Douluo Continent, Huo Yuhao who returned from Sekiro

Chapter 45 Xuan Ming Zhen

Huo Yuhao hadn't rested in the lounge for long when he received a notification that he needed to hurry up and go to the Soul Arena.

"Chico (brother), teach him a lesson. This kid is much slower than you. Remember to play to your strengths."

Jiechu stepped forward and gave Huo Yuhao a high-five, while Beibei cheered him on from the sidelines.

"Yuhao, do as I told you before. This guy is evenly matched with me. Without his second soul skill, he's just a dumb donkey. Use your soul tool to beat him up."

"Don't worry, Brother Beibei, I'm very confident."

Huo Yuhao nodded, his left hand resting on the katana at his waist, and slowly stepped onto the stage.

The Soul Battle Zone was quite lively at this moment, with the number of people who came to watch the Soul Battle exceeding eight hundred, including many first-year students who would be participating in the freshman competition in a few days.

"Go, Xiao Yuhao!"

"Xiao Yuhao, go! Beat Xu Sanshi into a pig's head!"

The cheers from below the stage also revealed that Xu Sanshi's reckless nature didn't seem to be highly regarded by the other students, at least not as much as Huo Yuhao, who had an independent and self-reliant working-class persona, because most of the cheers were for Huo Yuhao.

"Kid, you're pretty popular with girls, but it's no use. I'll smear your face in a minute, and then crying and begging those senior girls won't work."

Hearing the cheers all around Huo Yuhao, a hint of hostility flashed in Xu Sanshi's eyes.

The referee walked to the center of the field and said in a deep voice, "Fourth-grade student Xu Sanshi challenges Huo Yuhao, an outsider, to a match. If Xu Sanshi loses the match, he will have to pay an additional ten gold soul coins."

"Huo Yuhao's victory condition is to withstand Xu Sanshi's attacks for one minute, while Xu Sanshi's victory condition is to defeat Huo Yuhao within one minute without using his second soul skill. You two have already privately agreed to this bet. Are you both ready?"

Huo Yuhao and Xu Sanshi both nodded to the referee.

"The match begins," the referee announced, quickly retreating. At the same moment, Xu Sanshi released his martial spirit.

The once noisy Soul Fighting Zone instantly fell silent, with everyone's eyes focused on the two people in the arena.

Xu Sanshi's gaze suddenly froze, his tiger eyes flashing with fury, and two yellow spirit rings instantly rose from beneath his feet.

His originally fair skin suddenly darkened, his muscles swelled, and his whole body grew larger. Most peculiarly, a black tortoise shell shield with a diameter of about 1.5 meters appeared in his right hand.

"Aren't you going to release your martial spirit yet? Are you scared into submission, kid!"

Xu Sanshi didn't seem to care about the passage of time. In his eyes, this kid who had just obtained his first spirit ring could be dealt with in less than ten seconds!

"It's about to start."

Huo Yuhao lowered his head slightly, and his original gentle and approachable demeanor, which made him seem like someone who wanted to be held in someone's arms and pampered, disappeared, replaced by a cold and ruthless aura.

At this point, Huo Yuhao no longer felt like a flesh-and-blood Soul Master, but rather a cold killing machine, a killing machine that could take the lives of its enemies with maximum efficiency.

Xu Sanshi felt an extremely terrifying pressure just by looking at Huo Yuhao. Only then did Xu Sanshi realize that the reason why the other party dared to go to the arena with him was not because he was acting impulsively, but because he really had the ability to defeat him.

"Why did Yuhao rush straight up like that!"

In the spectator area, Bei Bei stood up anxiously. He had fought Xu Sanshi many times, and before the match, he had already told Huo Yuhao in detail about Xu Sanshi's martial soul and soul skills, so that Huo Yuhao could make use of his mobility and focus on stalling.

No matter how anxious Bei Bei was, Huo Yuhao had already shot down in front of Xu Sanshi like an arrow.

"Arrogant! Utterly arrogant!"

Seeing Huo Yuhao dare to charge straight at him, Xu Sanshi was furious. He roared, clenched his right fist, veins bulging, intending to smash this arrogant brat in front of him away with one punch.

However, Xu Sanshi clearly underestimated Huo Yuhao's agility. Huo Yuhao neither dodged nor avoided, but charged towards Xu Sanshi's heavy punch. The moment the opponent's fist was thrown, he leaped up a step ahead, and the toe of his other foot accurately touched the tiger's mouth of Xu Sanshi's thick right fist. He used the momentum to push off and shot up more than a meter higher.

"What?!"

Xu Sanshi was caught off guard by Huo Yuhao's unexpected move. He looked up at Huo Yuhao, who was leaping high above him, and in a panic, he could only raise the black tortoise shell shield in his hand and place it on his head.

The next moment, Huo Yuhao's left hand swept across his waist, and with a flash of light, a soul-guided hand axe weighing about ten pounds appeared in Huo Yuhao's hand. The fan-shaped axe head emitted a faint dark light, and two small black holes on the back of the axe suddenly shot out two blazing tongues of fire as Huo Yuhao poured in his soul power.

"boom!!!"

Huo Yuhao gripped the Soul Guidance Hand Axe, using his own gravitational potential energy and the jet acceleration from the back of the axe to a terrifying degree, before slamming it heavily onto Xu Sanshi's black tortoise-shell shield.

The tortoise shell shield, originally formed by Xu Sanshi's martial soul and known for its defensive power, actually cracked under Huo Yuhao's powerful slam!

Seeing this unbelievable scene, everyone was shocked. A one-ring Soul Master, without even releasing his Martial Soul and Soul Rings, was able to create a crack in the Martial Soul of a defensive Great Soul Master who was close to the Soul Venerable realm, simply by relying on his brute force and the specially configured jet acceleration device on his Soul Guidance Device. What terrifying attack power was this?!

It should be noted that Xu Sanshi's martial soul is not an ordinary defensive martial soul that can be easily countered. It is a genuine Xuanming Turtle martial soul. Even if its defensive power cannot be called invincible among its peers, it is still rarely matched. Yet, it was actually smashed by a mere level 11 soul master, which caused a crack in it.

Xu Sanshi himself was still shaken by Huo Yuhao's terrifyingly powerful strike. The power unleashed by Huo Yuhao's attack was no less than that of a typical offensive Soul Master.

If it weren't for the fact that the opponent was limited by the physical attributes of an eleventh-level Soul Master, even if they were just at the same level as him, the force of their sudden leap three meters while stepping on his fist would probably have shattered his Martial Soul!

"Ya-ha!"

Xu Sanshi gripped the Xuan Turtle Shield, which he had been holding with one hand, with both hands. His first spirit ring shone from his feet, and he raised the Xuan Turtle Shield high above his head before slamming it down.

This is Xu Sanshi's first soul skill, Xuanming Zhen, which is an area-of-effect knockback skill with a certain stun effect. If the enemy's cultivation level is lower than his, they will be stunned while being knocked back; even if their cultivation level is higher than his, they will at least be knocked back and distance will be created.

(End of this chapter)