"Good evening, you troublemaker who ruined my plans."
Zhao Asi said unhurriedly. Though he had no idea who the other man was, just from the fact that he had tried to break through the Soul Fighting Arena's barrier, Zhao Asi could tell he was on the opposing side.
He had come for Liu Jiayi—or, more precisely, he had come out because Liu Jiayi had turned into a monster. According to his plans, Liu Jiayi shouldn't have transformed into a monster so soon. It should have taken another week, giving him enough time to gather data for his experiments. Now, his plans had gone up in smoke.
Zhao Asi gradually approached Flender. Though Flender could feel the pressure coming from the other man, he couldn't retreat.
One reason was that his students were still up there. The other was that his pride wouldn't let him bow his head to an Evil Soul Master.
Flender lunged forward, sending ten blades of air straight at Zhao Asi's face. Zhao Asi merely shifted his right hand a little and blocked the attack.
He smiled mockingly, laughing at Flender's attack. It was like a feather landing on the surface of the water, stirring not a single ripple.
His right hand began to change, turning into a massive hammer. The transparent hammer's structure laid bare its secret: the bones had changed the shape of his hand, making it resemble a hammer.
"Body Martial Soul!"
Flender saw through it at a glance. What else could let someone alter their body so easily if not a Body Martial Soul?
"Good eye. My Martial Soul is Bone."
As Zhao Asi spoke, his hunched back straightened. The massive hammer swung toward Flender, while everything around Flender was sealed off by the objects Zhao Asi had "accidentally" scattered across the ground earlier.
He had only one option: block this blow, using the strength of a level-78 Soul Saint to withstand the attack of a level-81 Soul Douluo.
Could he do it?
Flender himself hadn't expected that simply coming out to teach a class would land him in a mess like this. Golden light burst from his body. This was also one of his Soul Skills, and it could strengthen his defenses.
But even with this defensive boost, he was gradually beginning to struggle.
He wouldn't be able to hold on much longer.
"Seven Treasures Have Names: the fourth is defense, the sixth is all."
A calm voice sounded from behind him. In an instant, Flender felt a warm current flow through his whole body. His arms filled with strength, and under Zhao Asi's confident gaze, he gradually forced Zhao Asi's attack back.
"You are..."
Zhao Asi's face first showed displeasure, then quickly turned to fear. The bones shrank back, and he instinctively shuffled several steps away. Pointing his left hand toward the figure behind Flender, he stammered,
"You're... you're Ning Fengzhi! You're the master of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect. Why aren't you staying in your sect? What are you doing out here?"
He took a breath and steadied himself before saying, "Fine. Since you've come out, I'll destroy you too."
As he spoke, Zhao Asi's left hand transformed into a gigantic scythe, which slashed straight toward Ning Fengzhi.
Ning Fengzhi, meanwhile, had somehow produced a feather fan and was gently fanning himself.
Flender was about to move to block the attack when he realized someone had beaten him to it.
Of course. With Ning Fengzhi here, how could he have come alone?
Bone Douluo, Gu Rong.
"I heard you play with bones too?"
A deep voice sounded behind Zhao Asi. The next moment, a gigantic Bone Dragon burst in from outside the Great Soul Arena and bit down on Zhao Asi's body. Blood poured from Zhao Asi's mouth, and in the next second, he was dead.
The Bone Dragon vanished, and the old man in the Black Robe fell to the ground.
The three of them stepped forward and pulled open his Black Robe, only to find that his aged appearance was fading, revealing a youthful face.
"Tch, this guy's a clone."
Gu Rong slammed his right hand against the floor, displeased.
"Uncle Bone, even though this was only a clone, it must have affected his real body quite a bit. For now, we should focus on examining..." Ning Fengzhi pointed his feather fan toward the White Mist Space on the Soul Fighting Arena. "...this. Rongrong is still inside, after all."
"Right. Rongrong matters more."
Gu Rong walked up to the Great Soul Arena and stared at the White Mist barrier, reaching out to touch it.
"So this is the thing that took that old Sword a few minutes to break through?" Gu Rong scoffed. "Watch me use spatial travel..."
The phantom of his Martial Soul appeared behind him, but the smile vanished from Gu Rong's face the next moment.
He switched to an offensive Soul Skill.
Boom—
A tremendous crash echoed throughout the Great Soul Arena as a gigantic Bone Dragon rammed into the barrier.
Gu Rong's expression grew increasingly grim.
"What on earth is this barrier made of? It's amazing that old Sword managed to break through it."
He clicked his tongue.
"Uncle Bone, spatial Soul Skills don't work?"
"They don't. All I can tell is that Rongrong is still safe for now. She has the upper hand in the fight inside."
"Phew... that's good."
Ning Fengzhi sighed.
After the Evil Soul Master incident a few days earlier, they had also studied the White Mist barrier. Unfortunately, only Chen Xin had ever come into contact with it, so their research into the barrier was still at an early stage.
All they knew was that a powerful attack could break through it.
Now they had another finding to add: spatial Soul Skills were ineffective.
"So it can only be broken from the inside?"
Ning Fengzhi looked anxiously toward the interior of the White Mist Space, though he couldn't see anything.
"Probably. But we can't just sit around and do nothing. Sword Douluo has broken through it once before. The few of us working together might be able to do it too."
Inside the White Mist Space.
Ning Rongrong frowned at the monster before her, which was making incomprehensible, strange noises.
"What gibberish is it spouting?"
She muttered under her breath.
The Trapped Beast had two uses left of the power from the poison-spike attack it had absorbed earlier. Ning Rongrong steeled herself, and two poison spikes of the same size appeared beside her, shooting toward the monster.
After several tests, she'd discovered that the "power" mentioned in the description of Trapped Beast had many possible uses. Besides converting it into physical attributes and striking with her fists, she could also manifest it as another kind of attack, such as poison spikes. However, the form of a manifested attack depended on the attack she had absorbed. Since her opponent had attacked her with poison spikes, she couldn't turn the power into a poison axe.
Good news: this monster had no Shield Bar.
Bad news: both attacks hit the monster, but its health bar barely changed. To be precise, it had lost about 2% of its health.
"Is this a gimmick boss, or is it just pure stats?"
As she wondered, she drank both Health Potions and Blue Potions, preparing for the next attack. She had to admit that she still had far too few ways to attack. Aside from attacks relying on her level-13 physical abilities, the only Soul Skill she could use was Trapped Beast.
And the first problem with Trapped Beast was that if her opponent didn't attack, she couldn't attack either.
'Could this Soul Skill actually be designed as a defensive skill?'
The real Ning Rongrong muttered to herself from the sidelines. She'd realized that her Soul Skill had changed somewhat, but her body had been under control the whole time, so she hadn't been able to come out and test it.
Fortunately, the monster didn't make her wait long. The next second, a huge vine swept toward her.
Trapped Beast activated. Watching her health bar drop, Ning Rongrong successfully obtained the power of the attack.
Three vines imbued with poison-element attacks lashed toward the monster.
This time, its health dropped by 4%.
"Looks like it's a stats monster... good thing I have plenty of items."
She drank several more Health Potions and Blue Potions.
The second problem with Trapped Beast was that it consumed a lot. She might have seemed casual about it, but the real Ning Rongrong had been through hell and back each time—when Zhao Wuji hit her, when she'd been pierced earlier, and now.
"Or could it be that the enemy has resistance to poison?"
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