Chapter 203: Black Phoenix Evil Soul Master? It Couldn't Be Ma Xiaotao, Could It?
The cold scent of pine resin lingered in the night air of the Sun Moon Forest.
Liu Yuan's forward steps suddenly came to a halt.
He raised his head, casting his gaze toward the northwest.
In the originally steady night breeze, a subtle, chaotic undercurrent had surfaced. It carried an extremely cold, sinister power—a force entirely distinct from orthodox soul power fluctuations. It possessed a cloying, corrosive quality that made the skin crawl.
"Master." Liu Yuan turned his head to look at Du Busi, who trailed slightly behind him. "Did you sense it?"
Du Busi, who had been walking with his hands clasped behind his back, narrowed his eyes. He turned toward the northwest, his nostrils flaring slightly before his brow furrowed into a tight knot.
"Such terrifying evil energy," Du Busi rasped, his voice laced with unhidden disgust. "This soul power structure is chaotic and foul. It is an Evil Soul Master."
Long Aotian stopped in his tracks, scanning the dark woods with obvious confusion. "Evil energy? I didn't sense anything."
Liu Yuan glanced at his senior brother. "Aotian, your perception is heavily tuned toward physical strength and vitality attributes. For energy fluctuations with negative, spiritual-corrupting characteristics, your capture frequency naturally isn't high enough."
"Master," Liu Yuan continued, his tone pragmatic. "Once an Evil Soul Master appears, it usually guarantees casualties among civilians or passing Soul Masters. These degenerates are hunted by everyone on the Douluo Continent. Let's go take a look."
"Let's go." Du Busi didn't waste breath.
The trio immediately adjusted their trajectory, darting toward the source of the sinister aura. They restrained their soul power to the absolute limit, moving like silent phantoms through the dense, moonlit canopy.
After a relentless fifteen-minute sprint, the deafening roar of intense energy collisions echoed through the trees ahead.
Ancient trunks splintered and collapsed. Frost and snow shattered into glittering dust under the shockwaves.
Down in a sunken river valley, four Soul Masters clad in matching uniforms were trapped in a desperate siege. Their soul power auras flickered weakly, like candles in a hurricane; their physical stamina was clearly drained to the dregs from a frantic flight.
Their hunter was a single person.
A woman dressed in crimson red.
She hovered arrogantly in mid-air, a pair of massive, oppressive wings forged from pitch-black flames spread wide behind her back. With every casual wave of her hand, terrifying waves of heat distorted the air itself—the unmistakable signature of Ultimate Fire. The four fleeing Soul Masters had been forced to the absolute dead end of the river valley, stripped of all capacity to resist.
"Running? Where else can you run?"
The woman's voice was frigid, dripping with a haughty, predatory arrogance.
She raised her right hand. A sphere of concentrated black fire coalesced in her palm, warping the space around it as she prepared to deliver the final, lethal strike.
Just as the black inferno plummeted toward the helpless group, a dome of muted gray light snapped into existence, precisely enveloping the four Soul Masters.
It was Liu Yuan's third Soul Skill, granted by his Soul Spirit: Spiritual Guardian.
The black flames crashed against the gray shield, erupting into a violent, hissing steam. Yet, despite the terrifying heat, the dark fire failed to burn through that seemingly fragile layer of light.
The woman in red snapped her gaze up toward the treeline. "Who is it?"
Liu Yuan stepped out from the shadows, his expression completely placid. The Destruction Beast Soul Spirit floated silently beside him, while a deep purple-gold light pulsed deep within his Double Pupils.
He didn't even spare the woman a second glance, casually speaking over his shoulder to the two men behind him. "The targets are secured. I'll leave the cleanup to you."
Long Aotian's muscles tensed, ready to launch himself into the valley, but a heavy hand clamped down on his shoulder.
"Wait." Du Busi yanked his chief disciple back.
"Master? I'm going to help Yuan," Aotian protested, his brow furrowing in confusion.
"No need." Du Busi's sharp eyes were locked onto the battlefield below. "Let me see where your junior brother's current limits actually lie. A Level 60 Soul Emperor facing an Evil Soul Master above Level 80... It is the perfect crucible to test the combat performance of his Soul Spirit system."
Aotian grimaced, anxiety bleeding into his voice. "Master, that's an Evil Soul Master! Her Martial Soul is the Black Phoenix, and her soul power exceeds Rank 80. Yuan is only Level 60; a twenty-rank gap is suicidal!"
Du Busi shot him a sidelong glance, his tone unwavering. "It's just twenty ranks. For an anomaly like your junior brother, conventional logic means nothing."
Aotian snapped his mouth shut. After a moment of rapid calculation, he realized his master was right. He reluctantly stepped back, crossing his arms as he watched the valley.
Down in the center of the scorched battlefield, the woman in red glared at Liu Yuan. A vicious flash of murderous intent sliced through her dark red eyes.
Discarding the four exhausted Soul Masters entirely, she locked her predatory focus onto the new threat. The massive Black Phoenix wings flared, and the ambient temperature spiked to a lethal degree, instantly vaporizing the remaining snow in the valley.
Without even bothering to activate a specific Soul Skill, she folded her wings and dive-bombed straight toward him. The black flames trailed behind her, scorching the oxygen from the air and leaving the stench of burning ozone in her wake as her clawed hands aimed directly for Liu Yuan's throat.
Liu Yuan stood rooted to the earth. His breathing remained perfectly even. He didn't even bother summoning his Martial Soul Avatar.
He simply raised a single hand, channeling the tyrannical power of the Destruction Beast.
"First Soul Skill: Mental Suppression."
An invisible, heavy ripple of spiritual energy blasted outward, perfectly intersecting the red-clothed woman's descent.
The woman's aerodynamic posture violently hitched in mid-air. Her fiercely circulating soul power slammed into an invisible wall, turning sluggish and chaotic under the crushing weight of the sudden mental strike.
Her blistering speed plummeted.
It was only a microscopic delay, a mere fraction of a second, but for a combatant of Liu Yuan's caliber, it was an eternity. He pivoted smoothly, letting her flaming claws rake harmlessly past his chest. Simultaneously, the gray-brown aura of the Destruction Beast whipped out like a viper, coiling tightly around her shoulder.
The distance between them vanished.
Liu Yuan drew back his right arm, muscles coiling with explosive kinetic force, and met the Level 80 Evil Soul Master in a brutal, head-on mid-air collision.
A deafening detonation ripped through the valley, echoing like a crack of muffled thunder.
The woman was blasted backward by the sheer, unreasonable physical force of the strike. Her boots slammed into the earth, carving twin trenches through the dirt and rock for dozens of meters before she finally managed to brake her momentum.
She stared at Liu Yuan, genuine shock piercing through her arrogant facade. "Why does your soul power possess such a physical density?"
Liu Yuan offered no villainous monologue.
His purple-gold Double Pupils flared with blinding intensity. He surged forward, activating his second Soul Skill: Seeing Through the Void.
The world stripped away its superficial layers. Liu Yuan's gaze locked onto the center of the woman's chest—the absolute nexus of her soul power circulation. He could clearly trace the violent, black-flame energy as it erupted from her Qi Sea, surged through her meridians, and injected directly into the blazing wings on her back.
Closing the gap in a blur of motion, Liu Yuan threw a devastatingly precise punch aimed squarely at that critical node.
The woman instinctively flared her soul power, attempting to form a defensive barrier. But the absolute instant Liu Yuan's knuckles made contact with her chest, the internal flow of her energy suffered a catastrophic, inexplicable severing. Her impending Soul Skill fizzled into sparks. The majestic black flames on her back were forcibly snuffed out, throwing her entirely off balance as she stumbled backward, coughing violently.
Another exchange concluded.
At this point, the woman was no longer merely enraged.
A heavy layer of gravity settled into her gaze.
She realized, with creeping dread, that this youth—who radiated a mere Level 60 aura—possessed a combat style that utterly defied her understanding of reality. Not only was the sheer quality of his soul power monstrously high, but his eyes seemed capable of surgically dissecting her defenses, striking at the exact millisecond she was weakest.
"A Black Phoenix Martial Soul, extremely tyrannical fire attributes, and a soul power circulation path that deviates slightly from a normal human," Liu Yuan murmured, his voice low and analytical.
Through their brief, violent exchange of blows, his Double Pupils had keenly cataloged every anomaly in her combat data.
This high-burst fire attribute. This distinctly young facial structure. Coupled with a cultivation base exceeding Level 80.
Liu Yuan's brow furrowed slightly.
He stared into her dark red eyes, noting the unnatural, corrupted madness swimming within the irises. A specific name suddenly surfaced from the depths of his memory.
"Black Phoenix Martial Soul, female, roughly Rank 80, young..."
Liu Yuan's eyes narrowed. "This person... it couldn't be Ma Xiaotao, could it?"
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