The Value of Resident Evil Special Training

Mingdou Mountains, bandit hideout.

The dark, damp cave was filled with a sickening stench of blood. Everything around them was deathly quiet, save for the sound of dripping water.

Shrek Academy's team was advancing rapidly.

The seven main team members charged at the front, led by the Inner Court's senior disciple Ma Xiaotao and the White Tiger Soul Emperor Dai Yueheng. Brilliant Soul Rings gleamed around them as they surged forward with overwhelming momentum, clearly not taking these so-called bandits seriously.

"A bunch of rats hiding in the gutters." Yao Haoxuan snorted coldly. Entering Martial Soul Possession, he strode ahead to scout the way. "We'll crush them head-on! End this quickly!"

Yet twenty meters behind them, the seven reserve members presented an entirely different scene.

None of them had summoned their Martial Souls. They had even deliberately suppressed their auras. Each wore the tactical bone-conduction headset Lu Yuan had issued them, their eyes vigilantly sweeping every corner.

Their positions formed a standard formation—Xu Sanshi stood in front with his shield, Bei Bei and Wang Dong protected the flanks, Huo Yuhao, Jiang Nannan, and Xiao Xiao provided support from the center, while He Caitou set up his heavy cannon at the rear.

"Captain." Huo Yuhao's voice came clearly through every headset. "There's something wrong with the smell of blood ahead."

"What's wrong with it?" Bei Bei asked quietly.

Huo Yuhao's Spirit Eyes narrowed slightly. "This smell... isn't fresh blood. It's the smell of decay, mixed with unstable Soul Power fluctuations. It's like... the smell before a swamp gas explosion in the sewers of Resident Evil."

Huo Yuhao raised his head and looked at the pile of corpses scattered casually beneath the main team members' feet.

At that moment, Yao Haoxuan happened to step on one of the corpses, preparing to cross over it.

"Don't move!!!" Forgetting all courtesy, Huo Yuhao shouted directly into the empty cave. "It's a trap!! Everyone, get down!!"

However, to the proud Inner Court seniors, the warning had come too suddenly and made too little sense.

Yao Haoxuan froze for a moment and turned back with a frown. "What are you yelling for? What trap could there possib—"

Before he could finish, an incomparably sinister laugh echoed from the depths of the darkness. "Hehehe... too late! All of you, become works of Corpse Explosion art!!"

The hundreds of corpses on the ground suddenly swelled at once, turning a terrifying dark red.

"Corpse Explosion!!" Ma Xiaotao's expression changed drastically. As a Soul Sage, she reacted the fastest, instantly releasing Phoenix Flames to shield her teammates.

But they were too close! There was no time!

At that critical moment.

"Reserve team! Defensive formation!!" Huo Yuhao's voice exploded through their headsets, calm as a machine.

There was no need to think. It was muscle memory carved into their bones.

"Xuan Ming Replacement!!" Without a second thought, Xu Sanshi directly activated his Soul Skill.

But he did not switch places with an enemy. He switched with Yao Haoxuan, who was closest to the blast and in the greatest danger!

The next second, Xu Sanshi appeared in the center of the corpse pile.

"Divine beast! Return to position!!" Xu Sanshi roared. The Xuanming Tortoiseshell Shield instantly expanded as he curled his whole body behind it. But that was not all. He also raised a habit he had brought back from Resident Evil—a heavy alloy Tower Shield Soul Tool.

"Three Lives Soul-Suppressing Cauldron! Seal!!" Xiao Xiao's three massive cauldrons whistled through the air and landed precisely before the team, forming an iron defense line.

"Ice walls!!" Huo Yuhao pressed both hands down, and several thick ice walls erupted from the ground, sealing off every blind spot the shockwaves could reach.

BOOM—!!!

The earth-shaking explosion thundered through the narrow cave. The force generated by hundreds of corpses detonating simultaneously was comparable to the full-force strike of several Soul Kings.

A horrific shockwave of flesh and blood, mixed with deadly poison, instantly swallowed the entire vanguard area.

Smoke billowed as shattered rocks flew everywhere.

"Cough, cough, cough..." After a long while, the smoke finally dispersed.

The scene was a complete mess.

The main team members were in a miserable state.

Blood trickled from the corner of Ma Xiaotao's mouth, and her clothes were torn. Dai Yueheng's face was pale as well.

Although Yao Haoxuan, who had been switched back by Xu Sanshi, had escaped death, the blast's aftermath still knocked him unconscious. Blood streamed from his right leg, but at least he was alive.

The other main team members had also suffered injuries of varying severity and had lost their ability to fight.

"Damn it... we were careless..." Ma Xiaotao looked at the wounded scattered across the ground, her heart filled with regret and lingering fear. If not for that Xuan Ming Replacement, Yao Haoxuan would have been nothing but minced flesh by now.

"It's not over yet." A calm voice came from behind them.

The ice walls shattered, and the seven reserve members emerged unscathed.

Though Xu Sanshi was covered in dust and his shield had been blasted black, he patted his backside and somehow still managed to grin. "Ptooey, ptooey! That Corpse Explosion... it was nowhere near as powerful as Tyrant's rocket launcher!"

Huo Yuhao stood in the middle of the formation, his Spirit Eyes radiating a terrifying light in the darkness.

He pressed a hand to his headset, his tone icy. "Target: twelve o'clock, eighty meters out. A man in a black robe. I don't care whether he's human or a ghost..."

Bei Bei's finger traced an afterimage through the air. "The hunt begins."

"Roger." The other six answered in unison.

The next second, a sight that left the main team members dumbfounded unfolded before them.

Whoosh! A sphere flashing with brilliant light was thrown out by Huo Yuhao.

The Death Messenger deep in the cave, who had been preparing to launch a second wave of attacks, was instantly blinded by the intense light and let out a scream. "Ah! My eyes!!"

"Suppressing fire!" He Caitou clenched a cigar between his teeth as the heavy Soul Tool cannon on his shoulder spat flames.

Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat! A dense barrage instantly covered the Death Messenger's location, pinning him down so thoroughly that he could not even raise his head. Sparks flew from his protective Soul Tool.

"Assault!" Bei Bei and Wang Dong charged from the left and right under the cover of the terrain, moving like twin bolts of lightning.

Rather than rushing directly at their enemy like traditional Soul Masters, they continuously made tactical Z-shaped evasive movements. Then, the instant they closed in—

"Eat a Big Explosive Barrel!!" At some point, Xu Sanshi had slipped around to the side, throwing two red barrels trailing sparks from his hands.

BOOM!! The Death Messenger was blasted into the air.

"Now! Yuhao!"

Huo Yuhao stood where he was, entering Velkhana Martial Soul Possession. The phantom of an ice dragon behind him spread its wings.

He merely raised a hand and made a grasping motion through the air.

[Velkhana · Extreme Cold Domain: Frozen Tomb]

Crack! The Death Messenger in midair suddenly felt the surrounding space freeze solid.

Countless sharp ice spikes appeared from every direction, accurately piercing through his limbs and pinning him to the rock wall like a specimen!

"AAAAARGH!!" The Death Messenger let out a shrill scream.

His corpse servants, his poisonous mist—before these well-trained young people with seamless coordination and underhanded methods, neither had even had a chance to be used before he was crippled.

"Whew... done." Huo Yuhao dispersed his Martial Soul and pressed his headset. "Everyone, check your equipment. Confirm safety."

"Safe."

"Safe."

"No ammunition... ah, no, half my Soul Power remains."

The reserve team began clearing the battlefield. Only after confirming the enemy was dead did they turn to look at the main team members behind them, who had been left utterly stunned.

"This..." Ma Xiaotao clutched her chest and looked at these children whom they had always regarded as junior brothers and sisters. For the first time, she felt they were strangers.

What kind of Soul Master competition was this? This was practically a precise military execution!

In the shadows, Xuan Zi, who had been ready to intervene all along, froze with his wine gourd raised in midair, forgetting to swallow the mouthful of wine in his mouth.

"Good heavens..." Xuan Zi rubbed his eyes as he looked at the evil Soul Master nailed to the wall, dead with his eyes still wide open. "These little brats... they're even more ruthless than I am?"

"Who taught them those tactics with Flash Pods and explosive barrels?"

Xuan Zi looked at Huo Yuhao's terrifyingly calm back, and an intense premonition suddenly rose in his heart: this year's tournament... would likely become the nightmare of every Soul Master Academy across the continent.

Because these monsters from Shrek did not care about honor. They only cared about efficiency.