Dai Huabin gazed at the deadlocked battle before him, where Yae Sakura's cherry-colored blade light intertwined with Siegfried's holy sword's sharp edge. The splashing sparks were like falling stars, too dazzling to look at.
Meanwhile, Huo Yuhao's blood-dyed eyes were locked firmly on him. A strong sense of unease coiled around his heart like a vine, tightening his breath.
"Next, it's time to settle the old scores between us!"
Huo Yuhao's eyes suddenly turned cold, the chill more severe than Ultimate Ice, piercing straight to the bone marrow like a frigid wind.
He glared fiercely at Dai Huabin, and an invisible Spiritual Impact struck the other's mind like a heavy hammer—it was the resentment accumulated over a decade, the humiliation from the White Tiger Duke's Mansion, the despair when his mother coughed up blood. Now, all of it transformed into the sharpest spiritual blade, intent on tearing Dai Huabin's soul apart.
Dai Huabin felt a sudden dizziness, as if countless red-hot steel needles were churning inside his skull. He couldn't help but groan, covering his forehead as he staggered back repeatedly, his face instantly turning pale as paper.
"Huabin!" Zhu Lu cried out, rushing forward to help stabilize the swaying Dai Huabin, her dark pupils filled with anxiety.
"I'm fine!"
Dai Huabin gritted his teeth and roared, forcefully suppressing the intense pain in his mind.
He knew he couldn't show weakness now. If he did, he would only be shredded by that lunatic, Huo Yuhao.
"Zhu Lu, attack together! We must kill him today!"
Before his voice faded, five Soul Rings—yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black—lit up around him as his White Tiger Martial Soul attached itself to his body with a roar.
His body swelled by nearly half under the infusion of soul power, covered in snowy-white tiger fur, each strand standing up like a steel needle. The black "King" pattern on his forehead shone brightly, and his sharp claws and fangs gleamed with a chilling light. He transformed into a white blur, rushing straight at Huo Yuhao with a screech that tore the air.
Zhu Lu was equally decisive. Her Netherworld Civet Martial Soul instantly attached, making her figure slender and agile. Her dark fur was as smooth as satin, and her eyes shimmered with a ghostly green light.
Her speed was slightly faster than Dai Huabin's. With a few blinks, she covered several meters, closing in on Huo Yuhao's side.
Her third Soul Skill, "Netherworld Hundred Claws," erupted. Countless shadow-like claws howled out from all directions, weaving an impenetrable net of attack that devoured even the sunlight, sealing off all of Huo Yuhao's possible routes of evasion.
Having cooperated for years, the two were seamlessly synchronized.
Dai Huabin charged head-on, his fierce and dominant tiger claws carrying the force to shatter mountains and crack stones, intending to rip apart any defense.
Zhu Lu harassed from the flank, utilizing her ghostly, tricky speed to maneuver and seek out fleeting openings.
This combination technique had allowed them to achieve repeated victories in Soul Duels. Now, unleashed under the pressure of life-or-death, their soul power flowed thirty percent faster than usual, and their might surged even more.
Huo Yuhao watched the two figures charging towards him, his face devoid of panic, instead curling into a chilling smile—a smile that hid a madness suppressed for too long.
Soul power surged beneath his feet, and his body slid backward several meters like a ghost, narrowly dodging Zhu Lu's Netherworld Hundred Claws. The claw-wind grazed his clothes, leaving five deep, bone-visible gashes in the broken wall behind him.
Simultaneously, he waved his left hand, and a frigid black shadow whistled out—an ice cone condensed from Ultimate Ice soul power. The cone tip shimmered with a ghostly blue light, carrying a coldness capable of freezing blood, aimed straight for Dai Huabin's face.
"Clang!"
Dai Huabin reacted instantly, blocking with his claw. The ice cone exploded into a mist of ice on the tiger claw.
Frost-white coldness spread up his arm, instantly freezing most of it. Even the tiger fur was coated with crystalline ice shards.
Fortunately, he had prepared. While his Martial Soul attached, he immediately activated his third Soul Skill, "White Tiger Vajra Transformation." Golden lines lit up beneath his fur, forcefully halting the spread of the coldness. Otherwise, his entire arm would have been frozen into fragments by the Ultimate Ice.
"Now!"
Zhu Lu seized the momentary opportunity, accelerating again. Like a shadow sliding along the ground, she instantly bypassed Huo Yuhao and moved behind him.
Sharp cat claws, glowing with spectral light, struck fiercely at his back with five claw shadows almost merged into one line—one of the most vulnerable parts of the human body. A hit here would severely wound even a Titled Douluo, assuming they could break through a Titled Douluo's defense.
As if he had eyes on his back, Huo Yuhao suddenly turned sideways, clenching his right hand into a fist. A powerful spiritual force gathered on the fist, and without any fancy moves, he smashed it hard toward Zhu Lu's abdomen.
This punch seemed unremarkable, with no soul power fluctuation on the fist, yet it contained a force capable of tearing the soul—a perfect combination of spiritual power and soul power, a self-created soul skill.
Zhu Lu's pupils contracted. She quickly twisted to dodge but was still grazed by the punch's air current.
She immediately felt dizzy, as if the entire world were shaking, and a ringing noise sounded in her mind. Her movements involuntarily slowed by half a beat.
"You're asking to die!"
Dai Huabin roared in fury. Seizing the opening created by Huo Yuhao's attack on Zhu Lu, he instantly activated his first Soul Skill, "White Tiger Violent Light Wave."
A searing white light wave shot toward Huo Yuhao like a laser. The air in its path was scorched and distorted, and even the gravel on the ground sizzled.
A red light flashed in Huo Yuhao's eyes. Instead of retreating, his body advanced, charging directly into the range of the White Tiger Violent Light Wave.
To his assailants' horror, the light wave, capable of melting steel, only singed a few strands of his hair. There wasn't even a scorch mark on his skin.
He swept his left arm out, and a blood-colored soul power glow suddenly illuminated, as a massive Ice Barrier rose from the ground like a snow-colored city wall.
Dai Huabin and Zhu Lu, who were lunging next, crashed headlong into the ice wall. With two loud 'thuds,' they were knocked back, slamming heavily against a broken wall and kicking up a cloud of dust.
"How is this possible?!"
Dai Huabin struggled to his feet from the dust cloud, violently spitting out a mouthful of blood that stained the white fur on his chest.
His eyes, fixed on Huo Yuhao, were full of disbelief. "How did you get so strong?"
He couldn't understand why Huo Yuhao had become so terrifying—not only was his recovery defying nature, but his defense and offense were absurdly powerful. It was like he was a completely different person.
Although he had been repeatedly defeated by Huo Yuhao before, he always attributed it to other reasons, not Huo Yuhao being strong enough.
But now, Huo Yuhao had truly, simply, defeated him and Zhu Lu with his own power.
Huo Yuhao slowly walked toward the two figures lying on the ground. With every step, a thin layer of ice condensed on the pavement.
His blood-colored eyes surged with the satisfaction of revenge, his voice deep and cold, as if from the Nine Hells: "Dai Huabin, do you remember the child you stepped on at the White Tiger Duke's Mansion? Do you remember your mother pointing at my mother's nose and calling her a bitch? Do you remember saying, 'A half-breed belongs in the mud?'"
With every word, the frigid air around him intensified, as if the very air was about to freeze.
"Today, I'll let you taste what it means to wish for death!"
Before his words finished, his soul power surged around him, and countless ice cones drilled up from the ground, unfolding like blooming ice lotuses, layer upon layer, completely sealing off Dai Huabin and Zhu Lu's retreat.
"You... you are that half-breed!"
Dai Huabin's pupils contracted sharply. The long-sealed fragments of memory in his mind instantly pieced together—that scrawny "little brother," the half-breed he ruthlessly bullied and who dared not even lift his head.
The blurry eyebrows and figure from his memory overlapped bit by bit with the bloody "monster" before him. That face, twisted by hatred, vaguely corresponded to the timid-eyed child from years ago.
As the word "half-breed" left his mouth, a chilling light flashed in Huo Yuhao's eyes.
He fiercely waved his right hand. Three frost-chilling ice blades cut through the air, whistling sharply as they aimed for Dai Huabin's vital points.
Where the ice blades passed, even the falling dust was frozen into ice crystals.
"Martial Soul Fusion Skill, Netherworld White Tiger!"
How could Dai Huabin and Zhu Lu simply await death?
At the brink of life and death, their soul power suddenly surged. The White Tiger's ferocity and the Civet's cunning instantly merged.
Black and white spectral light shot into the sky, and a frantic surge of soul power swept out, forcefully shattering the ice blades into a shower of icy confetti.
A terrifying aura comparable to a Soul Sage permeated the area, causing the surrounding ruins to rattle.
Dai Huabin and Zhu Lu's figures gradually fused and elongated in the light, finally transforming into a massive White Tiger with black and white stripes—it was five meters tall and nearly ten meters long. Its snowy-white fur was speckled with ink-black patterns, but its tail tip was wrapped in a wisp of smoke-like black mist. Its vertical pupils flashed with vicious red light. This was their ultimate trump card, the Martial Soul Fusion Skill: Netherworld White Tiger!
Despite its colossal size, the Netherworld White Tiger's speed was incredibly fast. Almost the instant it formed, it covered tens of meters and appeared before Huo Yuhao.
Its giant paw struck down with a sound that tore the air. Before the paw-wind even arrived, the ground was pressed into a huge depression, and shattered rocks flew out like shrapnel.
In the high sky, the blood-colored full moon grew more eerie, its red light like viscous blood, dyeing the entire area in a strange hue.
A scarlet current suddenly surged around Huo Yuhao. A berserk aura erupted from within him, causing the Netherworld White Tiger's movements to instinctively pause.
A sudden change occurred!
Silver-white fur slowly grew on Huo Yuhao's body, each strand shimmering with cold light like an ice filament. His ten fingers gradually sharpened into keen claws.
Ice crystals condensed on the claw tips, glowing with a ghostly blue light. His height visibly surged to over three meters, his muscles bulging like ice-rock, brimming with explosive power.
Dense ice crystals condensed within the silver-white fur, reflecting a chilling, heart-stopping light.
Sharp ice spikes several inches long sprouted from key areas like his shoulders and elbow joints, flashing with an ominous sharpness.
His head slowly transformed into a wolf's head, his fangs sharp as ice cones, and his ears stood erect, covered in thick frost.
His tail became thick as a steel whip, ending in a football-sized cluster of ice that whipped up blasts of biting cold wind, freezing the air into frost.
At this moment, Huo Yuhao was like a Frost Werewolf that had walked out of the extreme north ice plains, retaining a human outline yet full of bestial rage and coldness.
Facing the heavy, powerful strike of the Netherworld White Tiger, Huo Yuhao slowly raised his ice-crystal-coated wolf claw, actually using his flesh and blood body to withstand the giant paw that could crush boulders.
With a muffled 'bang,' the shockwave spread outwards. The ground beneath their feet instantly cracked, and spiderweb-like fissures extended tens of meters.
Terrifying killing intent burned in Huo Yuhao's scarlet beast-eyes. On his wolf claw, powerful spiritual energy and Ultimate Ice frantically intertwined and fused, finally forming a lifelike Ice Wolf energy body.
The Ice Wolf howled to the sky—a silent roar, yet containing a soul-tearing might that even the Netherworld White Tiger couldn't help but tremble at.
"Die!"
Huo Yuhao growled, condensing the Ice Wolf energy body into his fist, and slammed it fiercely towards the Netherworld White Tiger's head with a destructive, berserk will.
This punch fused his powerful spiritual energy with his Ultimate Ice soul power, containing both a soul-rending spiritual impact and an ultimate coldness that could freeze everything.
Under that invisible spiritual pressure, the Netherworld White Tiger felt an intense pain in its mind. Its body became stiff and immobile, as if firmly locked by invisible shackles, making evasion impossible.
"Boom—!"
The giant Ice Wolf energy body fiercely struck the Netherworld White Tiger's forehead, emitting a deafening roar.
The Netherworld White Tiger let out a cry of agony. Its massive body flew backward like a kite with a broken string, shattering countless ruins along its path, plowing a trench tens of meters long into the ground, and finally crashing heavily into a dilapidated tall building, making the entire structure teeter.
The power of Ultimate Ice instantly erupted, spreading along the Netherworld White Tiger's body. Wherever it passed, the black and white fur was rapidly frozen. Even the blood spewing from its mouth condensed into blood-colored ice crystals in the air.
In just a few breaths, the entire Netherworld White Tiger was frozen into a massive ice sculpture, embedded in the ruins, with only its unwilling vertical pupils retaining a flicker of life.
Huo Yuhao slowly retracted his fist, his wolf head slightly lowered, his scarlet eyes staring at the ice sculpture. The blood stains on his silver-white fur were particularly conspicuous in the moonlight.
His chest heaved violently, each breath exhaling white cold air. Clearly, that last strike was also costly, but the fire of hatred in his eyes burned even more fiercely.
"Master!"
Dai Huabin's miserable cry carried across the battlefield, and Siegfried's face instantly changed.
His peripheral vision caught the moment the Netherworld White Tiger was frozen into an ice sculpture. Anxious, he could no longer afford to be entangled with Yae Sakura.
"Clang, clang, clang!"
Siegfried did not hesitate to take several slashes from Yae Sakura head-on.
The blade of the Spiritual Blade Sakura-fubuki (Cherry-Blossom Blizzard) cut dazzling sparks on his Dragon's Blood Armor, emitting a grating clash of metal.
Dark red patterns appeared on the surface of the blood armor—the defensive power originating from the dragon. It stubbornly blocked all of Yae Sakura's slashes, leaving only a few shallow white marks on the armor.
The Dragon's Blood Armor, an Anti-Personnel Noble Phantasm of Rank B+, was capable of defending against a certain level of physical and energy attacks.
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