Chapter 86.1: The Origin of Destruction, He Caitou
After being powered up by the Raging Flame Ring, Shen Ce’s Thousandstrike Lance was dyed with a layer of red. A glint flashed through his eyes, and the Thousandstrike Lance’s third soul ring suddenly lit up. This thousand year soul ring immediately caused the weapon to turn somewhat illusory. Not only that, but a flare of light appeared behind the Thousandstrike Lance, causing it to become increasingly brighter. As a result, its glaring light suppressed even the reddish luster that came from Fei Yuyan’s Raging Flame Ring.
Clearly, Shen Ce and Fei Yuyan hadn’t just worked together for a day or two. Just as the former released his third soul skill, the latter simultaneously activated her second and third soul skills. However, her second soul skill was used on the Blaze Tiger.
Blazing Wings.
A four meter-wide pair of flaming wings appeared on the back of the Blaze Tiger, just like the phrase ‘giving a set of wings to a tiger’. With the strength increase given by the Blazing Wings, the aura of Fire coming from the Blaze Tiger spiked, and the originally scarlet-red flames on its body started to turn a bluish-white.
After that came Fei Yuyan’s third skill, which caused a layer of bluish-white flames to emerge from the body of the Blaze Tiger. The Blaze Tiger itself was an image of light, and it had released something similar to it, yet even more illusory. This caused its main body to thin somewhat.
The bluish-white Blaze Tiger didn’t pause whatsoever. Flapping its wings, it leapt straight into the increasingly bright Thousandstrike Lance.
Immediately, an intense, bluish-white flame appeared on the body of the Thousandstrike Lance. Mixed within it was the low cry of a tiger, causing the members of the audience below to involuntarily hold their breath.
This was practically an unrivaled use of strengthening soul skills! By relying on four defense-type soul masters to act as a defensive wall, and the use of An Lengye’s control of Ice to strengthen their defensive capabilities while reducing their opponents’ speed, they were able to give Shen Ce and Fei Yuyan the chance to join hands and release a deadly attack. This was the strategy that the current Thousand Spirits Academy was using. Moreover, this fighting style had never appeared in any of Shrek’s previous matches before.
Their opponents during the elimination round simply weren’t strong enough. Moreover, their first fight during the round-robin round had been a 1v1 duel. Up till now, an original yet extremely powerful strategy like this had never appeared on the battlefield. This was something that even Wang Yan had been unable to predict beforehand.
Would Shrek’s Seven Monsters be able to endure a crushing blow like this?
The Thousand Spirits Academy had a very simple goal–rely on a special strategy like this to combine their strongest abilities, then eliminate a few of their opponents. After that, they could take advantage of a few mistakes their opponents made to achieve victory. This was also the strategy they had devised to use against strong teams they were fighting against.
Originally, the Thousand Spirits Academy hadn’t planned to fight against Shrek Academy. After all, the latter was a champion throughout the entirety of history! The Thousand Spirits Academy didn’t have the foundation to challenge Shrek Academy. However, they had lost their previous 1v1 match, pushing them to the edge of disqualification. If they weren’t able to beat Shrek Academy, they would be eliminated from the Continental Advanced Academy Soul Duelling Tournament.
Hence, the Thousand Spirits Academy had a very simple strategy–they spared nothing in their fight. Even if they lost, they had to lose brilliantly so that everyone could see the true might of the Thousand Spirits Academy. They wouldn’t be losing face either if they lost to Shrek Academy.
Just as Wang Yan and the Shrek’s Seven Monsters were hoping for a team fight, the Thousand Spirits Academy was also hoping for the same outcome; this was because they believed that they would be able to release all of their strength in a team fight. In the end, both parties were satisfied. However, could the current Shrek’s Seven Monsters withstand the might of the Thousand Spirits Academy?
“Go!” Shen Ce let out a low roar, then stretched out both hands. He was about to fling his Thousandstrike Lance that flickered with a bluish-white flame outwards.
At the same time, the four wielders of the Spirit Rhinoceros Shields suddenly moved. The very center of the Shield Wall shifted to the side, revealing a hole.
Under the effects of An Lengye’s Frost Seal, Bei Bei, He Caitou, Xu Sanshi, and Jiang Nannan were ten meters away from the Shield Wall.
Describing all of this took a lot of time, but in reality, everything occurred within a few seconds. Shen Ce wasn’t the only powerful person within the Thousand Spirits Academy; the cooperation and speed involved in the soul skills used by the Twin Mistresses of Fire and Ice had reached an extreme level of skill.
The four people from Shrek Academy who were currently leading the charge had blank looks on their faces. At this exact moment, a white mark appeared on Bei Bei’s body. This mark was in the shape of a cross, and it appeared right on his chest.
However, an indifferent smile floated by the corner of Bei Bei’s mouth at this exact moment. This was a smile of self-confidence.
The members of the audience who could clearly see what was going on, including the Emperor himself, held their breaths at this moment. Would Shrek Academy suffer a heavy blow at the very beginning of the match?
At this exact moment, they witnessed another bizarre scene. To put it more accurately, it was an astonishing scene.
Nobody would’ve thought that the first of the Shrek’s Seven Monsters to release a soul skill would be Huo Yuhao. Moreover, he hadn’t even released his soul rings.
Without any prior warning at all, Huo Yuhao’s eyes shot out two purplish-golden rays of light, each more than a foot long.
This was precisely when Shen Ce was about to make a move.
Shen Ce let out a muffled groan, and the cross-shaped mark that was on Bei Bei’s body instantly vanished. However, the Thousandstrike Lance had already been released. Only, it had now diverged from its original trajectory…
Opportunities were things that were given equally to both parties.
The powerful effect of the perfect combination of Huo Yuhao’s Spiritual Detection and Spiritual Shock was once again unveiled in a team fight. If it was the first time a person encountered this combination of spiritual soul skills, they would undoubtedly suffer a loss.
Even as his cultivation continuously increased, Huo Yuhao’s greatest improvement was in his spiritual power. His spiritual power had been continuously strengthened at a terrifying rate with the help of the Skydream Iceworm, and his first soul ring had reached the level of a thousand year soul ring. Even if his overall cultivation hadn’t reached the level of a three-ringed Soul Elder, he had two thousand year soul rings by his side in reality. Moreover, these weren’t just ordinary thousand year soul rings…
He had been able to instantly send Ma Xiaotao into a daze using his Spiritual Shock when his cultivation was far weaker. Now, his cultivation had increased dramatically, and his opponent wasn’t even as strong as Ma Xiaotao.
Why was Bei Bei laughing? The Thousand Spirits Academy was under the impression that their Shield Wall had concealed their movements, but with Huo Yuhao’s Spiritual Detection, they couldn’t hide anything from Shrek’s Seven Monsters; they were even able to clearly see the circulation of Shen Ce’s soul power when he made his move.
Huo Yuhao made his move the instant Shen Ce had no choice but to release his drawn bowstring. As the main control-type soul master of his team, his entire team jumped into action in accordance with his timing.
A sudden change occurred to the seemingly relaxed Shrek’s Seven Monsters. Wang Dong and Xiao Xiao stayed by Huo Yuhao’s side, unmoving, but the four people in front of them rushed forward like fierce beasts. Furthermore, this was combined with the explosion caused by Shen Ce’s Thousandstrike Lance.
Shen Ce had been fully concentrated on his control over the Thousandstrike Lance, but he had been struck by Huo Yuhao’s Spiritual Shock. Thus, not only was the angle of his throw skewed, but he also suffered heavy injuries to his mind; he started to bleed from his mouth and nose. Furthermore, the new target of his lightning-fast Thousandstrike Lance was now his team’s Shield Wall.
As the saying went, a fortress was most easily destroyed from within. This was something that made a lot of sense.
When the four of them had formed the Shield Wall, nobody could see any holes or weak spots from the outside. Yang Ming, Song Hu, Bai Chen, and Ye Mao were constantly shifting their positions to maintain the overall balance of the Shield Wall’s defense. However, they were trying to defend against external attacks, not internal ones!
Strengthened by Fei Yuyan’s soul skills, Shen Ce’s full-power lance fully struck their Shield Wall from within.
With a violent boom, the countless shield images were blasted apart from within. The bluish-white flames instantly melted the Frost Shield, and even burnt Yang Ming, who was closest to the wall.
The terrifying impact caused by the Thousandstrike Lance blew the left side of the Shield Wall apart. Yang Ming and Song Hu were sent flying, and they let out a wretched cries due to the flames burning them. Traces of blood could now be seen on their right arms that had transformed into shields.
Shen Ce’s all-out attack against Bei Bei had struck his own side. Fortunately, the Thousandstrike Lance hadn’t flown straight towards his own teammates. Otherwise, their injuries would’ve been even more severe.
As these violent booms continued to ring out, Bei Bei and Xu Sanshi simultaneously let out a roar. Although they had been previously slowed down by the Frost Seal, they suddenly sped up. With a flash, Xu Sanshi made his way through the broken Shield Wall. On the other hand, Bei Bei slammed tyrannically into the remaining half of the Shield Wall.
He Caitou suddenly stopped moving, as if he were a sitting tiger. After smoking one of his Soul Power Amplifying Thin Cigars, the rumbling sounds of metal rang out from his body.
A few days ago, Xu Sanshi had encountered a stationary soul cannon while fighting against the students from the Cloud Luo Advanced Soul Engineering Academy. However, the person who was using it today was He Caitou.
Huo Yuhao had studied the art of soul tools under Fan Yu for a very short period of time. Fan Yu had established a good foundation for him, while imparting a foundational knowledge of most soul engineers as well. On the other hand, when Huo Yuhao was learning how to create soul tools, Fan Yu had prioritised his foundation over everything else.
However, He Caitou had already studied under Fan Yu for over five years. He wasn’t as slow as he seemed on the surface. How could his five years of hard work be compared to the leader of the Cloud Luo Advanced Soul Engineering Academy that Xu Sanshi had previously fought against? His unleashing of a stationary soul tool was practically a transformation to his body.
There was a qualitative difference between the soul tool forts that He Caitou and Situ Yu set up. The pedestal of Situ Yu’s fort had only extended towards his legs, but He Caitou’s one could truly be called a fort.
Amidst the concentrated sounds of metal, a circular pedestal appeared below He Caitou’s feet, fully covering his feet.