Sunset Forest was different from the Star Dou Great Forest.
Here, ten-year and Hundred-Year Soul Beasts were common, thousand-year Soul Beasts were rare, and Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts were already overlords.
As such, it had always been the first choice for lower-year students of Shrek Academy to gain experience.
Lin Feng and the others searched the outer region for half a day but still failed to find a suitable two-thousand-year Soul Beast. They had no choice but to venture deeper into the middle of the forest.
Just as they stepped into a clearing where the ancient trees grew thin, Lin Feng, who was using Spiritual Detection, suddenly said, "I have a bad feeling about this. There are so many ruined webs and burrows here, but no powerful Soul Beast aura. Normally, Earth Cave Spiders in Sunset Forest are highly cultivated."
"Not good, it's a Thousand Jun Ant nest!" Lin Feng's pupils contracted. He shouted, "Fall back!"
The next moment, a dark mass of Thousand Jun Ants surged out from underground burrows in every direction, like a rising tide.
Their bodies were covered in dark-gold or pitch-black shells, thick as armor and gleaming with a cold, hard metallic sheen.
Their massive mandibles clacked open and shut, making a grating sound that set one's teeth on edge.
The swarm was full of worker ants with at least ten years of cultivation, mixed with quite a few soldier ants with at least a hundred years.
At their head was the largest ant of all: the queen, whose cultivation had astonishingly exceeded two thousand years.
The magpie had taken over the magpie's nest!
The Earth Cave Spiders in this area had long since been wiped out by the Thousand Jun Ant swarm.
"A single thousand-year Thousand Jun Ant isn't frightening, but if you run into an entire colony... even a Soul King or Soul Emperor could be worn down to death," Ning Tian said, trembling.
The swarm had clearly taken the three of them for intruders.
The enormous queen raised her mandibles and let out a piercing shriek.
The entire swarm instantly closed in around them.
"Capture the king to capture his men! Find a chance to break through. I'll draw their fire!"
Without looking back, Lin Feng charged straight toward the queen.
In an instant, countless Thousand Jun Ants converged around her like a black tide, forming a surging wall.
"Ning Tian, get out of here first! Don't worry about us!" Wu Feng gritted her teeth. Red light surged around her as her Red Dragon Martial Soul Possession took effect, and she followed close behind Lin Feng.
"I'm not leaving!" Ning Tian said without hesitation. Her Soul Ring lit up, and a strengthening glow fell directly on Wu Feng.
When there were enough ants, they really could bite an elephant to death.
Lin Feng unleashed one Soul Skill after another, and Fire Lotuses exploded among the swarm. But the Thousand Jun Ants kept coming without end.
His Soul Power drained rapidly, and soon he was surrounded.
Even with his formidable physique, he couldn't withstand hundreds or thousands of frenzied bites.
Wu Feng was in just as much danger. Her old injuries had not healed, and now she was trapped beneath layer upon layer of ants.
"Lin Feng! Wu Feng!" Ning Tian cried, pouring out her Soul Power, yet feeling utterly helpless.
She had yet to break through to Soul Elder and couldn't use the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's secret technique, Heart Separation Control, to strengthen multiple people at once.
The Soul Tool in Ning Tian's hand flashed repeatedly as she struggled to kill the worker ants swarming toward her.
Just then, the queen shrieked. Three burly soldier ants abruptly changed direction and charged at Ning Tian, who had no one to back her up.
"It's too late... I'll unleash my strongest attack. It'll be my last one, too. It's powerful enough to kill the queen, but it'll also drain all my Soul Power."
Lin Feng steeled himself, resolve flashing in his eyes.
He decided to use Ring Detonation to kill the queen.
A terrifying aura began to rise from him.
The queen sensed the deadly threat and let out a piercing shriek. The hundred-year soldier ants surrounding Ning Tian and Wu Feng withdrew and rushed to surround Lin Feng instead.
"No!" Ning Tian cried, tears blurring her vision.
"Do as I say... Go!" Lin Feng growled. Fine cracks had appeared across his Soul Ring, and destructive energy was ready to erupt.
Ning Tian's mind went blank. Only one thought remained.
She would use the legendary Ring Fusion!
It was a secret technique that only a handful of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's most gifted direct-line Soul Masters could master.
Her ancestor, Ning Rongrong, the Nine-Colored Goddess, had once mastered it. But in the nearly thousand years since, none of her descendants had been able to do the same.
"Ghh...!"
Ning Tian gritted her teeth so hard they nearly shattered. Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth as her Soul Power compressed and fused inside her body in a way it never had before.
She forced all the Soul Power stored in her Second Soul Ring into her First Soul Ring.
Cracks spread across the First Soul Ring, and it began to break apart.
"Ring Fusion! Seven Treasures Have Names: First, Strength!"
Brilliant, seven-colored light burst forth with unprecedented radiance. A beam so solid it seemed almost tangible crossed the swarm and fell upon Lin Feng.
Nearly three times his original strength!
A surging sense of power instantly filled Lin Feng from head to toe.
What was this?
A turning point!
Lin Feng immediately abandoned Ring Detonation. It would have left him in an inescapable predicament.
"Red Dragon—Heart Lotus!"
Blazing flames burst open before the queen like a blooming red lotus, instantly devouring every Thousand Jun Ant in sight.
The attack had gravely wounded the thousand-year ant queen!
What a terrifying Fire Lotus...
Ning Tian and Wu Feng stared at the dense white and yellow Soul Rings and the queen writhing on the ground. Their faces blanched with shock, and their hearts still pounded with fear.
"Ning Tian! Finish off the queen!" Lin Feng shouted.
This was no time to stand around in a daze. The queen was still alive, and many more worker ants and soldier ants were swarming over from a distance.
Ning Tian came to her senses. She immediately drew the Soul Tool dagger bestowed upon her by the sect, rushed forward, and stabbed the Thousand Jun Ant Queen through the head.
A deep purple Soul Ring slowly rose into the air.
When the remaining worker ants and soldier ants saw the queen dead, they were leaderless for a moment and fell into chaos.
Only after Lin Feng killed a dozen or so hundred-year soldier ants that were eyeing the queen's corpse did the remaining Thousand Jun Ants finally scatter.
Strike while the iron is hot.
With Lin Feng's help, Ning Tian successfully absorbed the Soul Ring and advanced smoothly to Soul Elder.
She became the third Soul Elder in Class Nine, after Lin Feng and Wu Feng.
Three Soul Elders in one class—Teacher Mu Jin could probably wake up smiling from her dreams.
And their bet with that old woman Zhou Yi of Class One now had even better odds...
"Lin Feng, I don't know how to thank you enough... If you hadn't been here, Wu Feng and I might not have made it out alive today..." Ning Tian's eyes reddened, and her voice caught in her throat.
"You two didn't abandon me or leave me behind. That alone makes me happy and grateful. Besides, you were the key to obtaining this Soul Ring."
"I owe you a tremendous favor. When we get the chance, I'll invite you to the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect as my guest. My father will surely reward you handsomely, all right?"
"Hm?" Lin Feng raised an eyebrow and looked at her with a teasing smile. "You're taking me to meet your father? Ning Tian, don't tell me you've really fallen for me and want to use this chance to make me your live-in son-in-law."
"You—you're talking nonsense!" Ning Tian's cheeks instantly flushed. Embarrassed and annoyed, she stamped her foot and grabbed Wu Feng by the wrist. "I—I'm not talking to you anymore!"
With that, she turned and pulled Wu Feng away without looking back.
"If you'd rather repay me by offering yourself, that works too," Lin Feng called after her, his voice full of amusement. "I'm not considering marrying into your family, though."
Ning Tian paused, but didn't turn around. The tips of her ears had quietly turned bright red.
She tugged Wu Feng, who was trying not to laugh, along at an even quicker pace.
Lin Feng watched the two of them hurry away, shook his head with a quiet laugh, then followed at an unhurried pace.
Though the battle had been fraught with danger, it had also given Lin Feng a glimmer of insight.
He had witnessed with his own eyes the power of Ring Fusion that Ning Tian had unleashed in her moment of desperation.
It wasn't a simple addition of Soul Power, but a blending and elevation of the Soul Rings' very essence.
Different flames each had their own nature.
Nirvana Phoenix Fire burned without end, Mystic Ice Spirit Flame was bitterly cold, and Red Lotus Heart Fire blazed fiercely...
If he could find a balance between them, let them blend and meld into one, then the power that emerged... would be unimaginable.
It would be a trump card of certain death, one to follow Ring Detonation.
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