Feng Piaoling vs. Xu Sanshi

It seemed that back in the Star Dou Great Forest, when they first met Huo Yuhao, he had said something similar when recounting how Feng Piaoling had looked after him along the way.

A moment later, Xu Sanshi walked onto the soul fighting arena. He glanced at Bei Bei, who immediately gave him a slight nod in acknowledgment.

Feng Piaoling also stepped onto the arena at this time, accompanied by the soul saint referee teacher who possessed a flight-type martial soul.

The referee seemed to hold Feng Piaoling in high regard. As he passed by him, he transmitted his voice through soul power:

"Young man, your strength and talent are both excellent, but you are far too young and impetuous. It doesn't matter if you lose later; this old man will plead your case to Dean Yan Shaozhe of the Martial Soul Department. I believe he would not want to see a genius like you expelled because of an inherently unfair soul fight."

Feng Piaoling pretended not to hear. He stopped in his tracks with an expressionless face, standing thirty paces away from Xu Sanshi.

Seeing this, the referee assumed the boy was the type who appeared indifferent on the surface but was actually extremely arrogant inside. He said nothing more and walked to the center of the two.

"Fifth-year student Xu Sanshi challenges first-year student Feng Piaoling. If Xu Sanshi loses the match, he must pay one hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins and two Mysterious Water Pills to Feng Piaoling."

This time, he clearly still omitted the part about Feng Piaoling being expelled if he lost.

Being born into an aristocratic family, Xu Sanshi understood this perfectly well, but he wouldn't lose out; if Feng Piaoling were to lose, Shrek Academy would certainly provide him with compensation to ensure he stayed.

The value of that would be no less than two Mysterious Water Pills and one hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins.

Watching Feng Piaoling and Xu Sanshi standing on the stage, heated discussions erupted among the students in the spectator stands.

"Dong'er, Lulu, who do you think will win?"

In the fifth row of the stands, the petite and cute Xiao Xiao held a large bag of popcorn, smiling as she asked Wang Dong'er and Zhu Lu beside her.

Zhu Lu paused, thinking back to how Dai Huabin had been blasted into a sorry state yesterday. While feeling a strange sense of satisfaction, she subconsciously replied:

"It should be Feng Piaoling, but Xu Sanshi's strength cannot be underestimated. His Mysterious Underworld Turtle is a top-tier defensive martial soul, and his strength is ranked among the best even in the entire Outer Courtyard."

Wang Dong'er said, "I also think it will be Feng Piaoling. Although this guy is annoying, I have to admit that his strength is truly formidable."

"Hehe, I think so too." Xiao Xiao swallowed her saliva and giggled foolishly.

This earned her eye-rolls from Zhu Lu and Wang Dong'er, who thought to themselves that she wasn't judging the outcome based on strength at all, but clearly had her eyes on his looks.

"The match begins." After the referee finished speaking, he quickly retreated.

The next moment, Feng Piaoling and Xu Sanshi simultaneously released their martial souls.

Feng Piaoling's soul rings remained yellow, purple, and purple. As his first soul ring shone continuously, thirty or forty orange-yellow talismans marked with the character "Bomb" appeared in his hand in a flash of yellow light.

"Is it truly a thousand-year second ring? And this soul skill—the reason it is so powerful must be because he absorbed a special fire-attribute soul beast beyond his limit, allowing this skill to be released dozens of times at once, which is why the Talisman Martial Soul's skills appear so formidable. It seems my guess was correct."

Seeing the soul rings on Feng Piaoling, Zhou Yi's eyes in the first row of the spectator stands brightened significantly. The corners of her mouth curled up, and the eyes behind her half-rimmed glasses flashed with what she considered to be wise insight.

Seeing Feng Piaoling release his soul skill so quickly and recalling Dai Huabin's near-death experience, Xu Sanshi did not dare to be the least bit negligent and immediately released his Mysterious Underworld Turtle martial soul.

Two yellow and one purple soul ring rose from beneath his feet. Xu Sanshi's body expanded violently, stretching his school uniform taut, and a massive turtle-shell shield appeared in his right hand.

At the same time, Huo Yuhao also released his Spirit Eye martial soul.

Tang Ya and Bei Bei exchanged a look, and the two tacitly shielded Huo Yuhao, who had already released his martial soul, behind them.

With the assistance of Spirit Detection and Spirit Detection Sharing, Xu Sanshi immediately felt everything around him appear in his mind in full three-dimensional detail.

His previously tense expression relaxed.

Without haste, he took a slight half-step back with his left foot, crouched slightly, and held his heavy shield in front of him. Pitch-black light surged from the turtle-shell shield, forming a faint black barrier that completely enveloped his entire body.

Feng Piaoling operated his Heaven-Reaching Demon Eye, taking it all in. In his field of vision, Xu Sanshi's mental power was currently being guided by a faint, almost imperceptible strand of pale golden mental energy.

Following this strand of pale golden mental energy, he looked over without leaving a trace and saw Bei Bei and Tang Ya guarding Huo Yuhao. Through the outlines of the two, he could vaguely see two white soul rings flickering behind them.

"Is that really the case?"

Feng Piaoling rubbed his hands together and then flung them outward. Amidst a sea of red light, thirty or forty basketball-sized fireballs shot out, covering the distance to Xu Sanshi in the blink of an eye and heading straight for him.

"Damn it." Seeing such a dense number of fireballs, Xu Sanshi felt his scalp tingle. With such a fast attack speed, if he didn't have Huo Yuhao's Spirit Detection Sharing, he feared he would be following in Dai Huabin's footsteps.

Even with counter-measures, he wouldn't have had time to execute them. The fireballs were simply too fast and too dense; they were not something an ordinary person could react to.

At the critical moment, Xu Sanshi's first soul ring lit up. The black light on his turtle-shell shield instantly doubled in intensity, and a powerful black halo instantly expanded from the shield.

It was like a massive air barrier pushing outward, emitting a rumbling roar.

This was Xu Sanshi's first soul skill, Mysterious Underworld Shock—a wide-range knockback skill that also carried a certain stunning effect. If the enemy's cultivation was lower than his, they would be briefly stunned; if higher, they would at least be knocked back and forced to create distance.

To some extent, if used well, it was the bane of Feng Piaoling's first soul skill, Fire Bomb Talisman.

The thirty or forty fireballs released by Feng Piaoling were knocked back the moment they approached the expanding black barrier.

Seeing this, many Outer Courtyard teachers who had come to watch the match assumed Xu Sanshi had achieved this on his own and nodded in approval. Xu Sanshi was indeed a top-ranked genius of the Outer Courtyard.

When it came to the ability to control timing, even these Outer Courtyard teachers might not be able to compare.

Having successfully knocked back Feng Piaoling's fireballs, Xu Sanshi's confidence surged. He knew Feng Piaoling could instantly create a large number of Fire Bomb Talismans.

Without waiting for the fireballs to land, he seized the opportunity as his second and third soul rings lit up rapidly.

Wrapped in a barrier that rippled like black water and viscous soul power, he charged violently toward Feng Piaoling.

Furthermore, the skills of these two soul rings showed signs of combining with his first soul skill, Mysterious Underworld Shock.