Song Lao was right. This was indeed the precursor to a Soul Master's self-detonation. For the Seventh Elder, however, self-detonation was not a means of taking his enemy down with him, but his ninth Soul Skill, used to save his own life.
He would blast himself into hundreds of millions of maggots, then burrow underground to escape.
Ever since obtaining this Soul Skill, he had kept it as his last resort for survival and never used it in front of anyone. Thus, no one knew that his true purpose was to escape.
However, the only drawback of this escape trump card, which was almost certain to be misunderstood, was its extremely stringent requirements. To escape underground using the maggots, he first needed to let their fluid seep into the earth. Otherwise, forcing his way through the soil would be too slow, and his opponent would very likely cut him off in advance.
The moment before unleashing the Soul Skill was when he was most vulnerable. That was why he had no choice but to use the remaining maggot swarm and those Evil Soul Masters to block any attacks the Shrek party might launch.
As the Holy Spirit Cult's Seventh Elder, strength alone had not been enough to climb to his position. Scheming mattered even more, especially on an Evil Soul Master's path of growth.
Before they had even set out, the Seventh Elder had already planted demon maggots inside every Soul Master accompanying him.
"It is an honor for you to cover my escape," he said in a low voice.
With that, he gave a sinister smile, and his entire body instantly exploded into countless maggots that flew in all directions. The blast was roughly a tenth as powerful as an ordinary Titled Douluo's self-detonation, but it was still enough