The Unrivaled Tang Sect

Ju Zi was elated after her objective had been achieved. The evil soul masters were finally killed and Zhongli Wu had been chased away with Huo Yuhao’s help. Her plan was finally completed. So what if she were to retreat without attacking Shrek City? It was important to solve one’s internal affairs before looking to tackle one’s external problems. This was something she understood very well.

However, her elation did not last very long. Worries and frustrations started to enter her mind. This was because Huo Yuhao was simply too strong!

Ju Zi understood Huo Yuhao a lot better than any of the Class 9 soul engineers around her. It was definitely disadvantageous for him to exhibit such power in front of them.

Even though Ju Zi had known that Huo Yuhao was the person who had been destroying huge amounts of aerial surveillance soul tools within the Sun Moon Empire, the others did not know. Most of the people and higher-ups from the Sun Moon Empire did not even know of his existence.

However, this was about to change. Huo Yuhao had shown how he was able to take down five powerful evil soul masters—including the Leader—from the Holy Ghost Church consecutively. He was definitely going to become famous after so many people had watched him achieve this feat before their eyes. At the same time, he would also be prioritized as the main killing target by the Sun Moon Empire.

A young and brilliant soul master like him would definitely become one of the key members within Shrek Academy. In fact, he was most likely going to become one of the leaders within the entire world of soul masters. Now that he was trying to go against everything the Sun Moon Empire was doing, Xu Tianran would not be able to eat and sleep in peace without killing him. At the same time, the Holy Ghost Church would also be looking for an opportunity to exact their revenge.

Ju Zi’s mind was a mess. Huo Yuhao’s incredible power was affecting the plans she had laid out. However, after her attitude changed, she was no longer that concerned with all of those plans she had prepared. She was more worried about Huo Yuhao getting into serious trouble.

Huo Yuhao gradually stood up straight. Even though his breathing was still fairly rapid, there was no sign of weakness in his pupils. In fact, his eyes were extremely radiant.

Huo Yuhao had pitted his courage and intelligence against Zhongli Wu in this battle and had managed to defeat him, despite the odds being against him. This battle had a tremendous effect on him. As the Yin Yang Complement soul cores rotated with an unbelievable speed within his body, the huge amount of soul power he had expended was recovering at an incredibly fast speed.

Titled Douluo were extremely power because they possessed a soul core. Ultimate Douluos were able to tower above every other soul master because they possessed two soul cores!

It was through such battles that Huo Yuhao was better able to understand the benefits his two soul cores offered to him. As of now, his abilities were not sufficiently matured to allow him to fight powerful soul masters like Zhongli Wu. He had to rely on external power like his Icy War God’s Armor and the Morning Dew Dagger. However, he believed that he would not have any problem attaining the rank of an Ultimate Douluo with the help of his two soul cores.

“Next.” Huo Yuhao’s cold voice echoed across the battlefield.

Just when everyone believed that he would try his best to delay the proceedings so that he could recover more soul power, he went ahead to request the next battle from the Sun Moon Empire.

This entire challenge had started to take on a different flavor after Zhongli Wu was defeated.

Initially, no one had believed that Huo Yuhao would be able to accomplish this feat. Now, the powerful individuals within the Sun Moon Empire were starting to fear him. After all, he had used his abilities to prove to everyone that it could be done.

Without the Holy Ghost Church calling the shots, the soul engineers from the Sun Moon Empire all looked at Ju Zi.

By now, Ju Zi was no longer absorbed in her thoughts. In fact, the gasp she had made earlier did not seem to have been noticed by the others. Or at the very least, no one understood why she gasped.

“Who among you is willing to take down Huo Yuhao?” Ju Zi asked in a composed manner.

Right now, she had more than ten Class 9 soul engineers standing around her. There were legion commanders from the various soul engineer legions and several Worshipped from the Imperial Shrine. Only these Class 9 soul engineers would be qualified to fight Huo Yuhao.

However, none of these soul engineers had attained the equivalent rank of a Transcendent Douluo. They could only rely on their soul tools if they were to fight him.

Besides, they had all witnessed the previous battles. None of them were confident of defeating Huo Yuhao. After all, this was a battle which concerned their life and death. If even Zhongli Wu was defeated by him, it was very unlikely that they could return alive.

There was complete silence for a good few seconds as Ju Zi revealed a growingly furious expression. Some of the soul engineers who were weaker started to become embarrassed. It was extremely shameful that the Sun Moon Empire no longer had an individual who was brave enough to accept Huo Yuhao’s challenge! All this while, the Sun Moon Empire had been invincible. They had never experienced such a shameful and humiliating situation.

“Marshal, I am willing to fight Huo Yuhao!” A bright voice could be heard from the back. A soul engineer from the Terrorclaw Soul Engineer Legion stood up. One could tell that he was just a normal soul engineer from the soul tools which he was equipped with. He was at best a Class 5 soul engineer. However, one could tell that he was not afraid of Huo Yuhao at all from the gusto in his voice.

After hearing what he said, every single Class 9 soul engineer revealed a frustrated look. At the same time, they were embarrassed that a Class 5 soul engineer was more willing to put his life on the line to protect the name of their empire than them.

Then, another soul engineer stormed out and exclaimed, “Can you not be a fool and overestimate your ability? Do you think you are qualified to represent our army? Scram, or I will punish you by military law!”

This person who had stormed out was concealed within a black human-shaped soul tool. There were two long blades were sheathed behind his back. His entire body was radiating an extremely powerful piercing aura.

One could see how the young soul engineer wanted to rebut what he had just been told. However, the young soul engineer ultimately lowered his head and retreated into the contingent.

The soul engineer who was wearing a human-shaped soul tool turned around before bowing toward Ju Zi. “Marshal, allow me to represent our empire!”

Ju Zi nodded and said, “Alright. Take care, Commander Liao.”

“Thank you, Marshal.”

The soul engineer who had just stepped forward would definitely not have volunteered to fight Huo Yuhao if he had a choice. However, there was no way he could afford to not step forward. This was because he was Liao Mengkai—the legion commander of the Terrorclaw Soul Engineer Legion.

After seeing how his subordinate had the courage to represent the empire, there was no way he would be able to lead his soul engineer legion if he were to continue to cower. Hence, despite not having much confidence, he still stood up to take up the challenge.

Amongst the Hand that Protects the Nation, the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineer Legion was undoubtedly the strongest. They were followed by the Imperial Dragon Soul Engineer Legion. The last three were the Fire Phoenix Soul Engineer Legion, the Evileye Tyrant Soul Engineer Legion, and the Terrorclaw Soul Engineer Legion.

The Imperial Dragon Soul Engineer Legion was extremely powerful because of the resources they had hoarded. The Fire Phoenix Soul Engineer Legion had also improved a lot after the War God Empress had taken over. The Evileye Tyrant Soul Engineer Legion specialized in speed. They were extremely great at pursuing enemies and then killing them. What about the Terrorclaw Soul Engineer Legion? They were definitely the most unorthodox soul engineer legion among the five legions which formed the Hand that Protects the Nation.

As stated in their name, the Terrorclaw Soul Engineer Legion specialized in assault operations.

The Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear was known as the strongest assault-type soul beast. Its close-combat ability was unparalleled among soul beasts of a similar level. The Terrorclaw Soul Engineer Legion was exactly the same. Other than some of the necessary linked defensive soul tools, all of their members specialized in close-combat. This also meant that this soul engineer legion primarily consisted of close-combat soul engineers.

Ranged attacks were the most common attacking style among soul engineers. However, the fighting power of a close-combat soul engineer was, in fact, a concept that was very similar to what Huo Yuhao had initially envisioned. He had wanted to see the fusion of the abilities a soul master and a soul engineer possessed.

By relying on soul tools to enhance one’s martial soul’s fighting ability, one would be able to strengthen one’s attacking power within a limited range. This was something all close-combat soul engineers were trying to work towards.

For example, Ji Juechen was essentially a close-combat soul engineer. To a certain extent, Huo Yuhao was also a close-combat soul engineer.

Once one cultivated his close-combat ability to their maximum potential, their overall combat ability would even outpower that of a ranged-attack. At the same time, one’s survivability would be greatly enhanced.

Hence, the Terrorclaw Soul Engineer Legion was often dispatched to assault fortified structures. Their members were all extremely disciplined, and were not afraid of dying.

Liao Mengkai was the legion commander of this soul engineer legion. This naturally meant that he was extremely skilled in close-combat fighting.

After deciding that he would accept the challenge, Liao Mengkai did not hesitate anymore as he leaped from where he was to where Huo Yuhao was currently standing. He immediately accelerated through the air as he raced toward him.

Even though no one knew how much soul power Huo Yuhao had expended in his previous battles, everyone knew that they must have taken a lot out of him. Hence, he knew that he had to try his best to reduce the amount of time Huo Yuhao could use to recover his power. This was the best way to improve his odds of defeating him. Even though a Titled Douluo possessed incredible regenerative ability, it was ultimately limited. In addition, recovering one’s expended spiritual power was a lot more difficult than recovering soul power.

When Liao Mengkai leaped into the air, the black human-shaped soul tool on his body instantly released a dark golden glow. He grabbed the blades which were sheathed behind his back with both hands before unsheathing them.

His pair of blades were matte black, and did not seem to reflect any light at all. At the same time, they gave off the impression that they could devour anything that stood in their way. Even though they were radiating their sharp aura from a distance, everyone was still able to sense how intense their aura was. While they were being brought across the air, they seemed to be leaving two fine traces after slicing through the air.

Huo Yuhao’s Spiritual Detection landed on him instantly.

This person has an incredible amount of life energy!

Huo Yuhao was startled to discover that the life energy this soul engineer was radiating was actually comparable to his. It was a lot more powerful than what a normal Titled Douluo had.

Even though one’s life energy would not directly decide one’s fighting power, a powerful individual with strong life energy tended to display powerful abilities during battles, and was usually able to sustain high combat performance over extended periods of time.

However, so what?