Aaaah!!!
A piercing scream tore through the sky screen, echoing through every corner of the Douluo Continent.
On-screen, the Soul Power shield Mad Rhino took such pride in looked even flimsier than paper before the Ghost Baby's mouthful of jagged fangs.
There was no clash of Soul Power, only sheer physical tearing.
Mad Rhino's massive body crashed to the ground.
Clutching his blood-spurting thigh, he rolled wildly across the floor, his once-arrogant face now filled with utter terror.
"Get away! Get away from me!"
Mad Rhino frantically channeled his remaining Soul Power, and his third Soul Ring lit up again.
He swung a fist the size of a cooking pot, driving it toward the Ghost Baby on his leg with a savage rush of wind.
The punch landed squarely on the Ghost Baby's grayish-blue head.
Yet force powerful enough to shatter a boulder only made its head tilt slightly.
There was no crack of breaking bones, no spray of brains as he had expected.
Not even a red mark remained on the Ghost Baby's grayish-blue skin.
It slowly turned its head, fixing its pitch-black eyes on Mad Rhino.
Then it scurried up his arm like an agile spider and onto his chest.
"N-no... don't!"
Mad Rhino finally realized something, and his voice began to tremble.
The Ghost Baby opened its mouth, aimed at his neck, and bit down again.
His windpipe was severed, and blood splashed across the corridor's dingy walls.
Mad Rhino's screams cut off abruptly, leaving only a gurgling wheeze in his throat.
The Ghost Baby lay on top of him, chewing mouthful after mouthful.
The crunch of bones breaking between its teeth, accompanied by Mad Rhino's desperately twitching body, was broadcast in high definition through the sky screen, laid bare before viewers across the entire continent.
A deathly silence fell over the Douluo Continent.
The common Soul Masters who had been cheering about conquering the other world a moment earlier now looked like ducks seized by the neck, their faces deathly pale and their bodies trembling.
Shrek Academy.
The confidence on Tang San's face froze completely.
The analysis he had taken such pride in had just earned him a resounding slap from reality.
"Impossible. This is absolutely impossible!"
Tang San stared fixedly at the sky screen, disbelief filling his eyes. "That was a Soul Elder's protective Soul Power! Even a thousand-year Soul Beast couldn't bite straight through it in an instant without any resistance! What are that monster's teeth made of?!"
Beside him, Yu Xiaogang's face had turned livid.
He had only just declared with absolute confidence that, with Soul Power protecting their bodies, creatures of such a low order could never break through their defenses.
Yet barely had he finished speaking when Mad Rhino was eaten alive.
"A mutation! This must be some extremely rare mutated Soul Beast!"
Yu Xiaogang gritted his teeth, desperately trying to save face. "Mad Rhino was too careless. If he'd kept his distance, he would never have ended up like that!"
The image on the sky screen changed again.
The third viewpoint belonged to Meng Shenji, chief of the Heaven Dou Royal Academy's Education Committee, a level 86 control-type Soul Douluo.
The classroom Meng Shenji occupied remained deathly silent.
He sat cross-legged on the teaching platform, immense black Soul Power surging around him.
As a Soul Douluo, his senses far surpassed those of ordinary people.
The instant the distant knocking sounded, he keenly detected an incredibly faint, invisible supernatural fluctuation sweep past.
"Hmph. A mere parlor trick."
But Meng Shenji did not know that this was merely the supernatural fluctuation that triggered the rule.
With a cold snort, he unleashed his level 86 Soul Power, keeping the invisible supernatural aftershock outside his body.
At this sight, the Douluo Continent's powerful figures finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"I told you! As long as you're strong enough, all those bizarre tricks are nothing!"
"Senior Meng Shenji is a Soul Douluo, someone standing at the very top of the continent! How could some otherworldly monster possibly hurt him?"
Inside the Heaven Dou Imperial Palace, Xue Ye also nodded slightly, a hint of approval in his eyes.
On-screen.
After blocking the aftershock, Meng Shenji did not get up to leave.
With his eyes closed, he sensed the cold, sinister aura permeating the air around him.
Such concentrated dark-attribute energy. Meng Shenji was secretly delighted.
His Martial Soul was the black demon, an exceptionally rare dark-attribute Martial Soul.
He discovered that the cold aura drifting through this world's air resonated powerfully with his black demon Martial Soul.
If I can absorb these auras, my Martial Soul might undergo a fundamental transformation. I might even break through the bottleneck to become a Titled Douluo!
Greed overwhelmed the Soul Douluo's reason.
Without hesitation, he released his black demon Martial Soul and began ravenously devouring the surrounding supernatural aura.
Knock, knock-knock.
The knocking sounded again.
This time, it was no longer distant and muffled. It rang clearly against the classroom's wooden door.
It was extremely close. Meng Shenji's eyes snapped open, his brows knitting tightly.
"You thing playing ghostly tricks! Since you're courting death, I'll grant your wish!"
He rose and strode toward the classroom door.
With every step, his imposing aura grew stronger.
Yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black, black-eight dazzling Soul Rings rose one after another beneath his feet.
The pressure of a Soul Douluo warped the air throughout the classroom.
He reached the door and yanked it open.
An old man stood outside.
The old man wore a worn-out long gown, his body covered in dark purple corpse blotches.
His eyes were hollow and deathly still, without a trace of life. He was the Knocking Ghost.
"Die!" Meng Shenji wasted no words. His eighth black Soul Ring suddenly blazed.
Eighth Soul Skill: Dark Binding!
His immense black Soul Power transformed into countless thick tentacles, surging wildly toward the old man outside with overwhelming force.
This was a Soul Douluo's all-out strike, enough to strangle a ten-thousand-year Soul Beast to death in an instant!
Viewers across the Douluo Continent held their breath, eager to witness this mighty expert display his power.
The instant those black tentacles touched the old man's body.
There was no explosion, no thunderous roar.
Those dark tentacles formed from level 86 Soul Power vanished like clay oxen sinking into the sea, slipping entirely out of his control in an instant.
Then a darkness ten thousand times more terrifying than Meng Shenji's Soul Power surged back along the tentacles at an incomprehensible speed!
"What?!"
Meng Shenji's expression changed drastically. To his horror, he discovered that the Soul Power inside him was completely beyond his control.
That cold, sinister darkness enveloped his entire body in an instant.
Meng Shenji only had time to let out one brief scream.
Before countless utterly horrified eyes across the continent.
This lofty chief of the Heaven Dou Royal Academy's Education Committee, this level 86 control-type Soul Douluo.
His body rapidly melted within just two seconds, flesh peeling away and bones dissolving.
In the end, he became a puddle of foul-smelling black corpse fluid that seeped into the gaps between the classroom's floor tiles.
An instant kill. An instant kill without the slightest chance to resist.
The Douluo Continent fell utterly silent.
Not a single person could make a sound.
Bibi Dong slumped onto her throne, her exquisite face as pale as paper.
Sword Douluo's sword hand trembled slightly.
Tang San had pushed his Purple Demon Eye so hard that a streak of glaring bloody tears ran down his face.
A Soul Douluo was dead?
He hadn't survived even a single move. They hadn't even seen how his opponent attacked, and he had already become a puddle of corpse fluid?!
Just as the entire continent sank into absolute terror.
On the sky screen.
The Knocking Ghost outside the door seemed to notice something. The rule had been triggered!
It slowly lifted its corpse-blotched face, its hollow, deathly eyes gazing into the void.
Yet that single glance seemed to meet the eyes of everyone on the Douluo Continent directly.
An indescribable chill instantly enveloped the entire Douluo Continent.
Whether Titled Douluo or ordinary commoners, everyone shook violently, unable to control their bodies.
Only when a dazzling golden light flashed across the sky screen, forcibly cutting off the Knocking Ghost's gaze, did the people of the Douluo Continent abruptly come to their senses, gasping for breath.
Immediately afterward, several lines of blood-red text appeared on the sky screen.
[Trial concluded.] [Survival time: less than ten minutes.] [Plane rating: low-tier trash plane.] [Rule change: number of selection slots increased.] [Second batch of randomly selected participants confirmed.] [Selected participant one: Spirit Hall Golden Generation, Xie Yue (level 52 power attack-type Battle Soul King).] [Selected participant two: Broken Clan chief, Yang Wudi (level 82 power attack-type Soul Douluo).] [Selected participant three: Star Dou Great Forest, Three-Thousand-Year Mandala Snake.] [Selected participant four: Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, Ning Rongrong (level 42 support-type Battle Soul Ancestor).] [Teleportation commencing!]