When Xuan Zi charged through the treetops with bloodshot eyes, ready to fight to the death, the sight before him brought him to an abrupt halt, as if an invisible hand had clamped tightly around his throat.
He saw the Inner Court disciples lying all over the ground, gravely wounded and unconscious. He saw Zhang Lexuan, completely unharmed.
Then he saw the Hundred-Thousand-Year Bloodthirsty Dragon Lizard, pinned to the ground by a massive dark-purple sword, its blood pooling into a river.
Finally, Xuan Zi's gaze stiffly crept upward, settling on the young man hovering in midair, six black wings spread behind him and an expression as cold and deep as an abyss.
"Gulp..." Xuan Zi's Adam's apple bobbed with difficulty as he swallowed.
His old face, flushed red with rage, drained of every trace of color the instant he recognized the newcomer, turning deathly pale.
"F-Fallen Angel... Qian Jue?!"
Xuan Zi's voice warped with sheer terror, and even carried a tremor he could barely hide.
"You... Weren't you already dead ten years ago?! This is impossible!"
Looking down at Xuan Zi, who had instantly braced himself for battle and driven his Soul Power to its limit, Qian Jue barely lifted an eyelid. He only gave a scornful laugh.
"Taotie Douluo, it's been so many years, yet you're still just the same..."
Qian Jue leaned forward slightly and beat his six wings once. A wave of pure, terrifying darkness, more potent than anything from ten years ago, crashed down. In an instant, it crushed Xuan Zi's aura to pieces!
He looked down at Xuan Zi from above, his eyes fixed on him as if he were an insect. "You can only arrive late, like the good-for-nothing you are."
At Qian Jue's merciless taunt, Xuan Zi's already ruddy old face turned liver-purple, veins bulging on his forehead.
"Evil Soul Master, shut your mouth! You're a Fallen Angel with blood on your hands. What right do you have to judge me?!"
Hearing Xuan Zi speak with such self-righteousness, Qian Jue couldn't help laughing.
"Xuan Zi, Xuan Zi. I just respectfully called you Taotie Douluo, and you really started thinking you're somebody?"
Qian Jue leaned forward slightly, looking at Xuan Zi with disdain.
"Long ago, I warned Mu En that keeping a disaster like you at Shrek was tantamount to wishing the Inner Court disciples would die faster.
When the Evil Soul Masters of the Holy Spirit Cult wanted to kill Shrek's geniuses, they had to rack their brains, scout the area in advance, and lay traps.
But you? You'd take a team somewhere, lie down, pull out a chicken leg, and start gnawing. The geniuses would die out all by themselves."
"The Holy Spirit Cult elders rack their brains plotting, and it still doesn't beat one of your 'spur-of-the-moment inspirations' when you lead a team, Xuan Zi."
Every word struck a nerve, hitting the greatest sore spot of Xuan Zi's life.
"Qian Jue—!"
Xuan Zi roared, eyes bulging with fury, his voice shaking the forest.
"I don't care whether you really died back then or only faked your death. All these years have passed, and my strength is nothing like what it was!
Leaving an innately evil aberration like you alive will bring calamity to the world sooner or later!
As the head of the Shrek Inspection Group, I'll uphold justice today and execute you right here!"
Boom—!
Before the words had even left his mouth, nine Soul Rings—yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black, black, and red—rose from beneath Xuan Zi's feet.
The Godly Taotie Bull Martial Soul possessed him in an instant, and the terrifying aura of a Level 98 Super Douluo erupted skyward like a volcano!
"Xuan Zi, wait!" Zhang Lexuan cried out in alarm, hurrying to stop him.
If this had been any other Evil Soul Master, she would have already drawn her sword to help.
But the man before her had just saved them all from the jaws of a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast. Without Qian Jue, the Shrek Inner Court would have been wiped out today.
She absolutely refused to repay kindness with treachery.
Besides... though the other Inner Court students sprawled on the ground didn't dare speak, they couldn't help feeling a strange sense of agreement with Qian Jue's scathing remarks.
The Holy Spirit Cult could rack their brains all they wanted, and it still wouldn't beat Xuan Zi's spur-of-the-moment inspiration... The words were harsh, but they couldn't find a single reason to disagree!
"Lexuan, say no more!"
Xuan Zi had worked himself into a frenzy, his eyes bloodshot.
"I must rid the world of this menace today. He's even more dangerous than those lunatics in the Holy Spirit Cult!
Even if Mu En came here in person, he couldn't stop me. That's what I, Xuan Zi, say!"
Watching Xuan Zi's domineering, utterly arrogant attitude, Qian Jue finally lost his composure and snorted with laughter.
"Xuan Zi, did you drink fake liquor today and fry your brain?"
Mockery practically overflowed from Qian Jue's eyes. "It's only been a few years, but your skills haven't improved much. Your boasts, though, are even bigger than that Hundred-Thousand-Year Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear's were back then."
"Seems like in the years I was gone, you've been ruining plenty more innocent Shrek disciples. Got a load of Evil Fire pent up inside you and want to take it out on me?"
"Looking for death!" Xuan Zi was completely enraged, and the last thread of his reason snapped.
He stomped hard. The ground within a hundred meters split apart, and he rocketed skyward like a cannonball.
His Seventh Soul Ring blazed black. Xuan Zi immediately unleashed his Martial Soul Avatar, transforming into a colossal Godly Taotie Bull as massive as a mountain.
Violent, ocher Soul Power gathered in the air, forming a gigantic gravitational vortex.
"Taotie Devours Heaven!"
Terrifying devouring power erupted from the Godly Taotie Bull's massive mouth. The surrounding trees and rocks, even the light itself, seemed to be dragged into it. The force looked ready to grind the entire space—and Qian Jue along with it—to dust.
Facing this all-out attack, enough to make an ordinary Titled Douluo despair, Qian Jue didn't even try to dodge.
He hovered quietly in midair, the six black wings behind him beating in a leisurely rhythm.
"Level 98? That's what gives you the nerve to run your mouth in front of me?"
Qian Jue slowly raised his right hand. Dark-purple currents of destructive energy compressed furiously in his palm.
After completing the first four Demon Trials, the power he had accumulated within him had long since surpassed the limits of mortals.
The terrifying pressure of an Ultimate Douluo—even a Demigod Realm powerhouse—burst forth without restraint at that moment!
"Boom—!!!"
A surge of ultimate darkness, ten times, a hundred times stronger than Xuan Zi's, crashed down like a celestial river pouring from the heavens.
The Taotie vortex, which had been devouring everything around it, was like a soap bubble in a gale before this absolute suppression. It popped in an instant!
"What?!"
The Godly Taotie Bull that Xuan Zi had transformed into widened its bovine eyes in disbelief.
His killing blow had been crushed before it could even touch the other man's clothes?!
"Since you love lying down and eating chicken legs so much..."
Qian Jue's gaze turned cold. He abruptly pressed his right hand down toward Xuan Zi below.
"Then stay face-down on the ground forever!"
Bang—!!!
A colossal hand, formed entirely from ultimate darkness, blotted out the sky as it descended. With the force of a landslide and a shattering torrent, it slammed into the Godly Taotie Bull's back.
Accompanied by a bone-grating crack, Xuan Zi, a Level 98 powerhouse, didn't even have time to scream before his enormous Martial Soul Avatar collapsed.
He was hurled into the earth like a meteor, smashing into a gigantic crater dozens of meters deep!
Rumble—!!!
The entire Star Dou Great Forest seemed to shudder in an earthquake, and clouds of dust billowed into the sky.
Zhang Lexuan and the Inner Court disciples stared blankly at the crater. Their minds went utterly blank, and they even forgot to breathe.
One move.
With just one move, the second-in-command of Shrek Academy, the Level 98 Taotie Douluo Xuan Zi, had been effortlessly pinned down by the man before them like a fly being swatted?!
Before you continue