Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy.
Mingde Hall.
Huo Yuhao held an engraving knife, steadily and unhurriedly carving a level-four core formation array. In order to avoid exposing himself, the array he was engraving gradually became more complex.
Meanwhile, in secret, his spiritual detection continued to record the processes of nearby Mingde Hall students as they manufactured soul tools.
Suddenly, an inexplicable palpitation struck Huo Yuhao's heart. Under his spiritual perception, the ground actually began to tremble.
"Is there going to be an earthquake?"
Without the slightest hesitation, Huo Yuhao flipped his body and immediately rolled off his seat, tumbling straight under the experimental table in front of him.
As his body curled up, two or three soul-tool barrier shields were already prepared.
"Boom, boom, boom, boom."
Four consecutive explosions rang out simultaneously within the core area of the enormous Mingde Hall experimental base. The terrifying explosive force instantly unleashed an almost devastating shockwave inside.
Four bursts of explosive light appeared in four different directions, all located around the periphery of the core area, where relatively few students and researchers were gathered.
Even so, the surrounding metal soul-tool experiment tables were torn apart by the horrific blast force. Metal fragments scattered in all directions, transforming into a terrifying metallic storm that swept outward.
But immediately afterward, the formidable survival capabilities of soul engineers were revealed. Streaks of white light lit up as nearly every Mingde Hall soul engineer had a trigger-type soul-tool defensive barrier, mitigating the destructive effects of the explosion as much as possible.
As the explosions subsided, figures suddenly burst up from beneath the ground. All of them were dressed in black, moving with extreme agility, even wearing black hoods—looking just like ruthless bandits from the outside world.
The moment they emerged, they began indiscriminately destroying everything around them.
"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"
In an instant, chaos, panic, shouting, and alarm sirens intertwined. The entire core area of Mingde Hall turned into utter turmoil.
"Are these people from the Body Sect?!"
Huo Yuhao hid beneath the experimental table like a quail. He quickly noticed something amiss: once these black-clad attackers activated their martial souls, a certain part of their bodies would enlarge—clearly a distinctive trait unique to body-type martial souls.
"The Body Sect really is a bunch of lunatics, daring to attack Mingde Hall. Thankfully, Big Brother and Teacher Fan Yu went out."
"This can't go on—there's no way out unless I escape quickly."
Watching Mingde Hall students clash with members of the Body Sect, Huo Yuhao grew anxious.
This level of combat was clearly not something he could intervene in.
"Yuhao, your big brother's got an idea. Since they came from underground, we'll escape the same way."
Within Huo Yuhao's spiritual sea, the Heavenly Dream Iceworm was jolted awake by the massive noise outside. After observing for a moment, it spoke to Huo Yuhao.
"Great idea!"
Hearing this, Huo Yuhao's eyes lit up. His right-hand Darkgolden Terrorclaw was fully unleashed as he slammed it forcefully into the ground beneath him. Although the floor was covered with a metal layer over half a foot thick, it was instantly ripped apart by the sharpness of the Darkgolden Terrorclaw.
Then both of his hands moved together as he dug with all his strength. He quickly excavated a depression beneath himself and continued digging downward at speed.
While Huo Yuhao was digging, after a brief moment of panic and amid the shrill blare of alarms, Mingde Hall's counterattack began.
One massive soul tool after another extended from the ceiling. These soul tools were spiral-shaped, over five meters long, with the thickest parts exceeding two meters in diameter.
As blue-violet light coiled upward around them, the sharp tips began to wildly fire streaks of purple light, as if they had eyes, bombarding the Body Sect members.
"Hahaha, mere soul tools!"
Dragon-Arm Douluo laughed wildly, using his own body to directly withstand the purple beams—but he soon realized something was wrong.
When the purple light struck him, it instantly unleashed powerful electric currents. A massive numbing sensation surged through him, and for a moment, Dragon-Arm Douluo was frozen in place.
This was despite the fact that he had tempered his body with lightning for years and possessed resistance to electricity. The power of these soul tools was evident.
Very soon, the Body Sect began to suffer some casualties. Just at this moment, ripples suddenly appeared in the air, and a figure materialized in midair.
Amid the pursuit of countless purple beams, his body seemed to turn illusory, flashing and weaving through them. Not a single beam managed to strike him.
"Let this old man bring you destruction!"
With a thunderous shout—
In the next instant, the entire ceiling turned completely green. Under that horrifying green shroud, every soul tool on the ceiling melted, emitting white vapor as droplets fell from above, clearly having been corroded away.
This figure was none other than Poison Undying. Seeing more than a dozen figures fly out from deeper within the underground base, the dark-green gleam in his eyes shifted. With a wave of his hand, the molten green liquid scattered in all directions, shooting toward the surrounding soul engineers.
"Poison Undying, how dare you!"
Jing Hongchen's furious voice rang out. A layer of crimson light instantly expanded outward, forcibly blocking the large swath of green liquid.
Looking at the devastated state of the underground base, Jing Hongchen's eyes nearly split with rage. Since its construction, Mingde Hall had never suffered such heavy damage. Fortunately, the casualties did not seem severe.
At the same time, regret flooded Jing Hongchen's heart. Not long ago, he had still believed that no one could attack Mingde Hall from underground—yet reality had slapped him in the face with astonishing speed.
"Poison Undying, what exactly does your Body Sect want?!"
Jing Hongchen roared, staring at the figure in the air.
"What nonsense are you babbling about? We are righteous heroes of the Star Luo Empire! We can't stand the ways of Mingde Hall and the Sun Moon Empire, so we've come to rob you—ah, to punish the wicked and uphold justice!"
Dragon-Arm Douluo shouted as he broke free from the purple beams and continued his assault. Poison Undying in the air nodded in satisfaction.
From what he had learned earlier in the Heavenly Soul Empire, this hundred-thousand-year soul beast embryo had been a scheme set by the Star Luo Empire to pit the Body Sect against Mingde Hall. Naturally, Poison Undying would not let the Star Luo Empire off easily.
"Good, good, good!"
Jing Hongchen was so angered by Dragon-Arm Douluo that he laughed instead, saying "good" three times in a row. The excuse this bastard came up with was truly fresh and novel.
"Since you've come, then all of you can stay!"
As he spoke, a surge of intense red light erupted from Jing Hongchen's body. Behind him, a mass of metallic light resembling a red lotus rapidly spun and assembled.
In an instant, over a thousand red metal tubes, each no thicker than a finger, were aimed at Poison Undying in the air. In the next moment, tens of thousands of lasers fired simultaneously, bombarding Poison Undying in a furious barrage.
The corner of Poison Undying's mouth curled upward. He was no longer the same as before. After breaking through to become an Ultimate Douluo, the threat posed by these soul tools to him had been greatly reduced.
For a time, thunderous explosions echoed endlessly throughout Mingde Hall's core area, and the ground continued to tremble.
At this moment, Huo Yuhao, who was still digging downward without pause, suddenly felt air flowing in.
(End of chapter)