Huo Yuhao had no way out now. He wasn't strong enough to survive assassinations this intense, and Bei Bei wouldn't be able to help, either. Xu Sanshi was a Defense System Soul Master; at most, he could hold out a little longer. This was an absolute mismatch in strength.
A gap in strength couldn't be made up for by talent, something that hadn't yet come to fruition. What they lacked was time—a thing both cheap and priceless. Time was what geniuses lacked most. These assassins understood that better than anyone. Their profession had shown them countless geniuses cut down, people who should have shone across the continent, only to die in the shadows.
But they were assassins of the Sun Moon Empire, and they were more than happy to weaken the Three Great Empires. They would certainly support anyone foolish enough to seek death, and killing them was no problem, either. The Sun Moon Imperial Family was willing to use the national treasury to cover the losses. The Three Great Empires had at least some sense, though, and wouldn't actually go that far. Between nations, there were only interests. The Three Great Empires and the Sun Moon Empire only appeared to stand on opposite sides; in reality, they cooperated plenty behind the scenes.
If the White Tiger Family hadn't insisted, the assassins wouldn't have mobilized their entire force just to kill a One-Ring Soul Master. The leader had racked his brains trying to understand why they'd been given such an order. Then, when his Spiritual Detection clashed with Huo Yuhao's, he understood in an instant. Someone like Huo Yuhao was terrifying. Only someone like him, who understood spiritual power, could recognize Huo Yuhao's limitless potential. He posed a tremendous threat to the Sun Moon Empire and had to be eliminated.
Still, a question gradually took shape in the leader's mind: Can we actually kill him? A talent like this was surely favored by the heavens. Could he really die? For the first time, the leader began to doubt their strength. Even worse, a fear he didn't want to admit crept into his heart.
He even began to suspect that the assassination was a trap. Otherwise, why had they been ordered to send every available man? In truth, the White Tiger Family did have its own ulterior motives, but it had never intended for them to be wiped out. It had only wanted to test Shrek Academy's position. The connection between them was an open secret, known to everyone in private. But nobody dared bring it into the open. If the conflict escalated, the situation spiraled out of control, and losses followed, who would take the blame?
Through this assassination, the White Tiger Family wanted to learn what Shrek Academy thought of the Sun Moon Empire and the family. After the imperial authority collapsed, Shrek Academy had stepped in to protect the White Tiger Family. This relationship touched the foundation of Shrek Academy's standing on the continent. Its transcendent status came from the fact that the academy had produced gods—and that the first generation of the Shrek Seven Devils had all become gods. What genius wouldn't want to become a god, explore the limits of power, and have their name recorded in history? Even a slightly better chance was worth something. Perhaps the gods could watch over the lower realm and grant their descendants some advantage.
If the lineages of the five Martial Soul families that had remained with Shrek Academy were severed, it would practically prove that the gods had no way to affect the lower realm. Shrek's transcendent status would naturally collapse. An academy, no matter how powerful, couldn't compare to an entire nation. The Three Great Empires, taken individually, lacked Shrek's organizational strength. But the combined power of their people could absolutely overwhelm Shrek. The problem was that getting so many families to unite was unlikely.
The most lethal issue was finance. Money was the most important thing. Shrek relied on the Three Great Empires for funding, and without their support, it wouldn't last more than a few days. Shrek had previously tried to control the Tang Sect Hidden Weapons in order to secure an independent source of income. Soul Tools were another reason. They represented the largest emerging market, full of enormous profits for Shrek to claim. One only had to look at how Soul Tools had become part of everyday life in the Sun Moon Empire to see it. The Three Great Empires were still far behind. But trade was forbidden, and even communication was rare, so there was no question of transferring technology. The only way to learn about technological advances was through Soul Master competitions, and even then, the information might be incomplete.
The Three Great Empires and Shrek Academy had been arguing over finances for years. The White Tiger Family suspected the academy was growing dissatisfied with the arrangement and wanted to test its attitude. The Sun Moon Empire was the obvious scapegoat, left to swallow the loss on its own. If its forces couldn't defeat a One-Ring Soul Master, what could it say? At the same time, the family had to keep cooperating in order to pursue its plans and gather intelligence. These were necessary expenses. Ambition demanded investment. Why didn't the Three Great Empires take such action? They wanted to, but lacked the means. Even getting Shrek's budget increased was difficult, let alone funding other projects. It was a blessing if the army still had any combat-capable units. The Sun Moon Empire was deterred by the unknown number of powerful figures out there. The battle from thousands of years ago had terrified the Sun Moon Empire's leadership with the number of strong fighters involved. That was why it had proceeded so cautiously until now. But unable to contain its restless ambition, it had begun making small moves again.
If nothing unexpected happened, Shrek Academy would definitely have to compromise with the White Tiger Family. The family represented two of the five bloodlines, and the Spirit Cat Family was absolutely loyal to it. The Clear Sky Sect had withdrawn from the world, while the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect was too independent and had ideas of its own. It was also immensely powerful. Few people still spoke of the title of Upper Three Sects, but the strength of those three families was undeniably unmatched. Shrek would certainly need allies to expand, and the White Tiger Family was the best choice. Their interests were bound together. But then Huo Yuhao had appeared and given Shrek another possibility. It would be difficult, but the person who had to make the decision felt they should trust their instincts.
Huo Yuhao still had no idea that someone believed he could rival the strength of an entire family. He was already shouting for help, though only within his Sea of Spirit. Tian Meng and Wang Yi didn't respond. The helplessness nearly made him cry. It had been a long time since he'd felt so completely alone.
For one brief moment, that feeling of solitude made him stop wanting to resist. This time, no gray spread across his eyes. They were filled with the lifeless black of death, not the coldness he'd once embraced in pursuit of his goals. Death spread through his heart.
But this time, the gray forcibly rose up and pulled Huo Yuhao back, taking over all the ground. It wasn't like before, when Huo Yuhao had acted of his own volition. That was the downside of having such powerful spiritual strength: emotions could easily affect him. Without anyone's help, Huo Yuhao might really have fallen along with his emotions.
"So many problems have come to light this time. I'll have to think of a way to resolve them." Huo Yuhao suddenly felt someone patting his head, and heard a familiar voice. His emotions shifted in an instant.
Seeing Huo Yuhao's extreme emotional swings left Wang Yi at a loss. How was he supposed to teach him to change when he was like this?
"Forget everything else for now. Watch how Electrolux attacks. It'll help you a lot, especially with learning to control your immense spiritual power." Only then did Huo Yuhao realize he was in his Sea of Spirit, while Electrolux controlled his body to deal with the assassination. He immediately focused on observing the flow of power. It was an incredibly rare opportunity. Few people would help someone else see their own strengths and weaknesses so clearly; doing so could give an enemy an opening.
Electrolux opened his eyes and looked at the six assassins charging toward him. Nothing seemed to have changed, yet the leader knew they had already lost. They had no chance. That was the sorrow of having keen senses born of powerful spiritual strength: he had foreseen his own death, but could do nothing about it. The balance of power had shifted.
All six Soul Masters released their Martial Souls: one Six-Ring Soul Emperor and five Five-Ring Soul Kings. This was the Sun Moon Empire's strongest force permitted within Shrek. The other weaklings would be useless. The Sun Moon Empire had stronger forces, but this was the highest level of power it was allowed to deploy. Ironically, Shrek allowed other factions to maintain armed forces on its territory. Every family had them—not powerful figures tasked with protection, but simply military forces. The only restriction was that nobody could have powerful figures beyond those needed to protect their students. No force was allowed to exceed seven rings.
As a result, there was usually only one six-ring powerhouse. The core strength consisted of larger numbers of lower-ranked fighters, since there was no point in adding more people if one Soul Emperor couldn't resolve the problem. Any larger force would be eliminated.
And so, the moment Electrolux met the six Soul Masters' eyes, their deaths were sealed. The god of death had descended upon the mortal world.
An unknown incantation rang out. A staff appeared in Huo Yuhao's hand, and a set of power laws completely foreign to this world took shape beneath his feet. A magic circle had appeared in the Douluo World for the first time. Perhaps, after traveling into space and seeing more worlds in the future, people would come to understand such power better. For now, there was only shock and confusion.
The magic circle was built entirely from spiritual power. In theory, Huo Yuhao and other Soul Masters who could use spiritual power might be able to use this method, too. Electrolux demonstrated it selflessly before Huo Yuhao. Since he was casting it with Huo Yuhao's body, Huo Yuhao could clearly see the flow of power. At his level of spiritual strength, he had Photographic Memory. The only question was whether he could understand what he'd seen. He could learn it gradually later, since Electrolux had thoughtfully converted the magic power into spiritual power, making the technique usable.
The magic circle was completed in an instant. The silver light of spiritual power shone, gleaming alongside the sun in the sky. The six Soul Masters suddenly found themselves unable to move, frozen in the middle of their charge. They could feel death slowly approaching. They felt true despair as their life force steadily drained away, sucked into the nameless circle beneath them. They were powerless to resist. They would have been less desperate even if they'd been killed outright while charging. As assassins, they had long been prepared to die.
But they didn't want to die so helplessly. Then the magic circle stopped. A glimmer of hope suddenly arose in their hearts. Had the man run out of strength? Then they heard his final words, and realized he hadn't taken them seriously. It was as if he'd never truly paid any attention to them at all.
"I might as well teach you how to kill. Killing is a skill, after all." Electrolux raised his hand, held his fingers together like a blade, and stepped toward the assassins. His movements looked slow, but he moved incredibly fast. It was an extremely simple way to apply force, yet one reserved for the strong. If Huo Yuhao could grasp even a little of it, his Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track would undergo a tremendous improvement.
He reached his first enemy, raised his hand, and chopped off his head. One, then two. By the time he reached the leader, the man was the last one left. Unable to move because of the magic circle, he had been trapped in place. Terror pushed his spiritual power to its absolute limit, and he broke through the restriction. He turned and tried to flee, already terrified out of his mind. This thing wasn't even human.
"Interesting." Electrolux hadn't expected this human to have some skill, and it piqued his interest. Under normal circumstances, he would have played with him a little. But he didn't have much time left. He had to finish quickly and return the body to Huo Yuhao. Otherwise, the body and Huo Yuhao's mind would fall out of sync.
He released his spiritual power, gathered it into a line, then shaped the line into a blade. Drawing on his own understanding of power, Electrolux began using Huo Yuhao's body to wield it. He slashed through the air toward the leader. Excruciating pain erupted inside the man's head, and blood poured from his orifices. He knew he could only endure a few more blows, so he tried to counterattack with the spiritual power he was most skilled at using. At least he would have given it everything he had.
His spiritual power collided head-on with Electrolux's second attack. The result was a one-sided defeat. The spiritual power swept into his Sea of Spirit like a landslide, and his head exploded.
Blood drenched the entire street. The six corpses bled without pause, while eleven chunks of flesh and a large mass of brain matter blocked the way.
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