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Soon after, the second quarterfinal match commenced: Natural Sect versus Heavenly Dragon Sect.
At this stage, every team's performance held value. With competitors evenly matched, revealing tactics could prove decisive—no squad could afford to miss this intelligence-gathering opportunity. All participating teams remained to observe.
As group winners, Natural Sect had already relocated to a superior rest area.
Gu La tapped the table, his gaze sweeping his avatars: "Who takes this match?"
Bai Yuan lounged in his chair, shaking his head: "I'd be bullying them. You handle it."
His Abyss Devourer martial soul had absorbed traces of Tang Wulin's essence, glimpsing the Golden Dragon King bloodline. After three regressions to ancestral forms, its purity neared Dragon-King levels—fused with the Abyss Plane's primordial power.
Though Heavenly Dragon Sect claimed to possess True Dragon martial souls, before Bai Yuan, they'd struggle to even manifest draconic aura. Bloodline suppression would leave them trembling.
Mu Yi flicked his emerald-green hair dismissively: "No interest." He disdained bullying physically "frail" soul masters.
A crisp, cold voice cut through: "I'll go." Ming Baixue volunteered, her figure gliding onto the arena like falling snow. "Though... my Body martial soul may draw the Body Sect's attention. I hope they won't be bothersome."
Every gaze in the competitor zone and stands locked onto her.
Seeing an unfamiliar face who hadn't appeared earlier, all perked up. Huo Yuhao's expression turned grave—he hadn't forgotten Ming Baixue's public "lesson" about exploiting compassion.
Wang Dong'er noticed his intense focus and couldn't hide her jealousy: "Is she that beautiful?"
Huo Yuhao sighed patiently: "Dong'er, you know I'm content with you alone. I'm watching for tactical reasons."
Wang Dong'er believed him, yet Ming Baixue's extraordinary beauty and aura still pricked her heart.
Understandable—Gu La was a confirmed aesthetics enthusiast. When crafting avatars, martial soul potential came first, but appearance was a hard second requirement. Natural Sect had become the tournament's most dazzling assembly of handsome men and beautiful women, drawing constant attention.
In the arena, Ming Baixue's most striking feature was her unique hair.
The roots were ash-gray like death's ashes, fading gradually to glacial blue at the tips. Light flowed through it like crystalline rivers, dazzlingly translucent.
Her face was flawlessly sculpted yet carried an inhuman detachment and mystery. Most captivating were her heterochromatic eyes:
Her left eye held a gentle hourglass shape, silver light swirling within—a vessel of time reversal and healing warmth.
Her right eye was a deep gray-blue vortex, seemingly opening to the Netherworld's abyss—radiating icy power that drained life, commanded death, and embodied ultimate cold.
Her martial soul was precisely these Netherworld Eyes.
Her opponent was Xing Yan of Heavenly Dragon Sect, wielding the formidable Scarlet Dragon martial soul—a standard six-ring Soul Emperor.
Ming Baixue's cultivation was also Soul Emperor—but at Level 70.
Lacking a suitable hundred-thousand-year soul beast for her spirit, she'd delayed her seventh soul ring. Yet this didn't diminish her strength.
"Begin!"
Xing Yan dared no carelessness. Natural Sect's rumored three Soul Saints—true or not—demanded full effort. He instantly activated martial soul attachment, dragon scales armor covering his body.
First Soul Skill: Scarlet Dragon's Might! Aura surged, offense and defense enhanced!
Second Soul Skill: Dragon's Wings! Crimson wings sprouted on his back, speed increasing!
Third Soul Skill: Dragonflame Claws! Scorching dragonfire coated his claws, attack amplified!
Beneath Ming Baixue's feet, six profound black soul rings rose. Her Level 70 soul power fluctuations confirmed she was a quasi-Soul Saint.
Referee Zheng Zhan and the Heavenly Dragon Sect's advisors exchanged silent astonishment. They wondered why she hadn't added her seventh ring—was it for tournament eligibility? Hunting for a soul ring mid-competition wouldn't take long...
Still, Heavenly Dragon Sect relaxed slightly. Without the Martial Soul True Body, a Level 70 quasi-Soul Saint's power would be diminished.
"What is her martial soul?" Many puzzled over the unseen soul manifestation.
Only the Snow Demon Sect (Body Sect) members' eyes burned with recognition. They instantly identified Ming Baixue's Body martial soul—the heterochromia was its physical manifestation!
Ming Baixue's first black soul ring ignited.
First Soul Skill: Netherworld Domain!
Instantly, a gray, deathly phantom spread from her, covering half the arena like a slice of the underworld made manifest.
Laws within twisted. Living beings felt vitality seeping away, pierced by bone-chilling death chill.
For soul masters of the dead, life and death hung on Ming Baixue's whim.
As the Netherworld Domain descended, Xing Yan's breath fogged white. His blazing Scarlet Dragon flames dimmed, weakened nearly by half.
Panicked, he unleashed a full assault: Fourth Soul Skill, Dragon Meteor!
His body wrapped in scorching meteoric fire, defense tripling. Like a true asteroid, he plummeted toward Ming Baixue!
Impact would trigger a violent fire explosion and shockwave, covering a vast area. Enhanced by the Scarlet Dragon's Might, this strike's power surged.
Yet Ming Baixue merely lifted her cold gaze. Her second black soul ring flickered.
Second Soul Skill: Time's Sorrow!
A rare time-type soul skill—stealing time to empower herself, or erasing the instant a soul skill is activated to nullify it. The soul power cost remained real.
Invisible time energy touched Xing Yan. Horrified, he watched his speed visibly slow, as if trapped in mud.
Worse—his freshly ignited Dragon Meteor soul skill glow vanished as if wiped by an invisible hand, dissipating like smoke. It was as if he'd never released it!
Due to Xing Yan's rapid succession of skills, Ming Baixue consumed minimal soul power to precisely "steal" the critical activation instant, nullifying the technique.
Xing Yan awkwardly "dropped" from low altitude, stumbling upon landing. Staring at his restored body and extinguished flames, he froze in confusion.
Battle-hardened, he recovered quickly.
Knowing Ming Baixue could nullify skills, he shifted tactics—pulling a bulky sixth-grade soul device cannon: Explosive Mega Cannon!
One of the most destructive portable cannons.
Ming Baixue's third black soul ring flared.
Third Soul Skill: Divine Authority!
Effect resembled Uchiha Obito's Mangekyō Sharingan ability—phasing, spatial teleportation, and instant movement all possible.
Space before her warped slightly, forming an invisible Netherworld portal.
The cannon's scorching projectile, aimed at her, was swallowed by spatial energy. An instant later, it materialized behind Xing Yan.
Boom!
The shell struck his unguarded back squarely. The explosion sent him flying—Ming Baixue won effortlessly.
Her role was actually support—healer. She possessed no powerful direct-attack skills, favoring survival, control, and auxiliary abilities.
Of course, if others knew her skill effects, they'd struggle to believe she was "merely" support.
In the Tang Sect area, Xu Sanshi whistled: "Yuhao, her eyes are also a Body martial soul like yours—but her abilities... why such a gap?"
Huo Yuhao's expression turned grave: "Her Body martial soul underwent extreme mutation. I can't imagine what soul ring grants a Body soul such potent spatial skills."
He paused, questioning: "But why use three hundred-thousand-year soul skills consecutively? Won't the soul power cost be excessive?"
"Who knows? We'll see," Xu Sanshi shrugged, equally baffled.
Heavenly Dragon Sect's second fighter was a towering youth over two meters tall, imposing and domineering. His eyes glared like a dragon's—team captain Yu Tianlong.
Upon stepping up, he didn't attack immediately. Instead, he voiced the crowd's confusion: "Why use so many hundred-thousand-year soul skills? Aren't you afraid of overexertion?"
Ming Baixue's cold gaze swept over him. Perhaps appreciating his courtesy, she broke her silence:
"I'm a support, control, and healer-type soul master. I have no direct offensive skills."
"What?!"
The stadium erupted in shock! Everyone stared at Ming Baixue in disbelief.
A soul master who released domains, manipulated time, and warped space—calling herself support?
Body Sect disciples felt she wasted heaven's gift. Such a powerful ocular martial soul should walk the path of control or assault—not this misguided detour!
Yu Tianlong froze, then surged with rage at being mocked: "Support? Do you take me for a three-year-old child?!" He refused to believe.
Aware of her nullification ability, Yu Tianlong released his top-tier beast martial soul—Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon. Cautiously, he activated only his third skill: Thunder's Wrath!
A wide-area lightning field that both attacked and leveraged his innate lightning resistance to withstand damage without severe injury.
Simultaneously, this skill subtly boosted attack power and lightning potency—its external signs minimal. Yu Tianlong gambled that Ming Baixue couldn't detect it precisely enough to nullify.
Yet Ming Baixue didn't use Time's Sorrow this time. Her fourth and fifth black soul rings blazed together!
Fourth Soul Skill: Netherworld Paradise!
A domain diametrically opposed to Netherworld Domain unfolded—radiating gentle life energy and serenity.
Within this domain, Ming Baixue's soul power regenerated slowly but steadily. She and allies gained immunity to fear and emotion-based debuffs.
Fifth Soul Skill: Space-Time Guidance!
Space before her rippled. Six ancient, death-tinged Netherworld Sects crashed open.
From them emerged:
- Two armored Death Knights wielding undead lances
- Two Black Warriors with greatswords, bodies radiating black death energy
- Two Spectral Assassins, hazy and elusive
Summoning undead or contracted beings was her sole offensive method.
Ming Baixue's voice, cold as judgment, cut through: "Defeat him."
The six powerful Netherworld entities roared soundlessly, charging Yu Tianlong fiercely.
Black Warriors deflected thunder with greatswords; Death Knights launched death charges; Spectral Assassins vanished silently, lying in wait.
Yu Tianlong gaped: "This is your... 'support' soul master?!"
In the stands, Huo Yuhao was stunned. He recognized these undead—and precisely because of that, he understood Ming Baixue's terror.
These weren't low-grade undead. They were high-tier spirits with significant intelligence and combat prowess!
Moreover, they seemed intrinsically linked to Ming Baixue's martial soul origin. Unaffected by Douluo Continent's innate suppression of undead, they were far stronger and more stable than his own Netherworld Half-Plane summons.
Sensing mortal peril, Yu Tianlong abandoned restraint.
First Soul Skill: Thunder Dragon Claws!
Second Soul Skill: Myriad Thunderbolts!
Fifth Soul Skill: Thunder Dragon Armor!
Sixth Soul Skill: Overwhelming Thunder!
Mighty thunder energy gathered on him. He roared: "Pathetic undead! Return to ash under my lightning!"
Lightning did weaken undead. His enhanced sixth skill Overwhelming Thunder could accumulate energy for a burst—shattering a Death Knight charging ahead, one comparable to a Level 70 Soul Saint!
He aimed to break through the undead encirclement in one thrust, targeting Ming Baixue.
Alas, Ming Baixue remained unperturbed. Her profound sixth soul ring finally glowed with dark light.
Sixth Soul Skill: Netherworld Snow!
Gray-white snowflakes, carrying withering death energy, drifted silently into the Netherworld Domain.
Where they touched, vitality faded. All things seemed to march toward oblivion. This skill constantly assessed life force within the domain—those lacking sufficient vitality would have their essence stripped, souls dragged to the Netherworld.
Terrifyingly, when Netherworld Snow merged with Netherworld Domain, it formed the stronger Netherworld Cycle Domain!
Within this realm, life and death blurred. Laws twisted in part.
Lightning weakens undead?
No! Ming Baixue decreed: In the Netherworld Cycle Domain—undead weaken lightning!
Yu Tianlong watched in horror as damage to undead dropped to a quarter, while their attacks against him grew sharper—inflicting double damage!
He didn't grasp the law-level distortion at play, assuming merely that her sixth skill empowered her summons. But the tide had turned.
Yu Tianlong unleashed soul skills desperately. Thunder flashed, yet under attribute reversal and six-on-one assault, he exhausted himself. The undead felled him—defeat sealed.
If even Heavenly Dragon Sect's strongest captain fell so easily, the remaining members stood no chance.
Under their leader's signal, Heavenly Dragon Sect conceded defeat.
The match ended—but turmoil erupted. Many deemed Ming Baixue's undead-summoning technique evil soul master work. Fear spread; some sought to weaken the Natural Sect.
The Tang Sect debated internally whether Ming Baixue qualified as evil.
Huo Yuhao analyzed: "She carries not a trace of the resentment and bloody karma unique to evil soul masters. Those undead aren't made through torture—they resemble contracted beings summoned from a specific 'plane.'"
Wang Dong'er protested: "What if someone made them for her?"
Huo Yuhao shook his head: "Natural Sect's members show minimal resentment. Even Liu Niandao, who kills most, bears bloodiness—not resentment. They show no signs of torturing life or cultivating via human sacrifice. By standards, they aren't evil soul masters."
Yet Huo Yuhao struggled to convince even his own teammates, let alone commoners and sects steeped in fear of evil soul masters.
Many spectators and teams immediately protested fiercely to the organizing committee: hand over the "evil soul master" Ming Baixue, or disqualify Natural Sect!
The committee wavered. Weakening the mysterious, powerful Natural Sect tempted them. Since the true Holy Spirit Cult remained hidden, they could safely pressure now—and later, use the same logic to disqualify when convenient.
As chaos threatened to erupt, Gu La knew it was time.
His Groudon martial soul, evolved to God King level and fused with subterranean magma energy into a million-year spirit, combined with Three-Word Battle Armor, now rivaled—or surpassed—ordinary Limit Douluos.
"Silence!"
A cold command, calm yet carrying supreme authority, boomed—not a shout, but a thunderclap in every soul.
Next, an ocean-deep, mountain-heavy Limit Douluo-level soul power pressure descended like tangible weight upon the entire venue.
The roaring crowd fell utterly silent!
Gu La stirred his martial soul's earth-element mastery—not even fully releasing it.
To everyone's horror, three-hundred-meter-high, impossibly thick earthen walls erupted around the venue perimeter. They sealed the arena from the outside world.
The walls radiated suffocating earth-element energy, seeming ready to collapse and bury all within!
This was naked intimidation!
A Limit Douluo wielding Ultimate Earth attribute—how could ordinary Limit Douluos compare?
"Any complaints? Address them to me." Gu La's voice, low yet clear, carried undeniable dominance to every ear.
A black shadow flashed. Dragon Emperor Douluo Long Xiaoyao appeared high above, staring at Gu La with grave vigilance.
He felt the terrifying power within this masked figure—a power that chilled his very core.
He sensed strongly: he likely... wasn't this man's match!
If even Long Xiaoyao reacted so, High Platform's Xu Tianran paled further. Clutching his armrest, he dared not utter a word.
Even an imperial regent must bow before overwhelming might.
Only Ju Zi—the gentle yet resilient girl—had eyes flashing with stubborn ambition. With insufficient cultivation talent... one day I too shall attain such authority, deciding fates with a single glance.
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