A Clear Silhouette Amid the Flames

Xu Xingyu looked at the approaching red dot, and a thought suddenly struck him. Could this be the day Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong were attacked by Ma Xiaotao after she was invaded by Evil Fire in the original story?!?!

Damn it! I was so busy planning Dong'er's training for today yesterday that I forgot about that whole incident in the original story!

Xu Xingyu turned to Wang Dong'er, who was still absorbing the spiritual power in the steel ball, and found that she was at a crucial stage of the process. Stopping now might cause her spiritual harm.

Under the circumstances, there was no way he could move elsewhere and take Wang Dong'er away from this trouble spot before Ma Xiaotao came charging in.

Seeing this, Xu Xingyu could only form a protective barrier with Soul Power around Wang Dong'er to keep her safe.

After setting up the barrier, Xu Xingyu could only brace himself and run toward Ma Xiaotao. After all, his own wife (one of them) was behind him, so he could only play the hero and stand his ground, then confront Ma Xiaotao, the crazed Soul Emperor.

Just then, Ma Xiaotao, who had already gone mad, reached the shore. As she was about to unleash her Phoenix Flame and destroy everything around her, Xu Xingyu released his third Soul Skill, Purple Tenuity Star God Barrier.

A purple-gold barrier quickly appeared, trapping Ma Xiaotao inside. But Ma Xiaotao was a Soul Emperor!

Xu Xingyu was only a Soul Elder. Even if he was a Soul Elder capable of fighting and defeating a Soul King, he would still come up short before an absolute disparity in strength.

Under Ma Xiaotao's frenzied attacks, fine cracks began to appear in the once-impenetrable Ziwei Star God Barrier. Seeing this, Xu Xingyu released his Dragon God Martial Soul.

After all, in a situation like this, the Ziwei Star Martial Soul, a Martial Soul geared toward control, was at a disadvantage against a fighting style that used brute force to shatter ten thousand techniques when there was such a gap in strength.

The best option now was therefore to use the more destructive Dragon God Martial Soul to fight Ma Xiaotao.

However, the main reason Xu Xingyu chose to use the Dragon God Martial Soul was not the boost it gave his fighting strength, but something else.

Lifelike nine-colored dragon scales began to appear on Xu Xingyu. They soon spread over his entire body, turning him into a little dragon man.

After he completed his Martial Soul Possession, Ma Xiaotao broke free of the Purple Tenuity Star God Barrier. The instant she escaped the Ziwei Star God Barrier, she instinctively sensed the threat from Xu Xingyu, who had unleashed his Dragon God Martial Soul.

Dense fire elements began to gather in the air and coil around Ma Xiaotao's body. A closer look would have revealed a trace of purple flame among the red.

That faint purple flame was a phenomenon caused by the Evil Fire corroding Ma Xiaotao.

With a phoenix cry, Ma Xiaotao transformed into a gigantic fire phoenix formed from fire elements. Its flames were scorching, their temperature already extremely close to that of Ultimate Fire.

Xu Xingyu looked at the fire phoenix hurtling toward him without the slightest thought of retreat.

Xu Xingyu let out a dragon's roar, and his Dragon God pressure bore down on Ma Xiaotao with it.

Feeling the majesty of a superior being, the fire phoenix still tried to struggle, but Ma Xiaotao's Phoenix Martial Soul was ultimately incomplete, having inherited only a portion of the true phoenix's blood.

If she had truly awakened the purest origin power of the phoenix, she might still have had a chance of resisting the pressure from Xu Xingyu's Dragon God Martial Soul.

But there were no ifs in this world, only bloody reality.

The fire phoenix Ma Xiaotao had transformed into soon began to dissipate into the air. Ma Xiaotao fell to the ground, unable to move under the Martial Soul suppression caused by Xu Xingyu's pressure.

Looking at the immobilized Ma Xiaotao, Xu Xingyu began gathering a powerful ice element in his hand. It was Ultimate Ice, the opposite of Ultimate Fire.

As the Dragon God's son, Xu Xingyu had an innate talent for manipulating multiple ultimate elements, but he had Dragon God Soul Rings, and only unlocked an elemental talent after forming each Soul Ring.

Xu Xingyu's Dragon God Martial Soul currently had only three Soul Rings, so he could control only three ultimate elements: water, fire, and wind.

In the original story, the best way to deal with Ma Xiaotao when she was controlled by Evil Fire was to release Ultimate Ice elements and completely suppress her Evil Fire.

Under Gu Yuena's guidance, Xu Xingyu had long since learned how to freely convert the water attribute into the ice attribute, so in theory, he had the Ultimate Ice attribute as well.

As he released Ultimate Ice, the madness on Ma Xiaotao's face gradually faded, and the once-overbearing Evil Fire was extinguished.

Only then did Xu Xingyu notice that he seemed to have destroyed some of Ma Xiaotao's clothes during their fight (although she had actually burned them all herself).

Ma Xiaotao had originally worn a white mask and a long white robe wrapped around her body.

Now, however, her mask and robe had both been destroyed in the fight. Fortunately, she was wearing a red dress beneath the robe that did its best to cover most of what needed covering.

This also exposed Ma Xiaotao's flowerlike beauty and smoking-hot figure to Xu Xingyu.

Xu Xingyu made no attempt to hide his scrutiny of the beauty known as one of the Inner Court's two volcanoes, and unconsciously muttered that she was actually bigger than Gu Yuena.

Xu Xingyu was certain that Ma Xiaotao ranked among the top five beauties he had ever met. Judging by figure alone, even Gu Yuena, whom he thought about day and night, was a little inferior.

But just as Xu Xingyu was about to continue admiring Ma Xiaotao's unconscious beauty, she opened her eyes.

Seeing Ma Xiaotao wake up, Xu Xingyu knew he no longer needed to suppress her, so he withdrew his Dragon God Martial Soul.

Just in case, however, Xu Xingyu did not dispel the ice element in his hand. After all, who knew what Ma Xiaotao would do when she woke up?

But then Xu Xingyu noticed that Ma Xiaotao's eyes were still completely white, which meant she had not fully recovered from the state of being controlled by Evil Fire.

This shocked Xu Xingyu. According to the original story, Ma Xiaotao should have awakened long ago after being infused with so much Ultimate Ice element, so what had happened to her?

While Xu Xingyu was still reeling, blue flames rose from Ma Xiaotao, and an intense heat soon appeared again. Stranger still, although the flames were clearly hot, chunks of ice formed around her for some reason.

As Gu Yuena's disciple, Xu Xingyu was widely knowledgeable. After searching his memory, he recognized the true nature of the flames before him.

That's Yin Fire! It's the opposite of the Yang Fire usually found in the world!

If Yang Fire was combustion formed by releasing an object's own energy, then Yin Fire was the reverse: it was combustion formed by absorbing energy from its surroundings.

This kind of flame rarely appears in nature except in places of extreme yin. Why does Ma Xiaotao have something like Yin Fire in her?!

While Xu Xingyu was still struggling to believe what he saw, Ma Xiaotao suddenly rushed at him.

Xu Xingyu hurriedly raised his guard to defend himself, only for Ma Xiaotao to pull him into a tight embrace.

In Ma Xiaotao's arms, Xu Xingyu could clearly feel two mutually repellent forces of energy rioting inside her body.

The state Ma Xiaotao had fallen into was probably related to those two forces of energy inside her.

Before Xu Xingyu could try to help Ma Xiaotao calm the conflict between the two forces, however, she did something he never expected: she forcibly kissed him!

Utterly bewildered, Xu Xingyu could only passively feel Ma Xiaotao's invasion, and fell asleep without realizing it.