Ma Xiaotao

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Ma Xiaotao (马小桃)
Alias(es)	Flame Maniac 25 28
Gender	Female 24
Age	12 24
Height	Nearly 1.7 meters 24
Affiliation	Shrek Academy; Martial Soul Department 24 26
Occupation/Role	Student; personal disciple of Yan Shaozhe 24
Martial Soul	Evil Fire Phoenix 24
Cultivation	Three-ring Soul Elder 24 25
First Appearance	Mentioned in a comparison with the original story 13; appears in person as Chen An’s guide 24

Background / History

Ma Xiaotao lost both parents in childhood and was raised by Yan Shaozhe and his wife, Cai Mei’er. The childless couple treated her as their daughter, making her relationship with them closer to family than a conventional master–disciple arrangement 24.

As Yan Shaozhe’s personal disciple and Mu En’s grand-disciple, she received top-tier cultivation resources, strict training, and access to Shrek’s inherited techniques. By twelve, she had reached the Soul Elder realm and fused with a high-quality soul bone 24 25 26.

During roughly her first half-year at Shrek, she repeatedly defeated senior Soul Elder students in overwhelmingly one-sided matches. She also defeated the newly enrolled Ling Luochen after an argument; exposure to Ling’s ice-element soul power temporarily stabilized her troublesome evil fire 24 26.

Appearance

• Hair: Red 26.
• Eyes: Pale pink, described as phoenix eyes 24 26.
• Build: Tall and well-proportioned, standing nearly 1.7 meters at twelve 24.
• Clothing: Wears red when accompanying Chen An through Shrek City 24.
• Martial soul manifestation: A dark-red phoenix phantom surrounded by flames hot enough to distort nearby air and blacken stone 25.
• Flight manifestation: Enormous flaming wings and a phoenix tail appear when she activates Phoenix Wings Soaring 25.

Personality

Ma Xiaotao is fiery, proud, and eager to test strong opponents. She initially regards guiding a younger child as time better spent cultivating, but follows Yan Shaozhe’s instructions because of their close bond. She also takes visible pride in Shrek City’s security, authority, and military history 24.

Her confidence does not prevent tactical discipline. Despite Chen An’s age and lower cultivation, she attacks seriously from the outset. Once she recognizes the danger of his Dark Gold Dreadclaw, she avoids direct exchanges and uses flight and ranged bombardment to exhaust him 25 26.

Public defeat wounds her pride sharply. After losing to Chen An, she attributes the result to carelessness and demands another match. Ling Luochen’s subsequent mockery immediately provokes her into accepting a second challenge 27 28.

Abilities & Skills

Evil Fire Phoenix

Her martial soul produces exceptionally hot phoenix flames and is described as not far removed from ultimate fire. Combined with elite training and resources, it makes her formidable even among Soul Elders and capable of defeating ordinary Soul Ancestors with less remarkable martial souls 24 26.

• Its flames scorch and melt the Soul Fighting Arena’s stone floor 25 26.
• The martial soul continuously generates evil fire that erodes her reason 24.
• Resisting that erosion requires extraordinary willpower or suppression by a high-quality ice- or water-attribute Soul Master 24.
• Ling Luochen’s ice soul power provides temporary relief, not a cure 24.

Phoenix Fire Line

Her first soul skill releases a concentrated stream of phoenix fire 25.

• Enhanced by her second and third skills, it becomes a dark-red pillar resembling solid ruby 25.
• The enhanced attack reaches power comparable to a thousand-year soul skill, despite coming from a hundred-year ring 26.
• Chen An cuts through it with Dark Gold Dreadclaw while using Dark Gold Transformation to resist the scattered flames 25 26.

Blazing Phoenix

Her second soul skill envelops her body in flames and strengthens her phoenix fire 25.

• Enhances every aspect of her phoenix fire power 25.
• Increases the flight speed granted by Phoenix Wings Soaring 25.
• Forms part of her compressed three-skill trump card 27.

Phoenix Wings Soaring

Her third soul skill creates flaming wings and a phoenix tail, granting aerial mobility 25.

• Increases flame temperature by 100% and attack range by 50% 25.
• Lets her maintain distance from close-range opponents while bombarding them from above 26.
• Its wings disperse when she exhausts her soul power 27.

Phoenix Explosion Strike and Skill Compression

Phoenix Explosion Strike is the skill of her thirty-thousand-year Explosive Burning Flame Right Arm Bone. She uses Shrek’s secret compression art to combine it with Blazing Phoenix and Phoenix Fire Line inside the bone 27.

• Produces a three-meter dark-red phoenix that breaks through Chen An’s full-power Dark Gold Dreadclaw and melts five or six square meters of arena floor into lava 27.
• The combined attack surpasses Soul Ancestor-level power and can threaten Soul Kings 27.
• Requires a soul bone to contain the violent compressed energy; without one, that energy would destroy the user first 27.
• Her spiritual power is insufficient to control the projectile’s movements precisely, allowing it to narrowly miss Chen An 27.
• Using the technique exhausts her remaining soul power 27.

Combat Tactics

• Recognizes Chen An’s superior close-range threat and exploits her greater soul-power reserves through aerial attrition 26.
• Forces him to expend most of his soul power within roughly two minutes 26.
• When both fighters lose access to soul skills, Chen An’s feints, footwork, and grappling overcome her in close combat 27.

Equipment / Items

• Explosive Burning Flame Right Arm Bone — A thirty-thousand-year soul bone granting Phoenix Explosion Strike. It also serves as the vessel for her three-skill compression technique 27.

Soul Rings

Ring	Color / Age	Soul Skill
First	Yellow / Hundred-year	Phoenix Fire Line 25 26
Second	Yellow / Hundred-year	Blazing Phoenix 25
Third	Purple / Thousand-year	Phoenix Wings Soaring 25

Relationships

• Yan Shaozhe — Master and parental figure. Raised her, trained her strictly, and assigns her to introduce Chen An to Shrek 24 25.
• Cai Mei’er — Yan Shaozhe’s wife and a parental figure who helped raise her. Privately proposes eventually pairing her with Chen An; no relationship or engagement is established 24.
• Mu En — Grand-master through Yan Shaozhe 26.
• Chen An — Younger schoolmate, tour companion, and sparring opponent. His endurance and dangerous presence intrigue her; after he defeats her, she seeks a rematch 24 27 28.
• Ling Luochen — Rival whose personality clashes with hers. Ma wins their first fight and gains temporary evil-fire suppression from Ling’s ice power; they later schedule another match 24 25 28.
• Gongyang Mo — Close friend who knows her strength well and is astonished that Chen An forces her to use her secret art 27.
• Dai Yueheng — Fellow descendant of the original Shrek Seven Devils. He initially considers them evenly matched, then reassesses her strength after seeing her compressed phoenix attack 27.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Chen An’s Tour of Shrek

• On Yan Shaozhe’s orders, Ma Xiaotao takes Chen An through Shrek City, explaining its trade, independent authority, and ten-thousand-strong army 24.
• After an evening of sightseeing and eating, she is tired while he remains energetic. His stamina prompts her to challenge him in the Soul Fighting Zone 24.
• Yan Shaozhe and Cai Mei’er secretly observe them and discuss a possible future marriage as a way to deepen Chen An’s ties to Shrek 24.

Duel with Chen An

• The announcement of her match draws nearly a thousand spectators 25.
• She controls the early fight through flight and phoenix-fire bombardment, pushing Chen An toward exhaustion 25 26.
• His sudden burst of speed forces her to unleash her compressed phoenix attack. It defeats his Dreadclaw strike but misses him, leaving both contestants without soul power 27.
• Chen An wins the ensuing close-range exchange by choking her unconscious. She wakes embarrassed and demands another match 27.
• Qian Renxue interprets their interaction as Shrek attempting to lure Chen An through a “honey trap”; this is her suspicion, not an established scheme involving Ma Xiaotao’s consent 27 28.

Renewed Rivalry with Ling Luochen

• Chen An agrees to a future rematch before leaving the arena 28.
• Ling Luochen taunts Ma Xiaotao over her loss and challenges her to fight in half a month, expecting to reach rank thirty by then 28.
• Ma accepts and insists that Ling’s breakthrough will not change the outcome. The scheduled fight is not shown in the supplied chapters 28.