At those words, Zhao Wuji was so furious his seven orifices smoked. He nearly spat out a mouthful of blood on the spot.
He was the mighty Immovable Wisdom King, a ruthless figure who had once escaped unscathed even when Spirit Hall hunted him down!
In the Heaven Dou Empire, which Soul Master didn't treat him with respect and keep well out of his way?
And this green kid, barely a teenager, actually treated him like a practice dummy!
It was a flagrant insult to his strength!
"Brat, you're looking for death!"
Zhao Wuji roared in a fury, his voice shaking leaves from the trees around them.
He slammed one foot down onto the ground.
With a thunderous crash, the hard rock split beneath his heel, leaving a deep crater.
Zhao Wuji's massive body shot forward like a heavy shell fired from a cannon.
With the force of a thousand tons behind him, he charged straight at Xue Tianyu.
First Soul Skill, Immovable Bright King Body!
Brilliant golden light surged over his skin, forming an unbreakable defensive barrier.
He would use the simplest, most brutal method to crush this arrogant brat into a puddle of flesh!
As Zhao Wuji charged like a moving mountain,
Xue Tianyu stood his ground without giving up so much as half a step.
His gaze instantly grew deep as an abyss.
A bone-chilling cold far beyond that of the Extreme North Ice Plains erupted outward from him.
"If you want to die, I'll grant your wish."
A clear, piercing cry rang out, cutting through the night sky.
Behind Xue Tianyu, the enormous phantom of an Ice Phoenix spread its wings and soared into the air.
At the same time, an Ice Heaven Snow Lotus bloomed silently at his feet, releasing endless frigid air.
His Twin Martial Souls emerged together!
The absolute pressure of Ultimate Ice collided violently with the imposing aura of Zhao Wuji's Vajra Bear.
A series of deafening sonic booms erupted through the air.
Wave after wave of visible icy ripples swept outward.
The towering trees around them instantly froze into crystal-clear ice sculptures.
Then, six Soul Rings of different colors slowly rose from beneath Xue Tianyu's feet.
Black, black, black, black, black...
And a dark red Soul Ring radiating a terrifying aura!
The intricate, ancient ice-blue dragon patterns on the dark red Soul Ring glimmered with a chilling light.
A Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring!
Its dazzling red glow looked especially eerie in the pitch-black night.
That divine aura, towering above all things, instantly froze the air throughout the entire valley.
Zhao Wuji, still charging, suddenly came to a stiff halt.
His heavy body plowed two deep furrows into the ground from sheer momentum.
His bloodshot eyes widened like copper bells, nearly popping from their sockets.
He stared at the dark red Soul Ring radiating such terrible majesty, his mind briefly blanking out.
A sense of mortal danger unlike anything he had ever felt surged from his spine straight to the crown of his head.
A Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring!
How was that possible?!
How could a kid barely in his teens possess such a priceless treasure, one that existed only in legends?
Even more outrageous, all five of the kid's first Soul Rings were ten-thousand-year Soul Rings!
What kind of monster was this?
Even the renowned Titled Douluo might not have such a terrifying Soul Ring configuration!
What kind of prodigy had Boss Fu gotten himself into trouble with this time?
But before Zhao Wuji could recover from his utter shock,
Xue Tianyu had already slowly raised his right hand.
A glimmer of ice-blue light danced wildly at his fingertips, rapidly compressing.
Terrifyingly frigid energy gathered in his palm, distorting the surrounding space.
"So, you're a Vajra Bear."
Xue Tianyu's voice was calm as water, yet carried the absolute authority to decide life and death.
"Let's see just how hard your bones are!"
Before the last word had even faded,
his body transformed into a streak of icy blue light and shot toward the massive Zhao Wuji.
He moved so fast that a long, piercing trail of frost stretched behind him in the air.
Frost Sword Qi condensed in his palm into a solid blade with a razor-sharp edge.
Carrying the surging Soul Power of a sixtieth-level Soul Emperor, it stabbed straight for Zhao Wuji's throat!
Feeling that deadly threat, cold enough to freeze his soul,
the hairs all over Zhao Wuji's body stood on end, and his scalp prickled.
His instinct for survival snapped him out of his shock.
"Get the hell away from me!"
With bloodshot eyes, Zhao Wuji recklessly drove the Soul Power in his body.
His Second Soul Ring suddenly flared!
Second Soul Skill, Vajra Palm!
He poured all his strength into both palms and struck at the oncoming streak of icy blue light with enough force to split mountains and shatter rocks!
Hearing Xue Tianyu's casual taunt, Zhao Wuji felt as if his lungs were about to burst with rage.
He was a seventy-sixth-level Soul Saint, the Immovable Wisdom King who had lorded it over the Soul Master World. And now a kid barely in his teens had insulted him to his face.
"Arrogant!"
Zhao Wuji roared again and again as his Second Soul Ring blazed.
His palms, carrying enough force to split mountains and shatter rocks, slammed into the streak of icy blue light.
"Bang!"
The instant fist and palm met, the earth-shaking crash he expected never came.
Instead, there was an extremely grating sound of ice spreading.
Zhao Wuji felt both palms jolt as an icy chill, like absolute zero, poured through them and surged into his body.
His Vajra Palm, powerful enough to smash a small hill, struck Xue Tianyu's Frost Sword Qi like it had hit a piece of ten-thousand-year-old black iron that could not be moved.
Zhao Wuji's bloodshot eyes instantly widened.
The brilliant golden Immovable Bright King Body he had always prided himself on began freezing over at a visible rate.
A thick layer of frost raced up his arms, and even the flow of Soul Power through his body slowed to a crawl.
"How is this possible?!"
Zhao Wuji roared inwardly, his broad, rugged face full of horror.
He was a Soul Saint with both strength and defense!
This kid had only just obtained his Sixth Soul Ring. How could he suppress him so completely?
Xue Tianyu gave his wrist a slight twist.
Crack!
The surging Soul Power contained in the sword qi burst forth like floodwaters breaking through a dam.
The tremendous force sent Zhao Wuji's massive body flying backward.
His granite-hard legs carved two furrows over ten meters long into the ground before he finally managed to steady himself.
"That all you've got?"
Xue Tianyu held the Frost Sword Qi in his hand, red light rippling around him. His voice was tinged with casual indifference.
"Seems like there's a lot of hot air behind the title Immovable Wisdom King."
Zhao Wuji gritted his teeth, his arms aching and numb.
They were already coated in dark blue frost, and even his bones throbbed with pain.
He jerked his hands, trying to use Soul Power to dispel the bone-deep cold.
But the frigid energy clung to his meridians like a maggot to bone. There was no way to dispel it.
For the first time, the domineering power of Ultimate Ice filled this unruly Soul Saint with deep fear.
The Ice Empress stood on a nearby treetop, arms crossed as she looked down at the scene.
Her breathtaking eyes glinted with amusement.
"Big dumb bear, I'd advise you to get down on the ground and admit defeat."
"My Tian Yu is in a pretty good mood right now. He might even leave your corpse intact."
"Annoy him, though, and you won't even get the chance to become an ice sculpture. You'll turn straight into a pile of ice shards."
Hearing the Ice Empress's cutting mockery, Zhao Wuji felt a wave of blood rush to his head.
He was a dignified Soul Saint, and a woman was pointing at him and calling him a big dumb bear.
"Spare me the snide remarks!"
Zhao Wuji shouted and straightened up.
He stared at the dark red Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring beneath Xue Tianyu's feet, jealousy and shock twisting together in his eyes.
"Kid, I admit you're a once-in-a-generation genius."
"That Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring really did give me a fright."
"But you're still only a Six-Ring Soul Emperor!"
Zhao Wuji's broad chest heaved as all seven of his Soul Rings flared with light once more.
"Even if it costs me my life, I'll kill you here today!"
"Otherwise, once you grow stronger, will there be any place left for our Shrek Academy?"
Hearing that shameless excuse, Xue Tianyu immediately let out a scornful laugh.
"Do people at Shrek Academy all suffer from delusions of persecution?"
"You were the ones who started this. Tang San was weaker than me and got taught a lesson, and now you're blaming me?"
"You couldn't beat me, so you sent an old man to ambush me. And now you're dressing it up in all this high-minded nonsense."
Xue Tianyu stepped forward, pointing the Frost Sword Qi in his hand straight at Zhao Wuji.
"Since you've come begging for death, I'll do you a favor and send you to meet the King of Hell."
Every word struck home, tearing away the hypocritical fig leaf of Shrek Academy.
Zhao Wuji's face turned livid. The brown fur covering his body stood on end, stiff as steel needles.
"Enough talk!"
"In this world, strength is what matters!"
"Third Soul Skill, Gravity Enhancement!"
The Third Soul Ring at Zhao Wuji's feet suddenly blazed purple.
A crushing pressure, heavy as a mountain, descended on the area around Xue Tianyu.
The ground within dozens of meters collapsed with a roar, and trees snapped under the immense, invisible weight.
Anyone caught within this gravity field would feel as though their body had been filled with lead, their movements slowed to a crawl.
Seeing Xue Tianyu trapped within the gravity field, a savage smile finally appeared on Zhao Wuji's face.
"Fourth Soul Skill, Position Tracking!"
Without giving Xue Tianyu any chance to catch his breath, Zhao Wuji immediately lit up his Fourth Soul Ring.
A streak of golden light shot out from his body, as if it had eyes, and flew straight toward Xue Tianyu's forehead.
Once the golden light locked onto its target, Zhao Wuji's next attacks would cling to him like bone-deep maggots, never missing.
"Fifth Soul Skill, Gravity Squeeze!"
Zhao Wuji pressed his advantage, and the black Fifth Soul Ring blazed once more.
The pressure within the gravity field multiplied in an instant.
The air on all sides turned into solid walls, squeezing toward Xue Tianyu.
This flawless string of attacks was Zhao Wuji's renowned trump card.
He was confident that even with a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring, Xue Tianyu couldn't escape the absolute difference in rank and the three layers of control.
And yet.
Faced with this overwhelming onslaught, Xue Tianyu still stood where he was, without even lifting an eyelid.
"You call that pathetic parlor trick worth showing off?"
His cool voice echoed through the valley.
The next moment, the Ice Heaven Snow Lotus beneath Xue Tianyu's feet burst into dazzling light.
Ultimate cold swept madly outward from him in every direction.
The gravity trying to crush his body froze instantly before that Extreme Cold Storm!
Even the invisible gravity field was forcibly frozen by Ultimate Ice, turning into white mist.
The savage smile on Zhao Wuji's face froze.
The Gravity Enhancement and Gravity Squeeze he had always been so proud of had no effect whatsoever on this boy.
The golden tracking light that had been about to lock onto Xue Tianyu hadn't even come within three feet before a sturdy ice shield knocked it away, scattering it into flecks of starlight.
"Have you run out of tricks?"
Xue Tianyu lifted his head. Not a trace of warmth showed in his deep eyes.
"Now it's my turn."
As soon as the words left his mouth,
the Ice Phoenix phantom behind Xue Tianyu let out a piercing cry that shook heaven and earth.
A pair of enormous crystal-ice wings suddenly spread behind him.
With a single gentle flap,
his whole body transformed into a streak of blue-white light. Ignoring every obstacle, he appeared above Zhao Wuji in an instant.
Zhao Wuji's heart gave a sudden lurch, and alarms rang wildly throughout his body.
He felt a suffocating pressure bearing down from overhead.
Xue Tianyu looked down at him from above, and the Fifth Soul Ring on his right arm suddenly blazed.
"Fifth Soul Skill: Ice Phoenix Cloud-Piercing Kill!"
Snow and wind gathered madly in the sky.
A massive Ice Phoenix, formed entirely of solidified ice, took shape. Carrying terrifying power enough to destroy heaven and earth, it plunged toward Zhao Wuji below.
"Roar!"
Faced with a blow that could take his life, Zhao Wuji let out a hysterical roar.
He knew there was no way he could dodge this attack. He could only take it head-on!
He crossed his arms before his chest and pushed the Immovable Bright King Body to its limit.
"Boom!"
The Ice Phoenix slammed into Zhao Wuji's defense.
A shockwave of violent energy exploded instantly, uprooting every tree within dozens of meters and reducing them to flying dust.
The ice-blue storm completely swallowed Zhao Wuji's massive frame.
Only after a full half-minute did the storm gradually subside.
A gigantic ice pit, more than twenty meters in diameter, now gaped in the middle of the valley.
Zhao Wuji knelt on one knee at the bottom, gasping for breath.
The layer of brilliant golden light covering his body had already dimmed.
Ice clung to his hard brown fur, and the terrifying Ice Phoenix sword energy had torn open his skin in several places, drawing bright red blood.
But the moment the blood welled out, the extreme cold froze it into crimson beads of ice.
"Cough, cough..."
Zhao Wuji coughed violently twice, spitting out a mouthful of bruised blood mixed with ice chips.
He stared at Xue Tianyu, hovering in midair, and deep fear finally crept into his eyes.
"What... what kind of monster are you?"
He was a seventy-sixth-level Soul Saint, yet a sixtieth-level Soul Emperor had beaten him so badly he couldn't fight back at all.
His opponent hadn't even used his Sixth Soul Ring!
"I won't accept this!"
"I refuse to believe I can't kill you, you little brat!"
Zhao Wuji's eyes turned crimson in an instant, wild madness shining in them as he prepared to fight to the death.
If he couldn't kill Xue Tianyu today, he would never make it out of this Sunset Forest alive.
For the sake of his life, and for Shrek's honor, he could only risk everything.
The seventh Soul Ring, black as ink, finally rose slowly from beneath Zhao Wuji's feet.
The instant it appeared, the aura that had been flagging around Zhao Wuji surged wildly, like a volcano erupting.
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