'Now is the time.'
After dodging over a dozen consecutive attacks, Huo Yuhao's Spiritual Detection captured a fleeting opportunity.
Wu Feng executed a high-kick downward strike. Because she used too much force, her center was wide open, and her body stiffened for a fraction of a second.
It was this very moment.
Huo Yuhao's body, which had been dodging like a ghost, suddenly came to a halt.
Using a peculiar footwork, his body flickered and instantly vanished from right in front of Wu Feng.
Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track.
"Not good."
Alarm bells rang in Wu Feng's heart as she felt a chill approaching from behind.
She wanted to turn around, but it was already too late.
Huo Yuhao's figure appeared behind her like a maggot on a bone. Those palms, which had seemed so weak before, were now steady and powerful. One on the left and one on the right, they pressed precisely against her back.
Bang!
A muffled sound rang out.
Wu Feng felt two forces that seemed gentle but were actually extremely penetrating, like two nails being hammered ruthlessly into her back.
That power bypassed her tough dragon scales and muscles, heading straight for her internal organs.
Pfft—
Wu Feng could no longer hold it back. Her body stumbled, rushing forward several steps as she spat out a mouthful of fresh blood. It splattered onto the hard arena floor, looking shocking to the eye.
The entire Soul Dueling Area fell into a dead silence at this moment.
Everyone stared dumbfounded at the scene before them, their minds going blank.
Did she lose?
No, she just suffered a setback.
Before the match started, no one would have imagined that it would be the powerful Wu Feng who would be the first to get injured and cough up blood.
A rank twenty-eight two-ring Spirit Grandmaster with a top-tier attack system Beast Spirit, the Red Dragon, had actually been injured in her best area—close-quarters combat—by a rank seventeen one-ring control system Soul Master whose first spirit ring was only a ten-year white one.
This was simply a fantasy.
"This... this... I'm not seeing things, am I?"
"Wu Feng... spat blood?"
"How did Huo Yuhao do it? His footwork just now was so strange, and those two palms he struck out..."
The crowd below the stage erupted into an uproar.
The mocking smile on Dai Huabin's face froze completely, replaced by a complex expression mixed with shock, confusion, and anger.
'Impossible, absolutely impossible. How could that trash hurt Wu Feng? Wu Feng must have been too careless.'
Han Ruoruo's elegant face was also full of surprise. For the first time, her gaze toward Huo Yuhao carried a sense of scrutiny.
Only Wang Yan had a faint, barely perceptible smile at the corners of his mouth.
'As expected... I knew this child wasn't that simple. During the Freshman Assessment, I guessed he was the key to defeating Ning Tian's team. Most people thought it was Wang Dong's Light Goddess Butterfly and Xiao Xiao's twin spirits that played the decisive roles, but they ignored Huo Yuhao's miraculous ability to control the battlefield throughout the match.'
The one most shocked was the party involved, Wu Feng herself.
She reached out to wipe the blood from the corner of her mouth and slowly turned around. Her fiery red eyes stared fixedly at Huo Yuhao, filled with humiliation and overwhelming rage.
Her back was burning with pain.
She never expected that the Spiritual Impact she had been wary of wouldn't appear, and instead, she would suffer a massive loss in the close-quarters combat she was most proud of.
'Those two palms... what on earth were they?'
She was inwardly terrified.
'That power was very gentle, yet it was as pervasive as mercury, seeping directly into my internal organs. My Soul Power couldn't even neutralize it for a moment. If I hadn't decisively spat out that blood to release the force, I'm afraid the injury would have been even worse.'
Humiliation!
An unprecedented humiliation.
"Bastard."
Wu Feng squeezed the words through her teeth, her voice cold to the bone.
She was completely enraged.
"Do you think you can beat me with a few clever tricks? I'll let you know that in the face of absolute power, these tricks of yours are worthless."
Wu Feng roared, no longer holding anything back.
Buzz—
The first yellow spirit ring on her body suddenly burst with a dazzling light.
First Soul Skill, Dragons Fire.
In an instant, the red flames surrounding her body surged violently, turning from a thin layer into a dragon-shaped blaze that burned fiercely within a foot of her body, as if it were alive.
The temperature of the entire arena rose sharply, and the air became distorted due to the high heat.
Before she even reached him, that scorching heatwave was already blowing against his face.
The expression on Huo Yuhao's face became more serious than ever before.
In his Spiritual Detection, Wu Feng had now turned into a massive fire person radiating terrifying energy.
He could clearly see that the layer of Dragons Fire was not just flames, but a layer of energy shield composed of Soul Power that combined both offense and defense.
'This is trouble.'
Huo Yuhao's heart sank.
He knew very well that he was able to injure Wu Feng just now because of the surprise of Spiritual Detection and the subtlety of the Tang Sect's ultimate techniques, Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track and Controlling Crane Catching Dragon. But the most critical point was that Wu Feng hadn't used a Soul Skill, giving him a chance to get close.
Now that she was covered in a layer of Dragons Fire, how could he get close?
'Although my Mysterious Jade Hand can resist cold and heat, how long can it hold out against this high-temperature dragon fire generated by a Soul Skill?'
'My body is just an ordinary person's body. The Spirit Eyes spirit cannot give me any physical enhancement. Spiritual Detection can let me anticipate the enemy's moves, but it can't help me break through the opponent's protective Soul Skill.'
Should I retreat?
A thought flashed through his mind, but he immediately extinguished it.
'I can't retreat.'
'In this battle, what I'm betting on is my dignity, the glory of the Tang Sect, and my qualification to stay in the Martial Soul Department.'
'I cannot lose. Even if there is only a sliver of a chance, I will never give up.'
A surge of ruthlessness rose from the depths of Huo Yuhao's heart.
Not only did he not retreat, but he lowered his body even further.
"Come on."
Accompanied by a silent shout in his heart, Huo Yuhao pushed the Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track footwork to its limit. Instead of retreating, he advanced, charging toward Wu Feng against the scorching heatwave.
"Courting death."
Seeing this, Wu Feng laughed out of extreme anger.
She strode forward like an enraged fire dragon, also launching a charge toward Huo Yuhao.
In an instant, the two figures collided violently in the center of the arena.
The moment Huo Yuhao charged out, a barely visible deep purple flashed in his eyes.
Purple Demon Eye.
The cultivation of the Purple Demon Eye had made his mental force more concentrated and his control over Spiritual Detection even more detailed.
Boom—
Wu Feng threw a straight punch wrapped in Dragons Fire, bringing with it a wave of scorching flames.
Huo Yuhao shifted his footsteps, narrowly dodging the wind of the punch.
At the same time, both of his hands instantly became as crystal clear as warm jade.
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