The first, second, third, and fifth soul rings lit up in sequence, like a revolving lantern.
"First Soul Skill, Ice Scepter." Ling Luochen slowly raised her right hand and, with a grasping motion in the air, conjured a two-meter-long ice crystal scepter from a burst of blue light.
Simultaneously, a layer of ice crystals covered Ling Luochen's entire body. The crystals solidified rapidly, eventually forming a one-inch-thick Ice Armor Protection around her. This was Ling Luochen's second soul skill, a purely defensive one.
Following this, Ling Luochen pointed the scepter forward. A beam of ice-blue light descended from above Huo Yuhao's head. The blue light cascaded down and instantly transformed into an ice prison, trapping Huo Yuhao inside.
It didn't end there. Ling Luochen pointed the scepter forward again. A dark blue ice ring floated out, and a beam of blue light shot from it, directly targeting Huo Yuhao. After releasing this beam, the ice ring exploded into a cloud of ice mist, spreading across the arena. In an instant, the entire arena floor was covered with a thin layer of ice.
It sounds like a lot, but Ling Luochen executed these four soul skills with ease, flowing one into the next, taking less than ten seconds in total.
The blue light beam shot from the ice ring pierced through the ice prison and accurately hit Huo Yuhao, instantly freezing him into a block of ice.
Seeing Huo Yuhao frozen, Ling Luochen's eyes narrowed slightly. Too smooth. But she wouldn't believe Huo Yuhao was down for the count. That was far too naive.
"Crack! Crack!"
As expected, cracks spiderwebbed across the ice encasing Huo Yuhao. Then, the ice exploded, scattering fragments everywhere. Huo Yuhao then raised the Evil God Spear and swept it horizontally in front of him.
Boom!
The ice prison was fragile before the Evil God Spear augmented by his domain, collapsing instantly.
The ice prison was broken. Ice shards flew everywhere, sprinkling onto Huo Yuhao, but he didn't react at all.
Looking at Ling Luochen, Huo Yuhao smiled faintly. If it were someone else, unleashing four soul skills in a row might have caused him some trouble. Unfortunately, Ling Luochen was an ice-elemental soul master; her martial soul was ice, pure elemental ice.
Huo Yuhao's second martial soul was the Ice Empress Scorpion, of Extreme Ice. Even without actively activating it, all ice-attribute attacks were weakened in front of him by thirty percent, unless the opponent had also reached the Extreme Ice level.
Ling Luochen's ice clearly hadn't reached that level. Therefore, this match was decided from the very beginning.
Ling Luochen was stunned to see Huo Yuhao break through her third and fifth soul skills so easily. Then, when she saw him smiling at her, she knew something was wrong.
Ling Luochen watched as Huo Yuhao simply raised his hand and sent a palm strike towards her from a distance. Suddenly, a red palm print appeared in front of her. The palm print was the size of an adult's hand, somewhat blurry, but composed of a special energy that contained immense power.
Bang!
Ling Luochen was helpless. The moment the red palm print hit her, she was sent flying backward.
Crack, crack, crackle!
Ling Luochen landed at the edge of the arena. As she struggled to get back up, a trace of blood trickled from the corner of her mouth. Her ice armor had shattered into countless fragments, clattering to the ground.
Ling Luochen looked up at Huo Yuhao. This simple action, which would normally be effortless, now felt like an insurmountable challenge. She truly couldn't believe it. What kind of monster was he? She was clearly at a higher cultivation level, yet she had been defeated so completely.
Only after truly fighting Huo Yuhao did one realize how terrifying he was. In Ling Luochen's eyes, Huo Yuhao had simply slapped her away, like swatting a fly or a mosquito.
Ling Luochen thought that, but it wasn't that simple, was it?
It worked! Huo Yuhao was exhilarated. The red palm print was small, just a crude technique he used to condense his domain. The reason it had such power was because of the strength of his Demon-Breaking Domain.
Huo Yuhao had a sudden idea just now. As he struck, he opened a space channel. The end of the space channel was right in front of Ling Luochen, which caused this scene.
The soul skills are constantly eroded within the spatial channel; otherwise, that move would have been even stronger.
Huo Yuhao pondered. He had once been a bit too confident and tried to traverse space over a long distance. If he hadn't retreated in time, he would have lost his life. The energy within the spatial channel was too chaotic; one needed a very high level of cultivation to safely traverse it.
Soul skills were different. At worst, they would just dissipate.
The facts proved that Huo Yuhao's experiment was successful. Soul skills could indeed traverse space, but the power of the soul skill would be greatly reduced after doing so, and it might even dissipate within the space.
Just like Huo Yuhao's palm print just now. When he released it, it was solid, like a real object. But after reaching Ling Luochen, it had already begun to blur, showing signs of dissipation.
Overall, using the soul skill traverse in some special situations might achieve a surprise victory. But if this move was used as a primary attack method, it would be foolish. It consumed a lot of energy but had little power, completely a waste of effort.
Huo Yuhao was deep in thought. Ling Luochen was stunned and speechless. The members of the Shrek Academy team were eerily quiet. Ma Xiaotao and Dai Yaohang looked at Huo Yuhao with grave expressions. Even as Soul Emperors, they wouldn't find it easy to defeat Ling Luochen.
At this moment, the two of them simultaneously had the same thought: could Shrek Academy really win? Next, it would only be them taking the field. Even if they could defeat Huo Yuhao, what would it matter? The enemy had three Soul Emperors alone, not to mention the Soul Kings.
Beibei and Wang Dong were out of the question. The strength Huo Yuhao displayed left them feeling utterly hopeless. At this point, they didn't even have the courage to step onto the stage. What was the point? To get slapped down by him? Wouldn't that be even more embarrassing?
"I say, the Young Master probably wants to take down Shrek all by himself," Luo Tianlin said, leaning over to Lin Kong. He wanted to see if the captain knew anything.
"Looks like it. The Young Master isn't even leaving us any scraps," Chen Xiao said, usually a quiet guy, but even he couldn't help but sigh. They'd finally run into Shrek, and they'd wanted to show off, to teach the other side a lesson.
Xiang Yuqing's eyes sparkled with little stars, and she said with admiration, "I don't care about going on stage or not. Don't you all think the Young Master is super cool? That's a Soul King, one slap each, so cool!"
Hearing this, everyone else nodded in agreement. They also wanted to be able to handle opponents with one hand, but their strength just didn't allow it.
Lan Shuang had already fought and didn't feel much. Yang Xu, well, after Ye Lingling's Nine-Hearted Glazed Tile Pagoda treatment, he could barely stand, but his injuries were still severe.
Vena was whispering with Ye Lingling. Long Aotian and Wang Yanfeng were idle; they had only come to watch the battle. The next competition would be their main event.