Vulture Mercenary Group

The setting sun dyed the entire Soul Hunting Forest a magnificent orange-red.

The journey back was exceptionally quiet.

Tang San followed behind Lin Xi, step by step, crunching across the thick fallen leaves with soft rustling sounds.

He was still savoring the new power within him.

Soul Power, level eleven.

Mysterious Heaven Skill, second level.

First Soul Skill, Divine Grace Parasite.

In merely half a day, his strength had undergone an earthshaking transformation.

All of this was thanks to the girl walking at the front.

He looked at her back. That slender figure seemed taller and more dependable in his eyes than any of the towering ancient trees around them.

Xiao Wu had also shed her liveliness from the journey there. She walked quietly beside Lin Xi, stealing glances at her from time to time.

Her eyes held curiosity, admiration, and a trace of... dependence that was difficult to detect.

Today's Lin Xi had made her feel an unprecedented sense of unfamiliarity and strength.

Yet that gentle pat at the end, along with the words, "I've always been this way," had given her an unprecedented sense of security.

She felt that she seemed to like the current Lin Xi even more.

Yu Xiaogang, meanwhile, followed three steps behind like a most devout ascetic, his head lowered and not saying a word.

He no longer tried to assert his presence with his pitiful scraps of knowledge.

He merely observed with his eyes and memorized with his mind.

Lin Xi's every movement, every glance, the energy fluctuations when Tang San's soul ring lit up, the changes in Blue Silver Grass's form...

Everything was, in his eyes, the most sacred subject worthy of a lifetime of study.

Just as the four of them were about to leave the dense forest and step onto the main road home,

Lin Xi suddenly stopped.

"What is it, Lin Xi?" Xiao Wu asked in confusion.

Tang San instantly became alert as well. His Purple Demon Eye quietly activated, sweeping over the surroundings.

It was quiet all around.

There was only the sound of wind passing through the leaves.

Yet Tang San keenly sensed a faint scent of blood in the air, one that did not belong to this forest.

And... several ill-intentioned gazes hidden in the shadows.

"We have visitors."

Lin Xi spoke calmly, looking toward a patch of shrubs not far ahead.

"Cowering in hiding—are you waiting for nightfall so it'll be easier to collect our corpses?"

Her voice was not loud, yet it clearly carried through the entire clearing.

Behind the shrubs was dead silence.

Several seconds passed.

"Hehehe..."

A cold laugh rose from all directions.

Then, seven or eight figures slowly emerged from behind the surrounding trees and grass, encircling Lin Xi's group of four.

Every one of them radiated a fierce aura, with vicious eyes and a heavy murderous presence about them.

They wore matching black leather armor, each chest bearing the image of a savage vulture.

"The Vulture Mercenary Group!"

Once Yu Xiaogang saw the emblem on their chests, his face instantly turned extremely ugly.

"The most notorious mercenary group near Nuoding City! They murder, rob, and commit every evil imaginable! Their leader, Vulture, is even a level forty-three Soul Ancestor!"

The man at the front was a gaunt middle-aged man with a hooked nose and eyes as sinister as a vulture's.

He licked his chapped lips, his greedy gaze sweeping back and forth across Lin Xi's group.

When he saw the Violent Vajra Ape that had been reduced to a dried corpse, a flicker of suspicion crossed his eyes.

But he quickly fixed his gaze on Lin Xi and Xiao Wu.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Who would've thought I'd be this lucky today?"

"An old piece of trash, a poor brat, and... two delicate little beauties."

He let out a grating laugh, his gaze lingering for a long while on Xiao Wu's exquisite face and Lin Xi's cool demeanor.

"Especially this little one. She hasn't filled out yet, but this temperament of hers is really... top-notch!"

The mercenaries behind him also let out lewd, malicious laughter.

Xiao Wu felt thoroughly uncomfortable beneath their filthy stares. Her little face reddened as she snapped, "What are you looking at? Keep staring, and I'll gouge your eyes out!"

"Oho, a feisty one. I like that!"

Vulture laughed even more happily.

Tang San's face had already turned as cold as ice.

He stepped forward, shielding Xiao Wu and Lin Xi behind him, and said coldly, "What do you want?"

"What do we want?"

Vulture looked as if he had heard something hilarious.

"Kid, what do you think?"

"You killed this two-thousand-year Violent Vajra Ape, didn't you?"

He pointed at the dried corpse.

"With such a big haul, I imagine you must have quite a few good things on you."

"If you know what's good for you, leave your Soul Tools and these two little beauties behind for me."

"Otherwise, the Soul Hunting Forest will have a few more nameless corpses today."

His voice was filled with undisguised threat and killing intent.

Yu Xiaogang's face went pale with fright. Trembling, he said, "We... we're from Nuoding Academy! I... I'm a teacher at the academy! If you dare touch us, the academy and Spirit Hall won't let you off!"

"Nuoding Academy?"

Vulture gave a mocking snort, his face full of contempt.

"A trash academy without even a Soul King, and you think you can use it to scare me?"

"As for Spirit Hall... heh. By the time they find your corpses, my brothers and I will have already taken your money and gone to another city to live it up!"

He waved his hand.

The seven mercenaries behind him simultaneously released their martial souls.

Two yellow, two yellow, one yellow and one purple...

Of the seven, even the weakest were two-ring Soul Grandmasters!

And their leader, Vulture, had four soul rings circling around him: yellow, yellow, purple, purple!

A genuine four-ring Soul Ancestor!

An overwhelming pressure instantly blanketed the entire area.

Yu Xiaogang was completely despairing.

He knew that today, they would likely be unable to escape disaster.

Tang San's expression had become grave to the extreme.

Quietly, he reached toward the Twenty-Four Bridges Moonlight Night at his waist.

Inside were the top-grade poisons and hidden weapons he had refined in his previous life, enough to threaten a Soul Ancestor.

Even if it cost him his life, he would never allow these people to harm Xiao Wu or Lin Xi in the slightest!

Just as the tension reached its peak and battle was about to erupt,

Lin Xi, who had remained silent all this time, finally spoke.

She slowly stepped out from behind Tang San, her cool gaze sweeping across the seven mercenaries before her.

Her eyes were so calm, as though she were looking at seven corpses that were already dead.

"I was in a fairly good mood today."

Her voice was soft and cold.

"But there are always flies that don't know their place, buzzing their way right in front of me."

She paused, then raised her eyes to look at Vulture.

"You just said you had your eye on us?"

"That's right, little beauty." Drawn in by her cool temperament, Vulture was so consumed by lust that he failed to notice the approaching danger. "As long as you behave, big brother promises he'll treat you well. Hehehe..."

"Very good."

Lin Xi nodded lightly.

"I rarely give people a second chance."

"But today, I'll make an exception."

"Break both your arms, then disappear from my sight."

"I can pretend none of this ever happened."