Racing Death

"Two hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins? You've got some nerve asking for that. Why don't you just rob me?"

Flender's eyes widened. Then his eyes shifted, and a sly smile appeared on his face.

"Fine, two hundred thousand, right? Then this Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear's soul ring will cover the debt. Want it?"

He truly could not come up with the astronomical sum of ninety million, but two hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins? He could afford that.

Brat, trying to play that trick on me? You're still too green.

"You win."

Lin Feng's face darkened. He shot him an irritated glare and stopped arguing, hurriedly urging him on.

"Hurry up. Keep dawdling, and this bear will get away."

Flender smugly raised his brows, but the teasing look on his face instantly vanished, replaced by seriousness.

The Cat-Eagle wings on his back beat fiercely, sending him shooting dozens of meters into the air. The fourth purple soul ring beneath him suddenly lit up.

"Fourth Soul Skill, Tenfold Air Blade!"

"Buzz—!"

The air emitted a piercing hum as over a hundred invisible, razor-sharp air blades fiercely shot toward the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear rubbing itself against a tree below.

Wherever the air blades passed, even the air was sliced into warped distortions. The surrounding thick tree trunks were swept by the aftershock and instantly severed in unison, their cuts smooth as mirrors.

"Roar!!"

The Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear let out a miserable roar of pain. The sharp air blades forcibly tore through its armor-like hide, carving dozens of deep bloody gashes across its body. Its dark golden fur was instantly dyed red by scorching blood.

Hidden behind a branch, Lin Feng clicked his tongue in amazement.

"No wonder it's an overlord capable of challenging Giant Dragons. Its hide really is tough. At just over four thousand years, it can withstand Flender's tenfold thousand-year soul skill with only superficial wounds."

"If it reached the ten-thousand-year level, wouldn't it dare challenge even a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast?"

The enraged Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear abruptly turned around, its dark golden beast eyes surging with overwhelming brutality and killing intent as it stared fixedly at Flender in the air.

It let out an angry roar, its four limbs suddenly exerting force as it rapidly climbed the thick trunk with terrifying speed completely at odds with its massive size.

In the blink of an eye, it reached the treetop. Then its thick hind legs kicked fiercely, launching its enormous body into the sky like a cannonball. Spreading its forelimbs tipped with Terror Claws, it pounced viciously at the two men in the air.

Flender had long anticipated its counterattack. His wings beat powerfully, and he shot even higher, easily evading the lethal pounce.

A cold gleam flashed through his eyes as his fifth black ten-thousand-year soul ring abruptly lit up. Terrifying wind-element energy instantly gathered before him.

"Fifth Soul Skill, Wind-Entangling Rending Claws!"

In an instant, three enormous eagle claws condensed from wind elements descended from the sky.

"Boom!"

The grassland cracked apart like a spiderweb as the three sharp eagle claws firmly pinned its limbs and neck.

The claw tips sank deeply into its flesh. Scorching blood gushed through the gaps between the claws, quickly pooling into a puddle beneath it.

Yet the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear's ferocity was far more terrifying than either of them had imagined. Even when it was firmly pinned to the ground, it showed no trace of submission. Instead, it released an even more frenzied roar.

Every strand of its dark golden fur stood on end, and its muscles swelled wildly, forcibly prying apart the eagle claws formed from wind elements.

Its right foreclaw swept out fiercely, sending a ten-meter-long claw blade slashing through the air at Flender.

"Interesting."

A trace of gravity flashed through Flender's eyes. His wings beat sharply, and he shifted sideways like a Ghost, evading the five lethal claw streaks.

At the same time, his fifth black soul ring lit up again, and the wind-element pressure around him surged dramatically.

"Since you can take a beating so well, have another taste!"

"Fifth Soul Skill, Wind-Entangling Rending Claws!"

Three gigantic wind-element claws, more solid and sharper than before, crashed down and once again viciously pinned the wildly struggling Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear to the ground. No matter how it roared and howled, it could no longer break free in the slightest.

A few minutes later,

The Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear finally stopped struggling. A deathly gray clouded its savage beast eyes, and only the faint rise and fall of its chest proved that it still clung to its final breath.

Holding the peerless blade he had obtained from the Blood Wolf Fortress treasury, sharp enough to slice through iron like mud, Lin Feng strode forward and precisely thrust it into the vital point of the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear's skull.

A deep-purple thousand-year soul ring slowly rose from its enormous body.

Lin Feng put away the blade and flipped his palm. The Blessing Gold Pouch appeared, and two brilliant golden lights descended upon him at once.

"Tyrant's Armor!"

"Guardian Angel!"

With the life-force bonuses of the two pieces of Godly Gear stacked together, his maximum vitality surged by 270%.

Warm, vast, mysterious golden energy wrapped around his body like silk.

This was the greatest trump card that gave him the courage to risk his life absorbing this soul ring beyond his limit.

If his meridians were not strong enough, he would make up for it with health!

As long as his health bar was thick enough that the violent soul-ring energy did not instantly burst his body apart and kill him on the spot, so long as he still had one breath left, he had a chance to turn things around.

Lin Feng sat down cross-legged, took a deep breath, and began guiding the four-thousand-five-hundred-year purple soul ring.

The instant the soul ring attached itself to his body, an utterly berserk force far beyond his expectations surged madly into his meridians like a tsunami.

His meridians instantly felt as though they were being pierced by countless steel needles. Agonizing pain swept through his entire body. He clenched his teeth tightly as cold sweat rolled down his forehead, and his face visibly turned pale.

Standing nearby, Flender watched Lin Feng's entire body tremble, fine beads of blood even beginning to seep through his skin. At that moment, his heart was filled with regret.

In just a few minutes,

Blood seeped from every pore of Lin Feng's body. He had become a blood-soaked man, and his aura grew weaker and weaker.

The jade-like soft glow emitted by Tyrant's Armor was doing everything it could to repair his continually rupturing meridians.

But before the soul ring's destructive force, that healing speed was utterly insufficient. It could only barely slow the collapse of his body.

"Hurry! Faster, kid!"

Flender anxiously paced in place, his fists clenched until his knuckles turned white as he muttered in self-reproach.

"He can't endure it at all..."

With his decades of experience, how could he fail to see that this was already a sign of Lin Feng's meridians completely collapsing? If Tyrant's Armor had not been forcibly keeping him alive, he would have long since been blown apart by the berserk soul-ring energy.

"It has to be quick now. Hurry!"

Lin Feng was now racing death. Only by making it through the most dangerous first half of soul-ring refinement and stabilizing the soul-ring energy before his meridians reached their limit would he have even a sliver of hope of survival.

A figure suddenly rushed out from the depths of the dense forest. Seeing Lin Feng sitting cross-legged on the ground, drenched in blood and on the verge of collapse, his pupils contracted sharply. He was so frightened that he could barely speak.

"Th-this... What happened to the Little Ancestor?!"

The pressure of Soul Saint-level Soul Power erupted in full.

Flender was no stranger to this suddenly appearing Soul Saint. Over the past two years, Qian Linfeng had remained hidden in the shadows, silently protecting Lin Feng. There was no need to think about it; he had to be the guard specially assigned by Lin Feng's teacher.

Once Qian Linfeng confirmed that Lin Feng had ended up in this state because he had absorbed a soul ring beyond his level and age limit, he turned around with eyes reddened by fury and shouted harshly at Flender.

"Flender, you're a Soul Saint, yet you actually misjudged a soul beast's age limit and made such a fatal mistake. Are you trying to get him killed..."