Faced with Lan Kai's opening greeting of an Ultra Slash, Huo Yuhao immediately activated Spiritual Detection Sharing and guided Tang Wutong to fend it off with her Radiant Dragon God Butterfly Martial Soul.
Tang Wutong's pair of Radiant Dragon God Butterfly wings came together as the power of light rapidly gathered along their edges, forming what looked like a giant guillotine blade. It collided precisely with the Ultra Slash Lan Kai had thrown.
Huo Yuhao's eyes lit up. He opened with Soul Shock, then launched himself toward Lan Kai with Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track.
Clearly, this pair of lovebirds worked together with exceptional harmony. Even Gu Yue might not have been able to get the better of them.
However, things went very differently when they faced Lan Kai.
First came Huo Yuhao's Soul Shock. The skill was usually unstoppable against most Soul Masters, but Lan Kai only felt a slight ache in his head. He didn't come close to being knocked senseless.
And once he used Ultra Psychokinesis to protect his head, Huo Yuhao's Soul Shock couldn't even scratch him.
On the other side, Tang Wutong's first Soul Skill, which she'd used to resist Lan Kai's Ultra Slash, hadn't done much better.
Her dragon wings, marked with butterfly patterns, were as fragile as paper before the Ultra Slash. It sliced a portion of them away with ease.
Yet despite the pain of her Martial Soul being damaged, Tang Wutong's expression didn't change. She continued charging at Lan Kai as her second Soul Ring lit up. A golden dragon head, glittering with light, appeared above her, spewing a barrage of glowing orbs from its mouth toward Lan Kai.
Without him noticing, Huo Yuhao had also expanded the range of his second Soul Skill, Simulation, creating an illusion in front of Lan Kai.
But under Ultra X-Ray Vision, Huo Yuhao's Simulation was useless. And Tang Wutong's second Soul Skill, Dragon God's Fury, was shattered by a Cutting Beam Lan Kai tossed out with a casual flick.
As Huo Yuhao rushed up to him, Lan Kai immediately raised a hand and knocked aside the Ice Empress Pincer he'd switched to from his Second Martial Soul. Then he drove a toppling elbow into Huo Yuhao's chest, followed by a Liver-Exploding Fist.
But the agony that would have been unbearable to an ordinary person couldn't make Huo Yuhao react at all. At point-blank range, he immediately activated his Soul Bone Skill, Domain of Eternal Freeze, spreading a vast area of bitter cold around Lan Kai. Then he swung his right hand, trying to combine the Ice Empress Pincer with the Dark Gold Dreadclaw and unleash his strongest attack.
As for the pretty little princess Tang Wutong, she naturally wouldn't stoop to something as crude as close combat. Besides, her wings were injured, so she quickly retreated far away and continued using her second Soul Skill—an attack that looked grand and imposing but could barely do any damage.
Not long ago, Lan Kai would have had to think twice even about Wu Zhangkong's cold. If he'd been hit by Huo Yuhao's Domain of Eternal Freeze back then, he really would have been in a sorry state.
But as Lan Kai had grown stronger, so had his resistance to the cold. At the very least, he could calmly walk out of a refrigerated truck like Kurenai Gai did when he first appeared in the TV series, without any trouble.
Add in his newly acquired Soul Spirit and his hidden trump card, and although Huo Yuhao's Domain of Eternal Freeze affected him a little, it wasn't a big deal.
Against Huo Yuhao's haphazard close-range attacks, Lan Kai hadn't learned Cosmo Beast Style, but he could still use the fighting techniques he'd honed against Juggler to batter Huo Yuhao's body with one vicious attack after another.
"Come to think of it, any living creature that gets attacked will feel pain, become afraid, or show an opening.
"But clearly, neither this pair of lovebirds nor Bei Bei, Xu Sanshi, and Dai Mubai, whom I dealt with earlier, showed any of that.
"Doesn't that make them just like Super Beasts?!
"Then..."
Lan Kai kicked Huo Yuhao hard in the gut, sending him a short distance away. Then he raised his right hand, and a blade formed from the Light of Orb, condensed with Ultra Psychokinesis, appeared in his grip.
Lan Kai rushed up to Huo Yuhao and brought the blade down, cleanly putting him into the same defeated pose as Gojo Satoru. Then he tossed the blade aside and crossed his wrists in front of his chest. His right hand rose as his left lowered, drawing out a blade of light that he fired toward Tang Wutong in the distance.
"Vertical Guillotine!"
Tang Wutong was split in two down the middle, and the halves of her body toppled to either side.
This time, the notification didn't sound. But the four severed pieces of Huo Yuhao and Tang Wutong vanished without a trace.
In their place stood a handsome, dashing man with long blue hair and six Soul Rings behind him—a beyond-optimal configuration of two yellow, one purple, two black, and one red.
"So you've stopped pretending altogether and sent six-ring Tang San to deal with me.
"If this were Tang San himself, I might have a little trouble without transforming. After all, I'd have to show some respect to his Hidden Weapons.
"But what have I got to fear from a puppet Super Beast with no combat instincts of his own?"
Seeing Tang San immediately release his Eight Spider Lances External Soul Bone and charge toward him with Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track, while Blue Silver Bind had already activated and trapped him in place, Lan Kai couldn't help thinking this.
Lao Huo and the Chimera had already helped Lan Kai realize quite a few things. Those same issues would only affect this Tang San's combat strength even more.
As the Eight Spider Lances were about to pierce his body, Lan Kai suddenly exerted his strength, easily shattering Tang San's Blue Silver Bind. He also destroyed the second Soul Skill, Parasite, which Tang San had tried to affix to him.
Then, with a Sperion Ring in each hand, Lan Kai began slicing through Tang San's Eight Spider Lances Soul Bone without pause.
Everyone knew that strange-looking appendages like the Eight Spider Lances needed to be cut off as quickly as possible in a fight.
To get the job done efficiently, Lan Kai made an exception and controlled a Sperion Ring with each hand, slicing away at Tang San's Eight Spider Lances Soul Bone without stopping.
Before long, the ground was littered with severed sections of Eight Spider Lances and Blue Silver Grass.
But just like Lao Huo and the Chimera, Tang San's movements didn't falter when his Soul Bone was destroyed. He immediately used Controlling Crane Capturing Dragon to push Lan Kai away from him, then raised a hand and sent a swarm of Hidden Weapons flying at him.
Lan Kai immediately deployed a Sperion Shield in front of himself, blocking every Hidden Weapon Tang San threw, including the so-called armor-piercing weapons designed to counter shields.
"An eye for an eye! Now, try this... Sperion Dart!"
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