Chapter 89: The Death Messenger Unleashes Power! Elder Xuan's Total Breakdown!
Elder Xuan's booming laughter echoed through the jagged ravine, the sheer volume of his voice chasing away the lingering mist. Behind him, the accompanying members of the Shrek Team walked with their heads held high, their chests puffed out with high spirits.
Ma Xiaotao brushed a stray speck of dust from her crimson robes. Her eyes, bright and sharp, burned with an unshakeable, fiery confidence.
To these inner court elites, having Elder Xuan, a Rank 98 Super Douluo, presiding over this operation meant absolute invincibility. This suppression mission was not a life-and-death struggle; it was merely a casual stroll to harvest some extra military merit.
However, standing at the very back of the formation, Huo Yuhao frowned. A deep crease formed between his brows.
He silently channeled his soul power, activating his Spirit Eyes. A faint golden luster rippled across his pupils. Although his spiritual detection range could not yet pierce the depths of the distant, gaping cave entrance, the air itself felt wrong. A faint, cloying stench of decay drifted on the wind, carrying an oppressive weight that made his chest tighten with extreme unease.
Huo Yuhao quickened his pace, his boots crunching softly against the gravel. He caught up to Elder Xuan and Teacher Wang Yan, who were leading the vanguard, and lowered his voice.
"Elder Xuan, Teacher Wang Yan," Huo Yuhao began, his tone tight. "According to the intelligence we just received, this Death Messenger has managed to lurk on the border of the Star Luo Empire for a very long time. To evade the empire's encirclement for so long, he must possess some highly unconventional methods."
He paused, glancing toward the ominous cave. "After all, the opponent is an Evil Soul Master. Their techniques are notoriously sinister and ruthless. Shouldn't we have the reserve team conduct a perimeter reconnaissance first? Or at least wait until the scouts bring back more precise information before we charge in?"
Hearing the younger boy's words, Ma Xiaotao turned her head. A dismissive, brilliant smile curved her lips. "Yuhao, you are just being far too cautious."
She crossed her arms, the flames of her soul power faintly warming the damp air. "Evil Soul Masters are indeed difficult to deal with, but that is only when competing against opponents of the exact same level."
"Look around you," she continued, gesturing to the proud faces of Dai Yueheng and the others. "We have a full roster of Inner Court elites. More, Elder Xuan is right here to hold the line. Even if this bandit leader possesses heaven-defying abilities, he won't be able to make a single splash in front of absolute power."
Elder Xuan stopped in his tracks. He turned his head, his murky eyes locking onto Huo Yuhao.
He unstoppered his massive wine gourd, took a long, loud swig, and wiped his mouth with the back of his sleeve. A low chuckle escaped his throat, laced with a heavy hint of mockery. "Yuhao, you are still new to the Inspection Team. You haven't seen much of the world yet, so it is completely normal to jump at shadows and be afraid of this and that."
Elder Xuan capped the gourd, his tone turning condescendingly authoritative. "But engrave this into your bones: you are a member of Shrek. You represent the absolute pinnacle. Facing a pathetic group of bandit Evil Soul Masters, if you don't even have this tiny bit of courage, how do you ever expect to establish your prestige in the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Elite Tournament? Just stay in the back with Teacher Wang Yan and watch. Stop worrying your head over these useless, trivial things."
Teacher Wang Yan opened his mouth, his throat bobbing. He actually agreed with Huo Yuhao; exercising caution in such a gloomy, death-filled environment certainly wouldn't hurt. But seeing Elder Xuan's completely nonchalant, arrogant attitude, Wang Yan ultimately swallowed his words back down.
In Shrek Academy, Elder Xuan's status and overwhelming strength represented absolute authority. Questioning him further was simply not an option.
The group resumed their march, the crunch of their footsteps echoing off the narrow canyon walls. Soon, they approached the jagged, pitch-black entrance marked on their military map as Death Valley.
Just at that moment, Elder Xuan's gaze snapped to the side. A vibrant flash of color in the dense, thorny bushes had caught his attention.
He stopped dead in his tracks. His nose twitched, inhaling deeply. Those originally murky, half-drunk eyes suddenly widened, lighting up with an intense, ravenous gleam.
Deep within the shadows of the dense forest, a golden soul beast resembling a large chicken was lowering its head to forage in the dirt. It emitted a rich, intoxicating fragrance that seemed to bypass the nose and strike directly at the stomach.
This was no ordinary bird. It was an extremely rare Golden Wild Pheasant. Its meat was legendary, possessing a texture and flavor so divine that it was universally classified as a Peerless Grade ingredient among soul beast culinary circles. Even a legendary glutton like Elder Xuan, a man who had literally eaten his way across the entire continent, had not laid eyes on one in decades.
Elder Xuan's feet felt glued to the earth. He could no longer take a single step forward. His throat bobbed as he swallowed a mouthful of saliva, his gaze locked firmly, obsessively, onto that shimmering golden plumage.
"Elder Xuan, what is wrong?" Dai Yueheng noticed the old man's sudden, rigid posture and asked, his tone laced with suspicion.
Elder Xuan forcefully tore his gaze away from the bushes. He let out a dry, feigned cough, waving his greasy hand dismissively toward Ma Xiaotao and Dai Yueheng. "Xiaotao, Yueheng, the bandits' cave is right ahead. This old man just sensed a faint, highly unusual fluctuation of soul power lingering nearby. I suspect it is a hidden sentry set up by the opponent. I must go handle this perimeter threat personally."
He didn't even wait for their reaction, already taking a half-step toward the bushes. "You children do not need to wait for me. Just charge straight in according to the original plan and make it a quick, decisive battle. Once I finish handling this small, troublesome matter, I will come to support you immediately."
Ma Xiaotao and Dai Yueheng exchanged a brief, unconcerned glance. They didn't think much of it at all. In their arrogant view, eliminating a ragged bandit group where the absolute highest cultivation was merely a Soul King simply did not require a Super Douluo to lift a finger.
"No problem, Elder Xuan. Please go ahead," Ma Xiaotao replied, her chin raised with supreme confidence. "By the time you return, we will probably have already dragged that Death Messenger out by his neck."
With that declaration, Ma Xiaotao took the lead. She gestured to the six members of the main team, Dai Yueheng, Chen Zifeng, Gongyang Mo, Yao Haoxuan, Xi Xi, and Ling Luochen. Soul rings flared to life in the gloomy canyon. The seven inner court elites turned into seven streaks of dazzling light, charging fearlessly straight into the pitch-black, gaping maw of the cave.
The very second the team members disappeared into the shadows of the tunnel, Elder Xuan's dignified expression vanished completely. A line of drool slipped from the corner of his mouth. With a swift, eager flash of movement, he dived headfirst into the thorny bushes.
In his mind, the culinary value of this Golden Wild Pheasant completely eclipsed the lives of a few pathetic Evil Soul Masters.
Inside the cave, the air grew instantly freezing and damp. The stench of rotting blood clung to the stone walls.
Ma Xiaotao took the absolute lead. Blazing crimson flames surged violently around her slender body, the intense heat driving back the chill and illuminating the dim, winding tunnel with a flickering orange glow.
Dai Yueheng followed closely behind her, his muscles bulging against his clothes. His White Tiger martial soul was already fully possessed. Thick white fur striped with black erupted along his arms, and his hands transformed into massive, razor-sharp tiger claws. His icy eyes darted left and right, vigilantly scanning the shadows.
"Over there!"
Following a sharp, echoing shout from Chen Zifeng, the group burst out of the narrow tunnel and rushed into a massive, cavernous underground palace.
In the dead center of this underground palace stood an altar constructed entirely from piled, yellowing human bones. Standing before this grotesque monument was a man dressed in loose, blood-red robes. His face was gaunt, pale, and twisted into a sinister, mocking sneer. He let out bursts of piercing, bone-chilling laughter that echoed off the damp ceiling.
It was the Death Messenger.
"Foolish, arrogant little fellows, actually daring to come to my domain," the Death Messenger spoke, his voice hoarse, grating, and unnaturally distorted, like two rusted blades grinding together. "Since you have delivered yourselves to my doorstep, you can stay right here and become my newest offerings!"
"Enough of your garbage talk. Die!" Ma Xiaotao roared. She summoned her martial soul to its peak. Her fourth soul ring, a deep, pulsating purple, flashed brilliantly. She thrust her hands forward, and a blazing, high-temperature Phoenix pillar of fire erupted from her palms, roaring straight toward the bone altar to incinerate the villain where he stood.
However, the Death Messenger did not even attempt to dodge.
Instead, his sneer widened into a grotesque grin. He suddenly plunged a pale, skeletal hand into his blood-red robes and pulled out a pitch-black, rune-carved bell. He shook it violently.
Ring! Ring!
The sound was dull, yet it pierced straight through the eardrums.
All around the underground palace, piled high against the walls like mountains of discarded trash, were hundreds of corpses. A second ago, they had seemed perfectly ordinary, merely rotting meat. But the moment the bell chimed, every single corpse began to swell strangely, their flesh ballooning outward. Their pale skin rapidly turned a sickly, bruised blue-purple, and a volatile, dark red light began to shine from deep within their bloated stomachs.
"Not good! It is Corpse Explosion! Retreat quickly!"
As a premier control system Soul Master, Yao Haoxuan's senses were the most finely tuned to environmental shifts. He instantly felt the violently fluctuating, highly compressed destructive energy saturating the air. The sheer density of the threat made his scalp go numb. He threw his arms wide and shouted at the absolute top of his lungs, his voice cracking with sheer terror.
But it was already too late.
A ferocious, utterly deranged smile split the Death Messenger's face. He suddenly crushed the pitch-black bell in his palm, the metal shattering into dust, and shrieked with madness: "Explode!"
Boom!
The entire underground palace was instantly swallowed by a blinding, apocalyptic dark red light.
This was no ordinary explosion. This was a catastrophic chain reaction triggered by the corpses of high-level Soul Masters, bodies that the Death Messenger had painstakingly refined for years using forbidden evil arts. Every single bloated corpse was packed with volatile energy, equivalent to the desperate self-detonation of a Soul King powerhouse.
With hundreds, perhaps thousands, of these corpses detonating at the exact same fraction of a second, the destructive power generated instantly shattered the boundaries of common sense, reaching an unfathomable level of devastation.
A terrifying, supersonic shockwave, carrying a tidal wave of highly toxic, flesh-melting corrosive liquid, instantly engulfed the proud Shrek Team.
Rumble!
The underground palace collapsed violently under the sheer force of the blast. Massive chunks of the stone ceiling caved in, crushing down upon the altar. Amidst the sky-filling, suffocating dust and the blinding red glare, agonized screams tore through the air, intermittent and desperate.
When the deafening roar of the explosion finally subsided, leaving only the hiss of melting stone and the settling of thick dust, the once imposing, invincible Shrek Team had been reduced to a scene of absolute, hellish tragedy.
Yao Haoxuan, who had been standing at the very front of the formation, had instinctively tried to use his massive, heavily muscled frame to block the brunt of the blast for his teammates. He bore the most direct, concentrated impact of the shockwave.
The result was gruesome. The entire right half of his torso had simply vanished, vaporized by the terrifying explosion. His ruined remains lay crumpled in the rubble. He had died instantly, his vocal cords destroyed before he even had the time to scream.
Chen Zifeng lay half-buried in the jagged ruins. His lower half was a catastrophic, bloody mess. The explosion had completely shredded his legs; everything below his mid-thighs was simply gone, leaving only jagged bone and charred flesh. The intense, mind-shattering pain caused his chest to heave with heavy, ragged gasps. Thick, dark blood pooled beneath him, rapidly staining the surrounding gray rubble a sickening red.
Gongyang Mo and Xi Xi had been caught by the secondary shockwave. The intense kinetic force had lifted them off their feet and slammed them brutally against the jagged stone walls. They now lay crumpled on the ground, their bodies covered in deep lacerations and blood. Both had fallen into a deep, unresponsive coma, their chests barely rising, their breathing so faint it was almost inaudible.
Even the strongest among them were not spared. Ma Xiaotao, who had summoned her Phoenix flames to form a protective barrier, and Dai Yueheng, who possessed the extremely tyrannical physical defense of the White Tiger, were left in a thoroughly miserable state.
Ma Xiaotao's pristine crimson dress was burned to blackened tatters. The flesh on her back had been blasted open, leaving a huge, weeping wound exposed to the toxic air. She knelt on one knee, coughing violently as thick, black, poisoned blood flowed uncontrollably from the corners of her mouth.
Dai Yueheng's vaunted White Tiger Vajra Transformation had been forcefully shattered by the blast. His left arm hung limply at his side, bent backward at an eerie, unnatural angle, the bone clearly snapped in two.
"Hahahaha! This is the legendary, ten-thousand-year Shrek Academy?" The Death Messenger stood atop the smoking wreckage of his altar, entirely unharmed by his own blast. He threw his head back, laughing crazily, his voice dripping with venomous contempt. "Nothing more than this! A bunch of arrogant, fragile children!"
Just at that moment, a thick, suffocating aura surged wildly from the collapsed cave entrance.
Elder Xuan had finally returned.
He strolled in, still casually holding a half-eaten, greasy bone in his hand. His wrinkled face was flushed with the oily glow of a highly satisfying meal, a content smile playing on his lips.
However, the moment he stepped through the rubble into the underground palace and his eyes registered the scene before him, the smile froze.
Clatter.
The greasy bone slipped from his fingers, bouncing off the blood-stained stones.
Elder Xuan froze completely. His pupils contracted violently, shrinking to the size of pinpricks. A deafening buzz filled his brain, drowning out all sound. It felt as if the entire sky had suddenly collapsed, crushing the breath from his lungs.
"Xiaotao... Haoxuan... Zifeng..."
Elder Xuan's voice trembled uncontrollably, sounding frail and old.
His wide, horrified eyes tracked across the cavern. He looked at the severed limbs scattered across the floor. He looked at those once high-spirited, peerless Inner Court elites, the absolute pride of Shrek, now lying in a pooling lake of their own blood like discarded, broken sacks.
And then, his gaze locked onto Yao Haoxuan. The boy who had completely lost all signs of life, his body torn in half.
At that moment, Elder Xuan felt as if the blood in his entire body had frozen solid.
"This... how is this possible?" he whispered, his lips quivering, his mind violently rejecting reality. "This old man only left for a single moment..."
Elder Xuan experienced a total, catastrophic mental breakdown.
His breathing became extremely heavy, ragged, and desperate. His originally rosy, wine-flushed complexion instantly drained, turning the sickly pale color of a corpse.
He stumbled forward, his legs suddenly lacking the strength to support his Super Douluo cultivation. He staggered blindly toward the disciples lying in the pool of blood, his mind so utterly shattered that he didn't even bother to turn his head to chase the retreating, laughing Death Messenger.
"No!"
Elder Xuan fell to his knees amidst the gore. He threw his head back and let out a shrill, agonizing wail toward the cavern ceiling.
It was a sound filled with absolute despair, soul-crushing remorse, and endless, suffocating fear.
He knew very well what he had done. Because of his momentary gluttony, because he could not resist a single bite of meat, the absolute core members of the Shrek Team were dead, crippled, or heavily injured.
This horrific price was more than enough to make him the biggest, most despised joke in Shrek Academy's glorious ten-thousand-year history.
And worse, it was a sin so great that he would never, ever be able to answer to Elder Mu!
[Akarin's Note:
Enjoying the story? Dropping a quick review, comment, or Power Stone means the world to me and keeps these daily updates flowing!
Want to read 50 chapters ahead or just want to help keep a shameless translator alive? (My livelihood actually depends on this, haha 😭). You can support me directly here:
(P.S. Just remove the brackets and replace the [.] with a regular dot . to use the links!)
✨ Patreon (50 Advanced Chapters): patreon[.]com/AkarinTL
☕ Ko-fi (Support / Sponsor): ko-fi[.]com/AkarinTL
🔗 All My Links: linktr[.]ee/AkarinTL
Thank you so much for reading and keeping this project alive!]