Douluo Continent: My name is Lu Mingfei, and my martial soul is Lu Mingze.

Ma Xiaotao nodded and said nothing more.

Her gaze swept across the lake shore and suddenly stopped.

The black-clad Soul Emperor has disappeared.

When she dealt with those three Soul Kings, the leader had already slipped away in the chaos.

Ma Xiaotao snorted and didn't chase after them.

Her mission was to ensure the safety of Lu Mingfei and the others, not to hunt them down.

Moreover, given the distance and the fact that the other party was determined to escape, she wasn't very confident of catching up.

"Let's go back first." Ma Xiaotao retracted her phoenix wings, walked to Lu Mingfei's side, and pressed her hand on the wound on his left shoulder.

A surge of scorching soul power flowed into the wound, scorching the ruptured blood vessels and stopping the bleeding.

Lu Mingfei gasped in pain.

"Senior sister, could you be a little gentler?"

Ma Xiaotao did indeed lighten her grip a bit.

Just then, hurried footsteps came from the woods.

Beibei and Xu Sanshi rushed out of the woods, both of them panting heavily.

"Where are they? Are they done fighting?"

Xu Sanshi glanced at the battlefield, saw the corpses floating on the lake and the charred marks on the shore, and then looked at Lu Mingfei and the other two who were covered in wounds. His expression changed.

"Senior, did you kill her?"

"Nonsense." Ma Xiaotao stood up.

"Could it be that you killed him?"

Xu Sanshi was taken aback, but didn't dare to argue back.

He turned to look at Lu Mingfei, a hint of schadenfreude in his eyes.

"Hey, Mr. Lu, what's wrong with you? Weren't you acting all high and mighty just now?"

Lu Mingfei raised his right hand and gave him the middle finger.

Xu Sanshi's lips twitched, but seeing Lu Mingfei's miserable state, his resentment subsided slightly.

Bei Bei walked over to Huo Yuhao and asked in a low voice, "What happened?"

"We were practicing our Martial Soul Fusion Technique when we were ambushed."

Huo Yuhao's voice was somewhat low, his gaze falling on the two Soul King corpses killed by Lu Mingfei, a complex emotion flashing in his eyes.

The senior student killed two Soul Kings by himself.

Level 30 can defeat level 50, one against two.

This record is so impressive that no one would believe it if I told them.

"An ambush?" Bebe frowned.

Do you know who it is?

Huo Yuhao shook his head.

"They were all masked, so I couldn't see them clearly, but they weren't from any legitimate line of work."

Beibei was silent for a few seconds, then turned to look at Ma Xiaotao.

"Senior, one ran away?"

"One of them, the leader, is at the Soul Emperor level." Ma Xiaotao's voice carried a hint of displeasure.

"They ran pretty fast, I didn't chase them."

Just as they were talking, another commotion came from the woods.

Jiang Nannan ran out of the woods.

She ran very fast, her forehead covered in fine beads of sweat, and her skirt was covered in grass clippings and dirt. Her gaze swept quickly across the crowd before finally landing on Lu Mingfei, who was leaning against a rock.

Jiang Nannan stopped abruptly when she saw the blood-stained patch on Lu Mingfei's left shoulder.

Then she quickly walked forward, squatted down next to Lu Mingfei, and reached out to support his arm.

"How did you get hurt like this?"

"It's nothing, just a minor injury." Lu Mingfei waved his hand at her, but when he raised his arm, it aggravated the wound on his shoulder, making him wince in pain.

"Don't move." Jiang Nannan pressed down on his arm, then took out a roll of bandage from her storage soul tool and began to bandage him skillfully.

Her movements were light but her technique was swift, clearly indicating that she had received basic training in trauma care.

Lu Mingfei grinned as she had her bandage up.

Meanwhile, Xu Sanshi was looking at Lu Mingfei with a very complicated expression.

There was envy, jealousy, gritted teeth, and a sense of despair in his eyes: "Why not me?"

Ma Xiaotao watched for a while, then turned around and walked towards the corpses of the Soul Kings.

She crouched down and rummaged through the corpse's clothes and storage devices, trying to find anything that could prove its identity.

The clothes on the corpse had been almost burned off, but the storage soul tool was intact. However, the contents inside were clean, with nothing but a few bottles of soul power recovery pills and some gold soul coins.

There was no identity token, no sect insignia, nothing at all.

This group of people is very professional.

Ma Xiaotao stood up and clapped her hands: "Let's go back to the academy first. We need to report this to the senior students."

Beibei nodded, walked to Lu Mingfei, and squatted down.

"Get on, I'll carry you."

"Need not--"

"Stop talking nonsense."

Lu Mingfei didn't insist any longer and climbed onto Beibei's back.

Beibei stood up with her back to him, and Xu Sanshi said sourly from the side, "Beibei, when have you ever been so good to me?"

"Wait until you get beaten to a pulp someday," Beibei said without turning her head.

Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong followed behind, both of them walking a little unsteadily, but their spirits were still good.

Jiang Nannan walked beside Bei Bei, glancing at Lu Mingfei every now and then. Her expression remained aloof, but every time she saw the blood seeping from Lu Mingfei's shoulder, her brows would furrow.

Xu Sanshi walked at the very back, staring blankly at Jiang Nannan's back for a while, then grinding his teeth at Lu Mingfei's back. The expressions on his face were quite interesting.

…………

Meanwhile, deep in the woods, in a mountain hollow...

The black-clad Soul Emperor was leaning against a large tree, panting heavily.

His mask had been removed, revealing the face of a gaunt middle-aged man with an old scar running from the corner of his eye to his chin, giving him a somewhat ferocious appearance.

He reached up and touched his chest, where his clothes had been burned through by the phoenix flames, leaving a burn mark on his skin that was still throbbing.

He narrowly avoided Ma Xiaotao's attack, but was still hit by the aftershocks of the flames.

"Madman," the black-clad Soul Emperor muttered under his breath.

Ma Xiaotao's Evil Fire Phoenix Martial Soul is notoriously domineering throughout the entire Douluo Continent.

Few dared to face her flames head-on, let alone someone who was merely a Soul Emperor.

The black-clad Soul Emperor took out a pill from his storage soul tool, put it in his mouth, and swallowed it. Only then did the color return to his face slightly.

He started cursing the employer in his mind.

When the employer approached him, he asked him to lead a group to capture two Shrek Academy students, one named Huo Yuhao and the other named Wang Dong.

They said the two students had no background or guards, so they could be easily arrested.

But the employer didn't mention that one of them was a core disciple protected by the elders of the Sea God Pavilion, nor did he mention that behind this Huo Yuhao stood a monster senior who could kill a Soul King.

Moreover, the employer didn't even mention that Ma Xiaotao would be nearby.

This is what you call having no background?

Is this what they call easy to arrest?

"Idiot." The Black-Clad Soul Emperor cursed the employer in his mind for the eighth time.

He has made up his mind to disappear for a while as soon as he gets back.

This deal was a huge loss; all five Soul Kings he brought with him were wiped out here—five Soul Kings, not five Great Soul Masters. Even the organization behind him couldn't afford this loss.

Explaining this matter when he gets back will be enough to give him a headache.

He leaned against the tree, closed his eyes to calm his breathing for a while, and was about to get up and leave when he suddenly heard a voice.

An elderly woman's voice spoke slowly and calmly, as if she were discussing the weather.

"You think you can get away unscathed after injuring someone from Shrek Academy?"

The black-clad Soul Emperor felt a chill run down his spine.

His eyes snapped open, and his body sprang up almost instinctively. His soul power surged through his body at high speed, preparing him for either battle or escape.

He turned around and looked in the direction from which the sound came.

An old woman is walking out of the woods.