Bright Phoenix Douluo Yan Shaozhe (The Trial Run Is Flopping, Please Keep Reading)

Bright Phoenix Douluo Yan Shaozhe (The Trial Run Is Flopping, Please Keep Reading (≧▽≦))

In Yin Chen's perception, in that very instant, an invisible blood-red formation seemed to flash into existence above a clearing deep within the forest, as though woven from threads of karma. A crimson drop of blood containing the power of karma ignored the barriers of space and matter, silently seeping into the earth like a drop falling onto water before vanishing without a trace.

There had been no energy fluctuations throughout the entire process. Aside from him, even someone as powerful as Nebula Douluo Manyi had not noticed anything unusual.

Yin Chen glanced at Xu Jiujiu, who was preparing to absorb her Soul Ring, then at Manyi, whose expression remained unchanged. His heart settled somewhat.

Whatever would be, would be.

In any case, the Nirvana Corpse posed no threat to him. And with Manyi, a level ninety-three Title Douluo, present, even if they truly encountered some formidable Nirvana Corpse, she might not necessarily fear it.

He was merely a weak one-ring Soul Master. Worrying about so much would be pointless.

On the other side of the Mixed Area in the Star Dou Great Forest.

A formidable team was hunting a Soul Beast.

At the forefront stood a middle-aged man in white robes. He possessed an elegant yet imposing air. He was Yan Shaozhe, dean of Shrek Academy's Martial Soul Department and a level ninety-five Super Douluo—the Bright Phoenix Douluo.

Standing with his hands behind his back, he watched the battle calmly, clearly with no intention of intervening.

Two striking women with entirely different temperaments stood beside him.

One was Zhang Lexuan, gentle and composed, with eyes like stars. Only eighteen years old, she had already successfully obtained her seventh Soul Ring and become a powerful Soul Saint.

The other was Wu Ming, who had a livelier personality and a faint scorching aura flowing around her. At nineteen, she had just acquired her sixth Soul Ring. Her Martial Soul was the Golden Crow, a top-tier beast Martial Soul.

Protected at the center, fiercely battling the Soul Beast, was a red-haired young woman.

She was breathtakingly beautiful and voluptuous, with blazing Evil Fire Phoenix flames burning around her body. Her presence was intimidating.

She was Ma Xiaotao, Yan Shaozhe's personal disciple, who had broken through to Soul Ancestor at only thirteen years old.

Their target this time was a Lava Giant Lizard with roughly six thousand years of cultivation.

This type of Soul Beast possessed astonishing defenses, could spit lava, and had immense strength. It was among the finest of fire-attributed Soul Beasts, making it perfectly suited to become Ma Xiaotao's fourth Soul Ring.

Several Inner Court disciples were also standing guard around them. They had all just reached a bottleneck and had come with the group to obtain Soul Rings.

With the strength of Ma Xiaotao's Evil Fire Phoenix, along with Zhang Lexuan and Wu Ming, a Soul Saint and a Soul Emperor, supporting her from the side, dealing with this Lava Giant Lizard would take some effort but posed no great risk.

Yan Shaozhe had personally led the team this time mainly because the people on this expedition were too important—Zhang Lexuan and Wu Ming, two of the current Shrek Seven Devils, as well as his direct disciple Ma Xiaotao. Nothing could be allowed to happen to them.

In the field, Ma Xiaotao let out a sharp cry. Her third Soul Ring flashed as Phoenix Soaring combined with her Evil Fire and blasted the Lava Giant Lizard backward again and again, leaving scorched marks across its hard scales.

Yan Shaozhe nodded slightly, quite satisfied with his disciple's performance.

However, while everyone from Shrek Academy had their attention focused on the intense battle, no one noticed that beneath an ancient tree several people would have needed to encircle, roughly dozens of meters behind and to their side, a sudden change was taking place.

An extremely faint yet bone-chilling gray-black corpse aura had somehow begun spreading across the ground there.

The soil bulged slightly, as though something beneath it was slowly writhing and trying to break through the earth.

There were no Soul Power fluctuations, no signs of life. It was like a forgotten fragment of history silently attempting to return to the world.

This aura was utterly incompatible with the vibrant forest around it, carrying the stench of deathly stillness.

It was the Nirvana Corpse, stirred by Castorice's True Blood of Myriad Karmas, whose karma had just been locked onto and which had been forcibly dragged back into reality from the dust of history.

The place where this Nirvana Corpse had died in life happened to be near Shrek Academy's group.

The clamor of the Star Dou Great Forest seemed to have been muted at that very moment.

Yan Shaozhe, who had been standing calmly with his hands behind his back, suddenly changed expression.

A sharp, hawk-like gleam burst from his deep eyes as he abruptly turned toward the ancient tree behind and beside them.

"What an evil aura!"

His low voice carried an unprecedented vigilance. The Soul Power that had been restrained around him became like a volcano set alight—hidden yet ready to erupt, making even the surrounding air turn thick and heavy.

The Bright Phoenix Martial Soul possessed an innate sensitivity toward darkness and evil. The gray-black corpse aura he sensed now was cold, deathly, and filled with hatred and greed toward the living. Its pure essence of "evil" and "death" caused all the Soul Power in his body to boil of its own accord, as if it had encountered a natural enemy.

Almost at the same time, the ground beneath that ancient tree suddenly exploded.

"Boom!"

Dense, nauseating gray-black deathly energy burst through the soil like a geyser. A hand, pale enough to be completely bloodless, with skin tightly clinging to bone and sharp fingernails tinged blue-black, suddenly thrust out from underground. Its five fingers curled like hooks and dug deeply into the dirt.

In that instant, both Ma Xiaotao and the Lava Giant Lizard froze in the midst of their fierce clash.

Relying on a Soul Beast's instincts, the Lava Giant Lizard sensed an endless terror originating from a higher level of life.

Its violent vertical pupils instantly shrank to pinpoints. Its enormous body trembled uncontrollably, and even the lava gathering in its mouth extinguished. An incoherent whimper mixed with fear and despair rose from its throat. Its massive head turned rigidly toward the source of the deathly aura, while its limbs instinctively edged backward, desperate to flee.

Ma Xiaotao's pretty face also went deathly pale, and fine beads of cold sweat instantly formed at her temples.

The deathly stillness and evil aura rushing toward her were even more terrifying than the scorching frenzy caused when her Evil Fire Phoenix lost control.

Her clenched fists trembled slightly, not from exhaustion but from the instinctive shudder of a living creature facing death.

Zhang Lexuan and Wu Ming, standing beside Yan Shaozhe, also went pale.

Shock and gravity filled Zhang Lexuan's gentle face. She instinctively stepped half a pace forward, subtly shielding the weaker junior sisters behind her.

Golden Golden Crow flames also ignited around Wu Ming. Though she was usually lively, she could not smile now. Her bright eyes were filled with vigilance as she stared fixedly at that bizarre hand.

The other Inner Court disciples reacted as though facing a great enemy. They released their Martial Souls one after another, their Soul Rings lighting up in succession as they anxiously watched the constantly heaving ground.

At that moment, an invisible, distorted mental ripple spread outward from the hand like waves across water.

"Urgh!"

Ma Xiaotao let out a muffled groan, feeling a wave of dizziness wash over her mind. Horrifying illusions of mountains of corpses and seas of blood seemed to appear before her eyes. Although her spiritual power and Martial Soul strength dispersed them in an instant, that cold, clammy sensation still left lingering fear in her heart.