My Things—You Dare Touch Them?

The exit of Soul Hunting Forest was deathly silent.

The air was thick with an overpowering stench of blood, mixed with a nauseating reek.

Eight corpses lay scattered across the ground.

Seven had blood streaming from their eyes, while one had a shattered skull.

The scene resembled Avici Hell.

Lin Xi slowly withdrew her foot, as though she had merely stepped on a cockroach.

She took a pristine white handkerchief from her robes and carefully wiped the nonexistent stains from the sole of her shoe.

Then she casually tossed the handkerchief aside, letting it drift down onto Vulture's headless corpse.

That streak of pure white stood out with particular harshness amid the pool of blood.

"Let's go."

She turned to Tang San and Xiao Wu, who had both gone completely rigid with shock.

As though that bloody massacre had been nothing more than an insignificant interlude to her.

"Ugh..."

Xiao Wu finally could not hold it in any longer. She ran to the side, braced herself against a large tree, and began dry-heaving violently.

Though she was a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast and had witnessed plenty of killing,

this was the first time she had seen such a brutal, bloody slaughter from so close up.

The shattered skull and splattered brains dealt a tremendous blow to her innocent heart.

Tang San's face had also turned somewhat pale.

But he had lived two lives, and during his previous life in the Tang Sect, he had seen scenes like this before.

Suppressing the churning in his stomach, he walked over to Xiao Wu and gently patted her back.

"It's all right, Xiao Wu. It's over."

He comforted her softly.

Lin Xi watched them quietly without saying anything.

She knew this was perhaps too stimulating for them.

But that was simply how this world worked.

The weak were prey to the strong; only the fit survived.

She could not protect them forever.

It would do them no harm to see this world's cruelty sooner.

After a long while, Xiao Wu finally recovered.

She wiped her mouth. Her little face was still deathly pale as she walked up to Lin Xi, raised her head, and looked at her with a complicated expression.

"Lin Xi... why did you use such cruel methods?"

she asked quietly.

"Wouldn't it have been enough to just kill them?"

"Cruel?"

Lin Xi asked in return.

"I think it was perfectly fair."

"They looked at us with filthy eyes, so I dug out their eyes."

"He wanted to touch me with filthy hands, so I broke both of his hands."

"He wanted to take our lives, so I took his life."

"An eye for an eye. Isn't that fair?"

Her tone was entirely matter-of-fact, as if she were explaining an indisputable law of heaven and earth.

Xiao Wu was left dumbfounded by this theory of "fairness," unable to think of any rebuttal.

Tang San walked over. Looking at Lin Xi, he said in a grave voice, "You did nothing wrong."

"Showing mercy to enemies is being cruel to yourself."

"If we hadn't had enough strength today, we would be the ones lying here."

"And when that happened, they would only have been crueler to us than you were to them."

He completely agreed with Lin Xi's actions.

In fact, he felt that Lin Xi had been too "merciful."

If it had been him, he would have used Tang Sect poison to make them wail in endless agony and hallucinations for seven days and seven nights before they died.

Lin Xi glanced at him, a trace of approval flashing in her eyes.

"Looks like you're not entirely too naive."

She turned around and no longer paid any attention to the corpses on the ground.

"Let's go."

The three of them set out again.

This time, Xiao Wu no longer dared to walk beside Lin Xi. Instead, she clung closely behind Tang San, occasionally sneaking reverent glances at Lin Xi's back.

As for Yu Xiaogang, who had been hiding behind a tree, he did not dare emerge tremblingly until the three figures were nearly out of sight.

Looking at the corpses littering the ground, his stomach churned violently, and he vomited as well.

After vomiting, he stared in the direction Lin Xi had disappeared, his eyes filled with nothing but endless fear.

Madwoman!

No, she wasn't a god! She was a madwoman! A madwoman with the power of a god who regarded human lives as worthless!

For the first time, he wavered over his decision to take her as his master.

Could following someone like her really allow him to glimpse the truth?

Or would he instead fall, step by step, into an endless abyss?

He did not know.

He only knew that he desperately wanted to run.

The farther away, the better.

By the time they left Soul Hunting Forest, night had fallen completely.

A crescent moon hung in the sky, casting down its cold, clear glow.

"Lin Xi, is it really all right to just leave those bodies there?"

Tang San was still somewhat uneasy.

"What if Spirit Hall discovers them? There might be trouble then."

"Trouble?"

Lin Xi stopped walking.

She turned back to look at Tang San, a playful curve lifting the corner of her lips.

"Do you think Spirit Hall would dare come looking for trouble with me?"

Tang San froze.

Then he recalled Lin Xi's Hundred Thousand Year First Soul Ring.

He recalled her god-given Second Soul Ring.

He recalled her theory that overturned the entire continent.

That was right.

Would Spirit Hall truly dare provoke someone like her?

They would probably be too busy worshipping her like a god to do anything else.

"Besides..."

Lin Xi's gaze swept across the dark forest.

"Do you think I left those corpses behind merely to intimidate petty fools?"

"Hmm?" Tang San did not understand.

Lin Xi offered no explanation. She merely raised her right hand.

The illusory Mysterious Sky Soul Suppressing Needle, seemingly condensed from starlight, appeared once more in her palm.

Facing the direction of Soul Hunting Forest, she gently clenched her hand.

"My things—how dare you touch them?"

Her voice was soft and calm.

Yet it seemed to pierce through endless space.

At the same time.

Deep within Soul Hunting Forest, beside the eight corpses.

Several dark figures appeared soundlessly like ghosts.

They all wore the standard uniforms of Spirit Hall patrol squads, but their auras were far more powerful than those of ordinary knights.

At their head stood an elderly man with white hair and beard.

Six Soul Rings—yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black—quietly pulsed around him.

A six-ring Soul Emperor!

He crouched down and carefully examined Vulture's corpse, his eyes full of gravity.

"What a tyrannical mental impact. The skull was instantly crushed, and the flame of the soul was completely extinguished at the same time."

"The others had their eyes clawed out by an extremely sharp energy, and the origins of their martial souls were severely damaged as well."

He rose to his feet and looked at the team members behind him.

"The residual energy here is very unusual. There are two kinds. One belongs to a ten-thousand-year Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bear. The other..."

He frowned.

"I can't see through the other one. But it feels more terrifying than any Titled Douluo I've ever encountered."

Just then.

The Soul Emperor's expression abruptly changed!

He felt an irresistible, incomparably cold will descend in an instant like divine punishment!

Immediately afterward, he saw a layer of pale white flames ignite simultaneously upon all eight corpses!

The flames had no heat, yet they radiated a terrifying aura capable of freezing one's soul!

Within just a few seconds.

The eight corpses, along with every item on them—even the bloodstains on the ground—were burned completely clean by those pale white flames!

Not even a trace of ash remained!

It was as though they had never existed in this world.

"D-Divine Punishment Flame!"

The Soul Emperor was terrified out of his wits. With a thud, he dropped to his knees and frantically kowtowed toward the direction Lin Xi had left.

"I do not know which great lord is purging their own ranks here! This lowly one meant no offense! Please forgive me, my lord! Forgive me!"

The team members behind him also fell to their knees in terror, trembling uncontrollably.

Outside the forest.

Lin Xi slowly withdrew her hand.

The Soul Suppressing Needle in her palm dissipated as well.

"Now there won't be any trouble."

She looked at the stunned Tang San and said calmly.