The vortex then seemed to form a gigantic hand, and even after Asura King released his martial soul true body, he was still instantly dragged over to Yuanen Yehui.

It looked as if Asura King had voluntarily charged toward Yuanen Yehui's fist. The Bloodthirst Lion True Body was struck on the shoulder in a completely soundless manner. There was no resounding boom, and he wasn't sent flying, either. However, in that instant, Asura King felt as if everything within his body was being stirred up. Immediately thereafter, he was greeted by the sight of a vast expanse of fist projections.

Yuanen Yehui's body seemed to have suddenly become illusionary, and her originally slow and cumbersome massive ape body was now fluttering around as light as a butterfly. Her fist projections encompassed every single inch of Asura King's entire body.

All of a sudden, a strange buzzing sound rang from Asura King's body, immediately following which his Bloodthirsty Lion True Body was completely shattered as limbs flew through the air and blood mist dispersed in all directions.

Strangely enough, the blood mist also formed a series of vortexes of different sizes as they drifted through the air, and only after a few seconds did the blood begin to rain down onto the competition platform.

What...

The commentators had no idea what to say as they were at a complete loss with regard to how this battle had just been ended.

Yuanen Yehui landed on the ground, and her body shrank down to its original nondescript appearance. Her fists were even looking a little petite in her current form, but who would dare to underestimate those fists now?

"Fist King! Fist King!" Someone began the chant first, and immediately thereafter, all of the spectators began to join in. From that moment forth, Yuanen Yehui had also earned a nickname for herself, as well as a spot in the top eight.

There seemed to be images constantly flickering across Yuanen Yehui's eyes as she reflected on that battle. Defeating Asura King definitely hadn't been an easy task, particularly when she hadn't used her second martial soul.

This was the first time that her Divine Cloudvortex Fists had come up against such a powerful opponent; she had missed out on her round-robin match against the participant who went on to emerge as first in her group as she had reached a critical juncture in the cultivation of her Divine Cloudvortex Fists at the time.

That weakness that she'd displayed was indeed something that she'd intentionally revealed, but at the same time, it really was a weakness that could be exploited. The psychological warfare tactics that she'd learned on the demonic island were extremely effective in battle. She was naturally aware that with her opponent's wealth of battle experience, he definitely wouldn't fall for her tricks, but it was exactly because of this that he fell into her trap in the end. In a sense, he'd outsmarted himself.

Due to his last-second decision to change the target of his attack, Asura King's speed had decelerated for an instant, and she had been accumulating power throughout the entire process in which she'd been taking evasive measures, and she took advantage of that split-second window of opportunity to strike.

Her Devil Titan combined with her Divine Cloudvortex Fists completely controlled the airflow in the surrounding area, and her sixth soul skill, Titan Grip, forcibly dragged her opponent toward her and thew his body off balance in the process. Immediately thereafter, she unleashed an explosive barrage of attacks, and that had been the key to her victory.

As long as her opponent was within a certain range, she was invincible! Yuanen Yehui clenched her fists tightly, and at the same time, another figure surfaced in her mind. This was a man with golden dragon scales all over his body, and he also possessed a pair of sharp claws. She could only truly be considered to be invincible in melee combat among all cultivators of her caliber if she could defeat him.

Captain, have you made it to the quarterfinals?

……

Tang Wulin spent some federal credits to watch the replays of the matches in the round of 16, paying particularly close attention to Yuanen Yehui and Ye Xinglan's matches.

At this moment, his heart was filled with astonishment and excitement. He wasn't the only one who had been improving! While it was indeed true that he'd been progressing very quickly, his friends certainly weren't making slow progress, either!

Let's keep improving together, everyone!

He didn't contact them after their matches; after such high-intensity battles, they needed time to reflect and learn from their experiences. This had always been a cultivation method that was unique to Shrek Academy.

All of their opponents in these final stages were extremely powerful. Ye Xinglan had already improved drastically, but she still lost to that Wild Gale Saber Demon, Sima Jinchi. An eight-ring Soul Douluo with a saber soul was definitely enough to pose a threat to him. On top of that, there was also that man; the one who had progressed in the first position from Yuanen Yehui's group. He had only taken three seconds to defeat his opponent in this round, and it was the fastest among all eight matches. It was said that his odds had lowered even further, and it was undoubtedly the case that both of these people were opponents that he had to face, and only after defeating them would he be able to complete his mission.

He wouldn't have it any other way!

What would be the point in brushing aside a bunch of weak opponents en route to an easy championship title? After a brief moment of excitement, Tang Wulin resumed his arduous cultivation.

……

"Congratulations, I didn't think that you would've improved to such an extent already." Leng Yaozhu had nothing but praise for her disciple.

After watching the entirety of her trial, she had been well and truly stunned. Gu Yuena's performance during the trial couldn't even just be described as perfect; it was more than perfect!

Even the chairman of the Spirit Pagoda had been alerted to her performance, and at just 21 years of age, she became the youngest backup spirit envoy in the entire history of the Spirit Pagoda.

The chairman of the Spirit Pagoda had even said that if Gu Yuena could become an eight-ring Soul Douluo and attain a suit of three-word battle armor, he'd make an exception for her and promote her to become an official spirit envoy, which would make her one of the highest-ranking members of the Spirit Pagoda.

Gu Yuena was extraordinarily talented, and she was definitely by far the brightest young talent the Spirit Pagoda had to offer.

The aptitude that she had displayed outstripped that of even Leng Yaozhu, and even the chairman of the Spirit Pagoda had to approach Leng Yaozhu in a polite manner to discuss whether Gu Yuena could become one of the candidates to succeed his position as chairman.

"Thank you, Teacher." Gu Yuena nodded calmly in response, seemingly completely unperturbed by all of the praise and attention that had been showered on her.

Leng Yaozhu sighed, "You're growing up every single day while I continue to grow older. The Spirit Pagoda will fall into the hands of you young people in the future."

Gu Yuena shook her head, and countered, "You're not old at all, Teacher, and I'm still far from being worthy of your praise."

Leng Yaozhu smiled, and said, "Stop being so modest! You're only a seven-ring Soul Sage, yet you were able to virtually completely dominate a Titled Douluo when neither of you were using your suits of battle armor; if you're still putting yourself down, then old-timers like us shouldn't even live anymore! If you ask me, you're going to become unfathomably powerful when you reach the Titled Douluo level. By the way, your spiritual power has already reached the Spirit Domain realm, right? Otherwise, there's no way that you could've controlled elements to such a degree."

Gu Yuena nodded in response.

Leng Yaozhu's eyes immediately lit up. "That's fantastic! You must be tired, right? Go back and rest. It was the right decision for you not to participate in the Star Battle Net Inter-federation Competition; we should be hiding your abilities for now, and the moment you become a Titled Douluo will be the moment you stun the entire continent!"

After bidding farewell to her teacher, Gu Yuena returned to her room in the Spirit Pagoda headquarters.

After closing the door, a cold expression appeared on her face, and she slowly made her way over to her window before casting her gaze toward the distance. Her room just so happened to be directly facing the direction of Shrek City.

Of course, Shrek City had already disappeared, and there weren't even any remnants of it left. In the aftermath of the bombing, the groundwater had gradually filled the massive crater, and Shrek City had now become a massive lake. All remnant traces of Shrek Academy had naturally also completely disappeared as a result.

"He'll come back sooner or later," she murmured to herself.

"Of course, he'll definitely come back," a gentler voice chimed in in response.

"Let's watch the competition; we still don't know how he performed." Na'er's voice was tinged with a hint of urgency.

Gu Yue was silent for a moment before slowly making her way over to her soul television and turning it on.

……

Bright City.

Within a massive mansion on the outskirts of the city, there were a few people sitting in the guest hall. The broadcast of the first round of the final elimination stage of the Star Battle Net Inter-federation Competition had just concluded on the large-screen soul television in front of them.

The man sitting at the center of the sofa slowly rose to his feet. "That man is still alive; our Lord didn't kill him in the end."

A beautiful woman with long green hair sighed, "Our Lord seems to have been severely impacted by human emotions."

"That little bastard should've been killed long ago! Why is our Lord being so indecisive?" a burly man grumbled in a perplexed manner.

"Shut up!" the man sitting at the center snapped, and the room instantly fell silent.

The man raised his head, and the golden highlight at the center of his head of long hair slowly trailed downward as he said in a cold voice, "Find him!"