The Soul King was astonished and spared no cost to activate a soul skill in order to block Ma Xiaotao. However, her fiery wings suddenly vanished and were replaced by a red light that severed the sky before vanis.h.i.+ng without a trace. Suddenly both the Soul King’s body and his soul skill froze in midair.

Ma Xiaotao didn’t even spare him a glance. Her slender body rose into the air while a sonorous phoenix cry rang out. A countless number of magnificent feathers had appeared on her body before forming a beam of red light with an incomparably beautiful tail that shot towards the Soul Emperor as it left behind dots of reddish-golden starlight in the sky.

At that moment, her last black soul ring finally lit up with a dazzling light,

The golden-reddish light devoured everything and the Soul Emperor and his falling comrades were no exception. He was unable to put up a fight against Ma Xiaotao despite them both being Soul Emperors.

Over on the other side, Bei Bei and Jiang Nannan hadn’t disappointed her.

When a Soul Ancestor fought against a Soul King, the former would normally be suppressed by the latter. However, the two of them were both core disciples of Shrek Academy. It would be hard to determine the victor even if the two parties were at their peak conditions, let alone when the two Soul Kings had already been injured by Ma Xiaotao’s attack. When Bei Bei and Jiang Nannan rushed over, the Soul Kings hadn’t even recovered their strength yet.

Bei Bei was an explosive a.s.sault-type soul master while Jiang Nannan was an explosive agility-type soul master. The results of their respective matches were obvious.

By the time Ma Xiaotao finished her match, one of the two Soul Kings had been electrocuted till he was a block of coal while the other had been sent flying ten meters into the air by Jiang Nannan’s attack before being stomped on in midair.

Only a minute had pa.s.sed since Ma Xiaotao had started her onslaught when it ended; all six of their enemies had fallen in this short period of time.

When she realized that all of them had been killed, Ma Xiaotao scratched her head somewhat embarra.s.sedly. “I forgot to leave someone alive…”

Bei Bei and Jiang Nannan could only stare at her helplessly. Knowing how fierce she was, Bei Bei and Jiang Nannan naturally had to go all-out the moment she said that she ‘wouldn’t let a single one escape’. Their opponents were Soul Kings, so they naturally had to be vicious.

“Whatever. I’ll let the academy’s guardian team examine their corpses once we’re back. I’m sure they’ll be able to find a few hints.” Ma Xiaotao waved her hand and brushed off her mistake.

Huo Yuhao and w.a.n.g Dong’s eyes were filled with nothing but admiration towards Ma Xiaotao; Ma Xiaotao’s earlier performance could only be described using the phrase ‘as swift as wind, as aggressive as fire’.

Even though they were both soul masters, Ma Xiaotao’s six soul rings seemed to have come alive. They’d flickered one after another, and whenever she’d alternated between them, she’d always used the soul skill most suitable to the situation. Huo Yuhao and the rest could barely use their soul skills this quickly with a single soul ring, yet she’d seemed entirely uninhibited by the number of soul rings she had!

This was the main reason that her opponent had had no chance against her, despite them both being Soul Emperors.

Of course, Ma Xiaotao was also an extraordinarily talented soul master who possessed the Evil Phoenix. Her powerful martial soul and soul bones already made her much stronger than an ordinary six-ringed Soul Emperor.

By this point, seven or eight prominent figures had appeared atop Shrek City’s city walls, and a large number of soldiers stood behind them respectfully.

Elder Lin and Yan Shaozhe were included in this group of seven or eight people.

The distress signal of an inner courtyard disciple was an extremely important matter to Shrek Academy. In truth, they’d already arrived earlier on; with their cultivation levels, it was natural that they’d arrive earlier than Ma Xiaotao.

However, as teachers, they hadn’t instantly made a move, as they wanted to see what their students were capable of.

And their students hadn’t disappointed them. The word ‘remarkable’ could be used to describe everything that had happened, regardless of whether it was Huo Yuhao and w.a.n.g Dong’s escape, or if it was Ma Xiaotao, Bei Bei, Jiang Nannan, and Xu Sans.h.i.+’s timely rescue. The intruders had all fallen, with their only mistake being that they hadn’t left anyone alive.

Yan Shaozhe was somewhat speechless. “This Xiaotao girl is too explosive. She becomes an entirely different person the moment she enteres combat.”

Elder Lin smiled slightly. “Though that’s mainly dictated by her temperament, it’s also because of her martial soul. However, this child’s cultivation has increased by quite a large amount. In fact, I reckon that she’ll be able to break through the seven-ringed stage within three years.”

Yan Shaozhe chuckled. “Elder Lin. I didn’t have any a.s.surance of my plan back then. However, it seems that I can now give a definite answer to your question because of Huo Yuhao’s appearance. Haven’t you sensed that the most astonis.h.i.+ng part of this entire event was their escapade?”

They naturally hadn’t seen everything that had occurred. However, the person who’d been closest to the battle had been Elder Lin. The instant she’d appeared atop the city walls after discovering the distress signal had been the same instant that Huo Yuhao had unleashed the jade-green light that had caused the three Soul Kings to lose their ability to move.

Even though Yan Shaozhe had been somewhat late, he didn’t arrive from the city. Because of this, his line of sight hadn’t been obstructed, which had allowed him to vaguely witness that scene. The level of speed that these consummate-level experts had couldn’t be compared to that of ordinary soul masters. Their escape however, combined with the stunning Golden Road that they’d fired off, had given these two members of the academy’s upper echelon—and the experts beside them—a deep impression.

Ma Xiaotao’s performance had admittedly been outstanding, but she was already a disciple of the inner courtyard. Thus, there simply hadn’t been any suspense in her victory over her six-ringed opponent. However, it was a different case for Huo Yuhao and w.a.n.g Dong. A Soul Grandmaster and a Soul Elder had actually managed to escape from a formation of five Soul Kings and a Soul Emperor. This was enough to ill.u.s.trate the doubts they had.

If Ma Xiaotao hadn’t made it in time, though they still would’ve been bruised from their fall, the possibility of their death was extremely small. At that time, Bei Bei, Xu Sans.h.i.+, and Jiang Nannan had already arrived, at which point temporarily staying alive would’ve posed no problem to them. It could be said that their escape had been entirely successful.

Yan Shaozhe and Elder Lin were both members of the Sea G.o.d’s Pavilion, yet they couldn’t find any faults with Huo Yuhao and w.a.n.g Dong’s earlier performance.

“Shaozhe, were you able to see what skill Huo Yuhao used when he was being chased in the air?” Elder Lin smiled slightly.

Yan Shaozhe was still somewhat stunned by what he’d seen, thus he shook his head. “I was too far away from them, thus I wasn’t able to see it clearly. Elder Lin, you must’ve seen it. Just what sort of soul skill did he use? It was actually able to cause three Soul Kings to lose their ability to fly.”

Elder Lin smiled. “My heart was still aching after those two fellas took away a precious soul bone from my pavilion, but I now think that it was extremely worth it now that I’ve seen this skill. If I’m not mistaken, he used a domain-type skill, which should’ve come from his soul bone. Perhaps this soul bone of his is related to the awakening of his second martial soul.”

Yan Shaozhe was flabbergasted. “Elder Lin, are you sure that it was a domain-type skill?!”

Elder Lin glanced at him, but didn’t reply. She turned around and walked into the city as she unhurriedly said, “Someone had a lot of guts. To think that he’d bully one of our students all the way until they reached the academy… do as you wish.”

Yan Shaozhe knew that it was a slip of the tongue. He bowed towards Elder Lin, then stood back up, his eyes filled with killing intent. He turned towards someone beside him and said, “Take all of the corpses back to the academy. Spare no expenses; discover just who dared to attack one of our students in Shrek Academy’s territory.”

“Yes.”

———-

Within the city.

“Thank you, senior sister.” Even though Huo Yuhao and w.a.n.g Dong had overdrafted their soul power, there wasn’t anything wrong with their physical bodies. They respectfully bowed towards Ma Xiaotao, their eyes full of admiration.

Ma Xiaotao waved them off. “You don’t need to thank me. These fellas must’ve been tired of living. To think they’d dare to cause a ruckus in our Shrek Academy… have you offended anyone recently?”

“No!” The moment Huo Yuhao said this, however, he suddenly thought of something, and immediately turned towards w.a.n.g Dong.

w.a.n.g Dong was also looking at him. Both of them felt a sense of chilliness in their hearts when their gazes met.

There was only a single person that they could have offended recently: Dai Huabin. Dai Huabin had lost to them twice in a row, which had resulted in him having to kowtow to them. He was from the White Tiger Duke’s Mansion, and was therefore capable of mobilising several people to serve him. A Soul Emperor and five Soul Kings weren’t forces that ordinary powers would possess.

Before Huo Yuhao could even speak, Bei Bei walked up to him. “Two junior brothers, this place isn’t safe. Let’s head back to the academy before we continue this conversation.”

In reality, there was no way they could be in danger anymore. Huo Yuhao’s distress signal had directly summoned the top powers of Shrek Academy. After a brief moment, even Fan Yu arrived.

There was no doubt that Huo Yuhao’s distress signal had been given to him by Fan Yu, who’d added something special to the signal flare so that he’d also know to immediately rush over the moment Huo Yuhao released it.

Because of this, even though only Huo Yuhao and w.a.n.g Dong had originally gone to the auction, their returning party turned was much larger. The corpses left behind were all taken away by Yan Shaozhe’s men.

Huo Yuhao and w.a.n.g Dong weren’t able to sleep well that night. They were only allowed to return to their dorms early in the morning after the academy’s unceasing interrogation. Although the academy hadn’t given them a definite answer, they clearly had their own conjectures.

Huo Yuhao wasn’t worried about how the academy would deal with this matter. He and w.a.n.g Dong had truly been too careless this time. They’d never thought that Dai Huabin would use a tactic like this in an area so close to Shrek Academy.

The corpses gave them no leads. They had indeed been sent over by Dai Huabin, but they’d wiped away all traces of their ident.i.ties before going to ambush Huo Yuhao and w.a.n.g Dong. This wasn’t done just to avoid anything troublesome for Dai Huabin, but also to prevent any suspicion falling upon the White Tiger Duke’s Mansion!