Ye Guyi laughed and thumped Lin Yao on the chest. "I was only saying it. You're still laughing at me. I'll hit you."
Lin Yao smiled and caught Ye Guyi's little fist, rubbing the back of her hand. Blushing, she quickly pulled it away.
"Ahem. But seriously, how could Shrek Academy be so full of filth? How could they allow someone so wicked and dangerous to become an inner court disciple?" Ye Guyi asked Lin Yao, baffled.
"The power to enforce the rules is in Shrek's hands. Whether someone's controllable is just a matter of what they say. If they say you're controllable, then you are. If they say you aren't, you're a dangerous Evil Soul Master who has to be taken down hard. There's nothing we can do about it."
Ye Guyi shrugged at that, then raised her hand. A glow of the Holy Angel flickered at her fingertips. She pursed her lips and said to Lin Yao, "Still, although what happened today has a lot of downsides, there's one upside: the power of my Holy Angel grew stronger as I suppressed the Evil Fire inside her."
Lin Yao glanced at the Soul Power on Ye Guyi's fingertips, somewhat surprised. "That can happen? I thought you could only grow stronger by killing."
Ye Guyi pursed her lips, then rubbed the power at her fingertips between them. "If you ask me, I can't explain exactly why. But I can feel that she and I will probably fight for a long time. I think we'll eventually become whetstones for each other."
Hearing Ye Guyi's words, Lin Yao solemnly took her hand. "If that's the case, I'll definitely help you."
Ye Guyi smiled faintly and nodded at Lin Yao. "I knew you'd help me."
Lin Yao smiled back. Ye Guyi seemed to think of something, then said, "Oh, I heard the outer court's Soul Guidance Department is holding a Soul Tool exhibition. Should we go take a look?"
Looking at Ye Guyi's excited expression, Lin Yao eventually nodded. "In this day and age, it's pretty foolish to look at Soul Tools at Shrek, but if you want to go, there's no harm in it."
Ye Guyi smiled at Lin Yao's reply. Then the two of them each returned to their dormitories to rest.
Meanwhile, by the shore of Sea God Lake, a slender arm reached up and grabbed the stone steps along the outer court bank.
Ma Xiaotao shook her head as she climbed out of Sea God Lake. After soaking in the water, the Evil Fire's force had weakened. Then Ye Guyi's holy power had purified it, driving it back into her body and restoring her senses.
Ma Xiaotao rubbed her aching head. Behind her, several figures flew over from the inner court and came to her side.
"Are you all right, Xiaotao?" The white-clad figure at the head looked at Ma Xiaotao with concern. She nodded, her voice weak.
"I'm fine. I think I ran into two outer court students just now. They were pretty tough." Ma Xiaotao murmured to the white-clad figure in front of her, then struggled to summon her Martial Soul and flew with them toward the inner court.
On the way, the white-clad figure said to Ma Xiaotao, "Didn't I tell you to stop cultivating for now? Fortunately, your Evil Fire outbreak didn't cause any serious consequences this time. Otherwise, no one would have been able to protect you."
Ma Xiaotao frowned, but still protested, "I only wanted to cultivate. What did I do wrong?"
The white-clad figure fell silent for a moment, then said coolly, "We'll talk when we get back to the inner court."
In a secret chamber on Lake Heart Island in Shrek Academy's Sea God Lake, Ma Xiaotao stepped inside and looked at the old man before her.
Ma Xiaotao lowered her head and said apologetically to the white-haired elder before her, "I'm sorry, teacher. I failed to keep myself under control."
The white-clad elder sighed, then said to Ma Xiaotao, "Xiaotao, from now on, you must stop cultivating. You may be the greatest genius Shrek Academy has seen in a hundred years, but I can't watch you destroy yourself for the sake of cultivation. If your Evil Fire consumes you again and you cause a disaster, then your whole life really will be ruined."
Ma Xiaotao clenched her fist so tightly that blood seeped from her hand. She spoke each word with conviction. "No, teacher. I want to keep cultivating. I want to grow stronger, reach the pinnacle of the Soul Master World, and protect the academy."
Ma Xiaotao's words rang out with conviction. The old man fell silent for a moment, then said to her, "Sigh, why are you so stubborn? Still, those two students who fought you today were rather interesting. Even now, the aura of the Holy Angel remains on you."
Ma Xiaotao asked the white-clad elder, "So, teacher, who attacked me? I'd lost my senses at the time and didn't see their faces."
Yan Shaozhe said to Ma Xiaotao, "One was the young man Mu En specifically named to enter Shrek Academy. The other was probably the girl he brought with him. Her Martial Soul is the Holy Angel, and she possesses an exceptionally powerful holy attribute as well."
"Her holy attribute didn't suppress the Evil Fire in your Martial Soul through the opposition of ice and fire. Instead, it countered the evil power within your Evil Fire completely, from the perspective of holiness, and temporarily forced your Evil Fire back inside."
Ma Xiaotao said to the white-clad elder, "Teacher, I have a feeling that the owner of the Holy Angel Martial Soul and I will fight again in the future. It seems my Martial Soul can also improve in quality through fighting her."
The white-clad elder was stunned at that, then said to Ma Xiaotao, "Because your opposing elements made your Martial Souls feel destined to be whetstones for each other? That's an extremely rare situation in the Soul Master World."
Ma Xiaotao sighed, then said to the elder, "It's a pity that girl is always with that young man, and her Soul Power is far below mine right now. If I fought her now, I'm afraid it wouldn't have the same effect. I'll have to wait until she reaches my level before we can have a proper fight."
The white-clad elder stroked his beard and said, "Once the owner of the Holy Angel Martial Soul reaches a certain level of mastery, her cultivation will progress faster than that of ordinary Soul Masters. That's because she can kill Evil Soul Masters and harvest their evil energy to improve her cultivation."
"In that case, with the special young man at her side—the one who even caught Mu En's attention—I believe you won't have to wait long for a fair duel with her. In the end, whoever wins will be able to step on the other to reach a higher level of cultivation."
Ma Xiaotao clenched her fist, a fierce fighting spirit rising in her eyes. She spoke firmly to the white-clad elder before her...
Before you continue