Battle Against the Mutant Skeleton, Another Explosion?

"This thing is hard to deal with."

Dai Yueheng stood at the front of the group, his White Tiger Martial Soul fully possessed. His claws were covered in a layer of dim white Soul Power, and his tiger eyes stared fixedly at the Mutant Skeleton ahead.

He had clearly left a deep claw mark on its ribcage earlier. The mark had clearly damaged its bones, yet it had only lasted a few breaths before beginning to heal on its own.

It seemed ordinary attacks were ineffective against this monster.

Not only that, Dai Yueheng had discovered that the Mutant Skeleton could not be approached carelessly. The last time he had tried to close into melee range, the ribs on its chest had suddenly opened outward like two rows of fangs. The gaps between the bone fragments had widened several times over, forming a huge mouth that had nearly bitten him.

Though he had dodged it, Dai Yueheng was still shaken. If he had been hit, he would have been seriously injured, perhaps even killed on the spot.

"Energy fluctuations around it corroded even my flames. Damn it."

Ma Xiaotao gritted her teeth as she watched the Mutant Skeleton ahead. Not only had the creature corroded her flames, it had also used undead aura to stir up the evil fire within them. She now had to devote extra effort to suppress the restless agitation rising within her body.

Whoosh—

The sound of something cutting through the air rang out as an arrow wreathed in black flames shot toward them.

"Roar!"

Dai Yueheng spat out a beam of light that collided with the arrow, triggering a massive explosion.

Beside Dai Yueheng, Ma Xiaotao's heart seemed to stop for an instant when she saw those black flames. She knew that fire all too well. It was her evil fire!

"Senior, I have a way to control it for three seconds. Focus your attacks on it. Its head is its weakness."

Huo Yuhao's voice reached the official team members' ears. The group exchanged glances, then began gathering power.

They did not know how Huo Yuhao, a mere three-ring soul master, intended to deal with a creature nearly twenty thousand years old. But Huo Yuhao had too many strange abilities; somehow, it seemed perfectly reasonable that he possessed such a method.

"I'll hold it back."

Ling Luochеn held her ice staff as the Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring behind her lit up. A circle of dense white chill spread outward from her, hugging the ground as it surged toward the Mutant Skeleton.

Creak—

When the chill touched the Mutant Skeleton's ankles, a thin layer of ice crystals formed over its grayish-white bones. Its movements visibly slowed, its once-fluid motions becoming jerky and intermittent, while faint cracking sounds came from its joints.

By then, Huo Yuhao was ready.

A peculiar golden orb appeared in his hand, with a special rune floating at its center.

"Dominate!"

The orb flew from Huo Yuhao's hand and shot straight into the Mutant Skeleton's skull.

Undead Domination Magic—this was a specialized offensive spell Electrolux had improved specifically for the Mutant Skeleton. It had been precisely adjusted for the mental structure of undead creatures. As long as the caster's spiritual power was strong enough, it could directly dominate the target for a short period.

The Mutant Skeleton had almost no means of defending against this attack. Its mental structure had been designed to resist physical attacks. Faced with magic specifically targeting undead consciousness, it did not even have room to struggle.

Huo Yuhao's spiritual power entered the Mutant Skeleton's consciousness core through the magic. The two forces began a tug-of-war within its skull, leaving both sides unable to move for the moment.

Unfortunately, this was not a traditional one-on-one battle.

"White Tiger Radiant Wave!"

"Phoenix Piercing Cloud Strike!"

"Slash!"

"Thunderous Might!"

The voices of Dai Yueheng, Ma Xiaotao, Chen Zifeng, and Bei Bei rang out almost simultaneously. Purple and black Spirit Ring light alternated in the darkness of the Twilight Forest,

Long-range attacks converged on the motionless skeleton from different directions. Firelight, lightning, sword light, and white radiance erupted across the Mutant Skeleton's body at once. The surrounding environment churned violently under those forces, and the blast waves pressed the trees backward until they bent and toppled.

"Boom—"

The explosion shook the surrounding branches and leaves, making them rustle violently.

Once the aftershock faded, only scattered bone fragments remained where the Mutant Skeleton had stood. The largest rib had broken into several pieces, and thin white smoke rose from the broken surfaces.

"It's finally over."

Seeing the Mutant Skeleton sprawled across the ground ahead, Chen Zifeng let out a sigh of relief. Among them, he had been closest to the Mutant Skeleton, since his ranged attacks did not have much reach.

He was about to retract his sword when his gaze inadvertently swept over the ground. Fine cracks had begun appearing across the surface of those bone fragments, and dark red light seeped from the fissures, as though something were expanding outward from within.

"A Soul Bone? No, what is that?"

"Senior Chen!"

Huo Yuhao suddenly remembered that the Mutant Skeleton would explode after death!

Boom...

The Mutant Skeleton's remains erupted in a series of explosions in an instant. Black flames spewed from the gaps between the bone fragments, like a dark flower suddenly blooming.

"Hm?"

Inside the Nine-Headed Serpent nest in the Flame Swamp, Xuan Zi was happily eating roasted Nine-Headed Serpent meat with blazing flames on the ground for company when he suddenly heard a huge explosion.

At the sound, Xuan Zi's heart skipped a beat, and he nearly choked on the Nine-Headed Serpent meat in his mouth.

"Nothing went wrong, did it?"

Xuan Zi activated his Taotie Martial Soul. Earth-yellow light carried him into the air as he immediately flew toward the explosion site.

"You little brats, don't you dare get yourselves killed! You're Shrek's future hope."

Xuan Zi was deeply worried. Once he had learned that the strongest soul beasts in the Twilight Forest were only around twenty thousand years old, he had stopped taking his role as leader seriously. The soul beasts here were unlike those outside; if anything happened, he truly would have no way to explain himself to Mu En.

At first, he had thought that with Ma Xiaotao and Dai Yueheng, two top-tier Soul Emperors, nothing could possibly go wrong.

At the site of the explosion...

"Cough, cough..."

One second before the explosion, Chen Zifeng had lunged behind a nearby boulder. When the boulder exploded, it had blocked part of the shockwave, though Chen Zifeng was still caught in the blast.

"Chen Zifeng, how are you feeling?"

Gongyang Mo stepped forward, activated his Martial Soul Possession, and poured all his buffs into Chen Zifeng to help him recover.

"I'm fine, but these flames are really unpleasant."

Chen Zifeng answered. He was a Soul King, after all, and his defenses were quite good. However, this strange black fire was extremely uncomfortable. He felt as though it were burning his soul.

"Yuhao, come take a look at Chen Zifeng."

When Ma Xiaotao saw the black flames on Chen Zifeng, she frowned and stepped back, immediately calling Huo Yuhao over. She did not dare approach Chen Zifeng.

She knew the aura of evil fire far too well.

"Senior, it might be a little cold. Bear with it."

Huo Yuhao extended his hand. The second Spirit Ring behind him lit up, and a small emerald-green scorpion appeared in his palm.

"Junior, you're not going to make that sting me, are you?"

Chen Zifeng gave a bitter smile. Normally, he would not have been afraid, but the moment he saw that tiny scorpion, he felt a terror rising from the depths of his soul.

"Don't be afraid, Senior. I simulated it with my second Martial Soul and second soul skill. This works faster."

Huo Yuhao said with a smile. What he had simulated was the four-hundred-thousand-year Ice Empress, though due to his lack of understanding, the simulation was not very accurate. If his cultivation were stronger, or if he had greater mastery over his simulation soul skill, it could have been even stronger.

The simulated Ice Empress Scorpion crawled onto Chen Zifeng's wound and stabbed into the burned flesh.

"Hiss—"

An extreme chill pierced his body, and Chen Zifeng could not help sucking in a cold breath. Setting everything else aside, going from scorching heat to freezing cold really was incredibly refreshing!

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—

The Ice Empress Scorpion swiftly finished treating Chen Zifeng's wounds. Just as the healing was nearly complete, Xuan Zi finally arrived above them.

"Whew... Good thing everyone's fine."

When Xuan Zi saw that no one was in trouble, aside from Chen Zifeng's minor injury, he finally relaxed. He had just been reminded of that incident with the Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast. It had truly terrified him.

Xuan Zi glanced at the shattered stone nearby and secretly injected his Soul Power into it.

Below, the healed Chen Zifeng stood up. His body still felt cold inside, but the burning sensation had vanished.

"You really don't let anyone rest easy. Chen Zifeng, minus one point."

Behind the group, Xuan Zi looked down at them from above. He pulled out their evaluation sheets and deducted one point beside Chen Zifeng's name.

"If I hadn't infused Soul Power into that rock, do you think you would have come out of there unharmed just by relying on that stone?"

Seeing Chen Zifeng's dissatisfaction, Xuan Zi spoke. That was right, the Soul Power he had just injected was for exactly this reason. If Mu En learned that he had not been present and the Shrek team had nearly died, he would be finished.

Mu En was now a true Limit Douluo. One hand would be enough to teach him a lesson.

After hearing Xuan Zi's words, Chen Zifeng wanted to argue, but could only swallow his words. After all, he was not sure what would have happened to him if Xuan Zi had not acted. This had been the explosion of a twenty-thousand-year soul beast.

"Thank you, Elder Xuan."

"Hmph."

Xuan Zi shot him a sidelong glance, turned, and flew away. His robe traced an earth-yellow streak across the twilight sky before quickly vanishing into the distant darkness.

"That should be fine now, right?"

Xuan Zi felt this was probably a one-time occurrence and that no more problems would arise. A Magic Map appeared in one hand, while he took out the unfinished Nine-Headed Serpent Steak with the other and took a huge bite.

"This time, I'll try that Minotaur salad sauce meat. I've never had it hot before."

Xuan Zi swallowed and immediately flew toward the Minotaur Maze marked on the map.

Meanwhile, the Shrek group below was still resting.

"He really knows how to fool people."

Xia Liang watched Xuan Zi leave. He had smelled the scent of roasted Nine-Headed Serpent meat on the Taotie Douluo earlier; anyone could have guessed what he had been doing. As for the Soul Power in the stone? Xia Liang had watched Xuan Zi inject it himself.

"This Senior Xuan Zi..."

After hearing Xia Liang's explanation, Huo Yuhao was speechless as well. Looking in the direction Xuan Zi had gone, he wondered whether Xuan Zi truly was not afraid something might happen to them.