"Watch this—Extreme Speed!"
These five short, forceful words didn't erupt like thunder. Instead, they sounded almost casual, like a passing remark—yet they cut straight through the roaring energy storm and reached everyone's ears with absolute clarity.
Before the sound had even faded, Liu Yuan's figure was already gone.
This time, facing Ma Xiaotao's mountain-cleaving, life-ending strike, Liu Yuan did not retreat.
He didn't kite.
He didn't dodge.
He showed not the slightest intention of avoiding it.
Under the horrified gazes of hundreds of thousands of spectators, he made a choice that made everyone's scalp go numb and their hearts seize—
A direct collision!
With nothing but flesh and blood, he would meet head-on the perfect fusion of an eighth-rank peak melee soul tool and a top-tier beast-type Martial Soul True Body!
Madness.
Suicide.
That was the only thought flashing through everyone's mind in that instant.
That was an eighth-rank soul tool—its material hard enough to rival the strongest bones of a ten-thousand-year spirit beast!
Yet Liu Yuan charged forward just like that.
Boom—!!!
When the two collided, there was no immediate earth-shattering explosion.
Instead, the world seemed to freeze for a brief, eerie moment.
No dazzling spirit skill effects.
No extravagant techniques.
Liu Yuan's right fist—slender, even somewhat thin-looking—seemed to transform at that instant into the most indestructible primordial divine weapon in existence.
What was condensed within that single punch?
The attack power amplification from six fully stacked layers of Dragon Dance!
The unreasonable doubling of physical strength granted by the Ability, Huge Power!
And the terrifying kinetic energy produced by Extreme Speed erupting over an ultra-short distance!
This punch was heavier than a thousand catties, unstoppable in its momentum!
With brutal, almost unreasonable precision, it smashed directly into the descending dark-red blade radiating an aura of destruction!
Clang—!!!
A metallic impact so sharp it felt capable of piercing eardrums and shattering souls echoed across the sky.
Immediately afterward came a series of scalp-numbing cracking sounds.
Crack… crack…
Time seemed to stretch infinitely, frozen into eternal slow motion.
In mid-air, Ma Xiaotao's dark-red pupils shrank to pinpoints.
The fanatic resolve that had filled her gaze was instantly replaced by indescribable shock and terror.
Because what she felt beneath her strike was not a human fist—
But an ancient divine mountain spanning eternity, immovable and absolute, capable of suppressing all things under heaven!
An overwhelming, terrifying rebound force surged brutally through the golden crystal sword, racing up her arm and spreading throughout her entire body.
"How… how is this possible?!"
Ma Xiaotao screamed inwardly as her sanity teetered on the brink of collapse.
Under her horrified gaze, a fine, sharp crack appeared at the point where the golden crystal sword met Liu Yuan's fist.
Like a flaw in flawless porcelain, it instantly destroyed all balance.
The next moment—
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The cracks spread wildly like a spiderweb, covering the entire golden-red blade in the blink of an eye.
Inside the sword, the core formations that represented the pinnacle of Sun Moon Empire soul tool technology didn't even have time to let out a proper cry of collapse before they were—
Completely annihilated!
"Break!"
Liu Yuan let out a low shout as the full power of his punch erupted.
Bang—!!!
Countless fragments of golden-red metal, still carrying traces of dark-red flame, exploded outward in all directions like a gorgeous yet mournful meteor shower.
The terrifying sword momentum vanished instantly under that single punch!
"This can't be… I can't lose! I absolutely cannot lose!"
The moment her weapon shattered, Ma Xiaotao's mind went blank.
Yet her pride as Shrek's captain and the combat instinct carved into her bones refused to let her surrender.
Even without a weapon—
As Shrek's Phoenix, her body itself was the strongest weapon!
"Aaaaaah—!"
Ma Xiaotao screamed hysterically. Using her massive downward momentum and ignoring the searing pain of her split, bleeding palm, her left hand transformed instantly into a grotesque Phoenix claw engulfed in dark-red flames.
At this moment, she had abandoned all defense and tactics.
There was only one thought left—
Even if she dragged him down with her and they were eliminated together, it would still be worth it!
That Phoenix claw, filled with suicidal resolve and an aura of mutual destruction, tore fiercely toward Liu Yuan's face at point-blank range.
This was a strike drenched in tragic heroism and grim determination.
However—
Reality is always far crueler than ideals.
In Liu Yuan's eyes, Ma Xiaotao's desperate final struggle was unbearably slow—like a rusted gear grinding forward.
So slow that he even had time to consider how much force to use next.
"Too slow."
Liu Yuan's indifferent voice sounded once more beside Ma Xiaotao's ear.
Those three simple words were like ice water poured straight onto her soul, extinguishing her final shred of hope.
Before her Phoenix claw could even come within a foot of Liu Yuan's face—
His second attack had already arrived.
"Extreme Speed!"
Whoosh—!
That white figure twisted in mid-air in a way that completely defied physical laws, as if space itself had folded. He slipped past Ma Xiaotao's lethal claw and appeared at her side like a phantom.
There was no mercy.
No hesitation.
The fist that had just shattered an eighth-rank soul tool without suffering the slightest damage gathered power once more.
Carrying terrifying kinetic energy, it slammed ruthlessly into the most vulnerable spot beneath Ma Xiaotao's ribs—an area not fully protected by Phoenix flames.
Bang—!!!
A dull, heart-stopping impact echoed through the arena, like a heavy hammer striking worn leather.
Ma Xiaotao's body, which had been charging forward with immense inertia, came to a dead stop in mid-air!
The next instant—
That overwhelming force erupted inside her.
Crack…
The sound of ribs snapping.
The immense impact directly shattered the already unstable Martial Soul True Body enveloping her.
Chirp—
The majestic, overbearing dark-red Fire Phoenix phantom let out a mournful cry filled with unwillingness and sorrow before collapsing into countless crimson points of light that scattered into the air.
Pfft—
A mouthful of blood sprayed skyward.
Like a kite with its string severed, Ma Xiaotao traced a long, tragic, beautiful arc through the air before crashing heavily outside the boundaries of the competition platform.
Thud!!!
Her body slammed into the solid granite ground at the edge of the barrier.
The earth trembled violently. Stones flew. Dust filled the air.
Ma Xiaotao lay motionless in the rubble, covered in blood, limbs twisted, eyes rolled back—completely unconscious.
And as she lost consciousness and her Martial Soul True Body dissipated, the Phoenix Evil Fire that had engulfed half the arena and turned it into a blazing hell finally lost its support.
Whoosh—
A gentle breeze passed through.
The dark-red flames filling the sky were extinguished in an instant.
Silence.
Deathly silence.
Time seemed to stop once more.
Across the entire Star Luo Plaza, hundreds of thousands of spectators—commoners, elite students from top academies, even the Titled Douluos who had witnessed countless storms—
All stood frozen, as if struck by a paralysis spell.
No cheers.
No screams.
Not even the sound of breathing.
Everyone stared blankly at the center of the arena, as though witnessing a miracle.
There—
A black-haired youth hovered quietly in mid-air, slowly retracting his right fist before landing lightly on the ground.
The breeze brushed his clothes. His body bore not a single wound, his attire not even slightly torn.
He stood there calmly, expression tranquil, as if what he had just done were nothing more than a trivial matter.
Behind him, scattered across the ground, were fragments of an eighth-rank soul tool, still glinting with golden-red light under the sun.
They were like silent medals—
Testament to the terror and invincibility of that single punch.
One punch to shatter an eighth-rank soul tool.
One punch to instantly defeat a Spirit Saint in Martial Soul True Body state.
This was—
Liu Yuan, captain of the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy team!