For a time, battle cries and roars rang out together. Dust billowed through the dense forest, and branches and leaves flew everywhere.
After several rounds of fierce fighting, Mu Jin spotted an opening in a seven-thousand-year Lust Demon Berserk Ape's defenses.
She flashed forward and appeared behind the Lust Demon Berserk Ape like a ghost.
"Fifth Soul Skill—Fury Blood Soul!"
In an instant, her arms swelled to several times their original size before her very eyes. Her muscles bulged, as if forged from steel.
Her once well-fitting sleeves burst apart with a series of sharp pops, revealing thick, coarse black fur.
Mu Jin thrust out both arms and clamped her hands around the seven-thousand-year Lust Demon Berserk Ape's neck like iron pincers. Then she twisted with all her might.
A sharp crack rang out.
The seven-thousand-year Lust Demon Berserk Ape's neck jerked to one side. Its life force vanished in an instant, and its massive body crashed to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.
But before Mu Jin could catch her breath, a powerful sense of danger rushed at her from straight ahead.
Startled, she instinctively looked up. The twenty-thousand-year Lust Demon Berserk Ape had leaped high into the air, its right fist wrapped in a dense, ink-black light.
Black lightning surged within the glow, leaping and flashing with a crackling sound.
Before the fist even reached her, Mu Jin felt a crushing pressure bear down on her.
She had no time to think and swung her fist to block it.
With a deafening boom, their fists collided. The force of the impact split the ground around them, cracks spreading in every direction like a spiderweb.
But the disparity in their strength was simply too great. Mu Jin was sent flying by the blow and slammed hard into a tree.
The tree couldn't withstand the impact and snapped in two.
Mu Jin spat out a mouthful of blood, her face turning deathly pale.
At the same time, the twenty-thousand-year Lust Demon Berserk Ape let out a deafening roar in midair.
The roar became waves of invisible sound, spreading in every direction like countless blades.
The sound waves distorted the air, and trees snapped all around them...
Mu Jin couldn't dodge in time. Her mental sea took a devastating blow. The world spun around her, her head rang, and the scene before her blurred. Her body swayed uncontrollably, her consciousness growing hazy until, in an instant, she lost some of it.
By the time she came to, two or three breaths had passed.
She saw the remaining Lust Demon Berserk Apes pulling bright red vines from behind themselves.
Fist-sized fruits hung from the vines. Their surfaces shimmered with an eerie blood-red light, and they gave off a nauseating stench.
The Lust Demon Berserk Apes shrieked as they hurled the fruits at Mu Jin with all their strength.
With several dull thuds, the fruits struck Mu Jin and burst apart, releasing a pungent odor as red liquid quickly seeped into her skin.
These were Chaos Passion Soul-Devouring Fruits. If they hit their target, they would leave the victim's limbs weak and their head spinning, while also inducing an intense state of lust.
Mu Jin's chest grew stuffy in an instant.
A burning heat surged from deep within her, and her limbs turned weak and limp.
Fortunately, Mu Jin reacted quickly. Gritting her teeth against the discomfort, she swiftly pulled a blood-red pill from her Soul Tool and swallowed it without hesitation.
The pill went down, and a wave of warmth spread through her body.
In an instant, Mu Jin's aura soared, and her Soul Power rose by three levels.
The pill was a forbidden drug. It would take her two months to recover after taking it, and it would severely damage her foundation. But she had no other choice if she wanted to survive.
More importantly, the pill could temporarily grant her the ability to use a pseudo-Martial Soul Avatar.
"Pseudo-Martial Soul Avatar!"
Mu Jin cried out, and her body began to change rapidly.
She grew taller at an astonishing pace, her body becoming large and powerfully built.
The fur on her body thickened and stiffened before her very eyes, each strand standing rigid like a steel needle.
Beast Martial Soul: the Martial Soul Avatar's physical transformation.
That was the rule of the Martial Soul Avatar.
At the same time,
Mu Jin's clothes could no longer withstand this immense power. They tore into strips and fluttered in the wind.
Fortunately, special material protected the vital areas, keeping her from becoming too exposed.
Mu Jin now radiated a powerful aura. Blood-red light glimmered in her eyes, filling them with a wild, intimidating force.
Every step she took left a deep footprint in the ground.
With her strength restored, Mu Jin didn't hesitate for a moment. She raised her fist and struck the nearest Lust Demon Berserk Ape.
"Bang, bang, bang!" Every punch carried tremendous force and momentum, each one landing solidly.
Under her storm of blows, several Lust Demon Berserk Apes staggered backward, their bodies covered in wounds.
After seven or eight exchanges, the Lust Demon Berserk Apes were reeling backward.
Without hesitation, Mu Jin quickly drove the Lust Demon Berserk Apes back, then turned and sprinted into the distance, beginning her retreat.
Seeing this, the twenty-thousand-year Lust Demon Berserk Ape let out an angry roar. A humanlike look of cunning and malice appeared in its eyes.
Mu Jin raced forward.
At that moment, her heart was pounding faster and faster, while the burning heat and dizziness grew increasingly intense.
In the past, she wouldn't have feared this. She could withstand the effects of this kind of medicinal herb.
But just then,
Mu Jin's vision suddenly blurred for a split second.
When she came to her senses, the entire area around her appeared in three dimensions before her eyes. She couldn't believe it.
At that moment, Huo Yuhao's voice came from the bushes nearby.
"Teacher Mu, I'm over here. Don't move—there's danger."
As soon as Huo Yuhao finished speaking, Mu Jin and Huo Yuhao focused their mental power on a point ahead.
At the same time, Huo Yuhao used his first Soul Skill, "Spirit Detection," to scout a specific area in front of them.
Huo Yuhao's mental power had grown alongside his Soul Power.
In an instant, they saw several apes waiting on guard thirty-five meters ahead. They had also set up some traps, apparently lying in wait for their prey.
Mu Jin didn't hesitate for a moment and hurried over to Huo Yuhao.
Huo Yuhao was just about to speak when Mu Jin bent down, tucked him under her arm with her massive body, and sprinted off in another direction.
"Teacher Mu, there's a trap twenty meters ahead! Go left!"
Huo Yuhao immediately shouted to Mu Jin.
Mu Jin didn't hesitate and charged to the right.
A moment later: "Teacher Mu, there's a swamp thirty-eight meters to the front left. Don't go that way!"
At that, Mu Jin immediately changed course.
A little while later,
"Teacher Mu, those giant apes are catching up behind us! Please don't hold me under your arm—I can't set up traps like this!"
Hearing that, Mu Jin loosened her hold a little.
Huo Yuhao took the opportunity to shift farther back, pulled out the hand wearing his Storage Soul Tool, and promptly tossed the various delaying Soul Tools he had bought earlier with pinpoint accuracy.
Before long, several second-grade Soul Tool bombs, smoke bombs, and other Soul Tool traps went off in succession with a series of bangs. The giant apes pursuing them gradually slowed down.
Huo Yuhao had wanted to buy more powerful Soul Tool bombs and other weapons, but the more powerful ones were restricted goods and couldn't be bought.
Only after doing all that did Huo Yuhao secretly breathe a sigh of relief.
At the same time, Huo Yuhao remembered some events from the original story.
Mu Jin had eventually been captured.
Given Sanshao's "little yellow book" style, some unspeakable things would naturally have happened.
But Mu Jin had ultimately prevented the giant apes from taking advantage of her. She had caught them off guard, cut off the twenty-thousand-year Soul Beast's "lychee," and escaped.
As for how Mu Jin had been cured of the poison on her body?
The original story described her going to a cool spring, followed by an alluring description of her body.
But just as Huo Yuhao was thinking about all this, the same kind of fruit as before suddenly smacked him on the forehead with a bang...
Before you continue