Xu Zihuang's hands, transformed into black-purple dragon claws, met Wang Qiu'er's wrist. Golden flames and black-purple lightning fiercely resisted each other at the point of contact. They touched yet did not merge, remaining completely distinct.
Large swathes of mingled black-purple and golden light were scattered in all directions; there were electric sparks and circular light halos. Powerful shockwaves and violent soul power fluctuations intertwined, distorting the surrounding space.
Wang Qiu'er's golden light flames, formed by fusing near-ultimate light and fire attributes, were already comparable to true ultimate attributes in level. However, Xu Zihuang surpassed her in this regard. He could fuse ultimate lightning and destruction attributes to create the annihilation attribute that did not exist in this world—overbearingly powerful.
Moreover, even his single ultimate lightning attribute alone was enough to suppress Wang Qiu'er's golden flames that approached the level of an ultimate attribute.
Seeing that Elder Xuan, Bei Bei, and the others had successively arrived at the Soul Duelling Area, Xu Zihuang slowly released his hands.
But before he could stand up, another scorching hot gust assaulted his face.
With disheveled hair, Wang Qiu'er abruptly twisted her body and glared fiercely at Xu Zihuang. This appearance somewhat resembled the earlier panicked Thunder Beast. But unlike the Thunder Beast's fear, what Wang Qiu'er felt was pure humiliation, anger, and unwillingness. The remaining first three soul rings around her almost simultaneously shone.
Wang Qiu'er's true first three soul skills of her Three-Eyed Golden Lion martial soul were Golden Dragon Body, Golden Dragon Power, and Golden Dragon Fist. Even though a large portion of her Golden Dragon bloodline had been forcibly extracted by Xu Zihuang, she could still control these three innate soul skills originating from the Golden Dragon bloodline.
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion, the Emperor's Auspicious Beast, had become a martial soul—it was a truly perfect martial soul. It possessed a physique and physical ability comparable to the Golden Dragon, near-ultimate control over light and fire attributes, a main mental attribute, and a special power of destiny. It had no weaknesses whatsoever.
Under the amplification of Golden Dragon Body and Golden Dragon Power, Wang Qiu'er's aura surged dramatically. Golden light shone on her right hand as a massive golden dragon head condensed into form. It looked as if it had been carved from solid gold—vivid and almost substantial.
Golden flames also clung to the golden dragon's head, carrying the effect of her fourth soul skill, Golden Flame Burst.
Coldness filled Xu Zihuang's eyes; there was not the slightest trace of panic.
Although Wang Qiu'er's strike carried immense power, her mind had already become chaotic.
He didn't even need to use the dynamic vision ability of his Golden Eyes martial soul to easily see the flaws in this move.
Xu Zihuang watched indifferently as the golden dragon head wrapped in golden flames charged toward his chest. Just as it was about to hit him, he sidestepped precisely, dodging it, and once again seized Wang Qiu'er's right wrist.
Boom! The golden dragon head, guided by Xu Zihuang, smashed into the ground. The solid golden dragon head suddenly expanded outward. Although its color became illusory, it felt as though a true golden dragon had descended upon the mortal world, diving from the sky to the earth.
Rich golden light circulated. Countless fragments flew into the air across the soul duelling stage, then melted away.
With the two of them at the center, a giant crater instantly formed, over fifty meters in diameter and at least five meters deep.
As the dust gradually settled, in the center of the deep pit, Xu Zihuang maintained a slightly bent posture. His right hand firmly gripped Wang Qiu'er's wrists, pinning them tightly.
Wang Qiu'er, meanwhile, lay prone on the ground. Her hands were twisted behind her back and pressed by Xu Zihuang against her soft waist—an extremely humiliating position.
"Wuu… wuu—" She struggled continuously, her delicate body twisting. But she could never break free from Xu Zihuang's restraint.
After a moment, Wang Qiu'er finally stopped struggling. Biting her lip tightly, she turned her head to look at Xu Zihuang with tear-filled eyes. She, who usually kept everyone coldly at a distance, rarely showed such an expression. She looked just like an ordinary girl who had suffered endless grievances.
In the Great Star Dou Forest, she was the Emperor's Auspicious Beast, revered by countless soul beasts. No soul beast dared defy her. Moreover, she had the indulgence of the Beast God Di Tian.
But ever since meeting Xu Zihuang, her fate seemed to have been countered. She had suffered defeat after defeat at his hands, from the initial forcible extraction of her Golden Dragon bloodline to now being casually suppressed time and again by Xu Zihuang.
As the Emperor's Auspicious Beast, Wang Qiu'er had rarely come into contact with humans in the Great Star Dou Forest, so her personality remained relatively pure. The stark contrast before and after caused her to momentarily lose control of her emotions.
"Let me go!" Her body trembling slightly, Wang Qiu'er suddenly screamed. The entire place fell silent. All eyes converged on Xu Zihuang.
Yet Xu Zihuang's eyes showed little emotional fluctuation. Silently, he released Wang Qiu'er once again.
This time, Wang Qiu'er did not attack Xu Zihuang as before. Her right foot stomped fiercely on the ground, and her whole body turned into a streak of golden lightning that shot out of the Soul Duelling Area and vanished.
Xu Zihuang turned around. His calm gaze met Ning Tian's for a moment before he walked toward Elder Xuan and the group of Sea God Pavilion elders.
There was no need for any guilty feelings, after all, he had never harbored those kinds of thoughts toward Wang Qiu'er.
In the Douluo Continent, human soul masters and soul beasts were natural opposites.
In ancient times, soul beasts could hunt and eat humans as food. As humans developed and the soul master profession gradually emerged, soul masters hunting soul beasts to advance their cultivation became equally justified.
As a human, the most basic principle was at least not to betray one's own race. He did not rule out acknowledging and accepting certain soul beasts, such as Tianmeng, the Silver-scale White Whale, and the Thunder Prison Vine, but in his subjective view, all other soul beasts were merely a different kind of resource.
Humans were humans; soul beasts were soul beasts.
Even if soul beasts went extinct, that was merely the process of the era's development. As a human, whether soul beasts went extinct or not had nothing to do with him. What he wanted was to make all living beings submit and establish a unified empire. Moreover, in the memories of his previous life, there would be man-made spirit souls in the future that could replace soul rings.
As for Wang Qiu'er, who had taken human form, in essence, she was no different from a soul beast to him.
If not for his fear that the Beast God Di Tian might launch a beast tide, he would have long since found an opportunity to imprison Wang Qiu'er and eventually kill her to obtain her soul ring and soul bone.
Xu Zihuang arrived in front of Elder Xuan and gave a slight bow.
"Elder Xuan."
"You young people really are full of vitality."
Elder Xuan shook his head with a wry smile. In his view, during the exchange between Yu Tianhuang and Wang Qiu'er, Yu Tianhuang had always acted properly and fairly, while Wang Qiu'er's reactions had been exceptionally intense. Although he wasn't skilled at analyzing such matters, he could still see part of Wang Qiu'er's feelings.
Because only when one truly cared about someone would they behave so obsessively.
But since this was a matter between young people, there was no need for him to interfere. And judging from Wang Qiu'er's emotional state, inquiring about the changes in her martial soul would have to be postponed.
"Alright, you all continue."
After saying this, Elder Xuan's figure vanished from the spot. As he left, he casually waved out a mass of rich, earthy-yellow light. Under the influence of this earthy-yellow light, the previously devastated soul duelling stage instantly returned to its original state.
As a peak existence among earth-attribute soul masters, doing something like this was far too easy for him.
The only ones who had come to the Soul Duelling Area with Elder Xuan were a few Sea God Pavilion elders who usually had more free time and had been drawn over by the shock of Wang Qiu'er's martial soul ability.
Now that the main person involved, Wang Qiu'er, had left, naturally, they would not stay long either and followed Elder Xuan away.
The remaining Yan Shaozhe and Cai Meier looked at Xu Zihuang with gentle smiles. Now they were even more convinced of Elder Mu's choice: under Yu Tianhuang's leadership in the future, Shrek Academy would surely reach an unprecedented level of prosperity.
And it wasn't just Yu Tianhuang; in this era, Shrek Academy had produced far too many prodigies with astonishing talent.
Before leaving, Yan Shaozhe reached out his right hand and patted Xu Zihuang on the shoulder.
"Tianhuang, you should still be a bit gentler with girls."
Xu Zihuang felt utterly speechless and jumped down from the arena.
"Chirp chirp chirp!" The Thunder Beast seemed to have recovered from its earlier fear. It jumped ingratiatingly onto Xu Zihuang's shoulder.
Ning Tian also walked over to meet him. Looking into Xu Zihuang's deep, clear eyes, like a vast starry sky, she said nothing, simply giving a sweet smile and affectionately linking her arm with one of his.
At this moment, Zhang Lexuan came to the center edge of the arena and reminded everyone:
"Tianhuang, you two will be on the north side of the Soul Duelling Area. Bei Bei, you seven go to the south side. No time to waste, begin this sparring match now. I'll referee. You have ten minutes to arrange your lineup order. For fairness, Tianhuang and Ning Tian, you two won't participate."
Zhang Lexuan's arrangement clearly had a deeper meaning. Yu Tianhuang's individual strength was too overwhelming; there was little point in his joining this one-on-one soul dueling. And although Ning Tian, as an auxiliary-system soul master, possessed some combat power thanks to soul tools, auxiliary-system soul masters generally did not appear in the individual elimination rounds of the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Elite Tournament.
Because auxiliary-system soul masters and battle soul masters thought differently. Ning Tian had been trained since childhood as an auxiliary-system tool soul master. Among soul masters of the same level, her Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda martial soul's support ability could be called the strongest, but her combat experience and battle instincts were far inferior to those of battle soul masters.
"Yes, Eldest Senior Sister." No one objected.
Bei Bei's Tang Sect representative team had seven people. On Xu Zihuang's Shrek representative team side, the ones who would appear later were Dai Huabin, Wu Feng, Nanmen Yun'er, Xiao Xiao, Zhu Lu, Xie Huanyue, Zhou Sichen, Cao Jinxuan, Lan Susu, and Lan Luoluo, ten people in total.
Although Huo Yuhao, a three-ring Soul Elder, was dragging them down, the Tang Sect also had Bei Bei, Xu Sanshi, and He Caitou, three Soul Emperors. On Shrek's side, Xu Zihuang would not participate, and Wang Qiu'er had left early; the highest cultivation was only Dai Huabin at level 57. Overall, the strength of both sides was relatively even.
On Tang Sect's side, Xu Sanshi was currently talking with Bei Bei, occasionally glancing toward Xu Zihuang's group with a somewhat lewd smile. He also kept pulling He Caitou and Dai Luoli along.
However, Dai Luoli wasn't listening to Xu Sanshi's words at all. His gaze toward Xu Zihuang was filled with admiration and fervor.
Xu Sanshi was actually doing this to ease the awkwardness of both he and Jiang Nannan being present at the same time. Tang Ya and Jiang Nannan were also huddled together, leaving the unsociable Huo Yuhao standing alone at the very back of the group.
In comparison, Shrek's team appeared much quieter. Everyone's expressions varied.
The delicate-looking Lan Susu and Lan Luoluo sisters had slightly flushed faces. The telepathic sisters occasionally exchanged glances before turning their eyes toward Xu Zihuang. Wu Feng and Dai Huabin's expressions kept changing as they stood in a corner of the crowd. Zhu Lu stood right beside Dai Huabin.
The petite Xiao Xiao and the gentle-eyed Nanmen Yun'er stood relatively close to Xu Zihuang and Ning Tian. Finally, there were the fun-loving Xie Huanyue and the ambiguously gazing Zhou Sichen and Cao Jinxuan brothers.
By now, Cao Jinxuan and Zhou Sichen had long lost interest in Wang Qiu'er. In their view, Wang Qiu'er probably could only be tamed by Yu Tianhuang.
The series of moves Yu Tianhuang had used against Wang Qiu'er earlier had allowed them to summarize some experience.
It had to be a heavy punch. For a woman with such a naturally arrogant temperament, one had to grip her hard.
Ten minutes passed quickly. Zhang Lexuan reminded them again:
"Time's up. Begin."
"Yuhao." Bei Bei called out to Huo Yuhao. He had learned about today's sparring from Zhang Lexuan yesterday. On the way to the soul duelling stage, he had already arranged the order.
Huo Yuhao silently walked out of the crowd. His gaze couldn't help but linger on Dai Huabin for a long time. Bloodshot veins filled his deep blue eyes.
The moment he saw Dai Huabin, the shadow of hatred immediately rose from deep within his heart. Earlier, he had kept his head down precisely to forcibly suppress this hatred, suppressing it until he was nearly going mad. He hadn't even paid attention to the later exchange between Xu Zihuang and Wang Qiu'er.
Veins bulged on Huo Yuhao's tightly clenched fists. Voices that seemed to come from the depths of his soul echoed in his mind, cold and sinister.
"Kill you! Kill you! Kill you! I want to kill your entire family, slaughter the entire White Tiger Duke's Mansion, and avenge my mother! I want everyone in the White Tiger Duke's Mansion who harmed our mother and son to pay a hundredfold, to pay in blood!"
"Hahahahahaha—" At this moment, Huo Yuhao seemed unable to control his facial expression anymore. A crazed, twisted smile appeared on his face. But with his black hair hanging over his cheeks, it was hard to see clearly. Only the subtle curve at the corner of his mouth remained as he murmured.
"You deserve to die! You deserve to die!"
Noticing Huo Yuhao's abnormality, Xu Zihuang's eyes opened and closed. Since Huo Yuhao hated Dai Huabin so much, he would give him an opportunity.
"Dai Huabin, you're first."
Hearing Xu Zihuang's words, Dai Huabin was slightly stunned. Then he immediately reacted and stepped onto the soul duelling stage without saying a word.
With his strength, going first was not a bad thing. Being first meant that as long as he could defeat every opponent, he could keep challenging.
Bei Bei and Xu Sanshi's strength, Dai Huabin had some understanding of it. Challenging those two would also serve as training for him.
Bei Bei frowned, a bit puzzled why Yu Tianhuang had arranged for Dai Huabin, the strongest overall on their side, to go first. But then he thought again and relaxed. After all, this was only a sparring match. Gaining something from it was enough; there was no need to take winning or losing too seriously.
The one who felt stunned was also Huo Yuhao, standing on the other side of the arena. The curve at the corner of his mouth became even more pronounced.
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