Ming Zhao was so bored that he really did as he had imagined: he went wandering around Star Luo City, then picked a small, unremarkable city at random and had a little fun.
The city was not large. Its strongest residents were the city lord and the heads of two clans, all of them Five-Ring Soul Kings. In Ming Zhao's eyes, they were no different from ants.
All ants were good for was giving him a little amusement. They could not even provide him with a scrap of nourishment.
So Ming Zhao did not kill for the sake of killing.
Since he was here to play...
Naturally, there had to be a game and rules.
Although he had made up the game and its rules himself, and could flip the table whenever he was unhappy, Ming Zhao was quite willing to follow the rules he had set until that happened.
Because it was fun.
After Ming Zhao entered the city, a few new rules appeared.
Rule 1: Entry to this city is permitted, but no one may leave.
(Ghost city ahead. Immortals and gods, turn back.)
Rule 2: Do not be afraid. The more afraid you are, the more likely you are to encounter unclean things.
(Your negative emotions are their most delicious food.)
Rule 3: If the fear in certain people's hearts exceeds a certain threshold, they will encounter unclean things, such as paper people or female ghosts.
(Once the food is on the table, the diners should arrive.)
Rule 4: If you encounter paper people or female ghosts, you must pretend you cannot see them. For when you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes back at you.
(What are you looking at?)
Rule 5: If you encounter a paper person or a female ghost alone, you have a good chance of surviving as long as you follow the rules. But if you see a paper person and a female ghost at the same time, there is no chance of survival.
(Red and White Colliding Calamities-even immortals cannot save you.)
Rule 6: When you see something unclean, you can bathe yourself in the hot blood of another person to wash away the "fear" in your heart, restore your sanity to normal, rid yourself of the ghosts haunting you, and start the count over.
(The greatest trade in the world is a life for a life.)
Rule 7: Rule 1 is not absolute. Killing any paper person or female ghost, or killing a hundred other people in the city, will earn you a "pass" to leave the city.
(Ever heard of Slaughter City?)
After a brief moment of thought, Ming Zhao settled on these seven rules of the game. Using the immense spiritual power of a Limit Douluo, he imprinted the rules as thoughts in the minds of the tens of thousands of people in the city.
At the same time, the power of the Yin-Yang Complementary Dual Soul Cores erupted, combining the power of space with Other Shore Abyss to form an invisible domain that completely enveloped the city. With his formidable spiritual power, he wiped the city off the map in a matter of seconds.
Unless one's spiritual power reached the Titled Douluo level, one would not even notice that a city had once stood here, nor detect anything unusual.
Even if passersby crossed through the city, the power of space would let them pass through as though walking on level ground, without ever truly entering it.
"Now... let the game begin!"
"Heh heh heh..."
While Ming Zhao was happily playing his game, those selected by Shrek Academy to compete in this Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Tournament set out from the academy under Xuan Zi's leadership.
There was no Ma Xiaotao and no Huo Yuhao; the lineup was vastly different from the original team's.
But they had the same teacher leading them, the same powerful protector, the same attack tactics, and the same wipeout.
They spent a day traveling from Shrek City to the Star Luo Empire's border. After resting for a night with the Northwest Army Group, they entered the mountains the next day to search for the Death Hand Bandit Group and, with Wang Yan's help, found the Death Messenger's lair.
Even without Ma Xiaotao, Shrek's team still crushed a force as disreputable as the bandit group in a one-sided battle.
At the sight of the bloody tragedy the Death Messenger had wrought in the cave, everyone from Shrek flew into a rage. They began attacking every hostile member in the cave indiscriminately, killing their way into its depths.
Then the boss appeared.
"Who dares oppose the Death Messenger?! You will all die and become my corpse slaves!"
As the dungeon's final boss shouted his opening line, explosions with a zero-frame startup began to rage unchecked through the cave.
But even the Death Messenger had not expected that a devious bastard had long since laid a trap. As he used the Corpse Explosion Technique, a Soul Saint-level ghost quietly rose from underground and stood in the middle of the Shrek group's formation of more than a dozen people.
Corpse Explosion Technique, explode!
Soul Saint ghost: Self-destruct!
BOOM!!!
The Corpse Explosion Technique's destructive power had already reached the Soul Saint level. Now a genuine Soul Saint energy body had self-destructed on top of it. Compressed within the cave's confined space, their combined power became a storm of destruction capable of tearing everything apart.
Death Messenger: "Th-that's not right! That's not my Corpse Explosion Technique!"
"Aah!!!"
The strongest Soul King fell on the spot. Even though he had kept well away, the blast's aftershock still struck him, tearing him to pieces in an instant.
There was no need to say what happened to the Shrek group. The Soul Saint ghost had self-destructed right in their midst, and they took the full brunt of the first and most terrifying shock wave.
Dai Yueheng, the strongest member of the main team, bore the brunt of it. His White Tiger Protection Barrier shattered instantly, and his mighty body, strengthened by both White Tiger Vajra Transformation and White Tiger Demon God Transformation, cracked inch by inch in the explosion as though it were made of paper. The flesh of his body evaporated into ash, leaving only half a skeleton that slammed hard into the cave wall, only to be completely buried by falling rubble.
If even Dai Yueheng, the strongest of them, had suffered such a fate, the others naturally had no chance of escaping it.
Main team, Gongyang Mo: dead!
Main team, Chen Zifeng: dead
Main team, Xi Xi: dead!
Main team, Ling Luochеn: dead!
Main team, Yao Haoxuan: dead!
Main team, Soul Tool Department nobody: dead!
The Shrek Seven Devils had been wiped out!
All seven members of the main team died, and the seven members of the reserve team followed in their footsteps. The reserve team, led by Bei Bei, did not even know what had happened. They only saw everything before them suddenly turn white, and then they knew nothing more.
They died in utter peace, without feeling any pain.
Unlike Dai Yueheng, who felt the pain of his entire body being sliced apart for half a second before he was torn into ash.
Oh, not necessarily.
There was one person who had it a little worse than Dai Yueheng: Jiang Nannan,
Sensing the danger, she had immediately used her defensive Soul Skill, Invincible Golden Body. But once the attack actually hit her, she would rather not have used the Soul Skill and would rather have been killed outright by the blast.
Besides the fourteen competitors from the two teams, their teacher Wang Yan was buried alongside the kids.
In the explosion, the Death Hand Bandit Group's cave lair collapsed with a thunderous crash.