Douluo: Wuhun Qimen Formation, control everything!

The weariness on Elder Xuan's face deepened further because of Zhou Xuan's words.

To be honest, dealing with Yan Shaozhe had already put him in a difficult position. Despite his seemingly straightforward words, he had only asked the question because he was certain that Zhou Xuan wouldn't make things difficult for Yan Shaozhe. The current punishment was already sufficient, but now he had to ask Zhou Xuan for help for the sake of Yan Shaozhe's disciple.

Old Master Xuan could only look up to the sky and sigh, "This is too hard for me!"

He opened his mouth, the words of pleading rolling in his throat several times, but he couldn't get them out.

This old man has really worn out his nearly century-old reputation today.

Zhou Xuan understood what was going on when he saw Elder Xuan's embarrassed appearance.

“Elder Xuan,” he said, taking the initiative to speak, “I will naturally keep my promise.”

He paused for a moment and added, "Senior Brother Yan is Senior Brother Yan, and Senior Sister Xiao Tao is Senior Sister Xiao Tao. They are separate matters."

Elder Xuan raised his head, his eyes filled with gratitude as he looked at Zhou Xuan. He hadn't expected Zhou Xuan to agree so easily.

This left him speechless for a moment.

"Good, good child!" After a long while, Elder Xuan's voice trembled slightly, "It is Shrek Academy that has wronged you."

“It’s no use talking about this now, and I also know that this is Yan Shaozhe’s own behavior and has nothing to do with the academy,” Zhou Xuan shook his head. “Let’s go check on Senior Sister Xiao Tao first.”

"Yes, yes!" Elder Xuan nodded, his expression instantly turning serious. "Xiao Tao's condition is very bad. Elder Zhuang has already gone to see her, and her condition is almost uncontrollable. We need to go there quickly!"

……

In Ma Xiaotao's room, the air was filled with an atmosphere of intertwined ice and fire.

The priceless ice jade bed was now covered with a thick layer of white frost, with wisps of cold air constantly escaping outwards. However, the black flames that occasionally rose from the body of the figure lying on the bed caused distorted ripples in the surrounding space.

Because Cai Meier had not attended the previous Sea God Pavilion meeting, she had arrived here long ago. She was by the bedside, her eyes were red and her face was haggard, but she was still continuously sending soul power to Ma Xiaotao to suppress the evil fire.

When Zhou Xuan and Elder Xuan appeared at the door, Cai Meier already knew the outcome, because Yan Shaozhe had not returned.

"Elder Xuan... Shao Zhe, he..."

Looking at his colleague and junior with whom he had worked for many years, the reluctance that had been suppressed in his heart surged up again.

He avoided Cai Meier's gaze and said in a deep voice, "Shao Zhe... broke into a fellow disciple's residence with the intention of robbing, and even attacked Zhou Xuan inside the pavilion. The Sea God Pavilion meeting has already made a resolution. He is removed from his positions as Dean of the Martial Soul Department and Deputy Head of the Supervisory Group. He is stripped of his status as a senior member of the Sea God Pavilion and is imprisoned for life, never to step out again."

The soul power she transferred to Ma Xiaotao experienced a slight disturbance at that moment, but it quickly recovered.

"fair enough."

He knew that this outcome was already the result of Elder Xuan showing mercy out of consideration for their past relationship.

Otherwise, he might not have been able to save his life.

But reason is reason, and emotion is emotion.

The man who once stood shoulder to shoulder with her, full of vigor and ambition, ended up in such a state.

Cai Meier slumped against the bedside, unable to suppress the sadness in her eyes.

Looking at her like this, Elder Xuan opened his mouth, but couldn't utter a single word of comfort.

Say what?

Is it true that Yan Shaozhe brought this upon himself?

Or should we say "please accept my condolences"?

At this moment, any words seem so pale and powerless.

Zhou Xuan stood quietly to the side the whole time. What Yan Shaozhe did was none of his business. As long as it didn't interfere with his affairs, he didn't care. If Yan Shaozhe hadn't bothered him, he wouldn't have planned to do anything to him anymore.

He didn't speak, but instead turned his gaze to Ma Xiaotao on the bed. With his profound understanding of the soul, he could see more than ordinary people. At this moment, Ma Xiaotao's condition was even worse than he had imagined.

Physical rage is easy to deal with, but the rage that has penetrated deep into his soul is the difficult one.

Zhou Xuan ignored the emotions of the two people behind him; his attention was focused on Ma Xiaotao on the bed.

To outsiders, Ma Xiaotao was simply being consumed by evil fire and suffering terribly.

But in Zhou Xuan's perception, the scene he "saw" was even worse; Ma Xiaotao's soul was like an oil lamp about to go out in a storm.

The so-called evil fire is not pure energy at all; it is more like a living thing.

Strands of black flame, like maggots clinging to a bone, clung tightly to Ma Xiaotao's soul essence. Each flicker of the flame tore at and devoured her soul essence.

"What exactly is a Martial Soul?"

This is a question he has been pondering since he began studying the soul.

But no one could answer his question.

Hearing Zhou Xuan's murmur, Elder Xuan looked at Zhou Xuan and subconsciously replied, "Martial Soul is the source of a Soul Master's power; it is an innate talent."

Zhou Xuan stepped forward, a wisp of cold air rising from his hand.

As he approached, the restless black flames on Ma Xiaotao's body seemed to have encountered a natural enemy, and subsided for a moment.

"No." Zhou Xuan shook his head, denying Elder Xuan's statement.

He reached out and hovered his hand over Ma Xiaotao's forehead, but did not touch her.

Ice-blue light gathered in his palm. He closed his eyes, and his powerful spiritual energy, mixed with the extreme cold of the Snow Emperor, cautiously probed into Ma Xiaotao's spiritual sea.

"boom--!"

He was met with a raging sea of ​​black fire.

The endless negative emotions made the fire burn even more fiercely.

In the center of the sea of ​​fire, a phantom phoenix figure, bound by countless black chains, emitted a silent wail.

Every inch of her soul was being burned and assimilated by these black flames.

"I see."

Zhou Xuan's consciousness withdrew, and he slowly opened his eyes, the icy blue light in his palm dissipating as well.

"Senior Sister Xiaotao's problem has never been about a mutation in her martial soul." He turned around and looked at Elder Xuan and Cai Meier, who were both puzzled.

"Or rather, it wasn't her martial spirit that mutated, but her soul; it was corrupted."

Throughout history, it seems there has never been a case of a Soul Master who possessed an evil martial spirit not becoming an evil Soul Master.

Aside from a lack of willpower, the most likely reason is the martial spirit.

If you don't have enough willpower, then he doesn't believe that there aren't many people with strong willpower throughout history, but what happens in the end?

Didn't he still end up as an evil spirit master?
If it were just one or two cases, it could be attributed to human factors, but so many cases are like this.

Clearly, this is not just a human problem.

Zhou Xuan was more inclined to believe that it was due to the martial spirit itself.

"The soul is corrupted?" Cai Meier stood up. She had never heard of such a thing before.

"That evil fire isn't a pure flame at all; it has 'life.' It parasitizes Senior Xiaotao's martial soul essence, feeding on her soul and nourishing herself with her negative emotions, constantly growing stronger. It's trying to... replace Senior Xiaotao and become the new master of that phoenix martial soul, and even this body. That's the root of the problem."

Zhou Xuan had underestimated the problem. He originally thought that all he needed to do was go to the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well and retrieve the blazing glue from the Fiery Apricot.

However, it seems that it cannot be eradicated now.

These words left Elder Xuan and Cai Meier completely blank.

They had always thought that the evil fire was just a side effect of the mutation of the martial soul, but they never thought it would be like this.

"This...how is this possible?"

“Nothing is impossible.” Zhou Xuan’s gaze returned to Ma Xiaotao.

"so what should I do now?"

“If we can’t suppress it, then we can only…” Zhou Xuan paused before stating his solution.

"Replace it, and completely refine it!"

Since soul beasts can become soul spirits, then this evil fire, which is more or less a life form, is not out of the question if it becomes a different kind of soul spirit.
Moreover, this evil fire is, in the end, Ma Xiaotao's martial soul. After "refining" it, she realized that she had completely mastered her own martial soul.

By then, she might even be able to condense her own spirit rings.

That's good. He can take this opportunity to see if the last message the Golden Tree left him is true.

Refining?

How to refine that evil fire that even a Title Douluo couldn't handle?

This sounds even more impractical than directly fusing Ma Xiaotao with the embryo of the Ultimate Ice.

"Zhou Xuan, what do you mean by 'refining'?"

Zhou Xuan did not answer immediately. His finger lightly traced a path in the air, and a streak of icy blue soul power outlined a simplified diagram of the human body's meridians.

"If you want to refine it, you must first tame it."

"The evil fire on Senior Sister Xiaotao's body is the most outward manifestation of the power within her soul. They are like wild horses that have broken free of their reins; without first putting them on, any operation that delves into the soul is out of the question."

Elder Xuan frowned as he looked at Ma Xiaotao, then at Zhou Xuan: "You saw how domineering this evil fire is just now. It can even erode the soul. How can we refine it? What can we use to refine it? Not to mention that Xiaotao is currently unable to move at all."

Zhou Xuan nodded: "So, what we need to solve now is how to get Senior Sister Xiao Tao back to consciousness. I already have an idea. If we can solve this, we can at least buy Senior Sister Xiao Tao some more time."

However, we still need to suppress this evil fire for a while.

"The reason why the evil fire is out of control is that it is now ownerless, violent and without direction."

Zhou Xuan stretched out his right hand, and a wisp of icy blue soul power danced at his fingertips, causing the surrounding temperature to drop suddenly.

"Since it has no direction, I will give it a direction. Since it has no goal, I will give it a goal."

Zhou Xuan guessed that this was the method Mu En had used before. As for why the soul power of Elder Xuan and the others was not very useful, it was mainly because the attributes were wrong and the quality of the soul power was also wrong.

He didn't rush to take action, but instead reminded, "No matter what happens later, please protect this room and don't let the power leak out."

Elder Xuan and Cai Meier exchanged a glance, then nodded solemnly.

The two men's soul power surged, and an invisible barrier instantly enveloped the entire room.

Zhou Xuan said no more. He took a deep breath, slowly closed his eyes, and the next moment, an indescribable extreme cold spread from his body!
He directly mobilized the Snow Emperor's primordial power to temporarily suppress the evil fire. This was the only way to do it. Although he might suffer some injuries, they could be made up for later. At worst, he could ask the academy for more compensation.

Ice crystals condensed out of thin air, and Zhou Xuan slowly opened his right palm upwards.

No spirit rings appeared, nor did it display any astonishing aura.

A more solid and complex ice-blue snowflake than the one that had previously defeated Yan Shaozhe silently took shape in his palm.

"rise!"

The snowflake drifted up and hovered directly above Ma Xiaotao's body, about a foot away from her skin.

The black flames that had been raging and restless all over Ma Xiaotao's body suddenly stopped, like a shark that had smelled blood!
Immediately afterwards, all the black flames changed direction and pointed directly at the floating snowflake!
"His-"

The black flames transformed into hundreds and thousands of tiny fire snakes, rushing towards the icy blue snowflake!

Zhou Xuan's expression remained unchanged, but he pressed his palm down slightly, making the chill emanating from the snowflake even more intense.

All the black fire serpents that approached the ice flower were forcibly frozen upon contact, turning into black ice crystals that crashed to the ground and scattered everywhere.

"call……"

After doing all this, Zhou Xuan finally let out a long breath, his face visibly paler.

Ma Xiaotao's complexion improved.

"All right."

Elder Xuan and Cai Meier simultaneously removed their soul power barriers, and both of them breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

"Zhou Xuan, you..."

As soon as Elder Xuan spoke, he saw Zhou Xuan's face, which was as pale as paper. Mobilizing the Snow Emperor's source power was still a huge burden for him.

This force was so strong, it was like asking a child to wield a massive hammer weighing a thousand pounds; just lifting it was enough to exhaust all his strength.

"Zhou Xuan, are you alright?!"

Elder Xuan stepped forward and placed his broad hand on Zhou Xuan's shoulder, channeling a powerful surge of soul energy to help him stabilize his mind.

"I am fine."

Zhou Xuan shook his head and steadied himself.

"The academy has failed you! Just ask if you need anything!"
Any rare and precious materials, as long as they are in my Shrek Treasury, you can choose whatever you like!

I'm putting my words here today: even if you want to empty the Sea God Pavilion's treasury, I'll accept it!

Zhou Xuan had been waiting for this very sentence, and he didn't stand on ceremony.

"Since Elder Xuan has said so, then I won't stand on ceremony."

"I need two things to recover."

"First, the Myriad-Year Profound Ice Marrow. It will be used to stabilize the ultimate ice essence within my body and replenish what I've consumed."

Elder Xuan's eyelids twitched.

Ten Thousand Years of Profound Ice Marrow? That's one of the most treasured items in the treasury, a core product from the far north, obtained by chance by an elder of the Sea God Pavilion.

"Secondly, I need a 100,000-year-old soul bone. My current physical condition is too weak, so I need a powerful soul bone."

In fact, the Snow Emperor's embryo was supposed to provide a soul bone.

However, Zhou Xuan's physical condition was weak to begin with, so he couldn't fuse with the soul bone at all. Therefore, it was temporarily sealed. He will be able to fuse with it when he reaches the seventh ring.

Old Master Xuan's lips twitched.

Good grief, they really don't hold back. (End of Chapter)