Book 14: The Finals!Chapter 121.2: The Tang Sect"s Secret Techniques
Boom. Bei Bei"s body collapsed backwards onto the compet.i.tion stage just like that. He didn"t move an inch after the initial bounce when his body first crashed onto the stage.
The audience looked on with bewilderment, while everybody from team Shrek stood up in unison, their expressions that of intense disbelief.
How could this be? It was clearly Bei Bei"s Thunderous Dragon Head that had broken through his opponent"s attack. How could he just crumple onto the ground, unconscious, when he hadn"t even touched his opponent?
What exactly had happened?
Even the Heavenfiend Douluo looked a little dazed, as not even he knew the reason why Bei Bei had fainted on the spot. There was no reason for him to collapse, no matter which perspective he looked at it from.
However, the truth was that he"d gone down, which meant that the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy was victorious this round.
The Heavenfiend Douluo used a strand of gentle soul energy to carry Bei Bei"s unconscious body towards Shrek Academy"s team members. Huo Yuhao hurriedly came forward and grab his senior brother, and realized that Bei Bei"s face was extremely pale. All it took was that tiny moment before his breathing became extremely weak. It felt as if his vitality had been frozen, but the more frightening fact was that Bei Bei"s skin color had become as white as Meng Hongchen"s skin, except that he didn"t have her crystal-like translucence.
Meng Hongchen gradually stepped into the stage"s center, then she glanced at the other team members from Shrek with a pair of chilly eyes. She raised her right hand and pointed at the troupe in the waiting area and coldly said, “Next.”
Ling Luochen slowly straightened her back. The third contestant from Shrek Academy"s team was her.
Suddenly, w.a.n.g Yan and Huo Yuhao exclaimed at practically the same time.
“I know what her martial soul is!”
“I finally remember!”
The first sentence belonged to Huo Yuhao"s, while the latter was w.a.n.g Yan"s. Huo Yuhao"s judgment came from the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion, who"d just been abruptly shaken awake inside his mind, while w.a.n.g Yan"s determination came from his accrued knowledge from reading a myriad of materials.
Huo Yuhao and w.a.n.g Yan exchanged a look, then shouted at the same time. “Her martial soul is the Vermillion Ice Toad! It"s extremely poisonous.”
The Ice Empress was in a deep slumber inside his spiritual sea, but she"d been awakened the moment Huo Yuhao caught Bei Bei and had said the Vermillion Ice Toad"s name.
Huo Yuhao quickly probed for information about the Vermillion Ice Toad. The Ice Empress told him that it was an ice-type soul beast that possessed extremely strong poison, and was known in the Extreme North as the "King Within the Crevice". The reason for this was because its territory was in the Extreme North"s outer regions, along the border to the human world. There were very few of them around, and their whereabouts were unpredictable, as they always moved from place to place. As such, they were rarely-seen and exotic. The Vermillion Ice Toad"s forte was poison, and they absorbed the coldest air and energies between heaven and earth to forge their poisons. The two reasons that they hadn"t moved deeper into the Extreme North was because the Three Heavenly Kings were holding down the fort, and the Vermillion Ice Toad"s body was an ice-type soul beast, while its eyes were fire-type—an extremely peculiar combination. Thus, places of extreme cold weren"t suitable for them to inhabit. They intertwined both their fire and ice abilities to produce their special icy poison.
The Vermillion Ice Toad would leave a trail of acute poison wherever it went, which would remain there almost indefinitely. Even soul beasts more powerful than it found it challenging to harm the Ice Toad. There had been records of soul masters with this martial soul on the continent, but they were extremely rare. The reason for this was because the Vermillion Ice Toad"s situation was similar to Ma Xiaotao"s Evil Phoenix; the icy poison within it would cause a toxic backlash to its owner. One misstep, and the soul master would perish from the icy poison entering his or her heart. This was the main reason why there were very few of such soul masters who could cultivate to an extremely high level.
However, there were two sides to everything. The stronger the toxic backlash, the more formidable its power, and the stronger the poison in battle.
There was no question that the sphere of white mist that she"d released was charged with the Vermillion Ice Toad"s intense poison. Bei Bei had been unwittingly poisoned, thus he had no longer been able to control the Thunderous Dragon Head, which naturally meant the latter wouldn"t be able to lock onto its target anymore. Meng Hongchen wasn"t only powerful and unique—her calculations were accurate and impeccable. She"d defeated Bei Bei practically without breaking a sweat, and it was apparent that she could control the Vermillion Ice Toad"s intense poison at a whim, as the Heavenfiend Douluo would"ve been affected otherwise. Whether she"d suffer from a toxic backlash was hard to say.
Bei Bei hadn"t let Michael unleash his full potential, and he ended up with the same fate. The Golden Holy Dragon"s radiance would no longer shine in this season"s grand compet.i.tion.
Huo Yuhao and w.a.n.g Yan"s unified exclamation was so loud that even Meng Hongchen heard it from the compet.i.tion stage. She glanced towards Shrek Academy"s waiting area, then grunted and said, “You guys are from Shrek after all. Looks like you do know some things.”
The compet.i.tion carried on, as the single-elimination rounds couldn"t be stopped halfway. Huo Yuhao and w.a.n.g Yan"s words were clearly meant to remind Ling Luochen as she stepped onto the compet.i.tion stage.
However, both of their faces were full of worry and anxiety.
The rain was becoming even finer. There was no doubt that Ling Luochen"s ice-type control abilities would receive a great boost under such a deluge. However, wouldn"t the downpour also create many perfect avenues for poison to spread?
Someone with Bei Bei"s cultivation, and with the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon"s natural resistance, had lost the ability to battle in just a few gasps of breath. One could only imagine how intense the Vermillion Ice Toad"s poison was, and Meng Hongchen was already a Cla.s.s 5 soul engineer.
Ling Luochen walked on stage with a calm look in her eyes and stood before the judge. Shrek still had the advantage in the single-elimination round for now, as she was the third contestant, while Meng Hongchen was the fourth.
The light drizzle continued as both parties gradually retreated to their respective corners. Meng Hongchen"s expression at this moment was like an arrogant and aloof peac.o.c.k.
Ling Luochen moved back to the edge as she breathed out lightly. The raindrops around her body drifted away and couldn"t touch her body at all.
“Begin.”
Ling Luochen immediately made an extremely magnificent and gorgeous move.
She released her martial soul, her soul rings naturally appearing as well. The moment they came into view, all five of her soul rings started to sparkle alternately.
Ling Luochen had actually used all five soul skills one after another within a span of three breaths. Everybody could see that all five circles of light were flickering alternately, from her first hundred year soul ring, to her last ten thousand year soul ring.
This was no longer about simple tactics or tricks, it was more about her personal understanding of ice.
Soul masters couldn"t possibly unleash so many soul skills with such dazzling speed under normal circ.u.mstances, yet Ling Luochen had managed to do so. She had complete control over ice, and had thus made use of the connection between her soul skills and exploited their relationships. Not only had she unleashed five soul skills within such a short period of time, but she"d also managed to reduce their consumption by about thirty percent.
Every single disciple from Shrek Academy that could enter the inner courtyard could be described as both talented and prodigious.
Following her five soul rings" alternate sparkling, the first thing that appeared in her palm was naturally her Ice Staff. She raised her Ice Staff into the air as her soul rings continued to flicker, and a crystal-like Ice Armor covered her entire body; even her mouth and nose were completely protected. At the same time, an icy prison descended upon Meng Hongchen and trapped her inside. The sprawling Icemist erupted with Ling Luochen at the center, followed by her Icebrilliant Halo.
The temperature on the compet.i.tion stage instantly dropped to fifty degrees below zero, the Icemist"s extreme coldness permeating and wreaking havoc within the stage"s protective barriers at lightning speed.
As Ling Luochen didn"t have the Ultimate Ice"s power, the lowest temperature that she could reach with her current level of control was only about eighty degrees below zero. In comparison, Huo Yuhao"s level of cultivation wasn"t that high, but he could reduce the temperature in his immediate vicinity to more than two hundred degrees below zero if he wanted to because he had Ultimate Ice. This was the distinction between their two different kinds of ice, and this was also the reason why Huo Yuhao was recognized.
The lack of Ultimate Ice didn"t mean that Ling Luochen wasn"t powerful, however. She was strong enough to be chosen as Shrek"s official team"s main control-type soul master, and her control of the ice element had long reached nearly complete freedom.
She was uncertain whether she would be affected by the acute poison. Therefore, she had to use her most powerful abilities in the face of such danger. She needed to use her strongest defensive abilities while simultaneously controlling both the stage and her opponent.
What made her a little surprised was that Meng Hongchen didn"t do anything to stop herself from being entrapped by the icy prison after Ling Luochen"s multi-p.r.o.nged release and her elegant unleashing of five different soul skills. She didn"t even seem like she wanted to break out from the inside. In fact, there was a tinge of indifference at the corner of her mouth.
The Icemist and the Icebrilliant Halo"s effects reduced the temperature to an extremely low level and spread around with dazzling speed; both had permeated the entire stage in the blink of an eye.
Most of the audience didn"t really appreciate soul masters like Ling Luochen, as she would greatly affect the compet.i.tion"s visibility the moment she made a move.
The Icemist swiftly blanketed the entire compet.i.tion stage, making it so that nothing else could be seen on stage.
Both Shrek Academy"s team members and the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy"s team members were as nervous as ever inside of their respective waiting areas. Victory was imperative to Shrek Academy in this round, as a loss would mean that their advantage would disappear. Even though they still had two powerful Soul emperors, their opponents" team leader had yet to step out either.
A minute pa.s.sed, and then two minutes pa.s.sed… Soon, five minutes had pa.s.sed in the midst of everyone"s agonizing anxiety.
The Icemist covering the entire stage gradually dissipated. When everything that was on stage became visible, everybody could see that Meng Hongchen was still standing inside the icy prison. Her pale white skin seemed to be even more pale at this point, as it was covered in a layer of frost.
Ling Luochen also remained in her original spot on the other side, as her Ice Staff was raised high above her head, while her entire body was covered in her Ice Armor.
Was it over? Who"d won the round?
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