Ghost Shadow Killing Intent Behind the Ambush

Oscar sat cross-legged, his expression solemn as he carefully guided the deep purple soul ring into his body. The thousand-year soul ring's energy was violent and immense. The moment it entered him, his body shook violently, pain instantly flooding his face as sweat poured down and veins bulged across his skin.

Everyone immediately gathered around him, forming a protective circle as they guarded him with tense expressions. Zhao Wuji, Flender, and Master released their auras, vigilantly scanning the dark forest around them. The bloody scent of the Gold Devouring Rat was like a stone cast into a tranquil lake, spreading through this perilous forest. No one knew what it might attract.

Second by second, the pain on Oscar's face gradually subsided. His breathing became steady and deep, while the Soul Power fluctuations around him steadily rose. He had clearly passed the most dangerous stage and was now absorbing the ring smoothly.

Everyone relaxed slightly, but none dared lower their guard.

"Mubai, how is your wound?" Master asked, looking at Dai Mubai. Ning Rongrong's preliminary treatment had stopped the bleeding from his arm, but the flesh was still torn and curled back, making the injury look horrifying.

"It's just a minor wound. Nothing serious." Dai Mubai casually moved his arm and grinned, though his evil eyes continued to scan their surroundings vigilantly.

Tang San helped Xiao Xiaoxiao sit beside a relatively clean tree root. Rather than leaving immediately, he sent another stream of pure Mysterious Heaven Skill Soul Power into her and said softly, "Focus your mind and regulate your breathing. Recover as quickly as possible."

"Mhm." Xiao Xiaoxiao nodded and closed her eyes, doing her best to calm the churning blood and nearly depleted Spiritual Power within her. The Spirit Calming Ointment was still working, and with Tang San's Mysterious Heaven Skill assisting her, she recovered much faster than she could have on her own.

Xiao Wu took out a waterskin and clean strips of cloth, helping Zhu Zhuqing treat the bruise on her back where the rat's tail had struck her. Ning Rongrong had also expended a great deal of Soul Power and sat silently not far from Oscar, recovering. Ma Hongjun guarded one direction, muttering under his breath, "Don't come again..."

The forest seemed to have temporarily returned to calm. Only the rustling of wind through the leaves and the faint, unsettling roars of beasts in the distance could be heard. Yet this calm felt more like the suffocating stillness before a storm.

About half an hour later, the Soul Power fluctuations around Oscar reached their peak before slowly subsiding. He suddenly opened his eyes and let out a long, clear cry filled with irrepressible excitement. Three soul rings—two yellow and one purple—rose from beneath his feet and spun around him!

"I did it!" Oscar leaped to his feet, his face flushed with excitement. "Level thirty-one! I'm a Soul Elder now!"

Joy appeared on everyone's faces. Flender rubbed his hands together, his eyes gleaming behind his glasses. "Good! Good! Hurry and see what your third soul skill is!"

Oscar chuckled, a strange yet immensely excited expression appearing on his face. He cleared his throat and shouted, "I have a Mushroom Sausage!"

Pfft—

A peculiar sausage appeared in his hand. It was peculiar because its entire body was a crystalline pale purple, with patterns resembling mushroom clouds across its surface. More strangely, it hovered slightly above his palm, radiating a faint purple halo.

"Mushroom Sausage?" Ma Hongjun leaned over and poked it curiously. "What does this thing do? Don't tell me it can fly?"

Oscar proudly raised his chin. "Fatty, you got it right this time! The effect of my third soul skill is—flight!"

"Flight?!" Everyone was stunned. Flying Type soul skills were among the rarest and most practical of all soul skills!

"How long can it fly? How fast is it?" Tang San immediately seized on the crucial questions.

"With my current Soul Power, the Mushroom Sausage I create can let someone fly for one minute!" Oscar held up one finger. "As for the speed..."

He looked at everyone and flashed an incredibly smug grin. "Its speed is equal to the flying speed of a Phoenix-tail Crested Serpent!"

"What?!"

Even Zhao Wuji and Master were moved by that revelation! The Phoenix-tail Crested Serpent was a top-tier thousand-year soul beast famed for its speed! One minute at the Phoenix-tail Crested Serpent's flying speed—at a critical moment, that was absolutely a divine skill for survival and surprise attacks!

"Good kid! This soul skill is incredibly useful!" Dai Mubai heavily patted Oscar on the shoulder, making him grimace in pain.

"Oscar, this soul skill will greatly improve our overall strength!" Ning Rongrong praised sincerely.

Xiao Wu and Ma Hongjun had already crowded around Oscar, looking as though they could not wait to taste the Mushroom Sausage.

Just as everyone rejoiced over Oscar obtaining such a powerful soul skill and their minds relaxed ever so slightly—

A sudden change erupted!

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Several nearly imperceptible whistles cut through the air as they shot from the dense forest behind and to the side without warning! Their targets were Xiao Xiaoxiao, who had just finished recovering and was in her weakest state, and Oscar, who was excitedly displaying his soul skill!

They were black spikes as thin as ox hairs, astonishingly fast and completely silent, only detected when they were already extremely close!

"Watch out!" Tang San's Purple Demon Eye caught those barely visible points of black light, and his expression changed drastically. As he shouted the warning, his body had already reacted instinctively!

He was closest to Xiao Xiaoxiao. Without the slightest hesitation, his Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track erupted. He threw the Xiao Xiaoxiao who had just opened her eyes to the ground, using his own back to shield her from the barrage of poison spikes!

Puff! Puff! Puff!

Several dull impacts rang out!

Tang San's body jolted violently, and he gave a muffled groan. Sharp pain and numbness spread across his back!

At the same time, Zhu Zhuqing, on the other side, used her extraordinary speed to shove aside the still-grinning Oscar. However, she could not completely evade the attack herself. One poison spike grazed her shoulder, drawing a streak of blood. She grunted and staggered half a step, while the grazed area instantly turned blackish purple!

"Enemy attack!!" Zhao Wuji's furious roar exploded like thunder! He had actually failed to detect this ambush in advance!

Flender's figure flashed, and he pounced toward the direction from which the poison spikes had come like a great bird. Master swiftly moved in front of the students.

Dai Mubai, Xiao Wu, and Ma Hongjun immediately used Martial Soul Possession, shielding the injured people and the Support System soul masters in the center as they stared at the source of the attack in shock and fury.

The shadows in that patch of dense forest swayed, and several black figures as swift as Gui Mei flashed past before rapidly vanishing deeper into the woods. They showed no intention of fighting. Their strike having failed, they fled far away at once!

"Trying to run?!" Zhao Wuji roared and was about to pursue them.

"Zhao, don't chase them! Be careful of a diversion!" Master hurriedly stopped him, his expression incomparably grave. "It's a hunting squad of Ghost Shadow Spiders! They're the most cunning and vengeful creatures! They must still be nearby!"

Zhao Wuji forcibly stopped, then smashed his fist into a nearby tree trunk in fury, causing the entire tree to shake violently.

"Xiao San! Zhu Qing!" Dai Mubai cried urgently.

Tang San had already pushed himself up from the ground, his face somewhat pale. Three or four black spikes were embedded in his back, and the skin around them had begun to blacken and swell. Gritting his teeth, he reached up to pull them out.

"Don't move! They're poisonous!" Master hurried forward, carefully examining Tang San's back before looking at the rapidly spreading blackness on Zhu Zhuqing's shoulder. His expression became even uglier. "It's the neurotoxin of the Ghost Shadow Spider! It's extremely potent. It rapidly paralyzes the nerves and erodes Soul Power!"

He immediately took antidote powder and medicinal ointment from his Soul Tool. "Mubai, Xiao Wu, help them carefully pull out the poison spikes! Quickly!"

Dai Mubai and Xiao Wu hurried over, carefully extracting the poison spikes from Tang San's back. Each one brought out a small spurt of black blood. Zhu Zhuqing gritted her teeth and pulled the poison spike from her own shoulder.

Master swiftly sprinkled antidote powder over the wounds. When the powder came into contact with the poison, it gave off faint sizzling sounds and thin wisps of black smoke. Tang San and Zhu Zhuqing both trembled from the pain, cold sweat instantly breaking out across their bodies.

"My antidote can only suppress the poison temporarily. It cannot completely remove the Ghost Shadow Spider's venom!" Master spoke urgently. "We must find the Ghost Shadow Spiders' nest as soon as possible and obtain their venom sacs to prepare a true antidote! Otherwise, once the poison seeps deeper, the consequences will be unimaginable!"

Everyone's hearts sank.

Xiao Xiaoxiao had not been injured because Tang San had shielded her. She climbed to her feet and saw the horrifying black wounds on Tang San's back, along with the tense line of his profile as he endured the pain. Her heart felt as though it had been fiercely clenched. It was because he had protected her...

"Ghost Shadow Spider... nest..." Oscar quickly said, "My Mushroom Sausage can fly! Could we..."

"It won't work." Master shook his head. "Ghost Shadow Spider nests are usually located in extremely hidden underground places or rock crevices. Flying makes them difficult to find. Moreover, they are exceptionally cunning. There will certainly be traps and numerous guards near their nest."

"Then what do we do?" Xiao Wu asked anxiously, her eyes reddening.

Tang San endured the severe pain in his back and the gradually spreading numbness, yet his voice remained calm. "Master, Ghost Shadow Spiders are vengeful by nature. Since their ambush just failed, they won't give up easily. Especially since... we still have the scent of their prey here." He glanced at the Gold Devouring Rat's corpse on the ground and the Soul Power fluctuations Oscar had emitted while absorbing the soul ring.

"You mean..." Master looked at him.

"They must still be watching nearby, waiting for us to panic or scatter." Tang San's gaze was sharp. "Rather than blindly searching for them, we should... use ourselves as bait, lure them out, and kill them instead!"

"That's too risky!" Flender immediately objected.

"It's the fastest method." Tang San's tone was resolute. "Zhu Qing and I can't afford to wait with this poison in our bodies."

Master looked at Tang San's pale but determined face, then at Zhu Zhuqing, whose breathing had begun to grow unstable. After a moment of contemplation, he clenched his teeth. "Fine! We'll do as Tang San says! Set the trap! Wait for them to take the bait!"

The shadows of the Star Dou Great Forest seemed to grow even darker. The crisis had not passed. Instead, because their companions had been poisoned, it had become even more urgent and dangerous. The Shrek Seven Devils had encountered their first true trial of life and death.