Chapter 161: Star Guard

Outside the shield formed of starlight, several from Shileike hurriedly launched a full-force attack on the shield.

Ice mist surged, artillery boomed, lightning flashed, the three exerted all their strength in attack, yet saw no effect.

On the shield shone a full eighteen stars; as the three attacked, one star gradually began to dim, but the slow pace left them extremely anxious.

Anyone could see that breaking through this shield required extinguishing all eighteen stars, but this speed was clearly insufficient; if they continued like this, they might not even manage to break the shield by the time the absolute defense soul tool's effect ended.

What exactly is this? Why is it so hard? Can this really be a soul skill a Soul King can use? Such questions quickly filled the minds of everyone from Shileike; they were now anxious but had no solution.

On the battlements of the imperial city, Xu Jiawei's lips curled into a faint smile.

"For Shileike, losing the match isn't necessarily a bad thing; our Star Crown lineage's Star Guard hasn't appeared on the continent for who knows how long, and the Soul Master World has probably forgotten this powerful range defense soul skill known as Attribute Isolation."

The soul skill Xu Jiujiu had just unleashed is called Star Guard; on the surface it looks like merely her fourth soul skill, but in reality it is not easily unleashed.

The power of the Star Crown martial soul far exceeds that of ordinary martial souls, even some top-tier martial souls cannot compare, yet behind this the Star Crown Soul Masters endure arduous cultivation.

Star Crown Soul Masters can cultivate only at night, they must absorb stellar power to increase their cultivation, and any soul skill they unleash must first absorb stellar power and store it within themselves before use; the one requiring the longest absorption of stellar power is Star Guard.

Those eighteen stars require a full eighteen days to absorb completely; the power of Star Guard grows with the user's cultivation, making it an extremely rare powerful skill unaffected by the quality of the soul rings themselves, but its drawback is obvious: after one use, at least eighteen days are needed before it can be used again.

Precisely for this reason, Star Guard's defense is extraordinarily formidable; not only is it a range defense, but the Star Guard unleashed by Xu Jiujiu at her current cultivation can match any point of defense against a full-force defense by a Soul Emperor–level defense battle soul master.

This is absolutely not something the people present can break, especially those outside the Star Guard.

He Caitou and Bei Bei are both four-ring Soul Ancestors; although they can briefly burst forth with Soul King–level attack power, doing so would exhaust their soul power, leaving them hardly different from being eliminated.

Although Ling Luochen is a Soul King, she is a control-type Soul King; her soul skills are mostly about weakening enemies and controlling the battlefield, lacking strong offensive means.

The three stared at each other, completely unable to deal with this formidable Star Guard defense.

Thus the three were temporarily cut off from the battlefield.

Inside the Star Guard, Tang Wulin and Dai Yaoheng faced a perilous situation.

Ling Luochen's trio were separated by the Star Guard, while Huo Yutong and Xu San Shi were trapped inside the absolute defense soul tool, forcing them to face six enemy Soul Kings alone.

If it weren't for Huo Yutong's Emperor Palm directly freezing Chen Xiaojie into an ice sculpture, their situation would be even more perilous.

Dai Yaoheng whispered to Tang Wulin: "Wulin, they'll likely focus their attacks on me; I'll hold them off as long as I can, then you go take care of Xu Jiujiu."

It's obvious the current situation was single-handedly created by Xu Jiujiu; if they want to find a breakthrough, they must look to her.

The absolute defense soul tool probably wouldn't be solved just by dealing with Xu Jiujiu; what about the Star Guard? Anyway, things couldn't get any worse, so Dai Yaoheng thought it worth a gamble. Tang Wulin nodded slightly.

"Good."

The two acted in unison; Dai Yaoheng, with a threefold enhancement on his body, let out a mighty tiger's roar and charged forward with astonishing momentum.

Meanwhile, Tang Wulin had a golden whirlwind appear beneath his feet, launching a swift assault toward Xu Jiujiu.

In response to their movements, the first to act were the two control-type Soul Kings from the Star Net National Academy.

Azure and crimson halos suddenly appeared on the field, a hurricane and blazing fire combining, wind feeding the flames, a huge fire dragon vortex sweeping toward Tang Wulin.

The two control-type Soul Kings from the Star Net National Academy were named Wang Shiying and Yi Chen; their martial soul abilities were wind control and fire control respectively. Before Xu Jiujiu's appearance, Wang Yan had been more concerned not with the team captain Huang Heyun, but with these two girls adept at elemental control.

Their coordination was clearly seamless; combined, their soul skill power surged, and with Xu Jiujiu's assistance, their joint technique was the strongest attack Tang Wulin had faced in this tournament so far.

Xu Jiujiu glanced coolly at Tang Wulin, ready to take targeted measures against his next move.

Tang Wulin was the only Shileike member beyond her control; she had to prioritize removing him from the fight.

She had also anticipated the move Tang Wulin would employ next, given that he had used the Golden Dragon Tyrant Body soul skill several times before, each time defeating his foes; Xu Jiujiu had long memorized this formidable skill of his, and had prepared a counter for this soul skill capable of turning defeat into victory.

Xu Jiujiu placed her hand on her storage soul conductor device, her eyes filled with amusement.

But the next instant, the amusement in her eyes vanished completely, turning to shock.

Tang Wulin did not use Golden Dragon Tyrant Body as Xu Jiujiu had expected; instead he unleashed Sovereign of the Heavens, a massive golden dragon head roaring as it collided with the incoming fire dragon vortex.

How could this be—is this guy crazy?

This was Xu Jiujiu's first reaction.

Originally, the two control-type Soul Kings, with her assistance, already possessed strength approaching that of a Soul Emperor; now, unleashing their full power together, even a Soul Emperor's sixth soul skill would be no greater than this, and although Tang Wulin's attack was formidable, it still fell short of a Soul Emperor's level, leaving only the possibility of being burned to ash against the powerful fire dragon vortex.

Huang Jinchu, hovering high above, shared Xu Jiujiu's thought; he narrowed his eyes, fixed his gaze on Tang Wulin, ever ready to rescue this reckless brat.

Thus, before everyone's eyes, the golden dragon head Tang Wulin unleashed collided with the fire dragon vortex jointly emitted by the two Soul Kings.

But what was expected did not happen; facing the raging fire dragon vortex, the golden dragon head was not burned away—instead it scattered the vortex.

(End of chapter)