Too Weak

"Begin!" The referee's token slammed down heavily.

Huo Yuhao's Spirit Eye flashed. Spiritual Detection Sharing activated.

Dai Huabin's roar exploded almost simultaneously with the sound of the token hitting the ground: "White Tiger Radiance Wave!" A golden beam of soul force tore through the air, carrying the momentum to shatter mountains and split rocks as it lunged straight for Huo Yuhao's face, moving nearly half a breath faster than in the simulation match—he was indeed in a hurry to end it quickly.

"Boost!" Ning Tian's Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda suddenly lit up. The strength and speed dual boosts from her soul skills poured into Huo Yuhao and Wu Feng like flowing water, with a bit more soul force allocated to Huo Yuhao, causing the soul force fluctuations around Huo Yuhao to rise sharply.

Cui Yajie had her Demon Fox martial soul possessed and was just about to cast a soul skill to control Huo Yuhao when a wave of spiritual power slammed heavily into her Sea of Spirit like a giant hammer.

A mouthful of blood spewed out, and Cui Yajie collapsed limply straight to the ground.

The referee acted in time to send Cui Yajie out of the competition arena, preventing a fallen teammate from distracting the remaining members on the field.

Dai Huabin cursed "useless" under his breath, but without stopping his footsteps, he charged straight at Huo Yuhao.

Huo Yuhao advanced instead of retreating, grinding his left foot against the ground as ice-blue soul force burst forth along the sole, instantly weaving a spiral ice net. Within the net patterns, the orange-red Marrow of Extreme Transformation and the cyan-gold boost resonated, actually forming a flowing film of light on the surface of the net.

"Boom!" The White Tiger Radiance Wave crashed into the ice net. The golden light flickered violently, but failed to blast it open—the spiral patterns acted like countless hands, stripping away the impact force layer by layer, while the corrosive force of the Marrow of Extreme Transformation flowed upstream along the beam, silently drilling into Dai Huabin's soul force current.

"Ugh!" Dai Huabin grunted softly as his right arm went numb, his soul force circulation instantly stalling, and shock and doubt flashed across the depths of his eyes.

Right at that moment, a purple shadow darted out from the shadows, Zhu Lu's Netherworld Claw gleaming with a cold light as she lunged straight for Huo Yuhao's flank—she had calculated the moment when Dai Huabin drew his attention, hoping to interrupt Huo Yuhao's soul skill.

"Your opponent is me!" Wu Feng had her martial soul possessed, and her second soul skill was released, flames spilling out like a fan-shaped waterfall. The curtain of flame was wrapped in fine ice shards, which was precisely the opening move of the combat tactic "Icefire Devour" coordinated with Huo Yuhao. The flames accurately enveloped Zhu Lu's path, and the Netherworld soul force collided with the light wall interwoven with ice and fire, instantly emitting a sizzle of burning sound. Zhu Lu let out a cry of surprise and was forced to leap backward, her purple eyes filled with shock and anger.

"Entangle her!" Huo Yuhao shouted to Wu Feng without looking back, while flicking his fingertips to send three ice cones piercing through the air. The tips of the ice cones flickered with a cyan-gold hue, which was precisely the ice element fused with the Marrow of Extreme Transformation and Ning Tian's boost. They shot unerringly toward Dai Huabin's left shoulder, knee, and ankle, all of which were weak points where the White Tiger martial soul exerted its force—and also the critical junction points of a Soul Master's meridians.

Dai Huabin roared angrily, his White Tiger Claw sweeping out fiercely, golden soul force condensing into substance at the tips of the claws as he actually attempted to receive these three ice cones head-on. Yet he forgot that the numbness in his right arm had yet to recede. The claw wind had just arrived when the ice cones brushed past the edge of the claws—there was no hard collision, but instead they exploded like attached bone-gnawing maggots. Ice shards mixed with cyan-gold corrosive force splattered, precisely sticking to his left shoulder, knee, and ankle.

"Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!" Three soft sounds rang out almost simultaneously. Dai Huabin felt an icy and burning stinging pain erupt from his three joints, his soul force feeling as though it were being pierced by countless fine needles, and its originally smooth circulation instantly jammed. He staggered half a step back, looking down to see that the skin at those three spots had actually taken on a faint cyan-black hue, and the golden halo of the White Tiger martial soul flickered violently there, as if resisting the corrosive force.

"What on earth is this power?!" Dai Huabin was both shocked and angry. He had never seen such a bizarre power before—it could not freeze flesh, yet it could directly erode the soul force meridians, making it far more troublesome to deal with than mere freezing.

"This is called 'Ultimate Transformation'." Huo Yuhao's voice came from across the ice net, calm yet carrying a penetrating quality, "It's specially meant to cure your kind of soul force that only knows how to brute-force things." As he spoke, the spiral ice net beneath his feet spun once more. This time, it was no longer in a defensive posture, but transformed into countless strands of ice silk that coiled along the trajectory of Dai Huabin's retreat, the cyan-gold corrosive force on the ice silk even more intense than before.

The light of Ning Tian's Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda grew even brighter, and the boost quietly joined in, a pale-gold halo falling upon Huo Yuhao.

Huo Yuhao's fingertips moved slightly, and the ice silk instantly changed direction, twisting toward Dai Huabin's left shoulder like a spiritual snake.

On the other side, Wu Feng and Zhu Lu were fighting fiercely. Zhu Lu's Netherworld Spirit Cat excelled in speed, and several times when she attempted to bypass the curtain of flame to launch a sneak attack, she was forced back by Wu Feng's "Icefire Devour". As soul force surged, flames and ice shards burst forth alternately, forming an airtight barrier. Every time Zhu Lu's Netherworld Claw made contact, it was numbed by the dual forces of ice and fire, and the shock and anger in her purple eyes gradually turned into anxiety.

"Stop dodging! If you have the guts, fight me head-on!" Wu Feng grew thoroughly annoyed by the dodging, and her flames suddenly surged, actually condensing the phantom of a fire dragon in front of her. The tips of the phantom's claws were entwined with Huo Yuhao's soul force, emanating a faint blue light.

The fire dragon phantom swooped down with a roar intertwined with ice and fire, the ice-blue light at its claw tips twinkling like cold stars—that was the Ultimate Transformation soul force temporarily passed to Wu Feng by Huo Yuhao, specially designed to counter the shadow attribute of the Netherworld Spirit Cat. Zhu Lu's pupils shrank to pinpricks, and finally daring not to dodge any longer, she fiercely activated her second soul skill, Netherworld Thrust. Her figure transformed into a purple-black lightning bolt, attempting to drill past the fire dragon's armpit and circle around toward Huo Yuhao.

Yet Wu Feng was well-prepared. Her wing-feathers lashed out fiercely, and the fire dragon phantom instantly expanded, flames and ice shards scattering down like a torrential rain to completely seal off Zhu Lu's evasion path. "Trying to run? Too late!" Wu Feng shrieked, the fire dragon's claws slapping down heavily as the ice-blue and crimson-red lights collided with the purple-black figure, producing a deafening explosion.

"Puff—" Zhu Lu's figure was forced into visibility, blood spilling from the corner of her mouth, and her Netherworld soul force fluctuated violently, clearly having suffered heavy injuries. She staggered backward, looking at her right arm that was both frostbitten and burned, and finally revealed an expression of terror—this dual force of ice and fire could actually tear apart her soul force defense directly.

"Got one!" Wu Feng shook her claws triumphantly, the fire dragon phantom dissipating as she turned her head toward Dai Huabin, "Yuhao, I'll help you!"

At that moment, Dai Huabin was entangled by the ice silk to the point of being unable to move. The cyan-black on his left shoulder had spread all the way to his chest, and the light of his White Tiger martial soul was as dim as a flickering candle. Seeing Zhu Lu injured, madness welled up in the depths of his eyes. He suddenly let out a sharp roar, actually snapping the ice silk on his left arm by sheer force and letting the corrosive force spread along the wound, while his right arm gathered the remaining soul force: "White Tiger Vajra Transformation!"

Dai Huabin's body suddenly expanded by half a foot, and his originally sleek golden fur stood on end like steel needles, each strand glowing with a metallic luster. Fine golden patterns emerged on the surface of his skin, resembling the overlay of a suit of vajra armor—this was precisely the defensive strengthening soul skill of the White Tiger martial soul, White Tiger Vajra Transformation, at the cost of burning a portion of soul force in exchange for a short-term surge in defensive power and explosive force.

"Roar—!" He roared frantically, and the cyan-black corrosive force on his right arm was temporarily forced back by half an inch from this burst of soul force, his golden tiger claws carrying a gale that tore through the air to smash fiercely into the ice silk entangling his left shoulder. This time, the ice silk emitted a crisp cracking sound, developing tiny fractures.

"Indeed going all out." Huo Yuhao gave a faint smile, his Spirit Eye capturing the disorder within Dai Huabin's soul force core—although White Tiger Vajra Transformation was powerful, it could not eradicate the corrosive force of the Marrow of Extreme Transformation. Instead, because of the forcible stimulation of soul force, the corrosive force crashed even more violently within the meridians.