Chapter 175: with translation of chapter title

During this Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Elite Tournament, it wasn't only Tang Wulin whose strength had leapt forward; Huo Yutong had as well.

The fusion with the Blade of the Living Guard gave her an all‑around boost, greatly increasing her soul power, spiritual power, and physical quality; if at the start of the tournament she was still a bit shy of Soul Emperor rank, now she possesses genuine Soul Emperor‑level combat strength, and even in a one‑on‑one with Dai Yaoheng she would not be far behind.

Facing Dai Yaoheng's sudden charge into the formation, the quickest to react was ultimately Ma Rulong, the strongest of the Sun‑Moon side.

He let out a cold snort, and three white beams shot from the cannon on his shoulder, striking Dai Yaoheng from different angles and cutting off his escape routes.

Then he raised his hand and tossed a golden sphere into the air, letting it fall toward Dai Yaoheng.

This golden sphere is called a Blast Shell, a seventh‑grade soul tool he crafted.

In fact, he failed when making this soul tool, making some mistakes, so this Blast Shell could not even be loaded into the barrel; otherwise it would have blown the barrel apart.

But even for Ma Rulong, a seventh‑grade soul tool isn't something you can just whip up, so he didn't discard it; instead he chose to carry it on his person.

The Blast Shell's function is simple: it has strong pure explosive power, though not as strong as a same‑grade fixed‑ammunition soul cannon shell, it's not far off.

Ma Rulong chose to use it now because he sensed Huo Yutong's spiritual interference, realizing that firing from the cannon would likely miss, so he simply threw it—even whether it hit Dai Yaoheng didn't matter to him, as he didn't believe Huo Yutong could still interfere this way.

However, the imagined explosion did not occur.

The Blast Shell about to hit the ground was entangled by several azure‑gold plants.

At some point, a ring of azure‑gold light enveloped them, and Ma Rulong felt his soul power draining faster; countless vine‑like entities of the same kind as those binding the Blast Shell began to entwine the members of the Sun‑Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy.

Taking advantage of the moment when several were clashing, Tang Wulin and Huo Yutong rushed over as well; even though there was still some distance, bringing them into the Blue Silver Domain's range was no problem.

Tang Wulin had hardly used his Blue Silver Emperor martial soul in this tournament, saving it for a surprise victory in the final.

Now he suddenly unleashed it, and indeed it produced a remarkable effect, tearing a gap in Ma Rulong's tight assault.

Tang Wulin blocked the Blast Shell's explosion, and the remaining three laser beams, aided by spiritual detection, posed no threat to Dai Yaoheng; his first, third, and fifth soul rings lit up simultaneously, three major amplification abilities clung to him as he approached Ma Rulong.

Tsk!

Ma Rulong clicked his tongue loudly.

The threat posed by the fully amplified Dai Yaoheng was far greater than that of Jiang Peng earlier; Ma Rulong, who mainly excelled at long‑range combat as a soul engineer, found it extremely troublesome to face Dai Yaoheng suddenly closing in to such close range.

Left with no choice, he kept retreating while signaling his teammates to come to his aid.

Seeing their strongest captain entangled, the members of the Sun‑Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy naturally wouldn't just watch; they hurriedly unleashed soul tools to restrain Dai Yaoheng and thereby rescue Ma Rulong.

But just then, a mighty blizzard swept across the arena, instantly obscuring their vision. Since Tang Wulin could release his Blue Silver Domain to cover all the Sun‑Moon participants, it meant Huo Yutong could achieve the same with her Snow Dance Extreme Ice Domain.

The terrifying blizzard, combined with invisible spiritual undulations, completely disoriented the Sun‑Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy members; at the same time the temperature plunged, the snowflakes were bitterly sharp, cutting at them like blades, forcing them to channel soul power to shield their bodies.

This was the final match; Tang Wulin and Huo Yutong held nothing back, unleashing all their trump cards, and under the overwhelming pressure of the twin domains, the Sun‑Moon side was completely restrained by the two of them.

They were anxious but helpless; even though Xiao Feng's fourth soul skill could once restrain He Caitou, Huo Yutong's Snow Dance Extreme Ice Domain is a fusion of the Eternal Freeze Domain and Snow Dance Radiant Sun, a combination of 400,000‑year and 700,000‑year abilities that could hardly be compared to Xiao Feng's thousand‑year‑level skill; within this domain they could not even pinpoint the exact positions of Ma Rulong and the few Shilake Academy members.

Xiao Hongchen's eyes flashed with a fierce light as he shouted, 'Don't break formation! Let's first leave the domain's range!'

With his attack power, he even had confidence to smash through the domain directly, but doing so would require a indiscriminate large‑scale attack, which would end the match thereafter.

Unexpectedly, as soon as he shouted, a black light flashed, his vision shifted instantly, and he found himself outside the competition platform.

Xiao Hongchen blinked, stared for two seconds, then couldn't help cursing loudly.

Damn!

Obviously, the one capable of such a miraculous feat in Shilake Academy was Xu San Shi.

The Sun‑Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy had calculated everything, yet still fell into his trap.

This isn't their fault; their initial formation change already showed how much they valued Xu San Shi, and throughout the match they never let down their guard against him.

Yet expecting them to guard against Xu San Shi while their vision was blocked by the Snow Dance Extreme Ice Domain was simply too much to ask.

Thus Xu San Shi's Profound Darkness Substitution was activated for the first time in the final, successfully swapping out the formidable Xiao Hongchen.

Offstage, Wang Yan couldn't help slamming his thigh, his eyes brimming with excitement.

In his view, Xu San Shi swapping out Xiao Hongchen was a greater gain than swapping out Ma Rulong.

He also saw the soul ring counts of Xiao Hongchen and Meng Hongchen; both are five‑ring Soul Kings, and considering their age in the reserve team, they are nothing short of geniuses among geniuses.

What's even more frightening is that if this brother‑sister pair truly possesses a martial soul fusion technique as he anticipated, it would be utterly terrifying.

No matter how strong Ma Rulong is, he is ultimately only a Soul Emperor, but if Xiao Hongchen and Meng Hongchen could successfully unleash a martial soul fusion technique, the blow to the Shilake team would definitely be fatal.

Thus one of Wang Yan's core strategies when planning tactics before the match was: in a team battle, they must spare no cost to first send one of the Hongchen siblings out of the arena.

Looking at it now, the kids on the stage have done well; Xiao Hongchen didn't even get a chance to release a soul skill before Xu San Shi 'invited' him off the stage.

(End of chapter)