"The Holy Spirit Cult attacked the Spirit Pagoda? What the fuck kind of plot is this? Was this in the original?"
Li Zha was baffled.
All he knew was that
Qiangu Dongfeng, the master of the Spirit Pagoda, had colluded with the Holy Spirit Cult to have them do his bidding.
But precisely because of that,
had the Holy Spirit Cult gone insane?
Why would they attack the Spirit Pagoda?
Yet the facts were right before his eyes, and the skeletal man facing him clearly had no intention of giving Li Zha time to react.
A yellow Soul Ring beneath his feet immediately lit up.
"Bone Poison Hand!"
The skeletal man's right bone hand instantly enlarged, its fingertips turning into sharp bone blades wreathed in black energy. They were clearly coated in deadly poison.
He swiped straight at Li Zha.
"Brat, who would've thought you had ties to Leng Yaozhu?"
"Heh heh, if I capture you, I might be able to keep that woman under my thumb. Then maybe I'll even get to have some fun with Her Excellency Heavenly Phoenix..."
The skeletal man let out a lecherous laugh.
Li Zha remained calm. He dodged with an agile somersault, merging the Fire-Tipped Spear's three tips into one as he swiftly considered his options.
I have to kill him quickly, then hide somewhere safe...
Li Zha swiftly settled on a plan.
Chaos had already erupted all around him. Ideally, his teacher would win, but if she failed, he was dead!
So,
he had to find a way out, fast!
"Brat, let's see you run now!"
Perhaps enraged that a child had dodged his attacks repeatedly, the skeletal man suddenly clawed wildly like a rabid dog.
Li Zha dodged nimbly. The bone claws swept past his body, missing him and smashing every table and wall they touched.
But space in the room was limited.
Just as Li Zha was forced into a corner, the skeletal man cackled grotesquely and brought a claw down, sealing off every escape route.
At that moment,
Li Zha abruptly stopped dodging and thrust his Fire-Tipped Spear straight out. The instant it struck the bone claw, surprise flashed across the skeletal man's face, followed by panic.
The enormous bone claw shattered into fragments.
Li Zha smashed straight through his attack, then swung the spear across the skeletal man's head.
Bang!
The skeletal man's skull was instantly smashed to pieces.
The soul fire within his skeletal body went out at once, and he collapsed.
Li Zha gave him a cold glance and raced toward the window.
A two-ring Soul Master, even an Evil Soul Master, was nothing Li Zha feared.
Just as Li Zha was about to leap out the window, the shattered skeleton in the room stood up again. His broken skull rapidly restored itself, and his soul fire reignited.
"That fucking hurt!"
"You little brat, now you've really pissed me off!"
The skeletal man roared. His skeletal form was his second Soul Skill, which made him immune to most damage.
He had activated this form in the first place to avoid being killed in a single blow. Yet, to his utter disbelief, a six-year-old brat with only one ring had instantly taken him down!
Bone claws grew from both of the skeletal man's hands, and he charged at Li Zha.
He can't die?
Li Zha turned and lashed out with another backhand spear strike, shattering the skeletal man's claws again.
His skull was smashed apart once more.
This time, however, the bone claws had grown somewhat tougher. They withstood one strike from Li Zha's spear, forcing him to deliver another.
Can this guy keep getting stronger?
As Li Zha puzzled over this,
the skeletal man rose again, and the parts of his skeleton that had been shattered had actually grown thicker.
"Whatever doesn't kill me only makes me stronger!"
The skeletal man roared and attacked again.
Having been taken down twice in single combat by a six-year-old, he had lost all fucking dignity as a genius of the Holy Spirit Cult.
"Interesting!"
Li Zha's eyes lit up. He dodged the bone claws, then reached back, grabbed the skeletal man, and jumped out the window with him!
This was the Spirit Pagoda Headquarters in Shrek City, known as the Heavenly Spirit Tower.
It had eighty-one floors in total and soared into the clouds.
And Li Zha's room was on the Spirit Pagoda's seventieth floor!
Li Zha leaped out the window and flung the skeletal man down below him.
"No!"
The skeletal man screamed and soon vanished from sight.
He had tried to struggle, but compared to Li Zha, his strength might as well have been nonexistent.
It was as though he was the child instead.
After throwing him down first, Li Zha himself began plummeting,
falling freely toward the ground.
His cultivation was only at one ring. A fall from this height would kill him without question.
Just as Li Zha's fall grew faster and faster,
the Fire-Tipped Spear in his hands split into two. With his back to the tower, he drove the spears in both hands into the wall, bearing down on them with his body weight.
The two Fire-Tipped Spears carved long gouges into the wall, soon slowing Li Zha's descent to a speed he could control.
Sliding down like this all the way,
Li Zha soon slid down the eighty-one-story tower to the ground. Once he landed, he immediately ran toward the city center.
Ever since falling out with Shrek Academy, the Spirit Pagoda had moved its headquarters to the edge of the city, near the Star Dou Great Forest.
Therefore,
to ensure his safety, Li Zha could only run toward the city center.
But the very next moment,
three figures appeared before Li Zha. Each radiated an overwhelming aura, so powerful that their presence alone rendered him unable to move.
"Brat, you managed to kill our cult's two-ring genius despite being a rank below him. You're quite a Little Monster yourself."
A black-robed figure laughed.
Li Zha looked up, his pupils contracting.
Weren't these three of the Holy Spirit Cult's Four Heavenly Kings?
That can't be right. Didn't they only just start fighting Teacher Leng Yaozhu?
Leng Yaozhu was a Four-Word Battle Armor Master and a Limit Douluo!
How could these three fellows, none of whom were even Limit Douluos, have defeated her so quickly?
"Looking for your teacher? Unfortunately for her, she ran into the Underworld Emperor. She's probably a corpse by now."
Dark Bell Na Nali chuckled.
"Brat, you're exceptionally gifted. Why not join our Holy Spirit..."
Before Na Nali could finish,
Li Zha's sole purple Soul Ring rose beneath his feet.
"Fire-Tipped Spear, Ring Detonation!"
The purple Soul Ring shattered, and Li Zha's aura surged. He hurled his spear at Na Nali with all his strength.
"You really aren't afraid to die?"
Na Nali blocked Li Zha's all-out spear throw with an icy expression, then lifted him off the ground.
Li Zha tilted his head, blood spilling from the corner of his mouth. "If you're going to kill me, do it. Why all the bullshit?"
The scene suddenly froze.
The surrounding space abruptly shifted.
Everything in the Spirit Pagoda remained unchanged.
Li Zha's room was exactly as it had been. He lay on his bed, fast asleep.
Everything that had just happened seemed to have been an illusion.
Beside the bed,
Leng Yaozhu and Han Tianyin sat nearby.
"This child is simply a born killer."
Han Tianyin gave a wry chuckle.
He was a rank-98 Super Douluo titled Phantom Brain, and his Martial Soul was his own brain.
His spiritual power had even reached the spirit abyss realm, earning him acclaim as the foremost expert below the divine origin realm.
Everything that had just happened
had been an illusory combat test Han Tianyin had devised for Li Zha.
His spiritual power was simply too powerful. Having only just reached rank 14, Li Zha had virtually no chance of detecting it.
After witnessing everything within the illusion,
Han Tianyin, who was meeting Li Zha for the first time, could only conclude that the boy was a born killer.
"The two-ring Evil Soul Master I simulated was stronger than a real one, yet he finished him off in two or three moves."
"When faced with a Super Douluo Evil Soul Master from the Holy Spirit Cult, this kid detonated his ring without a second thought."
"Pagoda Master Leng, with this child's talent and temperament, I reckon the Holy Spirit Cult will be the first to suffer once he grows up."
Han Tianyin grumbled.
Leng Yaozhu felt the same.
This was her first time seeing Li Zha fight a Soul Master.
Although it had been an illusory simulation, Li Zha's reactions and combat strength had been real.
Watching Li Zha within the illusion, Leng Yaozhu silently ached for him, yet also felt somewhat worried.
"This child really does have a strong killing instinct. He even dared to fight nine rings with one. If it had been me as a child, I probably would have been at a complete loss."
"He can't keep training like this. I need to find him some friends."
Han Tianyin was surprised. "Pagoda Master Leng, are you planning to send your precious student to school?"
Leng Yaozhu shook her head.
"No. A student named Na'er recently appeared at the Spirit Pagoda. Her Martial Soul is the Silver Dragon Spear, and her talent is astonishing."
"If I hadn't met Zha'er, I would certainly have taken her as my personal disciple. But now, I won't be taking any more personal disciples."
"I plan to take this Na'er under my wing and let her grow up alongside Zha'er."
"With a little friend to play with, this child should be much better off."
Before you continue