Killing the Evil Soul Masters
The sound of ribs breaking was clearly audible.
The short, stout woman slammed into the ground and rolled several times, spitting out a mouthful of black blood.
The illusion shattered under the searing pain, and as her consciousness returned, fear appeared in her eyes.
"You... you little brat..."
Jiang Wu gave her no chance to finish.
He closed in, moving far too fast for a level-twenty Soul Master.
The short, stout woman struggled to get up. Her First Soul Ring lit up again, and another cloud of poisonous mist sprayed from her palm, but this time Jiang Wu gave her no chance to open up the distance.
He turned sideways to avoid the front of the poisonous mist, pushed off with his left foot, and slid low across the ground, closing in on her side in an instant.
The short, stout woman swung her palm at his head, the wind from the blow carrying a sickly sweet poison gas.
Jiang Wu ducked beneath it and raised his right arm.
He activated his Golden Dragon King Bloodline.
A scorching power surged from his heart into his right arm, covering it in golden scales.
Fine golden dragon scales emerged from beneath his skin, covering his entire right arm from shoulder to fingertips.
The strength of his right arm doubled.
The moment his gold-scaled right hand clenched into a fist, it changed. The scales on his five fingertips grew sharper and thicker, while the dragon scales between his knuckles overlapped to form an indestructible shell.
His entire right hand transformed into a golden dragon claw, its fingertips gleaming with a cold metallic luster.
The strength of his right arm doubled again on top of its increase in the golden-scaled state.
The drain on his Soul Power was immense. Jiang Wu could feel it pouring out of his body like water through an opened floodgate.
The short, stout woman finally climbed to her feet, her face twisted beyond recognition with fear and anger.
Her Third Soul Ring lit up. She brought her hands together, condensing a ball of dark green poison between her palms, its surface roiling with nauseating poison gas.
"Die!"
The poison ball blasted toward Jiang Wu.
Jiang Wu pushed off with his right foot and charged straight at it, thrusting out the Golden Dragon Claw on his right arm with all five fingers spread.
The instant the poison ball struck the Golden Dragon Claw, it was torn apart by a single swipe.
Dark green poison gas splattered in every direction, landing on the surrounding trees and immediately corroding their bark black, but Jiang Wu's golden scales blocked all of it.
A golden dragon claw drew closer and closer, reflected in the short, stout woman's pupils.
Squeltch.
The Golden Dragon Claw pierced her chest.
Its crushing property activated, and the short, stout woman's protective Soul Power, ribs, and internal organs shattered like tofu before the Golden Dragon Claw.
Her body went rigid where she stood, her narrow eyes wide, the fear in them frozen in that final moment.
Jiang Wu pulled out his right arm, drawing out a spray of bloody mist.
The short, stout woman fell onto her back, unwillingness written across her face.
Jiang Wu pulled out his right arm. Its golden scales were covered in dark red blood, which ran drop by drop along the grooves of the dragon claw.
He had no time to catch his breath. He turned to look at Lin Yuan's battle.
The fight between Lin Yuan and the tall, thin man had already reached a fever pitch.
Cyan afterimages darted back and forth through the dense forest. Lin Yuan clearly had the advantage in speed, but the tall, thin man's bone armor was too hard. Lin Yuan had struck his vital points several times, only to be blocked by the armor, leaving nothing but a few cracks in it.
Meanwhile, the tall, thin man's ten gray-black Soul Power threads grew increasingly dense, weaving a tightening net around Lin Yuan and squeezing his room to maneuver ever smaller.
Jiang Wu kept low, using the bushes in the dense forest as cover as he silently crept toward the tall, thin man from the flank.
He estimated the distance, then glanced at Lin Yuan's position.
Lin Yuan was being forced back by the net of Soul Power threads. The tall, thin man's attention was entirely on him, leaving his back wide open.
Jiang Wu took a deep breath, and his Second Soul Ring lit up again.
Lin Yuan was being forced back by the net of Soul Power threads. The tall, thin man's attention was entirely on him, leaving his back wide open.
Jiang Wu took a deep breath, and his Second Soul Ring lit up again.
Second Soul Skill: Illusory Charm Eyes.
A deep purple light flashed through Jiang Wu's eyes and vanished.
The tall, thin man's movements abruptly stalled, his deep-set eyes losing focus in an instant. All ten Soul Power threads spun out of control at once, twisting twice in the air before dispersing into gray-black mist.
Lin Yuan seized the opportunity.
His Fourth Soul Ring lit up, and a layer of cyan wind blades appeared around his right palm. His whole body became a straight beam of cyan light, aimed directly at the tall, thin man's throat.
But the tall, thin man was, after all, a level-forty-six Soul Ancestor, and his mental strength far surpassed the short, stout woman's.
The Illusory Charm Eyes held him for less than a second before his consciousness broke free of the illusion.
He bit down hard on the tip of his tongue, and the sharp pain brought him fully to his senses, just in time to see Lin Yuan's cyan wind blade bearing down on him.
The tall, thin man had no time to dodge and could only turn sideways.
The cyan wind blade grazed his neck, cutting through a layer of bone armor and leaving a wound on his shoulder deep enough to expose bone. Blood gushed out.
"You're asking for death!"
The tall, thin man flew into a rage. His Fourth Soul Ring flickered wildly, and the bone armor covering his upper body suddenly swelled as countless bone spikes burst from its surface.
The bone spikes forced Lin Yuan back. He flipped in the air and barely managed to land, several bloody cuts scored across his arm.
Jiang Wu had already closed in behind the tall, thin man's flank. He pushed off with his right leg and shot toward him like an arrow loosed from a bow.
The tall, thin man heard the wind behind him and spun around.
He saw that a golden dragon claw had already reached his chest, and a trace of shock flashed through his deep-set eyes.
The tall, thin man instinctively raised his left arm to block, bone armor condensing into a small shield on it.
The Golden Dragon Claw struck the bone shield.
The bone shield shattered before the Golden Dragon Claw as though it were made of paper, and the golden dragon claw pierced the tall, thin man's left arm.
The dragon claw's crushing force spread up the bones of his left arm, from wrist to forearm, from elbow to shoulder. The bones of his entire left arm broke inch by inch in a series of grating cracks.
"Aah!"
The tall, thin man let out a heart-rending scream as the force of the Golden Dragon Claw sent him flying backward.
His left arm twisted at an unnatural angle, completely severed at the shoulder and hanging on by only a few tendons. Blood spurted out like a gushing spring.
He slammed into a large tree. Its trunk gave a muffled thud, shaking a carpet of leaves to the ground.
The tall, thin man slid to the ground, panting against the trunk.
His face was even paler than before. Without Soul Power to sustain it, his bone armor peeled away piece by piece, exposing the shriveled skin beneath.
He looked down at his broken left arm, then raised his head to look at Jiang Wu. For the first time, fear appeared in his deep-set eyes.
"You... what kind of monster are you...?"
Jiang Wu did not answer him.
His Soul Power was nearly exhausted. The Golden Dragon Claw had dissipated on its own after that strike, and the golden scales on his right arm were fading away one by one.
But he did not pause. He drew the dagger from his waist with his right hand and walked through the pools of blood covering the ground toward the tall, thin man.
Lin Yuan circled around from the other side as well.
One on the left and one on the right, the two closed in on the large tree together.
The tall, thin man struggled to stand, but the agony of his broken left arm and the massive blood loss had left his whole body weak.