Flender descended into the Martial Universe!

Dai Mubai, standing nearby, could not bear to watch any longer.

He stepped forward and pressed his only remaining hand against Oscar's shoulder, his eyes just as red.

"Little Ao, enough." Dai Mubai's voice was hoarse. Even he felt that his words of comfort were rather useless.

"Let go of me! Boss Dai, let go!" Oscar struggled desperately before finally collapsing into Dai Mubai's arms, sobbing so hard that his entire body convulsed and he could barely breathe.

Tang San stood nearby, his fists tightly clenched.

Seeing the usually laughing, joking Oscar fall apart like this left his heart feeling stifled too.

Yet he could not utter even a single word of comfort.

Before that so-called Martial Universe, these supposed geniuses of Douluo really were far too weak.

Meanwhile, words appeared again on the sky screen.

[Switching to the perspective of Number Five Explorer, Spirit Hall Platinum Bishop Salas.]

The picture lit up, revealing a vast, dark, damp underground cavern.

Sickly green bone-fire oil lamps hung along the cavern walls.

Even the air was filled with a nauseating stench of corpses.

The moment Salas landed, he could not help covering his nose.

He was a distinguished Platinum Bishop of Spirit Hall, a level eighty-seven Soul Douluo.

Accustomed to throwing his weight around Heaven Dou City and frequenting only the most luxurious establishments, how could he endure an environment like this?

"What the hell is this place?"

Salas frowned, his eyes filled with disgust.

Still, relying on his Soul Douluo cultivation, he was not as panicked as Ning Rongrong.

He puffed out his chest and walked deeper along the cavern passage.

He had just rounded a bend when he stopped.

In a spacious clearing ahead stood over a dozen martial artists in gray-black robes.

They formed a circle, their hands constantly making bizarre seals.

And in the clearing between them lay a burly corpse, black from head to toe!

As their hand seals changed, streams of gray Yuan Power and invisible Spiritual Power poured continuously into the corpse.

The corpse occasionally twitched, and the vicious aura it emitted made even Salas, a Soul Douluo, tremble with fear.

At that moment, captions immediately appeared beneath the sky screen.

[Martial Universe faction: Yin Puppet Sect, one of the three major factions of Great Desolation Commandery.]

[Current figures: a Yin Puppet Sect steward and disciples.]

[Current activity: refining a high-grade Demon Corpse.]

Upon seeing those lines,

everyone on the Douluo Continent froze once again.

The Yin Puppet Sect!

The very evil sect that had crushed Ghost Douluo alive with Spiritual Power!

Salas had actually landed right in the enemy's lair!

Meanwhile, in the Martial Universe,

Salas also realized that something was wrong.

He was just about to retreat when he accidentally stepped on a dry bone beneath his feet.

Hearing the noise, the dozen or so Yin Puppet Sect disciples in the cavern instantly stopped what they were doing.

Over a dozen pairs of eyes turned in unison to fix on Salas at the passage entrance.

"Who's there?"

The steward at their head barked coldly, releasing waves of Yuan Power. He was a Form Creation Realm expert.

With so many hostile eyes fixed on him,

Salas knew there was no escaping. He simply steeled himself and put on the haughty airs he used in Spirit Hall.

"I am Salas, Platinum Bishop of Spirit Hall!"

As he spoke, he released his Martial Soul.

Yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black, black.

Eight Soul Rings instantly rose from beneath his feet, and the oppressive aura of a Soul Douluo spread outward.

In Salas's view, although they had numbers on their side, he was, after all, a level eighty-seven expert.

As long as he displayed his title and strength, he would most likely be able to intimidate these people from another world.

Looking at the eight colorful rings around Salas,

the Yin Puppet Sect steward narrowed his eyes and carefully sensed them.

Then he gave a cold laugh.

"Spirit Hall? Never heard of it."

"But you old fool, you have no Yuan Power, and your Spiritual Power is pitifully weak, yet you can produce these flashy rings."

The steward licked his lips, looking at him as though he were some rare material.

"Perfect. Our high-grade Demon Corpse still needs a sturdy living human skeleton for support."

"Since you've delivered yourself to our door, become a stepping stone for our Demon Corpse!"

Hearing that they actually intended to refine him into a corpse,

Salas immediately flew into a rage.

"Insolence! You dare disrespect me!"

"Seventh Soul Skill, Martial Soul Avatar!"

Salas roared, preparing to attack immediately.

But before the light of his Martial Soul Avatar had even fully flared,

the Yin Puppet Sect steward could not be bothered to waste words.

He merely sneered, and an immensely powerful surge of Spiritual Power erupted from between his brows.

Buzz!

An invisible spiritual hand materialized out of thin air, seized Salas by the throat, and lifted his entire body into the air.

The Soul Rings around Salas instantly collapsed. His face flushed crimson as his legs kicked helplessly in midair.

"No, spare me..."

At that moment, Salas finally experienced the despair Ghost Douluo had felt, desperately trying to beg for mercy.

But the steward merely waved his hand.

The spiritual hand flung Salas directly beside the high-grade Demon Corpse.

"Skin him, extract his bones, and fuse him with the Demon Corpse," the steward ordered indifferently.

Several Yin Puppet Sect disciples immediately approached with various rune-covered boning knives and pinned Salas to the ground.

"Aah!!!"

As the first blade sliced through his skin, Salas cried out in pain.

Blood splattered everywhere.

Those Yin Puppet Sect disciples even considered killing him first too much trouble. While Salas was still alive, they forcibly peeled away his flesh and branded runes onto his bones.

His screams echoed through the cavern for a full hour before gradually weakening.

[Number Five Explorer, Salas.]

[Encountered the Yin Puppet Sect of Great Desolation Commandery.]

[Status: skinned alive and had his bones extracted.]

[Current identity: reduced to living material for refining a Demon Corpse, with no remains left.]

As the inhumanly horrific images of Salas faded, the entire Douluo Continent fell utterly silent.

Inside Spirit Hall's Pope's Palace, Bibi Dong closed her eyes somewhat helplessly.

The five members of the fifth batch.

Xue Beng had wet himself in terror, Yu Xiaogang had become a Dung-Cleaning Errand Worker, and the Man Faced Demon Spider had been killed instantly with a single sword strike.

Ning Rongrong had been sold as a bed-warming cultivation vessel, and Salas had been skinned alive and had his bones extracted.

A total wipeout.

Yet another complete and utter wipeout!

And this time, their fates were a hundred times more humiliating and cruel than before.

Soon, new words appeared on the sky screen again.

[As the previous batch of explorers has been completely wiped out.]

[Preparing to select a new batch of explorers...]

[Slots: 5]

As those lines of golden text appeared on the sky screen,

everyone across the Douluo Continent, having only just endured a bout of mental torment, held their breath once again.

Here it came again!

This sword hanging over their heads, selecting people anywhere and at any time without any pattern, made the scalps of every Soul Master and commoner prickle.

"Buzz!"

Without giving anyone on the Douluo Continent a chance to catch their breath,

the golden light on the sky screen once again rippled violently.

Countless names scrolled madly across the screen like flowing water.

A few seconds later,

the golden light abruptly froze!

Five names exuding an imposing air slowly appeared before everyone's eyes.

[The sixth batch of explorers is as follows:]

[One: Heaven Dou Empire, Poison Douluo's granddaughter, Dugu Yan.]

[Two: Star Luo Empire, First Prince, Dai Weisi.]

[Three: Shrek Academy, dean, level seventy-eight Soul Saint, Flender.]

[Four: Endless Sea, fifty-thousand-year Soul Beast, Demon Tiger Whale King.]

[Five: Spirit Hall, Golden Generation, level fifty-one Soul King, Hu Liena.]

When those five names were clearly imprinted in the eyes of everyone across the continent,

another towering wave of uproar swept through the entire Douluo Continent!

Inside Heaven Dou Royal Academy,

Dugu Yan, who had still been grief-stricken over her grandfather Dugu Bo dissolving into bloody liquid,

collapsed straight into Yu Tianheng's arms upon seeing her own name.

"Yanyan!" Yu Tianheng's eyes were bloodshot, but he could only hold Dugu Yan tightly, utterly powerless.

Inside the great hall of the Star Luo Imperial Palace,

Dai Weisi, who had only just vomited blood and fainted in fury because Zhu Zhuyun had thrown herself into another's arms,

was now awakened by the cries of alarm around him.

He opened his eyes, glanced at the sky screen, then rolled his eyes back and, with a strangled croak, fainted again, stiff as a board.

Inside Spirit Hall's Pope's Palace,

Bibi Dong looked at the fifth name and crushed the armrest of her throne between her fingers.

"Nana..."

Bibi Dong drew a deep breath, her eyes filled with unconcealable worry.

Hu Liena was her personal disciple, whom she was grooming to become the next pope.

Now she too had been chosen by this strange sky screen.

But nowhere was the reaction more intense than at Shrek Academy.

On the training field, Flender stared at his name, his distinctive shoehorn face instantly turning as sour as a bitter melon.

"Fuck! How is it my turn?!"

Flender was so frightened that he blurted out a curse.

Zhao Wuji and the others nearby hurriedly gathered around him, their faces full of anxiety.

"Boss Fu, what are we going to do?"

Flender pushed up the black-framed glasses on his nose and forcibly suppressed the panic in his heart.

He drew a deep breath and addressed the students around him.

"Don't panic."

"Have you forgotten my rules for survival?"

"Once I reach that world, as long as I don't cause trouble and back down whenever anything happens, with my speed as a level seventy-eight agility-attack Soul Saint, staying alive definitely won't be a problem!"

"Besides, that world has so many heavenly treasures."

"I might even seize the chance to rake in a fortune and bring it back!"

Hearing that Flender still had not forgotten about money at a time like this, everyone was left speechless.

But there was no denying that Flender's strength and speed were among the very best in Shrek.

As long as he did not court death, his chances of survival should be much higher than everyone else's.

[Teleportation countdown begins.]

[Three, two, one...]

As the countdown reached zero.

Five dazzling beams of golden light instantly descended from the sky, completely enveloping Dugu Yan, Dai Weisi, Flender, the Demon Tiger Whale King, and Hu Liena.

Whoosh!

With a flash of light, the five instantly vanished from the Douluo Continent.

Immediately afterward, the ripples in the light screen slowly swirled.

[Now opening First-Person Perspective: Shrek Academy, Flender.]

The image gradually grew clear.

What appeared was a prosperous, enormous city that covered a vast area.

People streamed through the streets, shops stood packed together like scales on a fish and teeth on a comb on either side, and vendors' cries rang out without end.

This was Myriad Gold City, a major city within the Great Yan Dynasty famed for trade and auctions!

Flender had appeared in a relatively secluded alley.

The moment he landed, he immediately pressed himself warily against the base of a wall, his Martial Soul already in a state of partial possession.

After looking around and finding no danger.

Only then did Flender let out a long sigh of relief.

"Thank goodness, thank goodness. I landed in a human city."

"As long as I haven't ended up feeding Demonic Beasts in some remote mountain forest, I'll find a way to survive."

Flender patted his chest, then swaggered out of the alley and onto the bustling main street.

Looking at the otherworldly people around him in their somewhat unusual clothing.

Flender could not help letting his gleaming eyes dart all around.

He had no major faults, except for his greed for money.

As he walked down the street, his mind was filled with thoughts of how to reap some benefits in this other world.

Just then, a stall up ahead caught Flender's attention.

It was an open-air stall specializing in all sorts of medicinal herbs and ores.

The stallholder was a middle-aged man who looked somewhat thin and wizened.

Displayed on the stall were several stalks of spirit medicine giving off an unusual medicinal fragrance, along with a small pile of stones emitting a faint red glow.

Flender had watched the livestream before.

He recognized those red stones at a glance.

They were Yang Yuan Stones, which served as both currency and cultivation resources in this world!

At the sight of those Yang Yuan Stones, Flender practically began drooling.

He went straight over, picked up a Yang Yuan Stone, and made a show of examining it.

This stone really does contain a peculiar kind of energy.

Flender marveled inwardly.

Then his eyes rolled, and as he looked at the scrawny stallholder, a bold idea immediately sprang into his mind.

The stallholder looked as thin as a rake, and Flender could sense no powerful fluctuations coming from him.

Besides, this was only an ordinary street.

I'm a level seventy-eight Soul Saint!

I can't beat this other world's geniuses or Demonic Beasts.

But surely I can bully a petty street vendor?

Flender made up his mind.

He grabbed the stalks of spirit medicine from the stall and stuffed them straight into his robes, along with the small pile of Yang Yuan Stones.

Then, without so much as glancing at the stallholder, he turned to leave.

At this sight, everyone on the Douluo Continent stared, dumbfounded.

Inside Shrek Academy.

Zhao Wuji slapped his forehead, unable to bear watching.

"Has Boss Fu gone mad?!"

"He went to another world to rob a street vendor?!"

The corners of Dai Mubai's mouth twitched too, and for a moment, he did not know what to say.

On the screen, the scrawny stallholder froze for a moment when he saw Flender brazenly stealing his goods.

Then his expression instantly darkened.

"Where did you crawl out from, you old bastard, daring to steal on the Myriad Gold Merchant Association's turf?"

The stallholder snapped coldly and reached straight for Flender's shoulder.

"Get lost!"

Relying on his status as a Soul Saint, Flender did not take this vendor seriously at all.

He did not even release his Soul Rings.

He merely gave his shoulder a sharp shake, sending a surge of level seventy-eight Soul Power rippling outward, intending to blast the stallholder away.

But at the very instant Flender's Soul Power struck the stallholder's hand.

A trace of disdain flashed through the eyes of that seemingly scrawny stallholder.

Hum!

An immensely powerful surge of heaven-and-earth Yin Fiend Qi instantly poured out of the stallholder's body, enveloping his palm.

"A piece of trash without even any Yuan Power dares act so arrogantly in front of me?"