Douluo Continent: The Eye of Truth

Chapter 65 Evil Infiltrates the Bones

As Tian Sha Douluo focused all his attention on Xu Sanshi, he briefly sent Xu Sanshi off the field.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Ma Xiaotao suddenly sprang up and, just like before, attacked the group from the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy once again.

However, at this moment, she was also very close to her allies, and Gongyang Mo had given her another buff.

The intense heat of the phoenix flames surged and erupted, scorching the surrounding air and causing the Shrek members present to feel a wave of heat, instantly becoming drenched in sweat.

Even Xixi, who was quite close, had a section of her hair singed by Ma Xiaotao, who flew past her.

However, at this point, Xiao Hongchen's soul-guided cannons had already been unleashed once and were in an overheated state, making it difficult to reassemble and launch a second, equally powerful attack in a short period of time.

Meanwhile, Ma Rulong was chewing on the steamed bun fed to him by the food-type soul master, and he had recovered a lot of soul power.

He was wearing a huge helmet, with a round ruby ​​shining in the center of the black helmet.

A dark red light and shadow flew out quickly. It was a crimson ape. Although it was in energy form, it was intelligent and quite agile. However, the strength hidden on its body was comparable to that of a ten-thousand-year-old soul beast.

"This method is interesting, but could it be inspired by the Holy Spirit Cult? After all, with the fusion of the Holy Spirit Cult and the Sun Moon Empire in recent years, many evil soul masters have also become powerful soul masters."

An additional fighting force added temporarily can undoubtedly play a decisive role on an arena where only seven people can participate.

Moreover, with this demonic ape, whose strength is no less than that of a ten-thousand-year-old soul beast, blocking their way, they can also buy precious opportunities for the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy to regroup.

At this moment, everyone from Shrek Academy followed Ma Xiaotao, breaking through the lightning cage that had been cracked open, and rushed towards the group from Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy.

At this moment, the students of the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy would naturally not sit idly by and wait for their doom.

From within the ranks of the team, a golden orb of light locked onto Ma Xiaotao and launched an attack.

At the same time, an incredibly fast figure, leaving a trail of afterimages behind it, rapidly attacked the Shrek Academy students from the side.

Chen Fei's martial soul is a bird-beast martial soul called the Flash Bird. Although it is fast, it is not outstanding in other aspects. Among all kinds of martial souls, it can be considered as average at best. The golden ball of light was emitted by him.

However, with the support of various soul tools, his flight speed is by no means inferior to that of a top-tier agility-based martial soul of the same level.

Ma Xiaotao's expression remained unchanged, but the phoenix flames on her body became even more restless. Although the fusion of the soul skills Phoenix Piercing Cloud Strike and Phoenix Roaring Sky Strike was quite a burden, with Gongyang Mo's support, she could still activate them at least twice more.

However, this soul tool, which appears to be an energy projectile that is launched into the air, is actually a restricted type soul tool.

The golden light magnified the moment it touched Ma Xiaotao, transforming into a large golden net that enveloped her.

The golden net was incredibly tough. Although it was cracked by Ma Xiaotao's powerful attack, even after being ignited by the phoenix flames, it still fulfilled its function, controlling Ma Xiaotao and preventing her from advancing an inch.

However, how long can a level 5 restrictive soul tool control Ma Xiaotao, who seems to be on the verge of going berserk?

In less than a second, the net was ignited by the phoenix flames, but the demonic ape released by Ma Rulong also rushed in front of Ma Xiaotao.

Its body instantly swelled, transforming into a giant ape over four meters tall, its dark red fur bristling, and its aura becoming incredibly ferocious as it slammed its fists down towards Ma Xiaotao's head.

Behind them, the members of the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy also used all their methods.

A large net was formed by spherical soul tools imbued with lightning, and dozens more of the golden spheres that had previously formed the golden net appeared and surrounded Ma Xiaotao.

Ma Rulong's level-seven soul-guided ray was also aimed at Ma Xiaotao, while Xiao Hongchen was calming his breathing with the help of Meng Hongchen.

The others from the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy employed artillery tactics, firing off one soul-guided cannon after another to delay the group behind Ma Xiaotao.

Only Xixi managed to break through with her agility and Gongyang Mo's support, while Chen Zifeng and Beibei took over the duties of Xu Sanshi, who was eliminated, and protected Ling Luochen and Gongyang Mo behind them.

With ice walls towering and sword light and dragon shadows flashing, the four members of Shrek Academy managed to withstand wave after wave of low-level soul-guided cannon fire, but they were also unable to move and missed the opportunity to get any closer.

At this moment, Ma Xiaotao smiled, but this cold smile sent chills down the spines of everyone present from the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy.

The golden-red flames that had been swirling around her instantly coalesced on her right arm, and then a fiery phoenix formed on her right arm.

Such control is clearly beyond the capabilities of ordinary Soul Masters.

"A soul bone!" those who knew its value exclaimed in surprise.

Huo Yuhao's eyes narrowed as he realized something was amiss.

That is, the right arm bone that Ma Xiaotao possesses seems to be abnormal. Although its overall structure is no different from that of an ordinary soul bone, it is completely formed by the condensation of evil energy.

"Or perhaps Ma Xiaotao first channeled the evil energy within her body into the soul bone within her own body?" Huo Yuhao speculated.

After all, such things have happened in history. For example, Dugu Bo, ten thousand years ago, channeled his poison skills into his soul bone.

Soul bones are formed from the essence of a soul beast's lifelong cultivation, and their purity and strength far exceed those of soul rings.

However, it can also be used as a carrier, but this operation first destroys the structure of the soul bone itself, and then replaces it with poison and evil energy.

Based on the structure of the soul bone, it is refilled with poison and evil energy, although it will not have much effect on the master.

However, this would cause the soul bone in the owner's body to completely collapse after the owner's death because no one would control it, unlike ordinary soul bones which are preserved due to their stable structure.

This is probably the only way out, since Ma Xiaotao doesn't have Huo Yuhao's ability to suppress the evil energy in her body with extreme ice, as in the original story. Therefore, she can only resort to a shortcut like Dugu Bo's to suppress the evil energy.

However, this method is ultimately only a temporary solution, since a soul bone that cannot grow will have a limited upper limit.

Once the original soul bone is completely replaced by evil energy, the excess evil energy will have nowhere to go, and forcibly stuffing it in will only cause the soul bone to collapse.

Moreover, evil energy is different from poison. After evil energy completely replaced the original structure of the soul bone, it also formed an evil energy node in Ma Xiaotao's body.

From this point on, the evil energy within Ma Xiaotao's body could no longer be separated from her. Although she would not show any abnormalities on the surface, this was the fundamental reason why Ma Xiaotao's personality had changed drastically despite her stable emotions.

She has actually already entered the realm of evil spirit masters, but she just hasn't revealed it yet.

Since no evil influence has clouded her mind and caused her original consciousness to struggle, her current actions are actually 'perfectly clear-headed' and 'from the heart'.

She knew she couldn't openly reveal her identity as an evil soul master, otherwise she would only face condemnation and encirclement from other powerful figures.

Even if Shrek Academy had her backing, and even if Shrek Academy valued her highly, the outcome of being taken back to the inner courtyard and isolated from the world was unavoidable.

So now she's always looking for a 'legitimate' opportunity to discover her excess inner fire.

That is, in a match, you "accidentally" cripple or kill your opponent.

Moreover, since she actually only killed people from the Sun Moon Empire, many people cheered for her actions due to the hostile biases of the people from the original three kingdoms of Douluo Continent.

The saying goes that going evil makes you ten times stronger, while going good makes you three times weaker. At least after being possessed by evil energy, Ma Xiaotao's wisdom in this regard is no less than that of some seasoned evil spirit masters.

Because Ma Xiaotao had never used her soul bone before, Huo Yuhao hadn't paid much attention to her and naturally hadn't noticed anything amiss.

At this moment, Huo Yuhao discovered the truth, but this gave him some new inspiration.

Regardless of Huo Yuhao's thoughts, the members of the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy were in big trouble at this moment.

Because after Ma Xiaotao amplified the phoenix flames she had gathered with all her might, with the help of her soul bone, she actually did the same thing as Xu Sanshi before her, calling for reinforcements from the Heavenly Fiend Douluo.

Even the Heavenly Fiend Douluo had to react and rescue Ma Xiaotao from the scene.

Meanwhile, the fiery phoenix, radiating dazzling light and heat, charged into the formation of the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy.

Even with the demonic ape blocking their way, the previous layers of soul-guided protective shields, and the invincible shield immediately activated by everyone from the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy, they were still able to overcome the obstacles.

However, this condensed all of Ma Xiaotao's remaining soul power, along with Gongyang Mo's fully amplified soul bone skill, directly pierced through all the external soul guide protective shields in an extremely bizarre manner.

It didn't break through, it pierced through; the soul-guided protective shield seemed to dissolve itself in front of this phoenix.

Even the other soul tools surrounding Ma Xiaotao were no exception.

At this moment, even the invincible shields on the two Soul Masters who were closer to the front could not withstand the golden phoenix.

The supposedly invincible shield that could withstand attacks from an eighth-level Contra was ultimately just a claim.

The invincible shield forged by human effort is still somewhat different from the invincible golden body, which is a top-tier soul skill.

The two Soul Masters who were touched by the phoenix flames on the golden phoenix collapsed to the ground, lifeless.

The invincible shield on Ma Rulong's body was shattered, but the phoenix flames of the golden phoenix had also been exhausted and could no longer effectively kill Ma Rulong.

This was an outcome that no one, not even the referee, Tian Sha Douluo, had anticipated.

At this moment, cold sweat dripped down Xixi's forehead as she rushed to the front of the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy group.

Seeing the palpable rage in the eyes of the remaining four opponents, as if they were about to devour someone, Xixi suddenly felt that her actions were not very wise.

As Xiao Hongchen and Ma Rulong's soul tools lit up, Xixi and the rest of Shrek Academy quickly conceded defeat and left the arena.

The entire arena fell silent. In order to avoid being eliminated, the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy suppressed their grief and anger as they listened to the Heavenly Fiend Douluo announce, "The Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy has won this team battle."

Tian Sha Douluo looked at the people of the Sun Moon Empire and the instructors of the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy below the stage, whose faces were very unpleasant, and said, "Both sides, calm down. The outcome is already decided. If anyone acts recklessly, don't blame this referee for being impolite."

Tian Sha Douluo looked at the Shrek Academy students, especially Ma Xiaotao, with a very unfriendly gaze. This was a battle he was overseeing, and three of them had died, which could be said to have made him lose face.

At this moment, the other spectators did not care about Tian Sha Douluo's dereliction of duty, because they were all immersed in the news of Shrek Academy's defeat.

"How is that possible?"

"Shrek Academy has lost?"

"It's fake, it's fake, it must be fake."

"Wow, my gold soul coins! I've staked everything on Shrek Academy!"

After a brief silence, Xingluo Square instantly became noisy, with all sorts of voices and expressions of various people.

"Silence!" Beneath the feet of the Heavenly Fiend Douluo, nine spirit rings—two yellow, two purple, and five black—shone brilliantly.

Then, with a flick of his right hand, an aura of arrogance and nobility, accompanied by a heavy pressure, was released instantly, and a pure white star appeared in front of him, its starlight spreading throughout the entire Star Luo Square.

"Today's match has come to an end. Players and spectators, please leave the field in an orderly manner."

As they left, the members of the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy had eyes full of anger, but they all suppressed it.

The Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Battle Tournament was extremely important to their Sun Moon Empire.

Because they were originally viewed with hostility by the three kingdoms of the Douluo Continent, they needed to use the tournament as a platform to cleanse the people of the three kingdoms of the Douluo Continent of their ingrained prejudices.

In order to make the subsequent actions and policies of the Sun and Moon Empire more successful.

After returning to the Star Emperor Hotel, Ma Xiaotao did not attend the meeting to arrange the individual elimination matches for tomorrow.

Wang Yan only focused on explaining the tactical arrangements for tomorrow's individual elimination rounds to Ling Luochen, Xixi, Xu Sanshi, and Beibei.

"In short, Gongyang Mo, when you get back, talk to Ma Xiaotao and remember to tell her to be more restrained in the upcoming competitions."

Gongyang Mo nodded helplessly and replied, "I will try my best."

As a friend who originally had a fairly good relationship with Ma Xiaotao, he had noticed some changes in her recently, making her seem different from before.

However, Ma Xiaotao was able to behave normally and talk to him, which puzzled him greatly.

However, time was tight during the All-Continent Advanced Soul Master Academy Battle Tournament, and he didn't have much time to communicate with Ma Xiaotao, so he could only keep it to himself.

(End of this chapter)