Ma Xiaotao Doesn't Seem Quite Right

In Huo Yuhao's view, Xuan Zi's so-called guidance was completely meaningless. Once a week, under Xuan Zi's instruction, the seven Reserve Team members simply engaged in all manner of chaotic free-for-alls.

Put nicely, this guidance allowed everyone to display what they had learned in the past, helping their teammates understand and grow familiar with them while allowing Xuan Zi to offer pointers or corrections regarding their combat styles.

But in reality, this training was meant to make the seven of them increasingly function as a team, fostering an instinctive rapport between the Reserve Team members and giving each person a clearer understanding of their role within the group.

It was not exactly wrong, but cattle and sheep formed herds; fierce tigers usually walked alone.

Soul Masters raised this way would, barring surprises, ultimately become nothing more than "students" adept at fighting in arenas, rather than truly independent Soul Master powerhouses.

Three weeks had passed since the previous Selection Tournament. Today was once again Xuan Zi's teaching day, and the seven of them had arrived at a restricted area within the assessment grounds, waiting for Xuan Zi's arrival.

Not long afterward, once Beibei, Xu Sanshi, Jiang Nannan, Ning Tian, Xiao Xiao, Huo Yuhao, and Wang Dong had all gathered, Xuan Zi appeared in the assessment grounds as well.

However, unlike before, Xuan Zi was not alone this time. Seven figures dressed in blood-red school uniforms had come with him.

These seven were Shrek Academy's official competitors for this year's Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Soul Fighting Tournament. They were also the expendable pawns sacrificed by the Great Cosmic Will in the original work so that Huo Yuhao could have his moment to shine.

Under the influence of the Great Cosmic Will of the Douluo World, an ordinary mission on the eve of the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Soul Fighting Tournament had somehow resulted in a single Evil Soul Master Soul King killing or severely injuring all seven of them. It was rather laughable.

Xuan Zi nodded and said to everyone present, "Now that everyone is here, the new Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Soul Fighting Tournament will begin in ten days."

"You should have already guessed each other's identities. Standing before you are the official competitors and reserve members for this tournament. I brought you together today so you could meet and familiarize yourselves with one another."

Xuan Zi then looked at Huo Yuhao and the others. "Although reserve members will mostly be spectators during this tournament, each of you will certainly have opportunities to take the field in order to temper yourselves."

"When facing opponents who are not particularly strong, you will compete in place of the official team in order to conceal the official members' strength."

"Therefore, all of you had better pay attention. Victory is permitted; defeat is not. Shrek Academy produces no mediocrities. You naturally know the consequences of losing a match. Do you understand?"

"Yes, we understand!" the seven of them replied in unison.

"As for anything else, this old man will not say much. I have always believed that fists are the best means of communication. To help you quickly familiarize yourselves with each other's personalities and abilities, let us use a friendly match as a warm-up!"

Xuan Zi's gaze then turned toward Ma Xiaotao and her group. "Before the friendly match begins, introduce yourselves to each other. The Main Team will go first."

"Inner Court, Ma Xiaotao, Rank 67 Assault Type Soul Emperor." A woman with dark-red hair tied into a ponytail stepped forward and spoke first. Her eyes were dark red as well, as though two flames burned within them.

Without Huo Yuhao's Ultimate Ice Martial Soul from the original work to suppress it, Ma Xiaotao still competed as one of Shrek Academy's official members, and her Soul Power cultivation was no weaker than it had been in the original work.

However, through the Eye of Truth, Huo Yuhao could see that beneath Ma Xiaotao's outer appearance, her Soul Power churned within her like magma beneath a dark current.

In truth, even the suppression provided by Ultimate Ice in the original work had merely been drinking poison to quench thirst for Ma Xiaotao.

What had always plagued her was the evil aura within the Evil Fire Phoenix, not the flames themselves.

Ultimate Ice had merely used the superiority of its attribute to forcibly suppress it. In the end, it treated the symptoms but not the root cause.

Moreover, the more severely the evil fire was suppressed, the more terrifying its eventual eruption would become.

Therefore, if one truly wished to eliminate the evil fire's influence, purification was the best approach.

Yet on Douluo Continent, a Soul Master's cultivation path was already determined from the moment they awakened their Martial Soul.

Even so-called ultimate attributes merely gave one an advantage along a particular path.

They could not extend that advantage from a single point into other fields.

When it came to abilities such as purification and cleansing, Angel Martial Souls were naturally among the finest. As a god-given Martial Soul, the Six-Winged Angel could easily remove the so-called evil fire with the help of a high-level Soul Master possessing a Six-Winged Angel.

However, after Spirit Hall was destroyed by Tang San ten thousand years ago, the Angel Clan scattered and fled, no longer appearing in the world. Even if any remained, they only possessed impure inherited Angel Martial Soul bloodlines.

Martial Souls such as the Healing Angel were still extremely powerful, but they had lost the fundamental purity and strength of a god-given Martial Soul.

With the Six-Winged Angel Martial Soul inheritance hidden away, the second option for removing the evil fire, after conventional purification methods were ruled out, was refinement.

Once the fire attribute of the evil fire's host became sufficiently pure and powerful, the evil aura that had seeped deep into the Martial Soul would naturally be expelled.

But as Huo Yuhao looked at Ma Xiaotao now, he could not help falling silent. This girl is no longer an Evil Fire Phoenix, is she? Her evil aura is practically about to explode. Are you sure she isn't an Evil Phoenix?

Elder Yi, what do you think? Huo Yuhao had little confidence at the moment, because he had not expected Ma Xiaotao's condition to become so severe.

If they truly started fighting and Ma Xiaotao lost herself to the evil aura, then if no one stopped her, would she not tear everyone present apart with her bare hands?

"Little fellow, take a closer look," Electrolux said calmly. Compared to Huo Yuhao, he appeared far more composed and unhurried.

Huo Yuhao frowned slightly at those words and carefully examined Ma Xiaotao's body through the Eye of Truth.

Only then did he notice that although Ma Xiaotao's Soul Power appeared chaotic, it was chaotic in an orderly manner. Instead, the flames within seemed like some kind of impurity, obstructing the circulation of her Soul Power and thus interfering with Huo Yuhao's judgment.

"This girl's power has already been saturated by evil aura. She should have entered some sort of stable transformation stage. She is not as unstable as you imagined."

"However, once this transformation stage ends, her mind will inevitably be affected by that evil aura. If she cannot remain true to herself, she will certainly head toward destruction."

"If no one guides her, then what will emerge from that destruction—a new monster, or an entirely new self? No one can guarantee it."

"Still, you need not worry about it. Even if her strength surges dramatically, this old man is capable of protecting you. Mere evil aura, no matter how much stronger it becomes, is nothing more than a trivial matter to me unless she can gain complete control over it."

Since Electrolux had put it that way, Huo Yuhao had no further questions. He shifted his gaze to the other members of Shrek's Inner Court Main Team.

In particular, the student named Gongyang Mo, because his Martial Soul had a very special nature.

Rank 59, Rainbow Dragon Martial Soul. Its standing in the world of Soul Masters was much like that of the Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Pagoda.

Both were regarded as exceptionally powerful Support Type Martial Souls, yet both were similarly constrained by a ceiling of seven rings, making any further breakthrough impossible.

However, unlike the Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Pagoda, which was a Tool Martial Soul, Huo Yuhao was curious about the fact that the Rainbow Dragon, as a Beast Martial Soul, had an actual original form—and there were even 100,000-Year Rainbow Dragons.

Rainbow Dragons were known as followers of the Dragon Clan. With their beautiful appearances and powerful multi-elemental spellcasting abilities, they could grant the Dragon Clan they followed an immensely powerful and unshakable status.

Yet once this Martial Soul found its way into the hands of human Soul Masters, it faced an extremely severe restriction upon attaining all seven colors—that was, at the strength of seven rings. Further breakthroughs became nearly impossible.

That was why Gongyang Mo had chosen to classify his Rainbow Dragon Martial Soul as a Support Type Martial Soul.

In reality, due to the Rainbow Dragon's inherent power, it could perfectly suit the Assault Type, Control Type, or Support Type.

However, limited by the Martial Soul's bottleneck, when it came to influencing battles between high-level Soul Masters, Assault Type and Control Type Soul Masters were clearly less useful than Support Type Soul Masters.

To become an Inner Court Disciple of Shrek Academy, if one did not possess the potential to reach Soul Douluo or above, then one had to possess another special talent.

That was why Gongyang Mo's cultivation direction was Support Type. Yet in Huo Yuhao's eyes, this was truly a waste of such a powerful Dragon Clan Martial Soul.

Although after the fall of the God Realm, no pure-blooded second-generation Dragon Clan remained apart from Di Tian, the Golden-eyed Black Dragon King, the Rainbow Dragon's Dragon Clan bloodline was still considered an exceptionally pure branch on Douluo Continent.

If he could analyze this Martial Soul and use it to strengthen his own constitution, allowing himself to gain an affinity for and control over multiple elements, it would greatly aid Huo Yuhao's future growth.

After all, although Electrolux called himself the Holy Necromancer, the vast reserves of various other types of magic in his memories were not to be underestimated. Yet due to the limitations of Huo Yuhao's constitution and the laws of this plane—

Whether it was the spells he learned or the Soul Skills he used through Soul Power, all of them aside from ice-attribute abilities were relatively weak. This was Huo Yuhao's current shortcoming. Having a treasure mountain before him yet being unable to use it had always troubled him greatly.

The other Inner Court Disciples required no further comment.

Rank 64 Assault Type Soul Emperor Dai Yueheng, Dai Huabin's elder brother and the eldest son of Duke White Tiger. Under the resentment of the original owner of this body, Huo Yuhao hated him by association, and he too had been placed on Huo Yuhao's list for revenge.

The remaining four Inner Court students were all above Rank 50.

Rank 55 Control Support Type Soul King Yao Haoxuan, whose Martial Soul was a giant; Rank 56 Agility Assault Type Soul King Xixi; and Rank 57 Assault Type Soul King Chen Zifeng.

These were the unlucky group of four who, along with Gongyang Mo, met disaster in the original work. Aside from the final member, Rank 55 Control Type Soul King Ling Luochen, who shared Huo Yuhao's ice attribute and was therefore spared by the Great Cosmic Will—

The three of them and Gongyang Mo were all killed or severely injured in their battle against the Death God's Emissary. This then led into the main storyline of Huo Yuhao showing off and humiliating his opponents during the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Soul Fighting Tournament.

After the Main Team finished introducing themselves, Huo Yuhao and the other Reserve Team members reported their strength and primary cultivation directions in the age order they had decided upon earlier.

Once everyone had finished their introductions, Xuan Zi continued, "All right. Ma Xiaotao and Dai Yueheng, each of you will lead a team. Ma Xiaotao, your cultivation is higher, so you may only take two Main Team members."

"However, you may each choose one Main Team member and one Reserve Team member first. Dai Yueheng, your team will take three Main Team members before selecting Reserve Team members."

After sweeping her gaze over everyone present, Ma Xiaotao said coldly, "Gongyang Mo."

After a brief moment of consideration, she chose Beibei, the strongest member of the Reserve Team, who was also the most renowned in the Outer Court and was known alongside Xu Sanshi as one of the Twin Stars.

Ma Xiaotao then expressionlessly said to Dai Yueheng, "Your turn."

Seeing this, Dai Yueheng selected Chen Zifeng and Xu Sanshi, the two strongest students among those remaining.

After all, they were not very familiar with the abilities of the Outer Court students. Aside from Xu Sanshi and Beibei, who had some reputation in the Outer Court and whom even Inner Court Disciples had heard of to some extent, the remaining second-year students had only enrolled for a year.

Since that was the case, choosing teammates with the strongest Soul Power was naturally the most advantageous option.

Xu Sanshi, who had been selected by Dai Yueheng, wore a bitter expression. After all, he was quite familiar with Ma Xiaotao.

He had been put through quite an ordeal helping Ma Xiaotao suppress her evil fire, so he understood her strength and temper better than most. Over the past year, she had become increasingly strange.

It was Ma Xiaotao's turn again. This time, she chose Ling Luochen and Jiang Nannan. Her quota for selecting Inner Court Disciples had now been used up. Dai Yueheng then chose Xixi and Yao Haoxuan.

... Although Huo Yuhao did not understand why Dai Yueheng had been allowed to choose two Inner Court Disciples first after Ma Xiaotao was no longer able to select them, he chose not to question it and simply respected the arrangement.

On Ma Xiaotao's side, she selected Ning Tian and Wang Dong, the two stronger Soul Elders among the second-year students. The remaining Huo Yuhao and Xiao Xiao naturally ended up on Dai Yueheng's team.

With the members of both teams chosen, Xuan Zi held his wine gourd and chuckled. "Very good. Since you have finished dividing into teams, I will give you ten minutes to arrange your tactics. Ten minutes from now, the sparring match will begin."

"But let us add a little wager. The losing side only needs to shout, 'I am a pig.'"