Douluo Continent: Taking Tang San as a disciple, with a ten-thousand-fold return for teaching him.

The five-clawed golden dragon suddenly emitted a dazzling golden light, followed by the release of countless terrifying lightning bolts, which instantly destroyed the giant snake formed from the vines.

Carrying an unstoppable force, the five-clawed golden dragon quickly arrived in front of the divine tree and attacked it without hesitation, swinging its sharp claws.

"laugh!!!"

The five-clawed golden dragon's claws pierced into the divine tree with ease, but this seemed to be intentional on the part of the divine tree. The trunk suddenly transformed into countless black vines, which quickly wrapped around the five-clawed golden dragon, and then more and more black vines wrapped around it.

Before being completely entangled by the black vines, Chen Luo saw the huge spirit ring on the divine tree flashing; it was the strange old man's ninth spirit ring.

As the black vines wrapped around it layer by layer, the five-clawed golden dragon endured immense pressure.

Chen Luo could empathize with the situation, but he remained calm. Under his mental command, golden flames rose from the five-clawed golden dragon, and he began to use Liu Erlong's power.

As soon as the golden flames appeared, the black vines burned rapidly, but more and more black vines continued to entwine around them. However, trying to contain the fire with wood was clearly a pipe dream.

The black vines burned very quickly, and in no time all the black vines that kept wrapping around were burned away.

Fire overcoming wood is inevitable.

After breaking free of his restraints, Chen Luo controlled the five-clawed golden dragon to continue its attack. Its sharp claws gripped the divine tree tightly, and golden flames rose up, quickly burning the divine tree.

"Ah ah ah ah..."

The eerie old man's screams rang out, and soon he emerged from the divine tree. In the end, he abandoned the tree, letting it burn, and fled quickly.

However, bound by the Thunder Barrier, the eerie old man was unable to escape. He had no choice but to continue manipulating the black vines to launch a frenzied attack on the five-clawed golden dragon.

However, the five-clawed golden dragon was surrounded by golden flames that could instantly burn away the black vines, which posed no threat to it whatsoever.

The so-called divine tree burned rapidly, turning into ashes and gradually disappearing. The five-clawed golden dragon's target returned to the strange old man, and it opened its mouth wide, unleashing a huge fireball that roared towards him.

The eerie old man had no choice but to take the fireball head-on, but how could his black vines withstand the advance of the fireball? In an instant, a large hole was burned in it, and then it was swallowed up.

"Ah ah ah ah..."

The strange old man with nine spirit rings kept groaning in pain, completely overwhelmed despite being a titled Douluo.

"You'll all regret this!!!"

After uttering his final harsh words, the eerie old man vanished within the fireball.

After confirming that the opponent's aura had disappeared, Chen Luo quickly dispelled the lightning barrier and the Five-Clawed Golden Dragon state.

By the time the sacred tree was burned down, Cuofeng City had already returned to normal.

At this moment, Chen Luo and the other two appeared in an open space, their faces somewhat pale.

The battle just now had taken a heavy toll on all three of them. While a crushing victory was exhilarating, it required a great deal of soul power to sustain it.

The Five-Clawed Golden Dragon's use of Liu Erlong's flame power was extremely taxing on its soul power. Chen Luo only used it after seeing the strange old man use his ninth soul skill, just to be absolutely sure of success. Otherwise, he would have used the flame form from the start.

"That's it?"

Chen Luo looked around and was surprised to find that there was no trace of a battle, as if everything he had just experienced was just a dream.

Even if he deliberately used the Lightning Barrier to minimize the impact of the battle, it was impossible for it not to have any effect on the surrounding area.

Putting everything else aside, the appearance of that enormous divine tree should have at least left a huge crater in the ground here, but it left nothing behind.

The calm before my eyes revealed an indescribable eeriness.

"What exactly happened just now?" Flander and Liu Erlong had also noticed the abnormality and their faces showed surprise.

At this moment, Liu Erlong noticed a corpse not far ahead, which had already rotted into a pulp.

“It’s the corpse of that evil Soul Master at the Soul Douluo level,” Liu Erlong said quickly.

Everyone looked at the corpse and realized that their battle just now was not an illusion.

If it wasn't an illusion, the battle just now was quite loud, yet it didn't affect anything around us at all!

“I have a feeling that the evil soul master at the Title Douluo level is not dead,” Flander said.

Chen Luo and Liu Erlong both nodded in agreement.

Although they ultimately won the battle, a strange feeling lingered in their hearts.

They didn't linger there but immediately went to check on the residents.

Without exception, all the residents fell into a deep coma, but their breathing was relatively stable, so they should be fine; they would just sleep for a long time.

"I really don't know what the evil spirit master is trying to achieve by doing this?" Liu Erlong was somewhat puzzled.

Flander frowned and said, "Did they do all that just to put the people of this city to sleep?"

Chen Luo said, "This is very likely just an experiment by them."

Chapter 168 concludes here.

Killing a titled Douluo is not so easy; even with fire countering wood, it wouldn't be this smooth.

People are afraid of death. No one will fight to the death. When they know they are no match for the enemy, they will choose to run away to save their lives.

Chen Luo and the others were not naive enough to believe that they could kill a Title Douluo with just a fireball; that would be a joke.

As for why the evil spirit masters went to such lengths to do these things, Chen Luo and the others were truly baffled.

Given the plight of evil spirit masters, who are like rats crossing the street and hated by everyone, how dare they be so high-profile?

Are they overconfident in their abilities, or have they lost their minds?

In Chen Luo's view, all of this setup was like a grand experiment by an evil soul master, and the object of the experiment was that enormous divine tree.

Chen Luo had read quite a few novels and watched many anime, so when he saw the divine tree and the state of the people, he immediately thought of some scenes from Naruto.

It allows people to live forever in a dream, a dream where they have everything they desire.

It is indeed a wonderful thing for people.

Most people in this world live in regret, hoping for a dream to completely save them, whether they will fall into it or not is no longer important.

This is just Chen Luo's guess.

"Experimental Valley...maybe it's really as you said, Xiao Gang, that evil spirit masters are conducting experiments and brewing an even bigger conspiracy," Flander said in a deep voice.

Liu Erlong said, "We have already seen a Title Douluo-level evil soul master this time, and there may be more. I didn't expect that after so many years, evil soul masters still exist and keep resurfacing."

Flander suggested, "Why don't we report this to the Spirit Hall and let them investigate it thoroughly? Aren't they extremely keen on investigating evil spirit masters?"

Liu Erlong's face immediately turned cold: "Why tell the Spirit Hall? The evil spirit master might be a henchman of the Spirit Hall!"

Chen Luo said, "Let nature take its course. At least Cuofeng City should return to peace. Even if that Title Douluo-level evil soul master survives, he will probably be quiet for a long time. As for what happens next, we'll talk about it later."

"So what do we do now?" Flander and Liu Erlong both looked at Chen Luo.

Chen Luo said, "Once those people wake up, we'll investigate the situation. If everything is alright, we'll head back."

After the Divine Tree's antics, or more precisely, after Chen Luo and his group's antics, the entire population of Cuofeng City fell into a deep sleep.

It wasn't until the next morning that everyone gradually woke up.

Chen Luo and his group began investigating the situation, and without exception, they all reported having a very long dream, which further confirmed Chen Luo's suspicions.

Everyone was extremely tired, as if they hadn't slept well for a long time.

Their dreams were different, but they had some things in common: they had all seen the divine tree and the strange old man in their dreams.

Around noon, Chen Luo and his group left Cuofeng City. As they left, they ran into the investigators sent by Tiandou City, which meant that Tiandou City had probably also noticed something amiss.

What happened after that was no longer Chen Luo and his group's concern; they returned to Tiandou City.

After the incident in Cuofeng City, Chen Luo was finally able to devote himself wholeheartedly to the Advanced Soul Master Elite Competition.

Upon returning to Shrek Academy, Chen Luo immediately gathered all the participants for a brief meeting.

The meeting was simply to give a brief introduction to the format of the Advanced Soul Master Elite Tournament and the arrangements for the preliminary rounds. In fact, the little monsters already had some understanding of this, and Chen Luo only gave a general overview. The focus of the meeting was still on the preliminary rounds.

First, let's look at the Shrek team's composition. In addition to the Shrek Seven Devils, there are also Tailong, Huang Yuan, Jingling, and Jiangzhu. The personnel are consistent with Chen Luo's impression.

The original Blue Tyrant Academy did not have strict admission requirements, so it was really difficult to find outstanding students from a group of ordinary students. Chen Luo had already expected that the substitutes would be Tyrone and his group.

The team members had already started getting to know each other about a month ago, and now they have developed a certain level of understanding, avoiding the need for last-minute cramming.

All Chen Luo had to do was arrange the list of participants for each battle and offer advice when it came to crucial battles.

If it's just the preliminary rounds, the Shrek Seven Devils don't all need to play. This gives Tailong and the others a chance to play, thus concealing the team's true strength.

After some discussion, the final roster for the Shrek team in the qualifiers is: Dai Mubai, Tang San, Xiao Wu, Tai Long, Huang Yuan, Jing Ling, and Jiang Zhu.

With Dai Mubai, Tang San, and Xiao Wu on the team, advancing from the preliminary rounds is practically guaranteed. Even if something unexpected happens, Tang San has many trump cards to deal with it.

Besides, the strength of Tailong, Huang Yuan, Jingling, and Jiangzhu is not too bad, and they are more than enough in the qualifiers.

Once these things are settled, all that's left is to wait for the qualifiers to begin.

News of Yu Xiuyuan and his team has also arrived from Soto City. They have made ample preparations for the Principality Regional Preliminaries.

Chen Luo was quite confident in Yu Xiuyuan and his team's strength. The preliminary rounds should be no problem, but they would probably have a hard time advancing to the next round. Their soul power level was a major weakness, as they didn't have any immortal herbs to help them and were only at the normal level of soul power they cultivated.

But it's not a big problem. The point is to participate, and treat it as a very good opportunity for experience.

……

The night was as dark as ink, and the stars shone brightly.

After having a meal with the little monsters, Chen Luo returned to his cabin, lay on his bed, and admired the starry sky through the window.

At the same time, he was also reflecting on recent events.

They returned to the Blue Lightning Tyrannosaurus Rex clan, successfully completed their special mission, and discovered the clan's Dragon Secret Realm.

On the way back to Tiandou City, they encountered an evil soul master, which foreshadowed the events in Cuofeng City.

After returning to Tiandou City, he immediately went to find Flander and Liu Erlong. He had a fruitful time in Sunset Forest, and both Flander and Liu Erlong successfully became Soul Douluos.

Immediately afterwards, the three went to Cuofeng City to investigate. They experienced many strange things and even fought a Title Douluo-level evil soul master. Although they achieved the final victory and restored the people of Cuofeng City to normal, the matter did not end there. Instead, it brought out an even bigger conspiracy by the evil soul master. However, the aftermath of this matter can only be left to nature.

"I've done everything I needed to do. My next goal is to win the Advanced Soul Master Elite Tournament, work hard to improve my strength, and also complete the system's soul power level tasks."

"Finally, I don't have to live such a rush anymore."

A faint smile appeared on Chen Luo's face as he prepared to go to sleep.

But just as he closed his eyes, a knocking sound suddenly rang out.

"Could it be Flander again? That guy always likes to knock on the door in the middle of the night!"