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Huo Yuhao's internal alarms blared. Xu Sanshi's instant defeat was like ice water dousing his head.
Over six hundred knives—shifting between physical and spiritual states, targeting minds—swept from multiple directions like a death storm, sealing all escape routes.
"Eternal Freezing Domain!"
Huo Yuhao activated the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion torso bone skill without hesitation. Ultimate cold surged, attempting to freeze everything in place.
Yet the phased knives remained unaffected by physical freezing—only pure spiritual defense could counter them!
"Dong'er!"
Huo Yuhao barked, gripping Wang Dong's hand again. Despite the gender shift, no distance had grown between them.
This time, Spirit Eyes and Light Goddess Butterfly powers began to merge!
Martial Soul Fusion Skill: Fading In Radiance, Golden Road!
A straight golden beam—seeming to strip away all attributes—blasted forth. Where it passed, the knives' spiritual imprints were forcibly erased, their phased state collapsing as they clattered to the ground.
The Golden Road pressed on, striking Bai Yuan, who had momentarily retracted his Devouring Domain due to the knife assault.
Golden light enveloped Bai Yuan. His protective soul power rippled violently. The sensation of his martial soul and soul being peeled away intensified—the golden light trembled, on the verge of complete severance.
"Now!" Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong acted as one. No words needed. They instantly switched martial soul combinations.
Martial Soul Fusion Skill: Blaze Amidst the Frost, the Heavenly Emperor's Hammer!
Ultimate Ice from the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion fused with the world's strongest force of the Hao Tian Hammer. A colossal hammer phantom—carved from ten-thousand-year dark ice yet wreathed in destructive lightning—materialized. With soul-freezing, mountain-shattering might, it crashed down on Bai Yuan, whose martial soul had just barely reconnected after escaping the Golden Road!
A solid hit would cripple even a Soul Saint.
But in that split-second, a white-gold figure flashed between Bai Yuan and the hammer.
Mu Yi!
Mu Yi no longer resembled his ordinary self. As a Body martial soul wielder with Innate Golden Awakening advanced to Platinum Awakening, his bodily cultivation had reached unimaginable heights.
White Gold Awakening—five-fold attribute amplification across the board! His innate Body Sect techniques were perfected, allowing him to dominate even against Soul Douluos wearing Two-Word Battle Armor.
His body swelled to three meters tall, radiating pure, flawless white-gold light. His clothes shredded from surging blood essence, revealing a physique forged like divine metal—perfectly sculpted lines containing earth-shattering power and defense.
Nourished by Ultimate Wood and Life Gold, this body held not an ounce of fat, only terrifying strength and resilience.
"Hah!"
Mu Yi's eyes flashed like lightning. Unflinching, he met the Hao Tian Hammer—nearly as large as a True Body—in direct collision with his bare flesh.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
His fists struck the hammer phantom like a blacksmith's hammers. Each impact rang with deafening metal-on-metal clangs.
Even the hammer phantom's surface warped, forming pained, twisted faces.
The next instant, Mu Yi's blood essence erupted like a volcano. White-gold light pierced the heavens.
"Break!"
With a clear shout, his final punch landed. The Hao Tian Hammer phantom—fused power of two top-tier martial souls—shattered like glass beneath his fist, dissolving into ice shards and light particles!
Whoosh—!
The stadium erupted. If Bai Yuan's devouring of the Spiritual Storm relied on martial soul traits, Mu Yi shattering a martial soul fusion skill with pure physical strength had completely overturned their understanding.
"A Soul Emperor… shattering a Soul Saint's martial soul fusion skill with bare hands?"
"What kind of monsters are these Natural Sect people?!"
On the high platform, Xu Tianran had gone numb. Fury had given way to deep-seated dread.
He fixed his gaze on Mu Yi's white-gold silhouette, ranking Natural Sect's threat level highest—second only to Shrek Academy.
War must begin soon… They cannot be allowed to grow stronger!
Mu Yi's glow dimmed slightly, reverting to Golden Awakening's threefold amplification to conserve energy.
He activated his third soul skill: I Alone Am Supreme. Ambient elemental energy within a kilometer swirled toward him like summoned rivers, rapidly replenishing his expended soul power and blood essence.
Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong watched, bitter smiles on their lips. Repeated fusion skill use had drained most of their soul power—yet achieved little.
"No choice now, Dong'er," Huo Yuhao said, resolve hardening in his eyes. "It's up to you!"
They clasped hands again. This time, Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion and Light Goddess Butterfly merged at their ultimate limit.
Martial Soul Fusion Skill: Solitary Dance Amidst Frost, Raiment of Light!
Dazzling rainbow light enveloped Wang Dong. Ice and light intertwined perfectly, draping her in a resplendent feather gown.
In this moment, she received massive all-around amplification. All her soul skills gained Ultimate Ice attributes.
Even more shocking—under the Raiment of Light's radiance, Yin Wansheng's yin-yang skill effects were temporarily suppressed and overridden. Wang Dong'er reverted to her female form!
Simultaneously, the hundred-thousand-year seventh soul ring beneath her feet blazed with sinister red light for the first time before the world.
Seventh Soul Skill: Light Goddess Butterfly True Body!
Screee—!
A crisp butterfly cry pierced the clouds. Wang Dong'er vanished, replaced by a thirty-meter-winged Light Goddess Butterfly—flowing with azure-gold radiance, breathtakingly beautiful yet radiating terrifying pressure.
Her aura surged wildly, approaching Titled Douluo levels. This was the Tang Sect's ultimate hidden trump card.
The colossal Butterfly Goddess True Body hovered midair, blotting out the sun. Brilliant light patterns swirled on her wings, releasing heart-stopping energy fluctuations.
"Butterfly Goddess's Dance!"
Wang Dong'er's cold voice sounded from the butterfly avatar.
Instantly, countless azure-gold crystal light butterflies—like a river of destruction—poured from her wings, covering the entire arena.
Each light butterfly carried dual Ultimate Ice and Light attribute damage. Upon contact, they triggered violent explosions.
"Cover them!"
He Caitou roared. His shoulder-mounted eighth-grade fixed-type soul projectile cannon boomed again, scorching beams lancing toward Mu Yi, who tried to interfere. But Mu Yi's Golden Awakening body absorbed the hits, staggering him only half a step back.
He Caitou cursed: "Monster!"
Facing this world-shattering assault, the Natural Sect finally revealed their true terror.
Bai Yuan—who had just recovered under Ming Baixue's Netherworld Paradise domain—threw back his head and roared.
Seventh Soul Skill: Abyss Devourer True Body!
His body swelled rapidly into a hundred-meter-tall giant dark devourer.
That maw opened again. The Devouring Domain expanded fully—a bottomless black hole engulfing the entire arena.
Countless light butterflies fell like moths to flame, swallowed in waves by the abyssal maw.
Simultaneously, Bo Xi—who had yet to unleash his full power—finally moved.
Seventh Soul Skill: Walking Wake True Body—Water God's Descent!
The sky darkened instantly. Torrential rain poured down. Bo Xi transformed into an eighty-meter-tall water deity, forged from pure liquid, radiating divine majesty.
In the Water God True Body state, all his water-attribute soul skills activated instantly without cost. All resistances surged, and he periodically purified debuffs while healing wounds.
Sixth Soul Skill: Water God Embodiment! His already formidable attributes doubled again, along with water-skill potency.
His Walking Wake martial soul was a true divine-grade attribute, commanding a thread of water's authority. Its potential and rank far surpassed Wang Dong'er's Light Goddess Butterfly—which required the Golden Dragon bloodline to advance.
"Fifth Soul Skill: Wave-Rippling God Shock Kill!"
The Water God avatar bellowed with divine wrath. Its body generated countless high-speed vortexes, carrying world-slicing power as they surged upward—colliding violently with the light butterfly storm unleashed by Wang Dong'er's Butterfly Goddess True Body above!
BOOOOOOM—!!!
Energy collisions roared like ten thousand thunderclaps. The arena shook violently; protective barriers flickered wildly.
Rain, ice butterflies, vortices, darkness… elemental energies twisted and annihilated each other. The battlefield transformed into a mythic age warzone.
Bo Xi, wielding divine authority over boundless water energy, attacked relentlessly—appearing inexhaustible.
Wang Dong'er and Huo Yuhao, though amplified by the Raiment of Light, saw their soul power rapidly deplete under this high-intensity clash.
As Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong'er battled Natural Sect's Soul Saints midair in a godlike duel, on the arena floor, Bei Bei, Xiao Xiao, Jiang Nannan, and He Caitou endured their own hellish trial.
Bo Xi's Water God True Body summoned heaven-and-earth might—not just against aerial targets.
Rain poured like a collapsed heavenly river. Heavy, icy droplets carried Bo Xi's soul power pressure—each weighing a thousand catties—mercilessly striking and depleting their protective barriers.
The arena had become a flooded wasteland. Murky waters surged violently, rising above their knees, severely hindering movement.
Roooar—!
Bei Bei raised his head and unleashed a dragon's roar, forcing his trace of Golden Holy Dragon bloodline to activate. Golden light flickered around him—a lone lantern in the storm-darkened world.
His Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon martial soul, already suppressed by the Abyss Devourer's bloodline pressure, now struggled against the relentless rain and hidden cutting vortices in the water.
He swung his draconic arms. Thunder exploded as he shattered water vortices surging from below—but more formed endlessly.
His movements slowed. Cracks appeared on his dragon scales. Blood mixed with rainwater streamed down.
Xiao Xiao stood behind Bei Bei, gritting her teeth. Her Azure Phoenix martial soul couldn't fly in the rain; her healing was a drop in the ocean.
She had long released her Three Lives Soul Sealing Cauldron. The giant black cauldron hovered above her head, raining dark light to stabilize the raging waters—buying He Caitou space to attack.
The cauldron groaned under invisible water pressure and vortexes, emitting pained buzzing sounds.
She periodically triggered the Cauldron's Shockwave, blasting back surrounding waters with powerful pulses—but new rain and currents surged back instantly, seemingly endless.
Jiang Nannan's figure looked fragile in the downpour. Her soft skills were nearly useless against this overwhelming elemental assault.
She relied solely on ghostly agility, dodging water blades and vortices attacking from all sides. Occasionally, she'd land a Waist Bow kick to shatter a water current targeting Bei Bei's flank—but the backlash left her blood essence churning.
He Caitou was the only ranged attacker among the four on the ground. Shouldering and wielding various soul devices, scorching beams and explosive shells fired toward airborne Bo Xi and approaching figures like Mu Yi and Qing Liuli.
Yet in this harsh environment, his soul guidance devices' accuracy and power plummeted.
Rain hissed against overheated barrels, steaming into thick white fog—severely disrupting vision and soul power guidance.
Worse, water blades and vortices seemed alive—artfully weakening or deflecting his attacks.
The four stood back-to-back in knee-deep icy floodwaters, forming a crumbling defensive circle.
Thunder crashed overhead. Blinding lightning illuminated their pale yet resolute faces.
Each defense, each counterattack, drained their dwindling soul power.
Bei Bei's dragon roars grew hoarse. Xiao Xiao's cauldron light dimmed. Jiang Nannan's movements lost fluidity. He Caitou's barrage grew sparse…
Like lone boats in a storm, they poured all their strength into resisting Natural Sect's heaven-and-earth power—but were steadily pushed toward collapse.
Finally, under the aftershock of Bo Xi's arena-wide Wave-Rippling God Shock Kill, their defensive line shattered completely. One by one, they were overwhelmed by surging waters and follow-up attacks, swept off the arena.
Five minutes!
This peak-level duel of the tournament lasted a full five minutes.
In the end, Wang Dong'er's Light Goddess Butterfly True Body dimmed. Huo Yuhao's face turned deathly pale—soul power utterly drained—the Raiment of Light's effect fading.
The colossal Butterfly Goddess True Body let out a mournful cry before reforming into Wang Dong'er's figure. She fell limply from the sky, caught barely by Huo Yuhao.
On the other edge of the arena, the rest of the Tang Sect—Xiao Xiao, Bei Bei, Jiang Nannan, He Caitou—had long been swept off the stage by floodwaters. Referee Zheng Zhan, soaked like a drowned rat, had already removed them.
Only Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong'er remained on the stage—exhausted, embracing each other—facing Natural Sect's seven members, still radiating abundant energy.
Referee Zheng Zhan took a deep breath and announced loudly:
"Team battle—Natural Sect wins!"
"This semifinal match—Natural Sect advances to the finals!"
The Tang Sect had finally fallen before Natural Sect's monstrous warship. Their journey ended at the semifinals.
And the Natural Sect would now face Shrek Academy in the finals!
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