Chapter 52.2: The Ice Empress’ Armor
Wu Feng, who stood near Dai Huabin, gazed towards Huo Yuhao, her eyes filled with anger. She couldn’t understand why a sense of fear towards him had welled up in her heart after their match, despite him clearly being much weaker than her. It was because of this feeling that, during the months that followed their match, she hadn’t issued him another challenge.
Wu Feng didn’t know why this had happened, but the unyielding look in Huo Yuhao’s eyes would frequently pop up in her mind.
He’s actually going against the Flaming Lion King. This is gonna be a nice show to watch. Vicious thoughts popped up in Wu Feng’s mind. It’d be good if it burned him to cinders.
The Flaming Lion King charged out of the beast cage and roared towards the sky. The lion’s distinctive mane spread outwards and its fire-red fur looked even more formidable due to the fire surrounding it.
It was much more robust than the Wind Tiger that Dai Huabin had faced; its body was a full three meters long and its shoulders were one and-a-half-meters wide. Its muscles were outlined distinctly and its light brown eyes had a grim look to them. After letting out a roar, it shot through the air towards Huo Yuhao.
The flames around its body rose unceasingly as it charged towards Huo Yuhao. The flames were so hot that they began to distort the air around them.
Could Huo Yuhao really take on a thousand year Flaming Lion King? It was even stronger than the Bloodthirsty Demon Bear and Wind Tiger that Wang Dong and Dai Huabin had faced.
Dai Huabin did not not believe for a second that such a miracle would occur. In his opinion, Huo Yuhao wouldn’t even be able to take a single blow from it.
Huo Yuhao stood unyieldingly as he faced the Flaming Lion King’s charge. He released his Spiritual Detection and locked it onto its body. Despite having faced a thousand year soul beast in the past, it would be a lie to say that he wasn’t nervous. This was still his first time facing a soul beast of its level by himself. However, he let out a mental sigh of relief once he sensed his opponent’s attribute.
By this time, it had already reached within fifty metres of Huo Yuhao. A large majority of the audience was now focused on its body. Yet, due to their focus on the Flaming Lion King, they didn’t notice that a change had occurred to Huo Yuhao’s soul rings.
This time, the change wasn’t the color of his soul rings, but rather the number of them. His two soul rings had suddenly become a single one, though they still remained white.
That single white soul ring emitted a weak and feeble light as a layer of translucent crystals silently covered his body. Every crystal was about the size of a fingernail, and didn’t hinder his movements even though they had covered his entire body. On the contrary, they formed a suit of armor made of ice.
These crystals of ice were all hexagonal and multifaceted. Thus, any light that shone on these ice crystals would result in dazzling reflections.
After the crystals of ice covered Huo Yuhao’s body, the Flaming Lion King suddenly stopped. The blazing flames around its body converged and turned into a fiery light identical to its body which then shot straight towards Huo Yuhao.
This was the Flaming Lion King’s innate skill, Flaming Clone Strike.
The fiery light surrounding its body vanished as soon as it released this attack. However, the speed of its charge didn’t diminish in the slightest as it continued to charge towards Huo Yuhao.
The referee had been following the entire situation closely. He felt somewhat surprised when the layer of ice crystals appeared on Huo Yuhao’s body. Just what was his martial soul? Furthermore, the audience had just noticed that his two soul rings were now just a single soul ring.
This strange phenomenon sent the two referees into a daze for a brief moment. Naturally, this wasted some of their time; by the time they came back to their senses and realised that Huo Yuhao might not be able to withstand the Flaming Lion King’s attack, it had already reached him.
Du Weilun had already risen to his feet with his right hand pointed downwards. He could naturally see that the two referees wouldn’t be able to make it in time to help Huo Yuhao.
Yan Shaozhe flicked his sleeve and blocked Du Weilun’s hand. He smiled slightly and said, “No need.”
At that moment, the Flaming Clone Strike had already struck Huo Yuhao.
Astonished cries began to ring throughout the entire stadium, both Zhou Yi and Wang Yan rushed into the arena simultaneously. However, they suddenly stopped after taking three steps; they had just witnessed a miraculous scene.
Right when the lion’s Flaming Clone Strike had collided with Huo Yuhao’s body, a layer of white mist surged from his body. Immediately after that, an illusory shadow flashed behind his body. Following which, the lion’s skill vanished without a trace. It was as though it had never occurred in the first place.
After the white mist disappeared, Huo Yuhao’s body returned back to its normal state. He clasped his hands behind his back and glared at the lion coldly. “Scram!” he shouted with a stern voice.
The huge lion had unexpectedly shivered before it turned around and ran away with its tail between its legs. Its terrified appearance was as though it had seen something extremely terrifying. Yet, it was only Huo Yuhao who stood there, with a completely nonchalant attitude.
The two referees were left dumbstruck. Last time, a hundred year soul beast had been paralyzed from fear and this time, a thousand year soul beast had been scared to the point of fleeing. Furthermore, he had withstood its attack without releasing a hundred thousand year soul ring!
Just what had happened? All the teachers within the arena were baffled.
Yan Shaozhe slowly rose to his feet, turned towards Du Weilun and spoke, “I’m going to head back now. Huo Yuhao gets full marks for his advancement test. I want this kid.”
With that, he took a step forward and left the tall stage. Then, he flashed through the sky and disappeared.
Of all the spectators observing the match, the only person who had clearly seen what Huo Yuhao had done was Yan Shaozhe.
After he was struck by the lion’s Flaming Clone Strike, a white mist had poured from Huo Yuhao’s body. At the same time, the crystalline ice armor he wore had turned jade-green. Furthermore, an illusory image had appeared behind him as the white mist floated upwards.
It was a meter-and-a-half tall scorpion and Yan Shaozhe had clearly seen the scorpion coldly glare at the Flaming Lion King with its crystal-yellow eyes. At that exact moment, the lion… had pissed itself…
This wasn’t the sense of fear caused by his Imitation skill, but a true intimidation caused by the attribute of his martial soul. It was just like the intimidation Dai Huabin’s White Tiger released towards the Wind Tiger.
Yan Shaozhe’s emotions surged violently as he hurriedly left. It had already been 76 years since he’d entered Shrek Academy, but this was the first Ultimate element martial soul he’d seen.
Ultimate Ice, this was the Ultimate Ice attribute!
The fire-type Flaming Lion King was frightened to the point of fleeing by Huo Yuhao’s Ultimate Ice-type martial soul. This was the absolute suppression that stemmed from their attributes!
Only Yan Shaozhe had been able to see through everything clearly and he had made many decisions as a result. The skill Huo Yuhao had just released was called the Ice Empress’ Armor, and it was the other skill that the Ice Empress’ four hundred thousand year soul ring had given him. The Ice Empress’ Pincer and the Ice Empress’ Armor were absolute godly skills. Only, the current Huo Yuhao wasn’t able to reveal their true strength. However, the strength required to send a fire-type opponent fleeing through elemental suppression posed no problem to him.
Yan Shaozhe had left earlier because he had seen what he had come to see. Now, all he needed to do was figure out a way to make Huo Yuhao stay in the Martial Soul Department without losing face.
A slight sinister smile appeared on Yan Shaozhe’s face. Qian Duoduo, ah, Qian Duoduo. I was taken in by your scheme this time, but let’s see who gets the last laugh. My Martial Soul Department is the true number one department on the continent and we have certain things that your Soul Tool Department doesn’t. If this Dean doesn’t hesitate to spare no expense, hehe… it’s all worth it for an Ultimate element!
The silence in the arena vanished following Yan Shaozhe’s departure, and the spectators all flew into an uproar.
Just what in the world had occurred?
Dai Huabin’s earlier feat of killing a thousand year soul beast was already enough to astonish them, but Huo Yuhao hadn’t even made a move. Yet, he’d sent his opponent fleeing by merely withstanding a single blow from it. This was even more stunning than a direct kill!
But, just what did he use to achieve this? After all, he wasn’t allowed to use his Imitation!
Dai Huabin’s confident eyes turned somewhat dazed. He muttered to himself, “Just how could this happen, how could this…?”
At this moment, Du Weilun’s voice boomed across the arena, “Huo Yuhao’s test is over. According to the Dean’s evaluation, Huo Yuhao has obtained 150 marks. He passes with full marks.”
“Ah” The astonished cries of various students immediately rang out. They didn’t even know that the Dean had been watching this round of the advancement test. Without a doubt, Du Weilun’s announcement of Huo Yuhao’s score had been made even more persuasive with his use of the Dean’s name.
Huo Yuhao slowly walked back to the area where the rest of the Class 1 students were waiting. In reality, even he didn’t know that a situation like this would occur. It hadn’t even been his own intention to yell out the word ‘Scram’; in that instant, the Ice Empress had awakened. The Ice Empress had urged him to yell that out and as a resultthe grand Flaming Lion King was actually scared witless…. The might of the Ice Empress Jade Scorpion was truly terrifying.
Without even waiting for Huo Yuhao to return, Wang Yan instinctively ran up to him. Though his eyesight wasn’t as good as Yan Shaozhe’s, his research in the field of martial souls was extremely profound. Moreover, he more-or-less understood Huo Yuhao’s abilities which resulted in him obtaining a few ideas as to what had really happened.
“Yuhao, you, just now, the soul skill you used just now, what happened? Your two rings became a single ring… don’t tell me you have two martial souls? Your second martial souls belongs to the Ice element?”
Wang Yan’s words rang out like a string of cannon shots.
Huo Yuhao might’ve been able to conceal the truth from other people, but Wang Yan had always treated him extremely well. Furthermore, he had always been extremely concerned about Huo Yuhao’s growth. The heartfelt respect that Huo Yuhao held towards Teacher Wang was no less than the respect he held for Fan Yu and Zhou Yi. He nodded softly, affirming Wang Yan’s guess.