Boom! Boom! Boom!
Violent explosions echoed throughout the cavern as fierce battle erupted within.
The seven inner court disciples, along with Su Yunlin, were slaughtering the bandits.
The moment they entered the cave, they had witnessed a horrifying scene.
Those bandits did not even spare children.
Su Yunlin's fury instantly surged skyward, and he immediately joined the seven inner court disciples in exterminating the bandits.
The seven from Shrek's inner court had not expected Su Yunlin to act with such ruthless decisiveness.
At this moment, he wielded a massive scythe overflowing with evil aura. On the blade of the scythe was a sinister eye that seemed half-open.
Wherever Su Yunlin passed, the bandits were hacked into minced flesh.
Ma Xiaotao and the others had always assumed the seven little fellows from the outer court were all inexperienced youths who had never even killed a chicken before.
Who would have thought there was such a terrifying killing star among them?
"Who dares oppose the Death God's Messenger?! All of you will die! You will all become my—ughhh!"
The evil Spirit Master calling himself the Death God's Messenger suddenly let out a miserable scream.
The commotion immediately drew the attention of the inner court disciples.
They saw Su Yunlin holding the Heavenly Evil Sacred Demon Scythe in one hand—
and the severed head of the Death God's Messenger in the other.
Suddenly, a sense of danger surged through Su Yunlin's heart.
The next instant, all the corpses on the ground began swelling grotesquely—including the head in Su Yunlin's hand.
Su Yunlin immediately threw the head away.
In the next moment, every corpse exploded.
The Death God's Messenger had extremely vicious methods.
If no one killed him, he could trigger corpse explosions and escape amidst the chaos.
But if someone did kill him, then he no longer had any reservations.
He would simply blow up the entire mountain and drag his killer down with him.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The entire cave erupted in violent explosions.
Outside the cavern, Elder Xuan had been drinking when he suddenly froze before instantly charging inside.
The six reserve team members waiting outside were not directly caught in the explosion, but countless massive rocks came crashing down around them, forcing them to frantically shatter the falling debris.
Boom!
A pink streak of light shot out from the smoke with a figure inside it.
Everyone immediately recognized the figure—it was the inner court disciple Chen Zifeng.
As the pink light dissipated, another figure was revealed behind him.
Su Yunlin.
"Yunlin! Are you alright?!"
Wang Dong immediately rushed to Su Yunlin's side.
Su Yunlin waved his hand.
"Cough cough… I'm fine. My Class 8 defensive soul tool activated automatically, so I'm okay. Other than Senior Brother Chen being knocked out with me, the other six probably suffered serious injuries."
Su Yunlin truly had not expected that even after killing the Death God's Messenger, there would still be an explosion.
As expected of an evil Spirit Master—even in death, he still wanted to drag others down with him.
Su Yunlin had been at the center of the explosion. His Class 8 defensive soul tool had instantly activated, blasting him outward.
While being thrown away by the explosion, he had slammed into Chen Zifeng and brought him out together with him.
Chen Zifeng had been lucky enough to avoid corpse poison invading his body, though he still suffered many external injuries and had endured tremendous impact force. He would need two or three days of recovery.
"Hurry and save them. But be careful—the inside is filled with corpse poison."
Su Yunlin's face was somewhat pale.
Even with the protection of a defensive soul tool, being at the center of the explosion had inevitably injured him somewhat.
Fortunately, with the Gold of Life inside him, he only needed a bit of rest to recover.
As for the other inner court disciples, they should be fine.
They had not been at the center of the explosion, and with their Class 6 defensive soul tools plus their own cultivation, they should have been able to withstand it.
At the very least, they should not suffer crippling injuries.
"Damn it! Again?!"
A furious roar rang out.
Elder Xuan's mood instantly sank to rock bottom.
Then, with a wave of his hand, he forcibly pulled all seven people from inside the cave.
All seven members of the official team had suffered varying degrees of injury.
Fortunately, the explosions' destructive force had been blocked by their defensive soul tools.
Although their Class 6 defensive soul tools had shattered, surviving at all was already a blessing.
However, there was nothing they could do about the corpse poison.
Yao Haoxuan, Xi Xi, and Gongyang Mo had all been infected by corpse poison.
Fortunately, it had not damaged their foundations. As long as they returned to Shrek Academy and recuperated properly while purging the corpse poison from their bodies, they would recover fully without affecting their future cultivation.
Aside from Chen Zifeng, who had already fainted, the other six inner court disciples remained fully conscious.
If not for the soul tools protecting them, that explosion would have killed them all.
Even survival would likely have meant permanent crippling injuries that completely destroyed their future cultivation paths.
Elder Xuan looked at them before finally letting out a sigh of relief.
"The most serious issue is the corpse poison invading their bodies. I need to bring them back to the academy for treatment."
Then he turned toward Su Yunlin.
"Boy Yunlin."
Su Yunlin walked over.
Elder Xuan solemnly patted his shoulder.
"Thank you. Thank you for forcing them to carry defensive soul tools. Because of you, this old man didn't make another terrible mistake.
"In the future, any request you make at the Sea God Pavilion meetings, this old man will support it. You'll definitely want a hundred-thousand-year Spirit Beast someday, right? I'll personally hunt one for you!"
Elder Xuan was deeply grateful to Su Yunlin.
He had nearly caused another disaster.
Only now did he truly understand the importance of soul tools.
Without those defensive soul tools blocking the first wave of explosions, Ma Xiaotao and the others would either have died or been crippled.
Elder Xuan turned toward Wang Yan.
"A heavy responsibility falls on you now. Xiaotao and the others need time to recover. Let the reserve team children temporarily take their place. I'll bring these four back to the academy for treatment first, then return with replacements."
Elder Xuan immediately departed with the three most seriously injured members.
Meanwhile, the reserve team brought the four injured inner court disciples to a quiet place to rest.
Su Yunlin slowly calmed himself.
Although there had been complications, at least no one had died.
That alone was good news.
Su Yunlin carried Chen Zifeng on his back.
After all, Senior Brother Chen had been knocked unconscious because Su Yunlin crashed into him.
Ironically, that misfortune had turned into a blessing. Among the injured inner court disciples, Chen Zifeng's injuries were the lightest.
With the aid of the inner court's healing pills, he would be lively and jumping around again in only a few days.
Su Yunlin gently laid Chen Zifeng down and asked Xiao Xiao to help look after him.
Then he turned toward the other three heavily injured inner court disciples.
"Now do you understand why I forced you to bring soul tools? Still want to argue with me?"
Su Yunlin snorted coldly.
Ma Xiaotao and the other two lowered their heads.
Without defensive soul tools, they truly would have faced near-certain death.
They had only been at the edge of the explosion, yet even their Class 6 defensive soul tools had nearly shattered.
If they had tried to withstand that explosion with their physical bodies alone, they probably would have been blown into pieces.
"Put away your arrogant pride. Spirit Masters using soul tools is the future trend! You're not Limit Douluos, so why act like your Martial Souls are invincible under heaven?
"Our three empires focus on Martial Soul cultivation.
"The Sun Moon Empire focuses on soul tool development.
"So why can't Shrek Academy combine the strengths of both paths?
"You inner court geniuses—can't you excel in both?
"I'm not asking you to learn how to forge soul tools. But at the very least, you should know how to use them.
"In a situation like earlier, without defensive soul tools, all that would've remained of you would be charred corpses."
Arms crossed over his chest, Su Yunlin scolded the three of them relentlessly.
Wang Yan walked over and patted Su Yunlin's shoulder.
"Yunlin, that's enough. No one wanted something like this to happen."
Su Yunlin's expression did not change.
"No one wants this kind of thing to happen.
"But this is exactly the kind of situation our academy should prepare for in advance.
"In a situation like that earlier, properly equipping students with high-quality defensive soul tools could prevent casualties entirely.
"Anyway, once I return, I'm going to make Shrek Academy officially enforce this rule completely.
"If students disagree, expel them.
"If the elders disagree, beat them until they agree."
Wang Yan wiped the sweat from his forehead.
He had not expected Su Yunlin to be this fierce.
This was practically a complete overhaul of Shrek Academy.
...
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