Seventh Elder Tang Lie

As his Spiritual Power locked onto the three men, Han Yu snapped his fingers.

Flames ignited from within their hearts. The three froze mid-motion, clutching their chests and groaning in agony.

Unfortunately, they no longer had any chance of surviving.

With a sweep of his hand, Han Yu had the Fallen Heart Flame burn the three of them to ashes.

"Cough, cough." After doing all that, Han Yu staggered.

"After fighting continuously, I've lost quite a bit of Soul Power and Spiritual Power. I need to get back as soon as possible."

A Soul Ring would dissipate after two hours. Before then, he had to maintain himself in peak condition.

"Teacher, your spoils." Ye Lingling picked up the Soul Tools the three had left behind and handed them to Han Yu.

The Fallen Heart Flame could damage Soul Tools. When he had killed the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect disciples earlier, he had failed to hold back and ended up with nothing.

Now, at least, he had finally made a gain.

After returning to the cave, Han Yu hurriedly sat down cross-legged.

"There's still over an hour left. I need to hurry and recover."

Ye Lingling guarded him from the side, occasionally casting healing effects on Han Yu to restore as much of his Soul Power as possible.

During this time, Han Yu had also tried using his Second Martial Soul, the Fallen Heart Flame, to draw in the Soul Ring, but it had no effect. A Heavenly Flame Martial Soul could not absorb Soul Rings.

Han Yu did not dwell on it. After all, Heavenly Flames were not native to Douluo Continent. Like Electrolux, they could unleash tremendous destructive power without Soul Rings.

The following morning.

Two figures appeared at the place where Han Yu had fought Tang Li and the others.

"Seventh Elder, Li'er and the others' auras disappeared here." Clear Sky Sect Elder Tang Wen cupped his hands and said.

The Seventh Elder frowned. "There's a strong fire-attribute aura nearby, and there are even marks on the ground from dragging corpses. Could Li'er and the others have been ambushed by a Fire-Attribute Soul Beast?"

There was an even denser fire-attribute aura not far away. Without seeing the bodies, the explanation of a Soul Beast attack seemed more plausible.

Tang Wen felt a pang of grief. Tang Bing, one of the three, was his son, yet his fate was now unknown.

"Seventh Elder, not many trees around here have been knocked down. It's very likely this was not done by a Soul Beast." Tang Wen examined the surroundings before speaking.

If something had been capable of dragging away the corpse of a large Soul Beast, then if it were a Soul Beast itself, its body would have had to be even larger.

The Seventh Elder did not jump to a conclusion. Instead, he headed toward the Flame Fire Fierce Flying Bird's territory.

Sure enough, there were human footprints on the ground. Judging from them, they belonged to one man and one woman.

"If I remember correctly, that Flame Fire Fierce Flying Bird should have been around twenty-six thousand years old," the Seventh Elder said grimly.

His Clear Sky Hammer possessed fire-attribute abilities. He had naturally searched for the locations of Soul Beasts when seeking Soul Rings in the past. This Flame Fire Fierce Flying Bird had escaped disaster only because it was not a strength-type Soul Beast.

"With such an age, could it have been a Soul Saint on the verge of breaking through? Li'er and the others..."

Tang Wen trailed off. Three Soul Kings facing a prospective Soul Saint—the outcome was obvious.

"Follow the trail. I want to see who has the gall to lay hands on members of our Clear Sky Sect!" Tang Lie said coldly.

Meanwhile, Han Yu, who was absorbing the Soul Ring, knew nothing of this.

Within his sea of consciousness, he was currently locked in a struggle against the Flame Fire Fierce Flying Bird's remnant soul.

"This is my sea of consciousness. How dare a mere outsider act so presumptuously?"

Absorbing a Soul Ring over ten thousand years old would bring Soul Shock. Having prepared for this long ago, Han Yu naturally did not fear the Flame Fire Fierce Flying Bird.

Watching Han Yu's somewhat twisted expression, Ye Lingling clasped her hands before her chest, her face filled with concern. "Teacher Han, you're absorbing a Soul Ring beyond your level. You must be all right."

Suddenly, a sound came from outside the cave.

"Seventh Elder, the footprints end here, and that Soul Beast's corpse has vanished as well."

Powerful people had arrived.

Ye Lingling's face immediately turned pale.

If the newcomers discovered this place, then with the abilities of an auxiliary-type Soul Master like her, she would naturally have no means of resisting.

However, the cave's structure was exceptionally clever, and the sounds within would not carry outside.

As for the cave entrance, Han Yu had long since set up a barrier with Heavenly Flames.

Unless it was a high-level Soul Master specializing in Spiritual Power, no one would discover any trace of them.

With Han Yu's cautious nature, after drawing the Soul Ring from the corpse, he had stored the body inside a Soul Tool.

Naturally, the Seventh Elder and the other man found nothing outside.

"Damn it!" The Seventh Elder swung his Clear Sky Hammer and smashed it viciously into a nearby tree trunk.

Tang Li and the other two had been among the outstanding younger generation of the Clear Sky Sect.

Now that the Clear Sky Sect had sealed off its mountain, its disciples' cultivation resources were far inferior to what they had once been. Tang Li and the others had occupied a great deal of those resources, so their deaths were not merely the loss of three disciples.

"Search! So long as they are not from the Upper Three Sects or Spirit Hall, kill them all. Better to kill the wrong ones than let even one slip away. I refuse to believe they can hide forever without coming out."

Only after the sounds outside faded did Ye Lingling finally let out a sigh of relief.

Of course, she was not foolish enough to poke her head out and look.

By nightfall, Han Yu's aura had completely stabilized, and his Soul Power had reached level fifty-four.

"Whew. I didn't expect absorbing a Soul Ring beyond my level to bring so many benefits. The purity of my Soul Power is now more than twice what it was before."

"Teacher Han, your back..." Ye Lingling had intended to tell him what had happened during the day, but to her surprise, a pair of fiery red wings had grown from Han Yu's back.

"Hm?"

When Han Yu turned around and saw the wings, delight flashed in his eyes.

The wings were like a part of his body, entirely under his control.

"An External Soul Bone. This is an External Soul Bone. Little Bum gained an External Soul Bone by absorbing a Soul Ring five hundred years beyond his level, while I exceeded mine by over ten thousand years."

Because Han Yu had remained conscious throughout the absorption of the Soul Bone, this External Soul Bone had fused perfectly with his body.

With a thought, he retracted the External Soul Bone into his body.

"Lingling, this is an External Soul Bone. It does not belong to any of the other Soul Bone positions; it exists independently. It won't occupy any of the body's six major Soul Bone slots."

"Teacher Han, this is the first time I've heard of an External Soul Bone."

That was only natural. After all, External Soul Bones were as rare on Douluo Continent as Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bones. Their value was only slightly lower than that of Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bones.

If properly nurtured, it was not impossible for an External Soul Bone to advance to the hundred-thousand-year level.

Listening to Han Yu's explanation, Ye Lingling's eyes sparkled. She smiled and teased, "I never expected that Teacher Han not only had exceptional cultivation talent, but also such a solid grasp of theory."

"Haha, I'll take that as a compliment. By the way, nothing unexpected happened while I was absorbing the Soul Ring, right?"

At those words, Ye Lingling suddenly remembered.

Her brows knitted slightly as she told him about the Seventh Elder and the others from earlier that day.

Of course, she did not know who this Seventh Elder was.

"We can't stay here. While they're searching elsewhere, we need to leave the Star Dou Great Forest as soon as possible." Han Yu frowned. Then he poked his head out of the cave, saw that everything nearby was calm, and quickly grabbed Ye Lingling's hand before running out.

The Clear Sky Sect was the typical kind where, if you beat the young ones, the old ones came; if the old ones could not beat you, even older ones came. And if you still won, they even had the ones who had rejuvenated themselves.

In short, they were the sort who allowed officials to set fires but forbade commoners from lighting lamps.