In front of Wu Ling, Ethan stood at the front while Flender and Scarlet stood behind him. A huge array formed under the three of them, connecting the Spirit Power within their bodies.
"Sun and moon shine together! Golden light turns radiant! Let my body be the vessel, and my Spirit Power the bond!"
Golden light covered the three of them. Only then did Flender and Scarlet, whose minds were linked with Ethan's, discover that Ethan had been unconscious just now. He had no idea Wu Ling possessed the ability to strip Martial Souls.
Scarlet did not mind. To stand behind the man she had longed for again was enough to make death feel worthwhile. A moment ago, she had agreed to Ethan's request almost by instinct.
Flender was different.
He had agreed so quickly because of his trust in Ethan. He thought Ethan had been observing from the shadows, found a way to break the situation, and only then stepped out to confront Wu Ling directly.
At the same time, Ethan received from their minds the knowledge of what Wu Ling had just done. He learned that Wu Ling had an ability that could seize another person's Martial Soul, and he also sensed Flender's wavering resolve. Ethan hurried to reassure him.
"Flender, calm down. There is no such thing as a perfect ability in this world. That man's ability must have limits. If he could seize the Martial Soul of a Titled Sage, would he not already be number one under heaven?"
"And this is a Martial Soul Fusion Skill, not an ordinary Martial Soul. He definitely cannot do it."
After hearing Ethan's reassurance, Flender gradually steadied himself and devoted himself fully to the fusion.
Though Ethan had explained a great deal, it had happened through their linked minds. To the outside world, only a few seconds had passed.
Then an enormous yellow puppy appeared above the three of them. It was Ethan's Martial Soul, Luo Sanpao. Luo Sanpao's figure gradually faded, finally turning into a huge egg.
"Descend! Luo Sanpao's mutation, the heaven-destroying, earth-shattering, eternal Dragon King!"
Under everyone's gaze, the huge egg began to crack. Golden light bloomed from the fractures.
"Golden Sacred Dragon!"
With Ethan's roar, the three vanished from where they stood. In their place appeared a western dragon whose body was eighty percent covered in golden scales, with white scales along its abdomen and black horns and claws.
When the golden dragon was born, the three board members and Shrek's teachers quickly pulled Tang San, Elio, and the other five students far away.
"So this is Teacher's power!" Tang San watched the Golden Sacred Dragon in the distance, his eyes full of admiration.
"Hahaha! Golden Sacred Dragon! That fellow is going to suffer today!" Barrett Knox said excitedly as he stared toward the battlefield.
Hearing Barrett's words, Tang San hurriedly asked, "Teacher Barrett, you know what that is?"
Barrett chuckled. After sweeping his gaze around and receiving the eager looks of the younger students, he finally explained.
"That woman is Scarlet Pyre. Twenty years ago, she, Flender, and Tang San's teacher Ethan Drake were a combination famous across the continent. They were called the Golden Iron Triangle."
"This is their signature technique, a three-in-one Martial Soul Fusion Skill performed with Ethan, Flender, and Scarlet as the three points. Flender provides flight, Scarlet provides the dragon body, and Ethan provides Luo Sanpao as the host body along with his intelligence. It is said their Martial Soul compatibility reaches ninety-nine percent. When they go all out, they can stand against a Titled Sage!"
"What? They can contend with a Titled Sage!" Tang San and the others cried out.
Up to now, they had never seen a Titled Sage fight, but they still yearned for that world-class power. After the first impact passed, they all focused intently on the battlefield. Whether they wanted to see the strength of a Titled Sage, Wu Ling finally suffer, or both, only they knew.
Aside from what Barrett had said, Wu Ling knew more detailed information.
After Luo Sanpao completed its evolution, Flender and Scarlet had to pour all of their Spirit Power into the Martial Soul Fusion Skill, while Ethan's consciousness controlled it.
"Heh. They provide the Spirit Power and Spirit Rings, but in the end Ethan, the one who only provides the vessel and barely has any combat experience, gets control. Those two really are pure tools."
"It is lucky their Martial Soul compatibility is ninety-nine percent. Otherwise, based on Ethan's knot over Scarlet, this would probably have failed immediately."
As for combat power, the Golden Sacred Dragon's attacks carried both lightning and fire attributes. During the skill's duration, it could generate a protective golden light that made the users immune to most external attacks. Its attack power was also extremely strong. Rumor said it could rival a Titled Sage. But from what Wu Ling saw, it still fell short.
If anyone other than a Titled Sage could evaluate the Golden Sacred Dragon's strength, it was Wu Ling.
Only a few months earlier, Wu Ling had challenged every Titled Sage in Spirit Hall.
Because those were only sparring matches, Wu Ling had not used the god-slaying spear. Even so, with his enormous damage reduction and his almost limitless Noble Phantasm volleys, only Lucius Cross had fought him to a draw. Even the level-98 Golden Crocodile Sage had fallen beneath Wu Ling's golden spear.
In Wu Ling's perception, the Golden Sacred Dragon before him did not match the Speed Clan in speed, did not match the Strength Clan in power, and did not match the Defense Clan or Breaking Clan in defense and attack. Its advantage was balance.
Its true strength was roughly that of a pseudo-Titled Sage at level ninety without a ninth Spirit Ring. But if it truly fought, it might not even beat the weakest real Titled Sage. In the original story, Erasmus Graves, who at the time could be called the disgrace of Titled Sages at level ninety-one, defeated it with his eighth Spirit Skill without even using his ninth.
As for whether Wu Ling could strip out the Sacred Dragon the same way he had stripped Elio's Martial Soul, the answer was yes. Wu Ling had tested it before on Serena Ivory's Martial Soul Fusion Skill.
But right now, the answer was also no. The Magecraft array that stripped Martial Souls could only strip entities lower than Wu Ling in Spirit Power level. Wu Ling's Spirit Power level could not match the current Sacred Dragon's level, so it would not work. This world was, after all, a metaphysical world that did not care about science.
Because of that, Wu Ling had two ways to obtain the Golden Sacred Dragon.
The first was to wait until his Spirit Power level rose and then strip it. But that would take too long and be too troublesome, so Wu Ling crossed it out immediately.
The second method could begin right now. He could start from the three people at the source.
After all, wool came from the sheep. Since the Martial Soul Fusion Skill was made by merging three Martial Souls, would obtaining those three Martial Souls separately not solve the problem?