Except for Dai Yueheng, who was closest to the mountain of corpses, none of the others,whether from the main team or the reserve team,suffered direct harm from the explosion caused by the Corpse Explosion Technique. That technique fused bones, flesh, blood, and soul power into a devastating blast.
However, aside from the reserve team who were protected by the Liuli Barrier, the main team was struck by the poisonous blood mist created by the explosions and suffered varying degrees of injury.
At the moment of detonation, though they lacked the aid of spiritual detection, the main team members instinctively tried to defend themselves.
Ma Xiaotao's entire body was engulfed in golden-red phoenix flames. Consuming a great deal of her soul power, she burned away the poisonous blood mist the instant it touched her, neutralizing its toxicity before it could cause real harm.
Ling Luochen, using her ice-controlling ability, coated herself in a layer of ice crystals that effectively blocked most of the poison mist. Yet her soul power was lower than Ma Xiaotao's, and some thinner parts of the ice were corroded and penetrated by the toxins.
Xi Xi used her lightning to shield herself, resisting part of the poison. But as a sensitive-assault type soul master, she suffered more severe effects and injuries from the toxins.
Gongyang Mo and Chen Zifeng were in even worse shape. They had no defensive soul skills, and their soul power nature was ill-suited for resisting poison. They could only use their own soul power to protect themselves. Yet pure soul power barriers were corroded by the foreign energy in the poison mist. The armor issued by the Shrek Monitoring Corps wasn't fully sealed, leaving gaps around joints and the eyes, ears, and mouth,where the toxins invaded.
Despite the pain, Gongyang Mo used his soul skills to suppress the poison's effects for everyone. But the toxins were complex, as each corpse's blood and bones produced slightly different poisonous compounds. He could only delay their onset, not remove them completely.
Yao Haoxuan was suffering the most. His Giant Martial Soul gave him a massive body,making him an easy target. His auxiliary and control-type soul skills offered little protection. The mist turned his skin dark green, and pain wracked his body as the poison ate away at him.
The explosions continued for over ten seconds. Dai Yueheng, second only to Ma Xiaotao in strength, had a body reinforced by the Evil-Eyed White Tiger's defensive abilities,but even he could not survive a blast equivalent to a Soul Sage's full strike.
The tunnel entrance where he had stood was half-collapsed, the confined space doubling the force of the explosion. The bandits retreating inside were obliterated.
As for Dai Yueheng, there was nothing left of him. Amid the soul power shockwaves and flying flesh, only Huo Yuhao, using his True Sight, could faintly discern the fragments tainted by the Death God Envoy's corrupted energy that once belonged to Dai Yueheng.
"If they'd stationed a defensive soul master to block the tunnel, things would've gone much better. The Corpse Explosion is powerful, sure, but a defensive-type Soul King with an invincible skill could've survived,maybe badly hurt, but alive," Huo Yuhao thought.
He wanted to complain about the main team's composition. They had an auxiliary-control hybrid who talked more than fought, and the strongest one was a loudmouthed clown, Yao Haoxuan. No defensive soul master at all? Ridiculous.
"Well, maybe the main team kicked out a defensive-type soul master from the Soul Tool Department," he mused. "Even if not, with soul tools, someone could've filled that role in an emergency."
"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!"
Outside the cave, Xuan Zi,who had been sitting atop a hill drinking and eating happily,suddenly froze. Feeling the tremors and hearing the terrifying sound, his eyes went wide.
"Please, don't let anything happen…"
In a flash, his figure vanished, leaving behind only a few chicken bones as proof of what he'd been doing moments ago.
As the supervising elder, Xuan Zi was supposed to remain close to protect the students in secret. This mission wasn't a regular Monitoring Corps assignment,it involved both the main and reserve teams selected for the upcoming Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Tournament.
The tournament was just around the corner. From both strategic and institutional standpoints, these fourteen students were the most elite group Shrek Academy had produced in ten years. If they all perished here, the Academy,already struggling with generational decline,would face disaster.
Worse, Xuan Zi himself had volunteered to lead this mission. Normally, the main and reserve teams could defer Monitoring Corps assignments, but Xuan Zi believed that elite students should not shirk responsibility.
He had also underestimated the enemy. He thought a group of evil soul masters whose strongest was merely a Soul King couldn't possibly threaten his students.
But the Death God Envoy proved him terribly wrong. Who said only Shrek students could defeat opponents above their level? Who said the Academy's prodigies could stand equal to the true evolution of the soul master world,the evil soul masters?
Even with weaker soul rings and lower cultivation, the evil soul masters could exploit the world's rules to unleash terrifying combat power.
Now, regret was useless. Xuan Zi could only pray most of his students survived. If too many died, how could he face the upcoming tournament?
Would Shrek's millennia-old glory,its unbroken record of championships,end in his hands? Never. He would never allow that.
A chilling laugh echoed from deep within the collapsed cave. "Keh keh keh… How does the Corpse Explosion taste? Even if it didn't kill you, that poison should keep you company for a while."
"This Death God Envoy doesn't even get the villain laugh right," Huo Yuhao thought. "Why not a proper 'Jie jie jie jie'? He's wasting time talking,shouldn't he be running?"
He said to the others, "I have a bad feeling. We should fall back."
Without waiting for their response, he dropped the barrier and retreated. Wang Dong reacted instantly and followed. Then came Xiao Xiao and Ning Tian. Beibei hesitated for a moment before joining them.
Xu Sanshi and Jiang Nannan glanced at the wounded main team, then decided to follow as well.
Wang Yan stood frozen, torn between helping the poisoned main team or retreating with the reserves. Before he could decide, a thunderous roar broke the stalemate.
"Bastards!"
A surge of blinding white light swept through the cave. The immense soul power pressure instantly evaporated every trace of the lingering poisonous mist.
Xuan Zi had arrived. But the poison already in the main team's bodies was harder to remove.
His scruffy figure appeared beside the wounded students. Seeing that Dai Yueheng was gone but the others were alive, he felt a fleeting sense of relief.
At least most were alive,after some rest, they could still compete in the tournament. But Dai Yueheng, the White Tiger Duke's eldest son and the main team's captain, was dead. How could Xuan Zi explain this to the Duke?
The White Tiger Duke's family had close ties with Shrek Academy and held high status. Losing his son on Xuan Zi's watch was no small matter.
Anger flooded him. He raised his hand, unleashing a terrifying suction force. The collapsed tunnel burst open, dragging a thin black-robed figure toward him.
But the Death God Envoy was no fool. "How could the great Death God Envoy be caught so easily?"
At the back, Huo Yuhao, bored, silently narrated the scene and readied another Liuli Barrier,Xuan Zi's recklessness was nothing new.
Then, the fragments of Dai Yueheng's body began to swell again. Under the Death God Envoy's control, the remnants of his bones, flesh, and soul power started another violent chain reaction.
Sensing danger, Xuan Zi hesitated. Looking at the exhausted students beside him, he gave up the chase.
He waved his hand, and pure white energy surged forth, forming a powerful barrier around himself and the students.
Another explosion shook the earth,Dai Yueheng's remains detonated again, this time with power approaching a Soul Douluo's level.
To Xuan Zi, it posed no real threat,but the Death God Envoy used the chance to trigger a hidden mechanism, transforming into a wisp of black smoke that vanished into the ground.
Moments later, a series of deafening explosions echoed beneath the cave.
The two rounds of Corpse Explosion had already weakened the cavern's structure. It finally gave way and began to collapse.
Xuan Zi roared in rage, but seeing the terrified students, he swallowed his fury, waved his sleeve, and lifted all fourteen people with soul power, flying them out of the cave.
He also used his power to momentarily hold the collapsing rocks in place. Once they were clear, the cave,laden with the Death God Envoy's crimes,crumbled completely.
"Wang Yan, take care of the injured. I will not let that damned evil soul master escape!" Xuan Zi growled, his fury boiling over.
He took off into the air, entering Martial Soul Possession. His immense spirit and soul power surged outward like a tidal wave, probing every rock and tree in the area.
The weaker students felt suffocated by the pressure, and the severely wounded Yao Haoxuan coughed up blood and fainted.
Huo Yuhao silently shook his head. He doubted Xuan Zi could catch the Death God Envoy. His True Sight had already revealed that the enemy possessed several concealment-type soul tools,high-quality ones, likely custom-made.
The underground explosions earlier weren't ordinary explosives, but soul tool-grade charges activated by soul power.
Considering the Death God Envoy's activities along the Mingdou Mountains and the Star Luo border, he was almost certainly connected to the Holy Spirit Church, with the Sun Moon Empire providing soul engineer support.
In such a situation, Xuan Zi,blinded by rage and neglecting his wounded students,had little chance of capturing that slippery Soul King.
After all, the bandits they'd fought were merely disposable pawns. The Death God Envoy still had twelve corpse puppets, and with his soul tools masking his aura, he could easily confuse Xuan Zi's pursuit.
Even as a Super Douluo, Xuan Zi's brute-force methods wouldn't help him catch this cunning "Death God."
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