The forest clearing was as oppressive as a sponge soaked through with water.
The campfire crackled, its flickering flames stretching everyone's shadows long and twisted.
No one spoke.
Everyone's gaze, intentionally or not, drifted toward the center of the clearing.
There, a spherical water prison formed from blue currents floated silently.
Inside, the captured black-clad assassin was like a fish starved of oxygen, glaring venomously at the crowd.
Flender and Zhao Wuji stood to either side like guardian deities, their Soul Power poised and ready to prevent any mishap.
Dragon Duke Meng Shu and Snake Dowager Chao Tianxiang stood a little farther away, their expressions grave.
That lightning-fast scene earlier had completely overturned everything they had believed about the Soul Master World for decades.
The way they looked at Han Yuchen now was no longer the way they looked at a junior. It was the way one looked at an incomprehensible ancient monster wearing human skin.
Master Yu Xiaogang pushed up his glasses, their lenses reflecting the firelight.
He stared at Han Yuchen as though he were not looking at a student, but at a living... research specimen capable of rewriting the history of the entire Soul Master World.
Tch, these old geezers sure have rich inner lives.
Han Yuchen mocked inwardly, then slowly rose to his feet with the Little White Fox in his arms.
It was time to get down to business.
He needed to pry something useful out of this fish's head.
The black-clad man in the water prison seemed to have seen through his intentions.
He let out a hoarse, grating sneer, his voice filled with the madness of someone who had nothing to fear.
"Don't waste your effort."
"The souls of us Shadow Contract warriors have all been planted with restrictions."
His venomous gaze swept