Ma Xiaotao's Unusual Behavior

After an argument, Meng Hongchen was finally dragged away by her brother Xiao Hongchen, who couldn't stand it anymore. They left the stairwell, as he simply didn't want to see his sister's infatuated behavior making him look so embarrassing.

Before leaving, Meng Hongchen looked at Xu Xingyu with a reluctant expression, which made Xu Xingyu feel a little pain in her waist. Looking at the girls' expressions that said, "Who did you offend?", Xu Xingyu really wanted to say that she was wronged!

Admittedly, he already knew from the original novel that Meng Hongchen was somewhat infatuated with girls, but he never expected her to be so persistent.

He had never met Meng Hongchen before, so how could he have known that this girl would just inexplicably give herself away like that!?

Fortunately, after Meng Hongchen left, they let him off the hook. However, when arranging tactics later, the girls followed Xu Xingyu closely, as if they were afraid that he would provoke someone again.

Xu Xingyu felt more exhausted than ever before, especially annoyed by the bystanders. "Are you just going to watch like this?!"

After an unknown amount of time, their match today was fast approaching.

Today, Shrek will be playing the quarterfinals, the round of 16.

Four matches per day, to be played over four days. Without a doubt, Shrek Academy, as the reigning champions, will be the first to take the stage again.

Their opponent this time was a formidable one: the Dou Ling Royal Advanced Soul Master Academy, the First Academy of the Dou Ling Empire, which boasts five Soul King.

Facing such a formidable opponent, Shrek dared not relax in the slightest. After all, Dou Ling Royal Advanced Academy was also among the top four in the previous tournament, while Shrek, the previous champion team, was incomplete.

The good news is that both Soul Emperor Ma Xiaotao and Dai Yueheng, have fully recovered from their injuries and will be able to participate in this competition.

So after Wang Yan adjusted his tactics, the two sides began their first team match at the referee's call.

The team battle went very smoothly. Xu Sanshi successfully used Black Tortoise Displacement to summon the opposing captain, letting him experience what it was like to fight a group of enemies one-on-one. Then, he delayed the other members of Douling Dou Ling on his own, buying time for his team to eliminate Lone Bamboo Jian, the captain of the Dou Ling Empire.

During this time, Xu Sanshi also used his fully evolved Black Tortoise Martial Soul to eliminate two of the remaining six team members.

On the other hand, Lone Bamboo Jian was in a terrible situation. Shrek's side not only had two Soul Emperor, Dai Yueheng and Ma Xiaotao, but also several other powerful individuals such as Ling Luochen and Bei Bei who were attacking him.

Therefore, Lone Bamboo Jian was quickly eliminated, and the remaining team members were eliminated by Shrek's team.

It can only be said that the Dou Ling Empire is in a very unfortunate situation. They gave up first place in the group in order to hide their ultimate weapon in team battles, the Thunderbolt Giant Cannon, a Level 7 Soul Tool.

That way, even if their opponent is Shrek, they can blast them to pieces with a single shot using the Thunderbolt Giant Cannon.

Just as they were about to assemble the Thunderbolt Giant Cannon, the Lone Bamboo Jian was teleported away, along with the core components of the Thunderbolt Giant Cannon.

It can only be said that the Dou Ling Royal Academy was completely countered in this competition. Otherwise, apart from the Sun Moon Empire, which has a very sophisticated research on Soul Tool, there is no one who can compete with them in this competition.

Because once the Thunderbolt Giant Cannon appears, no one without Soul Saint level of power can contend with it.

This made Wang Yan, sitting in the audience, feel fortunate that his tactics were able to completely counter the opponent; otherwise, if they had successfully assembled that thing, Shrek would have been in trouble.

However, Xu Xingyu sensed that something was amiss.

This isn't to say that their victory in this match was poorly executed, because what they did was impeccable.

The question remains: why didn't Ma Xiaotao act as recklessly as she did in the original story? In the original work, Ma Xiaotao threatened Xu Sanshi to teleport her there, and then unleashed her full power to destroy the Dou Ling Empire.

While they vented their anger and overwhelmed their opponents, they also exposed Shrek's foolishness in giving them their full strength.

Of course, another reason is that Ma Xiaotao, as one of the top players among the regular team members, doesn't really take Wang Yan's words to heart.

However, this time she did not do such a thing; instead, she acted entirely according to Wang Yan's plan.

Could this Yin Fire really calm people down and allow them to think more rationally?

While Yin Fire does indeed have such effects, the main reason is actually because Ma Xiaotao hasn't been in a good mood lately.

As mentioned before, Ma Xiaotao values a person in her relationships, so she originally planned to let go of her feelings for Xu Xingyu. Ultimately, it was because she wanted a more devoted lover.

However, every time she tried to forget him, she couldn't. Instead, she grew to like Xu Xingyu even more, especially when Xu Xingyu helped her suppress her Evil Fire and deal with her Yin Fire problems. She was always unconsciously drawn to him.

When she saw Meng Hongchen boldly confess her feelings today, she couldn't help but put herself in Meng Hongchen's shoes.

Therefore, when she saw Xu Xingyu flirting with Jiang Nannan and others afterward, she actually wanted to join in, but in the end she couldn't let go of her pride, so she could only watch them with an envious expression.

The reason why Ma Xiaotao acts this way, which is inconsistent with her confident personality, and always acts so hesitantly instead of directly and forcefully joining in, is thanks to Yin Fire.

As mentioned before, Yin Fire allows Ma Xiaotao to view things more rationally, which leads Ma Xiaotao to realize how violent and repulsive she was when she looks back on her past actions.

This also caused her to unconsciously develop a sense of inferiority, making her always find excuses to let go of her feelings for Xu Xingyu, yet her heart always leaned towards him.

It was precisely because of this mindset that Ma Xiaotao obediently followed Wang Yan's tactical plan during the competition. After all, being able to slack off a little and contemplate life was not bad.

Anyway, the main force this time is Dai Yueheng's side, Ma Xiaotao's side can just play a supporting role.

Soon, the Dou Ling Team was overwhelmed by Shrek's powerful attack, and the referee's whistle blew at that moment, declaring the team victory belonged to the Shrek Academy.

Next up is the individual competition. Hopefully, Ma Xiaotao will eventually figure out what she really wants.

The Yin Fire brought Ma Xiaotao rationality.

The match against the Dou Ling Empire went very smoothly, except for something seemed off with Ma Xiaotao.