Douluo, my clone Groudon

Chapter 369 The Inspection Team, the Messenger of Death

The two weeks of intensive training and practice passed in the blink of an eye.

The reserve team members and the regular team members were no longer as unfamiliar as they had been at the beginning. In particular, the strength that Gula showed was comparable to that of an ordinary Soul King, which forced all the regular team members to put away their pride and regard him as a combat force that truly needed to be taken seriously.

During training, Huo Yuhao developed a tactic: to temporarily "lend" the power of his ultimate ice to Ling Luochen through physical contact.

Ling Luochen's powerful soul force, approaching the sixth ring, unleashed terrifying ice-attribute attacks after being infused with this ultimate attribute, forcing even Ma Xiaotao to temporarily avoid its edge.

This discovery thrilled everyone. If the ultimate ice could be borrowed, what about the ultimate fire?
Ma Xiaotao awkwardly approached Gula once about this, clearly still unhappy about losing to Gula in such a completely submissive manner, but the allure of power was greater. The two tried it out once.

When Gula's hand landed on Ma Xiaotao's shoulder, a torrent of pure, golden-red flames surged into her body, and Ma Xiaotao felt as if she had transformed into the real sun.

A phoenix fire line she casually released contained destructive energy and terrifying heat that instantly vaporized the specially made alloy target in the training ground. Its power was such that even an ordinary Soul Douluo might not dare to withstand it head-on.

"hiss--!"

A collective gasp filled the room. Dai Yueheng and the others' eyes blazed with ecstatic joy.

"It's a sure thing, absolutely a sure thing now!" Chen Zifeng clenched his fist excitedly. "With this trump card, who can stop us in the competition?"

"Yes, a Soul Saint-level combat power can influence the outcome of the Soul Master Competition. We're practically carrying around a Soul Douluo-level destructive turret!" Gongyang Mo excitedly chimed in.

As Ma Xiaotao felt the immense power within her body that seemed capable of burning away all of creation, an unprecedented surge of heroic spirit welled up within her.

But then, an even stronger burning pain and restlessness rose from the depths of my bones, and the evil fire, like dry tinder doused with oil, instantly ignited fiercely.

She groaned, her face flushed instantly, and fine beads of sweat appeared on her forehead. She had no choice but to immediately sever her connection with Gula.

"Damn it, this flame is too domineering. Although its power is immense, its stimulation of the evil fire is far beyond imagination. Yuhao's extreme ice is simply no match for the backlash of the evil fire in this state..."

She looked at Huo Yuhao, who shook his head helplessly. It was ultimately decided that this "borrowing fire" tactic could only be a trump card used in crucial moments and should never be used frequently.

However, at least they had an extra trump card, and everyone felt much more relaxed.

After training, Xuanzi led a group of fourteen people, packed their bags, and set off for Xingluo City, the capital of the Xingluo Empire, to participate in the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Battle Tournament.

However, halfway through, Xuanzi stopped in a desolate mountain wilderness.

"Come all over."

Xuanzi took a swig of wine, his expression unusually serious. He looked around at the group of young students in front of him; the youngest, Huo Yuhao, was only twelve years old and his cultivation was only at the second-ring Great Soul Master level.

"Do you know why we stopped?" Xuanzi's voice carried a heavy, oppressive tone. "Have you heard of the Shrek Academy Inspection Team?"

Ma Xiaotao and the others were surprised. Could it be that Elder Xuan wanted to invite the junior students... but they were too young.

Xuanzi didn't care; he only did what he thought was right.
"The purpose of Shrek's Inspection Corps is to hunt down evil soul masters who endanger the continent and harm living beings. This is the glory and mission that Shrek has inherited for ten thousand years."

He began to recount the "glorious" history of the inspection team, telling how many predecessors had sacrificed themselves at the hands of evil spirit masters for this "noble" mission.

His words were highly inflammatory, portraying joining the oversight body as an unparalleled honor and responsibility.

"Joining the oversight body means risking your life. Now tell me, are you afraid? Does anyone want to quit?!"

Xuanzi's gaze swept over everyone with lightning speed. "It's not too late to withdraw now. I, Xuanzi, will not stop you, but,"

His tone suddenly shifted, becoming icy and threatening, "If you're afraid of death, get back to the academy now. Shrek Academy can't afford to lose face like that!"

Gula was speechless to himself: "Heh, what a high-sounding statement. Is it really true that where leaves dance in the air, fire will never cease, burning tender leaves to illuminate the old trunk?"

"Sending a group of teenagers with varying levels of cultivation to take on the risk of hunting down evil spirit masters? This so-called mission is nothing more than a tool used by Shrek Academy to maintain the 'Guardians of the Continent' label and to bind the loyalty of graduating students!"

"After the students graduate, who would act under the name of 'Shrek Inspection Team' all day long? In the end, it's just that the academy needs the reputation of 'exterminating evil soul masters'. It's one thing to be simply bad, but to insist on dressing it up as a 'noble mission' is ridiculously stupid."

However, Xuanzi's speech, which was full of moral blackmail and the lure of honor, deeply stirred the passion of the other trainees.

Beibei was the first to step forward, her voice calm and firm: "The Shrek Supervisory Group has an inescapable duty, Beibei joins!"

Huo Yuhao followed closely behind, his youthful face full of determination: "To defend the honor of the academy and protect the peace of the continent, Huo Yuhao joins."

Xu Sanshi was feeling down because Jiang Nannan was not selected. When he saw his good brother standing up, he impulsively said, "I'll join too." He didn't think about the danger involved at all.

Wang Dong, Xiao Xiao, He Caitou, Ling Luochen... the main team members need no further introduction.

Gula calmly replied, "Join."

But he had already made up his mind: Killing evil spirit masters is fine, but to send me to my death for this hypocritical mission and the orders of some idiots? No way!
Xuanzi looked at everyone's expressions and nodded in satisfaction: "Very good, these are the elites of Shrek Academy. Let's go."

He led the group to a desolate mountain range on the border of the Star Luo Empire. The White Tiger Legion, under the command of the White Tiger Duke of the Star Luo Empire, was stationed there.

Xuanzi entered the military camp alone and returned a moment later with a piece of intelligence, which he casually tossed to Ma Xiaotao:
"The target is in the cave ahead, a fifth-ring evil spirit king, nicknamed 'Death Messenger'. Xiao Tao, you lead the team to take him out, consider it a warm-up before the competition."

After Xuanzi finished speaking, he vanished in a flash and disappeared somewhere to drink again.

Ma Xiaotao took the intelligence report, glanced at it, and scoffed, "A mere Soul King dares to call himself the 'Messenger of Death'? What a joke."

She and Dai Yueheng discussed it briefly and decided that the main team members would take the lead, with the reserve team members following behind to provide support, and together they would enter the cave to clear out the enemy.

Seeing Ma Xiaotao and the others' underestimation of their enemy, Gula understood the situation.

"The Grim Reaper... in the original story, he was the guy who caused Shrek Academy heavy losses. The Corpse Explosion technique is much more powerful in a confined space. Should I warn him? If I do now, they'll just laugh at me for being a coward and think I'm worrying unnecessarily."

"Some lessons can only be truly remembered after experiencing them firsthand and feeling the pain deeply." He silently followed behind the group, quietly keeping Xiao Xiao by his side a little behind.

Fourteen people entered the dark and damp cave. Ma Xiaotao and Dai Yueheng, being the strongest, charged ahead.

They quickly and easily dealt with the few bandits on lookout duty. These were merely henchmen of the evil spirit master, most of whom lacked even soul power.

Deep inside the cave, a gaunt figure dressed in a black robe and withered face stared at the intruder's Shrek school uniform in surprise. Then, a cruel and greedy glint flashed in his eyes.

"Hehehe... Shrek Academy Inspection Team? A bunch of greenhorn brats, daring to come here to die?"

He let out a piercing, sinister laugh, watching the Shrek members stand warily near the slain corpses. His withered fingers snapped upwards, "Corpse Explosion! Explode!"

"Not good!" Dai Yueheng was the first to notice the terrifying fluctuations of abnormally gathered soul power on the corpse, and his expression changed drastically.

But it was too late, a step too late.

“Boom boom boom boom—!”

The corpses lying on the ground, like balloons being inflated instantly, expanded to their limit at an unimaginable speed before exploding violently in the narrow cave passage.

Flesh, bones, and internal organs mixed with a violent shockwave of soul power swept over the Shrek Seven Devils, who were huddled together, like a death storm.

The confined space amplified the power of the explosion by more than ten times.

"Ah——!" A scream rang out instantly.

Yao Haoxuan, who was closest to the corpse, was surrounded by the Corpse Explosion Technique. This tall Soul King of the Control type didn't even have time to make any defense before he was torn apart by the violent energy, with severed limbs and blood raining everywhere.

"Pfft!" The agility-based Xixi had one leg blown off, screamed and flew backward, crashing heavily into the rock wall.

"My leg!" Gongyang Mo's left leg was severed at the root, blood gushing out, his handsome face instantly turning deathly pale from the pain and blood loss.

Ma Xiaotao and Dai Yueheng were the strongest and reacted the fastest, instantly releasing their soul power to protect themselves. However, they were still shaken by the close-range explosion, causing their blood and qi to surge, their internal organs to shift, blood to spill from their mouths, and their internal organs to be injured. Chen Zifeng and Ling Luochen were also injured and in a sorry state.

Only Ling Luochen, due to her strained relationship with Ma Xiaotao, stood a little further back, and Gula reacted the fastest.

The moment the Grim Reaper raised his hand, Gula pulled Xiao Xiao completely behind him.

The Sun Angel Martial Soul instantly possessed him, and huge wings burning with golden-red flames closed forward, completely enveloping him and Xiao Xiao.

The intense heat formed an indestructible barrier, keeping most of the explosive impact and filthy flesh and blood out.

Xiao Xiao only felt a scorching wave of air and a deafening roar, but was protected completely.

"Haoxuan! Xixi! Gongyang Mo!"

Seeing her companions suffer heavy casualties in an instant, Ma Xiaotao's eyes widened in fury, her anger igniting a raging inferno. "You deserve to die! Sixth Soul Skill, Phoenix Meteor Shower!"

Countless burning meteorites, trailing fiery tails, crashed into the depths where the Grim Reaper was hiding.

"Hehehe, it's not over yet."

The Grim Reaper chuckled, and in the midst of the crisis, he struck Yao Haoxuan's broken leg, which was rolling on the ground and still twitching, with a strange soul mark.

"Corpse Explosion! Explode!"

"boom--!"

Another close-range, targeted terrorist bombing.

This time, although everyone was on guard, their movements were hampered by their serious injuries, and the shockwave from the explosion and the flying bone fragments aggravated their injuries.

Ma Xiaotao and Dai Yueheng were also shaken and forced to retreat, spitting out blood.

Even more deadly, the two explosions caused the cave to shake violently, with large amounts of debris falling and smoke filling the air.

Seizing the opportunity presented by the chaos, the messenger of death rushed toward the cave entrance like a ghost.

Just then, a roar of shock and rage came from the cave entrance: "Damn it!"

Xuanzi, who was late, finally arrived.

He immediately saw the hellish scene inside the cave: Yao Haoxuan's body torn to pieces, Xixi and Gongyang Mo groaning with broken legs and arms, and students all wounded and in a sorry state... A surge of overwhelming anger and regret instantly engulfed him!
"Die—!" Xuanzi's hair and beard stood on end, and his terrifying soul power erupted like a tsunami, about to crush the messenger of death.

However, the soul power he unleashed in his rage was too violent, causing the cave to collapse even more violently.

The massive rocks crashed down, temporarily blocking his pursuit and giving the Grim Reaper a glimmer of hope.

The messenger of death was terrified when he saw Xuanzi's unfathomable aura, knowing that this was his only chance to survive.

His gaze swept quickly, instantly locking onto a few people who were not far from the cave entrance, who looked the youngest and whose aura seemed the "weakest"—Huo Yuhao, Wang Dong, Xiao Xiao, and Gula protecting Xiao Xiao.

Without a moment's hesitation, the Grim Reaper couldn't take his eyes off the figure in front of Gula: "Angelic Martial Soul?! Damn it! This kind of holy aura is the most effective counter to our Holy Church. You're unlucky to have encountered it. We'll take you hostage!"

He grinned maliciously and pounced on Gula like a vulture, his withered, claw-like hand flashing towards Gula's throat.

Gula's eyes remained expressionless, even showing a hint of...surprise?
"Kid, behave yourself and don't move!"

The Grim Reaper successfully grabbed Gula by the neck, shielding him in front of himself, and screamed at Genji, who was temporarily blocked by falling rocks:
"Let me go! Or I'll kill him right now!"

With his other hand, he gathered a chilling, deathly soul force, about to inject it into Gula's body for intimidation and control.

However, the fear and struggle that he had anticipated did not materialize, nor did the fear that Xuanzi was afraid to act against.

Instead, he noticed that the seriously injured Shrek Academy students around him were looking at him with... a strange pity for the dead.

Gula even sighed softly, his voice eerily calm: "Why did they have to come after me of all people?"

The Grim Reaper was stunned. Before he could understand what those words meant, he felt an indescribable burning pain in the hand gripping Gula's neck, as if he were holding not a person's neck, but a red-hot iron.

The death soul power he condensed was like a mud ox entering the sea; the moment it touched Gula's skin, it was completely purified by a supremely yang and powerful divine force.

"Wh...what?!" The Grim Reaper was horrified.

"Kill him." Gula uttered three words indifferently, as if giving a trivial order.

The golden light in the eyes of the sun angel spirit behind him surged, and a light sword condensed purely from divine purification power instantly took shape. With the supreme majesty of judging evil, it ignored spatial distance and pierced through the brow of the death messenger in the terrified and desperate gaze.

“Uh…” The Grim Reaper’s body stiffened abruptly, the light in his eyes dimmed rapidly, and the hand gripping Gura’s neck loosened weakly.

The evil and deathly aura on his body were purified as if ice and snow were melting away, and a pure and vast holy energy was fed back to the Sun Angel's soul, which extracted it and fed it back to Gura.

Gula nodded secretly: "Divine power... a versatile and useful thing. It's the safest way to improve cultivation, and the age limit of the angel soul can be resolved at the Spirit Ascension Platform."

Without hesitation, he guided this power into his own soul power cycle, and the bottleneck that had been stuck at the peak of level 67 instantly loosened, allowing him to quietly break through to level 68, the same level as Ma Xiaotao.

"Gula, are you alright?" Xiao Xiao, Huo Yuhao, Wang Dong, and the others, still shaken, surrounded him.

"It's nothing." Gula shook her head, her gaze sweeping over the chaotic scene, then down to Xixi and Gongyang Mo, their limbs severed and groaning, and Yao Haoxuan's gruesome remains. "It's just that the seniors..."

He could have saved them, but ultimately, they weren't worth Gula's help.

Dai Yueheng's face was ashen. Looking at Yao Haoxuan's mangled body, his eyes filled with tears, he shook his head in anguish: "A severed limb... this kind of injury simply cannot regenerate..."

Upon hearing this, Xi Xi and Gongyang Mo's eyes were also filled with despair.

At this moment, Xuanzi, the culprit who caused all this, finally pushed through the falling rocks and rushed in. Looking at the horrific scene before him, especially Yao Haoxuan's corpse, his old face instantly lost all color, and his body swayed.

"It's all...it's all my fault...I was careless...I failed in my responsibility..."

Xuanzi's voice was hoarse, filled with pain and regret, "Xiaotao..." He looked at the swaying Ma Xiaotao.

Ma Xiaotao's eyes were filled with tears, anger, sadness, and confusion.

“You…you are in charge of taking them to Xingluo City to participate in the competition…” Xuanzi seemed to have aged ten years in an instant, his voice extremely heavy, “I will immediately return to the academy, apologize to the Sea God Pavilion…and accept the most severe punishment.”

After he finished speaking, he didn't dare to look at the students again, especially the seriously injured and the remains of Yao Haoxuan. His figure flickered and disappeared into the shadows of the cave as if he were fleeing, leaving behind a mess and young students who were physically and mentally traumatized.

Everyone stared in the direction where Xuanzi had disappeared, then at the horrific scene around them, falling into a deathly silence. The air was thick with the stench of blood and an atmosphere of despair.

Gula, like everyone else, was speechless.

"Ha, apologize? Punish? What's the point of saying all that?"

"Instead of thinking about making amends, Xuanzi is thinking about responsibility and punishment. In the end, what Xuanzi cares about is that the student was injured because of him and might not be able to retain the championship. It's not because the student died or was seriously injured due to his carelessness."

"And then he just walked away, leaving a mess for a bunch of kids. This is the 'Sea God Pavilion Elder' that Shrek Academy is so proud of. What good is high cultivation if you hold absolute power and status? The tender 'green leaves' don't even have the right to question him."

He looked at the silent and grieving crowd, especially the distraught Ma Xiaotao and the lifeless eyes of Xixi and Gongyang Mo, and shook his head. He had not yet created a healing avatar, so he really had no way to deal with this situation.

The only option was for Ling Luochen to freeze their wounds to stop the bleeding and prevent excessive loss, while they waited for Shrek Academy's support.

Fortunately, Xuanzi was just senile and hadn't gone mad. After walking for a while, he realized he should take the seriously injured people back to the academy for treatment, so he returned to the cave, leaving everyone speechless.

(End of this chapter)