousness.

Electrolux answered his own question. “That’s because you don’t fully understand yourself. You haven’t used your control to the fullest. While increasing one’s cultivation is important, you will be unable to reach the top no matter how hard you cultivate if you don’t understand your own capabilities. After this competition, I want you to enter closed-door cultivation. Understand that power cannot decide everything all the time. The ability to control everything that you possess, and exhibit your capabilities appropriately in different situations, that is true power. For now, act according to what I tell you.”

“Yuhao, what do we do?” In Wang Dong’s eyes, Huo Yuhao was entirely in a daze. This was a critical situation. Wang Dong was aware that his own abilities could not faze the light barrier. In this battle, the only chance he had was if he combined with Huo Yuhao.

Huo Yuhao’s eyes brightened, and he shouted, “Senior Ling, maintain the strength of the Icemist and help to block our ﬁgures. Wang Dong, let’s strike.” As he said that, he turned around suddenly and opened his arms wide. He hugged Wang Dong tightly and strongly. Their spirits and soul powers combined and merged into one entity.

……

“The strength of the opponent is derived from Star Power. What’s the origin of the Star Power? It’s light. No matter how they are structured internally, they are all made of light. They can be considered a high level performance of light,” advised Electrolux.

……

Within the Icemist,

Huo Yuhao’s pupils emitted a dim golden glow on one side.

On the other side, Wang Dong unleashed his Radiant Butterﬂy Goddess, spreading his elegant wings behind his back.

Alternating shades of blue, purple and gold shone within the mist.

When the illusory ﬁgure of the huge Radiant Butterﬂy Goddess spread opened her wings and hugged the illusory ﬁgure of the Spirit Eyes, a dazzling purplish-golden light burst out. A glow that descended from the sky engulfed the illusory ﬁgures. A huge bluish-golden pupil directed its gaze towards the front. Blue, purple and golden light that intertwined with each other shot out from the depths of the pupil that seemed to contain a boundless world.

A radiance laced with a magical color shot straight forward, locking onto the light of the Star Barrier.

Blocked by the dense Icemist, neither the audience below the stage nor the competitors inside the Star Barrier could see what was happening. Even Princess Jiu Jiu did not have a clue as her Starguiding Technique could only sense their positions with her.

The Icemist subtly diminished. It was as if its aura of ultimacy had been lost. However, Princess Jiu Jiu’s attention was entirely on Dai Yueheng at this moment as Huang Heyun’s second wave of Demontiger’s Heavenshock was about to strike Dai Yueheng. To her, this was the key to determine victory. She ignored the four outside the barrier. She reckoned that

even though Huo Yuhao was very talented, he was unable to pose much of a threat to her.

However, Princess Jiu Jiu’s expression changed the next instant.

The dim golden glow on the Star Barrier suddenly turned a bright golden color. The entire barrier actually began to emit the same radiance as the 18 stars above the barrier. Princess Jiu Jiu could only faintly see what was in front of her, only catching a short glimpse of a huge pupil brieﬂy appearing before vanishing again. In the next moment, she discovered to her horror that her Star Barrier seemed to have been melted. Drops of golden ﬂuid ﬂowed down the surface of the barrier. Furthermore, the soul power that she was continuously injecting was forcefully stopped.

This was impossible. She was now feeling like Dai Yueheng had felt earlier. She had no idea how the four members outside were able to damage her Star Barrier.

However, there was nothing impossible in this world. At the moment when the Star Barrier was broken through, Dai Yueheng reacted to his opponents’ assault.

Blinding white light was suddenly unleashed from his body and a huge ﬁgure of a white tiger surfaced above his head, instantly fused with his body. Dai Yueheng let out a furious roar. His ﬁrst, third, ﬁfth and sixth soul ring ﬂashed at the same time.

His three strengthening skills, the White Tiger’s Shield, the White Tiger’s Vajra Transformation and the White Tiger’s Devilgod Transformation were powered to their peaks with his Soul Emperor cultivation.

From his pair of almost foot-long golden tiger claws, a cold radiance was emitted. In the next instant, his body suddenly disappeared from the bright radiance that had ﬂashed from white to gold.

A huge ‘kill’ character 杀 suddenly appeared out of nowhere and collided with the black tiger formed by the Demontiger’s Heavenshock. Sharps streaks of piering and splitting were heard inside of the Star Barrier. It was combined with the roars of two raging tigers that were wreaking havoc to their surroundings.

Huang Heyun and the rest were indeed very powerful, as they had combined their soul power using the Nine Transformations Soulrite. Their overall power had already reached the intermediate stage of the Soul Sage rank. In terms of soul power, Dai Yueheng, who was only a Soul Emperor, was completely suppressed.

Princess Jiu Jiu had meticulously chosen Huang Heyun to be placed at the very front. She was very familiar with Dai Yueheng’s White Tiger martial soul, so she had created this strategy to speciﬁcally counter Dai Yueheng. Huang Heyun’s Darkdemon Tiger was only slightly inferior to the White Tiger. However, the difference was minimal. Along with the enhancement of the Starglory Spell, this suppression of martial souls was completely removed. Under such a circumstance, the might of Dai Yueheng’s White Tiger no longer had to be feared.

However, things did not always go according to plan. Princess Jiu Jiu could never predict that Huang Heyun’s state of mind would experience changes during the battle, resulting in the failure of his second strike, which was supposed to be the deﬁning blow.

The change in his state of mind was not because of Dai Yueheng, but Ma Xiaotao, who had fought him earlier.

Ma Xiaotao was just too powerful. Even after being infused with the Starglory Spell, Huang Heyun had still felt completely helpless. He was clearly aware that Ma Xiaotao was stronger than Dai Yueheng. After they defeating Dai Yueheng, their next target would be Ma Xiaotao!

Hence, Huang Heyun did not unleash his ﬁfth soul skill to defeat Dai Yueheng according to the original plan. Instead he used his third soul skill. A thousand year soul ring skill was signiﬁcant weaker than a ten thousand year soul kill. However, Dai Yueheng coughing up blood and seemed to be on the verge of falling. With his comrades supporting him, he had felt that a thousand year soul skill backed with the power of a Soul Sage was enough to ﬁnish him off. By this, he could conserve his soul power to deal with Ma Xiaotao. Using soul skills with the combined power of four people caused the toll on his body to be rather big. The reason why they combined only four of them and not ﬁve was because no one could handle the accumulation of ﬁve individual soul powers.

Against any other person, Huang Heyun’s decision would have been correct. However, Dai Yueheng was from Shrek

Academy. He was a monster, and a very experienced one at that. Knowing that he had no room to escape, his potential was stimulated. In a short span of time, he managed to pin point Huang Heyun’s ﬂaw.

The result of the infusing four people’s soul power into one person boosted his soul power to tremendous heights. However, there was also a drawback. This drawback was very simple: their attacks became very rigid.

While the Demontiger’s Heavenshock was full of power and speed, it lacked ﬂexibility. Dai Yueheng managed to unleash his strongest soul skill under the support of his three strengthening skills.

White Tiger’s Extermination!

Using this close-combat skill allowed him to dodge the charge of the Demontiger’s Heavenshock. Turning around, he managed to forcefully disperse this attack while taking six consecutive strikes from the side.

Although Dai Yueheng vomiting more blood, he took advantage of the situation and dashed towards Bei Bei in the distance.

After losing their opportunity, another drawback was revealed. The four of them lacked dexterity. With Dai Yueheng’s cultivation, it was not easy for his opponent to force him to take another blow without determining his exact location.

“Idiot.” Princess Jiu Jiu could not help but curse. As the saying went, “A weak teammate does more harm than a strong opponent.” What added to her misery was that her Star Barrier had collapsed with a loud, booming sound.

……

“The effect of your martial soul fusion skill, the Golden Road, is to melt and degrade. It is a combination of the light element and spiritual power. This skill of yours only ﬁres in a straight line but will have no problems hitting on a stationary barrier. Even if the opponent’s defense-type soul skill isolates other elements, all you have to do is to control the power of

degradation within the Golden Road and convert it into the power to melt,” said Electrolux.

……

When the Golden Road struck the Star Barrier, Huo Yuhao could clearly feel the collision between the Golden Road and the Star Barrier.

In the past, the Golden Road had passed through everything in a straight line whenever it was shot. This was the ﬁrst time it was blocked. However, the instant the bright, tri-colored radiance was blocked, it spread over the Star Barrier.

Huo Yuhao suddenly felt something in his mind being stirred. A wave of weird power passed from his forehead and guided his mind to his Golden Road. With the help of the strange power, he was able to clearly differentiate the concepts of melting and degradation.

Huo Yuhao controlled his spiritual power and converted the power of degradation into that of melting. To him, everything

happened very slowly, but in reality, it all was completed in the blink of an eye.

Chapter 110 The Second Fusion Skill!

“What’re you waiting for? When that hard barrier softens, you have to break it.”

……

The Golden Road ended, revealing Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong’s bodies. Huo Yuhao loosened his arms and stretched out his hands, while Wang Dong raised his right hand.

They looked at each other, and saw a reﬂection of their own bodies in each other’s eyes. At this moment, their souls were connected.

Huo Yuhao cupped Wang Dong’s right hand within his two palms as if he was protecting the most valuable treasure in the world. The instant his palms closed, Huo Yuhao’s hands turned ice-white. On the other hand, Wang Dong’s right hand turned a strange dark-gold. The three palms interlocked, causing a terrifying stream of air to suddenly surge from their bodies.

The originally thick icy mist quickly rose into the air like a mushroom cloud, causing an indescribable sense of awe to appear with it. At this moment, the only people who could truly feel and see what was going on were Ling Luochen and Xu Sanshi.

They were completely unable to describe how shocked they were feeling right now. The scene unfolding in front of them was just that shocking!

The instant the intense white light interweaved with the dark-gold light, Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong’s ﬁgures vanished. Right after that, a slender ﬁgure quietly appeared behind that light.

This ﬁgure looked around two or so meters tall, and it had a slender, tall ﬁgure and a head of black hair draped over its shoulders. Its gorgeous changshan seemed to have been inlaid with diamonds, causing it to emanate a resplendent light. His eyes were jade-green; it wasn’t an abstruse jade-green, but one that ﬂickered with the light of a gem, and was ﬁlled with boundless might. In terms of appearances alone, he looked 80% similar to Huo Yuhao. Perhaps, this was simply how he would look after growing up.

The instant he appeared, the Icemist in the air started to surge towards him at an astonishing rate, making it seem as though the rivers were ﬂowing back into the sea. Even Ling Luochen’s own soul power started to be swallowed at a rapid pace.

Ling Luochen was relatively clever, and thus she didn’t try to resist or obstruct it. On the contrary, she did all she could to release her Icemist. Although the Icemist started to rapidly vanish, Ling Luochen was able to maintain the portion of it that covered them.

This was a ﬁgure that was clearly incorporeal, yet felt very real. He extended his right hand, plunging it into the ball of light in front of him. The light suddenly solidiﬁed, and the ﬁgure suddenly vanished into thin air right after that. The instant he disappeared, Xu Sanshi and Ling Luochen felt the exact same feeling in their hearts--ferocity!

In the next instant, the space in front of the Star Barrier instantaneously shattered. Then, an enormous hammer appeared.

The head of this hammer was as black as ink, but its two ends each had a sharp protrusion that was jade-green. On the other hand, its handle was fully inlaid with diamonds.

The instant it appeared, a peculiar, never-before-seen whimpering sound rang out in the air. It was as though the air itself was weeping due to its existence. The two protrusions on the head of the hammer shone with a jade-green light, and the head itself shone with a dark-gold light. The handle of the hammer also shone with an icy-white light, and the three different colors simultaneously exploded out. Right after that, the super hammer that was more than ten meters long, and whose head was more than three metres wide, turned blood- red in color.

All other traces of light seemed to have been swallowed by that blood-red light, and even the Star Barrier in front of it started to tremble.

It was as though an invisible hand was controlling this enormous hammer. In the next instant, it fell.

The only thing Princess Jiu Jiu could see was the instant that the hammer descended. She only felt like a streak of blood had

ﬂashed past the outer parts of the Star Barrier, and right after that, she suddenly felt an enormous blow strike her chest. Then, a clang that resembled the sound of shattering came from the Starcrown on her forehead.

The rhombus-shaped gem set in the center of the Starcrown actually started to show cracks. Right after that, the Star Barrier instantly collapsed.

The bloody light disappeared without a trace, and the Icemist on the tournament stage vanished along with it.

Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong reappeared on the tournament stage. Only, the current Wang Dong was leaning on Huo Yuhao’s back, clearly having lost consciousness.

Huo Yuhao was still clear-headed as he looked forward with a burning gaze in his eyes. He pressed on his forehead with his right hand, then pointed his second, third, and fourth ﬁngers into the air.

Immediately, a mysterious green light ﬂashed through the sky before vanishing. The light, however, was directed towards

the absolute defense barrier that trapped Ma Xiaotao.

Right after he pointed his ﬁngers into the sky, the gaze in Huo Yuhao’s eyes darkened. He seemingly indifferently looked towards the distant Princess Jiu Jiu, then fell to the ground with Wang Dong with a trace of arrogance, but even more satisfaction in his eyes.

“Ding--”

The metal ball located above the Absolute Defense Barrier suddenly let out a crisp cry, then shook violently. The originally-dazzling golden light it emitted started to darken at an astonishing rate, before vanishing within two breaths of time. The metal ball turned grey, and the barrier it generated became extremely thin.

Without the Icemist concealing the stage, the audience and the Star Luo Emperor were all able to clearly see what was going on.

Just like his younger sister, the Star Luo Emperor suddenly blurted out, ‘impossible’.

From the outside, the Star Barrier looked like Princess Jiu Jiu’s fourth soul skill. In reality, however, it couldn’t be used easily. The Starcrown’s might far exceeded that of ordinary martial souls, and even a few top-ranked ones wouldn’t be able to go against it. However, its wielder needed to cultivate arduously in order to use it.

A soul master who possessed the Starcrown could only cultivate at night, as they would need to absorb star power to further increase their cultivation. Furthermore, their soul skills could only be used by consuming some of their accumulated star power. Of which, the skill that needed the most star power was the Star Barrier.

The eighteen gold stars that created the Star Barrier needed a full eighteen days to be fully absorbed. However, the strength of the Star Barrier would continuously increase following its owner’s increase in cultivation; it was an extremely rare and powerful skill that wasn’t affected by the quality of the soul ring that bestowed it. However, its drawbacks were extremely obvious. After using it once, its owner would need to wait eighteen days in order to use it again.

It was because of this exact reason that the Star Barrier’s defensive powers were extraordinarily tyrannical. It wasn’t just a defense skill, but one that allowed the current Princess Jiu Jiu to possess the power of a defense-type Soul Emperor. This was the reason why she and the Emperor were so conﬁdent in this match.

However, this tyrannical defense had been blown apart at this moment. Looking at Shrek Academy’s current abilities, there was no way that any of them should’ve been able to achieve this feat. However, the destruction of the Star Barrier signiﬁed one thing--that was subjugation. One of Shrek Academy’s four students who were previously hidden within the Icemist was able to subdue the Star Barrier.

Right after that, an even more astonishing scene occurred. A problem had suddenly come up with the powerful Class 7 soul tool that was known as the Absolute Defense Barrier.

……

“The Soul-Devouring Carving Knife didn’t disappear after I puriﬁed it. The enormous life energy contained within the Life Gold isn’t something that you’re able to fathom. Because of

that, you now possess a completely new carving knife, one that can fully display the true might of the Life Gold. After thinking about it for a while, I’ve decided to name it the Life Guardian. This Life Guardian can not only bestow life energy, but also take it away. This special ability of stripping one’s life energy away shall be called Judgement, and the life energy taken away will be absorbed back into the Life Guardian.

Every single person in this world possesses life energy, but Judgement only targets existences which do not guard their own life energy. If you encounter any resistance, it’ll lose all of its effects. However, it can be a very powerful weapon against the soul tools from your world.”

-Electrolux

……

Ma Xiaotao wouldn’t be Ma Xiaotao if she wasn’t able to grasp an opportunity like this. While she was trapped by the Absolute Defense Barrier, she had continuously tried to break free of her bindings.

Just what kind of temper did Ma Xiaotao have? She was basically a can of gunpowder that would explode with just a light spark. However, she absolutely wasn’t the type of person who would let anger go to her head; on the contrary, she had hidden her intelligence under her outward explosiveness.

After launching a few attacks as a test, she understood that she wouldn’t be able to destroy this barrier with her level of cultivation. At the very least, she wouldn’t be able to do it within a short period of time. After that, she made the smartest choice available--that was to directly sit in a cross- legged position within the Absolute Defense Barrier and sense the strength of the barrier while recovering the soul power she had drained earlier. At the same time, she continued to observe what was going on outside the barrier.

Ma Xiaotao knew that she could hasten the destruction of the Absolute Defense Barrier if she were to stake everything on one attack. However, since their opponents had used a soul tool like this to counter her, she understood that she wouldn’t be able to break free like Dai Yueheng had, no matter how she attacked. Since that was the case, she chose to wait patiently.

No matter what tactics their opponents were using, the match wouldn’t be over as long as she wasn’t defeated.

Although Shrek Academy’s overall strength would suffer dramatically if they were to lose her, the team Dai Yueheng led wouldn’t be defeated so easily. At the very least, their opponents would have to pay an extremely heavy price to defeat them. However, a soul tool like this would be going against the heavens if it was able to be used for a long period of time! Because of that, Ma Xiaotao would be able to take her opponents on in her peak condition after the barrier ﬁnally expired.

She had been paying close attention to everything going on on the battleﬁeld, observing each and every one of her opponents and how much they had endured in the battle. What she was waiting for was a chance to counterattack. She had never lacked any conﬁdence, because conﬁdence came from strength. Ma Xiaotao knew that her team would absolutely never fall easily as long as she hadn’t fallen.

However, Ma Xiaotao didn’t think that her chance would come so quickly. The instant the Star Barrier was destroyed, she was greatly astonished. She absolutely didn’t think that the four of them could’ve destroyed the barrier that even Dai Yueheng couldn’t from the outside.

At that moment, Huo Yuhao had an extremely pale face as he supported the unconscious Wang Dong. However, his eyes were just that resolute. Although there was an age difference of seven years between the two, Ma Xiaotao had no choice but to admit that she had been moved by Huo Yuhao’s eyes at that moment.

This resolute, stubborn unyieldingness from a youth who wasn’t even thirteen gave her an indescribable sense of shock. He was like a towering, stable mountain that made people trust him.

After that, Ma Xiaotao witnessed everything occur. The only person who could hear the crisp shattering of the Absolute Defense Barrier was her, who was trapped within it. She didn’t

know how Huo Yuhao had done it, but she didn’t need to ponder this question at this moment.

Her silent ﬂames once again rose into the sky, and when her phoenix once again cried out in her voice, its ﬂames had reached an incomparably terrifying degree of heat.

It carried a few traces of demonism within it, causing Ma Xiaotao’s eyes to turn dark red. Right after that, her phoenix wings once again blossomed from her back. However, the ﬂames that appeared alongside her wings were now dark red as well!

The sonorous cry of a phoenix carried boundless tyrannical might and anger as it mightily rang out, its demonic, dark red ﬂames covering its wings surging forth as it did so. The Absolute Defense Barrier completely shattered in its wake, making it seem as though Ma Xiaotao was just crushing the last weed in her path. At the same time, her body shot out like a cannon shell made of ﬁre.

She didn’t ﬂy towards Princess Jiu Jiu, but the four soul masters who were grouped together.

The students from Shrek Academy had never lacked in coordination. The instant Ma Xiaotao started moving, Dai Yueheng exploded out. Although he’d been previously injured, his injuries weren’t severe. His powerful physique that had been strengthened threefold had turned him into the person with the sturdiest body on the battleﬁeld. His body was practically intertwined with Ma Xiaotao’s as he rushed out, but the person he chose to run towards was Jiu Jiu.

The soul master in front of Princess Jiu Jiu who hadn’t made a move since the start of the battle ﬁnally stood up. A pair of enormous wings suddenly unfurled, blocking Dai Yueheng’s path like a set of wooden doors.

This was Sheng Yi, a defense-type Soul King whose martial soul was the Gigant Eagle.

Although Jiu Jiu’s Starcrown was powerful, its drawbacks were very obvious. The Starcrown wouldn’t give too much of a boost to its user’s physique, and because of that, Princess Jiu Jiu’s physique was still one of her weaknesses, even if she had an auxiliary-type soul skill strengthening her defense, or even her attacks. Because of that, she always had this defense-type Soul King protecting her, so as to avoid any accidents from occuring.

Dai Yueheng’s eyes went wide as he roared, “Screw off!”

He charged tyrannically forward, then used both his palms to aggressively catch the wings which were swatting at him.

As a defense-type Soul King, Sheng Yi wasn’t so easily taken care of. His second and fourth soul rings lit up simultaneously, and his enormous wings turned a metallic grey, then burst forth with a metallic light.

An ear-piercing sound caused by friction rang out, accompanied by countless sparks ﬂying about. It seemed as though both parties were metallic weapons which were clashing with each other.

Considering how much rage Ma Xiaotao had pent up inside her, how could Dai Yueheng’s mood be any better? As the eldest son of the White Tiger Duke, the arrogance he possessed in his heart was no less than hers. If it weren’t for the disparity between their cultivation levels, he would’ve fought for the position of leader already. Although he looked much more mature than his younger brother from the outside, there wasn’t too big of a difference between them on the inside.

There was no need to even mention how depressed Dai Yueheng had been feeling, seeing that he had been ganged up on and even injured by his opponents. At this moment, he was only facing a single opponent! More importantly, Princess Jiu Jiu had been heavily injured by the destruction of the Star Barrier, and her Starglory Spell had been interrupted as well. In other words, her companions couldn’t provide her any

assistance at all.

In a situation like this, the outcome of a battle between a Soul King and a Soul Emperor could be imagined.

If an ordinary assault-type Soul Emperor fought against a defense-type Soul King, the latter might be able to hold their ground for a few breaths. Unfortunately, Sheng Yi was facing a Soul Emperor who possessed the White Tiger, one who was not only extremely good at close-combat, but one who had an extremely tyrannical physique!

Although Sheng Yi’s wings--which were as tough as metal-- blocked Dai Yueheng’s path, the latter shoved his sharp claws into the former’s wings amidst an ear-piercing sound caused by friction.

Dai Yueheng let out another explosive roar, and a ﬁerce, white light surged through his eyes as he unleashed the White Tiger’s Extermination for the second time.

However, his attack struck only air this time. A powerful absorption force suddenly descended from the sky, causing Sheng Yi to vanish into thin air; only, his wings now had ten additional gashes on them.

This time, the Heavenﬁend Douluo had made a move. There was no doubt that Sheng Yi would die if he were to take on Dai Yueheng’s attack, so he had no choice but to intervene in a situation like this. While he was able to guarantee Sheng Yi’s safety, this was equivalent to announcing his departure from the match.

While everything over at Dai Yueheng’s side went smoothly, Ma Xiaotao revealed the strength beﬁtting of the Continental Advanced Academy Soul Duelling Tournament’s reigning champion.

A dark red ﬁre propelled her body forward, making it seem as though she was a real phoenix--an Evil Fire Phoenix.

There was no doubt about it--she was now using the completely unrestrained evil ﬁre. In the past, she would always suppress the evil aura hidden within her phoenix ﬂames during battles or cultivation sessions; that was the only way she could prevent it from affecting her state of mind. However, suppressing it would undoubtedly affect her cultivation to a certain extent. This was because she would have to use some of her energy to suppress it. Not only that, but the evil aura within her was a part of her strength in the ﬁrst place!

At this exact moment, the dark red ﬂames she revealed were her true, unsuppressed power--the full power of the Evil Fire Phoenix.

From another standpoint, the strength of the current Ma Xiaotao’s martial soul had already exceeded that of her ancestor from the ﬁrst generation’s Shrek’s Seven Monsters, Ma Hongjun. This was because Ma Hongjun had relied on a heavenly treasure to resolve the issue of his evil aura, turning his martial soul into the pure Fire Phoenix in the process. Although the puriﬁed Fire Phoenix was even more overwhelmingly powerful, it lacked the blazing strength that came from the evil aura.

Without the support of the Starglory Spell, Huang Heyun’s team of four were bogged down for a brief moment. They were originally pursuing Dai Yueheng, but seeing Ma Xiaotao suddenly charge towards them had left them in a daze. Furthermore, they had been facing Ma Xiaotao horizontally. In other words, Ma Xiaotao was now suddenly ﬂanking them on the side.

The lack of coordination that stemmed from a team of four once again appeared, as the four of them could only quickly turn around. Huang Heyun was left in an even more ﬂustered state. He had been previously suppressed by Ma Xiaotao, and her sudden appearance after breaking through the Absolute Defense Barrier had crushed him in terms of impressiveness.

Panicked, Huang Heyun didn’t dare to waste any time. He forcefully pounded his own chest, and his eyes instantly turned blood-red. Then, he let out a tiger’s roar, causing a black hurricane to instantly sweep towards Ma Xiaotao.

This was Huang Heyun’s ﬁfth soul skill, his strongest attack-- Darkness Hurricane. Strengthened by his three teammates, this attack of his even seemed to have some substance to it. The instant it appeared, the air on the tournament stage seemed to

melt. At the same time, this hurricane had a strong absorption force, which was now targeting Ma Xiaotao.

After using this attack, Huang Heyun’s veins turned purple. He was nearing the limit of his physical endurance, and there was a high chance that he would self-destruct if he were to use another soul skill.

Dugu Shangshan, who was standing behind him, had no choice but to remove his hands from Huang Heyun’s body. He now took Huang Heyun’s place, but the former quartet now turned into a trio.

This attack had been launched by the combined powers of four people, and it was even Huang Heyun’s strongest soul skill. From their point of view, even if it wasn’t able to directly take down Ma Xiaotao, it would at least be able to severely injure her.

However, they didn’t expect the valiant Ma Xiaotao to choose to not take it on directly.

With a sudden ﬂap of her enormous wings of ﬁre, Ma Xiaotao accelerated as she was sucked towards the powerful hurricane.

At this moment, her advantage in terms of cultivation was revealed. They were both Soul Emperors, but Dai Yueheng was ﬁve ranks lower than her. She was already Rank 67, and she wasn’t too far from the Soul Sage rank. After releasing her full power and bringing the level of her ﬂames to that of evil ﬁre, even a Soul Sage who had fused their element with their soul power might possibly lose to the current her.

Although she couldn’t break free of that absorption force, a strange scene occurred as she ﬂapped her wings. It wasn’t her who was drawn into the Darkness Hurricane, but the hurricane that was drawn towards her.

As her feet spouted jets of blazing ﬂame, Ma Xiaotao’s body shot out. The Darkness Hurricane that was nearing her immediately slowed down greatly as it was blasted by the two lava-like jets of dark-reddish ﬁre. Furthermore, it even seemed to be damaged slightly, causing it to be reduced slightly in size. However, Ma Xiaotao was able to borrow the force from her two leg soul bones to explosively increase in speed. Flying in an arc, she brushed past the pursuit of the Darkness Hurricane and ﬂew straight towards Dugu Shangshan’s trio.

Her ﬁfth soul ring lit up in midair, and the phoenix ﬂames by her side suddenly formed halos of ﬁery light. These ﬁery halos swept behind Ma Xiaotao, and she let out a ﬁerce shout as she once again sped up. Her ﬁgure vanished within the dark-red ﬂames, and she transformed into a true Fire Phoenix as she instantly appeared in front of Dugu Shangshan.

An even stranger scene appeared, as the ﬁery rings of light that were swept backwards seemed to damage the Darkness Hurricane. Although they weren’t strong enough to completely destroy it, they were still able to obstruct and weaken it time over time. By the time that Ma Xiaotao had reached Dugu Shangshan, over half of the Darkness Hurricane had dissipated.

Dugu Shangshan was simply unable to do anything. Evading her was completely impossible; how could the the three of them defeat Ma Xiaotao in speed?

His ﬁfth soul ring ﬂashed as he released the Darkdemon Tiger’s most powerful attack. However, the three Soul Kings behind him were no longer able to obstruct the raging Ma Xiaotao’s advance.

“Boom—” The entire tournament stage was engulfed in an explosion of dark red ﬁre. The instant that Ma Xiaotao’s blazing ﬂames blossomed out, the audience was only able to see three ﬁgures soar into the air, rescued by the Heavenﬁend Douluo. However, the three of them had suffered heavy

injuries during the violent collision between the two parties; the Nine Transformations Soulrite behind them had been shattered completely.

Oh, wait, four ﬁgures had shot into the air. Huang Heyun had also been rescued by the Heavenﬁend Douluo after collapsing due to overexertion.

It wasn’t just Dai Yueheng and Ma Xiaotao who’d simultaneously ended their battles: Bei Bei also defeated his extremely troublesome opponent on the other side of the arena at that moment. Of course, he hadn’t just relied on his own power.

The Lightning Falcon was simply too quick, and even possessed the ability to use lightning to some extent. As such, it was able to resist Bei Bei’s paralysis. Fortunately for Bei Bei, his Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon was sufﬁciently strong, thus he’d been able to persist through the entire battle. Granted, he’d been left in an injured and weary state after the Star Barrier broke down.

The instant that the Star Barrier broke down, Chen Xiaojie felt that something was off. He immediately wanted to use his

most powerful attack to deal with Bei Bei, but a black streak had appeared behind the latter at that exact moment. The instant he exploded out with all of his power, a thick and solid shield that was ﬁlled with the aura of ice faced him.

The Mysterious Underworld Displacement had ﬁnally been revealed in this match. Only, the person that had been displaced was on Shrek’s team.

Even though Bei Bei’s injuries were rather heavy, a large majority of them were only ﬂesh wounds. He didn’t hesitate to immediately jump back into the ﬁght when Xu Sanshi took his place. Furthermore, he made his move at just the right time, as Chen Xiaojie’s entire body was in a sluggish state from his previous attack at that moment.

Xu Sanshi naturally wasn’t able to slow Chen Xiaojie down with his strength; his control-type soul skills weren’t of much use towards the incomparably quick Chen Xiaojie, who even had a cultivation level that exceeded his. However, Shrek’s team still had another control-type soul master who’d been trapped for quite a long time!

The instant that Xu Sanshi switched places with Bei Bei, an icy blue halo of light appeared beneath Chen Xiaojie.

This was Ling Luochen’s ﬁfth soul skill, Icebrilliant Halo.

However, the Icebrilliant Halo wasn’t used to trap her opponents, but rather spread toward outwards from the epicenter. Under Ling Luochen’s control, the halo of light instantly spread outwards.

No matter how fast the Lightning Falcon was, it wasn’t faster than the release of a soul skill, not to mention an omnidirectional one. He was naturally struck by it.

Ling Luochen didn’t have Huo Yuhao’s assistance, thus her Icebrilliant Halo didn’t contain his Ultimate Ice. However, it was still completely possible for her to temporarily freeze an agility-type soul master who was both weaker than her, and who didn’t specialise in defense. After all, the fact that control suppressed agility had been known by everyone since the olden days.

And what did a rascal like Xu Sanshi specialise at doing? There was no doubt that he was amazing at pelting a stone at someone who was already on the ground! He immediately used his third soul skill, Mysterious Underworld Force, followed by his ﬁrst, Mysterious Underworld Quake, then smashed his shield into Chen Xiaoji repeatedly.

Even though his attack power had never been worth mentioning, being hit by a shield still wouldn’t feel good. Only people who’d taken the Shield of the Xuanwu Turtle head-on would understand how heavy it felt. Strengthened by the Mysterious Underworld Force, the Mysterious Underworld Quake’s stunning effect landed on Chen Xiaojie’s body and shot him towards the extremely angry Bei Bei.

Bei Bei laughed, his smile as warm and scholarly as ever...

Afterwards, a series of thunderclaps rang out on the tournament stage. Although the Heavenﬁend Douluo was a Titled Douluo, even he felt somewhat nervous rescuing every participant at the last moment. This was especially so considering the fact that three battles had ended simultaneously.

As such, he naturally chose to deal with the person left in the most dangerous condition. Even though Chen Xiaojie was getting wildly beaten up by Bei Bei, he was still a Soul King, while the latter was only a Soul Ancestor. As such, the Heavenﬁend Douluo naturally didn’t think that Chen Xiaojie would suffer any heavy injuries. Regardless of what one said, Bei Bei still looked like a rather warm-hearted person.

Unfortunately, the Heavenﬁend Douluo didn’t know how two-faced this ‘warm-looking man’ was,

Bei Bei had previously been beaten up by Chen Xiaojie god- knows how many times, thus he was now all bruised up! He’d been oppressed for too long! Bei Bei wasn’t a person who would bite the hand that fed him, but he was deﬁnitely a person who would exact vengeance on those that wronged him.

He slapped Chen Xiaojie’s shoulder with his Thunderous Dragon Claw, sending him straight to the ground. Afterwards, Bei Bei leapt into the air, pointed his elbow downwards, and slammed into Chen Xiaojie’s body.

In an even more violent move, Xu Sanshi leapt into the air the same instant that Bei Bei did, and proceeded to slam into

Chen Xiaojie alongside him.

Chen Xiaojie let out a mufﬂed groan from the pain. Before he could regain his ability to move, Bei Bei used Vigorous Thunderbolt, which sent countless tendrils of lightning into his body.

Naturally, Xu Sanshi was left shaking from the lightning that struck him. He immediately sent Bei Bei—who was lying underneath him—ﬂying with a kick.

Once he got up, Bei Bei immediately used eighteen consecutive Thunderous Dragon Claw strikes on Chen Xiaojie. A wave of lightning swept towards him...

Chen Xiaojie resembled a piece of charcoal that had been barbecued by the time that the Heavenﬁend Douluo rescued him from Bei Bei’s clutches.

In reality, only seven or eight breaths of time had passed since the battleﬁeld had changed. What Team Shrek had displayed wasn’t just coordination, but explosiveness.

Six of the seven students from Star Luo Academy had been eliminated. As Dai Yueheng stood in front of the staggering Princess Jiu Jiu, he didn’t attack her. Instead, he gazed at her with a calm gaze.

Princess Jiu Jiu had already retreated to the very edge of the tournament stage at this point in time. The instant she’d been attacked, her mental state had been affected. The match had practically already ended while she was trying to recover her mental state.

Princess Jiu Jiu mind was somewhat blank. She truly wanted to say, I haven’t even used my strongest attack yet. However, she clearly understood that there was no longer any meaning in doing so. Even if her Starcrown was stronger, she couldn’t take on the entirety of Shrek’s team by herself.

“Jiu Jiu, just surrender.” Dai Yueheng said indifferently. The Starlight Auction clearly wasn’t the ﬁrst time that they’d met. The gaze he looked at her with was somewhat mysterious, and even carried a few faint traces of warmth.

“I’m not surrendering to you.” Jiu Jiu said coldly. She then turned around and jumped off the tournament stage,

signalling the end of the team ﬁght.

The match had been quite short, so much so that a large majority of the audience hadn’t managed to witness the most brilliant and intense scenes that had occurred.

However, this intense battle was deﬁnitely the most marvelous and ﬁerce battle in the tournament to date.

From Star Luo Academy completely controlling the tempo of the entire battle, to Shrek Academy’s sudden reversal and explosiveness. The entire battle had not only been intense, but had also been extremely exciting. This was especially true for Shrek’s team, who had been feeling palpitations in their heart throughout the entire ﬁght.

Ma Xiaotao watched her opponent leap down from the stage, then immediately turned around and ﬂew to Ling Luochen. With a hoarse voice, she said, “Help me suppress it, quick.”

At that moment, her eyes were completely dark red, and ﬂickered with a savage light that seemed like it could swallow one whole.

Ling Luochen didn’t dare to waste any time. She quickly placed her icy staff on Ma Xiaotao’s forehead, causing an Icebrilliant Halo to appear and forcibly suppress her evil ﬁre that was about to blow up.

A chilly sensation stimulated Ma Xiaotao’s body, and after a bout of shivering, her expression became slightly better. However, the dark red light in her eyes didn’t completely recede.

After watching Princess Jiu Jiu leap off the stage, Dai Yueheng was left feeling somewhat blank. He quickly turned around, and a slightly strange—and even somewhat chilly— light ﬂashed through his eyes as he looked at the fallen Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong.

Right! It wasn’t him who’d defeated Princess Jiu Jiu. At that time, he’d already received a few injuries. Furthermore, he hadn’t possessed enough strength to even defeat the quartet that had faced him. Perhaps they wouldn’t have been able to immediately chase after him, but they deﬁnitely could’ve taken care of Bei Bei, who’d been trapped by Chen Xiaojie. At that time, how long could he survive in the ﬁght if he were to have to take on the entire team by himself? It would’ve been hard to

tell the results of the following battle. At the very least, the scales of victory would’ve been tipped in his opponent’s favor.

However, the people who’d truly pulled against the strong tide were the two youths who had collapsed. However, just how had they done it? Even though they were now unconscious, they were the true highlights of Shrek’s team in this match. It could be said that they’d dominated the match despite only Ling Luochen and Xu Sanshi clearly witnessing what they’d done.

@Chapter 111: Blaze Amidst the Frost, the Heavenly Emperor's Hammer!

Breaking the Star Barrier and the Absolute Defense Barrier one after another had completely unraveled the Star Luo National Academy’s battle tactics and strategy, and had subsequently changed the entire situation.

Dai Yueheng walked over to Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong and, lost in thought, bent down to support the two of them.

As that moment, a pair of hands ﬂashed before him, and Bei Bei’s face appeared in front of Dai Yueheng’s eyes with a grin. “Let me do it, senior.”

Dai Yueheng was momentarily stunned. He instantly recovered from his mildly dense state of mind and agreed as he took a step back.

“Give him to me.” A pair of searing-hot hands reached out and snatched Huo Yuhao from Bei Bei’s hands just as he was helping him up. Huo Yuhao was clamped under her armpit as

they leapt off the competition stage almost immediately vanished from everyone’s eyes.

The corner of Xue Sanshi’s, who was standing next to Bei Bei, mouth twitched a little as he heaved a sigh and said, “I feel bad for him. However, I have to thank him as well. Xiaotao hasn’t sought me out even once since he arrived.”

“Shrek Academy has defeated Star Luo National Academy in the ﬁrst group battle round of the Semiﬁnals.” The Heavenﬁend Douluo’s indifferent and chilly voice rang out as he announced the results of the battle.

On Shrek Academy’s side, Dai Yueheng and Bei Bei had suffered varying degrees of injuries. As for Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong, they could be said to be used to the exhaustion from competing, as their cultivations were simply too low. Ma Xiaotao had had to endure the toxic backlash from channeling her evil ﬁre, and had only managed to forcibly suppress the evil ﬁre with Ling Luochen’s help. However, she needed Huo Yuhao’s Ultimate Ice to completely recover, which was why she’d snatched him away.

However, the Star Luo National Academy’s situation wasn’t that great either. Princess Jiu Jiu was injured, and Huang Heyun, their frontline assault-type soul master, had absorbed an enormous amount of soul power and had severe internal injuries. He would most likely not be able to ﬁght again for a long time. Dugu Shangshan, another assault-type soul master, as well as the Windﬁre Duo, had been heavily wounded by the piercing strike that Ma Xiaotao had unleashed when she’d triggered her Evil Phoenix. If not for the Heavenﬁend Douluo’s timely intervention, all three of them would have perished beneath the scorching heat of her phoenix ﬂames. The Gigant Eagle soul master was even worse for wear, as his wings, which he relied heavily on, had been torn apart. His wings being severely damaged meant that his origin as a soul master had also been hurt. It could basically be said that not a single one of the Star Luo National Academy’s seven main team members would be able to continue in tomorrow’s single-elimination match at their peak condition. Furthermore, they’d already lost the ﬁrst round, thus they would have to defeat Shrek Academy in the single-elimination round and the 2-2-3 round if they wished to turn the tables.

“How did Yuhao and Wang Dong do that, Teacher Wang?” Dai Yueheng eagerly probed Wang Yan the moment he stepped off the competition stage.

Wang Yan glanced at him, then shook his head. “I didn’t see the situation onstage. How would I know?”

Ling Luochen thought about it, then muttered, “It was most likely a martial soul fusion skill. Their Golden Road seemed to counter Princess Jiu Jiu’s barrier. Afterwards, they used another combined soul skill. That soul skill was unique, and contained a frightening aura of raw power and majesty; I can’t even begin to describe the force behind that strike. However, I know that they were the ones who broke through the weakened light barrier. Could it be that the two of them possess a second martial soul fusion skill?”

Wang Yan eyed Ling Luochen deeply as he lowered his voice and said, “We shall not discuss this any further. Let’s head back.”

Dai Yueheng frowned and said, “Are we not going to watch the epic battle between the Imperial Profound Academy and the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy?”

Wang Yan shook his head and replied, “Can’t you tell from today’s competition? The Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy will never use the tactics that they have specially in

store for us before they’re actually facing us on stage. Watching them will simply be a waste of time—we might as well hurry back and recuperate. Even though we probably won’t receive much resistance from Star Luo National Academy in the single- elimination rounds, we can’t be too careless.”

It was true that the soul skill that Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong had used to overcome the Star Barrier was a new martial soul fusion skill that they’d been experimenting with. To be more accurate, it was their second martial soul fusion skill.

Their combined abilities would only get stronger and stronger as their cultivations increased. This was especially true regarding their compatibility while using their Haodong power. This meant that their energy consumption when using their martial soul fusion skills would be much lower than usual.

At the same time, ever since Huo Yuhao had fused with the Life Gold, his physical willpower endurance had been greatly boosted, which had been the most important part of their ability to use two martial soul fusion skills in a row.

Huo Yuhao would have never experimented with activating two martial soul fusion skills in a row on his own had Electrolux not told him that he could do so. This was because failure would mean his death.

Unleashing a martial soul fusion skill meant that two individuals martial souls and soul powers were being seamlessly fused together, and in turn releasing a different kind of soul skill. However, there was always a single person directing this how it was released.

There was no question that Huo Yuhao was the main director of the Golden Road and the second soul skill, thus it was natural that he had to endure more. When he’d obtained the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion’s bones, enduring the Golden Road no longer proved to be much of a problem. In light of his fusion with the Life Gold, and in addition to his increase in cultivation, using a second martial soul fusion skill right after the ﬁrst had become he and Wang Dong’s current limit. Wang Dong had fallen unconscious because of this, as Huo Yuhao had extracted all of Wang Dong’s soul power whilst being pushed to the limits of his own soul power.

Their second martial soul fusion skill was the product of fusing their other two powerful martial souls: the Ice Jade

Empress Scorpion and the Clear Sky Hammer.

The Spirit Eyes were the main director in the fusion between the Spirit Eyes and the Radiant Butterﬂy Goddess, which meant that it was a fusion between spiritual power and light power in addition to the Purple Demon Eyes’ mighty power, with their Haodong power as the source of activation. Comparatively, the Golden Road was a powerful martial soul fusion skill that leaned towards control rather than destructive capabilities.

What about their other two powerful martial souls, the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion and the Clear Sky Hammer?

There was no question that both entities were the pinnacle of offense and destructive capabilities. One was an Ultimate martial soul, and was known as one of the Extreme North’s Three Heavenly Kings. The other held the reputation for being the most frightening assault-type martial soul in existence. Their fusion could only mean one thing: devastation.

Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong’s second martial soul fusion skill had a corresponding name to the Golden Road.

Blaze Amidst the Frost, the Heavenly Emperor’s Hammer!

The Ice Empress, as an Ultimate Ice martial soul, became the main controlling power as the Ultimate Ice’s elemental destructiveness fused impeccably with the Clear Sky Hammer’s pure cataclysmic power. The result was a illusion of Huo Yuhao’s mature ﬁgure as it ripped through space with a terrifying strike. The devastating power produced in that single instance was already far greater than their combined might using their Haodong power.

Perhaps it was because their martial souls’ compatibility rates were so high, but their level of success during their experiments with martial soul fusion skills in the past few days had been so high that even they hadn’t been able to believe it.

In theory, two soul masters with twin martial souls should be able to unleash four mighty martial soul fusion skills. In fact, they’d already achieved electrifying success with the other three besides the Golden Road. This was the most important reason that Wang Yan had been willing to send the two of them out in the semiﬁnals group battle round. If he hadn’t, their combined strength wouldn’t have been able to compare to He Caitou and Jiang Nannan’s strength without any special abilities.

The outcome proved that Wang Yan’s decision was right: Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong’s two powerful martial soul fusion skills had been the key part in Shrek Academy forcibly turning the tide. Even though Huo Yuhao’s Spiritual Detection Sharing’s power had been greatly weakened, he’d become Shrek Academy’s spark once again in this battle.

However, Huo Yuhao was currently in trouble, as Ma Xiaotao was dragging him back to the Grand Imperial Star Hotel.

Ma Xiaotao rushed into her room like a gust of wind, then slammed the door shut with a bang and locked it.

Her body was like a pile of burning coal at this point, while her skin was covered in a seductive pink layer due to the evil ﬁre’s adverse effects within her body. The dull red color in her eyes had grown a shader darker, and her ﬂowing red hair was so bright that it appeared to be dripping with blood.

She shook Huo Yuhao with all her might and exclaimed in a hoarse and trembling voice, “Get up, you can’t sleep now!”

Huo Yuhao had expended too much soul power, and his body had endured too great a hit from his martial soul fusion skill. He’d been unconscious since the match. Therefore, simply shaking him a few times wouldn’t wake him up, but Ma Xiaotao’s situation was extremely dire at this point.

She’d forcefully suppressed the evil ﬁre within her body with the help of Huo Yuhao’s Ultimate Ice the last time around, and this had changed her attitude towards battle, as she felt as if she could just let herself go. She’d begun to develop a change in mindset, as if she’d forgotten the pain once the scars were healed. This was even more due to Huo Yuhao being by her side. In fact, she’d begun to be a lot less watchful about controlling that evil ﬁre within her body.

Recently, she’d felt the evil ﬁre within her body beginning to stir again, but she hadn’t hurried to ask for Huo Yuhao’s help in suppressing it. She intended to ask for his help after they’d completed the rest of the competition.

She’d triggered the evil ﬁre within her body of her own volition in today’s competition. This had caused her phoenix ﬂames to reach a petrifying level that she was no longer able to control, even if she wanted to suppress it in certain situations. Even though Ling Luochen’s ice element was powerful, the gap

in their cultivations was too great. Her normal ice element couldn’t even compare to Ma Xiaotao’s evil phoenix ﬂames. This in turn led to her not being able to control the evil ﬁre within her body when she returned to the hotel.

Fortunately for her, Huo Yuhao’s body was ice cold, and his body also contained the Ice Empress’ bones. Ma Xiaotao was still able to retain a trace of her rationality by hugging him ever so tightly. However, she couldn’t even tell that the peaks on her chest were currently being pressed out of shape as she squeezed their bodies tightly together.

“What now? What should I do? This fellow just won’t wake up.”

Ma Xiaotao grasped Huo Yuhao’s body impatiently as the evil ﬁre surged periodically within her body. She could acutely feel that she was about to lose control completely. This hotel was inside a bustling district, and she was afraid of the lives that would be lost the moment she went berserk.

As Ma Xiaotao held onto Huo Yuhao as tightly as she could, she darted into the bathroom. She immediately turned on the shower, then plunged both Huo Yuhao and herself underneath the cold water.

Even though the water was cold, it began to sizzle like burning charcoal that had been doused with water once it encountered her boiling-hot body. Thick, dense steam instantly permeated the entire bathroom, covering it in a layer of blurriness.

Ma Xiaotao felt a wave of comfort course through her body once she’d soaked herself inside of the cold water. She heaved a faint sigh of relief, then grit her teeth and started to gradually inject her soul power into Huo Yuhao’s body.

She didn’t know what else to do. Her half-dazed, unstable state of mind had made her irrational, and caused her to completely forget about Huo Yuhao’s current situation. Even though she was trying her best to suppress it, the hysterically

simmering evil ﬁre found its way into Huo Yuhao’s body and immediately began to wreak havoc.

If this was Huo Yuhao before he’d absorbed the Life Gold, just this alone would’ve been enough to cause him grave injury.

However, his passageways were able to endure much more than before. Although his entire body began to tremble violently under this riling stimulation, his passageways still managed to force down the small stream of evil ﬁre that was ﬂowing into his body.

Huo Yuhao ﬁnally came to from his unconscious state because of this. Two arms tightly wrapped around his body were the ﬁrst things he felt—alongside the two extremely soft and springy peaks that were pressed against his chest.

What’s happening? Huo Yuhao was stunned momentarily, then felt the wave of uncontrollable evil ﬁre surging throughout his own body.

Even though he didn’t know the results of the competition after he passed out, he was familiar with evil ﬁre; it had once

caused him unimaginably agonizing pain. He ﬁgured out what was going on almost immediately. Regardless of how the battle had ended, the Ma Xiaotao’s evil ﬁre had relapsed and was out of her control.

Dense steam obscured his vision, but he could clearly hear Ma Xiaotao’s violent breathing. In addition to the fact that both of them were so intimately close, Huo Yuhao’s young body also began to feel somewhat strange despite the pain he felt from the evil ﬁre’s torture.

“Xiaotao… let me grab… that milk bottle…” Huo Yuhao struggled to say.

Huo Yuhao didn’t have much soul power left in his body when Ma Xiaotao began to inject evil ﬁre inside. However, the Ice Empress’ soul bone was still there, and reacted immediately by releasing an Ultimate Ice aura to resist the evil ﬁre.

The extreme cold instantly made Ma Xiaotao feel like she’d just experienced rain after several long years of draught. As she heaved a long sigh of relief, she heard Huo Yuhao’s voice.

Considering their circumstances and her current unstable state of mind she immediately misunderstood his intentions.

“You little bastard. You still want to take advantage of me at a time like this?” Ma Xiaotao was furious, and immediately attempted to push Huo Yuhao aside. However, the moment her body stopped touching Huo Yuhao’s, the evil ﬁre in her body began to rampage once more. She moaned, then hugged Huo Yuhao as tightly as she could once again.

Huo Yuhao yet again experienced the process of two lumps of soft ﬂesh departing from his body and then being forcefully thrust back onto it. The encounter felt magical, but the agonizing sensation of evil ﬁre ﬂowing into his body made him grunt in pain. He subconsciously reached out to push Ma Xiaotao away.

Huo Yuhao wasn’t that short anymore, but he was still a tad shorter than Ma Xiaotao was. He was stuck in Ma Xiaotao’s iron grip, with even his arms trapped within hers, which meant that he was unable to raise them at all. When he reached out with his hands, he naturally pressed them against Ma Xiaotao’s waist. Due to the force of Ma Xiaotao’s forward momentum, Huo Yuhao felt his feet slip beneath him, and he immediately stumbled backwards – his hands slipped down as

a result, and he ended up grabbing Ma Xiaotao’s ﬁrm and perky butt cheeks.

Huo Yuhao’s ﬁrst felt something round in his hands, then intense heat, and ﬁnally that what he was holding was spongy…

“You…” The evil ﬁre in Ma Xiaotao’s body had seeped into her veins, thus she was ten times more sensitive than normal even though her body was scorching hot. She was at risk of losing control in her current situation, yet she was also at her most powerful. Her heightened senses were used against her opponents in normal times, so it was easy to imagine how she felt now that she was using them on herself. No matter how hardy and resilient she was, she was ultimately still an unmarried woman. Even though Huo Yuhao was still young, he deﬁnitely didn’t look like he was only twelve years old. Ma Xiaotao grunted from his grab, and subconsciously hugged him even tighter, the evil ﬁre she’d initially been trying to control instantly pouring into Huo Yuhao with more ferocity.

Heat waves akin to a volcano’s eruption assaulted his body from all over before he could enjoy the exhilaration of what he’d grabbed.

This sudden ﬂow of heat made Huo Yuhao feel like his entire body was melting. As his body was still weak, he was sent into a daze. His hands naturally didn’t let go when this happened— instead, they squeezed even tighter, and his ﬁngers sank into the spongy ﬂesh of her buttocks. The two of them then

maintained this dubious position.

Cold water continuously sprayed downwards, but it was quickly reduced to steam. The entire bathroom now resembled a giant steamer. Huo Yuhao’s clothes had become soaking wet in an instant, and he felt like he was about to be cooked alive.

His Ultimate Ice’s power would gradually reveal itself at times like this, and Ultimate Ice naturally countered the pressure that Huo Yuhao was withstanding from ﬁre-type energy. The Ice Jade Empress Scorpion also retaliated as Huo Yuhao faced this shockwave from all over his body. Of course, even if he hadn’t had a powerful entity like the Ice Empress, Huo Yuhao still wouldn’t have just melted from this.

Chilly air quickly spread from the Ice Empress’ bones and protected his internal organs. The evil ﬁre was powerful, but there was nothing it could do except be dispelled, as its adversary was Ultimate Ice.

Huo Yuhao’s spiritual sea had been developed greatly ever since he’d ingested the Life Gold. Not only had his spiritual power been boosted, but his control over his own body had also become a lot better than before. Neither the Ice Empress, the Skydream Iceworm, or Electrolux could easily take over his body anymore.

However, the Ice Empress could still control the power that she had sealed within Huo Yuhao’s body.

If the searing evil ﬁre that invaded Huo Yuhao’s body reached his heart, Huo Yuhao would be done for; how could the Ice Empress sit by and watch this unfold? The moment she felt that something wasn’t right, she’d lifted a corner of her seal, causing the Ice Jade Scorpion tattoo on Huo Yuhao’s back to glimmer into view. An icy aura instantly ﬂowed through his body and forcefully dissipated Ma Xiaotao’s dense, blisteringly hot phoenix ﬂames.

The Ice Empress wouldn’t have dared to attempt something like this last time, as Huo Yuhao’s passageways had not only just suffered being baked beneath the waves of Ma Xiaotao’s evil ﬁre, but now had to sustain another rush of extremely cold air. It was possible that Huo Yuhao’s body would directly crumble on the spot. However, it was different now, as

Electrolux was no longer just a trace of divine sense now that Yuhao had absorbed Life Gold.

The Pearl of Life hidden within his spiritual sea began to glow with dense volumes of life energy at the same time as when the Ice Empress made her move, and was released alongside the energy that the Ice Empress had unleashed. This way, Huo Yuhao’s passageways would possess a large amount of life energy and sustenance, in turn making it much harder them to break apart. His body was being reﬁned by the clash of ice and ﬁre yet again.

The entire process was actually quite quick, but Huo Yuhao had already gone through an extreme case of a twin tribulation of ice and ﬁre. His body shivered from head to toe due to the cold, and he felt as his he’d been transformed into a water crystal once the heat receded and his entire body was frozen. His whole body felt as if it had become transparent.

Ma Xiaotao’s felt something completely different; she felt that she’d discovered an avenue to vent the evil ﬁre stuck inside her body, and immediately funneled her evil ﬁre towards it with lightning speed. This process made her feel extremely relaxed and comfortable. However, right at that moment, Huo Yuhao’s hands—which were still grasping her buttcheeks—

turned cold, and two streaks of extremely chilly energy ﬂowed through her hips and into her body.

This sensation was extremely peculiar. She didn’t have a vast amount of life energy protecting her passageways like Huo Yuhao did, but her cultivation was enough that her passageways were resilient enough to resist the intense cold. The evil ﬁre from before had ﬂicked at her heartstrings continuously, and she’d had an instant and obvious reaction when Huo Yuhao had grabbed onto her butt cheeks. Her hips had also been burning up a moment ago, but when they turned ice-cold the next, the combination of heat and cold caused an inexplicable sensation to course throughout Ma Xiaotao’s entire body.

“Mmmm…” Ma Xiaotao began to quiver vigorously. Even though she’d already found an avenue to release the evil ﬁre within her body, she didn’t let go of Huo Yuhao’s body, instead hugging him tighter instead. The gasping sounds she’d been making became more intense as she struggled to break free from Huo Yuhao’s hands by shaking her buttocks. However, at that very moment, a ferocious individual such as her suddenly felt like she didn’t have a single ounce of strength in her body. Her hips began to contort while the continuous conﬂict between the chilly sensation and the intense heat inside of her body caused her to enter an unceasing state of convulsions.

“Why am I dealing with my evil ﬁre like this?” Ma Xiaotao thought to herself in between her convulsions. Immediately afterwards, she bit Huo Yuhao’s shoulder as her body’s convulsions grew even more intense. Her face ﬂushed red as the clash of ice and ﬁre within her body that resembled

nirvana ﬁnally caused her to let go of all her safeguards; she could no longer control her own emotions.

Fortunately, Huo Yuhao was still in a daze, and the tribulation of ice and ﬁre that he’d just experienced had affected his entire body from top to bottom. His organs and passageways were changing as a defensive mechanism, and his soul power had been swiftly replenished after the Ice Empress lifted her seal. It felt as if his entire body had entered a special state of meditation.

The two of them maintained their strange hugging position while they stood inside the bathroom, both their minds slowly becoming even blurrier.

The thick steamy mist inside the bathroom gradually dissipated, and eventually diffused outwards as layers of icy mist and plain traces of frost began to appear around them. The bathroom was extremely tranquil, with the only thing

disturbing the peace being the faint light radiating from the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion tattoo on Huo Yuhao’s back.

Neither of them knew how much time had passed. Ma Xiaotao was the ﬁrst to slowly come to from her state of deep sleep. When she regained her senses, the ﬁrst thing she felt was icy coldness. It was something that she’d never felt before, and she shivered uncontrollably.

This tiny movement of hers was small, but inﬁnite tiny cracking sounds rang out. She exclaimed in surprise when she saw piece after piece of thin ice break off of her body and fall down to the ground.

The ice wasn’t the only thing that shattered into pieces. Her clothes, which had been roasted and frozen in turn and thus become extremely fragile, separated at the seams as well. Ma Xiaotao didn’t have a single thread on her body by the time all the ice had fallen to the ground.

“Ah –” Ma Xiaotao gasped softly, but realized she couldn’t move at all. She felt as if all the blood vessels in her body had been frozen solid, and her blood circulation was unbearably slow. She couldn’t even sense a single trace of her phoenix ﬂames, let alone the evil ﬁre. It felt as if her entire body had gone into stasis, and she was just a statue made of ice.

Ma Xiaotao’s movement shocked Huo Yuhao awake. A person waking up would naturally and subconsciously move his or her body, and the thin layer of ice over Huo Yuhao’s body broke and drifted to the ground as well. He was in the same situation as Ma Xiaotao – besides the Twenty Four Moonlit Bridges around his waist, every other piece of fabric on his body broke apart and fell to the ground.

“Ah –” Huo Yuhao exclaimed in similar fashion before he immediately found that he could only see a patch of white before him.

“What are you shrieking about?! And you shouted even louder than I did, as if you just suffered a loss.” Ma Xiaotao was furious.

Huo Yuhao ﬁnally saw the person before him clearly. How would one describe the scene before his eyes? Extreme perkiness, buxom, tender and delicate bright-red peaches, and… and… “Close your eyes!” Ma Xiaotao said indignantly.

Huo Yuhao recovered at once, and hurriedly covered his vital parts with his hands as he closed his eyes at once. However, what he just saw had been imprinted in the deep recesses of his mind. In fact, he felt as if he could see with more clarity with his eyes closed.

Ma Xiaotao was still panting faintly. She began to feel a touch of warmth as her blood ﬂow started to smooth out. Her physical strength was far superior to normal people, after all.

She recited her mental cultivation technique in her mind and the phoenix ﬂames within her body were gradually awoken. Ma Xiaotao realized, to her intense shock, that the suppression of evil ﬁre in her body was far more complete than the last time. There seemed to be a black pearl within her soul power that was located in the center of her pubic region. Furthermore, her own soul power also became a lot clearer and brighter, and there wasn’t a single vestige of evil ﬁre to be found.

Ultimate Ice was so powerful! Ma Xiaotao ﬁnally comprehended how inappropriate it was for her to seek Huo Yuhao’s help to suppress the evil ﬁre, as Huo Yuhao’s body was clearly exhausted, and he had overdrafted his energy back then.

“Hey, are you okay?” Ma Xiaotao asked softly.

“I’m ﬁne.” Huo Yuhao had a feeling as if he wanted to cry, but there were no tears in his eyes. A young virgin boy like him was simply just full of vitality and liveliness. He had some natural reactions subconsciously after seeing something he shouldn’t have, and he felt like his hands were unable to cover him up any longer. All he could do was bend his body and point

his buttocks upwards to avoid exposing his buffoonery as much as possible.

Ma Xiaotao heaved a soft sigh of relief and didn’t ask any more questions. Strangely, the bathroom just maintained this tranquil state.

The stiffness in Ma Xiaotao’s body gradually vanished following the phoenix ﬂames’ circulation in her body, and an unprecedented relief and comfort coursed through her entire body, giving her indescribable satisfaction.

Ma Xiaotao really wanted to moan out loud to express her pleasure, and would have if Huo Yuhao hadn’t been there.

Could it be because the evil ﬁre had been entirely suppressed? Ma Xiaotao knew that the answer wasn’t so simple. When her body wasn’t so stiff anymore, she immediately felt something sticky between her legs that made her extremely awkward and uncomfortable. What disturbed her even more was the fact that her long and powerful thighs felt a little weak.

She cursed under her breath, and color returned to her pretty face. She glanced at Huo Yuhao and she had an epiphany as she watched his strange behavior.

She immediately raised her leg, kicked him in the chest and sent him tumbling out of the bathroom.

“Put your clothes on and wait for me outside. I’m not going to let you leave. You’re not allowed to leave.”

Ma Xiaotao’s kick seemed heavy and hard, but it was a force that was meant to push him out, and not injure him. Huo Yuhao rolled once inside the bathroom, got on his feet and barreled outside as if he had just received divine forgiveness.

He hurriedly shut the door behind him once he was out of the bathroom and immediately started to pant in deep breaths.

Torture, this was torture. Besides feeling as if he was being tortured, all he felt was bewilderment. How many distracting thoughts could he have in his mind at such a young age? However, males and females were different, after all, and there was bound to be curiosity about the opposite gender. Still,

seeing something that one shouldn’t have seen would undoubtedly produce a certain measure of fear. Huo Yuhao swiftly put on some clothes he had stored inside the Twenty- Four Moonlit Bridges, and then he was stood just inside Ma Xiaotao’s room feeling extremely unsettled. He really wanted to dart back to his own room, but what if Ma Xiaotao wouldn’t forgive him for running off just like that?

Furthermore, what made him even more anxious and exasperated was the fact that he just recalled the incident where he grabbed onto Xiaotao’s buttocks. He didn’t just see them – he had touched them! What was that?

Ma Xiaotao wasn’t nervous and stressed like Huo Yuhao was. She used her phoenix ﬂames to melt the ice freezing up the water pipes and immediately switched on the shower tap. Flowing water rinsed over her smooth and impeccable skin, and this refreshing sensation instantly increased the invigorating feeling within her body.

She was already nineteen years of age, and she was far more mature than Huo Yuhao in terms of both mind and body. Even though she was still embarrassed about what had just transpired, her current thoughts and feelings were very different from his.

Ma Xiaotao reached up and touched her hot cheeks as she reminisced over her repeated experiences of the tribulations of ice and ﬁre, and the feeling of her arrival at the pinnacle of bliss.

“What a little bastard. Could this be an attempt at revenge?” She immediately recalled Huo Yuhao’s dilemma and predicament inside the Sea God’s Lake – except, it was her this time.

“Whatever the case, I still have to thank him.” Ma Xiaotao gasped once more as she checked the evil ﬁre within her pubic regions. She thought about Huo Yuhao’s panic and bewilderment and she slowly withdrew the smile on her face as she tapped herself on the forehead. What was that? A single episode could be called an accident, but this was the second time. “He’s just a kid. I can’t corrupt him like that.”

Her thoughts stopped there as Ma Xiaotao quickly washed her body, dried herself and found a change of clean clothes before she stepped out of the bathroom.

Huo Yuhao was sitting on the sofa with his head lowered and both hands on his knees. His back was as straight as an arrow, and his appearance was just like a kid who knew he had done something wrong – even his face was ﬂushed red.

Ma Xiaotao found his behavior extremely cute and amusing, and couldn’t help but giggle at the sight.

Huo Yuhao hurriedly stood up as if he had just been shocked. He didn’t even dare to look up at Ma Xiaotao. His head was still lowered as he said, “Xiaotao, I… I made a mistake. It really wasn’t on purpose. I… I messed up.”

“That’s enough. What’s all this talk about messing up? The person saying sorry should be me.” Ma Xiaotao tried to keep her tone as composed as possible as she stepped over to Huo Yuhao and touched his head. “Sit down.”

Huo Yuhao was caught off guard by this amicable behavior. He had thought that she was going to rage at him, considering her typical short temper and ﬁery personality.

Ma Xiaotao pulled on Huo Yuhao to sit him down before she took a seat on the sofa opposite him.

“I’m sorry, Yuhao. The evil ﬁre was already attacking my heart, and I dragged you back here in my dazed state and directly forced the evil ﬁre into your body. Fortunately, I didn’t cause any damage to you. You didn’t do anything wrong – I was the one who made a mistake. I wasn’t thinking straight through all my anger, and triggered my evil ﬁre to attack them, except I forgot you were already exhausted and couldn’t immediately help me suppress the evil hidden within my phoenix ﬂames. Thankfully, you’re okay. Otherwise I’d really regret this till the day I died.”

Ma Xiaotao’s tone was extremely serious and solemn, and her pretty face was full of sincerity.

Huo Yuhao stared blankly at her, but the anxiety and butterﬂies in his stomach had mostly receded.

Ma Xiaotao continued, “Luckily, nothing happened to you. I don’t think you’ll be able to explain what happened, and it’s the same for me. The evil ﬁre was affecting my mind and my rationality. As for what happened afterwards…” Her face

turned red as she said this, and she hurriedly held back her emotions before she continued, “It was just an accident. Everything came about by accident, and I hope this won’t disturb you or cause you any trauma. You’re still young, and you’re not at the age where you should pine after women, so

don’t think too much. What you should be doing is focus on cultivating – do you understand?”

“Yes, yes, I understand…” Huo Yuhao acknowledged repeatedly. He never expected Ma Xiaotao to give a speech like that. While he relaxed his emotions, he developed a certain level of reverence and admiration for this girl before him.

Ma Xiaotao watched his behavior and felt he was getting cuter by the second. She couldn’t help himself, and giggled once more as she said, “Alright, that’s enough. You don’t have to be so prim and proper. Even though I almost messed up big time and I almost hurt you, you didn’t lose out, did you? You’re the ﬁrst one to touch my body besides my family members – and it’s not even the ﬁrst time.”

“I…” Huo Yuhao wanted to explain himself, but had no idea what to say as he blushed again.

Ma Xiaotao laughed and said, “It’s okay. You’re still young, and I don’t mean anything else by it. You’ve touched my body, and that’s it. You’re still a kid, so I’m not about to bicker with you about this. You’re almost eight years younger than me, and you can call me sister if you’re willing to. This way, you can be considered my family, and my reputation and integrity won’t be tarnished. The next time I need your help to suppress evil

will therefore be right and proper. Of course, being my little brother is a good thing – I will take revenge on whoever dares to bully you by roasting him into a suckling pig. How’s that?”

“Sister…” A sour sensation rushed into Huo Yuhao’s nose, and tears poured out of his eyes instantly.

Tears were products of grief, but they were also products of when one was deeply moved. Ma Xiaotao’s words probably didn’t mean much to normal people, but it wasn’t the same for him.

Huo Yuhao had been interdependent with his mother ever since he was a kid, and he had long been used to the hypocritical indifference in the Duke’s Mansion. He had had no other kin besides his mother, who had always swallowed her anger.

He had met Bei Bei and Tang Ya when he ﬁrst joined Shrek Academy, and that was when his icy heart began to gradually change, and the cold sensations in his heart slowly turned into warmth.

Even Wang Dong didn’t know that Huo Yuhao’s thoughts had been extreme and radical when he had ﬁrst moved into the dorm with him, just that Huo Yuhao channeled this extremity into silent determination in cultivation and tried his best to improve himself. Huo Yuhao’s hatred towards the Duke’s Mansion was still very strong at that time, to the point where he wanted to end the White Tiger Duke’s lineage and bloodline once and for all.

Chapter 112: Familial Love

Huo Yuhao was still young, however, and as time passed he became more and more normal under his companions’ inﬂuence. However, he still felt very lonely. After all, companions and friends weren’t family! He had no more relatives left in this world. He cultivated tirelessly to avoid the loneliness and dead silence in his dreams at night.

At this point, tears fell from his eyes because of what Ma Xiaotao had said. “I will take revenge on whoever dares to bully you by roasting him into a suckling pig.”

Elder sister, if only he had an elder sister. She could openly ask him for help to suppress the evil ﬁre, protect him and take care of him. The phrase ‘elder sister’ was a very unfamiliar term to him.

“Why are you crying?” Ma Xiaotao was stunned as she saw Huo Yuhao crying. Huo Yuhao leapt up from the sofa towards her and gave her a tight hug. He wailed as he hugged her.

He was bawling hysterically to vent his emotions. He didn’t even realize that he had buried his head in Ma Xiaotao’s chest as he wept.

Ma Xiaotao was in a daze. A wave of distress surged within her heart after that. Although she was unsure why Huo Yuhao was crying so pitifully, she could clearly sense the change in his emotions. He developed a reliance on her as he bawled.

All females possess maternal instincts. It was just a matter of how strong they were. Ma Xiaotao might seem very sturdy in front of others, but she was actually very delicate. Those who usually seemed tough were actually the ones who were the most vulnerable internally. Huo Yuhao’s wailing sparked the kind, maternal instincts that resided within her.

She patted his back lightly and did not mutter any words of comfort. She felt that letting him cry his heart out like this was the best for him.

Huo Yuhao was crying very sadly. The venting of his emotions caused his tears to fall uncontrollably.

He recalled his predicament when he was at the Duke’s Mansion at a very young age. He was afraid of winter. Every winter, he would shiver in the cold with his mother at night. In the day, he still had to help his mother perform chores outside. His mother’s hands were already frozen, but she did laundry for the higher-class servants in the Duke’s Mansion in exchange for some low-quality grease for him to rub on his hands so that he wouldn’t freeze up.

The look in his mother’s eyes was so kind and amiable. But it also carried a tinge of sorrow that could never be wiped away.

He deeply recalled that his mother was crying very sorrowfully once. That’s because he asked her, “Mom, when can we ever be full?”

“Mom, when can we ever be full?” Huo Yuhao talked in his sleep.

This simple sentence caused Ma Xiaotao’s body to tremble. She teared up as she thought of how much bitterness Huo Yuhao had experienced when he was young.

“Mom, mom…” Huo Yuhao muttered under his breath as he wailed. His tears had already drenched Ma Xiaotao’s shirt. However, he was unaware, and gradually fell into a deep sleep in Ma Xiaotao’s arms.

He cried for 15 minutes until he fell asleep without drying his tears. Ma Xiaotao hugged him lightly.

Perhaps he missed the feeling of being in his mother’s arms when he was young, but Huo Yuhao placed one of his hands on Ma Xiaotao’s chest very naturally. But Ma Xiaotao was not angry with him for doing so. She only felt that he was very pitiful.

Everyone would miss their mother. But from the way he cried, how could it be that he only simply missed his mother? Ma Xiaotao could sense the sorrow that was deeply ingrained in his bones. She also heard some of his childhood stories when he talked in his sleep.

She did not place Huo Yuhao on the bed directly. Ma Xiaotao hugged him as she leaned on the bedside. She allowed him to snuggle in her arms and continued to pat his back softly.

It was early still in the morning when their match had ended. But right now, the Grand Imperial Star Hotel lit up with bright lights as night approached.

Huo Yuhao slept very soundly and sweetly. In his dream, his mother had come back to life. He felt his mother’s warmth as he laid in her arms. Little Yuhao had never felt so peaceful before.

Mom, mom…

He murmured continuously as he stuck close to his mother in her arms. There were no more tears, but warmth and longing affection.

By wailing bitterly, he had unleashed the sorrow and hatred that he had suppressed for so long. The warm hug left him completely relaxed. Maybe the knot in his heart had not been completely untied, but at least it was no longer a dead knot anymore.

A man’s growth would never be far away from a woman. A mother, sister, girlfriend, wife or daughter could not be

missing from a man’s life. In Ma Xiaotao’s sister-like or mother-like arms, Huo Yuhao’s body and mind were both maturing subconsciously.

When the ﬁrst ray of sunlight passed through the window to the bedside at dawn, it landed on Huo Yuhao’s face.

The golden ray caused the sleeping youth to slowly wake up.

His entire body was warm, and he was feeling extremely comfortable. His soul power coursed freely in his body, and his heart felt an indescribable carefreeness. It was as if all his accumulated negative emotions had been vented.

“So comfortable…” He turned his head around unwillingly to avoid the beaming sunlight. But the abnormally soft pillow caused Huo Yuhao’s consciousness to become a little clearer.

As he moved his ﬁnger, an elastic force was exerted on his ﬁngertip. Huo Yuhao was truly awake now. He opened his eyes and saw a lazy but serious-looking face watching him weirdly, whereas his hands were placed on the upper chest of this person, and he was even grabbing this person’s chest.

“Sister Xiaotao, this… this is a misunderstanding.” Huo Yuhao relaxed his grip quickly and crawled up awkwardly. His face blushed.

“What did you call me?” Ma Xiaotao straightened her face, “Did I hug you one night for you to call me this?”

Huo Yuhao only regained his awareness now. He lowered his head as he said, “Elder sister.”

Ma Xiaotao sat up straight and stretched her arms and aching body before rubbing Huo Yuhao’s head and saying, “Go back to your room and wash up.”

Ma Xiaotao’s indulgent action relieved the embarrassment and nervousness that Huo Yuhao felt. He lifted his head to look at her, “Elder sister.”

Ma Xiaotao smiled and replied satisfactorily, “Oh, that’s better.” As she said that, she dragged Huo Yuhao down from the bed and tidied up his shirt. “Go wash up and eat

something. It’s not early anymore. We still have to compete later.”

“Alright.” Huo Yuhao replied. Although his face was still blushing, his eyes were ﬁlled with affability as he looked at Ma Xiaotao.

He walked towards the door to her room as he spoke. When he was about to open the door, Ma Xiaotao said suddenly, “Yuhao, I would like to hear your story when you are willing to tell me.”

Huo Yuhao turned and smiled brightly at Ma Xiaotao, “I will.” Ma Xiaotao sensed the intimacy she had with Huo Yuhao as their gazes met.

Huo Yuhao breathed out heavily after he closed the door behind him. He felt extremely energized, which was something he had never felt before. Even the soul power in his body had been enhanced. He almost screamed because of the carefreeness he felt. He wanted to announce to the world that he had an elder sister!

After returning to his room and opening his room door, Huo Yuhao saw Wang Dong sprawled on his bed in an unglamorous sleeping posture. A greater sense of warmth ﬁlled Huo Yuhao’s eyes as he saw Wang Dong. Without a doubt, Wang Dong must have had been waiting for him to return. The both of them

were just exhausted yesterday, and sufﬁcient rest was enough for them to recover.

As he tiptoed to the bedside, Huo Yuhao lifted his hand and slapped Wang Dong’s butt. “Time to wake up.”

“Aiyo.” Wang Dong whined in pain and jumped up.

For some reason, Huo Yuhao compared this slap he gave to Wang Dong to the hug he had given Ma Xiaotao last night…

Wang Dong’s butt was much smaller, but was equally perky.

His butt was very springy even though he was wearing pants.

Wang Dong was dazed for awhile after seeing that it was Huo Yuhao. He then scanned him for a few moments. Following that, he seemed alerted, “You weren’t wearing this yesterday!”

Huo Yuhao replied vey naturally, “Yes! I helped my elder sister suppress her evil ﬁre yesterday. My shirt was burnt, and many parts of it were torn.”

“Elder sister?” Wang Dong’s tone of voice became higher.

Huo Yuhao nodded seriously and said, “Elder sister said that she’s unwilling to accept favors from anyone. If I’m willing to become her kin, she will love and protect me in the future. Wang Dong, do you know that I’m very happy? Ever since mom passed away, I became an orphan. I ﬁnally have kin now.”

Wang Dong felt heartbroken as he looked at the ﬂashing radiance in Huo Yuhao’s eyes. He said almost instinctively, “You still have me!”

When he sensed the weird expression in Huo Yuhao’s eyes, he supplemented his words hurriedly, “We are brothers. Don’t tell me that you don’t treat me as your brother?”

Huo Yuhao chuckled, “It’s different.”

“What’s the difference?” Wang Dong asked stubbornly.

Huo Yuhao replied, “She gives me the feeling my mother did.

Since we are brothers, your gender is totally different!”

“Err…” Wang Dong wanted to say something, but curbed his impulse. He snorted and said, “While you were enjoying your time with your elder sister, I was waiting for you here. If they didn’t let me ﬁnd you, I’d have rushed in already!”

Huo Yuhao laughed and said, “You call this waiting? You didn’t even know that I came in. You were sleeping like a pig.”

“You’re the pig.” Wang Dong leapt towards him. Huo Yuhao turned around to escape and said hurriedly, “Stop playing already. Go and wash up before we have breakfast. We still have to compete.”

“There’s not going to be an individual competition anymore. After the team competition yesterday, the Star Luo National Academy has already conceded defeat. Their main team members are all injured. Who can they send to ﬁght us? We

don’t have to go today. We will also rest tomorrow. It’s the ﬁnal the day after tomorrow!”

After learning that he didn’t need to compete today, Huo Yuhao relaxed. “It’s better not to compete. What happened in the other semiﬁnal match?”

Wang Dong replied, “I was also in a daze, and didn’t see what happened. From what eldest senior said, the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy gained an overwhelming advantage over the Imperial Profound Academy. But today’s individual competition will still continue.”

“Overwhelming advantage?” Huo Yuhao suddenly felt petriﬁed. The Imperial Profound Academy had 1 soul emperor and 6 soul kings. Without considering strategies, their abilities were above the Star Luo National Academy’s. After recalling how Princess Jiu Jiu used a few powerful soul tools to turn the tide against his side, Huo Yuhao felt his head getting heavier.

Wang Dong nodded and said, “I heard that they used less time than us in the team round. From the start to the end, the Imperial Profound Academy was completely suppressed and had no chance. I also heard that the Sun Moon Imperial Soul

Engineering Academy’s team leader has been promoted to a Class 6 soul engineer. He’s very powerful.”

“Yuhao, I had an idea after I woke up yesterday.” Wang Dong started to become excited.

“What idea?” Huo Yuhao asked curiously.

Wang Dong said in a low voice, “Do you think that we are considered 1 person or 2 people when we unleash our martial soul fusion skill?”

Huo Yuhao shook his head at a loss and replied, “It’s not easy to tell. Even if it’s only 1 person, the difference from an ordinary soul master is still very great.”

Wang Dong blinked his large, beautiful eyes and said, “If Senior Xu can use the Mysterious Underworld Displacement to shift us into the middle of our opponents, we can use……”

The two of them had great chemistry. Huo Yuhao understood Wang Dong immediately, “Are you saying… I understand now.

But is this really possible?”

Wang Dong said, “We won’t know if we don’t try. Let’s ask Senior Xu later.”

“Alright.” Huo Yuhao replied immediately.

After they washed up and had their breakfast, they went to ﬁnd Xu Sanshi and relayed their idea to him.

After listening seriously to their description, Xu Sanshi shook his head and said, “I fear that it’ll be very difﬁcult. I might succeed if I can remain in the awakened form of the Xuanwu turtle. The thing is that my Mysterious Underworld Displacement can’t just shift anyone. The prerequisite is that the person I’m trying to shift doesn’t possess any defense-type soul skills that cover a wide area, which will prevent any displacement. It’s just like how I failed when Princess Jiu Jiu used the Starcrown soul skill. When a soul master uses his soul skill, my soul power will be depleted twice as fast if I want to displace him. The stronger the soul skill, the faster the depletion of energy. This continues until the soul skill can’t be used anymore. Let’s not even consider the question of whether you’re 1 or 2 people when the both of you use your martial soul

fusion skill. Purely based on the fact that your martial soul fusion skill is immensely strong, I may not be able to displace the both of you successfully. I may succeed if I am in the awakened form, which will make me close to the rank of a soul king and supplemented by the Mysterious Underworld Force.”

Chapter 113: Heavenquake Axe

Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong were both disappointed as they heard Xu Sanshi’s words. If the Mysterious Underworld Displacement could be used when they unleashed their martial soul fusion skill, it would be a great strategy in a team battle.

“Alright, don’t be like this anymore. At such a young age, the both of you managed to turn the tide in a critical situation. What more do you want? Teacher Wang won’t even allow me to ask you what your martial fusion skill is. However, I saw it that day. Powerful! I would like to try it if there’s an opportunity.”

Wang Dong laughed, “Brother Xu, do you want to try 1 or 2?”

Xu Sanshi snapped, “Nonsense, obviously 1. Do you want me to die?” As he spoke till this point, he revealed a dash of craftiness on his face and continued, “Do the two of you want to see what’s going on in the individual round? But you must both fully recover ﬁrst.”

Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong turned to look at each other, and they could see that they were both starting to become excited.

The Star Luo National Academy had conceded defeat, and would not be participating in the individual round. That’s why today’s match was between the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy and the Imperial Profound Academy. Although Wang Yan did describe how the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy had competed, they had not seen it for themselves. Furthermore, the individual round wouldn’t take up too much of their time.

Huo Yuhao said, “Xu Sanshi, it’s just the three of us?”

Xu Sanshi chortled. “Three of us is enough. Why do we need so many people? Bei Bei and Senior Dai are both still recuperating from their injuries. Yuhao, did Senior Ma do anything to you yesterday?”

Huo Yuhao shook his head and replied, “Elder sister treated me very well.”

Xu Sanshi revealed the same look as Wang Dong earlier, “Elder sister? You’re good! Your progress is quick.”

Huo Yuhao rolled his eyes and said, “Brother Xu, we’ve only acknowledged each other as siblings. She said that if anyone dares to bully me… hehe, you know.”

Xu Sanshi shivered. “You’ve beneﬁted. Does it matter whether it’s your elder sister or younger sister? Let’s rush, we don’t have much time left.”

“Let’s go!” Huo Yuhao, Wang Dong and Xu Sanshi crept out of the hotel as they were driven by their curiosity. As members of Shrek Academy and ﬁnalists of the tournament, they managed to enter the competition venue through the corridor for team members.

At this point, the Imperial Profound Academy and Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy had both entered the competition venue too. While they were in the resting area, the attention of the members of both academies were drawn towards the three of them as they approached. The resting area for Shrek Academy was not empty either. Wang Yan was

sitting there. His brows furrowed as he saw the three of them walking over.

“Teacher Wang.” Xu Sanshi brought Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong to the Shrek Academy’s resting area before greeting Wang Yan.

Wang Yan said, “Aren’t all of you supposed to be resting?

Why are all of you here? Yuhao, are you ﬁne?”

Huo Yuhao shook his head and replied, “Teacher Wang, don’t worry. I have suppressed Senior’s evil ﬁre.” He did not call her elder sister anymore because he did not want to be interrogated anymore. It was best if he said it to everyone once they were gathered.

Wang Yan said, “Alright then. Since this is the case, let’s all watch together.”

The three of them sat beside him, and Xu Sanshi asked curiously, “Teacher Wang, what happened yesterday? I only heard that it was an overwhelming victory. How did the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering manage to do it?”

Wang Yan revealed a bitter smile on his face and replied, “Do you know why I didn’t allow all of you to watch them compete?”

The look in Xu Sanshi’s eyes changed a little. “Were you afraid of shaking our conﬁdence?”

Wang Yan was stunned as he replied, “You are smart. However, this is only one of the reasons. Another reason is that there’s no point in watching them compete.”

His tone became more serious as he continued, “The Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy is obviously very prepared for this tournament. Let me clarify this point. Since they are our biggest rival, I have been monitoring them ever since the tournament started, and watched almost every round that they have competed in. But do you know what I discovered? They have never used the same strategy in each round of the competition, especially during the team matches. Tell me what’s the point of watching them then? It’ll only shake your conﬁdence.”

“Their team leader, Ma Rulong, competed yesterday. He was impeccable. He used 2 Class 7 soul tools to suppress the entire Imperial Profound Academy. The other 6 simply used Soul Tool Fortresses. Think about what kind of scene you will see when 6 Soul Tool Fortresses are ﬁred at the same time. The entire competition stage was raging with attacks. The Imperial Profound Academy was forced off the competition stage by the frightening ﬁrepower before they could even display their true abilities. Their soul emperor was struck the moment he stepped forward and was knocked out of the competition stage. The competition ended after that.”

After hearing Wang Yan’s description, Huo Yuhao’s and the other two’s expressions changed. Although they had expected them to dominate, they didn’t expect them to be so dominant! If this was the case, how would they ﬁght?

Wang Yan continued, “After seeing yesterday’s team match, I think that it doesn’t matter anymore. We’ll just do our best in the ﬁnal.”

Xu Sanshi asked in a low voice, “Teacher Wang, do you think our main team members would have a chance if they came to participate in this tournament?”

Wang Yan replied after pondering for a while, “It’d be difﬁcult for them.”

Xu Sanshi heaved a sigh of relief and said, “Since this is the case, don’t think too much about it anymore. Didn’t you mention before that we’ve already completed our mission by making it to this stage? Whether we win or lose in the future, we’ve earned it. Since we only have one round left, so what if we lose, as long as we give our all? Moreover, it’s not our ﬁrst time creating a miracle. We are Shrek!”

Wang Yan smiled and said, “You are quite open-minded. I will be relieved if all of you carry such a mentality when you compete. Regardless of whether it’s the academy or me, we won’t bother too much about the result. But if we lose, the public’s opinion will bear on all of you. As all of you are still young, I’m afraid that you won’t be able to bounce back from the setback. If that happens, I will be a sinner in Shrek’s eyes.”

Xu Sanshi laughed. “No way! Teacher Wang, you are thinking too much. The academy gave us this chance because we are all determined and resilient. Furthermore, we can just return to the academy immediately if we lose. Don’t tell me that there will be people in the academy who will spout gibberish?”

As they spoke, the referee had already arrived on the stage. The Star Luo Emperor was also here to observe the competition on top of the city wall. Princess Jiu Jiu, who lost to them yesterday, was also standing beside the Star Luo Emperor.

Huo Yuhao could sense someone observing him, and he lifted his head subconsciously. He saw Princess Jiu Jiu glancing at him. Her ravishing face seemed to be ﬁlled with frustration, but this could only be noticed by Huo Yuhao because of his Spirit Eyes. The others beside him didn’t notice this.

On top of the city wall.

“Brother, I’m indignant. We were supposed to be able to win.” Princess Jiu Jiu protested.

The Star Luo Emperor smiled and said, “What’s there to be indignant about? It’s a fact that you lost.”

Princess Jiu Jiu was unconvinced as she said, “But I didn’t get to use my strongest skill.”

The Star Luo Emperor said, “But it’s not that you didn’t want to use it. Furthermore, it might not have changed the result even if you had. Even if Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong didn’t unleash the soul skill that suppressed the Starcrown, do you think that all of you could have defeated that Phoenix together? Ma Xiaotao’s martial soul is the Evil Fire Phoenix, and she’s the descendant of Ma Hongjun, who belonged to the ﬁrst generation of Shrek’s Seven Monsters. She’s a Rank 67 soul emperor, and her cultivation is the best among everyone in this tournament. You saw what happened yesterday too. Even when 3 soul kings teamed up together, they couldn’t challenge her. Would all of you have won if you were tired? And that would be even worse in the individual round. All of you had no chance with Ma Xiaotao and Dai Yueheng around. It’s still about the difference in power. While Shrek Academy did not send its strongest lineup this time, no one can underestimate their foundation. I am excited to see how things will pan out when that young fellow grows up 5 years later.”

Princess Jiu Jiu snorted and said, “I don’t know how it’ll be like 5 years later, but they’ll likely leave this tournament in the humiliation of failure. The Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy is too powerful. They have also prepared very sufﬁciently for this edition of the tournament. Shrek Academy has also appeared with problems. Even if their entire ofﬁcial team competes, they may not have a chance at all.”

The Star Luo Emperor laughed and said, “Younger sister, you are too concerned about the result of this tournament. The Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy is like you, taking this tournament too seriously. At the same time, both you and the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy are

taking fame and fortune too seriously. That’s why you reckon that the Shrek Academy has made a wrong move. In reality, I think they are doing what they are doing because of a deeper meaning.”

Princess Jiu Jiu was puzzled as she asked, “Deeper meaning?”

The Star Luo Emperor asked in a low voice, “Jiu Jiu, what do you think about our Xu Family’s powers?”

Princess Jiu Jiu, who was also called Xu Jiu Jiu, replied without any hesitation, “We are very powerful. We were only able to lead the empire’s troops to force our enemies out and disintegrate the Duke’s Mansion bloodline to become the leader of this empire because of our family’s power. It’s very rare to see huge clans like our Xu Family in the continent now. Even when the Martial Soul Hall behaved atrociously then, they couldn’t do anything to us.”

The Star Luo Emperor nodded and said, “You’re right. Our Xu Family is very powerful. But why did we only making our move when the empire was in trouble? It’s not just because a wise man looks after his own hide. We did it more for the accumulation of strength. However, our Xu Family has been getting smaller over the past few thousand years. In our generation, it’s only you and I that have inherited the Starcrown. Now, think about Shrek Academy’s foundation. Shrek Academy has been growing over the past 10,000 years, and they have also secretly done a lot of for the continent. Many huge empires are afraid of them too. However, who do you think is truly aware of Shrek Academy’s depth? And would such an established academy make such a stupid error? Furthermore, Shrek Academy can send another group of ofﬁcial team members if they wanted to. Shrek Academy is never devoid of talents.”

Princess Jiu Jiu asked doubtfully, “Brother, are you saying that Shrek Academy does not value the tournament?”

The Star Luo Emperor, Xu Jiawei, shook his head and replied, “No. Shrek Academy might not care about the tournament, but I’m sure that they value this batch of young

students a lot. Many people miss out on a few things because of their low cultivations, but those who are keen-eyed can tell their talents. Shrek Academy might have forsaken the chance to become the tournament champion in order to train them up. Losing the tournament isn’t scary. The scary thing is if there are no successors. I have watched Shrek Academy competing in every round. I can fairly say that every one of

their students has their own special trait. If they can progress rapidly, given 5 to 10 years, Shrek Academy will have a bright future, and that’ll be even more frightening.”

When he reached this point, Xu Jiawei stopped and turned his attention to the distance, “Younger sister, you must remember this. With the strength of their academy, they once led the 3 empires on the continent to retaliate against the invading Sun Moon Empire. They even resisted the wave of beasts from Star Dou Forest. Without them as a stabilizing force at the border between our empire and the Heavenly Soul Empire, the Sun Moon Empire would have made their move already. Alright, let’s watch the competition.”

At this point, the competition had already started.

One might wonder whether the Imperial Profound Academy had become angry from embarrassment. The ﬁrst member to

compete was their team leader, who was a soul emperor. He was also the one who drawn the lots for them yesterday.

The Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy sent a tall and thin youth up.

Inside the resting area, Wang Yan introduced the both of them to Huo Yuhao and the others with great familiarity.

“Imperial Profound Academy team leader. His name is Jiang Peng, and he’s a soul emperor. His soul power is between Rank 61 and Rank 62, and he is the ﬁrst in the Imperial Profound Academy history to become a soul emperor before reaching twenty. Because of this, he’s also very arrogant. His martial soul is a Heavenquake Axe, which is very powerful. Amongst all the assault-type martial souls, I only know Wang Dong’s Clear Sky Hammer that can suppress his martial soul.”

“The Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy has sent one of their ofﬁcial team members up. His name is Michael, and he is a Class 5 soul engineer. He has many strategies, and I have no way of appraising him. In the previous rounds, he would ﬁght almost every time. He is a very stable person, and has never once made a mistake when competing.”

Wang Yan’s claim that he had never made any mistakes so far was already a positive appraisal on its own. As he was introducing them, the battle had already commenced on stage.

Michael had already let out a series of metallic clangs just as the referee shouted to signal the start of the competition.

A bright blue slab of metal rapidly appeared from his back and covered his entire body. It was as if he was wearing a suit of armor over his body. Slabs of metal also appeared from his waist and legs.

After all the bright blue slabs of metal covered his entire body, Jiang Peng had already rushed beyond the halfway line.

Michael was wearing a suit of heavy armor. After donning the armor, his body seemed to have expanded by about 3 circles. The bright blue metal ﬂashed, and a ball of white light shone from both his chest and belly. It was very obvious that these were the core formations of this soul tool of his.

A soul tool that covered his entire body?

Huo Yuhao opened his eyes wide and observed seriously. He had never seen this soul tool before. But Fan Yu had once mentioned that the highest class close-combat soul tool was the most primitive armor in the Sun Moon Empire. However, this type of soul tool couldn’t be appraised using simple armors. Its presence greatly increased the user’s offensive and defensive abilities. It could even amplify the user’s cultivation.

Soul engineers’ martial souls were usually defective. But a soul engineer could unleash the powers of assault-type soul masters with this type of full body armor. Thus, it was a pity that the Shrek Academy’s Soul Engineering Department had experienced some issues with their current research. They had no experience in producing this kind of full body armor. They didn’t expect to see it in this tournament.

Blue light ﬂashed in Michael’s hands, and a huge sword that was the same color as the armor on his body appeared in his palm. The sword’s radiance was even brighter than that of his armor, and the core formation at the edge of the sword released halos of blue light.

As Michael completed all this, his opponent was already in front of him.

Jiang Peng deserved to be called the most outstanding student in the Imperial Profound Academy’s history. He did not unleash his martial soul when he burst towards his opponent. That was because his martial soul would cause his speed to decrease. It was only when he reached his opponent that he unleashed his martial soul.

6 soul rings - 2 yellow, 2 purple and 2 black - rose from beneath his feet instantaneously. A reverberating boom that sounded like lightning resonated in the sky. Following Jiang Peng’s leaping movement, a streak of huge, ferocious radiance had already descended from the sky.

It was a huge axe. The axe was roughly 5 feet in length. But the scary thing was that the axe blade was over 5 feet in width as well. The axe blade was pitch-black, and exuded a cold aura. Its immense destructive strength could be sensed just by looking at it.

Grabbing the axe with both his hands, Jiang Peng slashed it without using any soul skills. The Heavenquake Axe reverberated with a menacing roar. It was slashed towards Michael’s head, aided by its falling momentum.

Michael did not panic, and he slid his feet slightly so that he moved back by a meter. At the same time, his full body armor ﬂashed with an intense blue radiance, which connected with the sword in his hand. As he held the sword’s hilt with both hands, he made an upwards slashing motion.

It was clear that he had practiced this action countless times. There was no fanciness involved. It was simple, direct and accurate. He was not targeting the axe blade, but instead used his sword’s 7 foot length to sweep towards his opponent’s axe handle.

Jiang Peng snorted, and his downwards slashing motion stopped in mid-air. He instead swept his axe across horizontally, causing it to collide strongly against the sword.

Michael staggered backwards as a booming roar sounded. Jiang Peng’s momentum was also stopped, and his body shone with a series of electrical lights.

Huo Yuhao immediately understood that Michael’s armor and sword should carry the effect of lightning.

It was not rare for close-combat soul tools to carry elemental effects. He was, however, shocked by Michael’s powers. This was evidently due to the enhancement by the soul tool. With the soul tool enhancing his powers, he was not much inferior to a strength-type soul emperor as a soul king. This showed the great enhancement effect of this soul tool on him.

Wang Yan’s description also left Huo Yuhao even more shocked. Wang Yan said, “In the earlier rounds, Michael also displayed his long-range offensive abilities. This is his ﬁrst time using a close-combat soul tool.”

Wang Yan’s explanation caused Huo Yuhao to be stunned. The Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy’s abilities had reached such a tremendous standard?

However, Michael also did not feel good after being struck by the axe. He did not manage to chase after Jiang Peng, who was suffering from numbness all over his body. Both of them stopped on the competition stage for a while. Following that, Michael did not continue to ﬁght forcefully. The bright blue radiance behind him shone even brighter, and his body picked up speed. He burst out a few meters before his toes touched the ground. Then, he switched directions at a 90 degree angle, but

his speed did not decline. He burst towards the center of the competition stage.

Jiang Peng’s arrogance had dipped a little by now. He naturally knew the importance of this round to the Imperial Profound Academy. He did not compete ﬁrst because he was reckless. He had pondered his decision carefully before making it. Only if he managed to get rid of a few opponents could they have a chance of winning today’s individual competition. This was also why he did not use his soul skill when he came up. He needed to conserve his soul power and abilities so that he could last longer!

However, Michael was much stronger than he had expected. He was a soul king, and it was obvious that his cultivation wasn’t increased solely through his own training. His foundation was not as deep as an orthodox soul master’s. But it was precisely this soul king that was not at a disadvantage after he met his strike as he wore the armor.

Total body numbness was not a good feeling. Jiang Peng knew that he could no longer hold back anymore. Otherwise, he would be at a disadvantage the longer his opponent remained standing.

As he thought till this point, his 3rd soul ring lit up as he turned. The purple thousand year soul ring emitted an elegant glow while the Heavenquake Axe had already moved amidst a series of booming air blasts.

This Heavenquake Axe was deservedly termed a powerful attack-type soul tool by Wang Yan. After it struck, the huge axe revolved in the air like a huge light disc that emitted a cold radiance.

A dark, full moon descended from the sky. It managed to catch up to Michael’s sprinting ﬁgure in the blink of an eye.

Huo Yuhao saw it clearly this time. Both his armor and sword released an intense blue lightning current as he drew his sword. The current did not disperse, but quickly gathered towards the tip of the sword before being unleashed brutally once again.

Lightning was very unstable. For this soul tool to seal the powers of lightning and unleash it with such precise control, Huo Yuhao was a little uncertain of how to describe this soul tool anymore. He believed that it was not only a Class 5 soul tool, and might not have been produced by Michael himself. This was especially so because the sword released a lightning radiance that almost seemed solid. When it was used, it even felt as if there was a ﬂow or wave.

However, Michael had miscalculated this time.

Jiang Peng waved both his hands in the distance, and the originally ﬁerce Heavenquake Axe changed suddenly directions in the air. It drew a weird-looking arc and swung behind Michael instantly. The axe blade slashed down heavily.

Michael’s reaction was not slow. He leapt forward immediately when he realized that things were amiss. The soul thruster behind his armor was unleashed at full power. But it was no longer just a driving force now. Rather, it shot out a powerful light towards the back that attempted to resist the strike of the Heavenquake Axe.

But a soul emperor was a soul emperor. This soul tool on Michael’s body was very strong, but Jiang Peng was no easy opponent either. After all, he was the top talent in the Imperial Mystical Academy’s history. Upon closer examination, it was possible to discover that Jiang Peng’s yellow ﬁrst soul ring was ﬂashing with a subtle radiance. This radiance was very special, and wasn’t just like the kind of radiance emitted by soul masters’ martial souls. It was delicate, and ﬂashed with a frequency that resembled the rate of a heartbeat.

Jiang Peng had never used his ﬁrst soul skill before in previous rounds.

Generally speaking, soul masters’ soul skills were usually more powerful the later they were obtained. That was because the added limit would be greater. But Jiang Peng was special in a certain aspect. His ﬁrst soul skill was not used for any direct

attack or offense. It was a control-type soul skill that was used to control his martial soul.

The Heavenquake Axe was an extremely tough assault-type martial soul, and it also carried a powerful destructive capability. It could be compared with Wang Dong’s Clear Sky Hammer. Its destructive strength was still very frightening without even using a soul skill. When Jiang Peng had fused with his ﬁrst soul ring, he had accidentally chosen the wrong soul beast. This had led to his possession of this control-type soul skill. But with his intelligence and solid foundation, he managed to progress in another way under the guidance of the Imperial Mystical Academy’s teachers. He invented a special offense, which he called the Eighteen Dragonslaying Slashes.

The strength of this Eighteen Dragonslaying Slashes was that it wasn’t a soul skill. It was better than a soul skill, and could be combined with other soul skills. With the control of the ﬁrst soul ring, he could enable the Heavenquake Axe to strike consecutively for a maximum of 18 times. This was the ﬁrst time this killer move had been demonstrated in the individual matches.

“Bang—” In front of the Heavenquake Axe, the light shot out by the soul thruster was instantly split, and the axe struck

Michael’s back heavily.

In the next moment after the Heavenquake Axe struck, a dull explosion sound rang out. The impact caused Michael to be pushed forward.

Concussive explosion. This was the destructive ability that the Heavenquake Axe carried. Along with its immense weight, this strike was very heavy.

It was clear that the armor behind Michael had been struck till it bent inwards. The piercing axe continued to advance, and Michael spat out fresh blood. He staggered as he fell forward.

It was not that Jiang Peng was extremely strong. It was just that the changes to his strikes were too special. It was different from what the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy knew about Jiang Peng. Michael was at a great disadvantage now.

The Heavenquake Axe, however, did not care. The fury that Jiang Peng had restrained in the team competition yesterday was unleashed right now. The Heavenquake Axe slashed

toward the same area it had previously struck with an ear- piercing boom. Michael’s armor should be proud of itself for being able to resist the Heavenquake Axe’s ﬁrst blow. But the concussive explosion it had brought with it couldn’t be shaken off so easily. If it was unleashed once more, he would be heavily injured, if not killed.

The referee intervened in time and blocked the Heavenquake Axe in the air. He also announced the end of the competition.

Jiang Peng recalled his martial soul. Turning around, he hooked his ﬁnger towards the Sun Moon Academy team in the waiting area with a cold and arrogant look on his face.

Xiao Hongchen made a swishing sound as he stood up. He was about to ascend to the stage, but was stopped by Ma Rulong. Xiao Hongchen glared at him, but Ma Rulong shook his head and shot him a look. After that, he walked up to the stage himself.

During the team round, using a soul tool as a team would achieve an appreciable effect. But in the individual rounds, it was difﬁcult to use a soul tool to make up for the gap between a soul king and soul emperor. It’s important to know that Jiang

Peng was not just an ordinary soul emperor, but a talent nurtured by the Imperial Mystical Academy. They had gathered all their resources to nurture him, and he was no longer conserving his power at this critical moment.

Michael was sent to compete ﬁrst, but not with the hope of defeating Jiang Peng. His purpose was to deplete some of his soul power. However, it seemed like the Sun Moon Imperial Engineering Academy would be the one at a disadvantage if this continued.

Wang Yan’s eyes shifted a little as he saw Michael being defeated. He thought of something in his heart. Although the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy’s soul tools were very powerful, the powers of a soul engineer could be said to rely entirely on soul tools. Against an elite soul master in a restricted competition stage, they would not confer him much of an advantage.

Jiang Peng had forced Ma Rulong to compete. To the observers, this was a good thing. To a certain extent, the abilities and methods of this the Sun Moon Academy team leader would be the key to victory in the ﬁnals.

Jiang Peng was slightly petriﬁed as he saw that Ma Rulong was the next to compete. He squinted his eyes as he held the Heavenquake Axe. If he could defeat Ma Rulong, the Imperial Mystical Academy might really have a chance of turning the tide. This battle would be extremely crucial.

“I will defeat you.” Jiang Peng pointed his Heavenquake Axe at Ma Rulong. He was trying to provoke him.

Ma Rulong laughed gently, “Do you think this will provoke me?”

The two of them retreated to the edges of the competition stage as they spoke.

Jiang Peng snorted, “Ma Rulong, I will let you realize that soul engineers like you who exploit external powers will never be comparable to soul masters like myself that work hard to fulﬁl our potential. You will be defeated under my axe just like the one just now.”

Ma Rulong shook his head and said, “Michael didn’t unleash his full abilities. It doesn’t mean that a soul master is better

than a soul engineer just because you defeated him. Michael didn’t use any soul tools that he developed himself. His abilities were not truly unleashed to ﬁght you. One understands himself best, thus a soul engineer is only at his peak state when he uses his own soul tools. I created every soul tool I use. I will show you what a true soul engineer is.”

Jiang Peng snorted. “I’d be a fool if I believed you. Did you make the Class 7 soul tool that you used too?”

“I have no need to lie to you.” Ma Rulong said indifferently.

At this point, they had already reached the edges of the competition stage. As the referee shouted, “Match, start!” a huge battle ensued.

Jiang Peng burst forward towards Ma Rulong like before.

Ma Rulong lifted his right hand, and it was clear to see that there was a silver ring on each of his ﬁngers. The ﬁrst ring ﬂashed, and a metal barrel that was around 1.5 meters long and 10 centimeters wide appeared in his palm. He then lifted it to his shoulder, and unleashed his martial soul.

The release of Ma Rulong’s martial soul caused his body to experience weird changes, and his head suddenly ballooned. It was obvious that it was no longer aligned with his body. Even his hair seemed to become sparse. He looked ugly amidst this bizarreness.

His martial soul was called the Bigheaded Spirit Ape, an auxiliary-type martial soul. He was doing this to unleash greater power and last longer like most soul engineers did. Ma Rulong’s soul skill was also used to aid the increase of his soul power or to enhance the outburst of his soul power. This was also an important reason why he could create a Class 7 soul tool that was beyond his level.

Ma Rulong was an absolute genius in the production of soul tools in Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy. If not for his lacking cultivation, he would already qualify to be a Class 7 soul engineer.

6 soul rings – 2 yellow, 2 purple and 2 black – appeared at the same time. The silver barrel also emitted an intense radiance in the next instant.

A silvery ball of light shot toward Jiang Peng, who was rushing over. The light ball was ﬂying at an immense speed and had nearly reached Jiang Peng when it ﬂashed with radiance

Jiang Peng’s attention was entirely focused on Ma Rulong’s body, and he was naturally wary. He dodged immediately as he saw Ma Rulong attacking. 3 ﬁgures formed as the radiance from his second soul ring ﬂashed.

The 2 ﬁgures at the side lurched forward quickly, while the center ﬁgure that faced the silver light ball jumped up and tried to dodge the attack.

However, Ma Rulong seemed to have expected that. Jiang Peng’s adaptation seemed to be for naught. After the silver light ball suddenly stopped, a violent explosion sounded in the next moment.

Intense silver light ﬁlled the entire competition stage. All the spectators in Star Luo Plaza instantly shut their eyes because of the intense light.

Although Jiang Peng had divided into 3 ﬁgures, he still bore the brunt of the attack, and screamed in pain under the intense silver light. As he shut his eyes rapidly, everything had already turned white in front of him.

Chapter 114: The Body Sect

Flashlight. Who would’ve expected Ma Rulong to use the Class 4 Flashlight as his ﬁrst move against a strong opponent? He used his actions to prove to everyone that the most appropriate weapon was the best weapon.

Jiang Peng lost his sight, and his burst of forward momentum was halted. Using his left hand to cover his eyes, he quickly retreated using soul power. At the same time, the Heavenquake Axe revealed an axe projection that protected his body.

Compared to him, Ma Rulong seemed a little more relaxed. As the Flashlight disappeared from his hand, he remained standing where he was. No one managed to see how he did it, but suddenly, more than 10 tiny light bullets rapidly ﬂew out from his back.

These light bullets did not ﬂy directly towards his opponent. Instead, they sprayed out in all directions simultaneously. Following that, a loud explosion echoed from different directions on the competition stage.

The light bullets may have looked small, but the explosive sounds that they generated were ear-piercing. Amidst the series of explosive blasts, Jiang Peng lost his composure. He frantically waved the Heavenquake Axe about him, and even used his fourth soul skill to unleash more than 10 huge axe projections.

Huo Yuhao was watching very seriously below the stage; he wanted to know how the Sun Moon Empire’s soul engineers fought their battles. As a soul master, he wanted to learn how soul engineers dealt with soul masters in battle.

He had gained a lot of inspiration from the conversation between Jiang Peng and Ma Rulong. He was especially struck by Ma Rulong’s words that only he could understand himself, and that he created his own soul tools.

As the battle started, Ma Rulong quickly took the initiative. Huo Yuhao did not think this was coincidental. Ma Rulong was strong, not in terms of his soul tool, but his accurate judgment of the situation. The ﬁrst skill he used restricted his opponent’s vision and hearing. This method was simply unheard-of, so it was no wonder that Jiang Peng was tricked. Of course, the effect wouldn’t be the same if this same method was used again.

At this point, the soul tool on Ma Rulong’s body showed another transformation. A golden cannon that was around a meter long and with a 3 centimeter caliber appeared on his shoulder. In the next instant, a streak of thin, blood-red light beam shot out.

He maintained a natural and smooth impression as he controlled the soul tool. He did not stop from the start till the end. Almost instantly after the light balls were ﬁred, this golden cannon had already appeared on his shoulder. The very next instant after Jiang Peng’s fourth soul skill was completed, explosive bangs sounded all around, and that streak of blood- red light had already appeared before him.

At the Soul Emperor-level, one would develop astute senses. Jiang Peng was aware of the imminent crisis even though his sight and hearing were both greatly affected when the streak of blood-red light shot out. He subconsciously swung the Heavenquake Axe horizontally in front of him and blocked the streak of blood-red light.

There was no booming sound. A small red hole appeared on the Heavenquake Axe after the blood-red light made contact with it. Although Jiang Peng had already shifted his body to

dodge, the blood-red light still penetrated his left shoulder. A small, black hole was formed.

Huo Yuhao had never even heard of this type of soul tool before, much less seen it. What was more frightening was that after the red light penetrated through the Heavenquake Axe and Jiang Peng’s body, the defensive barrier created by 108 soul masters together was also penetrated.

The air reeked of a burning smell wherever the red light passed.

Jiang Peng groaned in pain, and his body shook tremendously. However, he had no intention of retreating even though his left shoulder had been pierced. He roared and ﬂung the Heavenquake Axe out again. This time, his most powerful sixth soul ring ﬂashed with a bright radiance.

Without a doubt, this wasn’t a good opportunity to use his sixth soul ring. But Jiang Peng could not delay any further.

His eyes were badly burnt by the Flashlight. He was fully aware that his eyes wouldn’t recover before this competition

ended. His opponent also wouldn’t give him a chance to regain his hearing. Even a small explosive sound was now enough to cause a severe disruption to his hearing.

However, Jiang Peng did not just stand there passively. As he was struck, he also perceived where Ma Rulong was, and he ﬂung the Heavenquake Axe in that direction.

Ear-piercing booming sounds rang out continuously as the huge axe spun rapidly in the air. Thick black light surged out maniacally from the Heavenquake Axe and caused its size to rapidly expand. The thick black light was like a black hole that swallowed all the light around it. Even the spectators were petriﬁed as they watched from afar.

Ma Rulong also turned serious. He did not attempt to dodge. A strong suction force was being unleashed from the Heavenquake Axe. Although this suction force was not enough to drag him over, it prevented him from moving from his current position.

An indescribable, frightening power suddenly burst forth. Fissures appeared on the ground beneath Ma Rulong, and a strange, black circular symbol took form under his feet. Thick,

black ﬂames shot out from the ground. At this point, the pitch- black Heavenquake Axe that had enlarged to twice its size descended from the sky as it carried a dazzling, black ﬂare.

The Heavenquake Axe's sixth soul skill was the Darkdemon Heavenquake, which was a single-target attack that drew the Yin Fires of Hell to unleash the fury of Heaven. Its demonic attributes allowed it to lock onto its opponents and destroy everything that was in its path

This was Jiang Peng’s strongest strike. Although he had unleashed it with his sight and hearing impaired, as well as heavy injuries, he still managed to use this strike to lock onto his opponent. In terms of both his timing and judgment of the situation, both were deﬁnately ﬁtting of a Soul Emperor.

At that moment, a layer of blinding golden light surged out from Ma Rulong and covered his body.

No matter how powerful the Yin Fires of Hell were, they couldn’t penetrate a single inch through that glow. The Heavenquake Axe released a deafening growl, and the entire competition stage seemed to be on the verge of collapse. Thin cracks began to appear all across the golden barrier.

This was an Invincible Barrier that could defend against an eight-ringed Soul Douluo for 3 seconds! It was a soul tool that could only be used once. However, this was on the verge of breaking against the Darkdemon Heavenquake’s single-target attack.

Ma Rulong revealed a look of respect. The 3 seconds that the Invincible Barrier could be sustained were very short, but it was enough for it to withstand a blow of that caliber.

The soul tool on his body changed again. More than 50 metal cannons of different sizes suddenly appeared on his body. Once again, no one could tell how he used the soul tools. It was as if they grew from his body.

Jiang Peng did not give up either. As he had unleashed his strongest strike, he had immediately burst forwards towards Ma Rulong. With his connection to the Heavenquake Axe, he could locate Ma Rulong’s position. However, his left arm dangled limply beside him as he rushed forward. It was obvious that it had lost its use. The strange thing was that the hole in his left shoulder was not dripping with even a single drop of blood.

After the 3 seconds were over, the Heavenquake Axe returned to Jiang Peng’s hands again. He was less than 10 meters away from Ma Rulong now. As he stepped forward, he lifted the Heavenquake Axe, and several of his soul rings lit up. Jiang Peng believed that if he got close to Ma Rulong, he could control the result of this competition.

Jiang Peng could not see for himself, but the spectators could. Just as both parties were about to come into contact, the metal cannons on Ma Rulong’s body all shone with a splendid radiance.

Unexpectedly, these metal cannons were each unleashed in a certain sequence. The ﬁrst was a red cannon on his chest that was as big as a bowl. A red light ball silently shot towards Jiang Peng’s leaping body.

However, everyone was stunned to see that Jiang Peng did not sense the red light ball coming towards him. It was as if his senses were being deceived.

Following that, the red light ball gently stuck onto his chest. Jiang Peng did not seem to realize even at this point. But suddenly, his body seemed to solidify in that instant, and he

froze in the air. Then, what greeted him were countless streaks of light that were assembled before being shot out.

Besides a select few of higher cultivations who were aware of what had happened, the only other person who could see what had happened was Huo Yuhao.

Huo Yuhao had watched the entire process through his sharp observation skills. He didn’t know what that red light ball was, but he guessed that it was a special soul cannon that could hoodwink one’s senses. It was not a simple soul cannon that concentrated soul power used by lower-skilled soul engineers. The effect of that special soul cannon should have been its ability to temporarily make a person lose all mobility. The instant Jiang Peng was hit, the Heavenquake Axe disappeared from his hands.

Streaks of soul light rays assembled before shooting out, and Jiang Peng’s body was sent ﬂying. Although his internal soul power protected his body, his body only stopped ﬂying when he struck the defensive barrier on the other side of the arena.

After struggling a little, he slid down from the barrier and fell onto the competition stage.

The match had ended. Ma Rulong had obtained an overwhelming victory. The only thing he had sacriﬁced was the Invincible Barrier, but with his capabilities, he should be able to procure another one. Higher-level soul engineers were usually wealthy, not to mention that he was even from the Illustrious Virtue Hall.

After he ﬁnished watching the match, Huo Yuho let out a long breath. He didn’t think that Ma Rulong was very scary. Rather, he was ﬁlled with excitement.

This was a battle between a soul engineer and a soul master! The feeling that Ma Rulong gave off when he fought was a very natural and smooth one.

Yes, it was a natural and smooth feeling. From the very start, Ma Rulong took the initiative. Following that, he relentlessly chained his attacks while reacting accurately to Jiang Peng’s changes, using the most suitable soul tool to respond.

He seemed to have achieved victory very leisurely. However, the truth was that he would have had to face the continuous attacks of his opponent if he messed up even a single chain attack. Jiang Peng’s Darkdemon Heavenquake allowed one to see how frightening a Soul Emperor’s explosiveness was.

The entire place was struck with awe as Jiang Peng was defeated. Over on the Imperial Profound Academy’s side, the faces of Jiang Peng’s team members were ﬁlled with dismay. If even Jiang Peng couldn’t defeat Ma Rulong, who else could?

What was even more frightening was Ma Rulong’s composure. His chest started to shine with a white halo immediately after he struck Jiang Peng. Without a doubt, it must have been the effect of some soul tool that was similar to the Milk Bottle. It was replenishing Ma Rulong’s depleted soul power.

The Imperial Profound Academy was stunned for a while before hesitantly sending a new team member up to the competition stage. However, what chance did they have left?

Ma Rulong didn’t display his strength any further. He only used the few soul tools that he had used before. Even so, no one could resist him with his precise control.

According to Huo Yuhao’s observations, the only soul tool that could possibly be a Class 7 soul tool was the golden cannon. The cannon shot out rays that were of extremely high temperature. These rays were so hot that even Ma Xiaotao’s phoenix ﬂames would be penetrated if they met. The referees even had to intervene in the following rounds of the competition to save the Imperial Profound Academy’s team members.

Ma Rulong eventually ended the remaining matches with his soul tools, and the Imperial Profound Academy dropped out of the tournament. The Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy reached the ﬁnals without a hitch.

A lot had happened in this year’s Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Soul Dueling Tournament, but it eventually was still the pair of old rivals that would meet in the ﬁnals – Shrek Academy and the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy.

Huo Yuhao watched the entire competition carefully. On the way back to the Grand Imperial Star Hotel, he constantly pondered over something. Wang Yan was also doing the same.

Huo Yuhao was greatly moved by Ma Rulong’s strategy and the entire competition process. Firstly, Huo Yuhao learned that a soul tool created by oneself was the most appropriate soul tool to use. Ma Rulong had also showed Huo Yuhao the strategy of a soul engineer. The key to Ma Rulong’s successive victories lay in his control of the battle.

They were stopped by 2 people when they were about to go up to their rooms after reaching the lobby of the Grand Imperial Star Hotel.

“Oh?” Wang Yan was walking in front, but he was blocked. He was stunned, and lifted his head to look at the two people blocking his way.

They were two men who looked very ordinary in terms of appearance, but their ﬁgures were very peculiar. One of them had an abnormally large right arm, whereas the other one was very thin, but his head was huge, as if he were a big-headed doll.

Wang Yan felt a chill in his heart and said in a deep voice, “Excuse me.”

The guy with the huge right arm said, “All of you can go, but this little fellow must stay. We need to talk to him.” This guy was growling. Although he was trying to restrain himself, he still released a terrifying, authoritative aura. He was pointing towards Huo Yuhao.

Huo Yuhao was also stunned. “I don’t know either of you.”

The big-headed guy looked at Huo Yuhao and smiled slightly. He said, “Don’t you know us now?” The look in his eyes was very strange. It was weirdly gentle. When Wang Yan and Xu Sanshi peered into his eyes, they went into a trance. Huo Yuhao suddenly tensed up and golden light shone from his Spirit Eyes. Wang Dong was in a momentary daze, and a streak

of odd radiance ﬂashed in the depth of his eyes. He also wasn’t confused by the big-headed guy’s gaze.

“We don’t mean any harm. We just want to talk to you. If you don’t want those around you to be hurt, follow us.” The big- headed guy saw the shocked look in Huo Yuhao’s eyes and led the other guy to the resting area at one corner of the hall. There were a few sofas there for guests to rest.

Wang Yan and Xu Sanshi woke up from their trance too. The two of them were astounded that the big-headed guy could force them into that trance. His cultivation must be above theirs! Wang Yan’s abilities were nothing spectacular in Shrek Academy, but he was still a soul king. To be suppressed by someone else so easily, the gap in their abilities shouldn’t be small.

However, Wang Yan calmed himself down after a period of momentary shock. He nodded at Huo Yuhao and said, “Go and hear what they have to say. I will follow you. Wang Dong, Xu Sanshi, the two of you can return to your rooms ﬁrst.”

Wang Dong wanted to reject this proposition, but was dragged away by Xu Sanshi. Xu Sanshi shot a look at him, and

Wang Dong ﬁnally understood what his intention was. It was obvious that Xu Sanshi wanted Wang Dong to follow him to get reinforcements. He only left indignantly upon realizing this. He even shot a look at Huo Yuhao before he left.

Wang Yan was a little amused as he said, “It’s ﬁne, you don’t have to bring any reinforcements over. Since they have decided to intercept us here, they won’t do anything. This is Star Luo City, and also the place where all the competing members of the tournament are staying.”

Xu Sanshi chortled and replied, “It’s better to be wary.” As he spoke, he dragged Wang Dong up.

Huo Yuhao proceeded to the resting area with Wang Yan. There were only the two weird guys there. While there were many guest going into and out of the hotel, none of them went to the resting area.

Huo Yuhao and Wang Yan sat across from the pair of oddballs. Huo Yuhao asked, “Why are the two of you looking for me? It must be my ﬁrst time seeing the both of you.”

The big-headed guy smiled and nodded. He answered, “Of course. But we’ve observed you for quite some time already. If I’m not wrong, your ﬁrst martial soul, which is also your main martial soul, must be your eyes, and your ﬁrst soul skill must be something related to spiritual detection, and you can even share it with your compatriots. Through some special method, you’ve also managed to cultivate some kind of shock ability with your spirit. Based on my judgment, it’s like the Purple Demon Eyes from the Tang Sect. Whereas your second soul skill from that martial soul should be something to do with bewitching others. I recall an Iceworm from the north that uses such an ability to hoodwink its opponents. Am I right?”

The big-headed guy was called Lang Ya. His simple words caused a chill to go up Huo Yuhao’s spine. The feeling of being seen through seemed to have left him completely exposed in front of the other party.

Fortunately, he was resilient. Although he was shocked, he did not say, “How did you know?”.

Upon seeing Huo Yuhao’s shock, the big-headed guy continued, “Let me introduce myself. My name is Lang Ya. This is my brother, Yu Tao. We are both from the Body Sect. I’m sure you’ve heard of the Body Sect before.”

Not only did the words ‘Body Sect’ leave Huo Yuhao horriﬁed, but Wang Yan also opened his eyes wide, and his pupils shrank.

Although the Body Sect rarely appeared in the world of soul masters, they were still very reputable. Among the few strange existences in the world of soul masters, evil soul masters undoubtedly took the top spot. And in terms of peculiarity and power, only the Body Sect could match up to the evil soul masters.

Furthermore, the Body Sect was even more scary than evil soul masters in the eyes of most soul masters. While evil soul masters were powerful, they often appeared alone or in small groups. The Body Sect was a true sect! It was called the most mysterious sect in the world too. It was conceivable how many venerated the powers of the Body Sect.

Huo Yuhao and Wang Yan could never imagine people from the Body Sect appearing in front of them because of the rarity with which they revealed themselves. But now they had come speciﬁcally for Huo Yuhao. Wang Yan could ﬁgure out what they wanted without even asking them. But the strange thing was that he didn’t seem very nervous.

Lang Yan smiled at Huo Yuhao and said, “I shall not beat around the bush any further. We are here to bring you back to the sect.”

“Bring me back?” Huo Yuhao was stunned. He had never joined any sect before!

Lang Ya nodded and replied, “We’re bringing you back. The Body Sect is the home of all soul masters with body souls. Since your eyes are your martial soul, it means you’re part of the Body Sect. And since we’ve found you, it’s only natural that we’d bring you back.”

Although Huo Yuhao had heard of the Body Sect a few times before, they were ﬁlled with mystery and power. Without a doubt, joining the Body Sect would be very beneﬁcial to his Spirit Eyes. But could he trust these 2 guys who had appeared so suddenly? Even if they could be trusted, could he just leave Shrek Academy?

Without much consideration, Huo Yuhao shook his head determinedly and said, “Thanks for your offer, but I’m a student of Shrek Academy and a member of Shrek. At the very

least, I won’t consider joining any sect before I graduate from the academy.”

Lang Ya laughed indifferently and said, “Shrek Academy, the best academy? However, they don’t seem too impressive. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have let someone as young as you compete. The Body Sect is the most familiar with body souls, and we’re the most suited to guide you to become the best. With your talent, you will shock the entire world of soul masters within 20 years. Although the Body Sect rarely reveals itself, we will be an unstoppable force once we do so. Your martial soul hasn’t experienced its second awakening, and you have yet to experience the true power of a body soul. Following us back will only be beneﬁcial to you.”

It was probably only the Body Sect that was capable of snatching personnel right under the nose of a Shrek Academy teacher. Wang Yan, however, did not say anything, and only listened in on their conversation.

Huo Yuhao continued to shake his head. “No, Shrek Academy is my home. The academy has given me family warmth. They have nurtured me. I won’t join the Body Sect. Elders, I’m sorry, but we shall end things here.” As he spoke, he stood up before turning away and walked towards the stairs.

“Do you think you’re the one calling the shots?” Yu Tao suddenly stood up. As he stretched out his right hand, his thick right arm instantly caught hold of Huo Yuhao’s shoulder. His right arm seemed able to stretch itself freely. It had stretched out almost 2 meters when Yu Tao grabbed Huo Yuhao’s shoulder.

Lang Ya turned his attention to Wang Yan the moment Yu Tao made a move. He wanted to use his powerful martial soul to suppress Wang Yan and prevent him from doing anything.

But he was shocked to realize that Wang Yan remained calm and had no intention of doing anything.

The instant Yu Tao’s hand landed on Huo Yuhao’s shoulder, Huo Yuhao shrugged his shoulder and slipped out of Yu Tao’s grip.

“What a slimy kid.” Yu Tao was stunned for a moment as he felt a gust of chill rising the moment he grabbed hold of Huo Yuhao’s shoulder. After that, he could see that a layer of ice that resembled armor was now coating Huo Yuhao’s shoulder. Although it seemed like ice, it was very tough and slippery. Otherwise, Huo Yuhao wouldn’t have slipped out of his grasp.

“Using your Spiritual Detection on me won’t work.” Lang Ya snorted and straightened his gaze. A wave of formless undulations spread from his huge head.

Huo Yuhao only felt that his Spiritual Detection was crushed like glass. As he groaned in pain, he staggered forward. However, his spiritual sea started to ripple with intense undulations as it was invaded by the enemy. His Pearl of Life that belonged to the Life Guardian ﬂashed brightly. Lang Ya’s spiritual power surged into Huo Yuhao’s head and threatened

to invade his spiritual sea. But then, a green glow ﬂashed across Huo Yuhao’s forehead. Following that, Lang Ya’s spiritual power was cut to pieces.

“Oh?” Lang Ya was shocked at this. Although he had held back a little for fear of hurting Huo Yuhao, he was sure that Huo Yuhao wouldn’t be able to resist him. He immediately thought that Huo Yuhao’s body soul must have already been awakened. However, how could his body soul awaken if it couldn’t awaken on its own and if he didn’t have the Body Sect’s special manual?

Just as he was about to increase the output of his spiritual power, a ﬁgure suddenly appeared in front of Yu Tao. A dirty index ﬁnger pressed against Yu Tao’s back.

Yes, it pressed against his back. When that ﬁnger rebounded, it gave off an illusory feeling. Yu Tao tried to dodge, but he realized to his horror that he was unable to dodge even though he was being guided by Lang Ya’s spiritual power.

“Pop—"

“Aiyo.”

Yu Tao’s right arm bounced up, and his entire person staggered backward two steps. A depressed ﬁnger mark was left on his thick right arm, which caused him to turn pale.

Although he did not unleash his martial soul, his right arm was his martial soul since he was a member of the Body Sect! He was forced back by a ﬁnger from his opponent under such a circumstance. His shock was greater than the pain he felt.

On the other side, Lang Ya also retracted his spiritual power. He was cautious as he watched the newcomer who had suddenly appeared behind Huo Yuhao and separated him and his brother.

Huo Yuhao had also turned his body quickly by now. After a momentary daze, he revealed an intense look of surprise. “Elder Xuan, you’re back.”

That’s right, the person who had just appeared between Huo Yuhao and the two Body Sect members was an elder of Shrek Academy’s Sea God’s Pavilion, Elder Xuan.

Elder Xuan appeared as slovenly as ever. His enormous, oily hands were holding that familiar drumstick, and he carried a look of ridicule amidst the calmness in his eyes. He spoke as he looked at the two men from the Body Sect, “We won’t tolerate your nonsense! It’s so ridiculous how people dare to climb over Shrek’s head. The 2 of you are brilliant! You dare to poach our student.”

“Who are you?” Lang Ya was obviously the one in charge among the two from the Body Sect. At the same time, his aura became more authoritative. With his head as the center, the surrounding air up to a radius of 1 meter started to distort furiously. What was even more daunting was that he exerted all this increased pressure on Elder Xuan. He was able to do all this without unleashing his martial soul. This revealed his immense control over his own abilities.

Elder Xuan snorted, “Are the two you from the second or third generation of the Body Sect? That old freak from your Body Sect wouldn’t dare to stand so close to me if he were here, yet the two of you dare to?”

The rare strands of yellow hair on Lang Ya’s head trembled a little. The distorted air around him dispersed, and his aura

declined. He was shocked as he asked, “You’re from the Sea God’s Pavilion?”

“Since the two of you know about the Sea God’s Pavilion, you’d better scram,” Elder Xuan replied indifferently, “On account of that old freak, I won’t fuss over today’s matter. You’re still not up to it yet. I’m scared that old freak will accuse me of bullying the juniors.”

Yu Tao’s right arm was still in pain, and he groaned furiously, “Don’t think of blufﬁng us with your words. At least prove it to us.” As he spoke, his right arm extended quickly again, ballooning in size, and eight soul rings suddenly appeared.

The appalling thing was that his ﬁrst 4 soul rings were purple thousand year soul rings, and from the ﬁfth soul ring on, they were black. He had 4 purple and 4 black soul rings. Not only did his soul rings carry a tremendous oppressive power, but they even superseded the ratio of soul rings that ordinary soul masters had.

Elder Xuan acted as if he didn’t see it. When Yu Tao extended his palm toward him, no one could see his actions clearly

before his hand was stopped. He was in a daze as he stood there, and his eyes were ﬁlled with fear.

A chicken drumstick had been forced into his mouth. The drumstick’s bone was at the tip of his throat, such that his throat would be pierced through if more strength were exerted. Furthermore, this drumstick had broken all of his teeth before it had entered his mouth. At this point, his lips were forced in, and all of his teeth had been crushed by a chicken drumstick.

Lang Ya couldn’t even help him in time. Elder Xuan was too quick. If Yu Tao were bolder in his actions, he might have been able to strike Elder Xuan. But the drumstick would have killed him too. That’s why he did not dare to move, and only stood there in a daze.

Lang Ya was not doubtful at all now, “You, you are Taotie from the Sea God’s Pavilion…”

Elder Xuan darted a look at him, “Scram. Tell that old freak that I can still eat, drink, shit and sleep.”

“Thank you, elder, for your mercy.” This time, Lang Ya became respectful. He slapped his hand behind Yu Tao’s back, and Yu Tao spat out his broken teeth and the drumstick. The two of them turned and left the Grand Imperial Star Hotel in an instant.

As he watched their leaving ﬁgures, Huo Yuhao respectfully said in a hurry, “Thank you, Elder Xuan.”

Elder Xuan waved his hand and said, “You are a member of Shrek. Whoever dares to harm you is going against Shrek. Return ﬁrst and take the time to cultivate. Don’t waste a second. I will be watching your ﬁnals.”

“Yes.” Huo Yuhao was slightly surprised and excited. He turned and walked towards the stairs. At this point, everyone from Shrek had descended from the stairs. Ma Xiaotao led the group and she drifted over quickly.

“Where are those two fellows? I will roast whoever dares to bully my younger brother.” Ma Xiaotao’s rage and domineering aura were revealed. However, she stopped as she saw Elder Xuan.

“Elder Xuan.” Ma Xiaotao stuck her tongue out. She naturally knew Elder Xuan’s status in the academy.

Elder Xuan laughed and said, “Alright, all of you can return to rest now. I will handle this matter.”

“Okay.” Ma Xiaotao dragged Huo Yuhao away before she turned and left. Her actions made her seem like a hen protecting her chicks. The rest of the team wore weird looks in their eyes as they saw her and couldn’t help but gossip about what had happened between Ma Xiaotao and Huo Yuhao yesterday.

All the students left, but Wang Yan remained. “Elder Xuan, the Body Sect…”

“They’re troublesome.” Elder Xuan said in a deep voice. “If we’d known, we wouldn’t have sent this fellow to compete. Not only is that old freak from the Body Sect dominant in terms of his powers, but he is also a dominant person. I don’t think this can be settled so easily. But I don’t think they dare to test us anymore. I will return to Shrek Academy immediately. I should be able to rush back before the ﬁnal. I hope that he acts slower. He’s also capable of doing anything, and never resorts to logic.

Huo Yuhao also possesses a body soul, which will spur him to do anything. Why is he not dead even though he’s older than me by 30 years? Handle the situation over here well. There must not be any casualties, do you understand?”

“Yes.” Wang Yan acknowledged respectfully.

“What? Body Sect?” Ma Xiaotao immediately interrogated Huo Yuhao as she dragged him into the room. Huo Yuhao did not conceal the truth either. Everyone from Shrek was in the room too. After hearing the words ‘Body Sect’, Wang Dong, Xiao Xiao, Jiang Nannan and even He Caitou were only stunned. But the rest were extremely horriﬁed, including Ma Xiaotao.

Cerita silat IndoMandarin

Unrivaled Tang Sect Volume 13

Chapter 105: Purifying the Ominous Soul Devouring Knife

Chapter 106: The Eye of Life

Chapter 107: The Semiﬁnals Lineup!

Chapter 108: The Princess

Chapter 109: The Absolute Defense and the Star Protection

Chapter 110 The Second Fusion Skill!

Chapter 112: Familial Love

Chapter 113: Heavenquake Axe

Chapter 114: The Body Sect

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