Chapter 77: Tang San Is Poisoned
Tang San rewrapped Blue Silver Grass around Ning Rongrong, pulling her back behind him.
On the Huangdou Team's side, the Shi brothers were the first to act. They flung off their upper garments, revealing granite-like muscular physiques. As they released their martial souls, their shoulders hunched forward, backs semi-curved, and all their soul power condensed into an earthy yellow glow gathering behind them, forming an enormous dark yellow tortoise shell.
The shell's patterns were pale yellow. As the brothers summoned their martial souls, even their skeletal structure began to shift.
Not only did a shell form on their backs, but their fronts as well. With the shell's appearance, their limbs shortened slightly. At the center of the belly plate embedded in the shell, a large symbol shimmered faintly.
This was their martial soul—Black Tortoise.
It glowed with a faint blue hue. Two yellow and one purple ring encircled their bodies, spinning from bottom to top. Because the shell inflated their size, even their soul rings looked slightly distorted around them.
The one closest to the Shi brothers was Dai Mubai.
The powerful aura radiating from Dai Mubai was completely neutralized by the Shi brothers' martial souls, blocking him head-on and preventing his pressure from affecting the rest of the Huangdou Team.
Through the gap between the Shi brothers, one could see Yu Tianheng. As a top-tier beast martial soul, the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon instantly ignited excitement among the VIP spectators.
"Awuu—!"
With a tiger's roar to the sky, Dai Mubai boosted his team's morale and pounced at the enemy. Enveloped in the golden glow of his White Tiger Body Barrier, combined with his unstoppable aura, he looked overwhelmingly fierce—though his outfit left much to be desired.
The Shi brothers remained calm. Their first soul rings lit up as they charged at Dai Mubai side by side.
Dai Mubai stomped down hard and leaped into the air. With the boost from Ning Rongrong's first and second soul skills, his tiger claws extended with barbed hooks.
"Die."
With a sharp cry, Dai Mubai struck down with both claws toward the Shi brothers' heads.
But they had already anticipated this. Without panic, they retracted their heads into their shells.
Dai Mubai's tiger claws raked across the shell, sending out a shower of sparks.
Boom! A loud thud echoed as Dai Mubai was sent flying backward.
At that moment, Yu Tianheng had already drawn his Thunder Dragon Claw and launched an attack.
The claw was about to land on Dai Mubai, but the Shrek team remained composed.
Tang San, guarding Ning Rongrong, sneered inwardly. This was exactly what he had been waiting for. Since Zhu Zhuqing was keeping the Clan Lord occupied, he could execute the original plan—lure Yu Tianheng into a trap. Once Yu Tianheng was eliminated, the rest would be easy, and the final step would be to gang up on the Clan Lord.
But while the plan was perfect, reality proved cruel. Just as Tang San was about to activate Controlling Crane, Capturing Dragon to pull Dai Mubai back using his Blue Silver Grass, he realized that the vine wrapped around Dai Mubai's waist had suddenly gone slack—completely out of control.
"Damn, I made a mistake," Tang San muttered to himself. He didn't consider anything unusual—no one else had made a move, and since Blue Silver Grass was his own martial soul, it was impossible for someone else to interfere with it without him noticing.
Tang San's "mistake" had immediate consequences.
As expected, Yu Tianheng's powerful Thunder Dragon Claw struck Dai Mubai head-on.
Boom! A thunderous explosion rang out.
The next moment, Dai Mubai's body flew like a kite with a snapped string and crashed heavily into the arena floor. The ground cracked like a spider web from the impact, with Dai Mubai at its center.
Pfft! Lying on the ground, Dai Mubai suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood. If not for activating his third soul skill—White Tiger Vajra Transformation at the last second, he would've been unconscious with serious injuries by now—instead of just suffering a few broken ribs.
"Boss Dai!" Ma Hongjun and Oscar cried out in alarm when they saw Dai Mubai vomiting blood.
Struggling to his feet, Dai Mubai waved weakly and pulled out a recovery sausage Oscar had prepared earlier. After swallowing it, he finally caught his breath. "I'm… fine."
Following orders from the Clan Lord, Yu Tianheng didn't try to press the advantage. After delivering the blow, he retreated immediately behind the Shi brothers.
Thus, the first tactic of the "Shrek Seven Devils"—bait and cripple Yu Tianheng—was officially a failure.
Zhu Zhuqing, noticing that Tang San's Blue Silver Grass had failed and Dai Mubai was injured, asked coldly, "Was that your doing just now?"
Zu Zong gave a slight nod. If it had been anyone else asking, he would have flatly denied it—but with Zhu Zhuqing, there was no need to lie. Before the match had even begun, he had already activated his Blue Silver Domain in secret. As the wielder of the Blue Silver Emperor martial soul, it was child's play for Zu Zong to subtly manipulate one of Tang San's Blue Silver Grass vines.
Since he admitted it so straightforwardly, Zhu Zhuqing didn't press further. Her only task was to hold Zu Zong back according to Shrek's battle plan. She had no intention of mixing personal emotions into this fight.
"First Soul Skill—Nether Thrust."
"Second Soul Skill—Nether Hundred Claws."
Back to the other side—while Zhu Zhuqing was fighting with precision and momentum, things were going far worse for Tang San and Dai Mubai.
Dai Mubai's injuries had drastically weakened his combat power. Shrek instantly lost its top-tier power-attack advantage and fell completely into a passive state.
Yu Tianheng, with the assistance of the Shi brothers—two elite defense-type soul masters—was almost completely unfazed by the attacks of Dai Mubai, Meng Yiran, and the others. Tang San, on the other hand, didn't dare to casually reveal his third soul skill, as it consumed an enormous amount of soul power.
Zu Zong dodged Zhu Zhuqing's two strikes. Seeing that Yu Tianheng's side had nearly finished their part, he decided to subdue Zhu Zhuqing.
Blue Silver Emperor vines shot from his hands, lashing out from all directions toward Zhu Zhuqing.
Ma Hongjun prepared to launch Phoenix Fire Line to help her, but Tang San stopped him. That was because Dugu Yan had just launched her next wave of attacks—this one covering an even wider area.
Yu Tianheng and his companions had already withdrawn into formation at Dugu Yan's signal.
"Third Soul Skill—Jade Phosphor Purple Poison."
Despite Qin Ming's warning before the match not to cause lasting harm, now that Zu Zong had claimed Shrek could neutralize her poison, Dugu Yan saw no need to hold back. With a piercing screech, her third soul ring flared brightly.
Her originally emerald-green eyes turned completely violet, and even the green scales on her serpent tail shimmered with a faint purple glow. She opened her mouth and spewed a dense cloud of violet mist, rapidly spreading toward Shrek's side.
At the same time, she tossed a purple iron pellet into the mix.
In the Shrek formation, a faint smile crept up on Tang San's lips. He had been suppressing himself for so long, finally waiting for Dugu Yan's serpent poison. Even though the initial tactic had failed, as long as they could crack the enemy's venom, the rest of their follow-up strategies could unfold without restraint.
Just like in the original plan, Tang San threw out two large wineskins filled with realgar wine. Dai Mubai fired a White Tiger Fierce Light Wave to burst the wineskins into mist, while Ma Hongjun followed up with Phoenix Fire Line to ignite the alcohol vapor.
Everything went smoothly—the "Jade Phosphor Purple Poison" merged into the realgar mist and was burned away in an instant.
"Your serpent poison is nothing. If it were the Jade Phosphor Five—"
Tang San didn't even finish his boast before his head began to spin, and his vision blurred.
(End of Chapter)
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