Chapter 114: A Heated Battle, Worldly Attachments, and the Sword of Judgment
"How is this possible?"
In the Shrek Academy waiting area, Elder Xuan shot to his feet. The smug flush that had previously warmed his wrinkled features vanished, replaced by a sickly, ashen gray.
He stared fixedly at the dark purple stream of light tearing across the tournament stage. His pupils shrank to pinpricks. The sheer, suffocating weight of regret and terror clawed at his chest, shattering his carefully maintained composure.
He had never imagined—never even entertained the thought—that the boy he had discarded could wield such monstrous power.
During the previous round-robin matches, Elder Xuan had scrutinized Liu Yuan's fighting style from the sidelines. Because Liu Yuan had held back his true strength, relying entirely on the fundamental visual abilities of his Double Pupils and clever tactical formations, Elder Xuan had severely miscalculated. More crucially, during those earlier rounds, Liu Yuan had not yet integrated the terrifying enhancements of a supreme divine artifact like the Gold of Life.
This cascade of missing information led Elder Xuan to a fatal misjudgment.
He had genuinely believed that under the precise, overwhelming soul tool targeting of the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy team, Liu Yuan would be trapped in a bitter, agonizing struggle. He expected the boy to be slowly bled dry by the endless, high-tier arsenal of Xiao Hongchen and the others.
But now, as Liu Yuan unleashed his full, unreserved power, the sheer scale of his dominance sent a cold shock freezing through Elder Xuan's veins.
"How can this be?" Elder Xuan muttered, his hands trembling slightly. "How can this kid's actual combat power exceed his cultivation realm by such a massive margin?"
Elder Xuan was not the only one losing his grip on reality. High above in the VIP spectator stands, Star Luo Emperor Xu Jiawei leaned heavily against the gilded railing, his eyes wide with shock.
The Emperor had reviewed the Sun Moon team's tactical deployment before the match. On paper, it was flawless. Yet, he watched the entire battle situation flip on its head in a matter of seconds.
"The Heavenly Soul Empire..." Emperor Xu Jiawei exhaled a long, heavy breath. "...is truly fortunate." Envy, raw and undisguised, burned in his royal gaze. "To produce a genius disciple like Liu Yuan. To possess destructive power that completely defies the established logic of Soul Masters... it is truly enviable."
Sitting beside him, Princess Xu Jiujiu let out a soft sigh. She watched Liu Yuan glide through the chaotic battlefield as casually as a man strolling through an empty courtyard.
"Yes," Xu Jiujiu whispered, her tone laced with deep awe. "After all, he is someone who, while only in the four-ring Soul Ancestor realm, successfully engineered the death of a seven-ring Evil Soul Master."
She paused, her eyes tracking the dark purple flashes on the stage. "Even if he used the terrain and the natural attribute suppression of Soul Beasts back then, that kind of flawless courage and lethal execution is something any other four-ring Soul Master simply could not achieve."
While the entire stadium remained paralyzed by the shock of Liu Yuan's opening display, the violence on the stage did not pause to let them breathe.
With Liu Yuan and Long Aotian detonating their full soul power, the previously arrogant Sun Moon team finally began to crack under the pressure.
Long Aotian stood like a dark-gold god of war. Having triggered the Secondary Awakening of his Body Soul, his physical form swelled with terrifying vitality. He planted his feet in the dead center of the arena, the reinforced stone tiles spider-webbing beneath his boots. Relying entirely on his tyrannical physical body, he placed himself directly in the path of the enemy's heaviest artillery.
He threw a single, devastating punch. The violent shockwave of his soul power physically tore the incoming barrage of explosive shells out of the air. Through sheer, brute strength, Long Aotian forcefully pinned down Captain Ma Rulong—the Sun Moon team's strongest combatant. At the same time, his rapid, devastating shifts in position completely disrupted the bombardment rhythm of the Hongchen siblings.
Under the absolute cover provided by Long Aotian, Liu Yuan moved.
Supported by the auxiliary control skills of the remaining Heavenly Soul team members, Liu Yuan's figure blurred, shuttling through the thick smoke like a phantom of death.
His Double Pupils required zero charging time. Every time his eyelids parted, a precise, inescapable mental lock snapped onto a target, followed instantly by a crushing shockwave of soul power.
In the span of a single breath, Liu Yuan materialized on the blind flanks of two Sun Moon team members.
A dark purple radiance flared. Before the two Soul Engineers could even channel soul power into the defensive triggers on their backs, an irresistible, crushing force slammed into their chests.
Bang! Bang!
Two heavy, sickening thuds echoed over the roaring crowd. The two Soul Engineers, completely encased in heavy metallic armor, were launched off the elevated stage in the most brutal manner imaginable, crashing violently into the protective barriers below.
At this point, the match had barely crossed the five-minute mark, and the Sun Moon team had already lost three of their main combatants.
Xiao Hongchen stared at the gaping holes in their formation. His usual aristocratic arrogance shattered, replaced by raw panic. He let out a sharp, cracking roar.
"How is this happening! Why couldn't our Soul Calming Shields stop him? Are we... are we really going to lose to this unbalanced team?"
Captain Ma Rulong watched Long Aotian closing the distance, his eyes turning bloodshot and ferocious.
He knew the truth. If they maintained their current tactical layout, Liu Yuan would simply pick them apart one by one, dissecting them with surgical precision until nothing was left.
"We stop holding back!" Ma Rulong roared, his voice tearing at his throat.
He slapped his storage ring. A massive greatsword materialized in his grip, instantly radiating a heavy, suffocating aura. The moment the blade was drawn, the surrounding air grew dense and heavy. The complex, flowing light patterns carved into the metal broadcasted its terrifying value—the Class 8 Soul Tool, the Judgment Sword.
Ma Rulong wiped his fingers down the flat of the blade. A blinding gold-red pillar of light shot into the sky. He gripped the hilt with both hands and swung the Judgment Sword in a massive arc. A ten-meter-long, crescent-shaped wave of Sword Qi shrieked through the air, slashing directly toward Long Aotian.
This Sword Qi carried an extremely pure judgment attribute. It was a specialized power designed to bypass standard physical defenses and directly attack the target's life Origin.
Under the overwhelming suppression of a Class 8 Soul Tool, even someone with a physique as monstrous as Long Aotian could no longer tank the strike head-on.
Long Aotian crossed his arms over his chest. His dark-gold soul power shield flared to life, emitting a piercing, metallic screech as the Sword Qi ground against it. The sheer kinetic force pushed Long Aotian back step by step, his boots carving deep, smoking trenches into the hard floor of the stage.
Seeing Long Aotian temporarily pinned down by their captain, Xiao Hongchen and Meng Hongchen exchanged a rapid glance. A ruthless, desperate glint flashed in both their eyes.
"Let's deal with Liu Yuan!"
Meng Hongchen moved. Her long silver hair whipped wildly in the turbulent air. As her Martial Soul possession took hold, a thick, bone-chilling mist bled from her skin—the signature, deadly toxin of the Vermilion Ice Toad.
She swept her hands forward, unleashing a torrential rain of ice-blue poison needles that sealed off every possible avenue of escape around Liu Yuan.
Simultaneously, Xiao Hongchen established his footing a short distance away. The massive soul cannon arrays mounted on his back whirred to life, dozens of targeting lasers locking dead onto Liu Yuan's chest.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The dead-zone-free bombardment of high-explosive soul shells, perfectly layered over Meng Hongchen's inescapable close-range poison, instantly flipped the dynamic of the battlefield.
The Heavenly Soul team's vanguard position was swallowed by a chaotic storm of freezing toxic gas and scorching, devastating explosions.
However, as the smoke began to thin, the sight that greeted the Hongchen siblings filled their stomachs with leaden despair.
Even at the epicenter of that lethal, overlapping kill zone, Liu Yuan did not fall.
Deep within the churning smoke, pitch-black light patterns pulsed rhythmically across Liu Yuan's skin. This was his second Soul Skill: Undying Body.
Faced with such an absolute, rule-breaking survival ability, conventional damage meant nothing. As long as Liu Yuan's soul power reserves were not completely drained, his flesh would knit back together the exact instant a fatal wound was inflicted.
Xiao Hongchen's expression twisted into a grimace of pure frustration. Not only was Liu Yuan's defense completely illogical, but the psychological pressure radiating from those unblinking Double Pupils was growing heavier by the second. Xiao Hongchen knew that a war of attrition was a death sentence for Soul Engineers.
"Meng! We can't waste any more time. Use the final move!" Xiao Hongchen locked eyes with his sister, his tone leaving no room for argument.
Meng Hongchen understood the severity of their situation perfectly. She gritted her teeth, gave a sharp nod, and rapidly closed the distance to her brother.
At that exact moment, their soul power began to synchronize with absolute precision.
Two massive auras—one burning red, the other freezing blue—intertwined and erupted behind them. The two pillars of light twisted together, eventually blooming into a brilliant, captivating mist of red and blue.
Martial Soul Fusion Skill—Hongchen's Yearning!
A colossal phantom materialized above the stage, bearing countless metallic light feathers upon its back. It was the absolute pinnacle manifestation of the fusion between mechanical technology and organic Martial Souls.
The phantom spread its massive wings. With a single, deafening flap, the metallic feathers blanketing the sky ignited, transforming into a meteor shower of fire. Each individual feather carried a dual mental and physical payload sufficient to instantly obliterate a five-ring Soul King. The fiery deluge blotted out the arena lights, completely overwhelming Liu Yuan's position.
The entire stadium plunged into a dead, suffocating silence. Tens of thousands of spectators sat paralyzed, entirely overwhelmed by the apocalyptic scale of this Martial Soul Fusion Skill.
Star Luo Emperor Xu Jiawei stood up abruptly, his knuckles turning white against the railing. He stared at the sky-covering destruction, his voice heavy with dread. "I didn't expect the Sun Moon team to hide such a desperate, devastating measure. With this level of power... can Liu Yuan possibly survive alone?"
On the opposite side of the arena, in the Shrek Academy waiting area, the ashen stiffness on Elder Xuan's face finally melted into a twisted, vindictive sneer. He leaned forward, his eyes locked onto the area consumed by the red and blue light, his voice dripping with venomous relief.
"Won't you lose this time? With a fusion skill of this magnitude, even ten revival skills would be ground into dust! Hurry up and die, Liu Yuan. This is the ultimate price of your boundless arrogance!"
The meteor shower surged toward Liu Yuan like a collapsing star, the massive, deafening roar instantly swallowing his solitary figure.
However, at the exact fraction of a second before the destructive mist of Hongchen's Yearning could touch his skin, the emerald vertical line resting upon Liu Yuan's perfectly calm face suddenly tore open.
"Ultimate Sublimation."
His voice, though quiet, cut through the deafening roar of the arena with absolute, chilling clarity.
He triggered his fourth Soul Skill. Driven by the perfect alignment between his Double Pupils and the Gold of Life, his aura shattered the natural constraints of his cultivation realm. In that fleeting second, bathed in the light of impending destruction, Liu Yuan's entire being radiated an overwhelming, untouchable divinity.
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