The Ferocious Beast Strikes! A Forced... Fair Trade!

After Mu En's figure vanished completely, the atmosphere across Star Luo Plaza grew delicate to the extreme.

The sixty-seven competing teams and experts from every faction all cast furtive glances at Huo Yuhao, their eyes filled with deep wariness and scrutiny.

The Dragon God Douluo, Mu En, had made an exception to protect him. Du Busi, leader of the Body Sect, had publicly backed him. Even Shrek's higher-ups had been forced to swallow their pride and back down. Huo Yuhao now had the strongest backing of anyone in the continent's younger generation, bar none.

Huo Yuhao had little to say about it. He was more worried about the Ice Empress and Ali. Mu En's appearance had genuinely caught him off guard. Though it had solved his immediate crisis, it had also made things harder for them.

He looked toward Zhengtian Academy's competition platform and noticed that Long Aotian's body trembled almost imperceptibly whenever he entered Martial Soul Possession. It was the same symptom Black Calamity (Khaslana) had shown while bearing the Core Flame.

He endured the agony of burning at every moment, yet forcibly suppressed it through sheer resilience and turned it into ferocious strength that charged ever forward.

His fighting style, though, was more like Mydeimos's. Wild! Powerful! Utterly fearless of death!

As he pondered this, a terrifying surge erupted into the sky from the western side of Star Luo City!

Air currents shook wildly, and a storm of Soul Power swept across half the district. Even from several thousand meters away, the violent collision of extreme cold and raging Soul Power was unmistakable.

The source was none other than the Starlight Auction...

Earlier, deep within the Starlight Auction's forbidden area.

Two slender figures stood silently in a dim, secluded corner.

The Ice Empress wore a loose, pitch-black cloak,