A Complete Overwhelming Defeat, Xuanzi's Change of Face

Xuanzi's pupils suddenly contracted at the sight of the black hole.

Instinctively, even in his special fusion state, he cried out in disbelief.

"Spatial compression! How is that possible?"

One had to know that even those with spatial-type martial souls needed to reach Rank 98 to compress space into such a temporary black hole.

And that was only an exception for spatial-type martial souls. Without one, a person generally had to become a Limit Douluo before mastering this special ability.

Yet from what Gu Yuena had just displayed, he had not sensed any spatial attribute from her at all.

Lin Yuan merely sneered at this.

What a joke. Gu Yuena's martial soul was the Silver Dragon King—the one who understood space best.

Faced with the black hole created by that spatial compression, Xuanzi struggled for quite a while before barely managing to withstand it.

More importantly, Gu Yuena had vanished at some point.

By the time he sensed her again the next moment, alarm blared in his heart.

Gu Yuena had somehow appeared behind him. As seven elements flowed around her, what she wielded in her hand was none other than the Elemental Authority.

The circulating elemental power seemed to have turned this entire stretch of heaven and earth into a cage. Before he knew it, Xuanzi had been firmly trapped within it.

Moreover, the elements shifted at an astonishingly dazzling speed.

Xuanzi's expression finally turned truly ugly. So many elements... no! If he were really trapped, then judging by Gu Yuena's terrifying strength from earlier, he was already beginning to regret making a move. But he had already acted.

"Ninth Soul Skill: Heaven's Call, Earth's Response!"

As the red glow of his ninth soul ring flashed, the yellow mountains rising from the earth seemed to tremble and gradually collapse. Streams of yellow earth-element power began gathering bit by bit.

They gradually formed an orb of earth-element light, seemingly intending to blast apart the barrier Gu Yuena had formed by force.

Fighting her while imprisoned inside was simply like smashing an egg against a stone.

But upon seeing this, Gu Yuena's eyes merely flashed with coldness.

The next instant, the Elemental Authority in her hand jabbed fiercely at the earth-element orb.

That massive orb, originally condensed from Xuanzi's earth element and meant to help him break free from the cage—even bolster his strength—

Was instead forcibly and gradually drained of its power by Gu Yuena.

And Xuanzi could sense that this draining was nearly irreversible.

"Stop! That's my soul skill! Those are the elements I condensed!"

Xuanzi's pained expression made Lin Yuan instinctively imagine a certain line.

But trying to compete with Gu Yuena in elemental control was simply courting death.

As he felt the elements that could have helped him break free grow fewer and fewer—

Xuanzi completely panicked.

Although the Elemental Cage did not directly condense any attacks,—

The power of heaven and earth that the cage manipulated was becoming ever more terrifying.

If he did not escape in time, these elemental attacks might be able to wear him down—perhaps even drain him to death.

Just imagining it made Xuanzi shudder. As regret surged through him, his flushed face could not help tentatively sending a voice transmission to Gu Yuena.

"Your Excellency, there's no need for us to take things this far, is there?"

But Gu Yuena could not even be bothered to respond. She merely cast Xuanzi a cold glance, the killing intent in her eyes making her intentions perfectly clear.

Xuanzi felt humiliated again and again. He believed he had already cast aside his dignity, yet Gu Yuena still refused to give him even the slightest bit of face.

"Fine! Very well!"

Watching the Elemental Cage formed from the power of heaven and earth grow increasingly dreadful, Xuanzi gritted his teeth and finally used his ninth soul skill again.

"Taotie Awakening!"

In an instant, the Taotie Divine Bull formed from his special fusion began to change.

A faint Taotie phantom appeared, and as he forcibly activated the divine beast power within his body, he rammed into the Elemental Cage.

The thousand-meter Taotie phantom seemed to possess the power to shatter mountains and seas.

"Rumble!!"

The explosion sounded like countless mountains collapsing one after another, its momentum immense. But as the smoke and dust dispersed—

Xuanzi had barely smashed his way out through a small gap. More accurately, he had only managed to escape after temporarily reverting to human form.

But anyone with eyes could see that Gu Yuena had completely overwhelmed Xuanzi on an entirely different level.

Gu Yuena had remained calm and composed from beginning to end, while Xuanzi had already used his hundred-thousand-year soul skill twice, only barely managing to escape her grasp by luck.

After realizing the gap in their strength, Xuanzi shot Lin Yuan a resentful glare and, without the slightest hesitation, turned to flee.

What was he supposed to fight her with?

At this moment, Gu Yuena gave Xuanzi a feeling comparable even to Mu En.

What he could not understand most was why the gap between them was so enormous.

But just as Xuanzi was about to run, Gu Yuena activated her soul rings, seemingly revealing the answer.

The appearance of those soul rings left even Jing Hongchen dumbfounded.

There was no black, nor was there any red.

There were only nine pale golden soul rings revolving around her.

Everyone knew that in the world of soul masters, only legendary million-year soul rings were golden. What were these nine pale golden soul rings?

This exceeded Jing Hongchen's understanding, yet it also reminded them of the miracle Lin Yuan had explained before.

In an instant, it all seemed increasingly reasonable.

But Xuanzi was utterly stunned. What the hell were nine pale golden soul rings supposed to mean?

Yet his shock lasted only an instant. Cold sweat continuously poured down his back as he fled desperately for his life.

But how could Gu Yuena possibly give him the chance to escape? The surrounding space gradually warped and collapsed, forming another Elemental Cage.

Even the elements themselves seemed to gradually boil.

Each was condensing the most terrifying power, and there were even signs of fusion between them.

"Elemental Tide!"

Gu Yuena fiercely swung the Elemental Authority in her hand.

This world itself seemed barely able to endure the power as space trembled.

This attack had clearly already touched the threshold of the ultimate realm.

Seeing this, Xuanzi took a deep breath and spoke with an almost ingratiating smile.

"Your Excellency, there's no need to become mortal enemies with Shrek Academy, is there? If it was because I harbored ill intentions, I am willing to apologize to you. All right?"

Even Jing Hongchen found his sudden change of attitude utterly absurd. Heh. The once lofty Taotie Douluo truly changed his face quickly enough when confronted with death.

But Gu Yuena did not even look at him. She merely turned her gaze toward Lin Yuan. Lin Yuan, meanwhile, looked at Xuanzi with a teasing expression, making Xuanzi feel humiliated to the extreme.

He could accept apologizing to Gu Yuena, someone of his rank who was stronger than him. But apologizing to Lin Yuan? What was that supposed to be?

But what if there was still hope? The other side belonged to the Sun Moon Empire, so they probably did not want to offend Shrek to the death either, did they? Though he knew the odds were slim, he still forced out a few words through clenched teeth.

"Lin Yuan... this old man was wrong. I apologize to you."