While Huo Yuhao was messing around and venting his frustration on two unfortunate souls, the group fight was intensifying.
The dense Icemist riled up at this point and lunged towards the center of the Star Luo Imperial Academy team like a tsunami. Ma Xiaotao released a shrill phoenix cry into the sky as her blazing wings forcefully flapped downwards, and a streak of red light surged into the sky.
She had forced back both Wang Shiyin and Yi Chen, they couldn't do anything against her sixth soul skill. Although their combined Wind and Fire martial souls were a great counter against Ma Xiaotao, unfortunately, their cultivation was still lower compared to her.
The pillar of red light took the form of a fiery phoenix as scorching phoenix flames erupted, and ultra-fiery meteors rained upon the Star Luo Imperial Academy team.
But of course, Ma Xiaotao was holding back a bit—she weren't going for a kill, this was just a tournament after all. Plus Shrek Academy and the Star Luo Empire didn't have any lasting grudges, considering their history, they could be considered as allies.
The Star Luo Imperial Academy team will survive....but they were going to experience a lot of pain, especially having some burns.
However, at that moment, Princess Jiu Jiu faintly smiled and she suddenly tossed out a sphere of golden light from her hands.
It wasn't a soul skill, but a soul tool!
"Huh? W-What?!" Ma Xiaotao exclaimed in shock, and a layer of golden light descended from the sky and enveloped Ma Xiaotao's sixth soul skill—the burning meteors in the sky dissipated like smoke before they could reach the Star Luo Imperial Academy team.
Her most powerful soul skill was negated just like that.
"Damn it!"
Ma Xiaotao felt a stifling pressing weight down on her from the sky. She wanted to dodge, but the patch of golden light bore down on her in an instant, and trapped her within a fist-sized golden sphere.
"Hm? That is..." Huo Yuhao narrowed his eyes and turned towards the golden sphere in the sky. "That energy surge should be a Class 7 soul tool, considering its appearance and usage, it should be the Absolute Defense Barrier!"
'It's similar to the Invincible Barrier. Once it's deployed, anybody under the Absolute Defense Barrier's seal will have to face the protection of a defense-type soul master similar to the power of a stage 8 Soul Douluo for fifteen minutes, inside and outside.' Huo Yuhao quickly reiterated about the Absolute Defense Barrier he read in the book of Soul Tools in a split second.
He never imagined that it would appear in this tournament, especially not in the hands of Star Luo! This soul tool could only be manufactured by the Sun Moon Empire, and its formation arrays are extremely mysterious. It's said that one was worth at least several millions of gold soul coins.
Having this item during a dangerous moments is equivalent to having another life! This is so much more powerful than the Invincible Barrier, which is only effective for three seconds. Fifteen minutes is enough to accomplish many things.
Which begs the question, why didn't Princess Jiu Jiu used it on Huo Yuhao? He was unquestionably the strongest member of their team after all, and even he wouldn't be able to escape that soul tool easily.
The answer was simple—he was too far away from her! Now that they were in a precarious position, especially in the moment of Ma Xiaotao unleashing her most powerful soul skill with two of Princess Jiu Jiu's strong fighters are missing....
She made the decision to use the Absolute Defense Barrier on Ma Xiaotao.
Ma Xiaotao could have avoided that soul tool, considering Huo Yuhao's Spiritual Detection and her basic proficiency in the Shinobi arts, but due to her inexperience of soul tools she underestimated the soul tool's speed and the defensive capability it held, becoming ensnared before she had a chance to react.
"Let me out of here!!" Ma Xiaotao immediately launched a hysterical assault against the layer of light, but was only able to create ripples along its surface. Her efforts proved futile.
"This is our victory," Princess Jiu Jiu muttered, her fourth soul ring lit up. A ball of thick, intense starlight was unleashed. This time, the starlight was as bright as the sun.
This ball expanded into a barrier of light, it forcefully expelling the Icemist out of the Star Luo Imperial Academy team. Only her teammates, including Xi Xi, Bei Bei, Xu Sanshi and the trapped Ma Xiaotao, were covered within this layer of light.
On the surface of the layer of the light barrier, 18 stars appeared and flashed with a bright glow.
Wang Shiyin and Yi Chen, who were both fighting Ma Xiaotao initially, changed their target to Xi Xi without any hesitation. Together with Chen Xiaojie, the three Soul Kings encircled her.
"Senior Xi! Damn it," Bei Bei clenched his dragon arm, blue lightning surged as he tried getting through his opponent.
On another side, Bei Bei could only last so long against the Soul King Sheng Yi and started to suffer from the relentless attacks of the latter's Gigant Eagle.
Princess Jiu Jiu appeared indifferent as she looked at the Icemist outside the layer of light, and she curled her lips up slightly.
There was one soul masters in front of her who, till this point, had not joined in the battle at all.
Well, two really, but one was a auxiliary soul master and has been buffing them from the beginning.
It's why Bei Bei and Xi Xi has held out for this long, Ning Tian's Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda two soul skills amplifies their speed and strength by 40%.
"Not good." Inside the Icemist, Ling Luochen's face grew solemn. She quickly forced a wave with the Icemist towards the light barrier, but the light barrier stubbornly resisted the Icemist.
Ling Luochen gritted her teeth, the triple magatama tattoo seal on her shoulder shifted and expanded to her entire right arm and the right side of her face like intricate, ominous tribal tattoos.
She activated the curse mark that Huo Yuhao placed on her, which would temporarily amplify her martial soul to Ultimate Ice and subsequently enhance her soul skills.
Unfortunately, Ling Luochen was a control-type soul master, not an assault-type soul master. Her soul skills, even with Ning Tian's support, weren't strong enough to pierce through the light barrier.
"What the heck is with that barrier?! It's just a fourth soul skill and from a thousand year old one yet, how could it even resist against Ultimate Ice?!" Ling Luochen said.
"It can't be.... it's the Star Barrier!" Ning Tian exclaimed, a solemn expression covering her face as realization dawned upon her. "The Xu Royal Family's martial soul had a powerful defense-type soul skill, known for being able to isolate all other elements! The Star Barrier hasn't appeared in their family for a very long time, to think..."
"No wonder she'd been staying hidden until now," Ling Luochen muttered.
"No wonder my Mystic Deep Displacement isn't working as well," Xu Sanshi added, being the one to defend their main control and auxiliary soul masters. "Space and one with an Ultimate attribute? Is this ability really so powerful? There's got to be some weakness!"
Ning Tian bit her lower lip, trying hard to recall the knowledge she knows about the Star Barrier. "As far as I recall, the user could only use it once before replenishing their energy for several days."
"Does it have a time limit or something?"
Ning Tian shook her head, "N-No. Unless it's broken or the user herself is forcibly disrupted, the Star Barrier can theoretically last as long as the user has soul power or star energy to sustain it."
Ning Tian's voice was tense, laced with frustration. "That's why it's considered such a rare and formidable skill. It's almost unbeatable defensively."
"Damn it. What should we do?! Senior sister Xiaotao, senior sister Xi and Bei Bei are getting beaten up in there!"
"Wait! What about...." Ling Luochen started as she turned her head. Ning Tian and Xu Sanshi followed her gaze, their eyes landing on Huo Yuhao.
'Star barrier...Well, I never expected her to have such a soul skill.' Huo Yuhao heard Ning Tian's explanation with his own sharp hearing.
True to her statement, even with the help of Huo Yuhao's clones' extensive information gathering, he never heard about such a impressive and rare soul skill the Star Crown had.
"Hahahaha! It's over, it's over! We will win!"
Huo Yuhao glanced at Huang Heyun and Dugu Shangshan, both covered in stab wounds and dripping with blood. The latter was laughing hysterically, while the other was ready to fall at any moment.
Huo Yuhao twirled the kunai in his hand and walked towards them.
"Hm. Resilient, pretty good. But I'm done with you two now. I've gotta help out my team now." Huo Yuhao said, before sweeping Huang Heyun's feet out from under him, sending him crashing to the ground.
Before Dugu Shangshan could do anything, Huo Yuhao indifferently kicked him in his family jewels, causing Dugu Shangshan to collapse to the ground in agony.
Huo Yuhao glanced at them one last time, his expression unbothered. "Again, this isn't personal. I just wanted some punching bags after going through a very traumatic event. No hard feelings?"
There wasn't a reply, and Huo Yuhao didn't really care. He went lazer focused on the light barrier that entrapped his friends.
"My lord, how do we—" Ling Luochen quickly approached Huo Yuhao, her eyes filled with reverence and awe as she stared at him.
Both Ning Tian and Xu Sanshi glanced at her strangely.
They still couldn't get used to her attitude towards Huo Yuhao....
Ning Tian stepped forward and said, "Yuhao, the barrier around them, it's a special defense–type soul skill—" she tried to explain the Star Barrier to him.
He waved her off, "It's fine, I already know about it. I'm trying to think of a way to bypass it."
Ning Tian shook her head and said, "It's impossible to pierce through the barrier through force," she then glanced towards the fist size sphere in the air. "And there's the matter of senior sister Xiaotao...."
"But we can't just wait any further, our friends are being beaten up right now!" Xu Sanshi said, scratching his head.
Huo Yuhao smiled confidently at them, his Sharingan gleaming sharply. "Every ability has a weakness or risk."
"And weakness of this barrier, is my very own existence."
The magatamas in his Sharingan shifted into lotus-shaped patterns, a deep blue aura of soul power surged out of Huo Yuhao's body and slowly took on the form of a large skeletal ribcage, before growing out the left skeletal arm.
Mangekyou Sharingan, Susanoo!
Ling Luochen, Ning Tian, Xu Sanshi and the audience looked at the towering, skeletal figure with awe and a hint of fear, wondering what Huo Yuhao was about to do.
They've only saw him used such power in the beginning of the tournament, and it left....quite a lasting impression on everyone.
The sight of Huo Yuhao's Susanoo—a massive, skeletal figure with curved horns radiating an ominous blue aura—was both awe-inspiring and intimidating.
"He's using that mysterious power..." Princess Jiu Jiu muttered, looking towards Huo Yuhao's direction with a narrowed gaze.
She snorted, "Although that mysterious skeletal avatar he has is intimidating, I have confidence in my Star Barrier! Nothing less of a power-system Soul Sage could penetrate through my defenses." Her voice was filled with confidence and trust of her own abilities, and that of her martial soul.
Xu Jiujiu has always been proud that she had managed to awakened the Star Barrier soul skill in her family. The Star Barrier was a soul skill that had not appeared in the Xu family for generations, and she knew just how rare and formidable it was.
She had trained rigorously to master it, and now, faced with Huo Yuhao's mysterious skeletal avatar, she still felt assured that her defense could withstand anything he threw at her.
She turned towards her teammates and said, "Everyone! Let's hurry and dispatch these members of Shrek before we take on the rest of them!"
"Yeah! Long live the princess!"
"Long live the princess!"
Her teammates echoed her rallying cry, their voices filled with fierce loyalty and determination.
With renewed confidence, they pushed forward, directing their efforts toward overwhelming Xi Xi and Bei Bei inside the Star Barrier, while Ma Xiaotao continued on trying to break out of her prison.
Then, on the other side of the barrier, Huo Yuhao's eyes remained focused and calculating.
He watched every detail, every fluctuation in the Star Barrier's energy, his Mangekyou Sharingan carefully tracking even the smallest instability.
After a brief moment, he smirked.
"Found it," he muttered as he pulled back his right arm, the Susanoo mirrored his movements as it raised its arm.
"Tian, a little help would be nice." Huo Yuhao said.
Ning Tian blinked and hurriedly raised the seven colored Glazed Pagoda in her hand, two of her soul rings shone and two pillars of light covered Huo Yuhao's body.
"I call upon the third of the Seven Treasures: Strength!"
The cloak of soul power of the Susanoo intensified, Huo Yuhao let out a sharp breath as he felt the surge of his strength enhanced by 40%, which had also transferred to his Susanoo.
By his estimations, it would at least have the power of a power-type Soul Sage.
'Let's take to another level. Kuraokami!' Huo Yuhao's left eye shone, a trickle of blood dripping out.
The aura around the arm of the Susanoo suddenly began to darken, and if one look closer or had a sharp pair of eyes, they would be able to see 'flames' surrounding the arm.
With a powerful thrust, the Susanoo's arm crashed into the barrier with unrelenting force.
*Boom!*
The impact of the Susanoo's empowered arm—cloaked in the ominous, flame-like aura of Kuraokami—sent a resounding shockwave through the entire battlefield.
A crackling sound echoed as fractures began to spiderweb out from the point of impact, spreading rapidly across the barrier's surface. Moreover, there seems to be a layer of dark-blue enveloping the barrier.
*Craaaaaccckkkk*
Inside, Princess Jiu Jiu's confident expression quickly fell.
Her eyes widening as she felt the energy of the barrier shudder. "I-Impossible! No, there's no way he managed to do that just by punching the barrier!"
She and her teammates looked on in horror, while Ma Xiaotao, Xi Xi and Bei Bei saw the change of the situation immediately, a glimmer of hope igniting in their eyes as they watched the cracks expand across the barrier's once-impenetrable surface.
Then, very quickly, the majestic Star Barrier, shattered into tiny pieces like little stars....
Huo Yuhao slowly walked towards them, a cold smirk on his face, and his long white hair fluttering in the breeze as he approached, his Mangekyou Sharingan gleaming ominously.
"H-How did you...." Princess Jiu Jiu stammered.
"Simple. I'm just stronger than you."
.....
AN: I put up the shoutouts and other announcements in my author's thoughts so it wouldn't take any word count on the chapter.
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