The first ones they encountered were not the evil soul master Death Messenger, but his subordinates.
"Roar!"
As a beastly roar rang out, Dai Yueheng was the first to undergo Martial Soul Possession, facing the bandits head-on.
The corpses in the cave had truly shaken them to their core.
Dai Yueheng charged at the forefront, his sharp tiger claws carrying immense force as he tore the enemy before him in half.
The sheer brutality of it delivered a powerful visual impact.
Seeing this, four words surfaced in Ning Que's mind: tearing devils apart barehanded!
Seeing Dai Yueheng like this, Ma Xiaotao, who had already been furious, became even more ferocious.
Scorching flames slaughtered the enemies with abandon.
Even a Soul King standing before her did not dare advance and could only retreat again and again.
The others also attacked in succession.
Meanwhile, Ning Que loafed around throughout the entire fight.
Although he wore more than enough Soul Tools, he still chose to remain at the center of the group.
Ling Luochen stood to his left, while Zhao Long stood to his right.
As a Support System soul master, he always remembered the laws of survival.
"Everyone, get them! Don't let a single one escape. Eliminate future trouble!"
Wang Yan arrived with the reserve members as well. Seeing that the Shrek students had completely gained the upper hand, he immediately gave the order.
His intentions were good. He wanted these reserve disciples to experience battle and temper themselves further.
Hearing Wang Yan's command, Bei Bei shouted and charged forward, with Xu Sanshi close behind.
Zhu Lu went with them as well.
Wang Dong immediately released her martial soul, the Light Goddess Butterfly, and was about to rush forward too, but Xiao Xiao tugged her back from the side.
"Who dares oppose the Death Messenger? You will all die! You will all become my Corpse Slaves!"
At that moment, a furious, drawn-out roar echoed from the depths of the cave.
Upon hearing that voice, the bandits who had been fighting the Shrek students hurriedly fled, terrified that being one step too slow would cost them their lives.
Any normal person would have noticed that something was amiss by now.
But the problem was that more than half of the Shrek students present truly failed to notice anything suspicious.
Instinctively, they assumed those people were afraid of them.
"Boom!"
At that moment, a deafening explosion erupted.
"Not good!"
Wang Yan's expression changed drastically in an instant, as if he had thought of something.
He hurriedly tried to warn them, but in the end, he was still one step too late.
Among the Shrek Seven Devils' reserve members, aside from Bei Bei, Xu Sanshi, and Zhu Lu, the others had not rushed forward immediately.
Because of Xiao Xiao, Wang Dong had been slowed by half a step. That half-step kept her away from the center of the explosion.
"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"
The explosions came one after another, endlessly reverberating through the cave.
Wave after wave of powerful force relentlessly destroyed everything around them.
Ma Xiaotao and Dai Yueheng, who bore the brunt of it, were naturally the first to be injured.
However, they were quite powerful, and both possessed beast martial souls. Though they suffered considerable injuries right away, they were not in danger of dying immediately.
"Damn it!"
Feeling the destructive power of the explosions, Ma Xiaotao thought of the injuries suffered by her juniors. As captain, she had actually made such a grave mistake. Already emotionally unstable, she now flew into an even greater rage.
Undergoing Martial Soul Possession, she disregarded her own injuries and charged madly toward the depths of the cave.
By comparison, Dai Yueheng's defenses were stronger, and his mind was the clearest.
The instant he noticed something was wrong, he realized he had made a massive mistake.
But mistakes could also present opportunities.
An opportunity to win people over.
"Watch out..."
Without any hesitation, Dai Yueheng rushed toward Zhu Lu behind him. While shielding her behind himself, he also pulled Zhao Long to his side, blocking most of the damage for him.
It was not that Dai Yueheng did not want to use this opportunity to protect more people.
He simply could not.
Zhu Lu was naturally his top priority, and Zhao Long was the only person near her.
As for the others, he had no ability to protect them, nor would he casually choose to win them over and protect them.
Because Dai Yueheng knew very well that several of them were people Ning Que intended to recruit.
Although protecting them now could earn their goodwill, the methods and resources he could offer were far inferior to those of the Nine Treasures Glazed Sect.
Thus, Dai Yueheng chose the most cost-effective targets to win over.
The explosions continued without end. Ning Que had activated the Invincible Barrier early on to protect himself.
Besides the Invincible Barrier, he also had a defensive Soul Tool that was infinitely close to Rank 9, one equipped with trigger-based protection.
Combined with his familiarity with the plot, he had no need to worry about his own safety.
Of everyone present, he was the calmest, able to observe the others' actions at the first opportunity.
Yao Haoxuan was blown to death on the spot!
He had no ability to resist at all.
Having watched the entire process of his death, Ning Que was truly speechless.
As a beast soul master, in such an unfamiliar environment, he had actually failed to undergo Martial Soul Possession immediately.
Simply put, he did not die unfairly. He was purely brainless.
In contrast, the three people who had received his gifts beforehand survived safely.
Gongyang Mo, Chen Zifeng, and Xi Xi.
Although they survived, their situations were not particularly good.
The reason was simple: they had not activated their defensive Soul Tools immediately and were ultimately caught in the Corpse Explosion Technique.
Gongyang Mo in particular had received a defensive Soul Tool from Ning Que that was inherently one second slower to activate.
Though he survived, the corpse explosion still reached him. Bone fragments and corpse poison splattered across many parts of his back and thighs.
If they could not be dealt with and cleansed in time, they would greatly affect his future cultivation.
As for Chen Zifeng and Xi Xi, while they had no obvious external injuries, their internal organs had been shaken by the explosions, and some corpse poison had invaded their bodies.
Under normal circumstances, the defensive Soul Tools Ning Que had given them would have been enough to preserve their lives.
The reason they still suffered such injuries was naturally Ning Que's doing.
His powerful spiritual force suppressed their Soul Tools from protecting them immediately. With a bit of micro-control, he made them suffer severe injuries without damaging their foundations, while still letting them experience the line between life and death.
Otherwise, why would he mingle among the crowd and take part in such a bloody, chaotic situation?
As for Ling Luochen, although she had also suffered considerable injuries, hers actually appeared to be the lightest.
The reason was that she disliked Ma Xiaotao and had deliberately kept her distance from her. In addition, she had a defensive Soul Tool on her, which led to this outcome.
It seemed that with Ning Que's intervention, no one besides Yao Haoxuan had suffered overly severe injuries.
But was that really the case?
One had to remember that Bei Bei and Xu Sanshi had been the first among the reserve members to charge in and join the battle.
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