Lin Ye: This Person Was Complicated

The most poignant part of this dark history is her scenes with Huo Yuhao.

Back then, Huo Yuhao infiltrated the vicinity of the Holy Spirit Cult Headquarters and happened to run into Ma Xiaotao, who was on patrol.

He still held onto a sliver of hope, calling out "Sister," thinking that even just a little bit of her consciousness would be enough.

Without saying a word, the corrupted Ma Xiaotao unleashed her sixth Soul Skill.

The Black Phoenix's ultimate dark flames swept across the sky, showing absolutely no mercy.

If Huo Yuhao hadn't been protected by Ultimate Ice and reacted quickly, he would have been burned to ashes on the spot.

Ma Xiaotao, who used to protect her younger brother the most, became Evil Soul Master and the first person she wanted to kill was her beloved sworn brother.

Readers often say this passage is the most heart-wrenching, and the heart-wrenching part lies in the contrast.

In the past, whenever anyone bullied Huo Yuhao, Ma Xiaotao would be the first to rush to his aid.

Now she herself has become the one who wants to kill Huo Yuhao.

Even knowing she was under the influence of evil magic, the killing intent in that attack was real, and the ruthlessness of the blow was also real.

However, it's not entirely hopeless.

Although Huo Yuhao failed to rescue her that time, he briefly awakened Ma Xiaotao's consciousness with his powerful Spirit Power.

Once she regained consciousness, Ma Xiaotao, enduring the backlash from the evil magic within her body, helped Huo Yuhao figure out the defenses of the Holy Spirit Cult Headquarters, completing her reconnaissance mission.

Later, the Evil Soul Engineer Corps arrived. In order to avoid being exposed and to cover Huo Yuhao's retreat, she could only pretend to have turned evil again and returned to her position as the Fire Phoenix Saintess.

That was the first time she had reached out and grasped the light after falling into the abyss.

This also allowed Huo Yuhao to fully understand the situation: to save her, he couldn't rely solely on awakening her memories; he needed to address the root cause of the problem— the Evil Fire and the power of darkness.

Upon seeing this, Wang Dong'er felt a complex mix of emotions.

It turns out that Ma Xiaotao protected Huo Yuhao many times, and even when she fell into evil ways, she still thought of helping Huo Yuhao in her moments of clarity.

She was genuinely puzzled; just how strong was Huo Yuhao's Protagonist Halo?

Every woman would go to such lengths for him.

She, who was once unaware of the truth, along with Xiao Xiao, Ye Guyi, Wang Qiu'er, and Ma Xiaotao.

There might be others, but Lin Ye didn't mention them.

With so many outstanding women, why are they so infatuated with Huo Yuhao? She hasn't really seen anything remarkable about Huo Yuhao yet.

However, regarding what Ma Xiaotao did in the future, she had to admit that if she were in that situation, she might not have been able to do better than Ma Xiaotao.

Xiao Xiao, on the other hand, didn't think that much about it; she read the diary and her eyes welled up with tears.

Xiao Xiao sniffed. "Poor Senior Ma Xiaotao... She clearly still remembers Yuhao, but she still pretends not to know him and even tries to fight him."

The final salvation came late, but it did come eventually.

Years later, Huo Yuhao became Titled Douluo, strong enough to stand alone, and finally returned to the Holy Spirit Cult Headquarters.

He single-handedly fought against ten men and managed to rescue Ma Xiaotao from the encirclement.

The purification process is troublesome and dangerous.

Huo Yuhao first used the Ultimate Ice combined with his Spirit Power to scrape away the dark power in her meridians and deep within her Martial Soul bit by bit, not daring to be careless in the slightest.

This one step alone took three whole days and three nights.

The dark power was cleared away, but the Evil Fire curse at its root remained. In order to completely solve this problem, Huo Yuhao made a special trip to the Icefire Yin Yang Well to find the 100,000-year-old Immortal Herb Infernal Delicate Apricot, and obtained the Blazing Resin that it had nurtured for many years.

Back then, the first generation Tang San used a similar method to help Ma Hongjun purify the Evil Fire Phoenix.

Blazing Resin entered his body, the impurities of the Evil Fire Phoenix were completely refined. His Martial Soul was purified from the Black Phoenix and evolved into a pure Fire Phoenix, a true Ultimate Fire, without any trace of evil, and without any worry of backlash.

The bloodline curse that had plagued Ma Xiaotao her entire life was finally completely lifted.

In the days that followed, she cultivated all the way to level 95 Super Douluo, succeeded Yan Shaozhe as the dean of Shrek's Dean of Martial Soul Department, and was also the Sea God Pavilion's designated successor to the next Pavilion Master.

It seems like they've returned to their peak and are enjoying immense success.

But a dark history is a dark history; memories etched into one's very being cannot be erased.

Even after many years, whenever she thinks of those days in the Holy Spirit Cult and the souls who died under her flames, her emotions still spiral out of control, and the evil energy within her shows signs of resurgence.

When Huo Yuhao was around, he could help her calm down.

When Huo Yuhao later becomes a god and leaves Douluo Continent, this sin and guilt will be hers alone to carry for the rest of her life.

A long silence fell over the meditation room.

Ma Xiaotao opened her eyes, the shame and anger from before gone, replaced by a calmness and a deep-seated heaviness.

Yes, the sins of the future are of our own making, the debts are our own incurred; how can we simply forget them?

Fortunately, it's not too late. It can't happen now, it can't happen later, it can't happen at any time.

Shrek Academy, Inner Court Office.

Zhang Lexuan looked out the window and nodded gently.

"It seems that it's never too late to turn back after experiencing the past."

Zhang Lexuan whispered, "I believe that whether it's another future or the present, Shrek will wait for Ma Xiaotao Ma Xiaotao and stay by her side."

Star Dou Forest, Lake of Life.

Gu Yuena raised her hand, creating a circle of tiny ripples.

"Human resilience can sometimes be truly unexpected."

She spoke calmly, "To fall into the abyss yet still hold onto one's principles, and finally climb back to shore—compared to Tang Ya, Ma Xiaotao's clarity and resilience are truly rare."

"However... Evil Soul Master is still Evil Soul Master. Once they've done it, it's destined to become a 'dark history'."

[To conclude, Ma Xiaotao's dark history is actually quite clear.]

One type is the negative gossip and jokes shared casually during leisure time.

Examples include using his younger brother as a fire extinguisher, the famous scene at Sea God Lake, "Little Peanut" slipping out of the tongue, and losing control in public during a celebration.

These are all harmless gossips, funny to talk about, but they don't involve any matters of principle. At most, they just shatter her Ma Xiaotao's dignity. There's a lot of teasing, but very little serious discussion.

The other type is the genuine dark history of Evil Soul Master.

For example, she once transformed into Black Phoenix, becoming the Holy Phoenix Saintess of the Holy Spirit Cult, her hands stained with blood, and she killed even her closest relatives.

These are real mistakes, which cannot be washed away or erased.

Even if there were reasons related to the bloodline curse, the external force of the Judgment Sword, and the instigation of the Holy Spirit Cult, she was the one who carried out the act, and she was the one who committed the murder.

But it is precisely because of this "conscious descent into depravity" that her character has more depth.

She was neither a complete victim nor a completely evil person.

She struggled in the darkness, made mistakes, but ultimately, relying on her own conscience, she grasped the light, returned to the right path, and spent the rest of her life making amends for her mistakes.

We feel sorry for her misfortune and angry at her lack of resistance, but more than anything, we acknowledge her rebirth.

Alright, that's enough about Ma Xiaotao.

Serious, gossipy, serious, and funny—they've all been laid out, which is fair.

Next up is Wang Dong'er, no, it should be Tang Wutong!