Genjutsu: Kyoka Suigetsu

"Wu Feng, Yun'er, retreat!" Ning Tian shouted from where she stood.

She vaguely sensed that something was wrong, but couldn't put her finger on it.

"Bastard! What do you mean?" Wu Feng was currently receiving Ning Tian's full-strength boost. She felt she was no weaker than an ordinary Soul Elder now, and was confident she wouldn't lose to this annoying guy!

Retreat? Why should she retreat?

She still had a trump card!

"Second Soul Skill, Dragon's Fury!"

Flames of Soul Power swirled around Wu Feng. Once she activated this Second Soul Skill, her attack and defense, along with all her Soul Skills, would be boosted by more than thirty percent.

And that wasn't all. Her right-hand dragon claw was once again imbued with her First Soul Skill, Dragon Fire.

The next second, she ruthlessly thrust her right-hand dragon claw toward Huo Yuhao.

But something no one expected happened. Huo Yuhao neither dodged nor evaded. He simply stood there, looking dazed.

Oh no!

Wu Feng tried to pull back, but it was already too late.

With a "squelch," Wu Feng's claw pierced straight through Huo Yuhao's chest, and blood poured out!

Wu Feng, Nanmen Yun'er, and Ning Tian stared in shock, their eyes wide.

"H-How could this happen?" Wu Feng's voice carried a hint of panic.

She wanted to win, but she hadn't meant to kill anyone.

Huo Yuhao's pupils seemed to lose focus. Trembling, he raised his hands, pressed his index and middle fingers together, and pointed in one direction.

Wu Feng didn't know what to do, but could only look where Huo Yuhao was pointing.

On the other side of the arena, a stone chair had appeared at some point. Huo Yuhao sat on it, resting his head on one hand.

Those sinister eyes watched her performance in calm silence.

The sheer audacity of it!

Wu Feng froze. Then who had she killed?

"Caw, caw."

The next second, the "Huo Yuhao" Wu Feng had pierced spat out a crow. Then his whole body turned into crows and flew away.

"H-How could this happen? What's going on?"

Wu Feng stared at everything before her in disbelief.

Nanmen Yun'er was also stunned by the sudden turn of events, frozen in place.

Only Ning Tian's expression changed. As if she'd suddenly realized something, she said, "Th-This is a Mental Spirit Skill! We've fallen under his Mental Spirit Skill!"

Once she realized this, the Second Soul Ring on Ning Tian's body began flashing rapidly. She quickly chanted, "Seven Treasures Famous, second, Dispel!"

Three beams of yellow light shot out from the pagoda, landing on Nanmen Yun'er, Wu Feng, and Ning Tian herself.

But after the yellow light fell, Ning Tian was shocked to discover that nothing before her had changed at all!

"H-How could this be?" Ning Tian, too, was at a loss.

Could it be that he had this entire space under his control? What kind of Soul Skill was this? How could any Soul Skill be so powerful?

At that moment, up on the viewing platform in the Eighth Trial area,

all but a few people were completely bewildered.

Had Ning Tian and the others just stopped moving?

The moment Ning Tian summoned her Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda, many people present couldn't help gasping in astonishment.

The Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda came from the long-established Nine Treasures Glazed Sect, and was hailed as the best support-type Martial Soul in the world!

With a Martial Soul like that, her teammates' strength could be forcibly raised by an entire level.

Even Wang Yan understood why Mu Jin, beside him, had believed her class's team could defeat Huo Yuhao's when Ning Tian first revealed the Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda.

With the Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda's support, Ning Tian's two teammates were practically the equals of two Soul Elders!

Meanwhile, Huo Yuhao's teammates were merely students who had just barely advanced to Soul Grandmaster.

What's more, in terms of Martial Soul quality, Ning Tian's side also held the advantage.

Two top-tier Beast Martial Souls and one top-tier tool-type Martial Soul. If they could also make proper use of some tactics and eliminate Huo Yuhao's two teammates first...

As a Grandmaster of Martial Soul research, Wang Yan had instantly thought of all sorts of possibilities.

Yet the result still caught everyone by surprise.

It was a complete rout, and no one even knew how Ning Tian's team had lost.

The only possible explanation was perhaps Huo Yuhao's Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring.

Wang Yan silently analyzed the situation.

"W-What are Ning Tian and the others doing? Why are they just standing there like idiots? What's going on?" Mu Jin's eyes widened.

She could hardly believe what she was seeing. Losing was one thing, but she'd never seen anyone lose like this.

They weren't moving at all, just standing there. What was that if not surrender?

"Heh, looks like your students are a bunch of good-for-nothings too. If they were in my class, I'd expel every one of them for surrendering without a fight," the old woman Zhou Yi sneered from beside her.

Though she said that, Zhou Yi's gaze toward Huo Yuhao grew more and more astonished.

How was this kid so bizarre? His methods just kept coming, one after another!

"Referee, does this mean we've won? They've been like this for a whole minute."

Huo Yuhao spoke up and asked.

The referee teacher helplessly glanced at the three people on the other side of the arena, standing frozen with their eyes wide. After giving Huo Yuhao a long look, he announced, "The Huo Yuhao team wins this trial."

From his perspective, after he'd announced the start of the match, Ning Tian's team had just summoned their Martial Souls. Then all three of them seemed to see something bizarre at once, their eyes widening.

They'd remained in that state ever since.

In all his years as a trial examiner, he'd never encountered anything like it.

But at the time, he had felt Huo Yuyao's Second Soul Ring flicker slightly.

So Ning Tian and the others' condition had definitely been caused by Huo Yuhao.

He was curious what Huo Yuhao's Second Soul Skill was, and how it could be so powerful.

But Soul Skills were a Soul Master's secrets. Naturally, he couldn't ask.

So he declared Huo Yuhao's team the winner without hesitation.

In truth, this move of Huo Yuhao's hadn't been caused by a single Soul Skill.

Instead, he'd combined the First Soul Skill granted to him by the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm, Mental Interference, with his Second Soul Skill, Nightmare, then channeled the power of both Soul Skills through the genjutsu of his Sharingan.

Overall, it was still primarily a genjutsu of the Sharingan.

That was why Ning Tian's Second Soul Skill, "Dispel," had no effect.

Your "Dispel" clears negative effects from Soul Skills. What does that have to do with my ninjutsu?

Huo Yuhao named this move Genjutsu: Kyoka Suigetsu.

Against opponents with weaker Mental Power than his, he could control them completely and manipulate them at will. Against those with strong Mental Power, he could still control them briefly, but the effect wouldn't be nearly as potent.

If Huo Yuhao knew what everyone was thinking, he probably would've just smiled wryly.

Did they really think these two- and three-ring Soul Masters could fight him?

He was just trying out his skills. From the very beginning, this match had been destined to be nothing but a crushing defeat.

Seeing that his team had already won, there was no need to keep Ning Tian and the others under the genjutsu.

Huo Yuhao's thoughts stirred, and he released the Sharingan's hold on the three of them.

Ning Tian and the other two suddenly came to their senses. They immediately bent over, panting like oxen, drenched in sweat.

Looking at the familiar world before them, and Huo Yuhao's unharmed team across from them,

they stared in disbelief, eyes wide. "Th-This is impossible!"