บท 223: Fall Out With Shrek's Seven Monsters (2/2)

Want to have the same feeling as I when I wrote this? Listen to Lu Bu's Theme from Dynasty Warriors 9 on YouTube. It's really good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncjGWTbuEhw

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Huang Jialong and Yuanen Yehui stopped in their tracks, stunned. The two of them were about to jump onto the stage to assist Sheng Feilong after they saw Gu Yue and the other members of the Seven Monsters come to Tang Wulin's aid, but Sheng Feilong's words forced them to stand down.

Yuanen Yehui in particular stared at Sheng Feilong's back in confusion, not sure whether his words were meant to taunt his opponents or to stop her and Huang Jialong. Still, Sheng Feilong didn't look back towards them, only keeping his head turned to the front.

Compared to when Sheng Feilong used his True Avatar's powers against Song Weihan, he had already become much stronger; His control over the True Avatar had increased so significantly that there was barely any basis to compare it to before. Moreover, his overall strength and prowess to utilize his Soul Core had also reached new heights, enabling him to use the True Avatar with relative ease.

Sheng Feilong was patiently waiting for Tang Wulin and his team to take their formations, not bothering to prepare. The Seven Monsters didn't react to his prior provocation, but instead seemed to calm down even more, causing Sheng Feilong to steel his mindset; This wouldn't be as easy of a fight as before.

Xu Lizhi's steamed buns really worked their wonders; After eating a single one, Tang Wulin stood up again, his eyes still blazing with anger, though he seemed much more focused than before. He stared at Sheng Feilong for a moment, then put his finger to his forehead, causing a bright golden light to shoot out and manifest as a long, golden spear in his hand. "Prepare yourselves. He's strong."

With the appearance of the spear, tang Wulin's blood started surging wildly again; Even without paying direct attention to it, Sheng Feilong was able to feel the power behind it – The draconic blood in Tang Wulin's veins was raging even more than he himself.

'His bloodline really is ridiculously powerful...' Sheng Feilong thought to himself as he prompted his own bloodline to jump into action. His eyes took on a slightly different tinge than before and the image in front of him changed slightly; Colourful lines flew past his from all directions, while similar lines coursed all over and through the bodies of his opponents – This was the energy they utilized.

Tang Wulin's energy was split into two parts, just like Sheng Feilong's; One for his Soul Power and one for his bloodline energy, though they were completely out of balance in Tang Wulin's case. While his Soul Power was still stuck at the Soul Ancestor level, his bloodline's power looked even stronger than Sheng Feilong's Three-Eyed Golden Lion bloodline.

Moments after Sheng Feilong's vision changed, Gu Yue flinched. She was the first to notice the change in Sheng Feilong's eyes, quickly taking the responsibility to inform her teammates. "His eyes changed. Be careful; We might already be in his strange illusions..."

Tang Wulin and the others visibly tensed, to which Sheng Feilong only smiled lightly. "You think too highly of yourselves. I wouldn't use such methods against you. If you fall into an illusion, you will naturally know it."

'Still, what's up with that golden spear? I can't see through it at all.' Despite his calm, cold and confident voice, Sheng Feilong was worried. The spear Tang Wulin took out was one that he was familiar with; He saw the latter use it against Long Yue, after all, but even with his energy vision, he couldn't made heads and tails of it. 'It's dangerous, that much is certain.'

As if to signal the beginning of the fight, Sheng Feilong's Soul Power flared up again, his seven Soul Rings springing into existence behind his back. The biggest black Soul Ring lit up as Sheng Feilong used his sixth Soul Skill. He pulled his two old shortswords out of his Spacial Ring while two identical copies of himself appeared next to him on all sides – All of them equipped with a pair of shortswords as well.

Again, the Seven Monsters tensed up; Among them, Gu Yue had the strongest Spirit power, yet even she couldn't differentiate between the now six Sheng Feilong's at all; All of them were the exact same, down to even the aura of the Soul Rings behind their backs. All of them readied their weapons before one of the Sheng Feilong's – most likely the original one – suddenly spoke up. "Let's get this over with already."

All three of them charged forward; Two down the middle towards Yue Zhengyu and Ye Xinglan, as well as Tang Wulin and Jiang Wang, while the third one dashed around the sides, aiming for Gu Yue and Xu Xiaoyan.

The one aiming for Yue Zhengyu and Ye Xinglan was the first to arrive, their speed shocking the Seven Monsters, causing Yue Zhengyu to barely be able to dodge out of the way, while Ye Xinglan managed to bring her sword up to her chest to black the assault.

With the two of them occupied, the second Sheng Feilong didn't even bother to glance at them and instead dashed past them, focusing Jiang Wang, who stood slightly off to the side. Ducking beneath a sweep from Tang Wulin, That Sheng Feilong slashed out towards Jiang Wang with both swords, causing the latter to be blown away despite blocking the attack with his Mountain Splitting Axe Spirit Essence.

Tang Wulin instantly went after Sheng Feilong and Jiang Wang while gritting his teeth; One of them alone couldn't possibly defeat Sheng Feilong, even if it was just a clone! Gu Yue and Xu Xiaoyan were in a similar situation; The two of them were actually facing the original Sheng Feilong!

With their strong Spirit Powers and long ranged attacks and controlling powers, Sheng Feilong identified them as the greatest threat and wants to deal with them first. He engaged the two of them in melee combat, not allowing them to leave, while harassing them with mental attacks, tightly binding them down in the fight, disabling them from being able to help any of the other members of their team.

Meanwhile, the clone fighting Yue Zhengyu and Ye Xinglan was having a hard time. The two of them were adept at melee fights, especially sword fights, and with the two of them working together, they were able to force Sheng Feilong's clone into the defensive. The clones had a limited amount of Soul Power at their disposal, making Ye Xinglan, who's sword intent could cut away at their Soul Power, extremely dangerous.

Her Stargod Sword Spirit Essence was a top-grade Spirit essence and one of the strongest sword type Spirits at all; With each strike against the clone, the shortswords in his hands became more battered. Yue Zhengyu's Holy Angel Sword was a Soul Skill of his and similarly strong. Moreover, with his wings, his mobility and manoeuvrability were outmatching the clone's by a large margin; He was perfectly assisting Ye Xinglan in slowly destroying the clone.

The second clone was in a much better position and was putting a lot of pressure on Jiang Wang and Tang Wulin. The clones strength was much superior to Jiang Wang's, despite the latter being a power attack type Soul Master, while Tang Wulin's physical strength outclassed the clone. That, however, wasn't a problem, as Tang Wulin was much, much than Xie Xie, not to mention Sheng Feilong's clone; The clone was effortlessly dodging his every attack while constantly forcing Jiang Wang back.

Tang Wulin could only gnash his teeth; He was already using two of his bloodline Soul Skills, yet he couldn't match up to Sheng Feilong's clone – the latter was simply too fast. Jiang Wang was barely able to hold on through Sheng Feilong's assault, unable to get a single window to attack; His Soul Skills would be perfect to deal with the clone's speed, yet he was rendered unable to use them.

In the middle of the stage, Xu Xiaoyan and Gu Yue were in an even worse situation; Xu Xiaoyan was pale faced and breathing heavily, while Gu Yue was unable to protect her properly. Among the Seven Monsters, Xu Xiaoyan was the weakest, physically, but that usually wasn't a problem as there were enough melee fighters to protect her.

In this situation, though, all she do was try to flee and somehow be able to use her Soul Skills to restrain the opponent, but every time she was about to use one, a perfectly timed mental attack of Sheng Feilong stopped her from doing anything. Frankly speaking, in terms of pure control, her abilities were superior to Sheng Feilong's, who mostly used illusions; Her Starwheel Staff had the same element of Absolute Control as Sheng Feilong's True Avatar, yet she couldn't unleash any of her prowess due to Sheng Feilong's superior Spirit Power.

Meanwhile, Gu Yue was trying her hardest to concentrate and fight Sheng Feilong; She wasn't as adept at melee combat at Ye Xinglan, Tang Wulin or the others, but her nimbleness and spacial elemental powers allowed for her to barely keep up with Sheng Feilong. Her Spirit Power was the strongest out of all of the Seven Monsters and she was able to keep up with Sheng Feilong's mental attacks as the latter's capabilities were divided between the whole battlefield.

Sheng Feilong frowned as he continued to dominate Gu Yue, though; He had a clear grasp over the battlefield and thus knew that the clone fighting Yue Zhengyu and Ye Xinglan was about to lose; Ye Xinglan's sword intent was simply to powerful for the clone to withstand over a long time. He had to do something, before Ye Xinglan and Yue Zhengyu were able to assist the other two fights.

After breaking Xu Xiaoyan's concentration with another mental attack, causing the girl to groan in pain, he ignored her for a second, focusing all of his available Spirit power into a mental attack against Gu Yue. With the condensed strength, Gu Yue couldn't ignore it like before and her movements turned sluggish for a moment; Long enough for Sheng Feilong to disengage her and instead attack Xu Xiaoyan head-on!

Xu Xiaoyan had just recovered from the shock of Sheng Feilong's mental attack when she saw his sword about to pierce her neck. She panicked, but was unable to get away. However, just as she was sure she would die, the shortsword stopped, only cutting some of the skin on his throat, causing some blood to flow out. Confused, she didn't realize the brutal kick connecting with her neck and was flung off the competition stage in a mere second, unconscious!

Gu Yue gnashed her teeth seeing this, but Sheng Feilong didn't pay her any mind. Ye Xinglan and Yue Zhengyu had completely forced the clone into a corner; its defence had just been broken by Yue Zhengyu and Ye Xinglan was already at its throat, ready to strike the killing blow. However, before her sword could connect, the clone suddenly vanished out of existence, causing her to miss.

Stumped for a moment, she and Yue Zhengyu hurriedly turned around, only to see another Sheng Feilong stare at them from across the stage, with Gu Yue behind him and Xu Xiaoyan nowhere to be seen. The two of them glance at each other and Yue Zhengyu looked towards the direction of Tang Wulin and Jiang Wang.

The real Sheng Feilong instantly dashed forward, not allowing them to come to the other's help. Gu Yue shot a fireball after him, which was instantly cut in half by a newly spawned clone that was now charging towards her; With only Gu Yue there and Xu Xiaoyan out of the picture, a clone was enough and the real Sheng Feilong could focus on Yue Zhengyu and Ye Xinglan.

The two of them understood what was happening and frowned, but still kept together; They understood that neither of them could deal with Sheng Feilong alone. For a while, the three fights entered another deadlock; Tang Wulin was still unable to hit the clone, while Jiang Wang was barely blocking the attacks, his face ghastly white by now as his Soul Power was nearly all used up. Gu Yue couldn't deal with a clone on her own and was hanging on by dodging and teleporting around; She couldn't fight normally as the clone till had formidable Spirit Power, that stopped her from doing any risky moves.

The real Sheng Feilong was firmly suppressing Ye Xinglan and Yue Zhengyu now. His power was about the same as the clone, but he was much harder to deal with for them as he wasn't made up of Soul Power; The effectiveness of Ye Xinglan's sword intent was reduced tremendously. Still, Sheng Feilong also couldn't end the fight quickly; Ye Xinglan was still able to cut away at his Soul Power, while his shortswords slowly reached their limits – They weren't as sturdy, nor as sharp as his opponents Stargod Sword and Holy Angel Sword.

Some time passed as the fight continued, only for Sheng Feilong to suddenly smile; Jiang Wang was finally unable to hold on any longer and his Mountain Splitting Axe Spirit Essence was broken. Tang Wulin tried his best to help him, but was once again to slow; Sheng Feilong's clone actually used him as a foothold to jump at Jiang Wang, kicking the latter in the guts before knocking him out with a second kick to the head.

The clone turned around, brightly smiling at Tang Wulin, while the other clone and Sheng Feilong had similar expressions; All three of them speaking at the same time. "That makes two now!" Thoroughly enraged, Tang Wulin suddenly used his right arms Soul Bone instead of his spear to attack and jumped at the clone, causing it to smile once more, prepared to counter his attack and knock him out as well.

However, just as the clone was about to attack Tang Wulin, the latter, with his claw perfectly outstretched and about to tear into the clone's chest, vanished. At the same moment, from the other side of the stage, a pained groan with Sheng Feilong's voice suddenly sounded out. Tang Wulin blinked unexpectedly; Instead of the clone he was supped to attack, his claw had now pierced through the whole back of another clone; He could actually see a pale faced, but happily smirking Gu Yue behind the dissolving clone.

She stretched her arms out to the still surprised Tang Wulin, grabbed his hands and fell into his embrace. "Let's do that." Tang Wulin quickly glanced to where he was before and saw the clone that had engaged him before charge at them with a cold, but angered expression, while the real Sheng Feilong was still fighting Yue Zhengyu and Ye Xinglan, who, by now, both looked battered and bruised.

"Alright." The two hugged more tightly and Tang Wulin's bloodline aura suddenly exploded over the whole arena, accompanied by a similar aura coming from Gu Yue. The Soul Power around them started rioting wildly, shooting up massive waves around the whole Sea God's Lake, much to the awe of the surrounding people.

The fight between Yue Zhengyu, Ye Xinglan and Sheng Feilong suddenly stopped, all of their heads turning to Gu Yue and Tang Wulin, while the clone at the other side of the arena stopped as well. Ye Xinglan and Yue Zhengyu jumped back, disengaging Sheng Feilong, who didn't try to stop them and instead stared towards Tang Wulin and Gu Yue with a grave expression.

The Soul Ring behind his back ceased its light, causing the clone to dissipate, while Sheng Feilong turned his whole body around towards the last remaining members of Shrek's Seven Monsters. Yue Zhengyu and Ye Xinglan were breathing heavily, both of them having barely enough strength and Soul Power left to stand, though now smiling victoriously after seeing what Gu Yue and Tang Wulin were up to.

"Oh... Now that looks dangerous indeed." Sheng Feilong said, still keeping a cool head as he stared at the slowly forming image of a massive, multicoloured dragon being formed from energy. His eyes returned to normal as he deactivated his Radiant Emperor's Phantasmagoric Eyes; Its abilities wouldn't be able to do much against this Soul Fusion Skill.

"You guys seem to have forgotten something, though." His Soul Power started surging once more, his skin taking on a greyish tone, while green markings started appearing all over his body. His energy rose and rose, becoming more terrifying and gut wrenching by the second. His arms and hands turned into long, armoured claws, while two horns sprouted out from the sides of his head, turning upwards.

His whole body started growing in size as he slowly transformed into the Netherworld Putrefaction Demon. To top it all of, his Soul Power exploded out of him once again as two humongous, ash-grey coloured Soul Rings appeared behind him. Yue Zhengyu and ye Xinglan turned as pale as paper while Sheng Feilong's voice oozed out from his skull like form, gruesome and icy cold. "I also possess a Second Spirit Essence; One much more powerful than the Radiant Emperor's Phantasmagoric Eyes."

His energy clashed with the power released by Gu Yue's and Tang Wulin's Soul Fusion Skill, causing a storm to kick up atop the stage and the Sea God's Lake. Lan Muzi's and Tang Tingmeng's expressions turned grave; The energy released by Sheng Feilong and the Soul Fusion Skill was so intense that even the two of them didn't dare to interfere anymore, yet this wasn't the end.

Sheng Feilong put his hands together in front of his chest, his aura rising even more and only moments later, the second grey Soul Ring behind him lit up, coating the whole stage in an ominous light. Between Sheng Feilong's hands, a massive amount of energy started gathering, forming into the shape of a pitch black sphere before slowly elongating into a spear following Sheng Feilong's movements of pulling his hands outwards.

At the end, at nearly three metres long, pitch black spear crackling with energy was created. Sheng Feilong grabbed the spear with one hand, taking a stance and readying himself to throw the black spear at Tang Wulin and Gu Yue's Sol Fusion Skill. By now, the two of them had already opened their eyes; The Soul Fusion Skill had finished forming and the two of them were staring at Sheng Feilong, who looked back at them with a similar expression. "Try your best not to die, Tang Wulin, Gu Yue."