"What?!"
Na Nali and Leng Yulai exchanged a glance, both utterly dumbfounded.
"Y-you really are an Evil Soul Master?!"
Na Nali asked in horror.
They had planned with Cai Yue'er to frame Long Xiaoyao as an Evil Soul Master.
Yet now,
before the two of them,
Long Xiaoyao's Dark Holy Dragon presence had changed from pure darkness to something savage and bloodthirsty, even carrying faint resentment and a trace of ancient age!
This feeling-
it was practically as though they were facing a senior Evil Soul Master!
"Die!"
Long Xiaoyao raised his intact left arm and slashed down with a pure dark dragon claw!
The power was the same, but his method of wielding it and his understanding were entirely different. The dragon claw arrived in an instant!
Leng Yulai frowned and nimbly broke through space to dodge.
Na Nali, however, failed even to react. The dragon claw grazed her shoulder, drawing a muffled grunt.
"So fast! Something's wrong with this guy!"
Na Nali shrieked, driving her bells at full power!
"Heh, little thing."
Long Xiaoyao spoke in a tone that did not suit his age.
The next moment, his domain unfolded again. This time, compared to before, his Darkness Domain had actually gained another effect: silence!
Before Na Nali's sound waves could spread, the domain instantly swallowed them!
"How is this possible?!"
Na Nali cried out.
How could this guy's domain effects have changed in such a short time?!
How was that possible?!
But Long Xiaoyao gave her no time to react. He actually took the offensive, transforming his intact left hand into a dragon claw and grabbing for Na Nali's throat!
"Ah! Phoenix, save me!"
Na Nali screamed in terror, retreating again and again.
She was a mental-type Soul Master to begin with, and her physical strength was weak.
In a head-on clash, Long Xiaoyao's physical strength in his true black dragon form far surpassed hers!
"Something's wrong with this brat. Stop holding back!"
Leng Yulai frowned, but rather than rescue her, she crossed through space to appear behind Long Xiaoyao, ready to strike through his heart.
Just then,
pitch-black dragon scales suddenly sprouted across Long Xiaoyao's back. Leng Yulai's full-force strike sent sparks flying off them, actually failing to break through his defenses!
"Even this guy's defenses have gotten stronger!"
Leng Yulai's pupils contracted. She flew up, no longer concealing her strength, and manifested her Dark Fire Phoenix Martial Soul.
"This ends here, brat! Eighth Soul Skill, Dark Phoenix Burns the Heavens!"
Boom!
Black-and-red flames descended from the sky, engulfing Long Xiaoyao entirely.
The protective black scales on Long Xiaoyao's body instantly began to vaporize in the intense heat, forcing him to stop and use Soul Power to protect himself.
Given a moment to breathe, Na Nali hurriedly put some distance between them.
Long Xiaoyao turned around. As he looked at Leng Yulai's Martial Soul, a flicker of recollection crossed his eyes.
"To think you have this Martial Soul too. A pity it isn't as beautiful as hers."
Leng Yulai frowned.
Dark Soul Power surged wildly around Long Xiaoyao, forming a vortex that actually began forcibly absorbing her heaven-burning flames!
"J-just what is going on with this brat? This is fucking rank 95?!"
Na Nali had also flown high into the air by then, her gaze filled with shock as she spoke.
After all,
the two of them were rank 97 and rank 98 Super Douluos!
Yet in a direct confrontation, Long Xiaoyao had actually suppressed them for a time!
"This guy actually feels like a Limit Douluo to me. His use of Soul Power and his grasp of the Dark Holy Dragon's source power make him seem like a completely different person from the Long Xiaoyao of before!"
Leng Yulai said, suddenly feeling that things were going badly.
Na Nali was even more shocked after hearing that.
A Limit Douluo!
In other words, they had just been fighting a Limit Douluo!
Although his Soul Power was suppressed to rank 95, he was still far beyond any ordinary Super Douluo!
No wonder the two of them found him so troublesome!
"Damn it, let's go all out and kill him outright!"
Na Nali gritted her teeth, no longer intending to follow the plan.
"I'm afraid... it's too late."
Leng Yulai turned toward the tunnel entrance, where a large number of Soul Masters were charging inside.
Na Nali lost her composure. "Damn it! How did reinforcements get here so fast?!"
"Go. Abandon the plan!"
Leng Yulai made the decision immediately, pulling Na Nali into a hidden passage in the wall. After several traversals, their figures and presences vanished.
On the ground,
Soul Power revolved around Long Xiaoyao, completely dispelling Leng Yulai's full-force eighth Soul Skill.
Just then, Li Chen reached him with Divine Brush Douluo Yu Guanzhi.
"My god, Brother Long, how are you?!"
Yu Guanzhi had run all the way inside, seeing nothing but corpses with exploded heads throughout the tunnel.
Long Xiaoyao's right arm hung broken before him, and blood still flowed from both ears. He looked to be in very bad shape.
"I'm all right."
Long Xiaoyao let out a long breath, his gaze unruffled.
"You brat, you're fucking hard to kill! You survived being caught between two Dark Heavenly Kings!"
"Thank goodness Li Chen notified me in time. Looks like I wasn't too late. As long as you're all right."
Yu Guanzhi spoke urgently and waved his hand. The War God Temple's healing Soul Masters immediately stepped forward to quickly examine Long Xiaoyao's injuries.
"Fuck!"
Yu Guanzhi looked around at the devastation.
Wrecked vehicles clogged the entire tunnel, and blood from countless headless corpses covered the ground.
"Those two bastards from the Holy Spirit Cult!"
"Pass on my orders! Seal off all of Mingdu! I'll dig three feet into the earth if I have to, but I'm finding those two bastards!"
"And investigate right away who colluded with those bastards to let them in! Even if it's the Heavenly King himself this time, I'll kill him!"
Yu Guanzhi roared furiously.
"Yes!"
The War God Temple's personnel immediately accepted their orders.
More than ten War Gods began combing the surrounding area.
"Brother Long, a-are you all right?"
Li Chen looked at Long Xiaoyao and asked.
"Mm."
Long Xiaoyao nodded, only to suddenly faint the very next moment without any warning.
"Huh? Wait, Brother Long, what's wrong?!"
Yu Guanzhi panicked and hurriedly caught Long Xiaoyao in his arms.
A healing Soul Master beside him said, "Deputy Hall Master, War God Long has exhausted his Soul Power and overstrained his mind. He's worn out. Don't worry, he'll recover after a few days of rest."
Only then did Yu Guanzhi breathe a sigh of relief.
Li Chen looked at the unconscious Long Xiaoyao, then glanced around.
Soon, he noticed the small wooden hammer nearby.
"My Dream Memory Hammer? It's actually unharmed!"
Delighted, Li Chen ran over and picked it up.
He had thought it had been turned to powder along with the car.
"Wait, this spot..."
Li Chen picked up the little hammer and looked toward the tunnel exit, finding it very far away.
He immediately turned to look at Long Xiaoyao, who was being carried away by the healing Soul Masters.
Could he have already used this to recover his memories?!
Li Chen speculated.
Meanwhile,
in Mingdu,
on the top floor of the Federal Research Institute's laboratory building.
Inside a transparent operating room, Ye Zhaolu took off her clothes, and the assistant beside her strapped her to the operating table.
"Let's begin."
Ye Zhaolu took a deep breath.
The next moment, her Martial Soul manifested.
A scarlet doll floated in midair, its entire body red and giving off dense death Qi.
It was unmistakably an extremely powerful evil Martial Soul!
Ye Zhaolu looked at her second Martial Soul, determination in her eyes:
"Do it. If this succeeds, it will be the first Martial Soul Reshaping Surgery in Federation history. It will have epoch-making significance for both me personally and all humanity."
The assistant beside her looked tense.
"Zhaolu, do you really have to do this? Your second Martial Soul may be evil, but I know you've never cultivated it!"
The assistant tried anxiously to dissuade her.
She had been Ye Zhaolu's classmate in childhood and was the only person who knew of Ye Zhaolu's second Martial Soul.
"Besides, we haven't perfected the theory of Martial Soul reconstruction yet. Why don't we wait a little longer?"
Ye Zhaolu shook her head. "It's no use. Without actual experimental data, we won't make any progress.
"Do it.
"If anything abnormal happens to me, immediately activate the room's soul devices and kill me."
Ye Zhaolu gave these instructions seriously.
Then she looked at the ceiling, her expression calm, even faintly smiling.
Long Xiaoyao, Long Xiaoyao.
To think we really were reincarnated.
In this life, you're still a Soul Master genius, yet I still awakened an evil Martial Soul.
Wait for me. Once I've completely severed all of this, I'll tell you that I was willing to be your lover long ago.
Because,
from the very first moment I saw you, I remembered everything from our past lives.
Ye Zhaolu thought.
But she could tell Long Xiaoyao nothing. Otherwise, Ye Zhaolu knew very well,
everything Long Xiaoyao had now might one day be destroyed because of her evil Martial Soul.
After all, neither the Sun Moon Federation nor the entire human world could tolerate the existence of evil Martial Souls.
If she could not stand openly and honorably beside her beloved, then she would let herself be utterly destroyed.
Seeing her like this, the assistant gritted her teeth and began implementing the still-exploratory theory of Martial Soul reconstruction.
This was the scientific research goal Ye Zhaolu had pursued and advanced since childhood. Even human body regeneration technology was merely a byproduct of her research.
And just as Ye Zhaolu began her Martial Soul Reshaping Surgery,
downstairs at the research building,
Cai Yue'er walked into the building with a cold expression.