Crisis, Thousand-Year Soul-Pulling Ghost Vine

Huo Yuhao snapped his eyes open, activating his Spirit Eye at maximum speed to purge the remaining mental energy lingering within him.

"Yuhao, are you alright?" With the crisis at hand, Wang Hong could no longer concern himself with formalities or titles.

"I'm fine for now, Brother Wang Hong... What exactly is going on?" Huo Yuhao immediately applied the effects of Spirit Acceleration to both himself and Wang Hong; they needed enough time to make sense of the situation.

"About half a minute ago, we were hit by a direct attack from a Soul-Pulling Ghost Vine. I activated my soul skill just in time to barely dodge the strike... but the Sky Soul Horse and you both fell into a deep coma. The Soul Guidance Flying Carriage crashed, and I had no choice but to bring you into this bubble for cover."

Floating beside Wang Hong was a black soul ring, his fifth soul skill: Reversal Bubble. It allowed him to reverse the properties of the bubble's interior and exterior at the cost of rendering the bubble unable to burst.

Wang Hong described the recent events as quickly as he could. Upon hearing this, Huo Yuhao immediately turned his gaze outside the bubble.

At this moment, the bubble was completely enveloped by twisted branches. These branches were primarily pitch-black, interspersed with a shimmering, grayish-white luster that looked quite beautiful. Unfortunately, these vines were enemies threatening Huo Yuhao and Wang Hong, and Huo Yuhao had no heart to admire a plant so well-suited for furniture making.

Just then, the tips of those branches opened in unison, revealing countless silver-white gems with black dots at their centers. From a distance, they looked exactly like countless eyes staring intently at them.

Under the sunlight, those gems glinted with a silver-white light. Even a brief glance sent a sensation like needle pricks deep into the brain. It wasn't unbearable agony, but it was just enough to be impossible to ignore.

"Tsk... so the bubble can't block this either." Wang Hong clutched his head. To keep an eye on the enemy, he couldn't simply close his eyes, so he had to force himself to endure the discomfort.

"Brother Sky Dream... what exactly is this thing..." Compared to Wang Hong, Huo Yuhao, who could close his eyes, was significantly better off. At the same time, Tian Meng had already manifested beside Huo Yuhao through his spiritual form.

"Damn it, what kind of monster did you provoke? Is this mental energy for real?" Tian Meng looked at the black vines covered in 'eyeballs.' His mind raced, and he quickly reached a conclusion:

"Yuhao, I can confirm that what you've encountered is the Soul-Pulling Ghost Vine you mentioned earlier, and its strength... is highly likely to have reached the thousand-year level!"

"A thousand years..."

"Brother Sky Dream, are you sure?"

"I am!"

Huo Yuhao followed his memory to locate Wang Hong and relayed the information that the soul beast before them was indeed a thousand-year Soul-Pulling Ghost Vine.

"How is that possible? The mission report clearly contained an appraisal; our target this time..." Wang Hong's words trailed off. He realized his own blind spot: no one had ever said there was only one Soul-Pulling Ghost Vine in this area.

"It seems our luck isn't very good..." Wang Hong's expression darkened visibly. Should he call it lucky or unlucky? At this moment, the team Tang Ya was with—who had yet to rendezvous with them—was currently suppressing a hundred-year Soul-Pulling Ghost Vine.

But Huo Yuhao and Wang Hong... had coincidentally run into the second Soul-Pulling Ghost Vine in the area, and it just happened to be a thousand-year one!

Wang Hong pondered. A hundred-year Soul-Pulling Ghost Vine was enough to threaten a Soul King. Even under the protection of the bubble, his mind was under constant attack. As a Purple-Robed Martial Soul Envoy of the Martial Soul Hall, he was actually a powerhouse at the Soul Saint level.

To a Soul Saint, barring special varieties, a thousand-year soul beast was usually nothing more than an ant to be crushed. But this thousand-year Soul-Pulling Ghost Vine already possessed the potential to threaten the life of a Soul Saint.

Wang Hong dared not imagine what would have happened if Tang You hadn't insisted on him taking Huo Yuhao along as a precaution. If it had been any other Purple-Robed Martial Soul Envoy, they might have already fallen into a deep sleep alongside Huo Yuhao during the creature's first wave of attacks.

He couldn't help but wonder how such a soul beast had managed to avoid being wiped out until now.

Wang Hong looked around. Every corner of the bubble was being assaulted by invisible mental attacks. With his current soul power reserves, he couldn't maintain the bubble with his fifth soul skill for much longer.

In half an hour at most, the bubble would no longer be able to block this mental energy, and it would flood directly into the minds of Huo Yuhao and Wang Hong.

As for his Avatar of the Martial Soul... Wang Hong had already considered it, but against a monster that specialized in mental energy, the cost of releasing his Avatar would be exposing himself directly to the opponent's mental power. Wang Hong could not guarantee he would remain conscious long enough to land a hit.

At that point, not only would he fail to break the deadlock, but he might also put Huo Yuhao in even greater danger.

As for his two soul skills involving cutting objects and piercing space... both were indeed immensely powerful, but their flaws were equally obvious. These flailing vines only needed to be slightly serious to pierce through the fragile bubbles.

Wang Hong felt a deep sense of frustration. He was a Soul Saint-level soul master, yet he was helpless against a thousand-year soul beast, and he might even fail to protect the junior accompanying him... What was he, a Soul Saint? A joke?

What was the point of his cultivation to the Soul Saint realm?

"Brother Wang Hong, snap out of it!"

Huo Yuhao's shout made Wang Hong jolt. A moment later, a tidal wave of pain surged from his brain, forcing him to drop to one knee, gasping for air.

Wang Hong quickly realized something: in those few short seconds, he had actually fallen for it...

He looked up at the vines. What terrifying mental energy! Even though only a sliver leaked through the bubble, that constant, unending trickle of mental attacks had lured him into a state of self-pity.

"Hoo..." Wang Hong dared not be careless again. After pulling all his focus back, he turned to look at Huo Yuhao.

"Yuhao, apply your soul skill to me. The one that allows for a panoramic view and accelerates thought!"

"I can't, Brother Wang Hong. That soul skill will cause the mental energy to flow directly into your brain from the outside; you'll fall unconscious immediately!"

Huo Yuhao was confused. Did Wang Hong want to release a soul skill outside the bubble via Spirit Detection? But based on his observations, the area outside the bubble was a sea of mental energy. Once Wang Hong connected to Spirit Detection, he would be instantly overwhelmed.

"I know. That's why I need you to narrow the range—narrow it down to include only my own body. Let me observe the flow of soul power in every inch of myself. I need the most precise soul power control!"

Huo Yuhao was stunned at first, but then he seemed to understand Wang Hong's intent.

He didn't hesitate further. As he applied Spirit Detection and Spirit Acceleration to Wang Hong, a pitch-black ten-thousand-year soul ring appeared on Wang Hong. Compared to the ring used for his fifth soul skill, this black was significantly deeper, with faint traces of orange-gold mixed within.

Wang Hong took a deep breath, using Spirit Acceleration and Spirit Detection to constantly fine-tune every thread of his soul power.

Previously, he had addressed Huo Yuhao as "Lord Huo Yuhao" because, while hunting the Thunderbolt Golden Snake for Bei Bei, he had used Huo Yuhao's soul skill to successfully stack two layers of soul skills.

Due to the unique nature of the bubbles, stacking two layers was nearly impossible for Wang Hong. While he could freely control the volume of the bubbles created by his various soul skills, once stacked, they generated a strange attraction that pulled them together to an incredible degree.

If he were even slightly careless, the two bubbles would touch and annihilate each other.

With the aid of Huo Yuhao's soul skill, Wang Hong could use precise control over his soul power to keep the distance between them within a safe range at all times.

By doing this, he could stack his sixth soul skill on top of the Reversal Bubble.

The effect of his sixth soul skill, Bombardment Bubble, was simple: on the hardened side of the bubble, it caused an additional round of higher-damage soul power bombardment on top of the original explosion.

With Huo Yuhao's help, he could simultaneously stack the Bombardment Bubble onto the Reversal Bubble. In other words, the range of the bombardment would become the exterior of the bubble.

Sixth Soul Skill: Bombardment Bubble.

A violent explosion roared out like a thunderclap, a massive surge of soul power instantly submerging those branches that had been continuously emitting spiritual energy, reducing them all to ash without a trace.

The bombardment lasted for a long time, and only when Wang Hong was certain that no traces of spiritual energy remained in the vicinity did he finally deactivate his soul skill.

As the smoke and dust from the explosion cleared, what appeared before Wang Hong and Huo Yuhao was a giant tree with a canopy devoid of a single leaf, its trunk pitch-black and streaked with faint gray patterns.

At the very top of this giant tree, a genuine silver-white eyeball was now staring fixedly at Huo Yuhao and Wang Hong.

Without a doubt, this giant tree was the true form of this thousand-year Soul-Pulling Ghost Vine.