Douluo Dalu 2 – The Unrivaled Tang-Clan Chapter 125

Published at 11th of October 2023 11:30:23 AM

An ear-piercing boom enveloped the entire stage, and the seemingly-ordinary golden ball of light instantly exploded the instant it collided with Meng Hongchen's sword shadow.

This was the Butterfly Goddess Slash, Wang Dong's third soul skill.

This was a soul skill that Wang Dong used very, very rarely. However, its strength was absolutely not as ordinary as that of a normal thousand year soul skill.

Wang Dong's second soul ring was already a thousand year one, and his third one had actually surpassed three thousand years of age. In other words, his third soul skill was practically equivalent to Meng Hongchen's fourth one. Although his attack couldn't take on a Soul King, the explosive power generated by the Butterfly Goddess Slash that was strengthened by the Haodong Power was extremely great.

It clearly wasn't possible for him to use this soul skill to defeat Meng Hongchen, but it was enough for him to merely stall for time.

The waves of light blades instantaneously detonated, making the hundreds of golden light blades resemble the bloom of a rose bud. Then, it once again exploded into countless flower petals. The instant the tightly packed blades of light detonated, they carried the aura of the sun and flew around in all directions.

Meng Hongchen was flustered as she faced Wang Dong's attack. After all, she had lost her powerful defensive armor, which meant that she would be injured if the blades of light struck her. If she were in her peak condition and fully equipped with her soul tools, she would've even dared to charge through an attack like this without feeling any pressure.

However, this was clearly impossible now. This was the final battle, and victory in this match would determine whether or not they would be able to bring the champion's trophy back. How could she dare to be careless at all? Furthermore, she subconsciously felt that Wang Dong was very strong. Perhaps these were her inner feelings wreaking havoc on her, or just the feelings of a young girl.

Because of that, Meng Hongchen instantly danced about with her swords the instant she collided with the Butterfly Goddess Slash, creating an airtight barrier that blocked all of Wang Dong's attacks. Whenever her thin swords collided with a blade of light, they would release a large amount of the Vermillion Clear Icetoad's poison. As long as her poison took effect, this battle would be over.

At this exact moment, an indescribable sense of terror suddenly rose in Meng Hongchen's heart. Her mind started to uncontrollably tremble violently.

This suppression came from her mind itself, or rather, the source of her power--her martial soul.

An enormous illusory figure noiselessly emerged behind Wang Dong. Its crystalline and translucent body emitted a chilly aura, and its jade-green tail gave off the light of a serene forest. The most terrifying thing about it was the suppression it caused to the very depths of Meng Hongchen's soul, causing her movements to slow greatly due to her astonishment.

This was the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion, Huo Yuhao's second martial soul. At this moment, the aura of a four hundred thousand year soul ring had completely emerged due to his Imitation.

Although the Vermillion Clear Icetoad didn't reside in the Extreme North, nor was it a pure ice-type martial soul, a large part of its comprehensive power came from the element of Ice.

It was just as the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion had said--she was the master of Ice, and all ice-type soul beasts would have to revere her as their king. How could the Vermillion Clear Icetoad's aura be comparable to that of the Ice Empress? Moreover, this was the aura of a four hundred thousand year Ice Jade Empress Scorpion.

Meng Hongchen and Xiao Hongchen had watched over Huo Yuhao's previous matches, but their line of sight had been blocked by the protective barrier surrounding the tournament stage. As such, they were only able to see Huo Yuhao's hundred thousand year soul ring and the imposing aura that it gave off; they hadn't sensed its true aura.

The facts had shown that what Huo Yuhao had done was merely an illusion. After that battle, Huo Yuhao hadn't used an ability like that in any of his other battles. Although the other teams wouldn't go so far as to completely ignore his soul skill, a large majority of them reckoned that he had been seen through, which meant that there was no longer any practical meaning to it anymore.

However, as Meng Hongchen faced the aura that belonged to the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion, she immediately realised how much of a joke her judgement had been.

The terrifying aura of the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion was just so realistic, and even if they were trapped in an illusory domain, this was one that was infinitely close to reality! Her martial soul was fully suppressed in front of this terrifying aura, to the extent where she wasn't even able to release a half of her true cultivation. This was even compounded with the sensation of terror that came from the very depths of her heart, causing a tremendous impact to her will to fight.

It was no wonder that so many people had suffered disastrous defeats when facing the hundred thousand year soul ring that Huo Yuhao had released; the deterrence it gave off was just that powerful.

Meng Hongchen wasn't the only person affected by the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion's aura. Even Xiao Hongchen was similarly affected by it.

The Vermillion Clear Icetoad and the Three-Legged Golden Toad were both toad-type martial souls. Out of the five poisons, the poison that came from a toad and the poison that came from a scorpion were equally matched. There wasn't too much of a difference between both parties, and thus victory and defeat would be decided by the levels of the two creatures.

There was no doubt that the Three-Legged Golden Toad was of a higher level than the Vermillion Clear Icetoad, and the two were also top-ranked martial souls. However, they were akin to subjects who were facing their king whilst facing the unrivaled martial soul, the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion. Regardless of how strong they were, they were still petty and weak in front of a true king.

They were completely unable to imagine how a mere illusory domain could cause such a great effect. However, was what Huo Yuhao was releasing now still a mere illusory domain?

As the saying went, the truth would become a lie when a lie became a truth. If a person added a few true things within an illusion, it would be hard to tell that the illusion was fake. The illusory figure behind Huo Yuhao was created using his Imitation, but the aura it possessed came from the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion's soul ring! This was a true four hundred thousand year soul ring! Could an illusory domain fake an aura like this? This was the aura of pure Ultimate Ice, and also the aura of one of the Ten Great Savage Beasts.

There was no need to even mention the two of them; even the Heavenfiend Douluo Huang Jinxu, who was nervously presiding over the match as referee, felt his heart palpitate after sensing the aura of the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion.

Everything happened within an extremely short amount of time. Although Meng Hongchen was able to neutralise the Butterfly Goddess Slash while her body and soul were shaken, the force behind her following attacks was greatly weakened. On the other hand, Xiao Hongchen had just gotten back to his senses from the Light of the Butterfly Goddess, and was slowed down for a brief moment while trying to assist his sister.

At this exact moment, the combination of an icy-white aura and the supreme majesty of an emperor blossomed from Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong.

Meng Hongchen was simply too close to the two of them, and thus she had no chance of dodging the omnidirectional release of this light. As her martial soul had clearly been affected, she couldn't even take the opportunity to attack Wang Dong.

A strange, cold aura instantly spread through her body, and Meng Hongchen's body stiffened instantly in midair. Since she awakened her martial soul, she couldn't even remember the last time she felt cold. At this moment, however, the extreme cold that seemed to dig into her bones made her body tremble violently. A layer of light-blue frost even seemed to cover the surface of her skin.

Huo Yuhao's combat strength instantly reached its peak. Although the extremely cold air only spread for a relatively short distance, the illusory figure of the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion that appeared behind his back emitted a dazzling light. This was especially so for its jade-green tail, which seemed to have halos flowing around it.

Due to Huo Yuhao's Imitation concealing his body, nobody was able to see that his sternum, ribs, and spine were releasing an intense jade-green light.

Right, this was the powerful soul skill granted to him by the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion's torso bone, Domain of Perpetual Ice.

This was a true display of the power of Ultimate Ice, and also its tyrannical might. Even the Vermillion Clear Icetoad that was also an ice-type martial soul wasn't able to endure it. Although Huo Yuhao couldn't truly use the might of this domain-type soul skill, he was still able to unleash a portion of the Ice Empress' power in a limited range.

Meng Hongchen reached the top point of her jump as her body was instantly frozen in the Domain of Perpetual Ice, causing her to immediately plummet to the ground.

How could Wang Dong just give up on a good opportunity like this? Folding his wings, he instantly chased after Meng Hongchen and activated his Guillotine Wing.

However, Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong didn't notice that a dark-red chain had somehow been connected to Meng Hongchen's waist. The instant Wang Dong's attack was about to land, Meng Hongchen was instantly pulled away, bringing her out of Wang Dong's attack range. Right after that, a large energy storm flew straight towards him, blocking his pursuit.

The dark-red chain had appeared in Xiao Hongchen's hand first, and his current expression was that of solemnity.

Right. As they walked onto the tournament stage, neither he or Meng Hongchen had thought that this battle had any meaning. However, he now felt that he had been wrong. As he faced these two youths, he realized that he couldn't use their level of soul power to judge them.

Wang Dong and Huo Yuhao were extremely well-coordinated, but Xiao Hongchen and Meng Hongchen were siblings! The two had grown up together, and had worked, fought, and cultivated together. The level of synergy they possessed wasn't any inferior to Huo Yuhao's duo.

At this moment, a dark-red light lit up by Meng Hongchen's chest. Right after that, an icy mist shot out from her body with a flash of red light. Then, it quickly returned and entered her body once again, allowing her to unexpectedly recover from the Domain of Perpetual Ice. Although her body was still trembling, and she didn't seem to be able to hold her swords properly, she had regained the ability to move.

Huo Yuhao had used the Domain of Perpetual Ice many times in the past, and he had even used it against Soul Kings before. However, this was the first time he met someone who was able to bypass it so quickly.

Other than the difference in their cultivations, the profundity contained within the Vermillion Clear Icetoad's fusion of ice and fire had played an important role in this.

Huo Yuhao was quickly thinking to himself, It's no wonder the Vermillion Clear Icetoad didn't get decisively sealed in front of my Ultimate Ice. Aih, if I were also a Soul King, how would she be able to break through my Domain of Perpetual Ice so easily?

At this moment, both parties seemed to return to their original positions. Under Xiao Hongchen's all-out attacks, Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong weren't able to complete their pursuit.

The might of the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion then vanished like a flash in the dark.

Unfurling his wings, Wang Dong once again revealed his powerful evasion skills in midair. Guided by the Spiritual Detection, over 90% of the soul tool attacks targeting him would miss completely. However, Wang Dong's figure was gradually approaching the Hongchen siblings.

At this moment, Meng Hongchen had finally caught her breath. She had just used her fourth soul skill, Ice Feeding. By using fire as a catalyst, she was able to stimulate her Icetoad poison and turn it into pure energy that could feed her body, causing her attack power to reach a completely new level.

However, she wouldn't be able to use the Icetoad for a short period of time after using Ice Feeding. On the surface, it seemed as though Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong had spent more energy than their opponents. However, the string of collisions had greatly affected Meng Hongchen as well.

She could no longer use her Icetoad poison, and her Ice Feeding hadn't even increased her attack power, but merely allowed her to regain the ability to move. Why wouldn't she have spent a large amount of energy? Furthermore, the freezing caused by the Ultimate Ice had caused her injuries from Dai Yueheng's attack to resurge faintly.

Huo Yuhao sighed inwardly. If their previous attack that relied on their opponents looking down on them had succeeded, winning this match would've been much easier. However, it now seemed that it wouldn't be possible to win this match without a fight.

However, the Hongchen siblings now felt a tremendous amount of pressure coming from Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong. The most terrifying opponent that one could face was one that was completely unreadable. However, these two youths who were even younger than them had damaged the conviction they had in winning.

“Sister, come. Let's finish them off. We can't hesitate any longer.” Xiao Hongchen let out a deep shout.

Meng Hongchen hesitated, “But, your body…”

“What do these injuries amount to?” Xiao Hongchen said arrogantly, “Let's show them our strongest attack. Quick. We can't lose this match. We can't give them a chance. Once we beat them, we'll be the pride of our academy, and the heroes of our empire.”

With that, all of the soul tools on Xiao Hongchen's body suddenly switched off and fell to the ground. The soul tools themselves turned back into metallic dust, and he didn't even bother to care about the formation arrays that had fallen to the ground. Instead, he spread his hands out towards his sister.

The rapiers in Meng Hongchen's hands vanished as she turned around and threw herself into Xiao Hongchen's embrace. Immediately, a pillar mixed with golden and ice-blue light surged into the air and instantly covered their bodies.

“Not good.” Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong were simply too familiar with their movements. That was clearly the starting sign of a martial soul fusion! They had already evaluated the Hongchen siblings highly, but they'd never thought that the two soul engineers would actually be able to use a fusion skill. Furthermore, they were using it at this extremely critical moment.

When two Soul Kings used a fusion skill together, how powerful would their attack be? They were clearly trying to take Huo Yuhao's duo out in one shot.

“Let's take them on!” Wang Dong let out a shout. Because he was overly excited, there seemed to be a few traces of delicateness contained in his voice.

Huo Yuhao took a deep breath. He could no longer hesitate at this moment. Otherwise, their last chance of winning would disappear.

Immediately dispelling the Ice Empress' Armor, Huo Yuhao hugged Wang Dong. At the same time, the aura of the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion returned to his body, leaving only his Spirit Eyes.

Wang Dong's wings quietly vanished, causing the dazzling bluish-golden light in the sky to disappear. Wang Dong hugged Huo Yuhao from the back, then descended to the tournament stage. At this moment however, a pitch-black hammer appeared in his hand. This was his second martial soul, the Clear Sky Hammer.

They were about to fall to the ground, but at this moment, Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong's bodies released a dazzling light.

This was an indescribable light of nothingness that caused everything contained within it to vanish from sight. The only thing left was an illusory figure. This illusory figure looked somewhat strange, and its entire body was transparent. Its face couldn't be clearly seen, but its hands formed the shape of a heart.

The figure looked like an adult male, and if anyone had seen the initial display of Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong's Heavenly Emperor's Hammer, they would've discovered that this void-like figure was identical to that of the aforementioned skill.

However, the Heavenly Emperor's Hammer was formed by the fusion between the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion and the Clear Sky Hammer. On the other hand, Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong weren't using the Golden Road that was formed by the Radiant Butterfly Goddess and the Spirit Eyes, nor the Heavenly Emperor's Hammer. Instead, they were using the mysterious fusion between the Spirit Eyes and the Clear Sky Hammer.

Everything passed by quickly as both parties unexpectedly released their respective fusion skills together. This was the first time that this had happened in this year's Continental Advanced Academy Soul Duelling Tournament.

The audience felt as though their hearts were about to jump out from their throats. A scene like this would be rarely seen even in a hundred years!

How many soul masters in this world could possess a fusion skill? The fact that two pairs of them had appeared at this moment was simply too shocking.

Even Elder Xuan from Shrek Academy was already clenching his fists tightly. Were it not for the fact that he was distracted by suppressing the black flames of the Dark Phoenix, he would've had an even more excited expression.

The excitement from this event was so great, to the point where even Wang Yan couldn't even bear to look at it. He covered his face with both hands, only revealing his eyes. He was the only person who knew how many fusion skills Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong possessed, but even he had never seen the true might of those fusion skills. Nobody knew just how Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong were able to create a miracle like this.

If Xiao Hongchen and Meng Hongchen were in perfectly good conditions today, he would never have allowed Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong to take the stage. However, Xiao Hongchen was heavily injured, and Meng Hongchen was somewhat injured. Only thus did a chance of Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong winning come into existence.

However, Wang Yan would never have thought that the Hongchen siblings would be able to bring a fusion skill out. This was a practically unimaginable even in the world of soul engineers. It could even be said that Xiao Hongchen and Meng Hongchen were the first pair of soul masters from the Sun Moon Empire who were able to do so.

Over on the city wall, Emperor Xu Jiawei had an astonished expression on his face. Who would've thought that the finals of this tournament would actually turn into a duel between two fusion skills?

On the other hand, the most depressed and pained person in the entire arena was the referee, the Heavenfiend Douluo. At this moment, he naturally couldn't stop both parties from using their fusion skills. However, just what level would the might of both fusion skills reach? He wasn't clear about that! In the event he wasn't able to rescue the losing party in time, resulting in a casualty, the burden placed on him would be far too great. He was very clear that the four people who were standing on the battlefield were very different from the previous people who had died.

The pillar of light that Xiao Hongchen and Meng Hongchen floated into began to transform. The pillar of light solidified in mid-air, turning into the enormous shape of a toad. Mysteriously, a change in color suddenly occurred to the toad while it solidified.

At this moment, the gold of the Three-Legged Golden Toad and the ice-blue of the Vermillion Clear Icetoad completely vanished, leaving a red light that emitted a metallic glint. The scarlet-gold that covered it made the enormous toad that was over five meters tall incomparably dazzling. Its eyes were a shade of black that was as deep as an abyss.

As it widened its mouth, a violently spinning scarlet-gold whirlpool could be faintly seen. It seemed as though the toad could spit out the whirlpool at any time.

Xiao Hongchen's voice rang out across the entire field. Even at a time like this, he didn't forget to play the part of a hero who was trying to save the battle.

“Take this blow, youngsters. We'll let you witness what a truly powerful fusion skill is, our Hongchen's Yearning.”

Right. Hongchen's Yearning was the name they had chosen for their fusion skill by taking the family name of the two siblings. If one looked carefully at it, one would discover that the reddish-golden toad was three-legged. However, its eyes were flashing with the same light as that of the Vermillion Clear Icetoad the instant it was about to spit out the reddish-gold whirlpool.

At this exact moment, a change also began to occur to the illusory figure that Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong had formed. His eyes lit up.

Since his entire body was in a void-like and transparent state, the flash in his eyes was especially obvious. This was a pair of eyes that couldn't be described using words. Its dazzling gold seemed to absorb and coagulate all of the starlight in the skies. The instant that mysterious golden luster appeared, the light on the entire tournament stage actually darkened. The drizzling rain in the sky instantly paused, and every single drop of rain remained in its descending state, unable to fall any further.

A strange vertical eye slowly opened on the void-like figure's forehead, and a light filled with the aura of life instantly illuminated the entire arena. Faintly, a glorious golden hammer appeared out of nowhere, then shattered into countless smaller hammers above the void-like figure. Then, these smaller hammers transformed into golden light, causing a golden halo to appear on the void-like figure's forehead.

Everything that was occurring seemed to slow down, but spider web-like cracks appeared within the air on the tournament stage wherever the golden light passed. It seemed as though space was going to cave in.

Even the Heavenfiend Douluo was left dumbstruck at this moment. This was because he clearly felt that his movements had uncontrollably slowed down. Not only that, but he felt his chest depress. Right after that, it seemed as though an enormous hammer had suddenly pounded his spiritual sea, instantly sending his mind into a field of white. The deepest part of his spiritual sea suddenly shook violently, making it seem as though all of his memories were able to burst apart,

This was the reaction of a Titled Douluo, and even he couldn't resist at all. This was because at that moment, the Heavenfiend Douluo Huang Jinxu simply didn't know how to block that mysterious golden light. Naturally, this was because he couldn't make a move to disturb the match as a referee.

Chapter end