The sound of cracking bones echoed through the forest. The young man whose shoulder Xiao Wu had crushed with a follow-up stomp let out a cry and fell from the tree to the ground, completely unable to fight any longer.
"Waist Bow!"
"Triple Gravity!"
Xiao Wu leaped into the air and hooked her legs around another student's waist. Then, using her supple movements, she hurled him viciously to the ground.
At the same time, she once again used the ability of her thousand-year Soft Bone Rabbit: Gravity Control.
The impact from Xiao Wu's throw, combined with triple gravity, left the elite disciple from Martial Soul Academy with no choice but to spend at least several months in bed recovering.
The other two elite disciples saw what had happened and were just about to make a move.
But Tian Meng Ice Silkworm's Spirit Shock and Spirit Interference struck them at just that moment.
Next, Xiao Wu and Xie Yue each attacked one of the remaining elite disciples.
What had been an even five-on-five battle instantly turned into a one-sided slaughter.
The Seventh Worship, Falling Devil Douluo, had been sent to secretly protect Ye Xuan and assess his practical combat skills. Watching the scene unfold, he couldn't help clicking his tongue in astonishment.
He had known from the start that Ye Xuan was the controlling Soul Master.
But he hadn't expected their teamwork to be so seamless.
The five of them barely made a single unnecessary move. It was fair to say that every attack they made had been planned in advance.
But the very next second, an uninvited creature hurtled toward Ye Xuan at a bizarre speed.
Xiao Wu, Xie Yue, and the others didn't exchange a word, yet they sensed something was wrong almost at once.
"Tian Meng, you take over control."
As soon as Ye Xuan spoke, he exited the state granted by his second Soul Skill. Two snow-white rabbit ears sprouted from the top of his head.
The God's Vision before Xiao Wu and the others disappeared for only a tenth of a second before Tian Meng Ice Silkworm restored it.
"Boom—!!"
Just as the grotesque creature, with a human face beneath its abdomen, was about to crash down on Ye Xuan, Tian Meng, and Hu Liena, Ye Xuan used the thousand-year Soft Bone Rabbit's ability to teleport himself and the other two behind Yan.
By then, Xiao Wu, Xie Yue, and the others had already moved in front of them again.
The elders watching from nearby were all dumbstruck.
Good grief.
How could a Soul Master with two rings have so many Soul Skills?
Was he cheating or something?!
"Xiao Wu, let's work together and raise Gravity Control to its limit. This is a Man Faced Demon Spider that's just broken through to a thousand years!"
At the mention of a thousand-year Man Faced Demon Spider, cold sweat broke out across Xie Yue and Yan's foreheads.
After all, once a Man Faced Demon Spider reached a thousand years, its combat power was equivalent to that of a ten-thousand-year Soul Beast.
"Triple Gravity!"
"Triple Gravity!"
Under the combined weight of Ye Xuan and Xiao Wu's gravity, the Man Faced Demon Spider's movements were instantly restricted.
"Yan, Xie Yue, what are you standing around for? Hit it!"
At his reminder, Yan and Xie Yue finally realized they needed to take advantage of the opportunity and finish off their opponent.
"Ke-ke-ke, can I finally show what I can do? Third Soul Skill, Hell Flame!!"
With the Flame Lord possessing him, Yan stamped down on the earth. Blazing chunks of crimson earth and fire slammed into the Man Faced Demon Spider.
Then, the flames exploded a second time, flipping the entire spider onto its back.
Seeing this, Xie Yue gripped his Martial Soul, the Full Moon Blade, and shot toward the Man Faced Demon Spider like a specter.
"First Soul Skill, Moon Condensing Blade."
"Third Soul Skill, Full Moon Shock!"
"Second Soul Skill, Sky Moon Flash!"
As one of Spirit Hall's top students, Xie Yue knew all too well that a Man Faced Demon Spider had extremely tough defenses. Even its weak spots were tougher than those of most thousand-year Soul Beasts.
Seeing such a good opportunity, he naturally intended to finish it with a single strike.
Otherwise, if he failed, he might put the whole team in danger.
"Shhk!!!"
A flash of moonlight fell, and Xie Yue used his Martial Soul to tear a gaping hole in the Man Faced Demon Spider's abdomen.
Seeing this, Ye Xuan couldn't help giving Xie Yue's approach an approving nod.
The elders watching from the sidelines were stunned yet again.
A thousand-year Man Faced Demon Spider was on par with a Soul King.
And yet Ye Xuan and the others had slaughtered it with ease.
Nearly everyone had performed admirably in that battle.
Of course,
that didn't include Hu Liena, the team's pampered darling who hadn't taken part in the fight...
"Junior Brother, why do I feel like I'm just deadweight around you?"
Watching what was happening in front of her, Hu Liena felt like she was just slacking off and taking it easy.
She couldn't do anything useful while she was with Ye Xuan.
"Senior Sister, how can you think that? You're the hidden trump card of our team. We'll need you to do the heavy lifting this afternoon, when we take on the ten-thousand-year Soul Beast in the heart of the mountain range."
Ye Xuan's words put Hu Liena somewhat at ease.
"Let's rest here and recover our Soul Power. Once we're done, we'll head straight for the center of the mountain range."
After a whole morning and half a day of battles, Xie Yue and Yan had no objections to Ye Xuan's plan.
Besides, Xiao Wu and Tian Meng had both been summoned by Ye Xuan. Their contributions naturally counted toward his, too.
By the usual rules for selecting Spirit Hall's Golden Generation, more than seventy percent of the elite disciples were eliminated on the first day.
The rest would then fight it out in the mountains for two or three days, sometimes even five or six.
But now,
with Ye Xuan acting as a human, self-propelled detector, the disciples who hoped to hide in a "safe zone" and coast their way to victory were the first to be eliminated, one after another.
Ye Xuan and the others were like a "poison circle": wherever they went, someone got eliminated.
That made life miserable for the students who were trying to hide.
One student had a Rock Mouse for a Martial Soul. He planned to hide underground until the competition thinned out, then make his move. But before he could get started, Yan kicked him right out of the ground.
In a canyon near the center of the Traceless Mountain Range,
Ye Xuan and the others had just taken out another three-person team. The defeated students hadn't figured out how they'd been discovered, even by the time they were eliminated.
"Junior Brother, are we really going to challenge the ten-thousand-year Soul Beast imprisoned in the valley?"
Hu Liena felt a little uneasy.
After all, they were only a Soul Grandmaster and three Soul Elders. Even with Xiao Wu and Tian Meng on their side, going up against a ten-thousand-year Soul Beast was basically suicide.
"Senior Sister, fortune favors the bold, while the timid go hungry. Since I dared to bring you here to challenge a ten-thousand-year Soul Beast, I'm confident I can get you all out alive."
At Ye Xuan's proposal, Xie Yue and Yan were both tempted.
Unlike Hu Liena, they weren't disciples of the Pope.
If they wanted to raise their standing in Spirit Hall, they couldn't do it without taking risks.
And this was definitely a great opportunity.
Before you continue