"I'll deal with you one by one, and let you wait in fear."
"Wait for death to find you."
His figure vanished completely.
He hadn't moved at high speed. He had truly turned invisible.
Not a trace of Soul Power fluctuation remained in the air, as if he had never existed.
Only that icy aura lingered, growing stronger and drawing nearer.
Ye Lingling clutched Ye Renxin's hand. Her fingers were ice-cold.
"Grandpa..."
She cried out silently in her heart, tears glimmering in her eyes.
She felt that they were all going to die.
Bai Chenxiang dropped from midair and staggered. Huo Wu immediately caught her.
The two women stood back-to-back, warily scanning the darkness around them, but they couldn't see a thing.
That icy aura was everywhere, yet they couldn't find its source.
Huo Wu's breathing grew ragged, her chest heaving violently with each breath.
She gritted her teeth and shielded Bai Chenxiang behind her. The flame in her palm flickered fitfully.
Bai Chenxiang bit her lower lip, refusing to make a sound that might betray her fear.
But the hand she held in Huo Wu's was trembling.
Ye Renxin closed his eyes. Despair was written across his weather-beaten face.
He had lived for seventy-nine years and seen more than his share of life and death.
But watching these young people about to die right before his eyes made his heart ache as if a knife were carving it out.
Just then, a voice rang out, unhurried and calm.
"Stand back."
Everyone turned toward the source of the voice at once.
Yu Xiaolong stood where he was, holding a wine gourd he'd somehow produced from nowhere.
He tipped it back for a swig, his Adam's apple bobbing.
Then he hung the gourd from his waist and took two steps forward.
He looked so relaxed, you'd think he was heading to the market instead of facing a Titled Douluo.
Bai Chenxiang and Huo Wu both froze.
"Old man, you..."
Huo Wu's words caught in her throat before she could finish.
Yu Xiaolong had stopped walking and was slowly raising his right hand.
A vast wave of Soul Power burst from him, so immense it left them gasping.
He was no longer the usual slovenly old lecher who patted young girls on the backside.
His aura was like a sleeping giant dragon opening its eyes.
Three Soul Rings rose from beneath his feet.
Red, red, red—
All three Soul Rings were red.
Hundred Thousand Year Soul Rings.
Their crimson light gleamed beneath the moon, eerie and majestic, like a blood moon fallen to earth.
Ye Renxin's body jolted as if he'd been struck over the head.
His lips trembled, and a rasping sound escaped his throat, but he couldn't manage a single coherent word.
Hundred Thousand Year Soul Rings.
This man, who looked even younger than him, actually possessed Hundred Thousand Year Soul Rings.
Ye Lingling covered her mouth. The eyes that had always held only aloofness and distance were now filled with shock.
Her heart pounded as if it might leap right out of her chest.
Bai Chenxiang forgot to breathe.
Huo Wu's eyes widened, yet she was the calmest of them all when she saw Yu Xiaolong reveal his Soul Rings.
In a dark corner, Ghost Douluo's pupils suddenly contracted.
For the first time, something besides shock appeared in his blood-red eyes.
Wariness.
Hundred Thousand Year Soul Rings—who was this old man?
"Golden Sand Tracking."
Yu Xiaolong's voice was as calm as if he were commenting on the fine weather.
His third Soul Ring lit up, its red glow illuminating the entire clearing.
Countless golden specks drifted from his palm like fireworks bursting across the night sky.
They spread everywhere, blanketing the ground and filling every inch of space.
Then, less than twenty paces from the group, the golden specks suddenly stopped in midair.
They clung to a transparent, human-shaped outline, tracing the shape of a person.
Ghost Douluo looked down at the dense golden specks covering his body. His blood-red eyes filled with disbelief.
His invisibility had been broken.
A Hundred Thousand Year Soul Skill had shattered it without the slightest suspense.
Yu Xiaolong looked at him, his gaze as calm as if he were looking at a dead man.
Then he reached into his robes and pulled out a bronze mirror the size of his palm.
Silver patterns flowed across its surface, rippling slowly like water.
The Space-Time Mirror.
Yu Xiaolong tossed it into the air. The bronze mirror suddenly expanded, transforming into a silver gateway.
Within the gateway, space twisted and time fell into disorder.
Ghost Douluo realized what was happening and lunged forward, all his Soul Power gathering in his withered palm.
But it was already too late.
A flash of silver light.
Yu Xiaolong, Bai Chenxiang, Huo Wu, Ye Renxin, and Ye Lingling.
All five vanished into the gateway in an instant, without leaving so much as a trace of their auras.
The gateway closed. The bronze mirror fell back to where Yu Xiaolong had vanished, then turned into a streak of silver light and chased after them.
Everything fell silent.
Ghost Douluo's hand passed through empty air and grasped at nothing.
He stood in the deserted clearing, black mist roiling around him.
His outstretched hand remained frozen in midair.
Slowly, his face twisted into an expression so strange it was almost comical.
Bizarre.
In all his many years, he had never encountered anything so bizarre.
An old man with Hundred Thousand Year Soul Rings had vanished into thin air before his very eyes, taking four people with him.
And then there was that mirror.
Ghost Douluo slowly withdrew his hand. Complicated emotions churned in his blood-red eyes, too tangled even for him to make sense of.
"What kind of divine artifact was that just now?"
Yu Xiaolong led Huo Wu, Bai Chenxiang, Ye Renxin, and Ye Lingling all the way out of the Star Dou Great Forest.
Ghost Douluo's pursuit had been left far behind.
Only when they reached the outskirts of Heaven Dou Imperial City did everyone finally breathe a sigh of relief.
Ye Renxin stood beside the main road and bowed deeply to Yu Xiaolong.
"Young Master Yu, I can never repay such a kindness."
The old man's voice trembled slightly.
Yu Xiaolong helped him back up. "You're too kind, Elder Ye."
Ye Renxin raised his head, still stunned.
That incredible Soul Tool could hold so many people.
He had lived to such an age and had never seen a space-type Soul Tool before.
Just who was this Young Master Yu?
"Young Master Yu, it's getting late."
Ye Renxin looked toward the darkening sky in the distance.
"It's more than two hundred kilometers from here to Heaven Dou Imperial City."
"Why not stay at my humble home tonight and set out again tomorrow morning?"
Yu Xiaolong considered it for a moment.
Two hundred kilometers was indeed a long way.
He nodded. "Then I'll impose on you, Elder Ye."
More importantly, there was Tang San.
He still remembered all too clearly the grudge between them: Tang San had joined forces with Soul Beasts to kill him.
A cold glint flashed through Yu Xiaolong's eyes.
The Seven Heart Begonia family's estate stood on the outskirts of Heaven Dou Imperial City.
It wasn't large, but it was exquisitely maintained.
Begonias of every color lined both sides of the flagstone paths.
Though it was night, their shadows remained lovely in the moonlight.
Yu Xiaolong followed Ye Renxin into the estate.
Huo Wu and Bai Chenxiang looked around curiously.
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