You-you're not an Auxiliary Spirit Master, are you?

The sudden turn of events left all four of them stunned!

The figure moved with incredible speed, striking just as the three were exhausted. They were so caught off guard that the Thorn Purple Spirit Vine was already dead, its Spirit Ring glowing!

A Soul Beast's Spirit Ring could only be absorbed by the person who killed it!

Lao Hei, Si Rong, and Ling Ren stood rooted to the spot.

Si Rong stopped after barely taking two steps. She was still a good distance from the Thorn Purple Spirit Vine.

All she could do now was watch helplessly as a deep yellow Spirit Ring glowed above the Thorn Purple Spirit Vine... one she couldn't absorb!

Standing beside the Thorn Purple Spirit Vine was a young man with a mocking smile on his face and a hint of smugness in his eyes.

He looked to be around twenty, dressed in rather luxurious clothes. He seemed to be a student at an academy, with the bold, untamed air of a young calf that feared no tiger.

"Kid, do you know how despicable it is to steal someone else's Spirit Ring?"

Ling Ren stared coldly at the young man.

Si Rong watched in silence, her eyes icy.

The young man had picked his moment perfectly! He'd struck just as they had defeated the Thorn Purple Spirit Vine and were caught up in the joy of victory, when they had no Soul Power left!

His attack had been incredibly swift!

"Is that so?"

The young man looked at Ling Ren in surprise. "But we found this Thorn Purple Spirit Vine first, didn't we? We just didn't get the chance to kill it before you beat us to it. That doesn't count as stealing..."

"If you found it first, why didn't you kill it?" Lao Hei asked in a deep voice. "Why wait until after we attacked?"

Wang Feng, standing behind them, couldn't help shaking his head at this.

Lao Hei was a simple, honest man... in short, a genuinely decent person. The young man was obviously just messing with him, and Lao Hei actually believed him...

Sure enough, the young man laughed a few times before saying:

"Can't be helped. I just wanted to wait a little before making my move and recover some Soul Power. I didn't expect you to attack first. You can't blame me for that."

With that, he stood beside the Thorn Purple Spirit Vine without moving.

It was obvious he couldn't have defeated the Thorn Purple Spirit Vine alone, which was why he'd deliberately done this!

"That man should be a student at an advanced Soul Master Academy."

Si Rong watched the young man and said coldly under her breath, "He should be at level thirty, preparing to hunt a Soul Beast on his own to meet the graduation requirements. Judging by his appearance and the situation, I'm sure of it."

Wang Feng nodded repeatedly.

Sister Si Rong had a truly sharp eye. She'd come to the same conclusion he had. Impressive, impressive!

"Then what do we do, Sister Si Rong?"

Ling Ren's expression darkened. "Are we really going to just watch him steal your Spirit Ring? It took us so long to find one that suited you! If we give up now, who knows how long it'll take to find another!"

They'd spent the whole afternoon fighting for this one Soul Beast, only to have it stolen. Who could put up with that?

"I've got almost no Soul Power left..." Lao Hei shook his head.

"What else can we do?"

Si Rong shook her head helplessly. "He killed it first, so I can't absorb the Spirit Ring. Besides, it wouldn't be wise to fight him now. We have no fighting strength left, while that scoundrel has been watching from the sidelines for who knows how long, conserving his energy. We know nothing about his strength. If we fight, we'll be the ones to suffer."

"Although we still have Xiao Mie, he's only a recovery-type Spirit Master. He's probably out of Soul Power too, just like us, so he can't activate his Martial Spirit to restore ours. A fight would put him in danger as well."

When Si Rong finished, Ling Ren and Lao Hei fell silent.

That was true. What else could they do? There was no way they could absorb the Spirit Ring now. If they fought, they'd be the ones to suffer, and they'd drag the innocent Xiao Mie into it. That wouldn't be fair to him, or safe.

He was a recovery-type Spirit Master, with almost no fighting strength, and he was so young. With nobody to protect him, if the young man hurt him later, who would be held responsible?

At that moment, Wang Feng stepped forward and asked:

"You're not really going to let this go, are you? That guy's such a jerk. You can put up with that?"

The three of them gave bitter smiles.

Stealing someone's Spirit Ring really was despicable, and there was no one else here to witness it.

In this day and age, there weren't even phones to record evidence of a crime. What could they do to him?

Wang Feng took a few steps forward and said, "Enough of that. You stole the Spirit Ring, so you should at least compensate us, right? I won't ask for much. One thousand Gold Soul Coins. If you can pay, the Spirit Ring is yours. If you can't, you're not leaving here today."

One thousand Gold Soul Coins was indeed an outrageous sum.

For an eight-hundred-year-old Soul Beast like this, all the costs combined would probably come to a hundred coins at most.

"Sure."

The young man was taken aback at first, then glanced at Wang Feng disdainfully. "So you want Gold Soul Coins, huh? Catch!"

As he spoke, the young man pulled a Gold Soul Coin from his pocket and flung it straight at Wang Feng!

Whoosh!

The young man had considerable strength. The Gold Soul Coin shot toward Wang Feng with a sharp whistle!

The three of them immediately looked alarmed.

Lao Hei summoned the last trace of his Soul Power, roared, and leaped high into the air, catching the Gold Soul Coin in his palm.

But a bright red welt appeared on his hand.

"Hahahaha! You're an Auxiliary Spirit Master, and you dare ask me for Gold Soul Coins?"

The young man sneered. "I envy how naïve you are, kid. If you could see the situation a little more clearly, you wouldn't have said something so stupid."

As he spoke, his body suddenly trembled.

A Martial Spirit appeared behind him, and two yellow Spirit Rings rose around him.

"I have a Cangying Martial Spirit, and I'm at full Soul Power, in perfect condition. So, kid, do you still want Gold Soul Coins?"

A powerful aura radiated from the young man. He seemed poised to spread his wings and take flight like an eagle. No wonder he'd been so unbelievably fast just now.

Though the Cangying Martial Spirit lacked strength, it was extremely fast!

It could be used for all sorts of things, such as scouting.

Seeing this, Si Rong and the others sighed one after another.

"Xiao Mie, let it go," Lao Hei said in a low voice, briefly bandaging his injured hand.

"We can't let it go."

Wang Feng snorted. "If he won't pay, we'll stay right here. If he dares to absorb the Spirit Ring, we'll take him down! It'll disappear in an hour anyway."

Absorbing a Spirit Ring was extremely dangerous for a Spirit Master. If they were attacked during the process, the consequences would be dire.

Sure enough, hearing that, the young man's expression changed. He said coldly:

"You really don't know what's good for you. Fine, I'll teach you a lesson, kid!"

With that, the young man leaped high into the air. His claws, like wings, plunged down from above at incredible speed!

"Watch out!"

Si Rong cried out in alarm. She hurriedly tried to use a Soul Skill to restrain the young man, but she couldn't even activate her Martial Spirit.

Ling Ren could only watch anxiously.

Wang Feng was standing some distance away. As a recovery-type Spirit Master, he'd stayed clear of the fighting, and he was still twenty or thirty meters from them.

Ling Ren couldn't reach him in time either.

All they could do was watch as the young man soared through the air like an eagle with outstretched wings, as if he meant to seize the prey below.

Wang Feng narrowed his eyes and didn't dodge. The young man charged at him, moving so fast that he was right in front of him in the blink of an eye!

Seeing this, the three of them cried out in alarm, their hearts sinking!

But just as things were at their most critical, before the young man's hands could seize Wang Feng by the shoulders,

Wang Feng's hand seemed to enter bullet time, quietly grabbing the young man's arm a split second earlier. Then Wang Feng shifted to the side.

A side kick!

His foot slammed into the young man's stomach, as if kicking up everything he'd eaten the night before. A stabbing pain rose from his abdomen and spread through his entire body...

Boom!

Wang Feng let go, and the young man crashed into a distant tree, leaving the imprint of a human body in its trunk.

The tree shook violently, nearly toppling over! The crash rang out loudly!

In an instant, Si Rong and the others were all stunned!

A broken voice came from the human-shaped imprint in the tree:

"Y-you... you're not... an Auxiliary Spirit Master? How... how are you so strong? Rgh... urgh..."