Chapter 258 Xuanzi's Scheme: A Method to Bring Shrek Academy Back to Its Peak
Above the dark valley, withered grass trembled slightly in the chilling aftershocks of soul power.
Xuanzi stared intently at the black-robed old man below who was devouring vengeful spirits, his thoughts racing rapidly in that instant.
Over the years, Shrek Academy has endured too much criticism. From the Heavenly Soul Royal Academy winning the championship to the open provocations from various soul master academies in the private sector, every step has eroded Shrek's millennia-old prestige.
Xuanzi knew very well that the root cause of all this was not the outcome of a single competition, but rather that the top powers on the continent were well aware that Shrek Academy's pillar of strength, Dragon God Douluo Mu En, had fallen.
Without the Limit Douluo in charge, Shrek Academy is no longer an unshakeable behemoth in the eyes of those hidden sects with Super Douluo or even profound foundations.
However, Xuanzi has now secretly broken through that barrier and truly advanced to the level 99 Limit Douluo.
As long as the world knows that Shrek Academy still has a Limit Douluo, all doubts and provocations will vanish overnight.
However, if Shrek were to loudly proclaim this themselves, it would not only appear as a deliberate act of humility, but would also make them more susceptible to being labeled as bluffing by those with ulterior motives.
We must use an unexpected method to let all the Soul Masters on the continent witness it firsthand.
The titled Douluo-level evil soul master who was wreaking havoc in the northern border of the Sun Moon Empire was simply the best stepping stone that God had given to Shrek Academy.
As long as we drive him away and kill him in public in the most conspicuous place, we can not only demonstrate the Shrek Supervisory Group's eternal justice, but also rightfully announce to the whole world that he, Xuanzi, has reached the pinnacle.
Thinking of this, the wild joy in Xuanzi's eyes gradually subsided, turning into an undeniable decisiveness.
He swayed, leaving a faint yellow light, and instantly returned to the Shrek Seven Devils' side.
"Elder Xuan, what's the situation in there?" Bei Bei asked in a low voice, her expression wary. Huo Yuhao also withdrew his Spirit Eye Martial Soul, his face showing inquiry.
Xuanzi pulled the wine gourd from his waist, took a big gulp, and then looked at the core disciples in front of him, saying in a deep voice, "The plan has changed. There is a titled Douluo of the Holy Spirit Cult hiding in the valley, who is cultivating evil techniques using cruel methods. Now that our Shrek Supervision Group has caught us, there is no reason for us to let him go."
Upon hearing the words "Title Douluo," Wang Dong, Xiao Xiao, and the others turned pale and instinctively felt immense pressure.
Xuanzi waved his hand, interrupting Beibei who was about to speak, and continued, "You don't need to interfere. Listen, Beibei, from now on, you will carefully lead Yuhao and the others to the Sun and Moon Imperial City according to the original plan. Remember, keep your tracks hidden along the way, and don't get into any conflicts with anyone. Once you arrive in Mingdu, go directly to the reception area and wait for me. I'm going to deal with this beast myself."
Huo Yuhao frowned slightly, glancing worriedly towards the valley: "Elder Xuan, the opponent is, after all, a Title Douluo-level evil soul master with unpredictable methods. You're alone..."
"Haha, you little brat, do you really think this old man is just for show?" Xuanzi sneered, a confident glint in his eyes. "Just take care of yourselves. Remember my words, set off immediately and do not linger."
"Yes, Elder Xuan, please take care." Seeing this, Bei Bei said no more. She immediately led Huo Yuhao, Wang Dong and the others, keeping their bodies low, and carefully bypassed the valley by following the bushes on the side of the official road, and hurried away into the distance.
As he watched the Shrek Academy team members walk away, the kindness and laziness on Xuanzi's face vanished instantly.
He turned around and strode towards the dim valley. With each step, his gray robe fluttered without wind, and a thick, tangible, earth-yellow soul force began to circulate wildly across his skin.
boom--!
Without any warning, the rocks beneath Xuanzi's feet suddenly shattered. He was like a yellow meteor, crashing straight into the black mist at the deepest part of the valley with overwhelming force.
"Who goes there?!"
The black-robed elder who was cultivating in the black mist had a drastic change in expression.
He suddenly opened his eyes, and two ghastly green flames spewed from his eye sockets. Faced with this sudden attack, he pushed forward with his withered hands, and countless white skeletons, accompanied by sharp howls, instantly condensed into a huge bone shield in front of him.
"The one who'll take your life!"
Xuanzi's cold snort was like muffled thunder. He didn't even release his martial spirit, he simply threw a punch. The earth attribute soul power, condensed to its maximum, transformed into a beam of light as thick as a bucket, which solidly struck the bone shield.
Click—!
Even a Title Douluo-level defense was as fragile as paper before this punch. The bone shield shattered with a deafening roar, turning into countless bone fragments that flew everywhere.
The old man in black robes groaned, his entire body thrown off the ground by the enormous impact, crashing heavily into the cliff behind him, spitting out a mouthful of dark red blood.
Two yellow, two purple, four black, and one red—nine terrifying spirit rings rose from beneath the black-robed elder's feet. He stared intently at the mud-covered old man before him, his eyes filled with horror: "You're the Gluttonous Douluo Xuanzi of Shrek Academy?!"
Xuanzi didn't waste any words with him. He raised his right hand and pressed it into the air, instantly increasing the gravity around him by more than a hundred times, firmly pressing the evil soul master who had just stood up back to the ground.
The old man in black robes had a ferocious expression and, disregarding the backlash, frantically burned his own life force. A gigantic vengeful serpent, tens of meters long, roared out from behind him, carrying extremely strong corrosive poison, heading straight for Xuanzi's face.
"To put up a stubborn resistance."
Xuanzi's expression was icy. The next moment, a heavy gray halo, so intense that it caused the entire valley to distort slightly, quietly spread from his palm.
Level 99, the power of a Limit Douluo.
Under the suppression of this force, the giant vengeful serpent didn't even have time to scream before it was annihilated inch by inch in mid-air and turned into nothingness.
The black-robed elder stared blankly at the scene, his mind reeling, his entire body going numb. As one of the elders of the Holy Spirit Sect, he had witnessed the Supreme Leader Ye Xishui's power before. This kind of oppressive force, capable of completely shattering his very essence with just the purity of his soul power, without even requiring the deliberate activation of soul skills…
"Limit...Limit Douluo? How is this possible! You broke through?!" The black-robed elder was terrified. He was no longer the ferocious man he had been. Taking advantage of the brief freedom brought by the backlash, his entire body instantly turned into a cloud of blood mist, and he frantically fled towards the back of the valley.
"Want to leave? You can only go where I tell you to go."
Xuanzi snorted coldly. He didn't move, but simply made a light sweeping motion with his left hand in the air. In an instant, a basalt wall, a hundred meters long and incredibly thick, rose from the ground, cutting off the evil soul master's retreat to the depths of the northern frontier. Not only that, the spaces to the west and south were also completely sealed off by earth-attribute soul power as heavy as a mountain.
The blood mist that the evil spirit master had transformed into crashed and banged in the air. He realized with despair that Xuanzi had deliberately left a way out.
That's to the east, pointing directly towards the Mingdu, the imperial capital of the Sun and Moon Empire.
At this point, the evil spirit master had no other choice. To survive, he could only grit his teeth, push his speed to the limit, and, enveloped in billowing black mist, flee frantically towards Mingdu in a sorry state.
Xuanzi followed leisurely a few hundred meters behind. Whenever the evil spirit master tried to change course or stop, Xuanzi would unleash a powerful punch, forcing the opponent to continue burning their life force and flee in a disheveled state.
One fled, the other pursued; the two streaks of light left long trails across the plains of the Sun Moon Empire at an extremely high speed.
Half a day later, in the imperial city of the Sun and Moon Empire, Mingdu.
As the host city of the Continental Elite Youth Soul Master Tournament, the area outside the North Gate of Mingdu was already packed with people. Caravans from various sects and academies belonging to the three great empires and the Sun Moon Empire lined up in long queues, while countless civilians, merchants, and soldiers surrounded the square in front of the city gate.
However, at this extremely lively moment...
"What is that?!"
On the city wall, a soldier from the Sun Moon Empire's Royal Soul Master Corps, who was on lookout duty, suddenly cried out in alarm, his finger trembling as he pointed to the northern sky.
Everyone instinctively looked up. There, in the once clear sky, a massive, ominous black mist was crashing down towards the city gate at an almost frenzied speed. The violent, bloody aura emanating from the mist startled the warhorses in front of the gate, causing them to neigh loudly, and countless civilians to scream in terror. The scene instantly descended into utter chaos.
"An evil soul master! A titled Douluo-level evil soul master!" A knowledgeable sect leader recognized him at a glance and immediately shouted.
Just as the Mingdu City's defensive soul-guided device began to frantically accumulate energy, and everyone in the major factions felt threatened.
"You monstrous beast, where do you think you can escape to before me?!"
A furious roar, like a thunderclap from the heavens, instantly resounded throughout the entire area outside the capital city.
A vast expanse of earthy yellow light swept across the sky, completely blocking the black mist a thousand meters outside the city gate. Xuanzi's figure appeared in the void, towering above, his long hair flying, the earthy yellow aura surrounding him so heavy that the ground below began to sink.
"Shrek Xuanzi, if you are here, prepare to die!"
Xuanzi didn't give the completely exhausted evil spirit master any chance to speak. He pressed his right hand down sharply, and a phantom of a gluttonous divine bull, a hundred meters in size, condensed in the sky, crashing down with a terrifying, world-destroying pressure.
Rumble—!
With a deafening roar, the black mist, along with the titled Douluo evil soul master within it, was completely pulverized into dust in mid-air and vanished without a trace under this unparalleled absolute power, without even a chance to resist.
The earth trembled, and a fierce wind swept through. The square in front of the city gate, teeming with people, fell into a deathly silence. Everyone stared, pale-faced and dumbfounded, at the gray figure standing motionless in the center of the ruins.
(End of chapter)