Martial Soul Fusion Technique

The instant the referee's hand fell on the competition stage.

All seven members of the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy moved at once, their movements so synchronized it was as if a single iron plate had been split into seven pieces.

Ma Rulong gripped the black scabbard at his waist with his right hand and drew his sword in one fluid motion. As the blade left its sheath, it let out an almost inaudible sound, like metal weeping. Dark red light seeped from the blade, swirled once around his palm, then transformed into a deep, shadowy film that covered the entire sword.

Ma Xiaotao's pupils contracted slightly.

The aura on that sword made her uncomfortable. It was not fear, but an instinctive warning. If her Martial Soul had not evolved, facing that sword might have spelled trouble.

Ma Rulong was already charging at her with the sword in hand. After fusing with the Big-Headed Ape Martial Soul, his body had not grown larger, but his speed had surged. The Judgment Sword was held before him as dark-attribute soul power condensed along the blade into a dark red arc. Carrying a corrosive aura, it stabbed straight for Ma Xiaotao's face.

At the same time, Xiao Hongchen's Three-Legged Golden Toad Martial Soul lit up behind him. Dozens of soul tool beams fired simultaneously from the array of soul tools around him, spreading like a net of light as they descended from above and the side.

Their intention was obvious. They wanted to entangle Ma Xiaotao in close combat and keep her pinned down.

Ma Xiaotao did not dodge.

She stepped forward and fused with her Martial Soul. The flames around her abruptly expanded outward, and the temperature of her Ultimate Fire was so high that the soul tool beams near her began to warp halfway through the air. Several beams were burned apart before they could even reach her.

Ma Xiaotao raised her hand and swept it forward, sending a crimson flame flying from her palm to meet Ma Rulong's incoming Judgment Sword.

On Shrek's side, vice-captain Dai Yueheng saw through their plan, but he did not concern himself with it. With their captain's strength, taking on two opponents posed no pressure at all. They only needed to deal with the remaining members of the Sun Moon Team. In a deep voice, he said, "Gongyang Mo, stay and boost the captain. Xi Xi, hold the rear and protect Gongyang Mo while you're at it. The rest of you, charge with me."

Dai Yueheng instantly fused with his White Tiger Martial Soul. His entire body grew larger, white fur mixed with black tiger stripes emerging from beneath his skin. With a shriek that tore through the air, his tiger claws slammed straight toward Meng Hongchen at the center of the Sun Moon Team's formation.

At the same time, he activated his first Soul Ring skill, White Tiger Body-Protecting Barrier, and his third Soul Ring skill, White Tiger Vajra Transformation. For those few seconds, his speed and strength nearly doubled.

But the Sun Moon Team had clearly prepared for this. Two defensive Soul Engineers simultaneously raised two layers of soul tool shields, forcibly blocking Dai Yueheng's claw. Cracks spread across the shields like spiderwebs, but they did not shatter.

The two attackers on the flanks used that opening to circle out and fire soul tool cannon blasts at Shrek's rear, targeting Gongyang Mo, who was responsible for boosting them, and Xi Xi, who was covering him.

Xi Xi flickered and appeared in front of Gongyang Mo. At the same time, she fused with her Martial Soul. Her Martial Soul was an Immortal Vine suited for support and control. Her thousand-year Soul Ring lit up, and she formed a vine wall before them.

The soul tool shells struck it with no more effect than if they had hit a metal wall. The force of the explosions did not reach those behind it at all.

Dai Yueheng's second wave of attacks came crashing down immediately after. This time, he was serious. His sixth soul skill, White Tiger Annihilation Strike, erupted. A white tiger-shaped phantom streaked with blood-red light charged out of his body and smashed head-on into the two soul tool shields. One shield shattered, while the other cracked more than halfway through. The Sun Moon Team's first line of defense was forcibly torn open.

Chen Zifeng followed Dai Yueheng through that gap. His speed-and-attack Martial Soul showed its worth at that moment, as an incomparably sharp slash of soul power leaped over the defenses and cleaved toward Meng Hongchen.

Meng Hongchen did not dodge.

She stood there with her hands clasped before her chest as a pale purple mist spread from her palms. The mist expanded with terrifying speed. Almost at the exact moment Chen Zifeng's slash fell, it had already spread beneath his feet.

Chen Zifeng's attack stopped less than three feet from Meng Hongchen. It was not because he had stopped himself. His wrist had frozen. A layer of pale purple frost spread from his fingertips, covering half his arm in the blink of an eye. His soul power circulation slowed beneath that chill, as though someone had poured a can of paste into his meridians.

"Poison?" Chen Zifeng's expression changed as he tried to retreat, but the frost spread faster than he could move back.

Yao Haoxuan rushed in from the flank to pull him away, but the moment he touched that pale purple mist, his movements visibly slowed by half a beat. Frost crawled upward from his feet. Though he forced part of it to stop with his soul power, the chill had already seeped into his meridians.

Gongyang Mo's heart sank as he watched from the rear. Just as he was about to use a boosting skill to help his teammates dispel the chill, Meng Hongchen took two steps forward. The purple mist in her hands transformed into several slender ice snakes, which silently slipped around the front lines and slithered toward Gongyang Mo.

Gongyang Mo activated an invincible barrier in an attempt to block the ice snakes, but the moment they touched the barrier, they exploded into an even denser purple ice mist that seeped through the gaps in the shield.

After Gongyang Mo inhaled a breath of the mist, his throat tightened and his limbs turned cold. The soul power within his body seemed as though someone had twisted shut a valve, refusing to circulate no matter what he did.

Dai Yueheng was fighting two Sun Moon Team Soul Engineers at the front. Catching sight of the situation behind him from the corner of his eye, the string in his heart suddenly drew taut. He wanted to pull back, but Meng Hongchen's ice mist had already covered over half the battlefield. That pale purple chill seeped in through every opening, and with every breath, he felt as if his lungs were filling with crushed ice.

Ma Rulong and Xiao Hongchen were still locked in a desperate struggle against Ma Xiaotao.

Ma Rulong had already shifted the Judgment Sword's angle of attack three times, and every strike had been blocked or forced back by Ma Xiaotao. His soul power was draining rapidly. Though that sword could resist Ma Xiaotao's flames to some extent, every clash severely depleted his reserves.

Xiao Hongchen had already raised his soul tool beams to maximum power, but whenever the beams approached Ma Xiaotao, they were always scorched several inches off course by her flames. Their accuracy was steadily worsening.

While fighting them, Ma Xiaotao had already swept her gaze across the entire battlefield.

She saw Gongyang Mo and Xi Xi collapsed at the rear. She saw Dai Yueheng and Chen Zifeng, whose movements had obviously slowed. She saw Yao Haoxuan, half his leg frozen, still struggling to hold on.

Shrek's formation had been torn apart by Meng Hongchen's Ice Toad Poison. At least three of their six members had lost their ability to fight, and the rest were moving sluggishly as well.

The fire in Ma Xiaotao's heart flared up at once.

It was not that she had not known the Sun Moon Team would devise tactics to target her. She simply had not expected their trump card's poison to be this potent.

"Martial uncle was right," she murmured. "Celebrating at halftime really is a major taboo."

Then, she stopped dodging.

Ma Rulong's Judgment Sword happened to be chopping down from the front. She raised a hand and grabbed the blade directly.

Ma Rulong froze for a moment. The dark power and corrosive force on the blade were real. He had expected Ma Xiaotao to evade or retreat, but her hand simply clamped down around the sword blade.

Flames enveloped her palm, burning the dark red corrosive aura on the blade with a sizzling hiss. Yet that dark power also scorched her skin, blood seeping through the gaps between her fingers.

"Take it back."

Ma Xiaotao yanked hard, dragging Ma Rulong two staggering steps forward. Then she released the blade and drove her other fist into Ma Rulong's chest. That punch was wrapped in a mass of flames condensed to the extreme. Ma Rulong's soul power barrier was like paper before it, shattering at the slightest touch.

His body flew backward, slammed into the protective barrier at the edge of the stage, and slid down. The Judgment Sword flew from his hand, landing far away on the stage with a clear clang.

At that same instant, all of Xiao Hongchen's soul tool beams fired at her. Ma Xiaotao twisted aside and dodged most of them, but one still grazed her shoulder, scorching a blackened wound. She ignored it, turned, and stepped toward Xiao Hongchen. Flames spread from beneath her feet, burning a ring of blackened earth into the tiles around him.

Xiao Hongchen was forced to retreat, falling back beside Meng Hongchen.

The original plan had been for him and Ma Rulong to take turns holding Ma Xiaotao back, but Ma Rulong had been knocked out. Alone, he could not stop this woman who fought like a madwoman.

"Brother, use the Martial Soul Fusion Technique," Meng Hongchen said. Her voice was somewhat weak; the poisonous mist had consumed more than she had anticipated.

Xiao Hongchen glanced at her and answered without hesitation, "All right!"

The two of them stepped back half a pace at the same time and simultaneously released their Martial Souls.

Xiao Hongchen's Three-Legged Golden Toad and Meng Hongchen's Vermilion Clear Ice Toad were both mutated toad-type Martial Souls. The moment their auras touched, they began drawing one another in and merging.

A mass of dark golden light rose from where they met.