69novels Chapter 223 Injuries Worsen
Chapter 223 Injuries Worsen
The blood mist surrounding him looked similar to the methods used by the two evil soul masters he had encountered before the start of the competition, but when it came to things that were uncertain, Long You never hesitated to consider the worst-case scenario.
The current Cherno Alpha is actually a small, enclosed living pod. Apart from methods that can directly affect people's consciousness, which are of unknown origin and impossible to guard against, other methods, such as toxins, cannot affect Long You and He Caitou.
However, once Cherno Alpha disintegrates, Long You and He Caitou will be exposed to this eerie blood mist without any protection.
Long You is in a slightly better position because he is conscious and can put on a protective layer for himself, but He Caitou would not have time to do anything at all.
Long You couldn't suppress the rotation of the Imagination Pearl, as its rotation was his greatest asset in remaining unharmed until now. Therefore, for He Caitou's safety, Long You could only use his superior mental power to forcefully suppress He Caitou's consciousness in order to maintain a unified state of consciousness.
To be honest, Long You was extremely unwilling to use such methods to ensure the smooth operation of Cherno Alpha. Any normal person would try to resist when oppressed or threatened, let alone a true genius like He Caitou! With He Caitou's resistance growing stronger and stronger, Long You truly had no way to express his suffering.
Fortunately, there were still many powerful figures present, and the evil soul master was indeed just manipulating the malevolent blood mist from a distance, just as Long You had thought. About ten seconds later, Elder Xuan, having failed to dispel the blood mist, directly used the power of his martial soul to forcibly pull Cherno Alpha out of the blood mist.
After confirming with Byrne (the AI assistant) that the eerie blood mist outside was indeed gone, and then using Xiao Yan to confirm that the person standing next to him was indeed Elder Xuan, Long You finally couldn't hold on any longer. The Cherno Alpha disintegrated, and He Caitou crashed to the ground exactly as he was. Long You, however, very cautiously put on the Rhino Plate Armor provided by the Rhino's right arm bone.
"No need to be so cautious, that guy isn't here."
Seeing Long You's clearly wary attitude, Xuan Lao's expression was quite interesting. He, a level 98 Super Douluo, was right beside him! What was there to be wary of in this little rascal Long You? In other words, if a danger even Xuan Zi couldn't guard against appeared, what use was Long You's precaution?
That's the logic, but Long You still didn't let his guard down. Not only did he not let his guard down, but even as his mental energy had just calmed down a little, he put on his soul-guided power mecha (a five-meter-tall single-person model).
Long You had his reasons for making this blatant act of "distrust" of Elder Xuan. Simply put, the fact that the Imaginary Pearl's rotation hadn't stopped meant that Long You was certain he was still under the watchful eye of that evil soul master.
Taking a deep breath, Long You knew that although the danger was not over, he had done the best he could in terms of personal protection. To truly be safe, he would need external help, especially the power of the level 98 Taotie Douluo beside him.
Long You's previous actions seemed to suggest that he didn't trust Elder Xuan to protect him, but the reality was quite the opposite. It was precisely because Elder Xuan was by his side that Long You was able to continue to prepare for his safe and secure defense.
After all, no matter how powerful the Pearl of Imagination is, at this stage it is just a high-level item that can only exist in Long You's sea of consciousness. It can tell Long You whether there is danger around him and can help Long You resist damage from the mental level, but if the enemy chooses to deal with Long You from the real level or the physical level, then Long You's own soul power level of only fifty-something will become Long You's biggest weakness.
Currently, the organizers of the Star Luo Empire Tournament have deployed numerous experts to conduct a large-scale search around Star Luo Square for the evil soul master who dared to tamper with the final competition stage.
In other words, if Elder Xuan hadn't been standing right next to him, that unnoticed evil spirit master might have dared to offer himself up, grab Long You, and run away.
Knowing that his greatest support was Elder Xuan, Long You dared not let Elder Xuan lower his guard because the experts of the Star Luo Empire had been mobilized. Long You needed to remind Elder Xuan that the evil soul master was still around, still watching the Shrek team members, or at least watching Long You himself.
However, the method of communicating with Elder Xuan needs to be carefully chosen. Direct conversation is out of the question. Judging from the sudden appearance of the blood mist that even Elder Xuan couldn't dispel, the newcomer is very powerful, skilled at concealment, and unlikely to be too far from the arena. If Elder Xuan is distracted by the information provided by Long You, then the evil soul master who can also hear Long You's voice is very likely to take this opportunity to do something.
After much deliberation, Long You carefully set aside a wisp of his spiritual energy and knocked on the gate of Xuan Lao's sea of consciousness, after taking necessary precautions.
Despite having his mind knocked on by Long You's spiritual power, Elder Xuan's outward expression remained one of considerable displeasure. However, he secretly refocused his somewhat scattered energy.
{Hey kid, what's wrong with you? Do you think I can't protect you?}
Feeling his wisp of spiritual power being pulled into a vast spiritual space by Elder Xuan, Long You first spun around in a daze before swallowing hard and speaking (actually, it was a spiritual exchange; a wisp of Long You's spiritual power was pulled into Elder Xuan's sea of consciousness and then manifested in his original human form):
"Master Xuan, that evil spirit master is nearby. If my feeling is correct, that evil spirit master has the ability to control human blood and, through blood, control people's minds."
Although your presence prevents that evil spirit master from showing himself openly, given his control, he is fully capable of completing the above operations without anyone noticing.
My personal suggestion is that Elder Xuan, you immediately check everyone except Senior Sister, including Teacher Fan Yu. Once you've confirmed that everyone is alright, have them all enter their soul-guided powered mechs or soul-guided powered armor, isolating them from outside air, and return to Shrek Academy as quickly as possible.
Long You's words made Elder Xuan instantly realize his oversight. The difficulty of dealing with evil spirit masters mainly lies in the strangeness of their abilities. Elder Xuan was very confident in his strength, but this confidence was only reflected in his direct methods. He could only use those subtle and insidious methods to defend himself and could not help others.
Now, Elder Xuan didn't care about putting on a show. With a wave of his hand, he threw Long You's soul-guided power mech and He Caitou, who was still sitting on the ground shaking his head, back into the Shrek Academy lineup.
Seeing Elder Xuan's suddenly serious expression, the rest of the Shrek Academy students, though still unaware of what was happening, immediately prepared for action. If someone were to carefully observe the direction of Shrek Academy's defenses, they would likely notice a very interesting phenomenon. In this unorganized situation, the Shrek Academy students were instinctively focusing their defenses on the direction of the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy.
Many present might not be aware of this, but Shrek Academy already possesses a considerable understanding of the Holy Spirit Cult, the evil soul master organization that suddenly emerged on the continent. At the very least, Shrek Academy clearly knows that the Holy Spirit Cult has an inextricably intertwined relationship with the Sun Moon Empire's official authorities. Therefore, within the entire Star Luo Square, the most likely entity to harbor Holy Spirit Cult evil soul masters is the Day and Night Royal Soul Master Academy team.
Elder Xuan wasn't a healing-type Soul Master, so his methods were relatively crude when examining things. First, he created a supergravity space with a wave of his hand. The earth element filling this space would repel everything except normal oxygen. This wasn't a Soul Skill, but simply a high-level technique for utilizing Soul Power, which could be considered a pseudo-domain.
As soon as this "pseudo-domain" took shape, Elder Xuan's gaze darkened once more. Through his control of the earth element, Elder Xuan clearly sensed a rather inconspicuous evil energy lingering near the Shrek Academy team's base.
"Hmph, resorting to such petty tricks. Do not resist. That evil spirit master was probably using some ability to try to control and interfere with you. I will check you now. Once I confirm there are no problems, you will immediately enter the internal circulation mode isolated from the outside world."
After a thorough examination, the others were fine, but Dai Yueheng's situation was a bit tricky. As mentioned before, that evil spirit master was a smart one, so Dai Yueheng's obvious injury made him an easy target for exploitation.
Dai Yueheng had already been subjected to a trial by the Yin-Yang Conversion Two-Element Sword, leaving his body in a state of barely maintaining balance between light and darkness. Now, with the evil energy of this evil soul master, this fragile balance has been shattered. As Dai Yueheng's physical condition worsens, and even his martial soul begins to transform into an evil martial soul, those present cannot help but feel a sense of panic.
"Hey Beibei, stop standing there. Quickly call out Da Bai, and don't hold back your Holy Dragon Aura. Regardless of whether this whole thing will change the captain's martial soul's attributes, at least we can't let the White Tiger martial soul turn into an evil martial soul right now."
"Teacher Fanyu, go find Duke White Tiger. In terms of familiarity with the White Tiger Martial Soul alone, Duke White Tiger is the one who most should be questioned."
Having anticipated the attack, Long You quickly devised a relatively clear plan of action. The teachers at Shrek Academy, having no time to mince words, couldn't think of a better solution at the moment, so they simply followed Long You's suggestion and acted swiftly.
Duke White Tiger is actually quite easy to find; he's located in the Imperial City. As the highest-ranking military official in the Star Luo Empire, the occurrence of such a heinous incident in Star Luo Square is a provocation against the authority of the Star Luo Empire. Duke White Tiger naturally needs to take command of the army and conduct a thorough search of the entire square.
However, the number of troops on the square was limited, and given Duke Baihu's command abilities, the tasks would have already been assigned long ago. At this moment, although Duke Baihu still wore a cold expression, he was essentially a man with nothing to do. Since the person to be summoned was a man with nothing to do, there was no need to overthink the method of summoning him. After confirming that his defenses were in place, Fan Yu directly piloted his soul-guided powered mecha into the air, slowly approaching the city walls of Xingluo Imperial City.
Of course, Fan Yu couldn't possibly fly directly to the top of the Star Luo Imperial City. That was the very heart of the Star Luo Empire's majesty, and out of respect, no one in their right mind would even consider flying over the imperial city. Fan Yu's seemingly overstepping action was solely to remind Duke White Tiger on the imperial city that Shrek Academy needed to speak with him.
However, there was more than one person on the city wall; another person of even higher status clearly valued Shrek Academy's attitude more.
"Teacher Fanyu, how are your students doing? Such a thing happening on the final stage of the competition is truly due to the poor arrangements of the Star Luo Royal Family. Whatever your academy needs, the Star Luo Royal Family will do its best to meet it."
"Your Majesty, please rest assured. With Elder Xuan here, the safety of the academy is guaranteed. However, my academy's team captain, Dai Yueheng, was just affected by that evil soul master's sneak attack, and his injury has relapsed. I would like to ask Duke Baihu to go and take a look to see if there is any better solution."
"Oh? In that case, Dai Hao, you should go over there quickly. I'll be guarding this place, there won't be any accidents."
As the eldest son, no matter how strict he was in daily life, a father's concern for his son was still indispensable. The moment His Majesty the Emperor agreed, Duke Baihu became Dai Hao, the biological father of a son.
However, even after Duke Baihu left, Fan Yu didn't depart immediately. On his way there, Fan Yu received a message from Elder Xuan. Elder Xuan instructed Fan Yu to exchange information about the evil soul master's methods and some details about the Holy Spirit Cult with the Star Luo Empire.
This information wasn't leaked because Elder Xuan was so kind as to proactively help the Star Luo Empire reduce the difficulty of its defenses and search; rather, it was because Shrek Academy genuinely didn't want to let go of this evil soul master who dared to attack their own students. Right now, no one felt comfortable letting Elder Xuan, their strongest fighter, leave the team to search, so they had no choice but to rely on the power of the Star Luo Empire's officials, who were filled with shame and indignation.