It Was Time to Build the Young Master's Guard

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Four chapters today (2/4).

Please keep reading to the last page.

On the high platform, Chen Zhang watched the brutal yet extraordinarily tenacious ring-shaped defensive line unfolding around Chen Xiaojun.

Zhu Wuneng's arrangements were rather brilliant as well. At the front, he and Lian Shouzhong, who combined offense and defense, held the line, while Gao Cuilan provided support.

On the right, although the Combination Skill of Chen Shurui and Chen Bin could rival a high-level Soul Emperor or even a Soul Saint, such fullness could not last long. And since the neighboring block was occupied by soul masters of the Ximen Family, there would not be an enormous surge of Bone Excavation Group members charging in.

The left side was different, so Du Gu Fu, a wide-area poison master, had been stationed there. With Ma Wencai assisting him—someone unafraid of poison and who possessed a Combination Skill—their safety was relatively assured.

At the rear were the Earth Listeners Trio. Zhu Wuneng knew their abilities in great detail. The three of them had rather well-rounded abilities, were very skilled in group battles, and were excellent for covering the retreat.

Ma Liang in the sky and Chen Mu blocking the enemy had also brought out their respective strengths.

Chen Zhang could not help nodding repeatedly and murmured to himself, "It seems Xiaojun's personal guard is about ready to be established."

Zhu Wuneng's official position in the Chen Clan was Young Master's Guard Captain. This was by no means an empty title, because Chen Xiaojun was already the Young Clan Leader.

Whether for escorting him on journeys or displaying proper grandeur, he needed a loyal, reliable, and powerful dedicated guard unit.

The previous guard captain had been Zhu Tianhao. Now that Zhu Wuneng had taken over the position, he was truly following in his father's footsteps.

The weight of such a personal guard was considerable. Apart from the closest personal attendants, they were the most core force at the Young Master's side, and even more so, they would become an important future team and trusted pillar when the Young Master took charge of the clan.

Back then, many members of Chen Xun's Young Master's Guard had now become Soul Saints. For instance, Qin Ximing, who served as Medicine Market Manager; Ruan Erfeng, the Brocade-Clad Guard Commissioner; and even the late Jian Hesong had all come from the guard.

Chen Xiaojun's situation was very special. He had only been in his teens when he took over as Young Master, so arrangements in this regard had not yet been made, unlike Chen Xun back then, whose identity had been confirmed when he was almost thirty.

As for the candidates, among the strongest of the Chen Clan's younger generation, the "Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches," most of the Heavenly Stem Stars were Branch Prodigies themselves and future candidates for Family Head, so their status was not suitable.

Meanwhile, two or three Heavenly Stem Stars such as Zhu Wuneng and Du Gu Fu, along with over a dozen strong, loyal, and reliable "Di Sha Star" members selected by the various families, were the most ideal and fitting backbone candidates for building this guard unit.

They had ability and potential. They were the solid foundation for constructing Chen Xiaojun's core team.

Most of these young men and women who were growing rapidly amid blood and fire were also in the Upper Grades, nearing the end of their internships and graduation. The rough outline of this future guard unit had already taken shape.

At the edge of the battlefield, Jian Xinyue, who had hurried over, was dressed in plain white and looked entirely out of place.

Her face was pale, her eyelids dark, and only her Ink Crystal Bottle martial soul emitted a faint cold glow—the sole connection between her and reality.

A Soul King leader of the Bone Excavation Group, an Ironback Mountain Boar, braced himself against the aftershocks of soul skills, locked onto Chen Xiaojun, and prepared to activate his Fifth Soul Skill, "Savage Charge."

Jian Xinyue activated her Fifth Soul Skill, "Ink Crystal Dust Mist." The Ink Crystal Bottle tilted, releasing a silent, viscous black crystal dust mist that spread in a fan shape and precisely enveloped the Soul King and several elites.

That was right—she was also a Soul King, but she had not yet appeared in the Gao Ying Competition because she was studying at Heaven Dou Academy.

Since Heaven Dou Academy had many experts and her own desire to participate was not especially strong, she had not been placed on the battle roster.

Within the mist, the Soul King's movements became sluggish, as if he had sunk into glue. His vision was obstructed, his breathing clogged, and the activation of his soul skill was delayed. His charge was interrupted, and he cried out in alarm and fury, "What the hell is this?!"

At that moment, the toxic haze created by Du Gu Fu and Ma Wencai was blown by Lie Feng, and the five-colored poison drifted into the edge of the dust mist.

Jian Xinyue urged the Ink Crystal Bottle, and the poisonous gas was absorbed and condensed into glass-colored poison-crystal particles that hovered in the mist, increasing its danger. Anyone who inhaled it would be both slowed and poisoned.

She activated her Fourth Soul Skill, "Ink Crystal Flow," against the Soul King who was struggling free. A viscous black liquid shot from the mouth of the bottle and coiled around his legs like lightning.

Ink Crystal Flow possessed binding power and energy corrosion. The Soul King's legs felt as if they had been plunged into an icy pool, and the circulation of his Soul Power was obstructed. His Soul Power armor corroded with a "sizzle," and he roared, "Damn it!" The more he struggled, the tighter the bindings became, until he completely lost the ability to charge.

His subordinates found it difficult to move within the dust mist and became living targets, harvested by soul skills from the perimeter.

Jian Xinyue's face was expressionless. The rhythm of battle, the clash of Soul Power, and the deaths of enemies temporarily washed away her pain.

She exiled herself onto the battlefield, using precise control and lethal support to build a barrier that isolated her sorrow. Every flicker of the Ink Crystal Bottle was a futile attempt to fill the hollow inside her heart.

This was the purpose behind An Ming and the others dragging her all the way to the battlefield.

A flash of Huaguang!

The Bone Excavation Group Soul King who was bound by Ink Crystal Flow and struggling in vain was met by an incomparably sharp sword light that arrived in an instant and precisely pierced through his throat!

A hoarse, rasping sound came from his throat, and the madness in his eyes was swiftly replaced by lifeless gray. His massive body crashed to the ground, raising a cloud of dust.

"Xinyue, get inside, quickly!" Chen Mu shouted, then darted away after throwing that out.

A faint ripple passed through Jian Xinyue's somewhat hollow gaze. With a tap of her foot, her figure shot through the brief gap like a drifting white shadow and entered the ring-shaped defensive circle.

The moment she stood firm, the Ink Crystal Bottle in her hand lit up with a dim glow once more.

"Second Soul Skill, Ink Crystal Body!"

She gently raised it, and like an ink-wash landscape spreading in soft shades, it moved nimbly around the bodies of every fighting companion within the defensive circle, even including Chen Xiaojun, whose state was strange.

On the surface of each person's body, it formed a thin black robe condensed from flowing ink.

This black ink robe could significantly enhance resistance to attacks of martial soul attributes.

As Ink Crystal Body took effect, the pressure on the defensive circle abruptly eased a little.

Zhu Wuneng felt that the Tian Peng Battle Armor had grown even heavier and more solid. The light flowing across Chen Bin and Chen Shurui's Light and Dark Barrier seemed smoother. Du Gu Fu's poisonous mist seemed to carry a barely perceptible crystalline sharpness. Ma Liang's fire feathers seemed to burn more purely and fiercely... Under the tempering of blood and fire, the entire battle line briefly stabilized because of this timely group enhancement.

It was precisely because these boys and girls possessed such astonishing, almost Soul King-level combat strength across the board that they had managed to forcefully hold this defensive ring together amid the surging tide of enemies and immense pressure as it gradually pushed deeper into the enemy formation.

However, this was not without hidden dangers.

These youths had only recently recovered from their new injuries. The power they were unleashing on the battlefield right now was certainly shocking, but the drain of sustained, high-intensity combat was enormous. They absolutely could not fight for long.

And now, an even greater test had arrived.

At the edge of the deathly swamp on the left wing, shrouded in poisonous miasma, Du Gu Fu looked at the corpse of the centipede Soul King not far away, which had just been pierced through by his Golden Centipede Leg Stab and was now giving off eerie green smoke as its skin festered. He lightly pressed a hand to his chest, where his blood and qi churned faintly, then spat coldly. "Pah. Trying to play poison with me?"

Beside him, Ma Wencai immediately stepped forward and asked with concern, "Are you all right?"

Du Gu Fu drew in a deep breath and suppressed the discomfort brought on by his expenditure. "I'm fine."

Just then, a sinister, hoarse voice pierced through the Poison Mist Diffusion on the left and drifted over from the opposite side:

"Heh heh heh... I never thought that useless good-for-nothing disciple of mine would actually fall to some wet-behind-the-ears brat..."