Chapter 123: Shrek Academy Loses! How Can One Fight Seven?
Liu Yuan bent at the waist, his movements measured and unhurried, as he lowered the unconscious Huo Yuhao onto the cracked stone floor of the arena. The boy's body settled into the dust, completely limp.
Straightening his spine, Liu Yuan rose. The purple-gold radiance wreathing his frame did not dim; instead, against the backdrop of the cleared central battlefield, the ethereal light deepened into a heavy, suffocating hue.
His gaze, cold and ancient, pierced through the dissipating layers of soul power mist. He looked upward, locking onto the final, most intense pocket of resistance hovering above the arena.
The once-unstoppable Shrek Academy team had been systematically dismantled. Swept aside by Liu Yuan's sudden, overwhelming eruption of power, the arena floor was now littered with the scattered, groaning bodies of Shrek's finest. Some lay unconscious within the bounds; others had been blasted entirely out of the ring. Only Ma Xiaotao remained, struggling desperately to keep herself aloft.
For a fleeting second, Star Luo Plaza fell into a dead, breathless silence.
Then, the arena erupted.
Mountainous cheers tore through the sky, a deafening shockwave of sound that shook the very foundations of the stadium. Woven beneath the roar of the crowd was a frantic, disbelieving murmur that spread like wildfire.
"This Liu Yuan... his strength defies all logic!"
"To single-handedly reverse a guaranteed defeat... I've watched the Continental Tournament for decades, and nothing like this has ever happened."
"Look at the ring! Shrek's entire lineup is incapacitated. Only Ma Xiaotao is left standing. It's a seven-on-one!"
"It doesn't matter how monstrous Ma Xiaotao is. She's a Soul Emperor, yes, but how can she possibly survive against the entire Heavenly Soul Team alone? They still have Liu Yuan and Long Aotian in peak fighting condition!"
"Heavens... is Shrek's ten-thousand-year myth of invincibility truly ending today?"
The tidal wave of the audience's shock crashed against Elder Xuan's ears, each word a physical blow.
Slumped in the team leader's seat, the old man's usually flushed face had drained to a ghastly, sickly green. His withered, calloused hands gripped the wooden armrests of his chair with such terrifying force that the thick timber groaned and splintered. Jagged shards of wood drove deep into his nail beds, drawing beads of dark blood, yet he didn't even flinch. He couldn't feel the pain.
'Damn it! I absolutely will not allow this to happen!'
Elder Xuan roared frantically in his own mind, his chest heaving. He could not—would not—accept that Shrek's ten-thousand-year foundation of glory was crumbling to ash under his direct leadership. If they lost this match, the backlash from the Sea God Pavilion would be apocalyptic. Worse still was the impending "kowtow bet"—a wager that sent a violent shudder down his spine and made his scalp go numb with dread just thinking about it.
But the cruel, obvious reality played out right before his bloodshot eyes. Shrek's defensive line had completely collapsed. Even with Ma Xiaotao's tyrannical Evil Fire, facing a coordinated seven-person encirclement meant her chances of survival were practically zero.
'There must be a way. There has to be a way to turn this around...'
Large drops of cold sweat rolled down Elder Xuan's wrinkled forehead, stinging his eyes. His chaotic thoughts spun in a frenzied blur, searching desperately for a tactical fulcrum, a miracle, anything. He found nothing but dead ends.
Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, nestled deep within the heart of Shrek Academy, the Sea God Pavilion sat in suffocating stillness.
On the long wooden table, the premium soul fruits and rare spirit teas prepared for a triumphant celebration had long since gone cold. The gathered elders, the absolute pinnacle of the continent's power, sat in a heavy, tomb-like silence. The air in the grand conference hall felt thick enough to choke on.
This oppressive despair weighed heavier than any beast tide or enemy invasion they had ever faced. Every elder present possessed top-tier strategic vision; they didn't need to wait for the referee's call. Watching the live soul-tool broadcast, they had already read the final outcome.
Shrek was going to lose.
"It is all because of this Liu Yuan!"
Yan Shaozhe slammed his palms against the heavy table and shot to his feet. The wood cracked under the sudden impact. His eyes were entirely bloodshot, his gaze fixed with venomous intensity on the calm, purple-robed youth displayed on the screen.
Before Liu Yuan's sudden intervention, the moment Ma Xiaotao and Dai Yueheng had returned to the field, Shrek had seized absolute control. If the match had proceeded normally, the championship trophy would already be resting securely in Shrek's vault. Yet, because of that singular, bizarre eruption of power from Liu Yuan, two of Shrek's main combatants and four of their elite reserves had been instantly wiped off the board.
"How detestable! Just what kind of freak is this kid?!" Yan Shaozhe's voice cracked, laced with a raw, exasperated fury.
At the head of the table, Elder Mu remained shockingly serene.
The Dragon God Douluo merely let out a long, helpless sigh. His ancient, clouded eyes swept over the furious, twisted faces of his subordinates.
"Now... do you finally realize what kind of genius you let slip through your fingers?"
Elder Mu's tone carried a deep, bone-deep exhaustion. Never in his long life had he valued a youth's potential as heavily as he did in this exact moment. Watching the broadcast, Liu Yuan was no longer just an excellent student. He was an anomaly—an existence that utterly eclipsed every genius Shrek had ever nurtured. Even Ma Xiaotao, the proud inheritor of the Evil Fire Phoenix, looked dim and clumsy when placed beside Liu Yuan's overwhelming presence.
"Not even thirteen years old... and already at Rank 49 soul power," Elder Mu muttered, his voice barely above a whisper, yet it echoed like thunder in the silent hall.
"With this terrifying cultivation speed and his flawless combat logic, give him just a few more years. By the time he turns twenty, his ascension to a Titled Douluo is an absolute certainty."
Elder Mu leaned back, closing his eyes. "And that is without factoring in his Double Pupils Body Martial Soul. An innate physical manifestation that possesses an Origin suppression capable of transcending ranks. Among his peers, he is already invincible. We... Shrek... have thrown away the one true leader capable of securing our ten-thousand-year legacy."
Hearing the Sea God Pavilion Master's blunt assessment, the expressions of the surrounding elders twisted into ugly masks of grief and shame. The agony of losing the continental tournament was one thing. But the realization that they had personally humiliated and expelled the peerless genius who was currently dismantling them? That realization made Yan Shaozhe and the others feel as though their internal organs were being crushed. They were on the verge of breaking down on the spot.
Meanwhile, back on the shattered stone of the Star Luo Plaza arena, the true hunt commenced.
Liu Yuan had no intention of giving Ma Xiaotao a single second to catch her breath. Pragmatism was his only rule in battle.
He tapped his toes against the ground. The stone spider-webbed beneath his boots as his figure shot into the sky. The purple-gold radiance trailed behind him like a comet's tail, cutting a brilliant path through the air as he rapidly converged with Long Aotian.
Below them, Vina, Chen Lu, Wang Yanfeng, and the rest of the Heavenly Soul Team moved in perfect synchronization, forming a tight perimeter. Though their soul power reserves were heavily depleted from the grueling match, the burning conviction of absolute victory illuminated their eyes.
"Senior Brother, let's combine our strength," Liu Yuan said, his voice calm and flat as he hovered in the air. His Double Pupils locked onto Ma Xiaotao, analyzing her fluctuating energy signatures with cold precision.
"Good!" Long Aotian let out a booming, heroic laugh, rolling his massive shoulders as dark gold energy surged around his fists.
Ma Xiaotao was thoroughly trapped.
She hovered in the center of the encirclement, her breathing ragged and heavy. The massive crimson Phoenix wings extending from her back flickered and dimmed, the fiery plumage destabilizing under the sheer strain of overloading her soul power. She darted her eyes toward the seven figures boxing her in. Deep within her meridians, the inherently unstable Evil Fire sensed her desperation and began to rampage wildly, threatening to consume her mind.
"I refuse to believe that a pack of ants can actually defeat me!" Ma Xiaotao shrieked, her voice cracking with hysterical pride.
Her sixth soul ring—a deep, oppressive black—suddenly flared with blinding intensity.
"Phoenix Meteor Shower!"
The sky above the arena burned a violent, apocalyptic red. The temperature skyrocketed as countless massive meteorites, wreathed in corrosive Evil Fire, materialized from the burning clouds. They plummeted from the heavens, a localized extinction event aimed at completely glassing the entire arena.
Yet, against the absolute domain of Liu Yuan's activated 'Ultimate Sublimation', this devastating, large-scale Soul Skill appeared almost pitifully slow.
"Disperse."
Liu Yuan issued the single, quiet command.
The seven members of the Heavenly Soul Team scattered instantly, moving like a single organism. A heartbeat later, seven distinct pillars of intense soul power erupted simultaneously from seven different directions.
The moment Ma Xiaotao unleashed her desperate assault, Liu Yuan's tactical network responded. Whenever she activated a skill, seven perfectly timed Soul Skills rose up to counter, deflect, and dismantle it.
Ma Xiaotao swung her arms, hurling a concentrated Phoenix Cloud-Piercing Strike straight at Vina. Before the fiery beam could cross half the distance, a dark purple beam from Liu Yuan's Double Pupils intercepted it mid-air, detonating the attack into a harmless shower of sparks.
Immediately following the interception, the counterattack arrived. Long Aotian's Dark Gold Divine Fist tore through the smoke, followed closely by Vina's restrictive control skills and Chen Lu's sharp offensive barrages. The combined assault rained down upon Ma Xiaotao's protective Evil Fire barrier like a torrential downpour of artillery.
Bang! Boom! Bang!
The muffled, sickening sounds of physical impacts and violent energy detonations echoed endlessly across the sky.
The proud, untouchable genius of Shrek Academy had been reduced to a passive sandbag.
Ma Xiaotao gritted her bloody teeth and tried to dive, hoping to break the encirclement from below. Long Aotian met her head-on, his dark gold fists forcing her back up with brutal, bone-rattling strikes. She tried to retreat and bombard them from a distance, but Liu Yuan's Laser Eye tracked her every twitch, blasting her out of the sky before she could even channel her fire.
Every time Liu Yuan's eyes flashed, a precise, devastating beam would strip away another layer of her protective Evil Fire. He was dismantling her armor piece by piece.
And Long Aotian ruthlessly exploited every single opening. His heavy, mountain-shattering punches bypassed her weakened defenses, landing solidly against her shoulders, her ribs, her abdomen.
Under the watchful gaze of the entire continent, the strongest prodigy of Shrek Academy was enduring an unmatched, humiliating beatdown.
Blood spilled freely from the corners of Ma Xiaotao's mouth, staining her collar. Her once-majestic, wildly dancing red hair was now a matted, disheveled mess. She roared in pure, unadulterated despair, attempting to forcefully overdraw her own life force just to maintain her soul power output.
But beneath the crushing, total mental suppression radiating from Liu Yuan's Double Pupils, the ambient energy around her was locked down. She found it agonizingly difficult to even condense a basic fireball, let alone a major ultimate move.
Pfft—!
Long Aotian's eyes gleamed as he caught a momentary lapse in her guard. Pivoting on his heel, he delivered a devastating, heavy roundhouse kick. His shin slammed fiercely into Ma Xiaotao's exposed side with the force of a siege ram.
Ma Xiaotao let out a ragged scream. The impact shattered her ribs. Her body folded around his leg before she was launched downward like a kite with a severed string. She plummeted from a hundred meters in the air, smashing heavily into the arena's stone floor.
The impact cratered the ground, the thick stone slabs shattering inch by inch into fine dust.
Coughing up a mouthful of blood, Ma Xiaotao dug her trembling fingers into the rubble, struggling desperately to crawl back to her feet.
But a shadow fell over her.
Liu Yuan had already descended, hovering directly above her broken form. His expression was completely devoid of pity.
"Laser Eye. Maximum power."
Liu Yuan narrowed his eyes slightly. The purple-gold light in his pupils condensed into a terrifying singularity.
Two massive, dark purple beams of pure destructive energy whistled down from the sky, striking dead center upon Ma Xiaotao's already fragmented Evil Fire shield.
BOOM—!!!
A violent, blinding explosion consumed the crater. A shockwave of displaced air and shattered stone blasted outward, forcing the front rows of the audience to shield their faces.
When the smoke finally cleared, the last speck of dark red sparks had been completely extinguished.
Ma Xiaotao's eyes had rolled back into her head. The restless, violent Evil Fire inside her body had finally fallen into a dead, absolute silence, suppressed by the sheer, total exhaustion of her physical and spiritual strength.
She lay completely limp at the bottom of the deep pit, her once-scorching body rapidly turning cold against the broken stone.
Ma Xiaotao, defeated.
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