Huo Yuhao's eyes snapped open. He activated his Spirit Eye at top speed, forcing all the lingering spiritual power out of his body.
"Yuhao, are you all right?" With danger bearing down on them, Wang Hong didn't have time to worry about what to call him.
"I'm all right for now, Brother Wang Hong... What on earth is going on?" Huo Yuhao immediately applied Spirit Acceleration to himself and Wang Hong. They needed enough time to sort out the situation.
"About half a minute ago, we were attacked directly by a Soul-Pulling Ghost Vine. I activated a Spirit Skill at the last moment and barely dodged one strike... But the Sky Soul Horse and you both fell into a deep coma. The Soul Guidance Flying Carriage crashed, so I could only take you into a bubble for the time being."
A black Soul Ring floated beside Wang Hong. It was his fifth Spirit Skill: Reversal Bubble. It could reverse the properties inside and outside the bubble, at the cost of making the bubble impossible to burst.
Wang Hong described what had happened as quickly as he could. As soon as he heard it, Huo Yuhao turned his gaze outside the bubble.
The bubble was now surrounded on all sides by twisted branches. They were mostly pitch-black, with a few reflective gray-white streaks mixed in, and looked rather beautiful. Unfortunately, these branches were now enemies threatening Huo Yuhao and Wang Hong. He had no mind to admire a plant that would have been perfect for making furniture.
Just then, the ends of the branches all opened at once, revealing countless silver-white gems, each with a black dot in the middle. From a distance, they looked just like countless eyes staring fixedly at them.
Under the sunlight, the gems glimmered silver-white. Even a brief glance made Huo Yuhao feel a needle-like prick deep in his brain. It wasn't unbearable, but it was just painful enough to be impossible to ignore.
"Tsk... Even the bubble can't block it?" Wang Hong clutched his head. He couldn't simply close his eyes—not if he wanted to keep watch on the enemy—so he could only force himself to endure the discomfort.
"Brother Sky Dream... What on earth is that thing?" Compared to Wang Hong, Huo Yuhao could close his eyes and was clearly faring better. At the same time, Tian Meng appeared beside him in spirit form.
"Damn, what kind of thing did you provoke... Is that spiritual power for real?" Tian Meng stared at the black branches covered in "eyeballs." His mind raced, and then he reached a conclusion:
"Yuhao, I can confirm that this is the Soul-Pulling Ghost Vine you just told me about. And its strength... has most likely reached the thousand-year level!"
"A thousand years..."
"Brother Sky Dream, are you sure?"
"Absolutely!"
Following his memory, Huo Yuhao found Wang Hong and told him that the Soul Beast before them was a thousand-year Soul-Pulling Ghost Vine.
"How is that possible? The mission report clearly included an appraisal, and our target this time..." Wang Hong suddenly stopped. He realized he'd fallen into a mistaken assumption. Nobody had said there was only one Soul-Pulling Ghost Vine in this area.
"Looks like our luck isn't very good..." Wang Hong's expression visibly darkened. Was this good luck or bad? The team Tang Ya was with, which had yet to meet up with them, had subdued a hundred-year Soul-Pulling Ghost Vine.
But Huo Yuhao and Wang Hong... had run into the area's second Soul-Pulling Ghost Vine, and, as luck would have it, this one was a thousand-year Soul Beast!
Wang Hong thought it through. A hundred-year Soul-Pulling Ghost Vine was enough to threaten a Soul King. Even now, protected by the bubble, he was still under constant spiritual attack. And as a Purple-Robed Martial Soul Envoy of Spirit Hall, he was actually a Soul Saint.
To a Soul Saint, a thousand-year Soul Beast was no more than an ant to be crushed with a flick of the wrist—aside from a few unusual kinds. Yet this thousand-year Soul-Pulling Ghost Vine had the potential to threaten even a Soul Saint's life.
Wang Hong couldn't bear to imagine what would have happened if Tang You hadn't insisted, for safety's sake, that he take Huo Yuhao along. If another Purple-Robed Martial Soul Envoy had come instead, they might already have fallen asleep along with Huo Yuhao during the creature's first attack.
He couldn't help wondering why this kind of Soul Beast hadn't been wiped out already...
Wang Hong looked around. Invisible spiritual attacks were striking every corner of the bubble. With his current Soul Power reserves, he couldn't sustain the bubble imbued with his fifth Spirit Skill for much longer.
At most, the bubble would hold for another half an hour. After that, it would no longer block the spiritual power. It would all come pouring into Huo Yuhao and Wang Hong's heads.
As for Martial Soul Avatar... Wang Hong had considered it. But against a monster that specialized entirely in spiritual power, the price of using his Martial Soul Avatar would be exposing himself directly to its spiritual attacks. He couldn't guarantee he'd remain conscious until his attack hit.
Not only would that fail to break the deadlock, it might even put Huo Yuhao in danger.
As for his two Spirit Skills, one that could cut through objects and another that could pierce space... They were indeed powerful, but their weakness was obvious. The moment those thrashing branches got even slightly serious, they could puncture the fragile bubbles.
Wang Hong was filled with frustration. He was already a Soul Saint, yet he was powerless against a thousand-year Soul Beast. He might not even be able to protect the younger companion traveling with him... What did it even mean to be a Soul Saint? Was it a joke?
What was the point of cultivating all the way to Soul Saint...
"Brother Wang Hong, snap out of it!"
Huo Yuhao's shout jolted Wang Hong. Then a tidal wave of pain spread through his brain, and he dropped to one knee, gasping for breath.
Wang Hong quickly realized what had happened. In those brief few seconds, he had fallen under the creature's attack...
He looked up at the branches. What terrifying spiritual power! Each time, only the tiniest trace seeped through the bubble, yet that uninterrupted trickle of spiritual attacks had made him sink into self-pity as if of his own accord.
"Phew..." Wang Hong didn't dare let his guard down again. Once he'd gathered all his attention, he turned back to Huo Yuhao.
"Yuhao, apply your Spirit Skill to me. The one that can survey the whole area and speed up thought!"
"No, Brother Wang Hong. This Spirit Skill will let the spiritual power flow straight into your head from outside. You'll fall unconscious immediately!"
Huo Yuhao didn't understand. Was Wang Hong planning to use Spirit Detection to release a Spirit Skill outside the bubble? But from what he could tell, the area outside the bubble was a sea of spiritual power. The moment Wang Hong connected to Spirit Detection, it would drown him.
"I know. That's why I need you to narrow the range—narrow it until it covers only my own body. I need to observe the Soul Power flowing through every inch of me. I need the most precise control possible!"
At that, Huo Yuhao froze for a moment. Then he seemed to understand what Wang Hong meant.
He said no more and applied both Spirit Detection and Spirit Acceleration to Wang Hong. At once, another pitch-black Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring appeared around Wang Hong. Compared to the ring he'd used to release his fifth Spirit Skill, this one was noticeably darker, with what seemed to be a hint of orange-yellow mixed in.
Wang Hong took a deep breath and continually fine-tuned the flow of every trace of his Soul Power with the help of Spirit Acceleration and Spirit Detection.
Earlier, he had called Huo Yuhao "Lord Huo Yuhao" because, while helping Bei Bei hunt a Thunderbolt Golden Snake, he had once used Huo Yuhao's Spirit Skills to release two overlapping Spirit Skills.
Because of the bubbles' unusual properties, overlapping two of them was nearly impossible for Wang Hong. He could freely control the size of the bubbles created by his Spirit Skills, but once he overlapped them, a strange force of attraction arose between them, pulling them together to an absurdly close distance.
One careless move, and the two bubbles would touch, then collapse and burst.
With Huo Yuhao's Spirit Skills supporting him, Wang Hong could use precise control over his Soul Power to keep the bubbles safely apart.
That allowed him to layer his sixth Spirit Skill over his fifth, Reversal Bubble.
His sixth Spirit Skill, Bombardment Bubble, had a simple effect: on the bubble's hard side, it added a powerful blast of Soul Power on top of the usual Soul Power explosion, dealing even greater damage.
With Huo Yuhao's help, he could layer Bombardment Bubble over Reversal Bubble. In other words, the blast would hit everything outside the bubble.
Sixth Spirit Skill: Bombardment Bubble.
A violent explosion thundered through the air, like a sudden clap of lightning. An immense surge of Soul Power instantly engulfed the branches that had been releasing spiritual power, reducing every last one to ashes.
The bombardment went on for a long time. Only after Wang Hong confirmed there was no trace of spiritual power left nearby did he finally dispel his Spirit Skill.
When the smoke from the explosion cleared, a giant tree stood before Wang Hong and Huo Yuhao. Not a single leaf remained in its crown, and its trunk was pitch-black, marked with faint gray patterns.
At the very top of the tree, a real silver-white eyeball stared fixedly at Huo Yuhao and Wang Hong.
There was no doubt about it: this giant tree was the thousand-year Soul-Pulling Ghost Vine's true body.
Before you continue