The atmosphere in Shrek's rest area after the round-robin tournament ended was far less joyous than outsiders imagined.
The door was tightly shut. Zhou's face was livid, and her gaze, harsher than ever before, bored into an indifferent-looking Ma Xiaotao.
"Ma Xiaotao! Do you have any idea what you've done?" Zhou Yi's voice seethed with suppressed anger, the words almost forced through her clenched teeth. "You deliberately revealed your strongest sixth soul skill before the top four matches! How is that any different from suicide? Our opponents can now devise countless tactics to counter you based on your soul skill's characteristics, its charging time, its soul power consumption, and even its cooldown! You've put yourself-and the entire team-in danger!"
Ma Xiaotao knew she was in the wrong and lowered her head, but a trace of defiant stubbornness remained between her brows. She simply couldn't swallow the humiliation of being controlled.
Zhou Yi took a deep breath and forced down her anger. "Scolding you won't help now. Our opponents have already figured out almost all the strength we've shown. We must prepare new trump cards, or we'll find ourselves unable to take a single step in the semifinals and finals!"
Her gaze shifted to Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong, a glint of resolve flashing in her eyes. "Yuhao, Wang Dong. I have a bold theory. Both of you possess multiple martial souls, yet you can unleash Golden Road, a Martial Soul Fusion Skill with a hundred-percent fusion rate. That's exceedingly rare. It means there might be some deeper, perfect compatibility among all your martial souls that we haven't fully understood yet."
She put forward an earth-shattering idea. "Since two martial souls can fuse, could your four martial souls pair up in different combinations and produce-more than one Martial Soul Fusion Skill?"