Douluo Dalu 2: Reincarnated as the Auspicious Beast

"Tsk, I told you so." Wang Rui glanced at the rapidly approaching red figure from the center of the lake. "What's meant to come will always come."

Since Jiang Nannan had already joined the Beast Sect, Xu Sanshi's second awakening changed targets and proceeded smoothly. He successfully advanced to the most powerful water-attribute martial soul—the Xuanwu Shield.

With the aid of the Xuanwu Black Water, Ma Xiaotao had not been troubled by her evil fire for a long time. She faced no restrictions during her cultivation and had always been operating at full strength. As a result, her soul power had reached an intimidating level of 69, just one step away from becoming a Soul Sage.

In the original story, she was supposed to lose control three months ago, encountering Wang Dong and Huo Yuhao by the Sea God Lake. However, due to small changes in the timeline, this incident never happened.

Yet, last week, Xu Sanshi suddenly took a leave of absence and returned home, allegedly due to a major family issue.

Ma Xiaotao immediately slowed down her cultivation, but it was futile. With Xu Sanshi around, her training had become too reckless and unrestrained. After just one week, the Phoenix Evil Fire began to rebound.

In fact, this was a subtle threat from the Xuanming Sect toward Shrek Academy.

To push for a marriage between Xu Sanshi and Ma Xiaotao, they needed to make both Shrek Academy and Ma Xiaotao herself realize that if she wanted to cultivate smoothly, she could not be separated from Xu Sanshi.

This scheme had the implicit approval of Yan Shaozhe; otherwise, it would have been difficult for Xu Sanshi to take leave.

Of course, with Ma Xiaotao's straightforward and bold personality—and her single-track mind—she couldn't comprehend these underhanded manipulations.

As for Xu Sanshi… He wasn't skilled at scheming either. In truth, his family tricked him into going back.

Now, it seemed that what was meant to come would come. Perhaps it was the inertia of fate, or the convergence of worldlines. However, Wang Rui did not deliberately avoid this event.

"Rui Beast… Should we hide a little?" Bai Chenxiang nervously clutched Wang Rui's shoulder. With her keen senses, she naturally knew who was rushing toward them.

From a personal standpoint, Bai Chenxiang did not want Ma Xiaotao to offend the Rui Beast.

A mere Soul Emperor couldn't possibly harm Wang Rui, but…

After all, Ma Xiaotao was Ma Hongjun's descendant.

"No need. I've been waiting for her for a long time." Wang Rui's golden eyes fixed intently on the red shadow approaching the shore. His gaze held an unusual sense of determination—like a predator eyeing its prey.

He had previously sent people to recruit Ma Xiaotao.

As Ma Hongjun's descendant, she naturally held the trust of Shrek Academy. With proper cultivation, she could become a crucial pawn to influence Shrek.

However, since the original work provided little information about Ma Xiaotao's past, Wang Rui had no way to approach her. By the time his subordinates found her, she was already Yan Shaozhe's disciple, making it difficult to poach her.

"If it were any other Soul Emperor, I might pretend a little. But…" Wang Rui smiled oddly.

Ma Xiaotao was a fire attribute user.

Within the time it took for them to exchange a few sentences, the blood-red, slender figure had already approached within a hundred meters of the shore.

A terrifying heat wave surged forward. As Ma Xiaotao's soles touched the water's surface, the lake boiled violently. Large clouds of steaming mist rose with a hissing sound, shrouding the area in thick white fog.

The moment she realized she was losing control, Ma Xiaotao probably intended to dive into the Sea God Lake to cool down. However, she likely didn't expect that an entire lake's worth of water couldn't extinguish her evil fire. Instead, she skimmed across the water's surface toward the outer courtyard.

Driven by the madness and destruction in her martial soul, the moment Ma Xiaotao sensed living beings on the shore, she charged at them with lethal intent.

The grass and trees along the shore turned yellow and withered. Under the intense heat, the surrounding landscape began to distort.

Yet, Wang Rui stood there calmly, smiling as he watched her approach.

Compared to the flames of the Three-Eyed Golden Lion, Ma Xiaotao's Phoenix Evil Fire was nothing more than a drizzle.

When the blood-red figure reached a distance of twelve meters, her body suddenly froze.

The dark red flames swirling around Ma Xiaotao also halted in that instant. Immediately afterward, the blood-colored flames retracted into her body as if they had never existed.

The next moment, dazzling crimson-gold flames flared directly from her body.

Her own flames were stripped away and turned against her.

"AH—!!!" Ma Xiaotao let out a heart-wrenching scream.

For the first time since her martial soul awakened, she felt the agony of being burned.

Bai Chenxiang's slender fingers anxiously gripped Wang Rui's shoulder.

She wanted to plead for mercy but ultimately held back. After all, Ma Xiaotao had indeed offended the Rui Beast.

"So worried, huh?" Wang Rui chuckled understandingly. "She'll be fine."

Sure enough, the moment his words fell, the golden-red flames withdrew. Even Ma Xiaotao, who had been in a frenzied state, returned to calmness.

Clearly, Ma Xiaotao had lost control of her body. Due to inertia, she tumbled across the ground before coming to a stop.

If she were conscious and could examine herself, she would discover that the Phoenix Evil Fire, which had turned dark red due to her loss of control, had fully reverted to its original crimson-gold hue—an even better state than when Xu Sanshi suppressed it.

This was the absolute suppression of ordinary fire attributes by the ultimate flame, as well as the enhancement effect of converting attributes to their extreme form.

Just as Huo Yuhao once elevated Ling Luocheng's elemental ice to Ultimate Ice in the original story, Wang Rui—who had even greater mastery over flames—easily suppressed and seized control of Ma Xiaotao's berserk evil fire, elevating her fire attribute to its extreme form.

The negative elements of madness and despair once contained within the flames were thoroughly burned away, leaving only pure and refined Phoenix Fire.

However, this only treated the symptoms, not the root cause. Without solving the core issue of Ma Xiaotao's martial soul, her body would continue to generate evil energy.

Wang Rui squatted beside her.

The once-imposing senior of the inner courtyard now appeared extremely disheveled. She lay face down on the ground, clearly having fallen hard. If not for her mask, her face would likely be bruised.

Wang Rui flipped her over, hooked his pinky finger under her mask, and revealed a sharp yet stunningly beautiful face—radiating an aggressive charm.

"Tsk tsk, she looks nothing like her ancestor." Wang Rui remarked.

He knew what Ma Hongjun looked like.

Compared to him, Ma Xiaotao's appearance bore no resemblance whatsoever. At least the Dai family of Star Luo had their distinctive double-pupil trait passed down through generations.

"So many generations have passed. The bloodline is barely traceable." Bai Chenxiang chuckled softly.

"True… But she's not your descendant, right? Why do you care so much?" Wang Rui teased.

…" Bai Chenxiang fell silent for a moment, "But she is still Fatty's descendant."

"Even if her ancestor was your lover's child with another woman?" Wang Rui pressed on relentlessly.

"That happened before Fatty met me. After we got together, he never did anything to betray me. It was his other brother who…" At this point, Bai Chenxiang sneered, "Besides, I need something to hold on to. And back then, after Fatty's bloodline was rediscovered, his life wasn't easy. The Bai family, the Tang Sect, and Shrek Academy all fought over the rights to his bloodline—after all, the Phoenix Martial Soul is a powerful and inheritable ability. Looks like Shrek won in the end, right?"

Wang Rui felt a chill from her smile, and he couldn't help but ask a question that had been nagging at him, "Haven't you ever considered… what if you finally meet him again, and he doesn't love you anymore? What will you do then?"

"My dear Rui Beast, please don't ask." The bird-like woman's beady eyes revealed a hint of bitter laughter. "I can't afford to think about that. If I do, I won't be able to hold on any longer."

After a brief hesitation, Bai Chenxiang asked softly, "Rui Beast… could you help the child?"

Wang Rui raised his eyebrows.

"Since my dear Secretary Bai has asked so sincerely, how could I refuse?" He flashed a particularly infuriating smile. "But before that, I need to conduct a little test to see what kind of person she is. Depending on the outcome, I'll decide how much to help. After all, if she turns out to be a bad apple and I help her too much, wouldn't we be nurturing a potential enemy?"