Unrivaled Tang Sect

However, the white light continued to drill inwards at an incredibly fast and stable rate. Even though it was making a super annoying sound, it was truly a sight to behold.

Streaks of light from the interior of the palace flew towards this white light as they attempted to destroy it.

However, it was during this short period of time when the white light suddenly froze before dipping downwards. Even though it did not penetrate the barrier, it was stuck on the surface of the palace’s protective barrier.

Just when the soul engineers who were responsible for defending the interior of the Palace were about to let out a sigh of relief, an even finer streak of white light drilled out from its tip before entering the interior of the Palace.

Even though the walls of the Palace were incredibly thick and firm, the white light was able to drill itself in without making any noise at all.

“Shit!”

Xu Tianran had been standing in front of his sleeping chamber, and had just witnessed the series of events which happened in the sky. He immediately knew something bad was about to happen the moment he saw the white light dip.

An intense purple light exploded from his body as a purple-gold human-shaped soul tool enveloped his body instantly. At the same time, Xu Tianran bent down and brought his limbs close to his body to minimize his surface area. He increased the intensity of the purple-gold light around him as he tried to use the light to protect his body.

He was able to do all of the above in an incredibly short amount of time. No one present would have been able to catch what he was doing with their eyes.

Just when Xu Tianran was finished, the entire Palace started to tremble!

“Booommm!”

A deafening explosion could be heard from the bottom of the Palace. Following which, a white pillar of light shot straight up into the sky from the ground.

This pillar was not very big initially. It was only about as thick as an arm. However, it rapidly expanded as it encroached into the space around it. In addition, it radiated white ripples towards its surroundings.

At this very instant, every single building in the Palace was enveloped in a golden barrier. The barriers were trying to shield the buildings from the white light.

However, the white light was just too powerful for the barriers, as it consumed the buildings with ease.

The palace guards were effectively useless against such overwhelming power. They were instantly vaporized when the white light enveloped them.

However, at this instant, the Sun Moon Empire started to show their trump cards.

Countless images lit up one after another within the Palace. Even though these images were of several different colors, all of them transformed into barriers as they launched themselves towards the white light.

At the same time, the protective soul barriers within the Palace started to concentrate their energy and contract. The sixteen golden pillars launched themselves towards the white light as they formed more barriers to contain it.

The place that the white light had landed in was the central area of the Sun Moon Empire’s Imperial Palace.

Right now, Xu Tianran could sense an incredibly frightening amount of soul power ravaging his body.

Countless streaks of light were exploding from his body. All of these streaks were coming from the defensive soul tools which had been designed for him by the Sun Moon Empire’s soul engineers. The soul tools were being destroyed by the invincibly sharp soul power as they put in their last bit of effort to defend their user.

Even though Xu Tianran was swept up in the powerful white ripples, he was ultimately able to survive because of his human-shaped soul tool, as well as the powerful defensive soul tools.

However, when he crept out from the white light, there were already several cracks in his human-shaped soul tool. On top of being covered with dirt, his leg prosthetics had also been torn to pieces. Hence, he could only use his arms and body to crawl out.

Outside of Radiant City.

Huo Yuhao was struggling as he tried to pass the gigantic silver barrel to He Caitou.

“Retreat!”

The three hundred heavy artillery pieces sped towards the Spectral Gate. At the same time, a golden light lit up from their sides and formed a golden barrier that enveloped all of the heavy artillery and the Spectral Gate.

Huo Yuhao bit the tip of his tongue lightly as he tried to concentrate on the task at hand. Tang Wutong was continuously injecting her spiritual power into him to stabilize the state of his body.

Li Ya silently appeared as she released Merfolk Control once again. Ripples of light dissipated from her body as they turned the interior of the protective soul barrier cloudy and opaque.

Just when they were about to be done with their preparations, streaks of light could be seen shooting up into the air from the distance as they headed for where Huo Yuhao and his peers were.

This reaction was expected of Radiant City! After all, it was the capital of the Sun Moon Empire, and the biggest city in the entire world.

After being repeatedly attacked, it was finally Radiant City’s turn to retaliate.

Even though they did not have the help of aerial surveillance soul tools to locate the precise position of Huo Yuhao and his peers, they could roughly tell where they were from the location where the stationary soul cannon shells shot into the sky. Hence, they decided to suppress Huo Yuhao and his peers with carpet bombing, and prevent them from continuing their attack.

However, all of this was within Huo Yuhao’s expectations. Hence, he had deployed the linked defensive barriers he had looted from the Sun Moon Empire’s Eastern Sun City and the soul tool front at the Ming Dou Mountain Range.

These soul tools were the pride of the Sun Moon Empire. However, they were now protecting the people of Tang Sect with the support of milk bottles.

While the Heavy Artillery Soul Engineer Legion was retreating into the Spectral Gate, the Fort Soul Engineer Legion and the Tang Sect Soul Engineer Legion were in charge of sweeping the group and covering them from the rear. Huo Yuhao and the rest were scheduled to be the last few to enter.

Even though the carpet bombing method was effective at covering large areas, its attack was too spread out to strike anything effectively.

Although there were a few explosions above the barrier occasionally, they were not able to penetrate the barrier.

Very soon, the three hundred cannons had entered the Spectral Gate.

The eighteen doors had allowed them to retreat at twice the usual rate. It only took them ten minutes to completely retreat. This also meant that the rest of the people would be able to enter at an even faster rate.

After the enormous explosion, almost eighty percent of the Palace had turned into ruins.

Streaks of light rose into the sky above the Palace. Three of them flew straight towards where Huo Yuhao and his peers were. Their movement was so fast that they resembled bolts of lightning.

Huo Yuhao had been monitoring every single movement within the Radiant City with his Spiritual Detection.

After sensing the movement of those three different figures, he was mildly startled. Those three figures were radiating immensely powerful auras.

They were all Class 9 soul engineers from the Sun Moon Empires’s Imperial Shrine!

A pillar of light which consisted of two colors—silver and gold—suddenly fell from the sky and slammed into the linked defense barrier. The barrier instantly became bright gold and silver as it released a deafening screeching sound. As the barrier tried to fend off the attack, the soul energy stored in the milk bottles decreased rapidly.

This is…

The Sunmoon Divine Needle.

The Starsky Douluo was here!

Even though Huo Yuhao frowned upon realizing that, he was not afraid of him.

He had long foreseen that this would happen. No matter how sudden their attack was, they were only ten miles away from Radiant City. This distance was nothing for Class 9 soul engineers. Hence, he was expecting them to attack them as they were retreating.

This was why he had planned for himself and the stronger cultivators within the Tang Sect to stay at the back of the group.

Huo Yuhao ordered, “There are three Class 9 soul engineers coming our way. Wutong and I will take the Starsky Douluo. Eldest senior brother, you will take the Class 9 soul engineer on the left. Third senior brother, you will be in charge of the one on the right. Fifth senior sister and Ji Juechen, both of you will assist eldest senior brother. Guyi and Qiuqiu, both of you will help third senior brother. Fourth senior sister, you will help ensure that the rest can retreat smoothly. Second senior brother, I will need you to provide us with covering fire, and to assist us wherever necessary! Let’s move out!”

The destructive ability of three Class 9 soul engineers was definitely more than what three Titled Douluo could achieve. If they were to fight one-on-one, a Titled Douluo would not fear a Class 9 soul engineer. However, when the soul engineer was given sufficient time and distance, his or her destructive ability would be incredibly strong. Hence, Huo Yuhao and the others had to seize the initiative and attack them before they destroyed the barrier. If not, countless Tang Sect soul engineers would perish under their attacks.

The most important thing for the legions now was time. Huo Yuhao was definitely able to get the three legions to fight the three Class 9 soul engineers. In fact, the soul engineers would definitely not be able to defeat a single legion of two hundred soul engineers.

However, now was not the time for them to get entangled in a battle. If they were to continue to fight and delay their retreat, they might not be able to leave anymore when more reinforcements arrived.

It was important to understand that they were still within the attacking radius of the nearest soul tool installation. Hence, Huo Yuhao had decisively ordered everyone to retreat instead of bracing themselves for battle.

The three Class 9 soul engineers might be powerful, but so were the higher-ups of Tang Sect. If the Tang Sect’s high-ups were the only ones involved in the battle, it would also be a lot easier for all of them to retreat together. After all, they had developed impeccable chemistry after working with one another for all these years.

Ye Yulin stared coldly at the light barrier beneath him from afar. Because of how the light waves were bending around each other, it was impossible for him to see what was within the barrier. However, he could tell from the flickering of the light that there were a lot of people inside it. Nonetheless, he was unable to tell what they were doing.

Ye Yulin did not try to get closer to them, even though he was very confident in his abilities. After seeing how they were able to penetrate the defenses of the Palace, he believed that these attackers were fairly strong. In addition, he believed the last streak of white light must have been a Class 9 stationary soul cannon shell which was built specifically to penetrate protective barriers.

Nonetheless, he also understood how the cannon shell must have expended a lot of energy to drill through the barrier. Hence, the explosion within the interior of the palace did not seem to possess the power that a true Class 9 cannon shell was supposed to have. However, it was still undeniable that the shell had dealt a lot of damage to the palace.

The mission for him and the other two Class 9 soul engineers was to delay these people. As long as they were able to delay them till the other reinforcements from Radiant City arrived, they would be able to launch an all-out attack on this group of people who had caused an incredible amount of damage to Radiant City.

To be honest, Ye Yulin was not overly enraged by the destruction around him. After all, the losses belonged to the empire, and not him. He was more curious about the person who was able to organize such a powerful sneak attack on Radiant City. This group of people was somehow able to take down all of the aerial surveillance soul tools above Radiant City! Also, they were able to suppress the four soul tool installations around Radiant City and prevent them from supporting the city. They had most definitely used more than a thousand shells in the attack earlier. This was not something that any small group could accomplish. It must have been organized by another empire.

On top of that, the Sun Moon Empire was somehow totally unaware of this force. They were completely oblivious the whole time this force transported their ammunition to Radiant City. Even if this group were to attack with stationary soul cannon shells, they would have to launch them somewhere close to the city. How did they manage to pull it off?

After releasing the Sunmoon Divine Needle, Ye Yulin began to recover his soul power through a milk bottle. Even though his soul tool was incredibly powerful, it tended to consume a lot of soul power. At this instant, he saw a few figures flying out of the linked defense barrier, and two of them were heading in his direction.

After letting out a cold grunt, Ye Yulin swung his right hand in the air as multiple streaks of light ascended into the sky. The way these streaks of light left his body made it seem as though they had grown out from him. As they climbed higher into the sky, they rapidly grew bigger before transforming into intensely bright balls of light. They were like stars that were floating above Ye Yulin’s head.

There was a reason why he was called the Starsky Douluo. When it came to pure fighting power, Ye Yulin was definitely one of the best in the Sun Moon Empire. After his stars gathered in the sky, he locked his spiritual power on the incoming enemies.

However, he suddenly felt an intense sense of danger within his heart. He immediately looked at the two cultivators who were flying towards him. He realized there was a purple-gold glow in one of their eyes.

His automatic spiritual defense soul tools were instantly activated. A necklace that was hanging in front of his chest suddenly exploded with blinding light as a spiritual barrier instantly formed in front of him.

“Bang!” A loud metallic sound could be heard. Ye Yulin naturally ducked his head as he looked at the state of his Sobering Necklace. Several cracks could already be seen forming on it.

What a powerful spiritual attack!

Even though his Sobering Necklace was able to negate a large part of the attack, the violet spiritual ripples still made Ye Yulin temporarily incapable of locking onto his opponent. Hence, his two opponents were able to get within a hundred meters of him with their incredible speed.

Ye Yulin was a Class 9 soul engineer who was skilled in fighting. Hence, he did not panic as he made a tapping motion with his right hand in a calm and collected fashion. At that instant, multiple streaks of light were released from the balls of light above his head. They collectively formed a huge net as they attempted to block his two opponents’ path.

At the same time, Ye Yulin retreated at an incredible speed. He left a sequence of faint figures that resembled him as he moved a distance of five hundred meters in the blink of an eye.

A soul engineer who specialized in long-range attacks must possess the following important skills: defending, reacting, and evading.

The two people who were charging towards Ye Yulin were none other than Huo Yuhao and Tang Wutong.

Huo Yuhao had left Li Ya within the protective soul barrier to maintain the Spiritual Interference Domain, so as to maintain the secrecy of the entire force’s numbers.

Meanwhile, the few of them had rushed out to engage the Class 9 soul engineers.

Ye Yulin was truly very powerful. The streaks of light that were heavily intertwined in front of him contained an immense amount of destructive power. Even Huo Yuhao didn’t dare to just barge through the net. He could only pull Tang Wutong aside as they paused their attack. This allowed Ye Yulin to increase his distance from them.

Tang Wutong extended the wings behind her back as she paused and floated in mid-air. Huo Yuhao also did not go after Ye Yulin. However, his eyes were still sparkling as his Spiritual Detection ability remained fully focused and locked onto the Starsky Douluo’s body.

Tang Wutong grabbed onto Huo Yuhao’s Icy War God’s Armor at his waist as she released countless balls of light from her wings. The balls were going straight for the “stars” in the sky which were released by Ye Yulin.

After stopping and stabilizing his body, Ye Yuline glanced around at his surroundings coldly before locking onto his two opponents. He started to charge his Sunmoon Divine Needle, which was getting ready at a higher altitude.

Of course, he was able to tell that the two soul masters nearing him were both Titled Douluo. However, it was the person who was wearing the dark blue human-shaped soul tool that surprised him more.

The person’s human-shaped soul tool might be smaller than the one researched by the Sun Moon Empire. However, its smaller size did not mean that it would be weaker. The aura radiating from the person created an inexplicable sense of fear within him. Despite his wealth of experience, he was unable to tell what material that human-shaped soul tool was made of. The material seemed to provide depth in color, yet it was remarkably clear, as though it was carved entirely out of gemstones. At the same time, he was unable to detect any soul power rippling out from the person. The person’s presence seemed to be concealed by the armor. This made the their movements extremely unpredictable.

Hence, Ye Yulin was preparing to use his strongest possible attack to attempt to destroy them. Now he was genuinely curious about what lay beneath the barrier. As long as they were still here, they would not be able to run away when his reinforcements arrived shortly.

While he was thinking about it, Ye Yulin transmitted a series of encoded messages through his communication soul tool. He believed that the nearest soul tool installation would provide him with long-range fire support shortly. However, their target would not be the two people before him; it would be the protective soul barrier.

However, at this instant, Ye Yulin was surprised to see an orange-red light emerging from the protective soul barrier beneath him.

The streak of orange-red light was flying at an insanely quick speed, but it was constantly twisting and turning in its flight path.

This is…

Ye Yulin’s eyes widened in disbelief. This was a guiding flare!

These people have actually developed guiding flares! He could not believe what he was seeing.

Guiding flares were basically designed to counter areas where powerful soul tools were installed. A guiding flare contained immense soul power ripples which could attract the attention of all surrounding surveillance soul tools. And because most of the soul tools that were designed to intercept enemy attacks were all designed to fire upon detection, the guiding flare was able to get the entire installation to fire at it. This would allow Huo Yuhao and his peers to waste their enemy’s ammunition and energy. At the same time, it would be the perfect decoy when they prepared to launch their real attack on the enemy.

And as expected, the guiding flare was heading towards the soul tool deployment area which was closest to Radiant City.

I can’t believe these fellows are actually so well-prepared!

Just as Ye Yulin had predicted, right after the guiding flare shot out, a black figure emerged. If Ye Yulin did not notice the commotion down there, he might have missed the black figure.

However, after appearing, the black figure immediately disappeared from Ye Yulin’s vision.

This…

Shit! Ye Yulin immediately shouted into his communication soul tool. “Defense. I want everyone to go into full defense mode. Be careful of the guiding flare and any sneak attacks. Do not prioritize providing support fire anymore.”

Tonight’s sneak attack was simply too sudden for Radiant City to handle. Even till now, all of the soul engineers were still unclear about the potential extent of this attack, and whether there was going to be a follow up to it. Hence, their utmost priority was to protect Radiant City instead of killing their enemies. Having seen how powerful the initial attack was, Ye Yulin knew he had to be extra careful. He did not want to be responsible for any failure to defend against the second wave.

Huo Yuhao’s face revealed a sly smile. However, his expression was not visible to anyone, because his entire body was concealed within the Icy War God’s Armor. He gently raised his right hand as a deep blue dagger appeared in his hand. There was a layer of white icy dew on the surface of the dagger’s blade.

Yes, it was the Sigh of the Frozen Goddess, Morning Dew Dagger!

Tang Wutong held onto Huo Yuhao’s waist—or rather his armor—tightly before she spun three hundred and sixty degrees in the air. Following which, she tossed Huo Yuhao outwards in the direction of the Starsky Douluo.

After being thrown out a hundred meters, his entire body suddenly radiated an intense white light as he sped across the sky like a meteor. He resembled a bolt of lightning that was about to strike Ye Yulin.

Icy Meteor! This was the ability Little White had given Huo Yuhao. It was able to instantly increase Huo Yuhao’s flying speed to three times his usual speed. At the same time, his Ultimate Ice’s explosive ability and defensive ability were doubled.

The most powerful thing about Icy Meteor was its singular collision. It only had one chance to strike its target, just as a meteor only had one attempt to hit any astral body. When Huo Yuhao was using the Icy Meteor, he was able to enhance his offensive power to that of an Ultimate Ice Titled Douluo. And because he was also wearing the Icy War God’s Armor, it was pretty much equivalent to an all-out attack from a Transcendent Douluo!

Hence, Ye Yulin felt immensely threatened by Huo Yuhao’s Icy Meteor. Even though he had just released the soul skill, Ye Yulin already felt as though the meteor had hit him.

Ye Yulin was immensely startled by Huo Yuhao’s power. This is definitely the power of a Transcendent Douluo!

Ye Yulin had always been very confident in his abilities. He believed that as long as he kept a respectable distance between him and his opponent, he was even capable of fending off the attacks of a Transcendent Douluo!

A soul engineer must put an adequate distance between him and his opponent in order to showcase his abilities. However, there were no such requirements for soul masters.

Hence, if the battle were to be fought within a certain range, a soul master would most definitely win.

As the ball of white light rapidly enlarged before his eyes, Ye Yulin did not even hesitate as he activated his Sunmoon Divine Needle, which had just finished charging.

After he had repeatedly improved his Sunmoon Divine Needle, its attacking power had become far greater than before. Even a Transcendent Douluo would suffer tremendously under its attack. At the very least, the attacker would be struck down from the sky.

The gold and silver pillar of light descended from the sky instantly. Even though it was not particularly radiant, it contained an insane amount of destructive energy.

Only a fool would try to block the Sunmoon Divine Needle head-on.

Ye Yulin gazed from afar as he watched the impending collision between this pseudo-Transcendent Douluo and his Sunmoon Divine Needle.

Suddenly, the white light disappeared. However, the person who was within the white light reappeared.

What is he thinking? Is he trying to kill himself? Without the protection of his powerful soul skill, he will die. Ye Yulin was very puzzled by Huo Yuhao’s actions.

However, he saw that person waving his hand towards him.

The other two battles had already begun. One of them was led by the Eternal Defense, Xu Sanshi, as he fought alongside the Holy Angel, Ye Guyi, and Nan Qiuqiu.

Even though Xu Sanshi was only an eight-ringed soul master, his defensive ability was unparalleled among all known martial souls after his martial soul had evolved into the Xuanwu Shield.

With the full-power defense of his Xuanwu Shield protecting him, Ye Guyi and Nan Qiuqiu, the three of them charged towards a Class 9 soul engineer.

Even though they might not be soul engineers, they were still well-equipped with soul tools!

The three of them might not possess Class 9 flying soul tools, but they were still supported by soul thrusters. After all, it was not possible to produce that many Class 9 flying soul tools in such a short amount of time.

A powerful soul master’s body was definitely a lot stronger than that of a soul engineer. Hence, the thrust force which came from their soul thrusters was very powerful.

Xu Sanshi initiated the attack, since his body was the toughest among the three of them. He was instantly able to break the sound barrier when he revved up the three Class 9 soul thrusters behind his back. With his Xuanwu Shield in front of him, Xu Sanshi was like another meteor on the battlefield as he closed in on the Class 9 soul engineer.

This Class 9 soul engineer was the weakest one among the three soul engineers.

Huo Yuhao did not determine their relative strengths based on their soul power. This was because it was incredibly hard to determine the soul power of a Class 9 soul engineer. They had too many soul tools providing support and boosting their power. Even their attacking means were probably heavily influenced by their soul tools. Hence, soul power would be a bad gauge of their abilities.

Huo Yuhao had based his estimation on their relative spiritual power. This Class 9 soul engineer had the weakest spiritual power among his peers. Spiritual power was the most important factor in the later stages of training for soul engineers.

With the help of the soul thrusters, Xu Sanshi brought the two ladies towards this soul engineer. The soul engineer immediately lost his composure as he started to use different soul tools to repeatedly attack Xu Sanshi and the girls. He was trying to stop them from getting closer to him.

However, there was a reason why Xu Sanshi was called the Eternal Defense. A series of mystical ripples formed on the Xuanwu Shield as it negated a large part of the attacks launched by the soul engineer. They were effectively unstoppable.

However, the Class 9 soul engineer also possessed a fair bit of combat experience. While he continued attacking Xu Sanshi and the rest, he activated his own soul thruster, which was on his chest, as he rapidly retreated in a bid to increase the distance between him and Xu Sanshi.

It was clear that according to Huo Yuhao’s arrangement, Bei Bei’s group was relatively stronger. Bei Bei, Xiao Xiao, and Ji Juechen were all eight-ringed Soul Douluo. In fact, they were not just any Soul Douluo. Their cumulative power would definitely be stronger than that of a Titled Douluo. Xiao Xiao was adept at controlling and defending, whereas Ji Juechen was extremely competent in attacking. Bei Bei, on the other hand, was very versatile. Hence, even Huo Yuhao would not even be confident of defeating them if they were to team up against him.

On the other hand, Xu Sanshi’s team seemed to be relatively weaker. But looks could be deceiving.

After their previous battle with the Myriad Soul Douluo, Ye Guyi had spent a considerable amount of time meditating and digesting her gains. Huo Yuhao could only roughly guess how strong she was now. Her soul power should be close to Rank 80. She was probably only just lacking her eighth soul ring.

The Holy Angel martial soul was one of the top-tier martial souls in the world. With the power of her martial soul, Ye Guyi would be a formidable force. Her Holy Angel would truly awaken once she attained her eighth ring. In the future, when she reached the Titled Douluo rank, her powers would not be weaker than that of a cultivator who possessed an Ultimate Strength martial soul.

Even though Nan Qiuqiu might be a little weaker than the rest, she was still a Soul Sage. On top of that, she possessed the Annihilation martial soul. The power of the Rouge Dragon was starting to show after she had attained the rank of a Soul Sage. In addition, she was also wearing a set of Icy War God’s Armor. Even though her armor did not possess the same spiritual control system and was not made of Divine Ice Crystals, which contained ice spirits, Xuan Ziwen had already enhanced this human-shaped soul tool to its maximum potential. Because Nan Qiuqiu received this armor earlier than Huo Yuhao, she was already very familiar with it. Nonetheless, the most important person in this trio was still Xu Sanshi. His individual ability was even more effective than Bei Bei’s on the battlefield. The power of his Xuanwu Shield, which could be shown in team fights, was simply overwhelming.

For example, right now when the Class 9 soul engineer released his soul thruster and retreated rapidly, Xu Sanshi’s Xuanwu Shield lit up as his Golden Tortoise appeared behind his back silently.

The light on the Xuanwu Shield suddenly became illusory. Following which, the Class 9 soul engineer felt as though his body was being gripped by a hand. It was almost as if he were being tugged tightly by some mysterious force. Before he could react, the world around him seemed to have flipped as he appeared in front of Xu Sanshi. This was the enhanced version of Xuanwu Displacement — Xuanwu Summoning. After the Xuanwu martial soul was truly awakened, Xu Sanshi possessed the powerful ability to instantly pull his opponent towards him. No matter how strong the opponent was, he would be able to pull them in till he or she was right in front of him. As long as the opponent was within a hundred meters of him, he or she would definitely be vulnerable to this soul skill.

Similar to the Xuanwu Displacement, this was an amazing soul skill! It was especially so for a defense-type soul master. He could help his peers escape from their common enemy in an instant. Also, he could pull his opponent towards him in the blink of an eye. On top of that, the Xuanwu Summoning—which was the enhanced version of the Xuanwu Displacement—was a soul skill that even Huo Yuhao’s Spiritual Duplication could not copy. Xu Sanshi was the only one who could use it. The Class 9 soul engineer immediately started to panic as he activated his protective soul barrier and his Invincible Barrier. Layers of light enveloped his body like a cocoon.

While Xu Sanshi was performing the Xuanwu Summoning, the fifth soul ring on his body lit up. The Golden Tortoise behind his back immediately fused with his body. Following which, his entire body—which now resembled a gigantic tortoise—collided heavily against the barrier of the Class 9 soul engineer before him.

Turtle God’s Strike!

Xu Sanshi’s fifth soul skill!

This soul skill’s attacking power was considerably strong. It also happened to be one of the few attacking soul skills Xu Sanshi possessed. In fact, it was closer to being a soul skill that could be used both offensively and defensively than a purely attacking-type soul skill.

The enormous vibration, coupled with the awkwardness of being pulled right in front of his opponent, created a sense of fear within the Class 9 soul engineer’s heart. However, he soon realized that his opponent’s attacking power was not very strong. After all, Xu Sanshi only had eight rings!

His barrier was still able to protect his body. In addition, he was also knocked away by the blow, which helped him increase the distance between himself and his opponents.

It was a good thing for a soul engineer to come out from a battle unscathed. It would be even better for the soul engineer to have a good amount of distance between himself and his opponent.

However, just before he could indulge in this satisfying thought, the space around him started to contort, and seemed as though it had started to cease to be real.

A light flashed, and the Class 9 soul engineer who had been knocked away suddenly disappeared in mid-air, and was replaced by a dark blue figure who was none other than Huo Yuhao.

“Booomm!” The gold and silver pillar of light slammed heavily into the place where Huo Yuhao was supposed to be. However, Huo Yuhao was no longer there to receive the blow. The person who was trying to withstand the full blow of the Sunmoon Divine Needle had become the Class 9 soul engineer who was knocked away by Xu Sanshi. Everything was according Huo Yuhao’s plan. All three battles were being monitored by Huo Yuhao through his Spiritual Detection.

When Xu Sanshi was rushing towards the Class 9 soul engineer at full speed, Huo Yuhao had already shared his plan with him through Spiritual Sharing.

The chemistry that Shrek’s Seven Monsters had was simply incredible. When Xu Sanshi used his Xuanwu Summoning to pull the Class 9 soul engineer towards him, Ye Guyi and Nan Qiuqiu stopped their attacks temporarily as Xu Sanshi knocked the soul engineer away . All of this were done in support of Huo Yuhao’s plan!

The Turtle God’s Strike knocked the soul engineer to a position thet was closer to Huo Yuhao, who used his Spiritual Duplication on the Xuanwu Displacement before changing places with the Class 9 soul engineer. Hence, the Sunmoon Divine Needle that was supposed to land on Huo Yuhao ended up landing on the Class 9 soul engineer.

Even though everything seemed to be very slow in the above description, events unfolded rapidly the moment both sides came into contact.

When the Starsky Douluo realized that something was wrong, his Sunmoon Divine Needle had already been tossed out in the direction of the Class 9 soul engineer.

The Sunmoon Divine Needle’s attacking prowess was ranked among the top five Class 9 soul tools. It was not to be doubted. Huo Yuhao had accurately determined that the Class 9 soul engineer that Xu Sanshi had faced was the weakest among the three Sun Moon Empire soul engineers.

All of his barriers disintegrated instantly under the power of the Sunmoon Divine Needle. However, it was undeniable that this Class 9 soul engineer had incredible survivability. Just when his entire body was about to be enveloped by the Sunmoon Divine Needle’s attack, a silver light suddenly flashed from his body as his entire body was transported to an area thirty meters away. He managed to escape alive.

Nonetheless, there were huge patches on his body that were already charred. He also spat out a mouthful of blood.

A bright streak of light flew across the sky as a gigantic purple-gold pillar of light appeared. This pillar illuminated the entire vast black sky, as though dawn had arrived.

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However, the white light continued to drill inwards at an incredibly fast and stable rate. Even though it was making a super annoying sound, it was truly a sight to behold.

Streaks of light from the interior of the palace flew towards this white light as they attempted to destroy it.

However, it was during this short period of time when the white light suddenly froze before dipping downwards. Even though it did not penetrate the barrier, it was stuck on the surface of the palace’s protective barrier.

Just when the soul engineers who were responsible for defending the interior of the Palace were about to let out a sigh of relief, an even finer streak of white light drilled out from its tip before entering the interior of the Palace.

Even though the walls of the Palace were incredibly thick and firm, the white light was able to drill itself in without making any noise at all.

“Shit!”

Xu Tianran had been standing in front of his sleeping chamber, and had just witnessed the series of events which happened in the sky. He immediately knew something bad was about to happen the moment he saw the white light dip.

An intense purple light exploded from his body as a purple-gold human-shaped soul tool enveloped his body instantly. At the same time, Xu Tianran bent down and brought his limbs close to his body to minimize his surface area. He increased the intensity of the purple-gold light around him as he tried to use the light to protect his body.

He was able to do all of the above in an incredibly short amount of time. No one present would have been able to catch what he was doing with their eyes.

Just when Xu Tianran was finished, the entire Palace started to tremble!

“Booommm!”

A deafening explosion could be heard from the bottom of the Palace. Following which, a white pillar of light shot straight up into the sky from the ground.

This pillar was not very big initially. It was only about as thick as an arm. However, it rapidly expanded as it encroached into the space around it. In addition, it radiated white ripples towards its surroundings.

At this very instant, every single building in the Palace was enveloped in a golden barrier. The barriers were trying to shield the buildings from the white light.

However, the white light was just too powerful for the barriers, as it consumed the buildings with ease.

The palace guards were effectively useless against such overwhelming power. They were instantly vaporized when the white light enveloped them.

However, at this instant, the Sun Moon Empire started to show their trump cards.

Countless images lit up one after another within the Palace. Even though these images were of several different colors, all of them transformed into barriers as they launched themselves towards the white light.

At the same time, the protective soul barriers within the Palace started to concentrate their energy and contract. The sixteen golden pillars launched themselves towards the white light as they formed more barriers to contain it.

The place that the white light had landed in was the central area of the Sun Moon Empire’s Imperial Palace.

Right now, Xu Tianran could sense an incredibly frightening amount of soul power ravaging his body.

Countless streaks of light were exploding from his body. All of these streaks were coming from the defensive soul tools which had been designed for him by the Sun Moon Empire’s soul engineers. The soul tools were being destroyed by the invincibly sharp soul power as they put in their last bit of effort to defend their user.

Even though Xu Tianran was swept up in the powerful white ripples, he was ultimately able to survive because of his human-shaped soul tool, as well as the powerful defensive soul tools.

However, when he crept out from the white light, there were already several cracks in his human-shaped soul tool. On top of being covered with dirt, his leg prosthetics had also been torn to pieces. Hence, he could only use his arms and body to crawl out.

Outside of Radiant City.

Huo Yuhao was struggling as he tried to pass the gigantic silver barrel to He Caitou.

“Retreat!”

The three hundred heavy artillery pieces sped towards the Spectral Gate. At the same time, a golden light lit up from their sides and formed a golden barrier that enveloped all of the heavy artillery and the Spectral Gate.

Huo Yuhao bit the tip of his tongue lightly as he tried to concentrate on the task at hand. Tang Wutong was continuously injecting her spiritual power into him to stabilize the state of his body.

Li Ya silently appeared as she released Merfolk Control once again. Ripples of light dissipated from her body as they turned the interior of the protective soul barrier cloudy and opaque.

Just when they were about to be done with their preparations, streaks of light could be seen shooting up into the air from the distance as they headed for where Huo Yuhao and his peers were.

This reaction was expected of Radiant City! After all, it was the capital of the Sun Moon Empire, and the biggest city in the entire world.

After being repeatedly attacked, it was finally Radiant City’s turn to retaliate.

Even though they did not have the help of aerial surveillance soul tools to locate the precise position of Huo Yuhao and his peers, they could roughly tell where they were from the location where the stationary soul cannon shells shot into the sky. Hence, they decided to suppress Huo Yuhao and his peers with carpet bombing, and prevent them from continuing their attack.

However, all of this was within Huo Yuhao’s expectations. Hence, he had deployed the linked defensive barriers he had looted from the Sun Moon Empire’s Eastern Sun City and the soul tool front at the Ming Dou Mountain Range.

These soul tools were the pride of the Sun Moon Empire. However, they were now protecting the people of Tang Sect with the support of milk bottles.

While the Heavy Artillery Soul Engineer Legion was retreating into the Spectral Gate, the Fort Soul Engineer Legion and the Tang Sect Soul Engineer Legion were in charge of sweeping the group and covering them from the rear. Huo Yuhao and the rest were scheduled to be the last few to enter.

Even though the carpet bombing method was effective at covering large areas, its attack was too spread out to strike anything effectively.

Although there were a few explosions above the barrier occasionally, they were not able to penetrate the barrier.

Very soon, the three hundred cannons had entered the Spectral Gate.

The eighteen doors had allowed them to retreat at twice the usual rate. It only took them ten minutes to completely retreat. This also meant that the rest of the people would be able to enter at an even faster rate.

After the enormous explosion, almost eighty percent of the Palace had turned into ruins.

Streaks of light rose into the sky above the Palace. Three of them flew straight towards where Huo Yuhao and his peers were. Their movement was so fast that they resembled bolts of lightning.

Huo Yuhao had been monitoring every single movement within the Radiant City with his Spiritual Detection.

After sensing the movement of those three different figures, he was mildly startled. Those three figures were radiating immensely powerful auras.

They were all Class 9 soul engineers from the Sun Moon Empires’s Imperial Shrine!

A pillar of light which consisted of two colors—silver and gold—suddenly fell from the sky and slammed into the linked defense barrier. The barrier instantly became bright gold and silver as it released a deafening screeching sound. As the barrier tried to fend off the attack, the soul energy stored in the milk bottles decreased rapidly.

This is…

The Sunmoon Divine Needle.

The Starsky Douluo was here!

Even though Huo Yuhao frowned upon realizing that, he was not afraid of him.

He had long foreseen that this would happen. No matter how sudden their attack was, they were only ten miles away from Radiant City. This distance was nothing for Class 9 soul engineers. Hence, he was expecting them to attack them as they were retreating.

This was why he had planned for himself and the stronger cultivators within the Tang Sect to stay at the back of the group.

Huo Yuhao ordered, “There are three Class 9 soul engineers coming our way. Wutong and I will take the Starsky Douluo. Eldest senior brother, you will take the Class 9 soul engineer on the left. Third senior brother, you will be in charge of the one on the right. Fifth senior sister and Ji Juechen, both of you will assist eldest senior brother. Guyi and Qiuqiu, both of you will help third senior brother. Fourth senior sister, you will help ensure that the rest can retreat smoothly. Second senior brother, I will need you to provide us with covering fire, and to assist us wherever necessary! Let’s move out!”

The destructive ability of three Class 9 soul engineers was definitely more than what three Titled Douluo could achieve. If they were to fight one-on-one, a Titled Douluo would not fear a Class 9 soul engineer. However, when the soul engineer was given sufficient time and distance, his or her destructive ability would be incredibly strong. Hence, Huo Yuhao and the others had to seize the initiative and attack them before they destroyed the barrier. If not, countless Tang Sect soul engineers would perish under their attacks.

The most important thing for the legions now was time. Huo Yuhao was definitely able to get the three legions to fight the three Class 9 soul engineers. In fact, the soul engineers would definitely not be able to defeat a single legion of two hundred soul engineers.

However, now was not the time for them to get entangled in a battle. If they were to continue to fight and delay their retreat, they might not be able to leave anymore when more reinforcements arrived.

It was important to understand that they were still within the attacking radius of the nearest soul tool installation. Hence, Huo Yuhao had decisively ordered everyone to retreat instead of bracing themselves for battle.

The three Class 9 soul engineers might be powerful, but so were the higher-ups of Tang Sect. If the Tang Sect’s high-ups were the only ones involved in the battle, it would also be a lot easier for all of them to retreat together. After all, they had developed impeccable chemistry after working with one another for all these years.

Ye Yulin stared coldly at the light barrier beneath him from afar. Because of how the light waves were bending around each other, it was impossible for him to see what was within the barrier. However, he could tell from the flickering of the light that there were a lot of people inside it. Nonetheless, he was unable to tell what they were doing.

Ye Yulin did not try to get closer to them, even though he was very confident in his abilities. After seeing how they were able to penetrate the defenses of the Palace, he believed that these attackers were fairly strong. In addition, he believed the last streak of white light must have been a Class 9 stationary soul cannon shell which was built specifically to penetrate protective barriers.

Nonetheless, he also understood how the cannon shell must have expended a lot of energy to drill through the barrier. Hence, the explosion within the interior of the palace did not seem to possess the power that a true Class 9 cannon shell was supposed to have. However, it was still undeniable that the shell had dealt a lot of damage to the palace.

The mission for him and the other two Class 9 soul engineers was to delay these people. As long as they were able to delay them till the other reinforcements from Radiant City arrived, they would be able to launch an all-out attack on this group of people who had caused an incredible amount of damage to Radiant City.

To be honest, Ye Yulin was not overly enraged by the destruction around him. After all, the losses belonged to the empire, and not him. He was more curious about the person who was able to organize such a powerful sneak attack on Radiant City. This group of people was somehow able to take down all of the aerial surveillance soul tools above Radiant City! Also, they were able to suppress the four soul tool installations around Radiant City and prevent them from supporting the city. They had most definitely used more than a thousand shells in the attack earlier. This was not something that any small group could accomplish. It must have been organized by another empire.

On top of that, the Sun Moon Empire was somehow totally unaware of this force. They were completely oblivious the whole time this force transported their ammunition to Radiant City. Even if this group were to attack with stationary soul cannon shells, they would have to launch them somewhere close to the city. How did they manage to pull it off?

After releasing the Sunmoon Divine Needle, Ye Yulin began to recover his soul power through a milk bottle. Even though his soul tool was incredibly powerful, it tended to consume a lot of soul power. At this instant, he saw a few figures flying out of the linked defense barrier, and two of them were heading in his direction.

After letting out a cold grunt, Ye Yulin swung his right hand in the air as multiple streaks of light ascended into the sky. The way these streaks of light left his body made it seem as though they had grown out from him. As they climbed higher into the sky, they rapidly grew bigger before transforming into intensely bright balls of light. They were like stars that were floating above Ye Yulin’s head.

There was a reason why he was called the Starsky Douluo. When it came to pure fighting power, Ye Yulin was definitely one of the best in the Sun Moon Empire. After his stars gathered in the sky, he locked his spiritual power on the incoming enemies.

However, he suddenly felt an intense sense of danger within his heart. He immediately looked at the two cultivators who were flying towards him. He realized there was a purple-gold glow in one of their eyes.

His automatic spiritual defense soul tools were instantly activated. A necklace that was hanging in front of his chest suddenly exploded with blinding light as a spiritual barrier instantly formed in front of him.

“Bang!” A loud metallic sound could be heard. Ye Yulin naturally ducked his head as he looked at the state of his Sobering Necklace. Several cracks could already be seen forming on it.

What a powerful spiritual attack!

Even though his Sobering Necklace was able to negate a large part of the attack, the violet spiritual ripples still made Ye Yulin temporarily incapable of locking onto his opponent. Hence, his two opponents were able to get within a hundred meters of him with their incredible speed.

Ye Yulin was a Class 9 soul engineer who was skilled in fighting. Hence, he did not panic as he made a tapping motion with his right hand in a calm and collected fashion. At that instant, multiple streaks of light were released from the balls of light above his head. They collectively formed a huge net as they attempted to block his two opponents’ path.

At the same time, Ye Yulin retreated at an incredible speed. He left a sequence of faint figures that resembled him as he moved a distance of five hundred meters in the blink of an eye.

A soul engineer who specialized in long-range attacks must possess the following important skills: defending, reacting, and evading.

The two people who were charging towards Ye Yulin were none other than Huo Yuhao and Tang Wutong.

Huo Yuhao had left Li Ya within the protective soul barrier to maintain the Spiritual Interference Domain, so as to maintain the secrecy of the entire force’s numbers.

Meanwhile, the few of them had rushed out to engage the Class 9 soul engineers.

Ye Yulin was truly very powerful. The streaks of light that were heavily intertwined in front of him contained an immense amount of destructive power. Even Huo Yuhao didn’t dare to just barge through the net. He could only pull Tang Wutong aside as they paused their attack. This allowed Ye Yulin to increase his distance from them.

Tang Wutong extended the wings behind her back as she paused and floated in mid-air. Huo Yuhao also did not go after Ye Yulin. However, his eyes were still sparkling as his Spiritual Detection ability remained fully focused and locked onto the Starsky Douluo’s body.

Tang Wutong grabbed onto Huo Yuhao’s Icy War God’s Armor at his waist as she released countless balls of light from her wings. The balls were going straight for the “stars” in the sky which were released by Ye Yulin.

After stopping and stabilizing his body, Ye Yuline glanced around at his surroundings coldly before locking onto his two opponents. He started to charge his Sunmoon Divine Needle, which was getting ready at a higher altitude.

Of course, he was able to tell that the two soul masters nearing him were both Titled Douluo. However, it was the person who was wearing the dark blue human-shaped soul tool that surprised him more.

The person’s human-shaped soul tool might be smaller than the one researched by the Sun Moon Empire. However, its smaller size did not mean that it would be weaker. The aura radiating from the person created an inexplicable sense of fear within him. Despite his wealth of experience, he was unable to tell what material that human-shaped soul tool was made of. The material seemed to provide depth in color, yet it was remarkably clear, as though it was carved entirely out of gemstones. At the same time, he was unable to detect any soul power rippling out from the person. The person’s presence seemed to be concealed by the armor. This made the their movements extremely unpredictable.

Hence, Ye Yulin was preparing to use his strongest possible attack to attempt to destroy them. Now he was genuinely curious about what lay beneath the barrier. As long as they were still here, they would not be able to run away when his reinforcements arrived shortly.

While he was thinking about it, Ye Yulin transmitted a series of encoded messages through his communication soul tool. He believed that the nearest soul tool installation would provide him with long-range fire support shortly. However, their target would not be the two people before him; it would be the protective soul barrier.

However, at this instant, Ye Yulin was surprised to see an orange-red light emerging from the protective soul barrier beneath him.

The streak of orange-red light was flying at an insanely quick speed, but it was constantly twisting and turning in its flight path.

This is…

Ye Yulin’s eyes widened in disbelief. This was a guiding flare!

These people have actually developed guiding flares! He could not believe what he was seeing.

Guiding flares were basically designed to counter areas where powerful soul tools were installed. A guiding flare contained immense soul power ripples which could attract the attention of all surrounding surveillance soul tools. And because most of the soul tools that were designed to intercept enemy attacks were all designed to fire upon detection, the guiding flare was able to get the entire installation to fire at it. This would allow Huo Yuhao and his peers to waste their enemy’s ammunition and energy. At the same time, it would be the perfect decoy when they prepared to launch their real attack on the enemy.

And as expected, the guiding flare was heading towards the soul tool deployment area which was closest to Radiant City.

I can’t believe these fellows are actually so well-prepared!

Just as Ye Yulin had predicted, right after the guiding flare shot out, a black figure emerged. If Ye Yulin did not notice the commotion down there, he might have missed the black figure.

However, after appearing, the black figure immediately disappeared from Ye Yulin’s vision.

This…

Shit! Ye Yulin immediately shouted into his communication soul tool. “Defense. I want everyone to go into full defense mode. Be careful of the guiding flare and any sneak attacks. Do not prioritize providing support fire anymore.”

Tonight’s sneak attack was simply too sudden for Radiant City to handle. Even till now, all of the soul engineers were still unclear about the potential extent of this attack, and whether there was going to be a follow up to it. Hence, their utmost priority was to protect Radiant City instead of killing their enemies. Having seen how powerful the initial attack was, Ye Yulin knew he had to be extra careful. He did not want to be responsible for any failure to defend against the second wave.

Huo Yuhao’s face revealed a sly smile. However, his expression was not visible to anyone, because his entire body was concealed within the Icy War God’s Armor. He gently raised his right hand as a deep blue dagger appeared in his hand. There was a layer of white icy dew on the surface of the dagger’s blade.

Yes, it was the Sigh of the Frozen Goddess, Morning Dew Dagger!

Tang Wutong held onto Huo Yuhao’s waist—or rather his armor—tightly before she spun three hundred and sixty degrees in the air. Following which, she tossed Huo Yuhao outwards in the direction of the Starsky Douluo.

After being thrown out a hundred meters, his entire body suddenly radiated an intense white light as he sped across the sky like a meteor. He resembled a bolt of lightning that was about to strike Ye Yulin.

Icy Meteor! This was the ability Little White had given Huo Yuhao. It was able to instantly increase Huo Yuhao’s flying speed to three times his usual speed. At the same time, his Ultimate Ice’s explosive ability and defensive ability were doubled.

The most powerful thing about Icy Meteor was its singular collision. It only had one chance to strike its target, just as a meteor only had one attempt to hit any astral body. When Huo Yuhao was using the Icy Meteor, he was able to enhance his offensive power to that of an Ultimate Ice Titled Douluo. And because he was also wearing the Icy War God’s Armor, it was pretty much equivalent to an all-out attack from a Transcendent Douluo!

Hence, Ye Yulin felt immensely threatened by Huo Yuhao’s Icy Meteor. Even though he had just released the soul skill, Ye Yulin already felt as though the meteor had hit him.

Ye Yulin was immensely startled by Huo Yuhao’s power. This is definitely the power of a Transcendent Douluo!

Ye Yulin had always been very confident in his abilities. He believed that as long as he kept a respectable distance between him and his opponent, he was even capable of fending off the attacks of a Transcendent Douluo!

A soul engineer must put an adequate distance between him and his opponent in order to showcase his abilities. However, there were no such requirements for soul masters.

Hence, if the battle were to be fought within a certain range, a soul master would most definitely win.

As the ball of white light rapidly enlarged before his eyes, Ye Yulin did not even hesitate as he activated his Sunmoon Divine Needle, which had just finished charging.

After he had repeatedly improved his Sunmoon Divine Needle, its attacking power had become far greater than before. Even a Transcendent Douluo would suffer tremendously under its attack. At the very least, the attacker would be struck down from the sky.

The gold and silver pillar of light descended from the sky instantly. Even though it was not particularly radiant, it contained an insane amount of destructive energy.

Only a fool would try to block the Sunmoon Divine Needle head-on.

Ye Yulin gazed from afar as he watched the impending collision between this pseudo-Transcendent Douluo and his Sunmoon Divine Needle.

Suddenly, the white light disappeared. However, the person who was within the white light reappeared.

What is he thinking? Is he trying to kill himself? Without the protection of his powerful soul skill, he will die. Ye Yulin was very puzzled by Huo Yuhao’s actions.

However, he saw that person waving his hand towards him.

The other two battles had already begun. One of them was led by the Eternal Defense, Xu Sanshi, as he fought alongside the Holy Angel, Ye Guyi, and Nan Qiuqiu.

Even though Xu Sanshi was only an eight-ringed soul master, his defensive ability was unparalleled among all known martial souls after his martial soul had evolved into the Xuanwu Shield.

With the full-power defense of his Xuanwu Shield protecting him, Ye Guyi and Nan Qiuqiu, the three of them charged towards a Class 9 soul engineer.

Even though they might not be soul engineers, they were still well-equipped with soul tools!

The three of them might not possess Class 9 flying soul tools, but they were still supported by soul thrusters. After all, it was not possible to produce that many Class 9 flying soul tools in such a short amount of time.

A powerful soul master’s body was definitely a lot stronger than that of a soul engineer. Hence, the thrust force which came from their soul thrusters was very powerful.

Xu Sanshi initiated the attack, since his body was the toughest among the three of them. He was instantly able to break the sound barrier when he revved up the three Class 9 soul thrusters behind his back. With his Xuanwu Shield in front of him, Xu Sanshi was like another meteor on the battlefield as he closed in on the Class 9 soul engineer.

This Class 9 soul engineer was the weakest one among the three soul engineers.

Huo Yuhao did not determine their relative strengths based on their soul power. This was because it was incredibly hard to determine the soul power of a Class 9 soul engineer. They had too many soul tools providing support and boosting their power. Even their attacking means were probably heavily influenced by their soul tools. Hence, soul power would be a bad gauge of their abilities.

Huo Yuhao had based his estimation on their relative spiritual power. This Class 9 soul engineer had the weakest spiritual power among his peers. Spiritual power was the most important factor in the later stages of training for soul engineers.

With the help of the soul thrusters, Xu Sanshi brought the two ladies towards this soul engineer. The soul engineer immediately lost his composure as he started to use different soul tools to repeatedly attack Xu Sanshi and the girls. He was trying to stop them from getting closer to him.

However, there was a reason why Xu Sanshi was called the Eternal Defense. A series of mystical ripples formed on the Xuanwu Shield as it negated a large part of the attacks launched by the soul engineer. They were effectively unstoppable.

However, the Class 9 soul engineer also possessed a fair bit of combat experience. While he continued attacking Xu Sanshi and the rest, he activated his own soul thruster, which was on his chest, as he rapidly retreated in a bid to increase the distance between him and Xu Sanshi.

It was clear that according to Huo Yuhao’s arrangement, Bei Bei’s group was relatively stronger. Bei Bei, Xiao Xiao, and Ji Juechen were all eight-ringed Soul Douluo. In fact, they were not just any Soul Douluo. Their cumulative power would definitely be stronger than that of a Titled Douluo. Xiao Xiao was adept at controlling and defending, whereas Ji Juechen was extremely competent in attacking. Bei Bei, on the other hand, was very versatile. Hence, even Huo Yuhao would not even be confident of defeating them if they were to team up against him.

On the other hand, Xu Sanshi’s team seemed to be relatively weaker. But looks could be deceiving.

After their previous battle with the Myriad Soul Douluo, Ye Guyi had spent a considerable amount of time meditating and digesting her gains. Huo Yuhao could only roughly guess how strong she was now. Her soul power should be close to Rank 80. She was probably only just lacking her eighth soul ring.

The Holy Angel martial soul was one of the top-tier martial souls in the world. With the power of her martial soul, Ye Guyi would be a formidable force. Her Holy Angel would truly awaken once she attained her eighth ring. In the future, when she reached the Titled Douluo rank, her powers would not be weaker than that of a cultivator who possessed an Ultimate Strength martial soul.

Even though Nan Qiuqiu might be a little weaker than the rest, she was still a Soul Sage. On top of that, she possessed the Annihilation martial soul. The power of the Rouge Dragon was starting to show after she had attained the rank of a Soul Sage. In addition, she was also wearing a set of Icy War God’s Armor. Even though her armor did not possess the same spiritual control system and was not made of Divine Ice Crystals, which contained ice spirits, Xuan Ziwen had already enhanced this human-shaped soul tool to its maximum potential. Because Nan Qiuqiu received this armor earlier than Huo Yuhao, she was already very familiar with it. Nonetheless, the most important person in this trio was still Xu Sanshi. His individual ability was even more effective than Bei Bei’s on the battlefield. The power of his Xuanwu Shield, which could be shown in team fights, was simply overwhelming.

For example, right now when the Class 9 soul engineer released his soul thruster and retreated rapidly, Xu Sanshi’s Xuanwu Shield lit up as his Golden Tortoise appeared behind his back silently.

The light on the Xuanwu Shield suddenly became illusory. Following which, the Class 9 soul engineer felt as though his body was being gripped by a hand. It was almost as if he were being tugged tightly by some mysterious force. Before he could react, the world around him seemed to have flipped as he appeared in front of Xu Sanshi. This was the enhanced version of Xuanwu Displacement — Xuanwu Summoning. After the Xuanwu martial soul was truly awakened, Xu Sanshi possessed the powerful ability to instantly pull his opponent towards him. No matter how strong the opponent was, he would be able to pull them in till he or she was right in front of him. As long as the opponent was within a hundred meters of him, he or she would definitely be vulnerable to this soul skill.

Similar to the Xuanwu Displacement, this was an amazing soul skill! It was especially so for a defense-type soul master. He could help his peers escape from their common enemy in an instant. Also, he could pull his opponent towards him in the blink of an eye. On top of that, the Xuanwu Summoning—which was the enhanced version of the Xuanwu Displacement—was a soul skill that even Huo Yuhao’s Spiritual Duplication could not copy. Xu Sanshi was the only one who could use it. The Class 9 soul engineer immediately started to panic as he activated his protective soul barrier and his Invincible Barrier. Layers of light enveloped his body like a cocoon.

While Xu Sanshi was performing the Xuanwu Summoning, the fifth soul ring on his body lit up. The Golden Tortoise behind his back immediately fused with his body. Following which, his entire body—which now resembled a gigantic tortoise—collided heavily against the barrier of the Class 9 soul engineer before him.

Turtle God’s Strike!

Xu Sanshi’s fifth soul skill!

This soul skill’s attacking power was considerably strong. It also happened to be one of the few attacking soul skills Xu Sanshi possessed. In fact, it was closer to being a soul skill that could be used both offensively and defensively than a purely attacking-type soul skill.

The enormous vibration, coupled with the awkwardness of being pulled right in front of his opponent, created a sense of fear within the Class 9 soul engineer’s heart. However, he soon realized that his opponent’s attacking power was not very strong. After all, Xu Sanshi only had eight rings!

His barrier was still able to protect his body. In addition, he was also knocked away by the blow, which helped him increase the distance between himself and his opponents.

It was a good thing for a soul engineer to come out from a battle unscathed. It would be even better for the soul engineer to have a good amount of distance between himself and his opponent.

However, just before he could indulge in this satisfying thought, the space around him started to contort, and seemed as though it had started to cease to be real.

A light flashed, and the Class 9 soul engineer who had been knocked away suddenly disappeared in mid-air, and was replaced by a dark blue figure who was none other than Huo Yuhao.

“Booomm!” The gold and silver pillar of light slammed heavily into the place where Huo Yuhao was supposed to be. However, Huo Yuhao was no longer there to receive the blow. The person who was trying to withstand the full blow of the Sunmoon Divine Needle had become the Class 9 soul engineer who was knocked away by Xu Sanshi. Everything was according Huo Yuhao’s plan. All three battles were being monitored by Huo Yuhao through his Spiritual Detection.

When Xu Sanshi was rushing towards the Class 9 soul engineer at full speed, Huo Yuhao had already shared his plan with him through Spiritual Sharing.

The chemistry that Shrek’s Seven Monsters had was simply incredible. When Xu Sanshi used his Xuanwu Summoning to pull the Class 9 soul engineer towards him, Ye Guyi and Nan Qiuqiu stopped their attacks temporarily as Xu Sanshi knocked the soul engineer away . All of this were done in support of Huo Yuhao’s plan!

The Turtle God’s Strike knocked the soul engineer to a position thet was closer to Huo Yuhao, who used his Spiritual Duplication on the Xuanwu Displacement before changing places with the Class 9 soul engineer. Hence, the Sunmoon Divine Needle that was supposed to land on Huo Yuhao ended up landing on the Class 9 soul engineer.

Even though everything seemed to be very slow in the above description, events unfolded rapidly the moment both sides came into contact.

When the Starsky Douluo realized that something was wrong, his Sunmoon Divine Needle had already been tossed out in the direction of the Class 9 soul engineer.

The Sunmoon Divine Needle’s attacking prowess was ranked among the top five Class 9 soul tools. It was not to be doubted. Huo Yuhao had accurately determined that the Class 9 soul engineer that Xu Sanshi had faced was the weakest among the three Sun Moon Empire soul engineers.

All of his barriers disintegrated instantly under the power of the Sunmoon Divine Needle. However, it was undeniable that this Class 9 soul engineer had incredible survivability. Just when his entire body was about to be enveloped by the Sunmoon Divine Needle’s attack, a silver light suddenly flashed from his body as his entire body was transported to an area thirty meters away. He managed to escape alive.

Nonetheless, there were huge patches on his body that were already charred. He also spat out a mouthful of blood.

A bright streak of light flew across the sky as a gigantic purple-gold pillar of light appeared. This pillar illuminated the entire vast black sky, as though dawn had arrived.