Chapter 311.2: Huo Yuhao's Third Martial Soul
Faced with the headless zombie’s incessant interruptions, he realised that if this continued, he’d be finished if Huo Yuhao used even a single soul skill. As such, he was forced to take a risk out of desperation. Glancing at Huo Yuhao’s wheelchair-bound self, he knew that as long as he could get close to the latter and interrupt his mysterious chanting, he’d be able to end the fight. As long his Invincible Barrier was around, the headless zombie wouldn’t be able to injure him either.
The headless zombie was exceptionally strong and tough, but it didn’t have any abilities beyond these two physical traits. Even though it was chasing ninety-eight from behind with all its might, it wasn’t capable of stopping someone who was travelling at full speed using soul thrusters.
How large could the tournament stage be? Almost immediately after using his soul thruster, ninety-eight reached Huo Yuhao. He swung his sword qi-filled blade downwards, straight at Huo Yuhao’s head.
When he did so, he saw a trace of regret flit through Huo Yuhao’s eyes, before an enormous shield suddenly appeared and blocked his entire line of sight.
“Chi—” A dark green layer of light instantly rose from the shield’s surface. Ninety-eight gazed at it expectantly, ready for his corrosive decomposing dagger to pierce straight through the shield. To his astonishment however, his dagger was the one that seemed to corrode when it came in contact with the shield; it was if the tip of his knife had been dulled.
Immediately afterwards, a ring of light lit up on the shield’s surface and sent ninety-eight’s body flying like a cannon shell.
This was a Class 7 soul tool known as the Adjudication Shield. Huo Yuhao had finally finished it after ten hours of hard work and the use of his Life Guardian Blade.
Of the three abilities it had, two—reflection and absorption—could only be used on material objects; they were useless against anything energy based. Its last ability, on the other hand, was called ‘Adjudication.’
Just like its other two abilities, it could only be used on objects.
However, Adjudication was an ability that had been passed on by the Life Guardian Blade. If used, it would instantly absorb the life force of any substance it was currently in contact with and destroy it. This ability was capable of affecting any and all soul tools Class 7 and below, and was still somewhat useful against soul tools above Class 7, albeit with reduced effectiveness. This could be considered a godlike ability for soul engineers who specialised in close-combat. With this shield in hand, why would Huo Yuhao be afraid of any opponents getting close to him?
He hadn’t stopped chanting since the start of the battle. Following this brief interlude, Huo Yuhao’s chanting had already lasted for over ten seconds.
Finally, his chanting came to an end. When he did, his eyes had been tinted dark purple, and the enormous figure behind him froze momentarily. Immediately afterwards, Huo Yuhao raised his right hand and pointed at ninety-eight.
The moment he did so, a dark purple light covered ninety-eight’s skin. Surprisingly, even his Invincible Barrier hadn’t been able to block Huo Yuhao’s necromantic magic. As soon as the dark purple light covered his body, Ninety-eight let out a miserable howl despite being inside of his golden Invincible Barrier; he felt as if every inch of his body was melting.
By channelling all of the soul power in his body, he found that the most he could do was slow the melting.
Once he’d finished casting this spell, Huo Yuhao’s face turned somewhat pale. With the experience he’d gained from casting a few spells, he’d discovered that necromantic spells mainly relied on his spiritual power; they didn’t drain much of his soul power.
However, his specialty was precisely his spiritual power! His current spiritual power was comparable in prowess to that of a Soul Douluo. And yet, even with this level of spiritual power, casting that necromantic spell had instantly cost him nearly a third of his total spiritual power. The strength of his necromantic magic could be seen from this.
This was Withering, an extremely powerful single-target magic. It directly struck the target’s spiritual plane, in turn igniting the target’s life force. This would create a mysterious elemental transformation that lead to the target melting from within.
Regardless of how much strength one possessed, one could only use the energy within their body to resist Huo Yuhao’s Withering. If they were incapable of doing so, they’d wither away and die. Moreover, Withering lasted for a full minute!
Seeing that the situation wasn’t going too well, the Third Elder, who was seated in the middle of the VIP lounge, couldn’t wait any longer. He stood up and shouted, “Ninety-eight admits defeat. Quickly end your skill.”
With a flash of light, the Third Elder then appeared above the stage and floated there.
Huo Yuhao shivered inwardly; he truly had gone somewhat overboard with his performance today. Fortunately, he’d only used his necromantic abilities.
“Who are you? What gives you the right to make a decision for him?” Huo Yuhao asked indifferently.
If the Third Elder didn’t care about the Duskwater Alliance’s reputation, he would’ve charged straight towards the soul barrier. Instead, he shouted, “I’m his teacher. I mean what I say! You’d better end your attack right now!”
“Sure.” Huo Yuhao didn’t insist on continuing. The elder standing in midair had to be at least a Soul Douluo; he was an existence that he couldn’t handle yet.
He pointed his finger at ninety-eight and ended his Withering. Feeling as if his skin had suddenly turned to mud, the latter immediately crumpled. The omnipresent feeling that his skin was melting had filled ninety-eight's heart with fear.
In reality, the pain he’d felt had just been a false sensation. So long as his soul power didn’t run out, Withering wouldn’t turn him into a withered corpse. That terrifying feeling he’d had was simply one of Withering’s effects. After all, it was mainly an attack directed at his soul.
Following the death of Electrolux, Huo Yuhao was the only person in the world capable of using necromantic spells. Who in the world could have experience against these sorts of attacks?
Huo Yuhao looked towards the three stunned referees and proudly stated, “I’ve won. Bring my rewards to me.”
As soon as the the defensive barrier had been lowered, the Third Elder quickly walked over to ninety-eight and helped him up. After checking his body over and ensuring that he was unharmed, he let out a sigh of relief. When he turned back to Huo Yuhao, his gaze was somewhat astonished.
The three referees had already stepped onto the stage. However, they didn’t walk towards Huo Yuhao. Instead, they hesitantly looked towards the Third Elder.
At that moment, another elder stepped onto the stage. This was the person who’d previously been called ‘Second Elder’ in the VIP lounge.
“Your subordinates greet the alliance master.” The referees all simultaneously bowed towards the Second Elder.
“Get up. Why haven’t you given our little friend his rewards? Our Duskwater Alliance has always prided itself on its honesty, and would never go back on its word.” The Second Elder, who was also the Duskwater Alliance Master, had a stately appearance. After combing his white hair behind his head, he put an amiable smile on his face. This, combined with his fluttering white beard, made it so that he gave off a good impression to anyone meeting him for the first time.
The moment he spoke, the three referees didn’t dare to dally any longer. They quickly walked over to Huo Yuhao and handed over both the Hongchen’s Blessing and the Darkness Green Dragon.
“No, you can’t give it to him! That’s my Darkness Green Dragon!” Ninety-eight had finally woken up at this point. When he saw what was happening, he immediately got to his feet and charged over.
Huo Yuhao raised his right hand and pointed it at ninety-eight. The latter’s face immediately became pale, and he ducked to the side.
Huo Yuhao smirked. “Not anymore. If you’re willing to bet, you also have to be willing to admit defeat. Are you trying to renege on your bet in front of so many people?”
The Third Elder’s face immediately turned somewhat ugly. He grabbed Ninety-eight, who was still trying to charge over, and slapped him. “Was losing face in front of everyone here not enough? Follow me back.”
With that, he dragged ninety-eight off-stage and vanished without a trace.
The master of the Duskwater Alliance smiled as he stood on the stage. “Hello, young friend. I’m the owner of the Duskwater Alliance. You can call me Nangong Wan.”
Nangong Wan? Huo Yuhao was somewhat astonished when he heard his name; he’d thought that Nangong Wan was a girl’s name.
“Greetings, alliance master Nangong. I’m delighted to meet you.” He’d finally attracted the upper echelon of the Duskwater Alliance’s attention. Although he couldn’t see anything from the surface, the fact that he was speaking so amiably to him after seeing his necromantic magic said a lot about him.
Nangong Wan didn’t say much more. He turned towards the three referees, “Alright, go ahead and announce the end of the tournament.”
“Yes.” The referee loudly announced, “After a heated contest, the Duskwater Alliance’s top three in this year’s Radiant City Elite Soul Engineering Tournament have been decided. These three are sixty-six, eighty-eight, and ninety-six. Besides the prizes they’ll be receiving today, they’ll also receive the opportunity to represent our Duskwater Alliance in the final tournament against the other two alliances.”
With this, the tournament had finally ended. There were both happy and disappointed people. Some of the gamblers who’d been daring enough to place bets on Huo Yuhao began to cheer loudly; others, who’d bet on the wrong person, could only hang their heads dejectedly.
Nangong Wan walked over to Huo Yuhao and smiled. “Young friend, could we have a little chat?”
Huo Yuhao expression became vigilant and he said, “There’s nothing we have to discuss. I’ve only come here to win the prize. If you want to have a chat with me, come and so when I’m the overall champion. Now then, according to the rules of the tournament, I’ll be taking away this shield I’ve made.” Even as he spoke, he was already looking towards the prize below the stage with a greedy glint in his eyes.
Nangong Wan smiled slightly. “Naturally that’s fine. Since younger brother isn’t willing to talk right now, we’ll have a nice chat after you win the overall tournament representing our Duskwater Alliance. There’s something that I’d like to tell you in advance, though. If you win this honor for our Duskwater Alliance, we’ll give you an additional reward on top of the reward from the overall tournament.”
“That’s better.” Huo Yuhao answered. At this point, He Caitou had already stepped onto the stage and started pushing his wheelchair forwards so that he could claim his prize.
Nangong Wan squinted as he looked at Huo Yuhao, revealing a somewhat thoughtful expression.
All of the doors in the Golden Hall were now wide open, allowing the various gamblers to walk out. After watching the tournament for an entire night, everybody felt lethargic.
Once they’d retrieved their prizes, Huo Yuhao, He Caitou, Wang Dong’er, and Na Na all walked back to the Qing Se Hotel.
Huo Yuhao suddenly squinted and said, “Little Dong, take me back towards that pub we went to last time. After taking two hundred and fifty six steps, take a left into the alleyway. Quick.”