As the two were speaking, Feng Piaoling had already made his move.
He tapped the soul tool at his waist, and seventy-two streaks of green light flew out in succession. They transformed into seventy-two emerald-green longswords that levitated in the air above his head, revolving around a special soul tool formation to form a massive ring of swords.
Seeing this scene, one of the members of the opposing Di'ao Academy team couldn't help but swear, "Holy crap."
The sight deeply moved everyone else as well, including Ma Rulong and those who had never seen Feng Piaoling's Green Bamboo Bee Cloud Swords before.
Princess Jiujiu was completely unable to control her excitement and cried out, "Imperial Brother, is this also a soul tool developed by the Sun Moon Empire? Since when can conventional melee soul tools like swords fly?"
"No. Although the soul tool manufacturing craftsmanship of the Virtuous Court is unrivaled in the world, they have never produced flying-sword type soul tools. He must have developed this himself," Xu Jiawei replied thoughtfully, a wave of admiration rising in his own heart.
So this was Feng Piaoling's soul tool?
It was actually an entire set of uniformly Class 5 flying-sword soul tools. If these Class 5 soul tools were ever upgraded to Class 9, there was no telling just how terrifyingly powerful they would become.
The members of Shrek Academy were similarly frowning. Facing such a massive scale of soul tools, it was fortunate they had acquired the Class 8 soul tool, the Tyrannical Tiger Soul Blade, at the auction earlier. Otherwise, they wouldn't even have a fighting chance.
Elder Xuan, however, was exceptionally pleased. He heartily bit off a huge chunk of a chicken leg and slammed back a large gulp of wine.
Granted, his actions this time had gotten Yao Haoxuan, Chen Zifeng, and He Caitou killed, left Gongyang Mo and Xu Sanshi crippled, and turned Bei Bei into a eunuch. But finding a genius like Feng Piaoling for the academy was more than enough to make up for his mistakes.
No, wait—he wasn't the one at fault. The person who had caused the deaths of Yao Haoxuan, Chen Zifeng, and He Caitou, crippled Gongyang Mo and Xu Sanshi, and made Bei Bei a eunuch was Zhou Yi, not him.
"Go."
Feng Piaoling shouted softly. As he pointed a finger forward, the seventy-two emerald-green longswords blotted out the sky, gathering together like a surging emerald river that washed straight toward the captain of Di'ao Academy.
At the same time, Meng Hongchen, Xiao Hongchen, Ma Rulong, and the others took the opportunity to set up their soul tool fortresses.
The Soul Emperor captain of Di'ao Academy was named Jiang Peng. His martial soul was the Heavenquake Axe, and he was the most outstanding student in the history of Di'ao Academy.
Seeing the seventy-two emerald-green longswords that made his scalp tingle, he was startled but did not panic. Instead, he charged forward before Feng Piaoling even uttered the word 'go'.
Furthermore, he did not release his martial soul while rushing toward Feng Piaoling, because unleashing the Heavenquake Axe would reduce his speed. It wasn't until the river of seventy-two emerald-green swords swept toward him that he finally manifested his martial soul.
Two yellow, two purple, and two black—six soul rings flashed into existence. With a thunderous boom echoing across the sky, Jiang Peng planted his feet firmly as a massive, piercing beam of light descended from above.
Gripping his giant axe, Jiang Peng's fifth soul ring lit up. With a force capable of splitting mountains, he swung the weapon down in a ferocious hack.
A massive blade of black light sliced through the air, clashing directly with the emerald river.
Clang, clang, clang, clang...
Accompanied by a wave of ear-piercing metallic screeching, seven or eight emerald-green longswords were deflected away.
"What? My full-strength strike only managed to knock away a mere seven or eight flying swords? How can they be this strong?" Jiang Peng's expression turned to utter shock.
The next moment, something even more shocking occurred. Before the deflected swords could even hit the ground, Feng Piaoling pressed his index and middle fingers together. Green light swirled at his fingertips, and with a swipe of his sword-hand gesture, those seven or eight longswords merged right back into the emerald river, surging toward Jiang Peng with an even more ferocious momentum than before.
"Eighteen Dragon-Slaying Slashes!"
Jiang Peng roared, throwing the Heavenquake Axe from his hand.
As his hands gestured wildly, the Heavenquake Axe traced a series of bizarre arcs in the air, intercepting the onslaught of emerald-green swords.
This was a custom soul skill Jiang Peng had created based on his first soul skill, sharing a similar concept with Feng Piaoling's sword control technique. However, he didn't rely on his own spiritual power to control the Heavenquake Axe; rather, it stemmed from that first soul skill.
Back then, he had chosen the wrong soul beast for his first soul ring. Consequently, his first soul skill was not a direct attack or defense skill, but a control skill meant to manipulate his own martial soul. Through his natural talent, hard work, and the guidance of Di'ao Academy's teachers, Jiang Peng had developed this unique style of combat, naming it the Eighteen Dragon-Slaying Slashes.
As the name suggested, it could unleash a maximum of eighteen consecutive attacks.
Leveraging the innate power of the Heavenquake Axe martial soul, it could theoretically overpower a single Class 5 Green Bamboo Bee Cloud Sword. However, ever since Feng Piaoling obtained the Gold of Life and opened his Eye of the Soul, his spiritual power had skyrocketed to a level comparable to a Soul Douluo. His precision and control had naturally soared as well.
An increase in spiritual control meant he could conserve far more soul power. In this state, Feng Piaoling could easily control the seventy-two Green Bamboo Bee Cloud Swords for over an hour. It was simply not something a mere Eighteen Dragon-Slaying Slashes could withstand.
Each strike of the Eighteen Dragon-Slaying Slashes could only deflect a few swords at a time. Over the course of an hour, Feng Piaoling would only need to command the remaining swords to attack Jiang Peng to secure the match.
However, the destructive property inherent to the Heavenquake Axe gave Feng Piaoling immense inspiration for upgrading his Green Bamboo Bee Cloud Swords. Intrigued to experience the capabilities of Jiang Peng's martial soul, he engaged the opponent in a war of attrition as if testing himself against him. It wasn't until the Eighteen Dragon-Slaying Slashes were fully exhausted and the Heavenquake Axe flew back into Jiang Peng's hand that Feng Piaoling resumed directing the emerald river to wash over him.
By this time, Jiang Peng's teammates had long been blasted off the competition stage by the soul tool fortresses deployed by Meng Hongchen, Xiao Hongchen, Ma Rulong, and the rest. Jiang Peng was the only one left for Di'ao Academy.
Faced with Feng Piaoling's continuous onslaught, Jiang Peng had no time to worry about anything else.
His sixth soul ring flared. The massive axe flew into the air once more, spinning rapidly. Piercing sonic booms erupted in succession as dense black light poured wildly from the spinning axe, forming a miniature black hole that violently swallowed all surrounding light.
In an instant, it actually devoured nearly half of the emerald river.
Jiang Peng had clearly learned his lesson about Feng Piaoling's ability to reuse the Green Bamboo Bee Cloud Swords. He controlled the black hole to firmly trap the swallowed swords, preventing them from being called back into play.
Feng Piaoling's brow twitched slightly. Although the power of the Green Bamboo Bee Cloud Swords was decent, they were still somewhat lacking when up against a Heavenquake Axe that had reached the Soul Emperor level. It seemed that after acquiring his fourth soul ring, he would need to start upgrading them.
"Giant Sword Technique, go."
With that thought, Feng Piaoling waved his hand. The remaining swords converged, merging into a massive green blade of light several zhang in size.
Feng Piaoling spun up into the air, gripping the giant light sword with both arms. He carved a massive flourish with the blade in midair, and then swung it down in a violent, crushing slash.