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The conflagration spit out by the skull was Mo Jue"s second soul skill, Dark Demon Flames! The flames burned away at both body and spirit and it was exceptionally potent for a mere second soul skill. Furthermore, it possessed corrosive and adhesive properties. Anyone misfortunate enough to be slathered in it wouldn"t be able to shake it off and have their flesh burned away to the bone. Ye Xinglan faced the flames with serenity. Her eyes held not the flames nor Mo Jue. Her sword was her world, her world of s.h.i.+ning stars. It looked as if her pupils had turned into vertical slits, but that was just the form of her sword reflected in her eyes.
Brandis.h.i.+ng her sword, Ye Xinglan unleashed Sword G.o.d"s Star. Motes of resplendent starlight surged forth, piercing through the demonic flames to strike the skull.
A small crack formed on the skull, then it scattered into embers. But those embers gathered into a stream and shot toward Ye Xinglan. Yet a meter away from reaching her, they parted to the sides, as if cut apart by an invisible blade.
Ye Xinglan"s sword intent charged the heavens! Slas.h.i.+ng out with her sword, she weaved countless sword beams into a giant net flying toward Mo Jue.
Mo Jue threw up her hands to summon a defense of murky darkness, but it was all cut to tatters by the sword beams.
What the h.e.l.l! Many of the audience members swallowed their spit, wetting their throats that had dried from hanging mouths. Prior to the start of the match, they had a.s.sumed this would be a sure victory for Mo Jue. Yet in the opening moments, Mo Jue was already pressed into the defensive. Her mighty Black Swan soul skills were nothing before this unknown Ye Xinglan girl. They couldn"t believe it. A girl from the first grade was gaining ground on Mo Jue, a five-ringed Soul King and a pillar of the third grade!
Such a situation couldn"t be because of a difference in the quality of martial souls. The Black Swan was a top-tier darkness-attribute martial soul after all. Even if the StarG.o.d Sword was powerful, it couldn"t suppress the Black Swan. No, the difference was due to something else entirely. It was a fundamental gap in their comprehension of their martial souls.
Ye Xinglan"s strength was not her soul skills, but her sword intent! She had trained for many years to understand her path of the sword, and it was he sword intent that she cultivated that earned her entry into Shrek Academy"s inner court. If not for the change in admission requirements so only one-word battle armor masters were admitted, a talent of her caliber would still be in the inner court.
Tang Wulin had been helpless against her the first time they fought. He had been utterly suppressed by the might that stemmed from her understanding of her StarG.o.d Sword.
All that existed in Ye Xinglan"s world was the sword, and the sword reflected herself as her StarG.o.d Weave twisted into a maelstrom that saturated the air with sword intent.
Mo Jue choked on the oppressive aura and grimaced as she darted backward to evade. She knew that she had lost the initiative, and if she let this continue on, she would be completely suppressed. She refused to lose to this first grader!
Mo Jue flared open her wings as her third soul skill lit up. Dark green light enveloped her wings, and with a powerful flap, she sent a wave of light cras.h.i.+ng toward the StarG.o.d Weave. The net of sword beams was dyed deep green upon contact with the wave of light, then they corroded into nothingness. The wave of light was so potent that it had even corroded holes in the air itself.
This was the power of her third soul skill, Dark Corrosion! It was an attack of hyper-condensed darkness element that devoured all that stood in its way. In fact, Mo Jue had first gained admittance into Shrek Academy by relying on this dreadful soul skill.
Ye Xinglan did not falter before Dark Corrosion. She swung her sword up from the earth to rend the heavens, unleas.h.i.+ng a roaring sword wave.
The instant the two attacks collided, the sword wave s.h.i.+ned resplendently, as if laughing to itself, then it pierced through Dark Corrosion with its honed sword intent. Trailing right behind, Ye Xinglan completely avoided taking any damage by leaping through the hole created by her attack, soaring straight toward Mo Jue.
She"s strong! The audience members stared slack-jawed. They could tell from her bearing that she harbored no thoughts of defeat even before an opponent as great as Mo Jue.
Hot anger flashed through Mo Jue"s eyes. It was unthinkable for her to let a junior get this far. She could just summon her battle armor right now, but as a five-ringed Soul King, it would be shameful to use battle armor first against a four-ringed opponent. Her pride wouldn"t allow it. Absolutely not.
Mo Jue"s fourth soul ring lit up as she waved her hand and conjured a dark green lance that was topped by three skulls. Then the lance began to spin and energies streams of gray, green, and crimson gathered around it and poured into the skulls, one stream each. Each of those skulls br.i.m.m.i.n.g with energy possessed the power of a curse: weakness, fear, and pain. Then the skulls let out a burst of light that swept through the entire arena.
It was impossible for Ye Xinglan to evade in mid-air, and an instant later she was slathered in three eerie energies. Her aura dwindled and sword intent dulled.
Inflicted with the curses of weakness, fear, and pain Ye Xinglan no longer posed such a great threat to Mo Jue. Letting out a sigh of relief, Mo Jue stilled her hands" slight trembles as she remembered the oppressive might of Ye Xinglan"s rising slash. It was her first time facing such a fierce attack from someone whose soul power was so much weaker.
Mo Jue pointed her lance at Ye Xinglan, gathering the power of curses to its tip. In an instant, the lance was fully charged and it unleashed a dark green beam at Ye Xinglan.
Having just touched the ground, Ye Xinglan"s head was lowered and she didn"t see Mo Jue"s attack. But the moment looked up, she revealed eyes filled with dazzling determination. Her eyes bloomed with starlight as she raised her sword to the heavens and howled, unleas.h.i.+ng a burst of starlight! A torrent of sword intent rushed out of her and fused with the twinkling starlight in the air, dispelling the curses on her.
Upon the platform for elders, Zhuo s.h.i.+ nodded as he observed with approving eyes. “One sword to slay all truths. This girl has really reached the peak.”
Sword energy filled the sky, lingering in the air, tangible with permanence. When the dark green beam of curses met the sword energy in the air, the two rapidly consumed each other. But the sword energy held the advantage, maintaining its form longer than the beam of curses.
Ye Xinglan looked beyond the clash of energies to meet the gaze of her astonished opponent. Her third soul ring lit up and her eyes flickered gold. Then she shot into the air cloaked in golden radiance. Becoming one with her sword, she unleashed her third soul skill, Starfall Sword!
Mo Jue furrowed her brow. Her opponent exceeded her expectations by far. None of her curses had been effective, which was partly related to the StarG.o.d Sword possessing the attribute of light, but more so Ye Xinglan"s honed sword intent. Her sword intent"s edge was keen enough to slice apart even curses.
Mo Jue flapped her wings and unleashed an onslaught of jet black feathers at the rising star. Some of the feathers diverged and swirled around her.
Ye Xinglan shot toward Mo Jue as a shooting star, her sword intent slicing through the air with a shrill shriek. Even the audience members could feel the dreadful power of her sword intent which caused gooseb.u.mps all over their body. All of that sword intent was concentrated into this single attack.
Ye Xinglan had devoted herself to cultivating her sword. All that mattered to her was her sword, and not even her friends could get in the way of that. Every day she trained with her sword and nothing else. She practiced with the patience of a sage and unrivaled determination. None of her peers could compare to her in these two qualities.
The students of the second grade knew all too well the tyrannical might of the StarG.o.d Sword. She had easily held her ground one against three with her sword and skills. Every time she appeared in battle, she was far stronger than the last.
The black feathers collided with the starlight but couldn"t withstand its power and were rapidly destroyed. But the feathers had done their job of weakening the starlight attack and buying Mo Jue some time.
Those feathers had been Mo Jue"s fifth soul skill, Swan Feathers! Yet her fifth soul skill, the ultimate power of a Soul King, was an even match for Starfall Sword, a mere third soul skill. And this was despite their gap in soul power.
Mo Jue continued sending onslaught after onslaught of feathers at Ye Xinglan, further imbuing them with the dark green energy of curses to erode her light-attribute stellar sword energy.
Moments later, the Ye Xinglan"s sword energy dimmed back to normal and the stalemate was broken. Mo Jue had retaken the initiative.
While it was obvious to anyone with eyes that Ye Xinglan had better martial soul control than Mo Jue, it was undeniable that Mo Jue"s cultivation was far superior!
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