Dragon and Phoenix Cry in Unison, Di Taobao

"That was a Sea God Pavilion meeting."

At the massive, beast-like gates of Shrek City, Mu Baobao and Ma Xiaotao presented their credentials and left the city. He kept chattering in her ear, making her shake her head helplessly.

The Sea God Pavilion meeting was held once a year to determine Shrek Academy's direction. It was Shrek's highest authority and decision-making body, and every elder was a Title Douluo. So... wasn't this system basically Spirit Hall's Pope Council?

Naturally, he had been invited, but he had not attended... This year, the topic was his Battle Armor system. By this time next year, it would be the fight over Huo Yuhao.

A Body Martial Soul, an ultimate martial soul, becoming a Level Two Soul Engineer in eight months... all appearing in one person. He was indeed worth fighting over between the Spirit Department and the Soul Guidance Department. They had even promised that in the future, they would give him at least one hundred-thousand-year Soul Ring and Soul Bone.

A position in the Sea God Pavilion was practically guaranteed... Every owner of an ultimate martial soul held enormous importance in Shrek. Someone like Huo Yuhao would certainly become a leader.

Many powerful martial souls could develop ultimate attributes in the later stages of cultivation. Xu Sanshi's Black Tortoise of Profound Mystery, Ma Xiaotao's Evil Fire Phoenix, Beibei's Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon... all would almost certainly reach that point eventually.

The Ice Jade Empress Scorpion and Light Goddess Butterfly, however, were born with ultimate attributes. That was why they were called ultimate martial souls. Mu En had accepted Huo Yuhao as a disciple but not Tang Wutong, proving that an ultimate martial soul alone was nothing special. Yet Huo Yuhao also possessed the Body Martial Soul Spirit Eye, and it was a mutation with formidable spiritual power.

Sovereign Over All... He had even passed that self-created soul skill, which fused Soul Power and spiritual power, on to him. Mu En cared more about Mu Beibei than Mu Baobao and was grooming him as his successor. Ultimate Ice might not compare to Ultimate Light, but Kyurem also possessed ultimate battle intent.

That was also Ultimate Spirit. It could crush the Radiant Sacred Dragon so thoroughly. The reason Mu Baobao had not attended the Sea God Pavilion meeting was to tell Mu En that even without the Dragon God Douluo's inheritance... he could still reign supreme. If Mu En would not pass it down to him, then he would develop it himself.

"What's there to tell them? Watch them argue with each other?" Mu Baobao said. The final result would be nothing more than Mu En regretting it. "Even if you two have no talent, you're still my great-grandsons!"

"More importantly, why are you following me?"

Mu Baobao looked at Ma Xiaotao impatiently, as though asking why she was tagging along when he was heading out.

"Because you went looking to die. You accepted a Black-Class Inspector mission. There might be a Soul Saint-level opponent on the other side. Evil Soul Masters, like those of us with ultimate or special attributes, can fight above our rank. After all, they can devour Soul Masters."

The Shrek Inspectorate

bore the responsibility of maintaining peace across the continent. Whenever vicious incidents arose that nations could not or would not regulate, or when Soul Masters committed crimes, they would step in and resolve them.

In the end, they were just cleaning up Tang San's mess. He had destroyed the Capital of Slaughter, leaving those Evil Soul Masters with nowhere to go before they returned to evil.

There were six ranks: white, yellow, purple, black, red, and gold. Yellow-Class missions from Levels 10 to 29 involved Soul Masters. Purple-Class missions from Levels 30 to 59 carried considerable danger. Black-Class missions from Levels 60 to 89 already required experts. Red-Class missions from Levels 90 to 99 were exceedingly rare and required Title Douluo or Super Douluo to act. No Soul Master at that level would go around picking fights for no reason.

Gold-Class missions involved the legendary gods, beings capable of harming the entire continent... They were completely ornamental. White-Class missions from Levels 1 to 9 were just there to make up the numbers.

"To test whether this thing is reliable."

Mu Baobao patted the iron case on his back, roughly half a meter long. It had an extremely flashy Kyurem engraving on it. This was his Thousand Refinement Battle Armor.

Because it could not merge into his body, putting it on in front of enemies would expose a weakness. On a whim, he had made it in the style of some holy armor, much like the neighboring Holy Demon Continent... Mithril, Adamantine, the Divine Throne.

"With the Battle Armor's boost, I can have Soul Saint-level combat power..." Mu Baobao said confidently, while thinking, If I reveal White Flame and my Black Kyurem form, I'll show you that I can fight a Soul Douluo too.

Tie Wuji and Qian Duoduo did not even have full sets of Two-Word Battle Armor yet. Even if they did, he would not want one... At most, it could evolve into Three-Word Battle Armor. His goal was Four-Word Battle Armor. In other words, at least a Three-Word Battle Armor created through Soul Refinement and Fusion Refinement would have a chance of evolving further.

Only then would he consider wearing it. He looked down entirely on Two-Word Battle Armor, much less a set that was not even complete.

Since Thousand Refinement Fusion Refinement could allow One-Word Battle Armor to evolve into Two-Word Battle Armor, he planned to skip straight to Three-Word Battle Armor. That was why he had accepted a Black-Class Inspector mission.

"Since you came with me, I'll give it to you early!"

With a helpless expression, Mu Baobao took another item from a phoenix-engraved Soul Tool case and tossed it to Ma Xiaotao.

"This is for me?"

Ma Xiaotao's expression turned subtle. She had thought this guy would directly make her a set of Two-Word Battle Armor, but he still had a set of One-Word Battle Armor for her.

"With a locust tree before the door, the Night Parade of One Hundred Ghosts begins!"

The two did not travel too far. After walking for half a day outside Shrek City, they stopped.

It was a somewhat ruined little village. Many of the houses had even collapsed. The most conspicuous sight was a withered old locust tree standing in front of an estate.

"What the hell? Are there ghosts here too?"

Ma Xiaotao broke into a sweat. Evil Soul Masters did indeed have many martial souls related to undead, skeletons, zombies...

"Just a little story. Locust trees can gather yin energy from heaven and earth. It makes perfect sense for Evil Soul Masters to grow them like flowers and plants!" Mu Baobao said with a shrug. The sun was setting... and crows were pecking at animal corpses. It really did give off a chilling feeling.

The village had been abandoned for a long time, yet there were fresh animal corpses. That was the suspicious part... Shrek Soul Masters skilled in investigation had discovered something wrong.

After a long investigation, they had confirmed that there really were several Soul Emperor-level Evil Soul Masters here... Nothing too difficult.

After night fell, the two casually chose a ruined hut and cleaned it up a little. They would take turns standing guard during the first and second halves of the night. Mu Baobao reminded her of that.

"Get lost! Who would sneak in there?"

Ma Xiaotao snapped furiously. This guy kept bringing up that matter. It was infuriating.

But as time passed, Ma Xiaotao realized something was wrong. Frost began spreading across the place where Mu Baobao rested, and the cold aura was terrifying.

At first, she thought Mu Baobao was merely meditating, cultivating, or testing something. But the chill became increasingly piercing. Although her Evil Fire had not evolved into Ultimate Fire, its temperature was still terrifying.

"Damn it, what the hell are you doing?"

Feeling that something was seriously wrong, Ma Xiaotao went over. The Battle Armor case sat nearby... A simple straw mat lay on the ground, and Mu Baobao was lying atop it. Yet half a meter of solid ice had frozen around him.

His face was frighteningly pale. He hugged himself tightly and trembled without stop, repeating two words.

"So cold." He shuddered every time he said them.

"What is this? My Evil Fire feels hot because it isn't pure... Your Ultimate Ice is so pure, and it can still backlash?" Ma Xiaotao thought he was definitely putting on an act and went over to slap him a few times.

Slap! Slap! Slap!

Yet... even after several strikes, Mu Baobao remained the same. His body temperature kept dropping, and his face became even paler. Only then did she realize something was truly wrong.

"Uh, it really backlashed?" Ma Xiaotao still wanted to test him a couple more times, but a violent wave of Soul Power erupted. The entire room instantly froze over in white.

A bipedal, gray-blue Mechanical Ice Dragon appeared. It had an icy-blue thorn-like snout, yellow crown horns on its head, a massive turbine-like tail, and an energy port on its back. It was an extremely modern Soul Tool creation.

Only after six Soul Rings—yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black—appeared in neat succession did she realize something was wrong. Forced into action, she summoned her own martial soul, with the same configuration.

A crimson bird with golden tail feathers appeared. Every feather was like a sharp arrow... Brilliantly beautiful, it was therefore called the Seven-Colored Bird.

Although the Evil Fire Phoenix had not yet reached Ultimate Fire, its temperature was still terrifying... The fire phoenix and ice dragon stared at each other. Ma Xiaotao slowly walked toward Mu Baobao and wrapped him tightly in her arms, using her scorching heat to melt away his cold. This was how she usually did it.

She was rather practiced at it. Dragon and phoenix cried in unison... Their calls echoed throughout the entire village as the Ultimate Ice began to melt away.

Mu Baobao's body temperature and complexion slowly returned to normal, but Ma Xiaotao was utterly stunned... It actually worked? Her Evil Fire could be suppressed because it was not Ultimate Fire and was a level lower in quality. How could it work the other way around too?

"Hm?"

The next moment, Ma Xiaotao's face turned green. She raised her head and saw Mu Baobao looking at her with a teasing grin, even patting her back now and then.

"Sigh, who said she wouldn't sneak over? I used a little trick, and this female hooligan came right over."

"Damn you, ＊＊＊＊＊!"

Ma Xiaotao instantly became so furious that she started spouting gibberish. This bastard really had been toying with her... She rushed over and gave him a savage beating. His act had looked completely real.

Mu Baobao cursed inwardly. What a crazy woman. Although his concurrent blacksmith cultivation was several levels below hers, Ultimate Ice combined with spiritual power could still restrain the Evil Fire Phoenix. But knowing he was in the wrong, he did not fight back.

This crazy woman showed no mercy at all. Although she did not use soul skills... she activated her martial soul and beat him senseless, directly blowing the house apart.

Mu Baobao rushed out carrying the Battle Armor case. The ice dragon vanished, while the fire phoenix continued crying out. Ma Xiaotao emerged slowly with bloodshot eyes. Because of her Evil Fire, she had been forced to throw herself at him, yet this bastard had used it to mock her so cruelly.

"Uh... I might have gone too far!"

Mu Baobao said guiltily. After all, this was Ma Xiaotao's sore spot... He had just seen tears in the corners of her eyes. He did not know whether she had truly been worried about him or was genuinely feeling terribly wronged.

"Fuck, Shrek's monsters have no martial honor! They're using ice and fire right away... Damn it, don't torture people like this!"

The sudden voice startled Ma Xiaotao into freezing. Several figures shrouded in black robes appeared. This guy had been acting to force them out? Then he should have just said so. He had made her so angry that she cried.

"Well, well! The rats came out?"

Mu Baobao glanced at the three of them and smiled. Back when he was young, he had loved smoking rats out of fields on Blue Star like this.

He had unexpectedly recovered a bit of his childhood feeling. Ma Xiaotao looked aggrieved, but she still felt this guy had quite a brain. If it had been her, she would probably have used some exhausting and unrewarding method like going undercover, assassination, or surveillance...

But he had still made her cry from anger. She grabbed his collar, punched him a few more times, and threatened him.

"Mu Baobao, I'm not done with you yet."