Jiang Yu's expression darkened as he felt the terrifying heat wave closing in behind him.
He called himself an agility-type Soul Master, but the Spirit Rings on his Light Dragon Dagger and Shadow Dragon Dagger came from powerful Soul Beasts whose abilities were balanced, not specialized in speed.
Illusion Douluo had once assessed Jiang Yu's path of cultivation. Although every one of his attributes far surpassed those of Soul Masters at the same level, he remained caught between two paths: not quite a Power Attack System Soul Master, yet not fully committed to agility either.
Ma Xiaotao was a Six-Ring Soul Emperor, three major realms above him in Soul Power. Worse, after her original target had inexplicably vanished, her rage had flared out of control. Three of her six Spirit Rings lit up, and with Phoenix Wings Soaring boosting her speed, she was far faster than a three-ring Soul Elder like him.
"Jiang Yu, she—"
Wu Feng came to her senses and glanced back in terror at Ma Xiaotao, who was drawing ever closer. Before she could finish, Jiang Yu cut her off.
"Shut up!"
At his sharp shout, the purple third Spirit Ring beneath his feet flashed repeatedly. At the same time, two streams of colored light entered his body.
Light Dragon Dagger, Light Dragon Thrust!
Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, Speed! Soul Power Amplification!
With the two girls in tow, Jiang Yu flickered forward several times and burst out of the grove. He rounded the lakeside path and rushed into Shrek Square.
It was early morning, and plenty of students were exercising or passing through Shrek Square. They froze at the sight of Jiang Yu and the two girls stumbling into the square. Then they saw Ma Xiaotao behind them, bloodred from head to toe, with six Spirit Rings floating beneath her. Every face changed.
"Holy shit, what the hell is that thing?"
"Run! An Evil Soul Master's broken into the academy!"
"Teacher, help me!"
Screams rang out across Shrek Square. The clamor seemed to agitate Ma Xiaotao even more. The fiery phoenix silhouette behind her raised its head and let out a piercing cry, while an indescribable aura of madness erupted from her body.
The next instant, a sea of fire descended from the sky, covering nearly half of Shrek Square. Students who could not escape in time, or were too terrified to even think of running, were engulfed at once.
High above them, Ma Xiaotao's bloodred eyes remained fixed on Jiang Yu and the two girls.
She ignored the outer-court students struggling in the flames. Fire blasted from the soles of her feet, driving her speed to its limit and leaving a string of red afterimages in the air.
"Kill, kill, kill..."
Once she closed to within fifty meters, Jiang Yu and the girls could clearly hear her muttering.
Then the pitch-black fifth Spirit Ring beneath Ma Xiaotao lit up.
Terrifying energy erupted from the fiery phoenix silhouette behind her. The enormous figure began to shrink, growing more solid as it did, until it radiated a scorching, destructive power that warped the very space around it.
"Kill!"
With that cry, the Evil Fire Phoenix's fifth Soul Skill, Phoenix Cloud-Piercing Strike, was unleashed!
As the personal disciple of Yan Shaozhe, the Bright Phoenix Douluo and dean of the Martial Soul Department, Ma Xiaotao had enjoyed the finest resources since childhood. Every one of her Spirit Rings came from a Soul Beast at the upper limit of what she could withstand, and every one possessed terrifying power.
Phoenix Cloud-Piercing Strike was already Ma Xiaotao's most devastating single-target Soul Skill. Unleashed while she was out of control, it was even stronger than usual. Even an ordinary Soul Sage would never dare take the blow head-on.
Boom!
Phoenix Cloud-Piercing Strike plunged down with overwhelming force. A colossal explosion shook heaven and earth, and a tornado of fire shot skyward. The shock wave shattered the windows of several classroom buildings outside Shrek Square and caught countless nearby students in its blast.
But after the earth-shaking explosion, Ma Xiaotao's pupils contracted.
A faint blue glow appeared through the smoke and dust. On closer inspection, it came from a deep-blue Soul Tool Shield. Inside it, Jiang Yu and the two girls were unharmed, apart from their ragged breathing.
The next instant, a flash of bright silver stirred instinctive, overwhelming fear in Ma Xiaotao, whose reason had been all but consumed.
Inside the Eternal Boundary Wall, Ning Tian and Wu Feng stared coldly at Ma Xiaotao in the air, their eyes filled with undisguised killing intent.
"Jiang Yu, we'll leave the rest to you."
Ning Tian withdrew the Eternal Boundary Wall she had bought at the Top-Tier Auction in Heaven Dou City. She and Wu Feng gave Jiang Yu one last look, then ran without hesitation.
Jiang Yu shouldered the Soul-Destroying Cannon. Terrifying energy surged from one of its three Energy-Storage Arrays, racing along the Energy-Transfer Array on the barrel toward its muzzle.
There, a silver sphere of light about the size of a human head had already formed.
Space around the sphere rippled like waves. The energy contained within it sent chills through even the out-of-control Ma Xiaotao.
Jiang Yu had never been one to let an attack go unanswered. Ma Xiaotao might have begun chasing them because her Evil Fire had run wild and Sky Dream Ice Silkworm had diverted trouble their way, but that gave the three of them no reason to forgive her.
Without their protective Soul Tools, they might still have survived, but they would certainly have been injured—perhaps gravely.
It was only polite to return the favor. Since Ma Xiaotao had sent them "red fireworks," they would send her a "silver salute" in return!
Just before Jiang Yu pressed the firing switch, having locked on with his Spiritual Power, a furious shout came from the distance:
"Stop!"
"Stop, my ass!"
Jiang Yu's gaze turned colder. He pressed the firing switch without hesitation.
Silver light flashed along the Soul-Destroying Cannon. A silver beam roughly thirty centimeters across, wrapped in layers of blue light, pierced through space and shot out in an instant.
The tremendous recoil made Jiang Yu grit his teeth and tense every muscle. The ground beneath him cracked layer by layer, then burst apart. In the end, the force crushed it into a pit some fifteen meters wide and a meter and a half deep.
Ma Xiaotao had no way to evade the beam locked onto her. The phoenix silhouette behind her threw back its head and cried out again. Her second, third, and sixth Spirit Rings flared at once, turning the silhouette dark red. A line of fire spewed from its beak and met the Soul-Destroying Cannon's beam head-on.
Hiss—
A strange sound rang out, like snow and ice melting under heat. The line of fire vanished without lasting even an instant, and so did the phoenix silhouette shielding Ma Xiaotao.
At the moment her life was threatened, Ma Xiaotao shuddered from head to toe. A trace of clarity seemed to return to her bloodred eyes.
Within that fleeting clarity lay indescribable fear and regret.
Just as the Soul-Destroying Cannon's beam came within fifty centimeters of Ma Xiaotao, a streak of golden light shot in at astonishing speed and interposed itself between her and the beam.
Another clear phoenix cry rang out.
But this cry carried a phoenix's nobility and might, not the madness in Ma Xiaotao's shriek.
Terrifying Soul Power erupted like a high-grade Fixed Soul Cannon Shell. The golden light expanded rapidly along the vortex of energy created by the explosion, becoming a golden phoenix with a wingspan of more than a hundred meters.
Bright Phoenix Avatar!
Brilliant golden flames blazed wildly in the air. Each tongue of flame took the shape of a tiny golden phoenix, shining with incomparable splendor.
After pushing Ma Xiaotao away, the golden phoenix cried out to the sky once more. It spread its wings and wrapped its body tightly around the silver vortex of boundless, violent energy, leaving not the slightest gap.
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