Sun Moon Soul Engineer's Verbal Provocation, Huo Yuhao Calmly Breaks the Formation with One Glance

The Sun Moon Exchange Team indeed took the field in the first round of the finals.

Their captain was named Lin Zhao, the temporary tactical core of the Sun Moon Exchange Team. Three soul engineers and two close-combat guards followed behind him. The moment he spoke, he deliberately looked toward the empty spot in Shrek's preparation area.

"I heard that Shrek's beautiful Three-Eyed Golden Lion shapeshifter isn't competing?"

The sidelines instantly fell silent, and Wang Dong'er's gaze turned cold.

Lin Zhao's smile widened. "What? Even an Emperor Auspicious Beast is afraid of a match?"

Wang Dong'er spoke first. "If your Sun Moon soul tools can only be activated by your mouths, you might as well surrender now."

The opposing captain's expression darkened. Huo Yuhao did not look at him; he was looking at the three soul tool cores at the edge of the arena that had not yet fully activated.

The match began.

The Sun Moon team immediately deployed three soul tool cores that simulated auspicious-beast auras. The instant those soul tools were released, several false Wang Qiu'er auras appeared in the arena. Ordinary Spirit Detection could not distinguish them at all, and even Shrek's Spiritual Sharing was briefly thrown out of alignment.

That was why they dared to provoke them—since the real Wang Qiu'er was not present, they believed Huo Yuhao had lost his most crucial point of reference. The opposing captain sneered. "Huo Yuhao, Wang Qiu'er isn't here." He continued his teasing laughter, deliberately taking a deep breath in provocation. "Do you miss the aura of this Emperor Auspicious Beast?"

After saying that, the entire team burst into laughter. Wang Dong'er's clenched fists were pressed so tightly that traces of blood appeared. She wanted to attack Lin Zhao directly, but Huo Yuhao signaled to her with his eyes and shook his head. Dong'er temporarily suppressed her anger.

At the sidelines, He Caitou's expression changed. "Those three cores are using the Sun Moon military's False Life Wave."

Bei Bei immediately asked, "Can it be broken?"

"They can be dismantled." He Caitou stared at the arena. "But with Yuhao on the field, he'll have to identify them with his eyes first."

Bei Bei said quietly, "He can."

Wang Dong'er clearly understood that as well. Rather than attacking in haste, she immediately positioned herself where Huo Yuhao's Spiritual Sharing was most stable.

"Yuhao, see clearly."

Huo Yuhao did not answer. His Spirit Eyes opened, and the world became countless lines of soul power. The false golden auras were very convincing; even their outer golden ripples had been imitated flawlessly. But false was false. They lacked Wang Qiu'er's life force that refused to bow her head, her stubbornness when she said, "I'm not going back to Star Dou," in the wilderness, and the restraint with which she suppressed her pain when she left behind a communication leaf before departing Shrek.

She was not here, but Huo Yuhao had seen the real Wang Qiu'er. He had seen her charge into an evil formation with the Golden Dragon Spear in hand, and he had seen her turn and leave outside Shrek City's gates. False auras could imitate gold and pressure, but they could not imitate that living, proud thing within her that would rather hurt than bow her head.

Huo Yuhao swept his Spirit Eyes across the arena, and Spirit Detection peeled away the golden shells layer by layer.

The Eye of Destiny opened a sliver.

Fake. All of them were fake.

The true danger was not the phantoms, but the reverse sensing ports beneath the three cores.

"Dong'er, cut the linkage."

Wang Dong'er moved. The light wings of the Goddess of Light Butterfly rose behind her. Her blue-gold blades did not strike at people, but precisely slashed at the thinnest linkage formation patterns between the three simulation cores. Ma Xiaotao's flames suppressed the field, blocking the retreat route of the opposing soul engineers. Bei Bei's lightning broke through the center, Xu Sanshi's Black Tortoise Shield guarded Huo Yuhao's back, and Xiao Xiao's Three Lives Soul-Suppressing Cauldron suppressed the arena's tremors.

Huo Yuhao's Spirit Eyes shone to their limit. The structural diagram Orange had given him unfolded in his mind. The weakness of the simulation cores lay in the third layer of guiding plates. Huo Yuhao's Spirit Shock did not target people, only the soul tool structures. All three cores shattered at once.

But shattering was not the end. In that instant, the mental echo Huo Yuhao had hidden in advance within the reverse sensing ports was activated.

After the three simulation cores broke apart, they did not completely fail. Instead, they reflected clues to the Sun Moon team's rear soul tool control center. Silver-blue threads sprang from the fragments, like three fishing lines Huo Yuhao had hooked in reverse. The cold smile had not yet faded from the opposing captain's face when a string of explosions erupted behind his team.

Backup disruptors, hidden replenishment rings, and a second set of False Auspicious-Beast Cores were all exposed by Huo Yuhao following those clues.

The Sun Moon team leader at the sidelines abruptly stood up.

"How did he know where the second set of cores was?"

Huo Yuhao did not look at him. He merely raised a hand and gave a light pull with his ice-blue spiritual power. The three silver threads tightened at once. The backup soul tools that had not yet had time to activate were forcibly exposed beneath the arena's sensing formation.

The referee's expression darkened. "The Sun Moon team illegally pre-positioned off-field disruptors."

The entire venue erupted. The opposing captain's expression changed drastically. "Impossible!"

Huo Yuhao finally spoke. "Remember this: no matter what, you're only imitations. You are not Qiu'er's true aura."

He paused, his voice quiet but clear enough for the Sun Moon team to hear.

When Wang Dong'er heard those words, her fingertips tightened slightly, and a sour feeling rose in her heart again.

Huo Yuhao continued, "And don't make your soul tool traps look so much like classroom assignments."

"Don't forget, I studied at Sun Moon."

The Sun Moon team's formation fell into chaos, and Huo Yuhao pressed down with Spiritual Sharing.

"Dong'er, left flank."

"Senior Brother Bei Bei, lightning suppression through the center."

"Big Sister Xiaotao, close the net."

All three lines attacked at once. Light, lightning, and evil fire descended, forcing the Sun Moon team to retreat step by step. For the final strike, Huo Yuhao used Fate Deviation to make the opposing captain misjudge Wang Dong'er's landing point. Wang Dong'er's light wings broke through from the front, shattering his soul tool shield in a single blow.

The match ended.

Shrek won.

Even louder cheers erupted from the sidelines.

Wang Dong'er walked over to Huo Yuhao. "You know her aura very well."

Huo Yuhao was silent for a moment before speaking softly. "It has nothing to do with whether I know it well. A fake Wang Qiu'er can't fool me." He paused, then continued, "A fake Wang Dong'er couldn't fool me either."

Wang Dong'er turned her face away.

"The match just ended. Don't say things like that."

In the distant spectator stands, a figure in white quietly rose to her feet. The young woman held a longsword in her hand, her gaze cold and clear.

Looking at Huo Yuhao in the center of the arena, she murmured, "His destiny aura is so complicated, yet he can still avoid being consumed by evil energy?"

Someone beside her asked quietly, "Do you know him?"

The girl in white did not answer. She merely watched Huo Yuhao's Spirit Eyes, whose deep blue radiance had yet to fully fade.

"I don't."

Her gaze turned faintly cold.

"But I will definitely meet him."