"BOOM—!!!"
An earth-shattering explosion suddenly erupted.
Ma Xiaotao, a fiery meteor carrying the wrath of scorching the heavens, collided squarely and ferociously with the seemingly delicate parasol shield.
A terrifying energy impact instantly detonated. The golden-red Phoenix Flames poured out and roared like a breached flood, forming a massive, devastating circular fire shockwave that violently flung, crushed, and even vaporized the surrounding wreckage, which had already been reduced to ruins.
Fei Yan(Scarlet Nightmare), who took the full brunt of this wild impact, saw her expression change abruptly.
A colossal, almost unbelievable force violently surged through the parasol. Her arm gripping the umbrella instantly screamed in pain and went numb, the web of her hand nearly tearing apart.
Her firmly rooted stance was involuntarily pushed back a step by this power.
One step!
She was a Super Douluo at Rank 97, a veteran Evil Soul Master who had cultivated the Holy Spirit Sect's secret techniques for years, giving her a deeper foundation than others at her rank.
Yet, she was physically repelled head-on by an opponent whose cultivation was clearly only at the Soul Douluo level?
Her long-maintained composure instantly shattered. An unbelievable expletive escaped her lips: "Holy Spirit Sect curse! Are you seriously a Soul Douluo?!"
This was an utter humiliation, a complete violation of all common sense.
"Did we arrive too late..."
Meanwhile, a faint golden light flashed on the other side. Han Ruoruo and the Servant Aglaea silently appeared beside a trembling Xu Sanshi, whose eyes were filled with anguish.
Han Ruoruo's gaze swiftly swept the scene. When she saw Dai Huabin and Zhu Lu dead in a tragic embrace, her expression instantly darkened with sorrow.
Through Aglaea's strange golden threads, which were nearly omnipresent across Mingdou, they had witnessed everything that transpired here as if they were present: the tragic dissipation of the Dragon-Slaying Hero Siegfried, Beibei's heartbreaking choice, and Huo Yuhao's final, unforgivable, vengeful ice spike...
Every scene weighed heavily on her heart.
It was precisely because of this knowledge that Ma Xiaotao, fiery and headstrong, had burst forth with power beyond her limits the moment she arrived, targeting Huo Yuhao without hesitation.
Inside the deep crater, the atmosphere instantly became extremely tense.
On one side was the burning Phoenix; on the other, the treacherous Evil Soul Master and the severely injured Huo Yuhao. In the middle were the agonizingly conflicted Beibei and the unconscious Tang Ya, along with the newly arrived, grim-faced Han Ruoruo.
"How could it... come to this..."
Several formidable presences tore through the sky, crashing onto the devastated ruins like heavy meteors.
Xuan Zi and several Shrek Academy elders appeared. Behind them, Ning Tian, Wufeng, and the Servant Jeanne d'Arc followed closely, all guided by Aglaea's city-wide golden threads.
Ning Tian and Wufeng's eyes were immediately drawn to the two tightly embracing corpses.
Dai Huabin and Zhu Lu—they had been the most troublesome upstarts in the academy, arrogant and aloof presences who never fit in.
But even so, they were classmates who had entered the academy together, trained together, and competed with each other for years.
Now, watching them lie there cold and still in such a tragic manner, a complex, indescribable emotion surged within Ning Tian and Wufeng. It was not just sadness, but a mournful pity for their own kind.
"Beibei! What exactly are you doing?!"
Xuan Zi's roar was like a sudden clap of thunder, shattering the silence in the dead crater.
His gaze was fixed on Beibei, who was clutching Tang Ya and hanging his head low, his eyes filled with disbelief, disappointment, and a nearly heartbreaking fury.
"For a woman whose mind has been corrupted, are you betraying the academy that nurtured you, forsaking the honor you bear? Do you know what profound hopes Elder Mu... he placed in you!"
He had always regarded Beibei as a future pillar of the Sea God's Pavilion, Mu En's only bloodline successor in this world, and an inheritor into whom he had poured countless efforts and expectations.
But now, this junior he valued most, for the sake of a lover who had fallen to the dark path, was willing to stand opposite Shrek, in the darkness.
The heavier the expectation once placed, the more violent the backlash was now.
The expressions of the other elders were similarly grim.
They looked at Beibei as if looking at an irreparable work of art that had been completely desecrated.
The future mainstay, whom Shrek Academy had spent countless resources cultivating, had willingly fallen due to so-called "love." This foolish and resolute choice was beyond their limits of comprehension and tolerance.
Beibei bowed his head lower, silent as a stone sunken in an icy sea.
He had no face to meet the burning gazes of his teachers, nor could he defend himself, for his choice had already spoken for itself.
He could only clutch the unconscious Tang Ya tighter, as if she were the only piece of sinking driftwood he could hold onto.
"Heh heh... just a woman?"
Huo Yuhao suddenly let out a cold, utterly unconcealed sneer of mockery.
"You high and mighty elders will never understand that not everyone is like you, who can rightfully cast aside everything—including the most important person—for the sake of your so-called 'Shrek's Honor.'"
"Huo Yuhao!"
Xuan Zi spun toward him, a complex flash of guilt quickly crossing his eyes, but that emotion was instantly overridden by a more surging, icy killing intent.
"The academy's choice back then was indeed a debt owed to you, but that is absolutely no reason for you to seduce Beibei into the evil path, let alone ruthlessly murder Dai Huabin and Zhu Lu!"
He acknowledged the old debt, but Huo Yuhao's current actions had dragged all past grudges into an irretrievable state.
Killing classmates and falling into the ways of an Evil Soul Master were capital offenses that touched Shrek's core boundaries.
Moreover, Huo Yuhao not only killed fellow students but also lured Beibei onto the evil path, which crossed Xuan Zi's bottom line.
"Elder Xuan, there's no need for further words!"
A Super Douluo level elder, whose body was surrounded by formidable Soul Power, spoke in a deep voice, his killing intent condensed into a tangible form in his eyes.
"This child's nature has been completely twisted, he has become a minion of the Evil Soul Masters, and his terrifying talent makes him a great calamity. He absolutely must not be spared."
"Evil Soul Masters are to be executed by all. The purging of the sect must happen today."
Xuan Zi took a deep breath, the last hint of hesitation vanishing from his cloudy old eyes, replaced by the iron resolve and decisiveness of the Shrek Oversight Group leader.
His gaze, sharp as a knife, swept past Feyan, who was shielding Huo Yuhao, and finally settled on Huo Yuhao. His tone was definitive.
"As the leader of the Shrek Oversight Group, I, Xuan Zi, shall carry out the purging of the sect right here, today."
"Heh, as phony and self-righteous as ever."
Huo Yuhao sneered, his pale, blood-stained face showing no fear.
Because he could sense the familiar, reassuring, yet oppressive aura of reinforcements from the distant sky—they had arrived.
"I'd like to see which fool dares to lay a finger on my Holy Son."
A low, sinister voice, seemingly originating from the Nine Nethers, suddenly resonated, carrying a malevolent and soul-shaking oppressive power from far away.
Several dark figures, radiating dense evil aura and terrifying Soul Power fluctuations, ripped through space like phantoms, instantly descending beside Huo Yuhao and surrounding him tightly at the center.
The Holy Spirit Sect Master, Zhongli Wu, gently patted Huo Yuhao's uninjured shoulder, his voice filled with undisguised appreciation and an overbearing arrogance that looked down upon the world.
"Yuhao, well done. Rest assured, with this Sect Master here, no one will touch a hair on your head today."
He then slowly turned to face the Shrek group led by Xuan Zi.
The next moment, a terrifying surge of Soul Power erupted from him like an awakened savage beast.
The immense aura of a Rank 98 Super Douluo transformed into an invisible but mountain-heavy domain, relentlessly crushing towards the Shrek group.
Behind him, a powerful procession of figures manifested like a horde of demons, each erupting with the chilling aura of a Title Douluo.
The Vice Sect Master, Evil Phoenix Douluo Feng Ling!
The Sixth Attendant, Scorpion Tiger Douluo Zhang Peng!
The Second Elder, Heavenly Centipede Douluo!
The Fifth Elder, Myriad Souls Douluo!
The Sixth Elder, Abomination Douluo!
The Seventh Elder, Masked Douluo!
The Eighth Elder, Nightmare Douluo!
The combined auras of the many Evil Soul Master powerhouses formed a cold, deathly, and vengeful torrent of curses, which violently collided with the magnificent and righteous presence of the Shrek Academy faction.
The air across the entire ruins seemed to freeze at this instant. Space twisted, and battle lines were clearly drawn.
On one side was Shrek Academy, representing the peak of the continent's righteous path. On the other was the Holy Spirit Sect's upper echelon, which had been dormant for a thousand years and now poured out its full strength.
War was imminent!
Facing the sinister pressure of the Holy Spirit Sect's powerhouses, the Shrek Academy elders showed no retreat. Pillars of thick, immense Soul Power shot skyward, firmly holding back the polluted, cold impact like massive cornerstones.
The Shrek faction, led by the Rank 98 Xuan Zi, along with three other elders all above Rank 95, totaled four Super Douluo. Their combined aura was magnificent and righteous, like colossal pillars propping up the heavens.
The Holy Spirit Sect also boasted four Super Douluo: Sect Master Zhongli Wu, Vice Sect Master Evil Phoenix Douluo Feng Ling, Attendant Scorpion Tiger Douluo Zhang Peng, and Scarlet Nightmare Douluo Feyan. Their power was terrifying, their sinister Soul Power interwoven as if forming a surging sea of blood and the abyss.
Simply based on the number and rank of Title Douluo, the Shrek faction was slightly disadvantaged—the number of Title Douluo they brought was indeed fewer than the Holy Spirit Sect's.
However, what truly gave Xuan Zi and the others confidence and an unyielding foundation were the two figures standing silently to one side.
Aglaea, arms crossed and expression detached, her gaze seemingly transcending the immediate conflict with a calm understanding of all universal laws. The faint golden threads circulating around her radiated a reassuring power.
The other presence was one that made all evil auras recoil.
Jeanne d'Arc clutched her holy banner-spear, a symbol of faith and salvation. Pure white battle armor flowed with holy radiance, and an awe-inspiring divine aura swept out from her center, dispelling some of the surrounding filth and resentment.
At this moment, the Saint's beautiful brows were tightly furrowed. Her purple eyes no longer held their usual pity and tolerance, but burned with a clear, visible flame of "Anger."
As a Saint, her eyes could instantly see through the essence of the Evil Soul Masters.
Upon Zhongli Wu, Feng Ling, and the other Evil Soul Master powerhouses, she saw countless twisted, suffering, wailing vengeful souls clinging tightly to them, dense and numerous, almost consuming them.
Every single vengeful soul represented an innocent life brutally slaughtered. That towering stench of blood and sin was so thick it was sickening, something no means could ever conceal.
With these two profoundly powerful, high-ranking top-tier Servants holding the line, the Holy Spirit Sect, though crowded with powerhouses, had no Servants to assist them. In terms of high-level combat power, they were already at a disadvantage and were no match for the Shrek faction.
As for the pink-haired Fox-Eared Priestess, Yae Sakura, she lay quietly in a corner of the ruins, her aura faint as a candle in the wind.
Having taken the full, all-out Noble Phantasm release from the Dragon-Slaying Hero Siegfried, it was a miracle her core hadn't shattered instantly. She was clearly completely incapacitated and was no longer a focus of attention.
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