The Holy Spirit Cult's Grand Elder Steadily Shows Her Strength (3K)

At this moment, the battlefield deep within the Mixed Zone had already deteriorated to an extreme degree.

"Senior Sister, have you still not contacted Elder Xuan? The Blood Sea's corrosive power is far too strong. My Domain of Light can't hold on much longer."

The golden-haired girl formed seals with both hands. The pitch-black sixth Soul Ring beneath her flickered continuously as a golden domain centered on her barely covered an area twenty meters wide. Everything beyond those twenty meters had long since turned a vivid, bloody red.

The Soul Beasts and plants stained by the blood-red color had all undergone bizarre mutations. The plants sprouted countless crimson vines and thorns, while the Soul Beasts swelled in size, with the mutations to their natural weapons being especially pronounced.

Not only had these mutated blood-red monsters seen their attack power and bloodlust skyrocket, but they could even continuously regenerate and divide by absorbing the blood-red energy in the surrounding environment. Even the weakest among them were equivalent to hundred-year Soul Beasts.

Her Domain of Light could greatly weaken these monsters' combat strength. Otherwise, the situation their group faced would only have been worse.

Beside the golden-haired girl, the woman called Senior Sister hovered in midair. Her waist-length hair danced in the wind as she gritted her teeth. Moonlight poured from the full moon suspended above her head like soul cannon beams. Every ray of moonlight could accurately kill a monster, yet moments later, those monsters would be reborn within the Blood Sea beyond the Domain of Light.

Kill, revive, kill again, revive again. It was an endless cycle.

No matter how famous they were as geniuses at Shrek Academy, under such an unceasing offensive, they would eventually grow exhausted, be injured, and fall into despair.

Although Zhang Lexuan kept comforting herself internally, her faintly trembling hands proved that she was far less optimistic than she believed herself to be.

"I've already contacted Elder Xuan. He should already be on his way here."

However, as the backbone of the group, Zhang Lexuan could not add to her teammates' fear and despair at a time like this. She could only force herself to comfort everyone while constantly praying that Xuanzi would notice the disturbance here sooner.

But clearly, those repeated words could no longer give the others hope or the motivation to keep holding on.

Despair spread at an accelerating pace. After a thousand-year Shadow Demon Wolf bit through his arm, a male Soul Emperor student finally failed to control his emotions and roared furiously:

"Where the hell did Elder Xuan die off to? We've held on for nearly half an hour, but we still haven't even seen his shadow! Senior Sister, tell us the truth. Does Elder Xuan not even know about our situation at all?!"

"I..." Zhang Lexuan opened her mouth, but she did not know what to say.

Yet from the way she looked, the answer was already obvious.

After a moment of silence, the petite girl who had only recently entered the Inner Court, possessed the lowest Soul Power Level, and had the weakest ability to withstand pressure finally broke down completely.

Her entire body shook violently with fear. The immense psychological burden and her exhausted body, drained dry of Soul Power, made her collapse onto the ground. Then she burst into tears.

"Senior Sister, hurry and make Elder Xuan come save us! I don't want to die! My mother is still waiting for me to come home during break! Wuwuwu..."

Without the Soul Power support she had been receiving, the golden-haired girl let out a muffled groan. The Domain of Light began to dim and rapidly contract.

Finally, a blood-red beam shot out from behind the bloody mist and completely shattered the Domain of Light.

The backlash from having her Soul Skill forcibly destroyed made the golden-haired girl spit out a mouthful of blood as her body toppled backward.

"Qing'er!"

Zhang Lexuan's expression changed drastically. She rushed forward and caught the golden-haired girl, while the others pulled over the still-crying support-type girl and hurriedly tightened their formation.

The Blood Sea surged forward accordingly, and countless monsters controlled by it formed an airtight encirclement.

A seductive laugh drifted over from afar. The Blood Sea churned, the bloody mist grew denser, and a figure gradually emerged from within it.

"Dragon. Demon. Wa-Woman."

The instant she saw that figure clearly, Zhang Lexuan spat out those four words one by one. Her heart was nearly swallowed whole by overwhelming despair.

The Soul Beast standing before Zhang Lexuan and the others appeared to be only a little over two meters tall, with a body almost identical to that of a human. Yet blood-red dragon scales covered her body, while dragon horns and a dragon tail extended from her head and behind her.

The Dragon Demon Wa-Woman was an exceptionally unique existence among Soul Beasts.

She was the offspring born from the union of the Dragon Clan and Ancient Giants. The species was born exclusively female. Although they were nearly the same size as humans, they possessed the Dragon Clan's ultimate control over the elements and the Giant Clan's powerful physique. Once they reached a thousand years of cultivation, they could possess intelligence comparable to that of humans.

It was said that someone had once mistaken one for the continent's most renowned dragon maiden and attempted to capture her, only to trigger a bloody massacre that wiped out an entire city.

However, while Dragon Demon Wa-Women were terrifying humanoid Soul Beasts to humans, they were also excellent cultivation vessels to certain powerful Soul Beasts.

Some powerful Soul Beasts would specifically hunt down immature Dragon Demon Wa-Women and raise them in captivity. When facing a heavenly tribulation, they would devour them and use the powerful Dragon Clan and Giant Clan bloodlines within them to increase their chances of surviving the tribulation.

For that reason, the already scarce Dragon Demon Wa-Women had been declared extinct a thousand years ago.

The reason Zhang Lexuan had recognized her at a glance was that, before this Soul Beast hunting expedition, she had happened to see a description and corresponding illustration of a Dragon Demon Wa-Woman in an ancient book.

Fate could sometimes be this bizarre.

And if Zhang Lexuan had guessed correctly, the attribute controlled by this Dragon Demon Wa-Woman was blood! The rare Mutated Blood Attribute!

The Blood Sea that had mutated all the surrounding plants and Soul Beasts into bloodthirsty monsters and allowed them to continuously regenerate should have been this Dragon Demon Wa-Woman's innate Soul Skill.

Even more terrifyingly, judging from her aura and the sheer horror of the Blood Sea, she was very likely a hundred-thousand-year Dragon Demon Wa-Woman with no prior record!

That realization sent a chill down Zhang Lexuan's spine, and a bead of cold sweat silently slid down from her temple.

"Senior Sister, what do we do?"

A burly female student, one of the few in the group who had barely managed to remain calm, spoke softly.

Like the golden-haired girl from before, she was one of the only two Quasi-Soul Saints in the group. She was also one of the Shrek Seven Devils from Zhang Lexuan's generation.

"I..." Zhang Lexuan opened her mouth, her tone uncertain.

In the end, after a difficult internal struggle, she still forced out a sentence with great difficulty:

"Gufan, Xiaoyuan, find an opportunity to lead Xiaoruan and the others out. Everyone else who is willing to provide cover, take the Blood Burning Pill."

Xiaoruan was the support-type girl.

As for Gufan and Xiaoyuan, they were the two agility-attack Soul Masters in the group.

The Blood Burning Pill was a special medicinal pill issued by Shrek Academy to Inner Court students. It had been inspired by the Food God Douluo's fifth Soul Skill from ten thousand years ago, the Limit-Surpassing Dark Green Sausage. After consumption, it could instantly increase one's Soul Power by one hundred percent by draining life force. The effect lasted three minutes, while the side effects were damage to one's vitality, five days of weakness after the effect ended, and a loss of one's potential.

The Inner Court had explicitly declared that Blood Burning Pills were only permitted in life-threatening situations. Anyone discovered using one in violation of the rules would be expelled immediately!

Upon hearing Zhang Lexuan's words, no one spoke. Only the sound of repeated swallowing continued to ring out.

Zhang Lexuan took a deep breath and lit up her seventh Soul Ring once more. The silver moon shone overhead as she was the first to charge out, followed closely by the burly female student and Qing'er, the owner of a light-element Martial Soul...

But reality proved that a Quasi-Soul Douluo and a group of Soul Masters below seven rings were simply no match for a hundred-thousand-year Dragon Demon Wa-Woman.

In only a few moments, the burly female student was sent flying with a single slap to who knew where. Qing'er's lungs were pierced by the Dragon Demon Wa-Woman's claws before she was thrown into the Blood Sea.

The others were also heavily injured and barely clinging to life. Zhang Lexuan's heart felt as though it were being cut apart as she watched, but at this moment, she could not even protect herself, much less shelter her companions.

Meanwhile, the breakout team led by Gufan also met with failure.

The Blood Sea stretched for hundreds of meters, and the mutated monsters within it were simply too densely packed. Coupled with the bloody mist's restriction on Soul Masters' movements and its corrosion of the body, they had been forced back after charging less than fifty meters into the mist.

Zhang Lexuan watched this scene with unprecedented dejection and pain in her eyes.

But just as Zhang Lexuan closed her eyes in despair, a dragon's roar suddenly exploded beside her ear, followed by the Dragon Demon Wa-Woman's shrill scream.

Zhang Lexuan, who had collapsed onto the ground, suddenly opened her eyes and met Qiangu Yunmei's smiling yet not-smiling gaze.

"People from Shrek Academy?"

Zhang Lexuan's gaze shifted between Qiangu Yunmei and Qiangu Liting farther ahead, beneath whom floated nine Soul Rings—one yellow, two purple, four black, and two red. At last, she nodded somewhat blankly.

"Tsk. Students from the continent's number one academy go out to hunt Soul Beasts without even a teacher accompanying them? Has Shrek Academy become this shabby?"

Qiangu Yunmei's words stabbed directly into Zhang Lexuan's deepest wound. Xuanzi's dereliction of duty had become an undeniable fact. No matter how unwilling Zhang Lexuan was to believe it, there was no use anymore. After a brief silence, she finally said hoarsely:

"There was one, but he got separated from us."

"Hehe, then your teacher is quite impressive." Qiangu Yunmei sent a blood-red monster that pounced at her flying with a swing of her staff, then shouted behind Zhang Lexuan.

"Yunche, leave this place to you."

Zhang Lexuan turned around and happened to see Qiangu Yunche walking out of the Blood Sea with Qing'er, the owner of the light-element Martial Soul, in his arms. He then placed Qing'er beside her.

Taking this opportunity, Qiangu Yunche also looked over this Senior Sister, who in the original story had been the unattainable white moonlight in the hearts of countless Inner Court disciples.

It had to be said that even though she was currently covered in blood and looked utterly disheveled, her breathtakingly beautiful face and gentle temperament that radiated from the inside out were indeed unforgettable at first glance.

However, Qiangu Yunche knew what mattered. He merely gave her a cursory glance before walking toward the churning Blood Sea.

The next instant, a striking golden radiance suddenly lit up around him.

Centered on Qiangu Yunche, that golden light rapidly spread outward for a hundred meters. The Blood Sea and blood-red monsters that had driven Zhang Lexuan and the others into desperation were like ice and snow meeting scorching sunlight within that golden domain, rapidly melting and collapsing until they finally vanished...