That afternoon, the semifinals commenced as scheduled.
When they saw their opponents in the match, Wang Dong and Zhu Yun instantly understood why they possessed a martial soul fusion skill.
With long blue hair fluttering in the wind, two identical-looking girls stood one on each side behind Huang Chutian. They were, surprisingly, a pair of twins.
As far as Huo Yuhao knew, the sisters were named Lan Luoluo and Lan Susu, and their martial soul was the body martial soul, hair.
Although body martial souls were generally much stronger than ordinary martial souls, the hair martial soul could only be considered borderline within the body martial soul category; it wasn't particularly powerful.
It was precisely because of this that Wu Feng and Nanmen Yun'er were able to easily force them to reveal their martial soul fusion skill.
Soon, the match began.
As soon as the match started, Huang Chutian released his Herculean Ape martial soul and charged towards Huo Yuhao and the others with large strides.
Huo Yuhao met him without fear, his body filled with fighting spirit, and threw a punch towards Huang Chutian.
As the holder of the Herculean Ape martial soul, Huang Chutian naturally wasn't afraid of a head-on clash. He let out a laugh and also threw a punch.
However, something terrifying happened. As his fist intersected with Huo Yuhao's, he felt as if his soul had been struck by a giant hammer. He staggered back two steps as if struck by lightning, blood gushing from his nose and mouth.
"King's Descent?!"
Seeing this astonishing scene, Yan Shaozhe on the judges' stand couldn't sit still. He abruptly stood up, startling Du Wilun beside him.
Originally, as the dean of the Martial Soul Department, he didn't need to observe this small freshman assessment. However, this year's freshmen were truly outstanding, perhaps the most excellent in recent decades. Coupled with his curiosity about the team that defeated Xie Huanyue's team across ranks, he made time to watch the match.
He hadn't expected that just as the battle began, Huo Yuhao would give him such a big surprise.
Du Wilun quickly asked,
"King's Descent? Dean, do you recognize this move used by this freshman?"
"...Mhm."
Noticing the astonished gazes of the surrounding teachers, Yan Shaozhe realized his lapse in composure.
He lightly coughed, smiled at them to indicate he was fine, and sat back down.
Only after the teachers' expressions had shifted away from him did he explain to Du Wilun with a complex expression:
"This is a self-created soul skill created by my teacher. He didn't pass it on to anyone, so I didn't expect to see it on this young man today."
"..."
Du Wilun was speechless.
As the dean of the Martial Soul Department, Yan Shaozhe's cultivation had reached the realm of a Super Douluo. One could imagine what realm the existence he respectfully called 'teacher' must be in.
Could this student named Huo Yuhao actually use a move created by such a powerful individual?
Yan Shaozhe stared intently at Huo Yuhao on the field, lost in thought.
When he saw that scene just now, he was a bit too excited, but upon careful reflection, he could see that the King's Descent used by Huo Yuhao had subtle differences from the one used by Mu En.
He couldn't articulate exactly where the differences lay, as he himself wasn't a successor of King's Descent, but this slight difference made him understand that Huo Yuhao's King's Descent was likely self-taught and not personally instructed by Mu En; otherwise, there shouldn't be this subtle sense of incongruity.
Just then, he suddenly recalled that at the Sea God's Pavilion meeting two months ago, the name of the freshman prepared by Xian Lin'er and Qian Duoduo for the Extreme Solo Plan also seemed to be Huo Yuhao.
"So that's it. No wonder Teacher said the characteristics of his martial soul were highly compatible with King's Descent. It's for this reason."
Yan Shaozhe nodded as if enlightened.
"I'll meet this child after this assessment round ends."
He had no intention of snatching Huo Yuhao from the Soul Tool Department. After all, the decision for Huo Yuhao to implement the Extreme Solo Plan was passed at the Sea God's Pavilion. If he wanted to take this child from the Soul Tool Department, he would have to convene another Sea God's Pavilion meeting.
Being able to research a degraded version of King's Descent on his own was indeed astonishing, but this achievement alone wasn't enough for Yan Shaozhe to specifically hold another Sea God's Pavilion meeting for it.
He wanted to meet Huo Yuhao simply to confirm how this child managed to do it.
The commotion on the judges' stand was not noticed by Huo Yuhao. At this moment, his entire focus was on his opponent.
He couldn't yet fully utilize this newly comprehended move with ease. Because he had to mobilize his fighting spirit to fuse soul power and spiritual power, the result was that when using this self-created soul skill, he had to be completely focused, concentrating all his attention on the matter of "defeating the opponent."
This undoubtedly weakened his ability to assess the overall situation, but in return, it greatly increased his attack power.
Even the defensive-type Soul Ancestor Xie Huanyue couldn't withstand his full-powered self-created soul skill, let alone a Great Soul Master like Huang Chutian. That single blow just now nearly severely injured him.
However, this was just the beginning. The reason Huo Yuhao went all out from the start was to eliminate Huang Chutian from the battlefield immediately.
Just one martial soul fusion skill was troublesome enough; he didn't want to have to worry about other enemies while dealing with the martial soul fusion skill.
So Huo Yuhao took a step forward and raised his fist again.
Seeing this, the hair net that the Lan sisters had originally entangled Wang Dong with quickly changed direction and wrapped towards Huo Yuhao.
Huang Chutian was currently in a dizzy state after being struck by King's Descent. He simply had no ability to resist another attack of that magnitude.
They had to help him!
However, while the Lan sisters changed targets, Wang Dong did not.
He proactively flew up, blocking the space between Huo Yuhao and the hair net. The Butterfly Wing Scythe on his arm gleamed with brilliant blue-gold light, and the sharp light flashed quickly, cutting off all the extending hair.
Lan Luoluo and Lan Susu wanted to compensate, but there was no longer an opportunity.
Their second soul skill required a certain activation time, and Huo Yuhao wouldn't give them another chance to activate a soul skill.
"Boom!"
Huo Yuhao's fist, flashing with brilliant golden light, once again directly struck Huang Chutian. This time, Huang Chutian, who had no defensive capabilities, finally lost his ability to resist, spitting blood and fainting, and was rescued from the arena by the supervising teacher.
The students and teachers off the field were stunned.
The situation evolved too quickly. None of them had expected that less than five seconds after the match began, the captain and strongest member of Huang Chutian's team would already be eliminated from the arena by two punches.
One must remember that this was the semifinals. Although Huang Chutian's team might not necessarily be among the top four due to the early elimination of Ning Tian's team and Xie Huanyue's team, they were definitely among the outstanding freshmen.
Who would have thought that in such a situation, the match would still turn into such a crushing defeat.