"You bastard, who told you to absorb an Evil-type First Soul Ring?"
At Shrek Academy, in the student dormitory, Flender was laying into a boy without holding back.
The boy was called Su Ming.
He was a transmigrator.
After transmigrating to Douluo Continent, he awakened the same Evil Fire Phoenix Martial Soul as Ma Hongjun, with the same innate ninth-level Soul Power.
Two geniuses appearing at once had left Flender overjoyed.
So he had enrolled them both at Shrek Academy and personally taken them under his wing.
He had drawn up the same growth plan for both of them: bring out the fire attribute of the Evil Fire Phoenix and follow the path of a Power Attack System Soul Master with the strongest possible fire attribute!
But today, just as he was preparing to take Su Ming out to hunt for a Soul Ring, Su Ming told him he had already absorbed one.
And not just any Soul Ring—an Evil-type one that was around four hundred years old?
Flender was so furious he nearly spat blood!
"Su Ming, how many times have I told you? Your Martial Soul is a Mutated Martial Soul, a top-tier Fire Phoenix. Though it carries evil energy, its foundation is fire!"
"You have to strengthen and develop along the fire-attribute path. That's the only way you'll have a bright future!"
"You refuse to follow my guidance and insist on going your own way. You're completely ruining your prospects!"
Faced with Flender's fury, Su Ming remained remarkably calm.
He explained, "Dean, I've already explained this to you. Compared to the fire attribute, I believe the evil attribute is more powerful."
"Absurd! Utterly absurd!"
Flender was so enraged that he laughed bitterly. He scolded Su Ming loudly, frustrated that he was wasting his talent. "Who in the entire Soul Master World doesn't know that the phoenix is the ruler of flames? Since time immemorial, Phoenix Martial Souls have burned everything beneath the heavens with their blazing flames! Yours is a top-tier Fire Phoenix Martial Soul, and instead of cultivating fire, you're studying some kind of evil energy?!"
As Flender ranted and spat, Su Ming's expression remained utterly unruffled. He asked, neither humble nor arrogant, "Dean, then why can't it be an 'Evil Phoenix'?"
"Because the fire attribute makes up a larger proportion, and it's stronger!" Flender snorted, as though the answer were self-evident. He clasped his hands behind his back, assuming the dignified bearing of a Soul Saint.
Hearing that answer, Su Ming remained calm.
"Dean, if the fire attribute really is stronger, then why is it that whenever we cultivate, the evil energy disturbs the Soul Power in our bodies, sometimes making us suffer so badly we can barely control ourselves?"
"If fire is stronger than evil, why can't the flames suppress the evil energy?"
"Doesn't that prove the opposite—that 'evil' is stronger than 'fire'? Even the top-tier flames of the phoenix are being enslaved and influenced by it?!"
"You..."
Flender's mouth fell open. He was completely at a loss for words.
He had lived for decades and prided himself on his wide knowledge, but he had never heard such a heretical argument—one so strange that it was impossible to refute.
He opened his mouth, wanting to use his wealth of theoretical knowledge to rebut Su Ming, but his tongue seemed tied. For a moment, he couldn't find a single word to answer him.
Flender's face turned green, then pale, his expression growing uglier by the second.
At last, Flender swept his sleeve and said coldly, "Stubborn! Arrogant!"
"Su Ming, I'm telling you, this is the first time, and it will be the last!"
"If you ever again refuse to follow my guidance and insist on going your own way, don't blame me, Flender, for no longer considering you my student! Shrek Academy doesn't accept hopeless good-for-nothings!"
After dropping that threat, Flender turned and shouted to the chubby boy standing nearby, watching the show in silence. "Hongjun, come on! You're going hunting for a Soul Ring with your teacher. A fire Soul Ring!"
He aimed the last three words at Su Ming.
"Coming, Teacher!"
Ma Hongjun hurried after him on his short little legs.
Before leaving, the chubby boy turned around and made an extremely comical face at Su Ming. His beady eyes were full of mockery and gloating.
He looked just like he was watching an idiot ruin his own future.
"Bang!"
The door slammed shut.
Watching the two of them disappear into the distance, Su Ming gave a soft laugh, not caring in the slightest.
Those who walk different paths cannot make plans together.
As someone who knew the original story inside and out, Su Ming understood the Evil Fire Phoenix Martial Soul far better than anyone in this era.
That included Yu Xiaogang, who was hailed as unrivaled in theory.
In the original story, Ma Hongjun spent his entire life playing with fire. To purify the fire attribute of his Martial Soul, he had to frequent brothels for years to vent his Evil Fire, casting aside all dignity.
But what did he have to show for it?
He ate an Immortal Herb and fought tooth and nail to reach the peak of the Soul Master path, yet he couldn't even obtain the inheritance of the First-Level God of Fire.
In the end, all he got was the godhood of a Second-Level God—and he couldn't even bring his beloved into the Divine Realm.
That was the limit of playing with fire.
"But the evil attribute is a completely different matter..." A feverish, shadowy gleam flickered in Su Ming's eyes.
In the ancient records of the Douluo multiverse, "evil" was not only mysterious, but powerful.
And far above, in the distant Divine Realm, there was also an indescribably terrifying inheritance—the godhood of the Evil God, far more ancient and powerful than the God of Fire!
Of course, Su Ming hadn't made this decision on a whim.
After awakening his Martial Soul, he had carefully studied the Evil Fire Phoenix and discovered an innate ability rooted in its evil attribute—Evil Devour!
That's right, a devouring ability just like the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's!
The moment he discovered this, an idea began to take shape in Su Ming's mind.
What if, instead of resisting the evil attribute, he used its devouring ability to devour the fire? Wouldn't that solve the problem of the Evil Fire disturbing him?
Evil Fire: evil and fire together made Evil Fire.
Remove the evil, or remove the fire, and it was no longer Evil Fire!
Ma Hongjun ate an Immortal Herb to eliminate the evil; Su Ming would use evil to devour the fire. In essence, they were doing the same thing!
So Su Ming immediately put his idea to the test. After three months, he found that the path really did work.
Thus, when he broke through to level ten three months after his awakening, he didn't hesitate to absorb an Evil-type First Soul Ring!
Now, the evil attribute within his body was even stronger!
Su Ming immediately sat cross-legged, and the Soul Power within him began to circulate.
He manifested his Martial Soul, then guided the evil energy within it to gnaw away at the fire's source, bit by bit.
"Mm..."
The moment the devouring began, searing cold and burning heat intertwined and clashed violently inside him.
Su Ming's whole body trembled violently. His skin flashed with an eerie dark purple, then blazed red. The veins bulged on his forehead, and blood seeped faintly from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.
Pain!
A pain that cut to the bone!
It was as if something were being forcibly ripped away!
But Su Ming didn't even let out a single groan. His gaze was firm as a needle that calmed the seas.
The Evil Fire Phoenix was a Mutated Martial Soul born from a flaw.
What he had to do now was defy fate and change his destiny!
He would use Evil Devour to completely purge the impurities of fire and bring about a second, total mutation of his Martial Soul!
He would refine this false fire god completely, turning it into a pure Evil Phoenix, one that ruled over taboo and destruction!
To vent is to become a slave to desire; to purify is to castrate your own power! Only devouring can grant absolute dominion!