Ashes at a Snap of the Fingers, the Dark Source Emerges

Qin Mo's voice was not loud, yet every word was like an ice spike, viciously drilling into Yan's nearly shattered mind. That vast, boundless spiritual pressure did not merely target the soul; it also carried the tyrannical aura of the Nine-Story Demon Pagoda, capable of suppressing all things and devouring everything. Yan's Soul Power seemed to have sunk into a mire. Even the Martial Soul Flame Lord let out a mournful cry, its flames nearly extinguished.

"...Then I shall grant your wish."

As Qin Mo spoke coldly, the phantom of the Chaos Glazed Color Nine-Story Demon Pagoda in his raised right palm slowly rotated. Its base aimed at the immobilized Yan as a dim, profound glimmer began to gather, as though a miniature black hole were taking shape. Even the surrounding light warped slightly as it was devoured.

The shadow of death instantly enveloped Yan! Never had he felt death so close. The light beneath that pagoda seemed to lead directly into the underworld, ready to suck in everything he had, grind it apart, and reduce it to nothingness! He wanted to beg for mercy, wanted to scream, but he could not produce even the slightest sound. He could only watch helplessly as that destructive light grew brighter, his eyes filled with endless terror and regret.

At that critical moment—

"Bzzzz—!"

A dull hum that pierced straight into the depths of the soul suddenly erupted from the very core of Black Prison Forest! This sound did not travel through the air. Instead, it directly struck the spiritual worlds of every living being!

Immediately afterward, a Dark Will far more immense and pure than all the previous monsters combined, filled with boundless resentment, madness, and hunger, swept through the entire forest like a tsunami!

Crack! Crack!

The Demon Vine Barrier Qin Mo had constructed with the Mandala Snake Emperor soul skill emitted the sound of breaking under the impact of that terrifying will. Countless demon vines instantly withered and collapsed! The black mist formed from the remains of the monsters that had been madly attacking the barrier surged toward the core at an even faster speed, like a hundred rivers flowing into the sea!

The spiritual pressure Qin Mo had imposed upon Yan was also forcibly interrupted by this sudden, powerful disturbance.

"Pfft—" Yan violently spat out a mouthful of blood. His body went limp, and he collapsed to the ground. Though he had temporarily escaped death, his mind had suffered severe damage. His face was pale as paper, and his eyes held only the dazed relief of surviving disaster and an even deeper terror—not only toward Qin Mo, but toward the unknown horrifying existence deep within the forest.

Qin Mo frowned slightly and withdrew the attack he had been about to unleash, his sharp gaze turning toward the forest's core. The intensity of that will had already surpassed the scope of an ordinary Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast. It even carried a trace of... divinity? No, Pseudo-Divinity—something akin to a divine spark formed by an exceptionally evil existence.

"Dean!" Bing'er and Yan'er instantly went on guard as well. They too had sensed that chillingly evil will.

"It seems we woke the true master by 'making too much noise.'" Not only was Qin Mo unafraid, but an interested glint flashed through his eyes. "And it seems to be accelerating its absorption of these spawn's energy, trying to complete some kind of transformation or revival. Interesting. This Fourth Soul Ring looks like it will be even more of a 'surprise' than expected."

He completely ignored Yan, who lay sprawled on the ground like a dead dog, as well as the unconscious Spirit Hall stewards. Their lives and deaths were no different from those of ants in his eyes, not worth even a fraction more of his attention.

"Let's go and see what secret lies buried beneath Black Prison Forest." Qin Mo moved, shooting toward the core region like an arrow loosed from a bow. Bing'er and Yan'er did not hesitate in the slightest, immediately transforming into one blue and one red streak of light as they followed close behind.

The deeper they went, the stranger the surroundings became. The trees had completely turned pitch-black, like charcoal, yet they continued to grow in twisted shapes with stubborn vitality. Irregular crystal fragments emitting dense Dark Energy began to appear across the ground. The Mental Pollution permeating the air had nearly condensed into substance, constantly attempting to invade the three people's spiritual seas. Yet under Qin Mo's powerful Spiritual Power and the protection of the two women's ultimate Martial Souls, that pollution was like waves crashing against reefs—utterly futile.

There were no longer scattered monsters attacking along the way. All Dark Energy was converging toward the center. At last, the three passed through a dead black forest, and the scene before them suddenly opened up—a massive, bottomless sinkhole stood at the heart of the forest.

The sinkhole stretched over a hundred meters across. Its walls were steep and jagged, as though they had been forcibly torn open by some immense power. Black mist so dense it could not disperse rolled and surged like a living thing at the bottom, and the source of that horrifying evil will came from deep within. Countless bones were piled densely around the edge of the sinkhole—human bones, as well as those of various Soul Beasts. Layer upon layer, they made one's scalp tingle at a glance. At this moment, the black mist gathering from every corner of the forest was pouring into the sinkhole like a hundred rivers returning to the sea.

"Such... such terrifying resentment!" Yan'er could not help drawing in a sharp breath as she stared at the piled bones. Bing'er's expression also turned more solemn. Even she found the sinister chill here somewhat uncomfortable.

Qin Mo stood at the sinkhole's edge. A faint glazed radiance appeared in his eyes as he used the Origin Power of the Nine-Story Demon Pagoda to pierce through falsehood and gaze directly at the bottom.

Within his "vision," the depths of the pit were not filled with pure darkness. Instead, a huge, constantly pulsating dark-red tumor-like mass floated there! Its surface was covered in twisted blood vessels and cracks that endlessly opened and closed, like countless mouths greedily devouring the converging Dark Energy. At the tumor's core, he could vaguely make out a blurry humanoid figure bound by countless black chains. A powerful, evil will radiated from it.

"So that's how it is..." Qin Mo understood. "It is not an innately powerful Soul Beast, but a powerful Soul Master—at least at the Soul Sage level—who was somehow eroded and assimilated by the dense Dark Energy here. Its soul fused with its energy, forming this mutated 'core.' It nourishes itself by devouring life and Soul Power, attempting to reshape its body or transform into some special kind of dark lifeform. Those monsters are merely spawn created by the contamination of its leaking power."

Just then, the tumor at the bottom of the pit seemed to sense the approach of Qin Mo's three "high-quality" sources of energy and suddenly began to pulse violently!

"Thump... thump..."

The sound, like a beating heart, echoed throughout the surroundings. The rolling black mist at the bottom of the pit abruptly condensed into a massive black claw that blotted out the sky. Accompanied by a shriek that tore at the soul, it shot out of the sinkhole and viciously grabbed at Qin Mo and the two women standing at its edge! The force of this strike far surpassed that of any previous monster, reaching the level of a High-level Soul Emperor or even a newly advanced Soul Sage!

"Dean, be careful!" Bing'er and Yan'er cried out at the same time. The powers of Ultimate Ice and Ultimate Fire erupted instantly as they prepared to step forward and block it.

However, Qin Mo merely took a calm step forward and stood in front of them.

Facing the dark claw that would have terrified an ordinary Soul Emperor into changing color, he did not even fully release his Martial Soul. He simply raised his right hand again, extended his index finger toward the incoming giant claw, and lightly flicked it.

"Quiet."

With that casual motion, the space before his fingertip seemed to twist slightly. A strand of glazed light, condensed to the utmost extreme, as fine as a hair yet containing supreme suppressive power, shot from his fingertip!

Compared to the enormous dark claw, that glazed light was so small it could be ignored.

Yet the instant that tiny glimmer touched the dark claw—

"Sizzle!"

Like a red-hot iron plunging into snow, the seemingly incomparably terrifying dark claw began to collapse, disintegrate, and dissolve from the point of contact at an astonishing speed! There was no violent explosion, no clash of energy—only absolute suppression and purification on a higher level!

In the blink of an eye, the sky-covering dark claw vanished completely, as if it had never existed.

The pulsating tumor at the bottom of the pit abruptly stiffened. A soundless howl mixed with pain and fury came from it, clearly showing that it had suffered greatly from that blow.

Bing'er and Yan'er stared blankly at Qin Mo's back. They had long known that the dean's strength was unfathomable, but seeing him so effortlessly dissolve a strike close to the Soul Sage level still shook them to the core. Was this the Young Sect Master's true strength?

Qin Mo withdrew his finger and looked down into the sinkhole. His tone remained calm, yet it carried an unquestionable authority:

"A Mutated Being that hides its head and shows its tail dares act wildly before me?"

"Get out."

"Or I will go down there myself and 'invite' you out."

His voice was not loud, yet it was like rolling thunder, containing a powerful spiritual impact that directly blasted into the core consciousness of the tumor at the bottom of the sinkhole!