Ma Hongjun Goes Berserk

Xue Tianyu stopped less than three meters away from Zhao Wuji, looking coldly at this once-arrogant Soul Saint.

"The way you're fawning and begging for mercy now is truly nauseating."

The Frost Sword Qi in his hand slowly rose, its sharp tip pointing directly at Zhao Wuji's throat.

The dark red sixth soul ring glowed faintly once more.

"When you accepted the assassination mission and tried to take my life, why didn't you think about leaving me a way out?"

"Since you chose to be an assassin, you should have the awareness that you might be killed in return."

Xue Tianyu flicked his wrist, and the wind and snow across the sky condensed onto his blade.

"Take your ridiculous arrogance and go to hell to serve the King of Hell."

"I'll fight you to the death!"

Knowing there was no hope of survival, Zhao Wuji let out a desperate, wild roar.

He squeezed out the very last trace of soul power remaining in his body, his left arm lashing out like a heavy hammer toward Xue Tianyu's skull.

This was his final strike, a desperate last stand.

Xue Tianyu's eyes didn't even flicker.

Just as that palm was about to land, a streak of ice-blue sword light, fast to the extreme, flashed suddenly.

"Swish!"

The sword qi swept across Zhao Wuji's neck as if slicing through tofu.

The raised left arm stiffened in mid-air, unable to advance even a fraction of an inch further.

Zhao Wuji's eyes widened, his throat emitting a strange, rattling sound.

The next moment.

A dark red line of blood appeared across his thick neck.

The incredibly domineering Ultimate Ice instantly invaded his brain through the wound.

There was no gruesome spray of blood.

Zhao Wuji's massive head was frozen solid into a hard ice ball, rolling off from his neck.

With a "thud," it hit the ground, shattering into pieces.

It turned into a pile of ice shards mixed with red and white matter.

The headless corpse also lost its vitality, toppling straight backward and kicking up a cloud of cold dust.

The Immovable Wisdom King, Zhao Wuji, had perished here in the Sunset Forest.

Xue Tianyu gave his wrist a light shake, scattering the ice chips from the Frost Sword Qi.

He didn't even glance at the corpse on the ground.

"Truly fragile."

He turned around and looked at the Ice Emperor beside him.

"Let's go. The smell of blood here will soon attract other soul beasts."

"We still have to make a trip to Heaven Dou City; there's no need to waste too much time on these small fries."

The Ice Emperor chuckled, her figure turning into a streak of emerald light as she submerged back into Xue Tianyu's body.

The wind and snow gradually subsided, and the night once again shrouded the mountain forest.

Only a broken, headless ice sculpture remained, silently telling the tale of what kind of god of slaughter Shrek Academy had provoked.

The night wind whistled, piercing through the layers of branches and emitting a wail as shrill as a ghost's cry.

The edge of the Sunset Forest, which usually teemed with countless high-level soul beasts, was now as deathly silent as the Nine Nether Hells; within a radius of ten miles, not even the faintest sound of an insect could be heard.

Xue Tianyu stepped over the frost-covered fallen leaves, his pace calm and composed.

Behind him, although the terrifying aura belonging to the hundred-thousand-year God-Bestowed Soul Ring had gradually receded, the lingering pressure of the Ultimate Ice still ravaged the depths of the soil. Not a single soul beast with eyes dared to approach this god of slaughter at this moment.

The Ice Emperor's stunning phantom floated beside Xue Tianyu.

She stretched lazily, her long emerald dress refracting charming halos under the moonlight.

"To slaughter that stupid bear so cleanly and decisively—your temper is becoming more and more to my liking."

The Ice Emperor crossed her arms, smiling as she looked at Xue Tianyu's profile.

"But when you hit the small ones, the old ones come out; and when you kill the old ones, I expect the even older ones will come biting like mad dogs. I've heard that the dean of Shrek Academy, a man named Flender, is extremely protective of his own. You chopped his vice-dean like firewood; this grudge is now a dead knot."

Upon hearing this, Xue Tianyu felt not a shred of worry, but instead let out a few cold, light laughs.

"Protective?"

"That kind of high-sounding vocabulary is just a fig leaf Shrek uses to cover up their bullying of others."

He raised his hand and flicked a snowflake off his shoulder.

"Tang San used hidden weapons to hurt people on the street, and when he was crippled by me because his skills were inferior, that was his own doing. As for Zhao Wuji, a Soul Saint who disregarded his dignity to come to the Sunset Forest to intercept and kill a junior like me, he deserved to die when I killed him in return. If they really dare to come seeking revenge, I don't mind adding a few more ice sculptures outside Heaven Dou City."

Ice Emperor covered her lips and giggled, her eyes flashing with excitement.

"What an arrogant little brat, but I like it."

"Where are we going now? Back to Heaven Dou City to sleep, or should we just head straight to that pathetic academy of theirs and finish off that Flender fellow while we're at it?"

Xue Tianyu shook his head slightly, his gaze fixed on the faint, shimmering lights of Heaven Dou City in the distance.

"A hunting game is only interesting if you pluck the prey's wings one by one. Zhao Wuji is merely an appetizer. There are still a few self-important fellows left among the Shrek Seven Devils. Tonight, let's start by carving up that foul-smelling mutant chicken."

The two moved with incredible speed, transforming into streaks of light as they swept across the night sky.

Before long, the towering walls of Heaven Dou City appeared before them.

In the dead of night, Heaven Dou City was divided into two distinct worlds. The high-ranking officials and nobles had long since retired to their warm mansions, while the red-light district in the south of the city was in the midst of its decadent, debauched peak.

A deep, narrow alley known as "Spring Breeze Alley" was thick with the pungent scent of cheap cosmetics and nauseating alcohol.

The red lanterns of several brothels along the street swayed precariously in the night wind.

"Creak—"

A dilapidated wooden door was shoved open violently, and a round, ball-like figure waddled out, swaying unsteadily.

Ma Hongjun let out a loud burp while hitching up his loose trousers, his weed-like short red hair still tangled with a few long strands of hair belonging to some unknown woman.

"Pah!"

He spat a glob of thick phlegm onto the threshold, his chubby face twisted in disdain.

"What a dump. Those broads couldn't even handle half an hour of my performance combined. If I weren't so strapped for cash lately, I'd be having a blast at the high-end Heavenly Fragrance Pavilion in Heaven Dou City."

Ma Hongjun rubbed his greasy cheeks and stumbled out into the pitch-black alley, grumbling and cursing under his breath.

"Boss Dai is disloyal, too. He spends all day fawning over that stuck-up Zhu Zhuqing and doesn't even bring me to the brothels anymore. And that Tang San, always acting like a saint, yet when he ran into that pretty boy Xue Tianyu, he still ended up kneeling in the street like a dog. It's a damn disgrace to our Shrek Seven Devils!"

The mere thought of Xue Tianyu made the fire in Ma Hongjun's gut flare up. The evil fire within him, born from his mutated martial soul, not only tormented his body but also made his temper volatile and irritable.

"Once Teacher Zhao kills that ignorant brat, let's see how cocky he can be!"

"The Dean said that Teacher Zhao's move this time is a sure thing. A Spirit Saint taking down a mere brat in his twenties? That's as easy as picking up a chick."

Ma Hongjun imagined the scene of Xue Tianyu having his limbs broken by Zhao Wuji like a helpless bird, and he couldn't help but grin, letting out a lewd, grating laugh.

Just as the fat pig was at his most gleeful, the air in the alley suddenly, without warning, came to a standstill.

Ma Hongjun, who had been sweltering from alcohol and his internal evil fire, shivered violently.

To his horror, he realized that the hot breath he exhaled turned into a cloud of white ice crystals the moment it left his lips! The temperature was plummeting at a bone-chilling speed.

The stagnant water on the uneven bluestone path beneath his feet froze into a hard sheet of ice in the blink of an eye. Thick white frost rapidly crawled up the mottled brick walls on both sides of the alley.

"Hiss—"

Ma Hongjun gasped, his drunkenness vanishing in an instant. He hugged his arms, his layers of fat trembling from the cold.

"What the hell kind of cursed weather is this? It was scorching hot a second ago, how did it suddenly turn into an ice cellar?"

He stopped in his tracks, alert, and quickly circulated his spirit power. A dark red evil fire emerged from his body, attempting to repel the eerie chill. However, his pride and joy—the evil fire—flickered like a candle in the wind before this extreme cold, on the verge of being extinguished.

"Who! Who's hiding in the shadows playing tricks!"

Ma Hongjun roared, his voice raspy as he tried to mask his inner panic.

"Playing tricks?"

A voice, cold to the extreme and devoid of any human emotion, drifted leisurely from the other end of the alley.

The voice was not loud, yet it felt like two ice blades piercing Ma Hongjun's eardrums, causing his heart to skip a beat.

Accompanied by clear, rhythmic footsteps.

"Crunch—crunch—"

It was the distinct sound of boots crushing ice.

Ma Hongjun stared fixedly at the heavy shadows at the alley entrance. By the faint moonlight, a tall, slender figure slowly emerged from the darkness.

He wore white robes as pristine as snow, his back straight as a sword.

There was no excess expression on that peerlessly handsome face, only a pair of eyes glowing with a ghostly blue light, looking down at him as if he were nothing more than livestock waiting to be slaughtered.

"You... Xue Tianyu!"

Ma Hongjun let out a startled shriek, stumbling back and nearly landing on his backside.

He never imagined that while he was fantasizing about the man's death a second ago, the god of death himself would be standing right in front of him!

Following the extreme terror came a surge of indignation at being humiliated.

Ma Hongjun forced himself to stand firm, pointing a finger at Xue Tianyu's nose and cursing.

"You surnamed Xue! You're not sleeping in the middle of the night, coming here to scare me?"

"Do you have any idea where this is? Heaven Dou City is the territory of our Shrek Academy! Shouldn't you be running for your life in the Sunset Forest, chased by Teacher Zhao? What? Did you get lucky and escape, so you came here to act wild?"

The more Ma Hongjun spoke, the more confident he felt, even convincing himself that he had seen through the truth.

"It must be that Teacher Zhao didn't find you and let you slip away! I advise you to be sensible, get over here, kowtow, and apologize to me. Then, follow me obediently to see Teacher Zhao; perhaps you might still be left with an intact corpse!"

Looking at the mangy chicken before him who was still spouting nonsense despite being at death's door, the mockery in Xue Tianyu's eyes was nearly overflowing.

He did not rush to act, instead slowly raising his right hand.

He flipped his wrist.

"Clang!"

A piece of heavy metal debris, stained with dark red ice, was tossed casually at Ma Hongjun's feet.

The metal fragment struck the icy ground, emitting a dull, heavy thud.

Ma Hongjun lowered his head, his gaze sweeping over the fragment, and his pupils instantly contracted to the size of pinpricks. It was a piece of dark gold shoulder armor. Engraved upon it was a rugged bear motif, and at the edges remained a faint yet extremely familiar fluctuation of soul power. These were the soul essence fragments left behind after the Vajra Bear avatar had been forcibly shattered!

In the entire Shrek Academy, only one person possessed this aura! The Immovable Wisdom King, Zhao Wuji!

"This... this is impossible..."

Ma Hongjun's voice began to tremble violently, the fat on his face bunching up due to extreme terror. He shook his head desperately and retreated two steps.

"This is fake! You forged this! Teacher Zhao is a level 76 Soul Saint! How could he possibly lose to a little brat like you!"

"Lose?"

Xue Tianyu chuckled, the sound appearing exceptionally jarring in the silent alleyway.

"He didn't lose; he died. He died so thoroughly that not even a complete corpse was left behind."

As Xue Tianyu spoke, he slowly stepped forward, closing the distance.

"He activated his avatar, and I used the Red Lotus Extreme Abyss to freeze and shatter his arms on the spot. He burned his life force trying to escape, but I caught up and severed that foolish bear head with a single blade."

"Before he died, he was just like you are now—kneeling on the ground, crying and begging me to spare him."

"I have truly seen the 'backbone' of Shrek Academy today."

Every word was like a heavy hammer, smashing fiercely against Ma Hongjun's heart.

He looked into Xue Tianyu's eyes, which held no warmth, and finally understood that the other party was not lying.

Zhao Wuji was truly dead! If even a Soul Saint had been killed, he, a mere Soul Grand Master... would die! He would absolutely die!

Fear instantly devoured his reason.

"I'll fight you to the death!"

Ma Hongjun let out a howl like a wild boar at the point of death. He knew he could not escape and could only pin all his hopes on this desperate struggle.

Two yellow century-level soul rings and one purple millennium-level soul ring rose frantically from beneath his feet.

"Evil Fire Phoenix, possess!"

Blazing purple-red flames erupted with a roar, forcibly melting the frost around him. Ma Hongjun's arms transformed into broad, flaming wings as he leaped into the air, hovering in mid-flight.

"First Soul Skill! Phoenix Fire Line!"

"Second Soul Skill! Bathing Phoenix!"

"Third Soul Skill! Hōyoku Tenshō!"

He did not hesitate to pour out all his soul power in a single instant. Under the dual amplification of Bathing Phoenix and Hōyoku Tenshō, the sprayed Phoenix Fire Line grew more than twice as thick.

The terrifying high temperature scorched the walls on both sides of the alley until they glowed red, and the air itself distorted from the extreme heat. Carrying a violent momentum capable of destroying everything, the purple-red pillar of fire surged toward Xue Tianyu's face like a dragon of flame.

"Go to hell! Go to hell!"

Ma Hongjun shrieked hysterically in mid-air, his eyes filled with crazed bloodshot veins.