Lin Shuo glanced up at the sky. He gripped the Silver Dragon Spear in one hand, its tip angled toward the heavens, then gave it a gentle shake.
The Silver Dragon Spear spat out streak after streak of spear light, each blazing with a terrifying halo.
Wherever the spear light passed, the falling fire meteors seemed to crash into an invisible wall and burst apart one after another in midair. Golden-red flames and silver spear light interwove and clashed in the sky, setting off a dazzling rain of fire.
When the last meteor exploded in the sky and scattered into countless tiny sparks, Lin Shuo lowered the Silver Dragon Spear, its tip pointing toward the ground once more. From beginning to end, his feet had not moved an inch.
Ma Xiaotao hovered in midair, panting heavily. The Phoenix Wings behind her had begun to flicker in and out, a sign that her Soul Power was nearly spent. She looked down at the boy holding the silver spear, and for the first time, a sense of helplessness surged through her. She had fought for so many years, always the one beating others down. She had never been so thoroughly suppressed before. Worse still, she could tell that Lin Shuo hadn't even used his full strength. He hadn't so much as attacked her.
At the other end of the battlefield, Ling Luochеn was helping Xi Xi and Chen Zifeng keep Dai Yueheng firmly suppressed.
With three boosts of his own stacked together with Gongyang Mo's Soul Skill, Dai Yueheng's combat power was already on par with Ma Xiaotao's.
One claw forced Xi Xi's lightning attack back, and another knocked Chen Zifeng's Soul-Chasing Sword off course. But Ling Luochеn's attacks kept spreading toward him, and layers of deep blue ice repeatedly froze his feet, making every step take enormous effort. The ground beneath him had frozen into an ice field, and the chill kept creeping up his legs.
"This won't work." Ling Luochеn frowned. Her ice could restrict Dai Yueheng's movements, but she still couldn't freeze him completely. Xi Xi and Chen Zifeng's attacks were relentless, but Dai Yueheng's defenses were too strong. With three boosts stacked together, his White Tiger Protection Barrier couldn't be pierced by ordinary attacks.
Just then, a warm hand gently pressed against her back.
Ling Luochеn's body stiffened slightly. She didn't turn around, because she could feel an aura from that hand that made even her soul tremble—the ultimate cold, pure ice, a power many levels above her Ice Element.
"This is... Ultimate Ice!" Ling Luochеn's voice trembled slightly.
A pillar of icy-blue light shot into the sky. The ultimate chill left even Xi Xi and Chen Zifeng, standing beside Dai Yueheng, utterly shocked. Jiang Nannan, who had been trying to circle around and launch a sneak attack, was instantly frozen.
Ling Luochеn's third Soul Ring lit up, and a beam of icy-blue light appeared above Dai Yueheng.
The light descended, and an ice prison appeared, trapping Dai Yueheng in place.
Dai Yueheng slammed his fist down, but the ice prison didn't even develop a hairline crack.
Dai Yueheng's pupils contracted. He looked down at his legs. Mystic Ice had spread from his ankles to his knees, and he couldn't feel his lower legs at all. He summoned every last bit of Soul Power he could to try to shatter the ice, but the chill clung to him like a bone-deep parasite. No matter how he drove his Soul Power, he couldn't dispel it.
Chen Zifeng and Xi Xi exchanged a glance and attacked at the same time. Chen Zifeng's Soul-Chasing Sword stabbed at Dai Yueheng's ribs from a tricky angle, targeting the spot where the ice had weakened his defenses, while Xi Xi's attack struck straight at his chest. Dai Yueheng managed to block with his still-mobile arms, but frozen in place, he couldn't move. Their attacks came down like a violent storm, and his defenses teetered on the brink of collapse.
"Xu Sanshi, come help me hold them off!" Dai Yueheng shouted to Xu Sanshi, who was fighting Bei Bei.
At the other end of the battlefield, Bei Bei was already struggling badly under the combined assault of Wang Dong'er, Xiao Xiao, and Xu Sanshi. He was about to seize an opening and charge at Wang Dong'er when Xu Sanshi's Black Tortoise Shield blocked him fast. Xiao Xiao's Three-Life Soul-Suppressing Cauldron rammed in from the side, working with Wang Dong'er's Butterfly Goddess Light to force him to keep dodging. His school uniform had already been scorched with several charred holes by the aftershocks of the Butterfly Goddess Light.
Xu Sanshi pretended not to hear Dai Yueheng. He wasn't stupid. If he used his fourth Soul Skill, Black Tortoise Displacement, to switch places, he'd have to face the attacks of three Soul Kings head-on.
"Senior Brother Bei Bei, why don't you just surrender?" Wang Dong'er beat her wings, sending several more bursts of Butterfly Goddess Light crashing toward Bei Bei. The golden-blue orbs traced several arcs through the air, chasing his figure as they exploded.
Bei Bei gritted his teeth and smashed one orb with a punch from his Dragon Transformation arm, but another had already flown right in front of him. He dodged to the side, and the orb skimmed past his shoulder before blasting a shallow crater into the ground behind him. He panted heavily, fine beads of sweat already gathering at his temples. Facing the combined suppression of three opponents, he was truly close to his limit.
Just as the battle reached an impasse, a calm voice rang in everyone's ears.
"It's about time to end this."
Lin Shuo held the Silver Dragon Spear across his body. His gaze swept over every corner of the battlefield—Dai Yueheng was trapped in Mystic Ice, struggling to hold on; Bei Bei was dodging desperately under the combined assault of three people; Ma Xiaotao hovered in midair, panting hard, her Soul Power nearly exhausted. The battle had gone on long enough.
The fourth Soul Ring beneath his feet, black as ink and ten thousand years old, suddenly lit up.
Seven-Colored Domain!
A pillar of seven-colored light surged skyward from beneath Lin Shuo's feet. It pierced the entire dome of the Soul Fighting Zone, dyeing the heavens in shifting, flowing colors. The seven-colored radiance poured in every direction like a flood, gathering in midair into a translucent, seven-colored barrier that enveloped the entire Soul Fighting Platform.
In that instant, everyone felt an indescribable pressure bearing down on them.
The Phoenix Wings behind Ma Xiaotao soundlessly disintegrated the moment the seven-colored light touched her. She plummeted straight down from midair and barely managed to land on her feet, but the instant she hit the ground, she realized that the Evil Fire Phoenix Martial Soul inside her had fallen completely silent. The flames she had cultivated for over a decade were now like a pool of stagnant water. No matter how she tried to summon them, there was no response. Her eyes widened, and for the first time, disbelief showed on her usually brash face. Her flames had been taken from her—not extinguished, but taken.
Ling Luochеn's Martial Soul crumbled even faster than Ma Xiaotao's flames. The deep blue Mystic Ice, infused with the aura of the Water Dragon King's Ultimate Ice, vanished in an instant beneath the seven-colored light, like thin snow under the blazing sun. The light at the tip of her staff silently went out, and the shaft shattered inch by inch. The Ice Element inside her was refusing her summons—no, not refusing. It was submitting. She looked down at her trembling hands, shock surging through her usually cool, ice-blue eyes. Her Ice Element was afraid of him. It was prostrating itself beneath that seven-colored radiance, like a subject before an unrivaled sovereign.