Elio's eyes widened.
He could feel the Spirit Power inside him draining faster and faster. After losing his Martial Soul, his body was like a bucket with an irreparable hole in it. Worse still, he had no control over it. He had lost all command over the Spirit Power inside his body.
"Mutated Martial Soul, Blazing Azure Wolf. Not bad. It can almost be counted as a superior Martial Soul. With a little assistance, reaching Titled Sage would not have been impossible. What a shame. Today, it is gone."
Wu Ling toyed with the sphere sealing the Blazing Azure Wolf Martial Soul, giving his evaluation in a light, casual tone.
As everyone knew, in Wu Ling's research, a Martial Soul was an ability that existed in the bloodline. In the past, he had already been able to use Knight of Owner and Rule Breaker to pluck out other people's Martial Souls.
Later, through the joint research of Medea and Rose, they developed a Magecraft array. Its function was to extract the power within a bloodline. In other words, it could force another person's Martial Soul to manifest, after which Knight of Owner could make that Martial Soul break away from the Spirit Master's control.
Unfortunately, at the current stage, Wu Ling could only use it on Spirit Masters whose Spirit Power was lower than his own.
With a turn of his wrist, Wu Ling placed the sphere into his storage ring. After he returned, he would hand this Martial Soul to Rose for research. Once processed, it could become Martial Soul fluid for use in the Soul Transformation Device.
Only now did the Shrek group and the three board members finally react. What had just happened was too fast. None of them had expected Wu Ling to suddenly attack, much less that a single palm strike would leave Elio Quinn, a Spirit Daoist, frozen in place without the slightest power to resist.
"Wait. Something is wrong. Elio's Spirit Power!" Hugo was the first to notice. As the highest-level person present on the surface, and as a control-type Spirit Master, he was highly sensitive to the changes in Elio's Spirit Power.
Spirit Daoist. Spirit Leader. Spirit Meister.
In only a dozen seconds, Elio's realm fell again and again. Finally, not only the board members, Flender, and the other Spirit Emperor and Spirit King figures, but even Tang San and the other Spirit Adepts could clearly sense the change in Elio.
Elio felt weak all over. Terror filled his face as he kept touching his own body, as if trying to plug something. Everything he did was useless.
The whole process lasted only a few dozen seconds, less than one minute. But as his Spirit Power leaked away, every second felt like a year. In the end, he was not even a Spirit Master anymore. His Spirit Power had fallen to level zero.
With a thud, Elio dropped to his knees in front of Wu Ling. His eyes were full of disbelief. His pride and confidence had vanished with his strength. He reached out, grabbed Wu Ling's ankle, and begged in a trembling voice, "Give... give it back."
Elio Quinn was normally calm, composed, and courteous. In the future, he would even dare to challenge Ghost Sage despite the level gap. But now he could not care about any of that. He had experienced something more terrifying than death.
The loss of power.
His own power. The power he had spent more than thirty years cultivating. He had watched it drain away right before his eyes. Just now, he had clearly felt his once-full Spirit Power leaving his body. He never wanted to feel that sensation again.
The scene was so quiet that a falling needle would have sounded loud. Only Elio's begging remained. What had happened before them was too much to process. A living Spirit Daoist had been reduced to nothing by one light pat from Wu Ling, the Saint.
A fall in realm was not unheard of. In the past, there had been cases where someone fell in level after suffering severe injuries. But this was not simply falling in realm. He had no realm left at all.
Everyone present was sharp. They had seen what Wu Ling held in his hand, and with Wu Ling's own words as confirmation, they reached a conclusion.
Wu Ling had stripped out Elio's Martial Soul.
Sometimes, death itself was not frightening. Among the people present, Wu Ling knew several who would dare to die heroically. Elio, for example, was one of them.
But unlike death, everyone here had felt the strength and authority that came with power. Losing a Martial Soul was, in a sense, more terrifying than death, especially with no mental preparation at all. Because of that, even people like Flender and Barrett Knox were too frightened to make a sound.
But in this world, there were always some people who had seen through everything and placed life, death, power, and authority beyond their reach.
"Your Highness," Hugo said with a grave expression, "although Elio offended you, he is still a teacher at Polaris Royal Academy and the leader of the Polaris Battle Team. For you to act so suddenly is not very appropriate."
Even as he questioned Wu Ling, his words carried great respect. He was even using honorific language.
Because Hugo's attitude was different, Wu Ling was not angry. Instead, he explained patiently.
"Board Member Hugo, you saw what he did from Shrek Academy's position just now. Do you believe that if you continued refusing Shrek Academy's admission, he would leave Polaris Royal Academy without hesitation?"
Hugo lowered his head and looked at Elio, whose eyes were still filled with pleading. His expression did not change.
"I believe it."
Hearing that, Wu Ling kicked Elio away. Without Spirit Power protecting him, Elio's physical condition was no different from an ordinary person's. Even with Wu Ling holding back, that kick still knocked him unconscious.
Flender hurriedly caught Elio, then pulled out some medicine and fed it to him while keeping wary eyes on Wu Ling.
Wu Ling ignored that completely. He turned back to Hugo.
"Then why are you still protecting him?"
Hugo shook his head and explained, "I am not protecting him. I am protecting a teacher of our academy. As long as he has not explicitly stated that he is leaving Polaris Royal Academy, he remains a teacher of our school. Even if he were not Elio Quinn, even if he were someone named Elio Sun or Elio Moon, I would still protect him."
"Because that is my duty as a board member."
There was one thing Hugo did not say. Polaris Royal Academy represented part of the Polaris Empire's face. If he could not even protect one of its teachers, how could he protect the students of the academy? How could he maintain the face of the Polaris Empire?
Wu Ling smiled slightly.
"Not bad. That kind of spirit truly suits the chief board member of Polaris Royal Academy. Much better than certain pieces of trash. Is that not right, great trash?"
As he spoke, Wu Ling turned toward the direction he had come from.
There stood Ethan Drake, his face dark as he walked over. After a few minutes, he had regained consciousness. But the moment he felt something was wrong and ran back, he heard Wu Ling calling him trash. His already gloomy and complicated mood was gradually swallowed by anger.
Seeing Wu Ling made him remember how Wu Ling had rejected him back then. It made him remember Wu Ling's achievements over the years. It made him remember how Tang San, his hope and his proof to the world, had been beaten into a badly wounded cripple several months earlier.
All of his hatred and fury piled together and drowned his reason all at once. And since the other two were present as well, Ethan roared.
"Flender! Scarlet!"
Even after years apart, their old tacit understanding remained. Ethan had only called their names, but they understood at once what he wanted to do.
Wu Ling understood too. He watched the three of them with interest.
"The Golden Sacred Dragon."