Seeing the martial souls and aura of the two, Dugu Yan, who had walked over to stand beside Zhao Wuji, nodded slightly.
"With this level and such top tier martial souls, they might indeed pose some threat to Little Oscar."
Hearing this, Zhao Wuji turned to glance at Dugu Yan.
"You have that much confidence in Little Oscar? I won't even mention Mubai right now, Hongjun is definitely not weaker than Little Ao at the same stage back then. He might even be stronger."
Dugu Yan smiled faintly.
"Teacher Zhao, Little Ao has improved a lot during this time. You'll see for yourself soon enough let's wait and watch."
Just as her words fell, Oscar slowly raised his left hand. A sky blue jade sword appeared in his grasp. With the sword's appearance, Oscar's aura instantly turned razor sharp, making Ma Hongjun and Dai Mubai feel as though a sharp blade was pointed directly at them.
His right hand, however, was clasped behind his back, secretly holding an orange sausage tightly in his palm. Three soul rings two yellow and one purple slowly rose around him.
At this moment, Oscar seemed like an unyielding, unbreakable sword, standing tall against the soul power pressure of Ma Hongjun and Dai Mubai without the slightest change in expression. In fact, he even gave off a faint sense of suppressing the two of them.
"Oscar. Martial Soul: Sky Jade Spirit Sword. Level 37, Assault type Battle Soul Master." Oscar spoke slowly.
Upon hearing this, Ma Hongjun and Dai Mubai exchanged glances they both knew Oscar's true martial soul was actually the Supreme Sausage. But there was nothing wrong with him saying this.
After all, he had completely concealed his sausage martial soul, and the jade sword in his hand was no different from an ordinary weapon type martial soul. If they didn't already know Oscar's background, they would have been completely fooled.
Still, it didn't matter much what Oscar claimed wasn't as important as his actual level, and that couldn't be faked.
The two of them were surprised that Oscar had gone from level 30 to level 37 in just a year, but they had been mentally prepared.
After all, the Phoenix Nirvana Pill Oscar had given Ma Hongjun had already boosted Hongjun significantly. Since Oscar had been studying under the Poison Douluo Dugu Bo for the past year, it would make no sense if he hadn't improved himself.
So while they were surprised, it was within expectations. Zhao Wuji thought the same.
However, what they didn't know was that although Oscar had taken immortal grade herbs, they hadn't directly boosted his soul power by much. The main reason he had reached level 37 was because of his third soul ring obtained by skipping levels which had immediately pushed him to level 33.
Combined with the two immortal herbs' body transformation, his cultivation speed had increased again, so such growth was actually within reason.
When both sides had released their martial souls, Zhao Wuji's voice rang out again:
"Battle… begin!"
As his words fell, flames suddenly gathered over Ma Hongjun's body. A pair of blazing flame wings slowly formed on his back. With a flap, Ma Hongjun rose straight into the air.
Seeing this, Oscar was slightly surprised Ma Hongjun wasn't using any soul skill at all. Those wings were entirely condensed from soul power and flames.
As he soared into the sky, Ma Hongjun let out a clear phoenix cry. In the air, it was as if a giant fire phoenix appeared. His legs transformed into flaming phoenix claws, and with a lift of his talons, he unleashed several flame claw strikes toward Oscar.
"Flame Phoenix Phoenix Claw!"
Several flaming claw marks, wreathed in crimson fire, tore toward Oscar.
Seeing this, Oscar recalled how, when Ma Hongjun had gone to Sunset Forest with Flender to obtain his third soul ring, Flender had told him about all the effort Hongjun had put in over the past year.
The Ma Hongjun of today was no longer the chubby kid from the original story. His mastery over his martial soul had reached a consummate level he could unleash many powerful moves even without using soul skills.
Attacking alongside Ma Hongjun was Dai Mubai, who suddenly opened his mouth wide and spat out a thick golden light beam, locking onto Oscar along with Hongjun's attack.
"Second Soul Skill White Tiger Fierce Light Wave!"
Facing their attacks, Oscar swung his jade sword, instantly sending out several terrifying sword energy slashes that blocked Ma Hongjun's attack. At the same time, he sidestepped twice, narrowly avoiding Dai Mubai's strike.
Although Dai Mubai's second soul skill was powerful, it had one fatal flaw its attack direction was single. While its power was high, if the enemy could dodge, it was actually less flexible than Ma Hongjun's Phoenix Fire Line.
But just as Oscar blocked their first wave, their second strike arrived. Ma Hongjun dove toward Oscar and suddenly spewed a torrent of scorching flames directly at his head.
It was Ma Hongjun's first soul skill Phoenix Fire Line.
The moment it was unleashed, the surrounding temperature instantly rose several degrees. But Oscar's reaction was lightning fast he quickly retreated a few steps, barely avoiding the attack.
Of course, Ma Hongjun knew Oscar understood him well, so as soon as Oscar retreated, he chased after him in the air, the Phoenix Fire Line following closely, almost burning Oscar.
Meanwhile, Dai Mubai had activated his first soul skill White Tiger Barrier boosting his attack, strength, and defense by 50% before charging straight at Oscar.
Oscar quickly retreated a few steps, then began running around the battle platform. The Phoenix Fire Line chased him from behind, while Dai Mubai blocked his path ahead.
Oscar knew these two planned to trap him and win in one strike. But naturally, he wouldn't give them that chance.
Ma Hongjun's phoenix flames were indeed frightening. Although his soul power was two levels lower than Oscar's, Oscar didn't dare take the flames head on.
Although he had taken the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass and the Fiery Apricot, gaining immunity to all poisons, he did not possess natural dual resistance to ice and fire. That effect only appeared in his martial soul after he consumed sausages made with his soul skills.
And even then, it had limits once the soul skill's effect ended, the immunity disappeared. This was the same as how Tang San's Blue Silver Grass gained ice fire immunity in the original story.
Still, there was an advantage Oscar's future soul skills would all naturally carry this ability. While the ice fire immunity had obvious limitations, it didn't consume his own soul power, so it was effectively a passive skill, which was a win for Oscar.
Right now, however, Oscar had no need to eat his own sausages. Even without ice fire immunity, he had ways to handle Ma Hongjun. His current retreat was simply to wait for the right moment.
After all, Ma Hongjun had improved rapidly over the past year but Oscar, with just his external spirit bone, already possessed strength to rival a Soul Sect.
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