Triplets

For that split-second killing blow, the blood-red Soul Power surging around Chen Zifeng visibly dimmed and weakened, and his face turned several shades paler.

He had expended a tremendous amount of energy and wouldn't be able to unleash another lightning-fast kill like that for a while.

"Third Brother!"

The other Evil Soul Master leader was horrified, but the reflexes honed through life-and-de-death battles were faster than thought.

Seeing Chen Zifeng's momentum plummet, his eyes flashed with savage intent. A sinister red dagger appeared in his palm, and he lunged at Chen Zifeng's heart like a phantom.

The strike was vicious and cunning, and its timing was impeccable.

Just as the blood-red dagger was about to pierce Chen Zifeng, a phantom-like shadow shot forward at a speed nearly impossible to see, striking first.

A bone-chilling edge, mingled with faint traces of lightning, flashed through the air and vanished.

Sensing the intense killing intent, the ambushing Evil Soul Master leader instinctively jerked his head back.

"Shhk—!"

The cold gleam skimmed past his throat.

Yet even that last-ditch dodge couldn't completely avoid the even more cunning and vicious sneak attack that followed.

His right arm, the one holding the dagger, was severed cleanly at the shoulder.

The severed arm was flung high by the force of the blow, trailing a spray of foul blood through the air.

After a moment's delay, thick, black blood gushed from the smooth cut like a floodgate bursting open.

"Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!"

At almost the same instant, three concentrated streaks of blood-red sword light pierced toward the Evil Soul Master.

They were Chen Zifeng's Soul-Chasing Sword.

"Gaaah—!!!"

A shrill scream, warped by agony, erupted.

The Evil Soul Master's face twisted with unbearable pain and terror as he stumbled backward.

Having landed her strike, the shadow didn't linger. She vanished into the cave's darkness once more, as if she had never appeared.

Lin Feng caught a trace of her presence.

It was Xixi, whose presence had been so faint until now.

At last, she revealed her true nature as an assassin of the night.

Her eyes had become cold, merciless slits. Her skin was cloaked in a dark sheen, as if brimming with power, and lightning coiled around her.

Her short hair stirred despite the lack of wind, every strand seeming to crackle with tiny sparks.

This was her Martial Soul—the Lightning Leopard.

A blend of extreme speed and explosive power, it waited in the shadows for an opening, seeking to kill with a single strike.

As the Evil Soul Master leader screamed and stumbled backward, chaotic footsteps echoed from the depths of the cave.

The seven Evil Soul Master Soul Grandmasters stationed in the warehouse area had finally been alerted by the fierce fighting and rushed over.

"Form the array!"

The Evil Soul Master leader roared and staggered to the stone altar in the middle of the cave, carved with strange runes.

At his command, the seven Soul Grandmasters immediately spread out with practiced precision, surrounding the altar.

They channeled their Soul Power in unison, and their Soul Rings lit up one after another—but their light was not an ordinary color. It was a murky, dark crimson.

"Vmmm—!"

As they poured their Soul Power into it, the Soul Guidance Devices embedded in cracks across the cave walls suddenly lit up with countless crimson specks.

Countless hair-thin beams of blood-red light formed from the floor, the cave walls, and even the air itself, weaving into a vast crimson net that enveloped the five members of the Soul Hunting Squad.

More strangely, countless fine red threads dangled from the net. As if alive, they silently wrapped around Chen Zifeng's, Xixi's, and the others' ankles and arms, even trying to burrow beneath their skin.

The instant the threads touched them, everyone felt their Soul Power begin to drain out of their bodies against their will.

"Watch out for those blood threads! They're devouring our Soul Power!" Chen Zifeng's expression changed. He shouted a warning as the Soul-Chasing Sword flashed blood-red in his hand. He tried to cut the threads winding toward him, but the moment one was severed, another took its place.

Xixi tried several times to launch a direct assault on the altar, but her attacks merely stirred ripples in the dark-red shield around it.

The situation reversed in an instant, leaving them on the defensive.

The Soul Hunting Squad's Soul Power was being steadily devoured, while the enemy held firm behind the array. With every passing moment, the balance tipped further against them.

Just then, Lin Feng moved.

Instead of trying to sever the irritating blood threads, he fixed his gaze on the altar.

Bright Phoenix Fire blazed to life around him, radiating a sacred majesty that purified all things and cleansed evil. The blood threads that tried to approach him vaporized instantly, as if they had met their natural enemy.

In the narrow cave, he didn't dare use the powerful, wide-reaching Fire Lotus Soul Skill, lest he injure his companions.

Lin Feng strode forward like thunder and punched the shield.

"Break!"

His blazing fist blasted a hole straight through it.

The instant a gap appeared, Lin Feng kept his momentum and unleashed Bright Phoenix Fire, pouring it through the breach and into the shield's interior.

"Gaaah—!"

A shrill scream rang out from inside the shield, then abruptly cut off.

The shield, once as impregnable as a fortress, had now become a blazing furnace that trapped them inside.

"Beautifully done!" Chen Zifeng praised him as he saw the shield rapidly dim, the blood threads retreat, and the pressure ease.

A few breaths later, the shield finally collapsed completely.

The seven Soul Grandmasters around the altar had been reduced to nothing.

Only the Soul Elder leader remained, barely alive. He leaned against the edge of the altar, half his body charred black, his eyes still burning with madness and venom.

"B-Big Brother..." His voice trembled. On his blood-smeared face, a twisted smile appeared. "Avenge... me... and Third Brother..."

With those last words, he summoned the last of his strength and plunged his dagger into his heart.

Scalding heart's blood splashed into the strange grooves carved into the altar, spreading rapidly until the entire structure was dyed a dazzling crimson.

A Soul Power fluctuation far more violent than all the Evil Soul Masters' combined erupted with a roar.

"Who—killed my younger brothers!!!"

The roar was saturated with bottomless grief, fury, and murderous madness, as if it had come from the deepest pits of hell.

Before the echo faded, a figure wrapped in thick, foul-smelling bloodlight shot upward from beneath the altar.

He was a man whose face bore a striking resemblance to the dead Soul Elder, but he was older and more sinister.

His eyes were blood-red. Without even looking at Lin Feng and the others, he spread his arms wide.

The remnants of the nine dead Evil Soul Masters' Soul Power, flesh, and even their souls, which had yet to fully dissipate, transformed into streams of murky, blood-red energy. They surged toward the figure in the bloodlight, who greedily sucked them into his mouth and nostrils.

His aura, originally at the Soul Ancestor level, began to surge wildly.

Soul Ancestor Peak... Soul King... Soul King Peak...

"They're using a blood sacrifice to absorb their triplet brothers' souls and cultivation, forcibly condensing a Soul Ring to break through!" Chen Zifeng's extensive knowledge allowed him to grasp the situation instantly. His expression changed drastically. "Stop him! We can't let him finish!"

Before his words had even faded, the Soul-Chasing Sword flashed blood-red in his hand, unleashing several sharp streaks of sword light that slashed toward the blood-shadow.

Xixi's figure turned to lightning once more as she attacked the enemy's vital points from a tricky angle.

Lin Feng and Wang Dong also launched a fierce attack.

Yet the Evil Soul Master leader neither dodged nor evaded the incoming attacks. He simply let the bloodlight around him flare brighter.

Every attack sank into the bloodlight like a stone sinking into the sea. They only made the bloodflames around him churn violently a few times, but failed to interrupt the horrifying process of devouring.

"Boom—!"

An immense pressure, far beyond that of a Soul King, erupted as a black Soul Ring phantom, deep and streaked with strange blood markings, rose abruptly from beneath the Evil Soul Master leader's feet.

The Soul Ring shuddered violently, then solidified completely.

Soul Emperor!

By devouring everything from his two Soul Elder younger brothers and offering the souls of the seven Soul Grandmasters as sacrifices, the Evil Soul Master leader had forcibly broken through to the Soul Emperor level.

He slowly turned his head, his blood-red eyes fixing on the people in the cave. The venom and killing intent in his gaze were almost tangible.