The soul power shockwave erupted with a deafening roar, sweeping across the entire arena. Fine, spiderweb-like cracks spread over the pristine White Obsidian platform, while shards of stone and a violent gale of scattered soul power surged in every direction.
Wu Siduo's pupils contracted. Her prized self-fusion skill, Hell White Tiger, had been unable to resist even a single swipe from that nine-colored dragon.
The terrifying dragon might surged in with the dissipating soul power, crashing viciously into Wu Siduo's body.
"Pfft..."
A mouthful of blood burst from Wu Siduo's lips. She flew backward more than ten meters and slammed hard into the barrier at the edge of the arena.
The backlash from Hell White Tiger's dissolution, the crushing dragon might, and the devastating force of that blow piled atop one another. Her limbs went numb, the soul power within her fell into complete disarray, and agonizing pain stabbed through her meridians.
She braced a hand against the platform, trying to rise. The moment her fingertips touched the cold stone, a wave of violent dizziness struck her. After two failed attempts to struggle upright, she finally slumped helplessly to her knees. Even her Martial Soul Possession was forcibly dispelled, leaving her utterly unable to fight on.
The referee raised a hand. The strongest individual fighter among Shrek's seven was out.
The spectators from Sun Moon Academy erupted into thunderous cheers, their shouts nearly lifting the roof off the arena.
In the VIP seats, Kong Jieming's smile deepened as he gently swirled his teacup. "A self-fusion skill. That Shrek girl really does have impressive talent. What a pity she ran into Nanxun."
Zhang Hanlin smiled, his eyes crinkling. "This is only the beginning."
On the arena, the situation changed in an instant.
The moment Wu Siduo fell, the Shrek team—already poised to act—was surprised by Shen Nanxun's formidable individual strength, but hardly panicked. Their well-honed teamwork kicked in at once, and they launched their second encirclement strategy.
Xu Yucheng, who had been quietly holding his position, suddenly blurred. Dark shadow soul power spread across the ground, and a pitch-black Demon Sickle coalesced out of thin air.
His attack attribute was the pinnacle of its kind. Seizing the instant Shen Nanxun struck down Wu Siduo, he became a streak of black light and swept his sickle across, aiming straight for Shen Nanxun's vitals. The angle was viciously precise, cutting off every avenue of escape.
At almost the same moment, silver light flared in Luo Guixing's eyes.
The spatial power shattered earlier gathered wildly once more. This time, he poured in most of his soul power. Instead of a single restraining cage, he created layer upon layer of spatial barriers, crisscrossed with countless rifts that shrouded the three meters around Shen Nanxun.
Cutting, restraint, and movement-locking effects overlapped, sealing off every direction above, below, and to either side. Even teleportation would be intercepted by the space itself. He was determined to pin Shen Nanxun in place.
Facing them head-on, Tang Wulin wore an utterly grave expression. The Blue Silver Grass beneath his feet grew a hundredfold, transforming into countless thick, arm-like emerald vines. Carrying the immense power to restrain life, they lashed toward Shen Nanxun's limbs and torso, intent on locking him down completely and disrupting the flow of his soul power.
To the side, Xie Xie vanished in a flash.
His Light Dragon Dagger Martial Soul was fully unleashed. Two dazzling blades of light, imbued with extreme speed, swept around to the blind spot behind Shen Nanxun, relying on his top-tier agility-attack talent. Light soul power gathered into razor-sharp edges as he waited for an opening to break through Shen Nanxun's defenses and deliver the finishing encirclement with his teammates.
Last to act was Ye Xinglan, the team's trump card.
The Stargod Sword gleamed snowy white as starlight poured down from the dome and infused the blade. Flecks of starlight flowed across its edge, carrying a chilling, murderous sword intent.
Standing tall as a pine, she charged through the air. She drove the Star Sword Art to its limit, gathering countless points of starlight into a concentrated silver sword aura and cleaving straight toward Shen Nanxun, who was surrounded on all sides.
Spatial Lock, Demon Sickle Strike, Blue Silver Entanglement, Light Dragon Assault, Star Sword Slash!
The five remaining members of Shrek joined their five ultimate attacks seamlessly. Offense, defense, and control formed a flawless whole—the ultimate encirclement strategy they had honed countless times, powerful enough to crush any seven-person team of the same rank.
They hadn't abandoned their original plan. They meant to eliminate Shen Nanxun. If they failed to do so now, they would only be at a greater disadvantage.
The stands fell silent. Everyone held their breath.
Even the students of Sun Moon Academy felt their hearts tighten. With teamwork and an assault of this density, any Sun Moon student would have already lost in an instant.
Yet Shen Nanxun, trapped at the center of the encirclement, hadn't moved a single step.
Facing the attacks sweeping down from all sides, his dark eyes remained tranquil. Only the nine-colored light deep within them grew ever brighter.
In the next instant, immense nine-colored origin soul power erupted!
Several elemental forces surged from within him at once, weaving into an Elemental Canopy that shimmered with nine-colored light and steadily enveloped him.
The first attack to meet it was Luo Guixing's spatial barrier.
The nine-colored elemental power contained the origin of heaven and earth, suppressing all acquired abilities. The countless spatial rifts vanished the instant they touched the Elemental Canopy. The layers of spatial restraint and spatial cutting dissolved into nothing.
Luo Guixing's face turned deathly pale. His all-out control of space had been dispelled with such ease that the backlash left his chest tight and breathless. He staggered backward twice.
"My spatial power's being suppressed?" Luo Guixing was shaken to the core, unable to believe it.
Before he could recover, Shen Nanxun turned slightly and clenched his hand in the air.
The fire element drifting everywhere instantly gathered, condensing into a blazing, tightly packed giant palm. He swept it back and struck the incoming Demon Sickle squarely on its blade.
Scorching flames engulfed the pitch-black sickle. The blazing fire, which countered shadow soul power, seared Xu Yucheng's shadow essence.
The shadow soul power rapidly melted away. Xu Yucheng felt a violent surge of fire rush along the sickle and straight into his Martial Soul. His arm went numb with pain, and his grip nearly split open. The giant palm's lingering force sent him flying, and he slammed hard into the ground. His shadow soul power fell into disarray, and the Demon Sickle instantly dispersed.
One move, and Xu Yucheng's shadow assassination technique was broken!
At the same time, the countless Blue Silver vines had already tightened around Shen Nanxun's limbs and torso.
Tang Wulin's gaze sharpened as he poured all his strength into driving the power of life, trying to restrain Shen Nanxun.
But in the next moment, earth element gathered around Shen Nanxun, heavy and solid, transforming into an unyielding Earth Barrier that held firm against the vines' entangling and piercing.
Then a burst of flame surged forth. Tang Wulin's prized life-infused Blue Silver restraint was utterly ineffective before the overwhelming elemental suppression!
Worse, an immense force as heavy as a mountain rebounded along the broken vines.
Tang Wulin's whole body jolted. His legs sank deep into the stone, his blood and qi churned, and he was forced to retreat again and again. His frontal suppression had completely collapsed.
Without the Golden Dragon King Bloodline, though he had awakened part of the Blue Silver Emperor's power and fused it with the essence of the Goddess of Life, he still couldn't stand against him.
Xie Xie, attacking from the blind spot at Shen Nanxun's flank, moved so fast that only a streak of light remained. The edge of his Light Dragon Dagger was about to touch Shen Nanxun's back.
But Shen Nanxun seemed to have eyes in the back of his head. Dark element gathered behind him in an instant, forming a dense, pitch-black elemental barrier.
The blades of light struck the dark elemental barrier. Light and darkness collided violently, unleashing a deafening boom.
Xie Xie's signature extreme speed and piercing light attacks couldn't break through the dark element's perfectly balanced defense in the slightest.
Light and darkness had no absolute advantage over one another. The stronger one suppressed the weaker.
Before he could change tactics, a powerful elemental force suddenly burst forth and sent him hurtling away at high speed.
Xie Xie lost control in midair and tumbled again and again. The light of his two Light Dragon Daggers dimmed, and his agility-attack advantage was completely shut down. He couldn't even get close.
Three short breaths!
The four attacks—spatial, shadow, life, and agility—were all dismantled!
Only Ye Xinglan's Star Sword Aura still hung in the air, cleaving down. Countless points of starlight shone brilliantly, carrying an edge of extreme sharpness. It was Shrek's last attack.
Everyone's gaze focused on that final sword strike.
Ye Xinglan's eyes were steely. She poured out every last bit of her soul power, driving her starlight to its limit. This strike held all her fighting spirit.
Years of honing a single sword, now its edge would be tested!
Shen Nanxun lifted his eyes to the falling silver sword aura, his expression still calm.
He slowly raised his right hand. Nine-colored dragon patterns covered his entire arm. With a simple motion, he struck forward with his palm, meeting the Stargod Sword's ultimate strike head-on!
The nine-colored palm print and sword aura collided with a thunderous crash!
A world-shaking boom rang across the arena. The cracks in the platform spread wider, stone fragments flew into the air, and a soul power storm swept through the entire venue.
The seemingly peerless Star Sword intent crumbled in an instant beneath Shen Nanxun's overwhelming overall strength.
The starlight scattered and vanished. The concentrated sword aura broke apart inch by inch, and its chilling sword intent disappeared without a trace.
"Impossible!" Ye Xinglan's pupils contracted, disbelief filling her heart.
Her Stargod Sword was an ultimate weapon-type Martial Soul, its sword intent unrivaled in sharpness. Yet her all-out strike had been shattered by her opponent's bare hand!
Shen Nanxun was even stronger than he had been a few years ago.
The immense force rebounded wildly along the sword, surging into every part of her body.
Ye Xinglan's sword arm went numb. She could no longer hold on to the hilt.
The Stargod Sword flew from her grasp and stuck into the platform several meters away, its starlight dimmed.
The immense impact sent her flying backward. She landed unsteadily and stumbled several steps, her chest heaving as a thread of bright red blood seeped from the corner of her mouth.
One palm shattered the Star Sword, broke its sword intent, and grievously wounded Ye Xinglan!
Dust slowly settled. The noisy arena fell abruptly silent.
On the vast platform, all five Shrek fighters were in dire straits. Only the buns Xu Lizhi had rushed to hand them in time had kept them from being eliminated.
The flawless encirclement strategy the seven had painstakingly honed, with its waves of attacks and lethal moves at every turn, had been swept away like dead leaves before Shen Nanxun's strength alone. He had crushed them completely.
From beginning to end, Shen Nanxun stood at the center of the platform, his robes undisturbed and his hair unmoved. The nine-colored light around him slowly faded, his breathing as steady as ever. He hadn't even used any of his hidden trump cards. He had been completely at ease.
One man had brought down Shrek's entire lineup!
The silence lasted only an instant. The next second, earth-shaking cheers erupted, resounding across the entire Ming Capital!
In the VIP seats, Kong Jieming slowly rose, satisfaction filling his eyes. He spoke calmly. "Five years ago, two of us fought seven and broke Shrek. Today, one man crushed Shrek's seven. When have the prodigies of Sun Moon ever been weak?"
Zhang Hanlin clapped his hands and laughed heartily, his voice brimming with exhilaration. "From today on, the world will know that Shrek's myth of invincibility was shattered long ago by the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Master Academy!"
"We haven't lost yet!" Luo Guixing rose angrily, determined to keep fighting.
His voice was hoarse, and his silver-white eyes brimmed with unwillingness. He clenched his hands, gathering the remnants of his spatial power once more. Even if he had only a sliver of soul power left, he would keep fighting.
Tang Wulin said nothing. He simply drew the remaining Blue Silver Grass back into his body, one vine at a time. The Blue Silver Emperor's life energy flowed slowly through his meridians, repairing the wounds that had split open in the clash.
Every one of them had their own resolve in this battle.
In their eyes, Shrek's honor had to be defended!
Ye Xinglan, however, curved her lips into a faint smile. This time, she was truly convinced. If four years ago she had witnessed Shen Nanxun's power, now she had finally understood the unbridgeable chasm between them.
But at that moment, Shen Nanxun didn't attack again. He simply retreated.
Weng Daimin and Xue Liushuang, who had remained in the back without joining the fight, walked forward side by side.
Weng Daimin was usually all smiles, the most talkative of the seven from Sun Moon. But now, there wasn't a trace of playfulness on her face. Ice element gathered in her palm, and freezing frost spread from her arm across her entire body.
Xue Liushuang walked to her side with the Frost Sword in her arms. Her ice-blue hair stirred gently in the lingering waves of soul power.
The final cleanup was their responsibility.
"You say you haven't lost yet?" Weng Daimin tilted her head, her voice brimming with unshakable confidence. "Then let's see if you can withstand this move. If you can, you win. If you can't..."
The two exchanged a glance, then clasped each other's hands.
In that instant, dazzling light flared around them both. Weng Daimin's ice and Xue Liushuang's sword—two utterly different Martial Soul powers, yet perfectly matched—fused with a thunderous roar between their clasped palms. The first snowflake fell from the sky above the arena.
It was enormous, as wide as a palm, with six sharply defined points. Then came a second, a third, and thousands upon thousands more.
The temperature across the entire arena plunged by dozens of degrees in an instant. A thin film of ice covered the White Obsidian floor, and tiny ice crystals whirled through the air.
A gigantic phantom slowly rose behind the two of them: the outline of a woman, her entire body formed of ice and snow. Her long hair fell like a glacier, and two flames of frigid ice burned in her eyes. She raised a hand, gripping an enormous sword forged from pure cold. Wherever its edge passed, every trace of moisture in the arena froze silently.
Martial Soul Fusion Skill—Ice and Snow Goddess.
A Martial Soul Fusion Skill wielded at the Four-Ring Soul Ancestor level, powerful enough to crush Soul Kings of a higher rank—and even contend with Soul Emperors for a short time.
The Ice and Snow Goddess raised her giant sword and brought it down.
Countless snowflakes gathered into a thick, dazzling blade of ice-blue light, cleaving through the very center of the arena. Shrek's final defenses shattered beneath that strike, and six figures were hurled away at once.
All six were eliminated. The referee raised his right hand high.
The entire arena fell silent for a full three seconds. Then thunderous cheers erupted.
Sun Moon Imperial Soul Master Academy had won a complete victory.
The footage from all three synchronized broadcasts froze on the instant the Ice and Snow Goddess brought down her sword. The comments were already flooding the screens.
"Sun Moon rocks!"
"Shrek's era is over!"
Before you continue