Chen Fei moved with lightning speed as a ball of bright golden light blasted towards Ma Xiaotao with undeniable accuracy. His movements were blindingly quick, and he even left an afterimage in his wake.
Ma Xiaotao grunted coldly. She wasn’t the kind that liked to kill people, but wouldn’t hesitate if it was required. Red light flashed in her eyes, and a Phoenix Fireline poured out and clashed with the sphere of golden light rocketing through the air.
What was strange was that there wasn’t any violent explosion or anything like that. The light circle expanded instantly after being triggered, and transformed into an enormous golden net that bore down on Ma Xiaotao.
She had already suffered a loss under trap-type soul tools such as this, and she had been on guard this whole time. She watched the various red-eyed members of the Sun Moon Empire’s camp as she tapped on the floor with the tips of her feet and immediately flew backwards. Two streaks of red light spurted out from beneath her as she surged into the distance. However, she wasn’t retreating without a plan in mind, and she flew towards the position where Xu Sans.h.i.+ had just been sent flying.
Their battle continued to rage. On the other side, Xiao Hongchen faced the Shrek team’s siege as well.
Xiao Hongchen had relied on his auto-activated advanced invincible barrier to block Ma Rulong’s strike within the lightning cage, but the protective barrier that flickered with golden light had been greatly weakened.
The protective layer of golden light on his body was called the Impregnable Wall, and it was a Cla.s.s 6 soul tool. This soul tool had to be activated by a soul master’s own soul power, or maintained through a continual injection of soul power.
The reasons why invincible barriers were so precious was because their defensive capabilities were sufficiently powerful, and also because they could be activated with a fixed amount of soul power. Afterwards, the special jewel contained within the soul tool would provide enough energy to maintain the protective barrier for three seconds, and it would have the defensive power of an eight-ringed soul douluo. The only problem was that it was a disposable item, and thus was a little wasteful and extravagant by nature.
However, the Impregnable Wall on Xiao Hongchen’s body was far more advanced. Its defensive powers were slightly inferior to invincible barriers, but it was just enough to fend off attacks from Cla.s.s 7 soul tools. Furthermore, it wasn’t a disposable item. This soul tool had two salient features: it could be used repeatedly, and it could automatically activate itself. That meant that if Xiao Hongchen came under attack and wasn’t able to react, the Impregnable Wall would deploy its mechanisms automatically, which made it a lot more useful than the Invincible Barrier.
Of course, there were pros and cons to everything – the problem was that the Impregnable Wall absorbed Xiao Hongchen’s soul power automatically after activating itself in order to provide protection.
Ma Rulong’s golden Cla.s.s 7 soul tool was only a single attack, but it possessed formidable destructive powers. The Impregnable Wall did block the strike, but, as he was a Soul King, Xiao Hongchen’s soul power was immediately consumed by more than fifty percent, which caused his expression to change to one of immense fear.
Furthermore, as long as that cage called the Net of Lightning was around, the members of Shrek’s team were not the only ones caught inside – he was trapped within as well.
This proud young man displayed a battle prowess worthy of his high and respected status within the Sun Moon Empire’s team at this critical moment.
The Impregnable Wall’s appearance was too similar to the Invincible Barrier, thus Shrek’s team didn’t continue their a.s.sault at the first possible moment. Instead, they waited for the “Invincible Barrier’s” time to naturally run out. (using pa.s.sive voice here, cuz of the “invincible barrier)
Xiao Hongchen took advantage of this grace period and unleashed his own martial soul.
A flash of golden light flickered, and a leg grew out from his b.u.t.tocks behind him. This leg was completely golden, and a layer of blinding gold blanketed his entire body.
The three-legged Xiao Hongchen crouched a little, and three of his two yellow, two purple and one black soul rings radiated. He arched his back faintly, and little humps protruded from his clothes, each one exuding a bright golden hue. His first and third soul rings lit up at the same time before he waved both of his hands and hurled out several hundred metal b.a.l.l.s.
These metal b.a.l.l.s instantly hovered in midair and encircled his entire body.
A strange scene then occurred; row after row of metal cannon barrels grew out just like that, with the metal b.a.l.l.s as the core.
It wasn’t wrong to describe them as things that simply just grew out. Those metal cannons just came into existence, and Xiao Hongchen wasn’t the one that released them. His whole body became like a giant porcupine in just a moment.
“Oh… s.h.i.+t…” Bei Bei was never one to curse and swear, but he couldn’t help but speak what was on the Shrek team’s minds.
He Caitou was most familiar with soul tools. He thought to himself, “Can he rely on his own soul power to fire so many metal cannons?”
It wasn’t just the number of soul cannons that were out there. The most important thing was that his personal mastery must be able to handle that number of soul cannons. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be functional, and would be for display.
Xiao Hongchen showed everyone whether his soul cannons were simply decorative or not.
His second and fourth soul rings replaced his first and third soul rings. One could see with clarity that uncountable numbers of golden specks of light appeared in the sky and surged towards Xiao Hongchen with unstoppable force. Every light speck released a circle of pale-golden light as they came close to his body, as if they were burning up, and the poignant smell of metal immediately permeated the whole area.
The rows of metal cannons began to burst with blinding brilliance as the specks of golden light fused into them, and this fearsome aura cast a haze of terror over the Shrek team.
There were a total of one hundred and twenty-eight soul cannons that appeared on Xiao Hongchen’s body, and every single one was a Cla.s.s 5 soul tool. The sonorous soul cannons actually turned towards their targets automatically, and every single one was pointed at the Shrek team members. Even the soul cannons behind Xiao Hongchen’s back curved forward, and this wasn’t something that could be explained with the handling of soul tools.
The next moment, a terrifying hurricane of soul power exploded the moment the Impregnable Wall was withdrawn.
The Shrek team members naturally didn’t just stand around to watch. Dai Yueheng stood in front of everyone the moment Xiao Hongchen erupted and used the White Tiger’s s.h.i.+eld, the White Tiger’s Vajra Transformation and the White Tiger’s DevilG.o.d Transformation at the same time. All three were powerful amplifying soul skills, and boosted his defensive powers to the highest possible level. He was the vice-captain, and also a Soul Emperor – and he was under the audience’s watchful eye and his own father’s scrutiny. There was no way he was going to back off.
A searing ball of white light suddenly flew out from beside Dai Yueheng. He Caitou had started channeling power inside the super energy-gathering soul cannon from the start of the battle, and released his own attack at this moment.
However, he was also a soul engineer, and he was being suppressed far too much. His super energy-gathering soul cannon possessed power greater than normal Cla.s.s 5 soul tools, but faced with Xiao Hongchen’s one hundred and twenty-eight soul cannons’ unified a.s.sault, his super energy-gathering soul cannon was instantly dispelled by that frightening blanket of light. He only managed to obstruct it momentarily as the petrifying layer of light bore down upon them once more.
Ling Luochen did all she could as well. She used her Icy Staff to release wall after wall of ice and launched an Icebrilliant Halo at Xiao Hongchen at the same time.
However, those ice walls were simply unable to resist the coordinated a.s.sault from Xiao Hongchen’s Cla.s.s 5 soul tools, and every single layer was shattered in an instant.
Dai Yueheng’s face grew solemn and serious. His buddies were right behind him, and he couldn’t dodge this attack no matter how much he wanted to. He took a deep breath, and vigorous streaks of white light flickered while he raised his Soul Emperor-level soul power to the highest possible level; he needed to withstand this strike no matter what.
Before Xiao Hongchen was swapped over with the Mysterious Netherworld Displacement, who would have thought that this Soul King was actually this powerful? He was able to activate so many Cla.s.s 5 soul tools at the same time, and this was clearly beyond a Soul King’s limits. Even Cla.s.s 6 soul masters would have probably failed at this endeavor! Ma Rulong had never controlled so many soul cannons at the same time.
A smile broke out across Xiao Hongchen’s face. This was the first time he had put his maximum power on full display, even though this strike was a powerful as it could get. However, he had absolute confidence that Dai Yueheng wouldn’t be able to withstand his attack, and he would be severely injured even if he did. His own soul power would be almost completely exhausted after this strike, but he would be satisfied if he could eliminate a Soul Emperor from his opponents’ camp, and better still if he could even wound the others – furthermore, he still had the strength to retreat safely.
He was the reserve team leader. Not only was he adept with soul tools, but his martial soul wasn’t weak like other normal soul engineers. He was only fourteen years old, but had managed to become a Soul King via various methods and without using too many sequela. The reason for that was because his martial soul was powerful enough. More importantly, his martial soul could be said to be the one most suitable for soul engineers in the entire world, yet was sufficiently powerful by itself.
This was Xiao Hongchen’s martial soul: the Three-legged Golden Toad. This rare beast soul possessed a special ability: it could manipulate metal.
He could control any type of metal. He could even absorb the energy from certain exotic metals to support and enhance his personal cultivation. Otherwise, how could he become a Soul King at such a young age? If the Sun Moon Empire lacked anything, it wouldn’t be metal.
Before this, out of the four soul skills that he had just used, the first and third soul skill that he had released at the same time were called Metal Manipulation and Golden Coagulation. The metal b.a.l.l.s that he had thrown out were the soul cannons’ formation arrays, while the cannon barrels were formed entirely from his ability to control metal on the spot. He always carried voluminous amounts of metal powder on his body, and the metal powder could solidify into any form under his manipulation.
The second and fourth soul skills after that were called Golden Surge and Golden Sacrifice.
Golden Surge was used to greatly boost his Three-Legged Golden Toad’s metal soul power activity, and exponentially increase his ability to control metal for a short period of time, while absorbing the metal elements contained in the air in vast amounts for his own use at the same time.