37: Chapter 37 Evil Fire Phoenix Ma Xiaotao! Oh, so you're a junior! I'll protect you! Hmm~

"Whoa!"

The coachman suddenly tightened the reins, and the well-trained Windchasing Horse let out a long neigh. The carriage came to a steady halt a hundred meters away from the entrance of the dense forest.

"What's wrong?" Inside the carriage, Tang Ya was the first to poke her head out and ask curiously.

The coachman's face was a bit pale as he pointed toward the direction of the sound, his voice tinged with fear. "Miss, ahead... it seems like Spirit Masters are fighting a Spirit Beast. The commotion is quite large; should we take a detour?"

"A detour?"

Tang Ya blinked and listened intently. "It sounds like a fierce fight, and it seems to be a girl's voice. Should we go take a look?"

Wang Qiuer sat still, her bright pinkish-blue eyes looking calmly into the forest as she spoke softly, "The voice is full of vigor, but the Soul Power fluctuations are somewhat chaotic, as if she's running out of steam.

The Spirit Beast she's fighting has an aura of around five thousand years. It should be a bit of a struggle for her."

Her voice wasn't loud, but it reached everyone's ears clearly, as if she had seen the scene in the forest with her own eyes.

"A five-thousand-year Spirit Beast?"

Tang Ya stuck out her tongue. "That is indeed a bit troublesome. But since we've encountered it, it wouldn't be right not to look, would it? What if they need help?"

As she spoke, her gaze turned toward Huo Yuhao, who had been silent since just now.

Jiang Nannan, sitting beside her, also frowned slightly, a hint of worry showing on her soft and beautiful face.

Huo Yuhao didn't look at them. His gaze seemed to penetrate the wooden boards of the carriage, shooting straight into the depths of the dense forest where the sounds of fighting came from.

His brows were tightly knit, and in those clear eyes, a very complex emotion flowed.

It was her.

Although a lifetime had passed, and although the voice was much more immature than in his memory, Huo Yuhao would never mistake that unique voice—as hot as fire yet carrying a hint of stubbornness.

Ma Xiaotao.

The poor person who had been as dazzling as the sun at Shrek Academy in his past life, yet tortured for half her life by the Evil Fire of her own Spirit, and also the sister he had acknowledged.

"Yuhao?"

Seeing that he hadn't spoken for a while, Tang Ya couldn't help but nudge his arm. "What's wrong? Why are you spacing out?"

Huo Yuhao looked up at Tang Ya, Wang Qiuer, and Jiang Nannan, his voice carrying a hint of unquestionable determination: "Let's go take a look."

With that, before the others could react, he had already pushed open the carriage door and leaped down nimbly.

"Hey!"

Tang Ya was stunned for a moment and hurriedly jumped out of the carriage. Wang Qiuer rose elegantly, moving with light steps, and Jiang Nannan followed closely behind.

The closer they got to the forest, the more obvious the scorching heat became. The air seemed to be ignited, and every breath carried a parched scent.

Deafening booms and the angry roars of a Spirit Beast intertwined, clearly reaching their ears.

The four of them pushed aside the bushes in front of them, and the scene before them made Tang Ya gasp.

On a clearing in the forest, a petite yet exceptionally agile red-haired woman was locked in a fierce struggle with a massive Spirit Beast.

The woman looked to be about fourteen or fifteen years old, with fiery long hair flying wildly.

Her delicate face showed an abnormal flush due to the intense combat and the surging Soul Power within her.

Her figure was already beginning to take shape, with her tight red outfit outlining hot curves far beyond her age, and her long legs were full of explosive power.

Behind her, a pair of huge flaming wings spread out, and four spirit rings—two yellow and two purple—pulsated up and down around her body.

The scorching Phoenix Flame transformed into sharp attacks, constantly blasting toward the Spirit Beast.

Her opponent was an all-black Spirit Beast shaped like a giant ape, but its arms were like the giant scythes of a mantis—a close relative of the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear, the Sickle-Armed Demon Ape.

This magic ape's cultivation, just as Wang Qiuer had said, was around five thousand years, and its huge scythe-arms swung with a powerful wind.

It blocked all of Ma Xiaotao's fire attacks and even left several wounds of varying depths on her body!

"Phoenix Piercing Cloud Strike!"

The red-haired woman shouted, transforming into a line of fire and charging toward the Sickle-Armed Demon Ape with an indomitable momentum.

However, just a moment before she hit the target.

Her body suddenly trembled, the flaming wings behind her momentarily collapsed, and her attack trajectory veered off, slamming heavily into a large tree nearby.

*Boom!*

The tree snapped at the impact, bursting into a raging fire.

"Roar!"

The Sickle-Armed Demon Ape seized the opportunity, its massive scythe-arms carrying a wicked wind that tore through the air, slashing down fiercely toward the woman's head!

The woman's face changed drastically; she wanted to dodge, but her body seemed not to obey her commands, and she could only watch helplessly as the fatal attack grew larger in her pupils.

At this critical moment, a cool voice rang out in the area.

"Your opponent is me."

The voice wasn't loud, but it had a strange penetrating power, making all the people and beasts present look toward the source involuntarily.

A little boy, appearing to be no more than seven or eight years old, had stood in front of the red-haired woman at some unknown point.

He had his back to her, his small body like an insurmountable mountain, completely blocking the fatal attack.

"Yuhao!" Tang Ya cried out in alarm.

Ma Xiaotao was also stunned. Where did this little sprout come from?

What does he want to do?

Is he seeking death?

The Sickle-Armed Demon Ape clearly didn't take this suddenly appearing little one seriously either. Its attack didn't pause for a second; instead, it slashed down even more viciously!

However, the moment that cold, gleaming scythe-arm was about to fall, an aura of extreme coldness suddenly erupted with the little boy as the center!

*Hum*

The air seemed to be frozen at this moment.

An orange-red spirit ring rose quietly from beneath Huo Yuhao's feet, followed by a second one, also a heart-palpitating orange-red!

Two hundred-thousand-year spirit rings?!

No, that's not right! Those spirit rings seemed even more terrifying than hundred-thousand-year ones!

Even more shocking was that after the two orange-red spirit rings, there was a third, bright red hundred-thousand-year spirit ring!

Three hundred-thousand-year spirit rings?!

A seven or eight-year-old child with three spirit rings at least at the hundred-thousand-year level?!

This was simply unheard of and never seen before!

Ma Xiaotao's brain went blank instantly; she even forgot the dangerous situation she was in.

She just stared blankly at that small back and the spirit rings on him that could be called a miracle.

Not only her, but even Tang Ya and Jiang Nannan behind them also showed expressions of shock.

They knew Huo Yuhao's second Spirit was strong, but they hadn't expected that when he released it without reservation, it would be such a world-shaking sight!

Wang Qiuer's long golden hair fluttered slightly under the reflection of the ice-blue light, and a faint smile actually appeared at the corners of her mouth.

"Ice Empress's Fury!"

Huo Yuhao slowly uttered those four words, his voice becoming ethereal and majestic, as if coming from a Divinity above the nine heavens.

He slowly raised his right hand and tapped his index finger lightly forward.

A beam of ice-blue light, not particularly thick but condensed to the extreme, burst from his fingertip. There was no earth-shattering momentum, no gorgeous and dazzling light and shadow.

It just quietly crossed the distance of space in an instant, landing with incomparable precision on the Sickle-Armed Demon Ape's massive scythe-arm.

*Crack...*

Time seemed to freeze at this moment.

That arrogant five-thousand-year Sickle-Armed Demon Ape couldn't even let out a wail.

Its entire massive body, along with its high-raised scythe-arms, was completely frozen by a layer of crystal-clear ice-blue ice.

It turned into a lifelike ice sculpture, its face even maintaining that fierce and brutal expression.

One strike!

Just one strike!

A powerful five-thousand-year Spirit Beast was instantly frozen, and its life aura was completely cut off!

The entire field was dead silent.

Tang Ya's mouth hung wide open, enough to fit an egg.

She knew Huo Yuhao was a freak, but this was too much of a freakish display!

Jiang Nannan's beautiful eyes were also wide, her soft face full of disbelief.

Ma Xiaotao's beautiful eyes were also wide, her rosy lips slightly parted, completely speechless.

This little boy... what kind of monster is he?

What did he just use?

A second Spirit?

Three spirit rings? He's already a Spirit Elder at seven or eight years old?!

And at least three hundred-thousand-year spirit rings?!

Moreover, that extreme cold...

Ma Xiaotao only felt that the scorching Evil Fire inside her seemed to be suppressed into being much more well-behaved the moment it felt that icy aura.

[part:gemini-3.1-flash-lite]

It allowed her sanity, which was almost about to be burned away, to regain a sliver of clarity.

However, it was only a sliver.

With the death of the Sickle-Armed Demon Ape, the battle ended, and that Evil Fire she had been forcefully suppressing within her body...

...lost its target for venting and instantly began a frenzied backlash!

"Ugh... Ah!"

A heat flow, far more violent than any time before, suddenly exploded from her lower abdomen, her dantian, and instantly rushed through her limbs and bones!

Ma Xiaotao let out a muffled groan, felt her vision go black, and felt as if all the strength in her body had been instantly drained; her legs went weak, and she fell to one knee on the ground.

The flames in her hands extinguished instantly, and the phoenix wings behind her also dissipated into specks of sparks, vanishing into the air.

Her skin turned red at a speed visible to the naked eye, as if she were a piece of red-hot branding iron.

Wisps of white steam rose from her body, scorching the ground around her until it was charred black.

"So... so hot..."

Ma Xiaotao groaned in pain, her hands clutching tightly at her collar.

Her consciousness began to blur, and everything before her eyes turned into a distorted red; a primitive, tyrannical impulse to destroy everything was frantically battering her mind.

"This woman's Spirit has a defect; the Evil Fire is attacking her heart. If this continues, she will completely lose her sanity and suffer a cultivation deviation."

Wang Qiuer's cold, clear voice rang out at the right moment, pointing out Ma Xiaotao's current state.

Huo Yuhao put away his Ice Jade Empress Scorpion Spirit, and that shocking spirit ring configuration also vanished along with it.

He turned around and looked at Ma Xiaotao, who was struggling in pain on the ground; a trace of pity and reluctance flashed in his deep eyes.

In his previous life, when he first met Ma Xiaotao, she was already a student of the Shrek Academy Inner Court, a proud daughter of heaven who was the center of everyone's attention.

Yet even so, she was still being tortured day and night by this Evil Fire, needing to rely on her own Ultimate Ice to suppress it.

But the version of her before him was only fourteen or fifteen years old, and her cultivation was far less powerful than in his later life, so the pain she was enduring would only be more intense.

He did not hesitate in the slightest, walking quickly to Ma Xiaotao's side and crouching down.

"Your Evil Fire has backlashed. Don't move around, I will help you suppress it." His voice was not loud, but it carried a convincing power of calmness.

Ma Xiaotao lifted her head with difficulty; sweat had soaked her fiery red long hair, sticking in strands to her crimson cheeks.

Her vision was already somewhat blurry, and she could only barely make out the outline of the little boy in front of her.

"You... who are you?"

Her voice had become hoarse from the pain, but the vigilance and pride in her bones had not diminished in the slightest. "Don't... don't meddle in other people's business... Ah!"

Before she could finish her sentence, another even more violent surge of Evil Fire rushed to her heart.

It made her unable to help but let out a painful scream, and her body curled up even tighter.

Huo Yuhao frowned slightly, knowing that this was not the time to ask for her consent.

He did not say another word, reaching out his right hand directly and ignoring the terrifying high temperature on Ma Xiaotao's body that was enough to melt steel, gently pressing it onto her shoulder.

"What are you doing! Let go of me!"

The sensation coming from her shoulder made Ma Xiaotao's whole body stiffen, and subconsciously, she wanted to struggle and resist.

But although Huo Yuhao's palm was not large, it was as steady as Mount Tai, making it impossible for her to shake it in the slightest.

The next second, a stream of icy, pure, yet supremely majestic Soul Power slowly poured in from his palm.

Following her meridians, it flowed precisely toward the rampaging cluster of Evil Fire within her body.

That was not ordinary ice-attribute Soul Power.

That power was like the emperor of ice and snow, carrying an innate nobility and dominance; wherever it passed, all things submitted.

The meridians in Ma Xiaotao's body had originally been like a volcano about to erupt, with scorching magma flowing wantonly, ready to burn everything to ashes.

But when this ice-blue Soul Power entered, it was like sweet rain falling from the heavens, or like an emperor arriving in his own territory.

Those arrogant phoenix Evil Fires, the moment they came into contact with this power, were like mice seeing a cat, instantly becoming incomparably docile and retreating one after another.

The ice-blue Soul Power did not try to exterminate them, but rather, in an extremely gentle way, slowly wrapped around the core of the Evil Fire that was rampaging in her dantian.

It was like a cold cocoon, sealing the violent seed of fire layer by layer, smoothing out all its sharp edges and tyranny.

"Ah... Mmm..."

Ma Xiaotao's whole body shuddered violently; it was a strange sensation she had never experienced before.

It had tortured her for five whole years, making her wake up in nightmares every night.

The Evil Fire that kept her in the pain of being burned alive every moment was, for the first time... for the first time, being so thoroughly calmed down.

That bone-deep sensation of dry heat retreated rapidly like a tide, replaced by a refreshing, heart-soothing coolness and comfort.

It was as if she had jumped into a ten-thousand-year-old ice spring during the dog days of summer; every pore was cheering, and every cell was leaping with joy.

That huge contrast from hell to heaven made her unable to hold back a moan of extreme comfort.

"Mmm~ So... so comfortable..."

Her body relaxed unconsciously, her tense muscles loosened up, and her body, which had been curled up due to the pain...

...even subconsciously moved a little closer toward that source of coolness, which was Huo Yuhao's palm.

"The Evil Fire... has it been suppressed?"

Ma Xiaotao slowly opened her eyes; the crimson red in them had faded, and they had returned to their original clarity.

She widened those beautiful phoenix eyes, feeling the unprecedented calm within her body in disbelief.

She stared blankly at the focused little boy in front of her, her gaze quickly changing from initial wariness to total shock.

Immediately following that shock, a sense of... reliance, which she herself could not explain or articulate, sprouted up.

It was this little boy who, in a way she could not understand, had solved the biggest nightmare that had plagued her for many years.

Huo Yuhao felt that the Evil Fire within her had temporarily stabilized, and only then did he slowly withdraw his palm.

He stood up and looked down at Ma Xiaotao, who was still kneeling on the ground, and said calmly, "Alright, it's temporarily suppressed.

However, your Spirit defect is deep-rooted; the Evil Fire has already fused with your origin Soul Power. To resolve it completely, long-term conditioning is required."

His tone was not like that of a seven or eight-year-old child, but rather like an experienced healer stating the simplest of facts.

Ma Xiaotao stared at him blankly, forgetting to get up for a moment.

His face still carried a trace of childishness, but his eyes were so deep they seemed to be able to see through people's hearts, carrying a calmness and detachment completely inconsistent with his age.

Powerful, mysterious, gentle...

Countless words flashed through Ma Xiaotao's mind.

She took a deep breath, suppressed the throbbing in her heart, and slowly stood up from the ground.

Because of the earlier consumption and torture, her legs were still a bit weak.

But she still stood straight; the pride of a powerhouse made her unwilling to show weakness in front of a little boy.

She stared at Huo Yuhao for quite a while, as if she wanted to see through him from the inside out.

Finally, she parted her red lips slightly and asked the first question.

"Little brother, what is your name? Which academy are you from?"

Huo Yuhao looked at her phoenix eyes, which had regained their Spirit, and smiled slightly.

That smile was clean and pure, yet it carried a trace of warmth enough to melt ice and snow.

"My name is Huo Yuhao, and I am just about to report to Shrek Academy."

"Shrek?"

Hearing this familiar name, Ma Xiaotao's eyes instantly lit up, as if they were the brightest stars in the night sky.

The shock and inquiry on her face were instantly replaced by a sense of pleasant surprise and closeness.

She took a step forward and patted Huo Yuhao on the shoulder in a straightforward manner.

Although this action looked a bit comical due to the height difference, her tone was full of sincerity and an unquestionable dominance.

"So you're a junior! I'm also a student at Shrek Academy! Huo Yuhao, right? I'll remember you!

You saved me today, and I, Ma Xiaotao, will remember this favor! In the future at Shrek, I'll cover for you!"

As she said this, she finally noticed Tang Ya, Wang Qiuer, and Jiang Nannan standing not far away, paused for a moment, and then said generously, "Are these few also going to report to Shrek? Perfect, let's go together!"